sturgis podmore (hitsyouhard) wrote in find_horcruxes, @ 2010-01-17 22:52:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | joanna podmore, sturgis podmore |
RP Log : Sturgis & Joanna Podmore
Who: Siblings Podmore
When: BACKDATED to 16 January 1980
Where: Joanna's flat.
What: Joanna tells Sturgis her little secret.
Rating: PG-13 for language (Sturgis's)
One down. One to go. There was no easy way to tell Sturgis, no matter how much she thought about it. Lydia was right. He was going to overreact, she knew it. It'd be a miracle for him to hear her news and not overreact. Of course, she had the option of waiting to tell her brother because he didn't need to know right now. Joanna wanted to tell him and get it over with. Besides, how was he going to react when he found out that his ex-wife knew before him? The sooner was probably better.
After her appointment she had written to Sturgis, asking if he'd come over with Chinese. It wouldn't hurt to have food around and hopefully, he wouldn't think too much about coming over with it. Though, if things get too out of hand, Joanna definitely had something to throw at her brother.
Sturgis Podmore, meanwhile, was blissfully unaware that his sister's life was about to change so dramatically. He'd gotten their usual mix of odds-and-ends to munch, an eggroll already in his mouth when he rapped on the door to his flat. "Sorry," he said through a mouth of eggroll. "Hungry. Couldn't wait."
He handed over a big galleon of soup and kicked his shoes off; they were still muddy from a crime scene, but thankfully Joanna had never been as particular about that sort of thing as some people. Crashing on her sofa, Sturgis wasted no time in grabbing some chopsticks and going to town on some sweet and sour chicken - time spent with Caoimhe had gotten him better with chopsticks, considering the amount of late-night Asian the couple consumed.
"How're you?" he asked.
"I'm not surprised." Joanna said when she answered the door. She took the soup from him and put it on her table. At least the smell wasn't bothering her this time. She ladeled out some of the soup into a bowl and joined her brother on the sofa. "Since when have you been able to use chopsticks? Been eating a lot of Chinese?"
Joanna frowned as she ate her soup. "Better. Actually saw someone about my illness today. Turns out that I haven't been sick the last couple of weeks." She grabbed an eggroll and started to shove it in her mouth. "How's your girlfriend? And are you getting enough to eat and sleep?"
"Caoimhe mocked me enough that I learned," Sturgis answered, snapping his chopsticks at her. "She's doing well. Back home today. I figure I'll give her some time with her brother, and see if she wants to do something tomorrow or whatever. And I'm fine," he added, annoyed that everyone was sooooo concerned about him eating right. He was alive, wasn't he?! It was an excellent start to dietary excellence.
Though really, something she said hadn't made such sense. "What'd the healer say, anyway?"
"Good for her. You deserved to be mocked for not knowing how to use chopsticks." Joanna smirked. She wished she had been using chopsticks to snap at him. "I'm glad she's well and home. Also glad you are fine. You ought to be glad its not Mum bothering you. I'm not nearly as bad as her and you know it."
She put her bowl of soup on the coffee table. "You have to stop eating then before I tell you what the healer said." Joanna shifted on the sofa so she was able to look at him. "It'd probably be too much to ask of you to remain calm. I'm going to ask you to anyway."
Well, asking Sturgis to "remain calm" was pretty much the kiss of death for him actually doing so. He lowered his chopsticks, eyes widening slightly as he mentally categorized all the terrible things that might've happened. She wasn't hurt, he could tell as much by looking at her, and Mum was okay, otherwise she'd have said something by now. And he'd seen Lydia writing in the journals just a few seconds ago, so it wasn't anything having to do with her...
"What's it, then?" he said, not quite panicking, but already feeling like he'd eaten too much Chinese.
Joanna decided to be quick about it. Just say it and let him react however he wanted to react. "I'm pregnant," she said as confidently as she could. There. It was easier to say those two words this time around, unlike when she had told Rufus earlier. That had to be a good thing. He wouldn't have any idea how much she had been panicking over the past couple of days. At least, that was what she hoped. Of course, she probably had to worry about what he was going to say or do to Rufus now.
Sturgis's first thought was 'thank God'. No one was sick, no one was dying, no one was being held captive by Death Eaters.
And then he thought about a small, helpless baby in the world during a time of war, with a bohemian Mum and an Auror father, and he really stopped breathing.
