Sturgis Podmore: Closet Masochist (scantron) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-08-03 10:09:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1980-08] august, marius lestrange, sturgis podmore |
Who: Sturgis Podmore and Marius Lestrange
When: 3 August 1980; afternoon
Where: Terrortours
What: Marius has had it with these mother effin vigilantes in this mother effin country.
Rating: PG-13
Status: complete!
Today was the wrong day to be in Marius Lestrange's way. He pushed through Diagon Alley as if he didn't see the people wandering around in front of him. Podmore. He'd seemed helpful when Marius needed to make travel plans, and he'd been knowledgeable and friendly. Those things were not going to save him now. Terror Tours was located at 59, Diagon, and as he stepped up to the shop he looked around. This would be easier without interruptions. He didn't know if Podmore had warning or not, but things looked in order. He stepped inside and shut the door, casting a quick locking spell on the door. With a flick of his wand the open signed flipped to closed. Sturgis didn't have prior warning that something had gone wrong, and that he and Patty's position as "normal law-abiding citizens" had been compromised, as it was typically frowned on to check one's journal while at work (not that it stopped most people). There were only a few other people in the travel agency that afternoon -- Sturgis, an 18 year old new hire named Lisa who was reorganizing the filing cabinet, and Laurent, who was busy with a customer in one of the back meeting rooms. Mondays were typically slower days at Terror Tours, but not slow enough for Mr. Jenkins to come in and lock up before noon. Sturgis pulled his attention away from the Daily Prophet article he was reading (why he bothered reading that tabloid anymore was beyond him, but he was bored) and glanced up when he heard the door lock shut. He felt his stomach flip over when he recognized Marius Lestrange as the culprit. "Uh, excuse me sir, but that door needs to remain unlocked during regular business hours," he said, pushing the paper aside and rising to his feet. Marius had his wand raised in an instant. "The building is surrounded," he lied in a low voice. "But it is our new position to minimize non-vigilante casualties. You have exactly one minute to get your co-workers out of this building or their deaths will be unavoidable. Try anything suspicious and your wife will be killed instantly. Bellatrix is not in any mood for negotiation." They were all lies, but Marius had no doubt they were believable. That Sturgis was here at all was a good indication he had not heard from his wife yet. And what husband would not make this sacrifice? Any reply that Sturgis might have given Marius was lost under the protest of his coworker, who had concluded that this was decidedly much more interesting than arranging paperwork. "Sturgis, what is this man talking about? Sturgis isn't a vigilante, he's... Sturgis," Lisa huffed at Marius, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder and crossing her arms across her chest. Sturgis was too busy debating what to do. He had a feeling that he'd be bluffing at least on the Patty account -- she had her portkey and could get out of the Ministry in a split second if she needed to, but he wasn't sure about if he'd been lying about the place being surrounded. He'd seen how they'd had the Foundation set up during the hostage situation there. "Lisa, shush," Sturgis hushed his coworker, stepping in front of her in case Lestrange tried anything funny. "Look man, I really don't know what you're talking about. I'm not exactly built for super-heroing." Marius wasn't in the mood for explanations or lies. "Crucio!" The spell dropped the man before him and the girl began to scream. Marius hit her with a blasting spell that sent her backwards into the filing cabinet, though his lack of concentration on the crucio meant that it ended within seconds of when it began. Marius heard people running in from the back room, both with wands raised, and a third person, a child, crying behind them. "Avada Kedavra!" A shot of green light hit the man who appeared to be another employee squarely in the chest. He dropped and the female customer began to scream. Marius was glad he'd locked the door. The woman took off toward the back door and Marius wasn't certain if there was a rear exit or not so he moved toward the doorway to hex her just as a small boy shot past his legs toward the front door in a panic, screaming for his mummy. Holy hell, Sturgis had not been prepared for this sort of shite. He picked himself up off the floor, his hand immediately flying to the wand in his pocket to shoot a disarming spell at Marius. His fingers almost grabbed for the portkey that Moody had demanded that he keep on him at all times, but Sturgis wasn't about to abandon all these people that Lestrange would undoubtedly murder the moment Sturgis vanished. There was a flash of green and Laurent slumped to the ground where he stood, and Sturgis saw the woman he'd been with go sprinting towards the back rooms. "NUMBER THREE BEHIND THE DRACULA," he yelled at her, hoping she'd hear and look there and realise that's where the back exit into Knockturn was. Not that he would've encouraged anyone to take the door that emptied out there normally, but these were special circumstances. A shield spell was cast at the little boy, and Sturgis was on his feet, running straight toward Marius. He was bigger than him, which wasn't a factor that most people had on their side when Lestranges were concerned. He was a decent dueler, he had his sisters and Patty to thank for that, but if anyone needed to just be flat out pummeled it was Marius