sturgis podmore (hitsyouhard) wrote in find_horcruxes, @ 2009-12-20 21:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | lydia townsley, sturgis podmore |
RP Log: Sturgis Podmore & Lydia Townsley
Who: Sturgis Podmore & Lydia Townsley
When: Saturday, December 19th
Where: Hogsmeade, waiting for the Hogwarts Express
What: In an effort to avoid any King's Cross drama, Lydia and Sturgis pick up their daughter from Hogsmeade. But will they avoid any Hogsmeade drama of their own making?
Rating: Sturgis says "fuck" a lot; you do the math.
It quickly became clear to Lydia that her idea to pick up Lacey in Hogsmeade rather than in London wasn't a very unique one. She could hardly believe that all of the parents lingering about Hogsmeade station all lived in the town, especially as they kept Apparating in. It was hard to keep herself from being nervous, even if they weren't in London, however. The events of the past few months made it hard to think that anywhere was safe and the sooner that she had Lacey right in front of her and she was able to hug her the better.
Even with her own personal Hitwizard by her side, Lydia couldn't help but feel rather vulnerable. Her arms were crossed tight in front of her, more as a way to make herself feel a bit more secure than to fend off the December chill. While she really should have felt better with her wand tight in her hand, this always worked better for her. Not that it really did help with anything, of course.
Finally, she loosened her arms and pulled down just a bit on her right glove to check her watch impatiently. "Good lord, how long does it take?"
"Eight million years," came her personal Hitwizard's growled response. Sturgis Podmore had certainly seen better weeks (months, years...), what with his recent "relocation", as Waterfield had referred to it, not to mention all the subsequent werewolf bullshit he was decidedly not looking forward to in the upcoming week. Christmas? Whatever. Sturgis would just be happy to get through the holidays.
Lydia didn't realise it, but she always went Proper Society Woman when she was frustrated. Sturgis found it cute or obnoxious depending upon his mood at the time, and the Wizengamot was still out on where he fell today. He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and started to light one out of habit, but eventually relented and shoved them back in his coat pocket, not wanting to start up the "are you ever going to quit?" conversation. "They're only running five minutes late. That's better'n me." He gave a nod toward the direction he thought the train would come in (it was, by the way, completely wrong).
"Well," Lydia replied, looking in the direction that Sturgis had indicated. She smiled just a bit in amusement, then figured that it was probably best not to point out to him that it was, in fact, that wrong direction. Instead, she clung to the little bit of amusement and decided not to be quite so irritated - because, after all, she was about to see her little girl for the first time in months - and shrugged. "Just well - I have nothing more to add."
"Uh huh." Sturgis's eyes peered around at her, just waiting for that insult to fly, but it didn't come, and he retreated into their truce. Truces were hard-won with them, after all, and he knew it'd get easier once Lacey was back.
"Christ. When's the damn train coming?" he muttered, checking his own watch, not realising that he was repeating her own question. "Let's play 'I Spy' to pass the time."
Lydia turned to look at Sturgis, a clear Are You Kidding? look upon her face. Not that it was a bad idea or anything, but she really had to get all of her teasing out of the way before Lacey got there. She had allowed for a truce before, but now it was time to be a pain in the arse.
Until, of course, she saw the train coming in the distance. She smiled and said, "I spy the train!" Then, after a brief pause declared, "I win."
"That not how you fucking play it," Sturgis protested, a bit miffed that the train wasn't coming in the direction he'd guessed, but eh, who cared! The train pulled up and children began spilling out. There came some a handful of Hufflepuffs, then a gaggle of Ravenclaws, and then he saw a slip of blonde hair and an untucked shirt with mismatched knee-socks.
"Kid!" he shouted, waving one of his arms. Lacey brightened up and charged forward, her rolling suitcase jiggling precariously behind her.
"Mum! Dad!" And in five seconds flat, she'd leaped forward at Lydia, hanging onto her mom fiercely. "Sorry we're late! Freddy's cat tried to eat Heloise's toad, and then I dared Noah to hide the toad and pretend like it'd actually happened, and then Freddy found out and tried to kill Noah, and then...!"
Lydia squeezed Lacey tight, letting her babble as she comforted herself with the fact that she was here and she was hugging her and oh, sweet Lord, everything might just be okay. But she couldn't hang onto her forever, especially since Lacey would most certainly start protesting before long, so she finally pulled away.