"WHAT?" he yelled, food forgotten. And then: "RUFUS. RUFUS SCRIMGEOUR, THAT MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKER. I'll KILL HIM."
Great. Just as she expected. "No. You won't." Joanna said softly, yet sternly. "Do you have any other thoughts, aside from killing Rufus? Because you know, he took this announcement much better than you are." Which was the truth. Rufus was happy and that made Joanna happy. She didn't think she should care too much over what Sturgis thought. The important person in all of this besides herself, was Rufus.
"He'd better have taken this announcement pretty fucking well, given that it's all HIS DAMN FAULT you're knocked up!" Sturgis returned, cracking his fist into the palm of his hand. "I am going to fucking KILL HIM. SO DEAD. He's gonna have to be buried FOUR GODDAMN TIMES for all the DEAD I'M GONNA KILL HIM."
Because of course he knew that Joanna planned to keep the baby. They were alike in that aspect. And while he knew that she'd be a fine Mum, and he supposed that IF SCRIMGEOUR LIVED he'd be a decent Dad, really. Just REALLY. The timing couldn't have been worse.
"Are you okay?" he finally asked once some of the unholy rage had cleared. "Are you okay with having a baby? He didn't pressure you into it or nothing, did he? Motherfuckin' piece of..."
"STURGIS PODMORE! You are not killing him! You do not want to piss me off!" Joanna glared at her brother. He hadn't heard a word of what she'd said about not killing Rufus. "Might I remind you that you did the exact same thing to Lydia?" That was sure to hit a nerve, but Joanna didn't care. It needed to be brought up.
"I am fine." Joanna shook her head. "I'm okay with having this baby. I know I'm not ready, but I'm okay. He didn't pressure me to make any sort of decision that I didn't already want to make. Everything will be fine."
"I know I did the exact same thing to Lydia," Sturgis snarled, but retreated somewhat in his anger. "I think I remember the drama involving the conception of my goddamn daughter!!"
Goddamn, couldn't anyone with the last name of Podmore get pregnant on purpose? Okay. Breathe, breathe, breathe. If Scrimgeour was okay with it, and Joanna was okay with it, Sturgis was gonna be okay with it. "...congratulations," he finally managed, and scared up a tight smile, as well. "Really. How far along are you, anyway?"
"Then you ought to stop with this 'killing Rufus' nonsense!" Joanna was going to be sure that nothing would happen at the DMLE. Not that she expected Sturgis to actually kill him, but fighting at work wasn't going to do him any good if he did.
"Thank you. I'm not very far along. Like 5 or 6 weeks or something like that. Baby's due in September."
September. That seemed like so far from now, but not nearly long enough. Would You-Know-Who still be killing people? Would there still be a large roster of Order Members? It'd be fall, at least, but she'd be doing her worst waddling during the hot summer months. Sturgis remembered very clearly how Lydia had moaned and groaned with that belly in front of her, and his lips thinned. Oh yes, Rufus Scrimgeour would be helping Joanna out however she saw fit.
And so would he. "Well, if there's anything I can do, just. You know. Let me know. I'm sure Lyd would help out as well; we've both gone through this life-affirming bullshit nonsense before," he said, doing his duty as a good brother as he pulled his box of chicken back to him and dug back in.
But he wasn't going to promise not to kill Rufus. Oh no. That wasn't going to happen.
"Thank you, Stu. I'll let you know." Joanna was going to risk mentioning that Lydia already knew. Fact was, Lydia had already been so helpful and she was grateful for that help. "Lydia told me. She's already been a help so far. She went with me today." Seeing him eating again, Joanna felt it was safe to return to her soup.
"Although, there is something you could do for me. Could you not kill Rufus? Think about it. Your life would be at stake if you did. Please, Sturgis? Do that for me?"
Sturgis grunted something that might've been a 'yes' or a 'no' through his chicken, and that was the best she was going to get. While he figured that murdering the bastard would've been overkill (literally), he certainly didn't have plans on giving the douche a high-five for knocking up his baby sister. The thought that Lydia had known about this before he did rankled him only briefly. Lydia would be more help with this than he ever would, he knew. It wasn't something to get offended about. He wondered briefly if Joanna planned to marry Rufus, but didn't plan on asking. It hadn't worked out so well for him and Lydia, had it?
Joanna wasn't even going to bother. She had plans for her journal tomorrow and he would just have to deal with it. "Thanks, Stu."