jo is keen on stopping this. (aliasgrace) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-04-16 18:03:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1980-04] april, elle abercrombie, josephine pepper (née savage) |
RP Log: Elle and Jo
Who: Elle and Jo
Where: Gairloch and then Kent! At the Avery mansion ... dun, dun, dun!
What: Fire-bugging. :)
When: Evening/nightfall, 16 April
Rating: PG for some violence, I suppose.
Status: Complete.
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Elle knew that the burning down of people's homes had the potential to seem almost juvenile, but she agreed that they had to take action, and taking down Death Eater homes seemed the most prudent way to do so without deliberately taking people's lives. She didn't think she was ready to do that quite yet, but every day she grew stronger, and every day she grew angrier and more adament that the Death Eaters needed to get a taste of their own poison. So when they started discussing burning down homes, she was on board immediately.
She waited for Jo at the edge of camp, her eyes closed as she calmed her breath and silently prepared her body for the adreneline rush it was about to experience. Her blue eyes fluttered open and she smirked at her fellow 'rebel' as she approached, "Ready to make a red hot statement?"
" ... in more ways than one," Jo replied as she strode up next to Elle, shouldering the satchel that held the implements necessary for their mischief. Petrol, rags, matches, a few bottles. She held no compunctions about carrying out this assignment (she wished that they could ensure old Mr. Avery was, indeed, within his ridiculous mansion) and so felt free to give a naughty grin. She held her hand out for Elle. "Side-along?"
Elle grinned, glad to be working with Jo on this. The use of both magical and muggle means to burn down the house meant that it would be harder to put out, and harder to control. The best kind of chaos there could be. She clasped Jo's hand, returning a wry little grin. They probably shouldn't enjoy this as much as they were, but it felt good to give back a little of the misery they'd been given, "Apparate away."
And with a wave of her wand, they dissapeared from the Scottish countryside with a faint pop, only to materialise in Kent. Kent. Gods and monsters, could they be any more ridiculously pompous?
She dropped her satchel and spoke a simple incantation to test the wards about the property - strong, surely - but she had seen much stronger. "Well, Miss Abercrombie, I think this is going to be less complicated than we thought."
Elle wrinkled her nose as she looked at the manor they were going to burn (hopefully) to the ground and absentmindedly shook her head in disgust. Even if she had endless amounts of money, she couldn't imagine living in such a way. She hadn't been poor by any means, but...
Well, the point was moot. She was living in the Scottish wilderness now. She rose an eyebrow at Jo's comment and then rolled her eyes, "Apparently getting a bit too comfortable with their own in power. Their loss, our gain." She took out her wand and carefully began to dismember one of the wards. Complicated, yes, but nothing nearly as complicated as she had expected. She sincerely had thought they could spend hours before they got near the house.
While Elle dismantled the wards, Jo fell to one knee to prepare their deliciously Muggle cocktail and remembered her mother's Woolf. What did the old feminist want to spend the last of her three guineas on? Rags. Petrol. Matches. How appropriate.
Rising, she struck her match against the sole of her boot and waited for a signal from Elle to throw the thing.
It took Elle close to ten minutes to finally dismantle the wards, but she could feel a shudder when they finally collapsed. She grinned and nodded at Jo, and then aimed her wand toward the house. She fired four incendios at various points of the house, and then fired a fifth at the roof. She knelt down next to Jo and began to put together another cocktail. They wanted this house to burn, and in Elle's mind, that meant there was no such thing as overkill.
And as the rag caught fire, she took a few running steps toward the house and pitched it through one of the ostentatiously large windows that shattered with a gratifying crash. She did the same for the window on the other side and short of simply pitching her can of petrol (for she was beginning to get a new idea in her head) at the house, she added a few Incendios of her own.
Elle finished her cocktail and went to throw it before she smirked and cast engorgio on it. Too large to throw, she used her wand to launch it through one of the second story windows, grinning wickedly when the glass shattered and there was a whoosh of flames as the cocktail exploded. She bit her bottom lip and then cast reducto at one of the walls of the house, allowing the flames more oxygen and more catalyst to grow. She stood and looked as the fire began to quickly catch on, and looked at Jo with a satisfied smile, "Think we need some more, just for good measure?"