"I can only hope that he wasn't successful in that or Calypso will have to have words with Freddy," she replied, pausing just a moment to look at Lacey and decide that she was never letting her out of her sight again. "Now hug your father."
"Oh Mum, does she have to?" Sturgis whined, crossing his arms over his chest like he always did when Lydia insisted that they hug. Lacey giggled and lunged for him anyway just like she always did.
"Stupid Dad," she said, burying her face in his jacket, and he couldn't help but melt a little, patting the top of her head roughly.
"Yeah, yeah. Stupid Dad. You hungry, kid?" He glanced up at Lydia; they'd talked about having a quick lunch together in Hogsmeade earlier, but he wasn't sure if the plans were still on. He was pretty sure he could manage a lunch with his ex-wife, and they hadn't bickered too much earlier to cancel it, really....
Lydia met his eyes and smiled, that easiness settling around her that always seemed to come whenever Lacey was around. Sometimes it got a bit hard to ignore the annoyances, but it had been nearly four months since she had last seen their daughter and just has long for Sturgis. She was sure she could manage a lunch, especially as it had been her idea.
"Your pick," she directed to Lacey, looking around at the village and away from the other reuniting families. "Whatever you're in the mood for, just name it and I promise I won't complain if it isn't healthy."
"Chips!" Lacey trumpeted, apparently still in the middle of her eating-nothing-but-chips phase, and she took off toward Hogsmeade. Sturgis cleared his throat loudly, and she turned back around, her eyes wide. "Oh! My luggage!"
"I've got it," he said, waving his wand to lighten the loud and slung it over his back. "You can thank me by not being a brat about your kits being wrinkled later."
Lacey didn't seem concerned by his idle threat; she kept skipping forward and then back to her mother, holding her by the hand as she talked on about school, her friends, how amazing Quidditch was, how stupid Slytherins were (sorry Dad), how she'd spoken German to her potions professor and he had no idea that she was insulting him...
It was only when they were nearing the cafe that Lacey had deemed worthy of lunch that she turned around and frowned at both her parents. "And you two had better not fight," she said, a note of warning in her young voice.
"I will have you know that your father and I have not fought at all since you have gone off to get educated," Lydia replied a bit defiantly, also lying through her teeth. But, she had never been able to lie to Lacey, so with a sigh she amended to only stretching the truth, "All right, only once or twice but they were both incredibly necessary."
Sturgis wondered where his daughter had picked up that expression of pure skepticisim. "Incredibly necessary, honey," he promised her as well, holding up his hands in a placating motion. "You see, honey, Mum and Dad only fight because they're worried about you."
Lacey gave him a withering expression. "And here I thought it was because you called each other idiots and acted like first years." She stuck her nose in the air and flounced through the door of the cafe, running ahead to the sweets counter.
Sturgis looked at his ex-wife a little helplessly. "She definitely got that from you."
Lydia couldn't help but smile, a bit pleased as she would most certainly have to agree with that statement. There were a lot of ways that Lacey was just like her father and others that she was just like her mother and even though that meant she had a tendency to be just as irritating as her parents were... she couldn't complain.
"It's what makes us so very charming and just why we're so very dear to you," she replied, peering in through the window of the door a bit proudly.
"Yeah, yeah," Sturgis answered, eyeing his daughter as she chattered with the lady behind the counter. "She's gotten taller. No, scratch that. She's gotten tall." When had his little baby gotten so big? He figured she was doomed to pipsqueak-dom by virtue of having Lydia as her mother, but no, she was lengthening out. Certainly her winter robe could've used a good letting out.
Despite the years of fighting, angst, and mutual irritation, Sturgis had to say that he was very proud, looking over their kid. Lacey may've had a mouth on her, but she was smart and feisty and she didn't take shit. He gave Lydia a sideways smile and bumped into her with his right arm on purpose, affectionally. "I guess we've done pretty good for her so far, yeah?"
"Against all odds," Lydia agreed with a smile, leaning into him just a bit in return. It truly did amaze her that the girl they were staring at was the same one that they had force fed baby food to in a high chair or cheered along when she managed to toddle across the room from her arms to his for the first time.