Lestrange. Marius was distracted, but not so distracted that a man the size of Stugis coming at him wouldn't cause him to take notice. Knowing that the child would be locked in and the blonde would stay passed out, he managed to cast a shield spell of his own to keep from being disarmed but he wasn't able to avoid being tackled all together as he stepped to the side. He shot three rapid blasting hexes toward the back rooms, and he could hear the woman still screaming as debris rained around them. He kicked at Sturgis hard, when a spell came shooting past his head. Apparently in her fright the stupid woman finally realized she had a wand. Marius shot another blasting hex in her direction since he wasn't able to get a direct line for an Unforgivable. He was up and dodging behind a display of some Mayan ruins to avoid getting hexed by Podmore as he attempted to stop the woman from getting out into Diagon. Perhaps Lestrange actually had a good idea for once in throwing out a multitude of blasting curses. At least, his actions were enough to give Sturgis what he considered to be a decent idea, and after shooting a rapidly fired Incarcarous at Marius, Sturgis pointed his wand at the front doors and windows of the travel agency, blasting debris-ridden holes through the exterior, hoping that it would be enough to give the others a chance to get out of there. He ducked underneath the front desk, only narrowly avoiding cracking his head on the underside, as the woman's misfired hexes missed their target and almost hit him rather than Marius. Disarming him was proving to be exceedingly difficult considering how easy the spell was, but maybe they could slow him down. Glancing up at the decoration lining the main lobby (a variety of flags from various countries around the world), Sturgis ripped down the French flag with a slash of his wand and sent it flying down on top of Lestrange's head, covering him like a blanket that then was enchanted to twist around him. Just as Marius heard a flapping behind him he got a clear shot on the woman. "Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light and a body hitting the ground. Noise was all around him as the front of the building seemed to explode and suddenly he was surrounded with red, white and blue, every direction he looked. He was loathe to slice his way out when he knew what was covering him and for a few important seconds he was tangled and unable to do much about it. "Finite," he cast, waving his arms to get the enchanted flag off of himself. As soon as his wand arm was free he was casting spells again, up toward the front, with no idea where they were landing. If there wouldn't have been people dying around him, Sturgis might have been able to appreciate the poetry in the fact that Marius didn't want to do anything that might harm his precious French flag. However, the fact that he'd murdered two people in the last two minutes and was trying to protect a piece of fabric from harm made him ill. Another blasting hex was shot at Marius, followed by two gouging spells, one aimed for Marius's arm (in hopes he'd drop his wand) and the second aimed for his groin (in hopes he'd just drop). A pause, and Sturgis yelled out "ACCIO THE KID!", sending the boy flying backwards toward him, and Sturgis pushed him in the direction of Lisa, who still was laying half-dazed against the filing drawers that she'd been smashed against. This was his fault. He'd take them with him. Both gouging spells hit but Marius managed to keep ahold of his wand as he dropped to the floor. The second spell particularly had hit in the most painful spot imaginable and he threw up all over himself, unable to keep from wretching. It was next to impossible to cast any hexes while vomiting but as soon as he was able to choke out a word he sent a slicing spell at Sturgis. Another wave of nausea hit him but this time he pushed it aside as much as he could to start casting blasting spell after blasting spell at anything near the front of the travel agency. If he had to bring the place down on them then so be it. Sturgis had no plans on sticking around long enough to let Marius get that far. If he wanted to bring the building down while he was in there, good riddance, but Sturgis was getting the hell out of dodge. There was too much going on around them, there was no telling if more death eater back up would be on their way, and Lestrange obviously had no qualms about killing. The slicing spell shot through the air as debris rained down around them and cut deep into Sturgis's back as he scrambled to grab the portkey, the small tissue-wrapped object slipping from his fingers and to the ground as he yelled out in pain, twisting to shoot one more attempted disarming spell at him before telling Lisa to hold on to the kid, and "at the count of three, grab that." He nodded towards the portkey as he removed the cloth that covered it while casting a shield spell around them in case Marius attempted one last attack before the portkey pulled them away, just outside of the safehouse. The disarming spell hit and Marius's wand went flying. Pieces of the displays were in tatters and swirling around the room as wind rushed in from the chunks blown out of the front of the store. Marius saw the three remaining people disappear before his eyes and without a doubt he knew they'd had a portkey. He was becoming intimately familiar with the damnable things. He rose and headed toward the back of the store, finding the door behind Dracula and heading out into Knockturn Alley before heading away to Apparate and journal to the Death Eaters about his... failure. At least he could blame the portkey, and the next time he came face to face with Sturgis Podmore, the man would be dead. |