The house - despite its size - was nearly engulfed with flames. Sparks flew from the roof as a portion caved in beneath the fire's unquenchable hunger. She lifted her chin. "I think we've sufficiently destroyed this one." Pause. "I've got a little side-project, Elle. One more place to go. I won't ask you to come with, because it's going to be slightly more life-threatening."
Elle's brow furrowed at Jo's declaration that she had somewhere else to go, and for half an instant, she thought about trying to convince Jo not to do something stupid. However, as the house burned, her adreneline coursed through her veins, and her need for vengeance soared, the corner of her lip curled into a wry smile, "You don't have to ask, Jo. I'm coming with you, life-threatening or not."
"Elle." The inferno before them threw her face into pale relief as she gazed at her comrade - her friend - and placed her hand on her shoulder. "This one's my battle."
Elle frowned at that and placed her hand over Jo's on her shoulder. It was somewhat to be having a conversation like this while a fire they set engulfed the house, but no one seemed to be coming... at least yet. "Jo. I'm not going to let you go alone. We might not be in the DMLE anymore, but I don't let people just go off on missions on their own." She squeezed her hand and her resolve looked rather set, "What is this anyway? Where are you going?"
... would Elle try to stop her? If she were Elle, she'd probably hex her and take her straight back to Gairloch in a sack. "I'm going ... " she swallowed, giving Elle an earnest stare, hoping that within it she could read the need to do this herself. "I'm going to the Lestrange estate."
"And you think I'm going to let you fucking go there alone?" Elle's grip tightened on Jo's hand - their was no way she was going to let Jo go alone to the Lestrange estate. It wasn't a secret at Gairloch that there was something not right between Lestrange and Jo. She couldn't, wouldn't let Jo go alone.
"What would I say when I got back? Oh, you know, Jo wanted to go to the Lestrange Estate so I let her go alone. What do you think Pepper would say?" Her eyes narrowed at Jo, "We can't afford to lose someone else, Jo. I'm going with you, or you're coming back with me, whether you like it or not."
She shook her head vigourously. "Tell them that I Obliviated you, I don't care. I'm not letting somebody else die for my vendetta against Lestrange. I'm gone, Elle. I'm going whether you like it or not!"
Elle's wand was pointed at Jo without hesitation, her grip becoming almost vicelike around her friend's wrist, "Jo, don't make me hex you. If I'm not allowed to settle my vendetta against Greyback, you can't settle yours against Lestrange. At least not alone." She couldn't believe it had come to this. "I won't die, and I'm not about to let you."
Elle got a light stinging hex aimed at her hands for her concern. She didn't want to simply Apparate away from her friend but it was looking more and more likely that it would have to happen that way. "Look," she said softly, "I won't even see him. I'll just set the fire and leave."
Her hand jerked involuntarily away, and her wand arm straightened even tighter, "Then let me come, if that's all it's going to be. I'll just be your backup. I won't even set anything alight." The fire had been burning brightly, and there was movement up at the house. Elle took her eyes off Jo for a split second to make sure no one was coming their way, "We have to get out of here, Jo. I know where you're going. Even if you apparate away, I'm going to follow you."
" ... you're right, of course," she replied, using Elle's break in concentration to send a silent Stupefy! straight at her chest. She hated to uses hexes against her friends but she was a woman possessed. She knew what she had to do.
She saw the flash of red too late, and internally cursed herself for taking her eyes off Jo for even a moment. The spell hit her with some force given their proximity, and she stumbled backwards before her body collapsed into a crumbled heap on the lawn outside the blazing inferno that was the Avery estate.
Elle was, even unconscious, a petite thing and so Jo had little trouble supporting her friend so she did not fall on the dewy lawn. She would simply Apparate Elle to the very edge of the Gairloch camp grounds and then go take care of Lestrange herself. It should give her enough time and she could - and would - deal with Elle when she returned.