And, really, she thought that it said a lot about the two of them. Lydia might have spent a great deal of time agonizing about, being annoyed by, and crying over their relationship, but they had always still managed to be good parents and the evidence was right there in the girl in front of them. "We make a good team, you know that?"
"We should stop being twats," Sturgis agreed. "In fact, that'll be my New Year's resolution, Lyd. I'm gonna stop being a twat. Reckon I'll last a week?"
A smile worked its way through his lips, and he smirked fondly at her. Even if she drove him insane sometimes, he was damn lucky to have had a kid with Lydia, he thought to himself. She was kind and she was smart and she was strong enough to handle his crap. He'd let her slide the next time she went all crazy on him.
A snort escaped Lydia, but she rather hoped that the smile on her face softened that snort. It wasn't that she thought it was a bad idea, but the likelihood of it lasting longer than a week was slim to none. "You wouldn't last any longer than me," she admitted, chuckling a bit at the thought. "Maybe we should both try, though. Moral support and all of that."
"I'll try not to fall off the wagon if you try," Sturgis promised, gallantly tipping his hat. "And together, maybe, maybe, we can get through Christmas without being sent to our room with no dessert by the kid."
"Hurry up!" came the squeal from the inside of the cafe. "Mum!! They have cream brooly! They're setting fire to it! I want to learn how to make it!"
"You should let her learn how to make creme brulee at MacDougal's place," Sturgis suggested with a straight-face.
Lydia smiled at Lacey through the window and held up a single finger to indicate just one moment before turning back to her ex-husband. She just hoped that it didn't look like she and Sturgis were arguing or it would just make her charge out there and scold them again.
"I thought I wasn't allowed to take her to the castle," she replied carefully, raising a questioning eyebrow.
"I was mostly in favour of her burning it down," Sturgis answered smartly. Vampires didn't like fire, did they? Creepy cold fuckers.
...but yes, the thought had occurred to him that he wasn't certain he wanted Lacey at the house. His flat, fine, but Lydia's, while protected, was a bit in the middle of things. "I don't like her there, no," he said, allowing a bit of seriousness to enter his face. "I don't like the thought that he's gonna spend more time with her than I am, and I don't like her being in the middle of that big fuck-off place. When you take her there..." he explained, trying for a bit of that patience he'd promised to attempt a few moments ago, "I wanna be there the first night or so, if it's okay with your vampire."
Lydia's eyebrows rose significantly as Sturgis spoke, trying to figure out if he was actually being honest with this bargain of his. There was a rather large part of her that wanted to ask him if he was crazy or not, but the more rational side knew that she really shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She had been thinking for days now that she didn't want to keep Lacey at home when there was a fortress she could hide her at. Besides, it was fairly clear that he was really trying here. So, shouldn't she at least give him the benefit of trying herself?
"I'd have to check with Angus," she said slowly, looking at him a bit calculating. "If that's what you want."
He rolled his eyes. "It's the furthest thing from what I fucking want," Sturgis said grumpily, and goddammit he wanted a cigarette, "but if she's safer there, what I want isn't important. You know?" It'd frankly been a relief that she'd found a creeper of a boyfriend with a fucking bunker. Lydia was one less than that he'd have to worry over.
"...okay," Lydia replied, still looking fairly wary about this whole change in events. In all honesty, she had avoided the topic just in an effort to keep them from getting into another damn argument. It was good that he realized that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
After a moment, though, her expression cleared and she just raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You are not allowed to argue with him, though. I really don't want to have to deal with that. Be snarky with him all you want, but not when Lacey is around." She paused a moment, then added, "And, yes, I'll be giving him the same warning so don't think I'm singling you out."
"Good," Sturgis answered, even though he didn't really believe her. Fucking Angus MacDougal and his fucking little 'I-fucked-your-ex-wife' smirks, goddamn. Well, if Lacey was safe, that's all he cared about, and if worse came to too-much-worse, he'd head over to Caoimhe's to celebrate Christmas by showing her all about the proper way to light a Yule Log.
...pun intended.
"C'mon. We'd better get inside before the kid explodes," he said, pushing open the door to the cafe. "Truce?"
Lydia gave him a faux-calculating look, but quickly smiled with a little shrug as she slid into the cafe. "Truce," she concurred, walking backwards a few steps before turning to approach the counter and Lacey. Truce, sure. At least until the next time he was wrong.