End of the Road.

This was what it had come to. It was depressing really. Rob found himself at Southampton docks with Phaedra on his back. He hadn’t exactly planned on bringing her with him but it had just sort of happened. He’d never actually heard a woman kick and scream so much and he’d never actually been harmed in some places before now. He was never kidnapping a Greek again. Although, it wasn’t really kidnapping – she wouldn’t let him leave so he took her with him. Rob had taken her wand and Apparated to Southampton; from there he took money out of his bank and froze what was left in the funds. Then he’d bought some lunch for Phae and got on a bus that took them to where they were now.

Rob put Phae down on one of the crates and glanced over at the ferry. People were slowly beginning to board. He needed to wake her up. He slapped her cheek a few times and felt her knee connect with his groin. Rob hissed in pain and fell over to the side. Phaedra got and stumbled around for a while, giving Rob enough time to recover. He gripped her by the arm and she cried out a little. He sighed and loosened his grip. He didn’t want to hurt her. He released her and saw the red mark that marred her porcelain skin. He sighed and brushed his fingers over the mark. She looked at him warily and he took her wrist a little more carefully. “Sorry.” He mumbled. Phaedra wrenched her wrist out of his grip but didn’t move. He draped his arm around her waist after putting his duffle back onto his shoulder and began to guide her to the ferry.

“The Minister will put you in Azkaban you know.” Phaedra said, sounding more confident than she felt. “And then you won’t be able to – ow!” Rob squeezed her thigh tightly and she held back the tears.
“Enough.” He ordered quietly. “I’ll let you go once I’m out of here. You wanted to come, remember?”
“I don’t remember saying that.” She hissed, wiping her tears away. His hands were horribly strong and the grip hurt like hell.
“Mmhmm.. you did.” He lied.

As soon as Matt heard Rob was gone, he had ran full speed to the nearest bank. He tried accessing Rob's account, but he had managed to break through it all. Somehow he managed to save his money's ass. He was furious and he apparated to Rob and Khaat's house, but he wasn't there. He went back to St.Mungos and entered Rob's room, which was empty. He was looking for something, anything, and he spotted a piece of paper in the bin. He went over and un-crumpled it. It was a ferry schedule, he was trying to escape, well he wasn't going to. He wouldn't contact any auror, he would have to find Rob himself. He didn't know why he was so angry, but then again Rob was his friend and it was Robert who had to tell him about Rob's illegal drug empire.

He made his way out of St.Mungos and apparated to where the ferry was departing. He could barely see anyone he knew in the crowed, but the familiar sound of Rob's voice was just barely visible to his right. He smiled for some odd reason, there was a part of him that wanted Rob to get away. But another that wanted to hurt him, a very large part of him. He slithered through the crowed, and made his way behind Rob. He'd wait until they were lmost on the ferry. Which was right now, so he was quite lucky really.

"Rob, you do realized trying to escape is pointless right?" He said making his way beside Rob and could see Phae, who he could tell was there against her will. "Kidnapping as well? I'll ignore that then, you're already in enough trouble!" he said, the angry part of him breaking through. The small part that wanted him to escape, the one that cared, the Matt that Rob knew better, had a very small chance of breaking through.

Phaedra was really giving him a hard time and he was truly past caring whether she was hurt or not. Rob grabbed her wrist and began to pull her along. He wanted, no he needed, to be out of the country and he was running out of time to get away. Rob heard a voice and stopped midstride. Phaedra crashed into him and he caught her by the waist to stop her from falling. So he lied, he didn’t want her hurt but he was getting desperate now. He needed to go and Matt was stunting his progress. This was really starting to piss Rob off.

He turned around and pushed Phaedra behind him, keeping a firm grip on her wrist so she didn’t run off. He took a couple of steps back, lifting her so she didn’t stumble and tried to keep his distance from Matt. He didn’t need this, not right now. He felt Phaedra grip his t-shirt with her spindly fingers and he blinked a few times as the sun broke through the clouds. He didn’t doubt her now. She was right, he really wasn’t ready for the adrenaline or the exertion. He knew it as well as she did but he was willing to take the risk. He just hadn’t bet on that much sunlight. It definitely wasn’t good for him at that point in time.

“It’s technically not kidnapping.” He said as he raised his hand a little to block the sunlight a little. “She wanted to come. Didn’t you, love?” he glanced under his arm at Phaedra and she looked at him worriedly. He was really starting to wonder what she’d put in those potions. “I’m not in that much trouble. You know I’m not. No one got hurt. Ouch.” He winced and raised his hand higher. He felt Phaedra grip him a bit tighter and frowned. This was becoming a lot more difficult than he’d imagined. “If you remember, I’m the one that got shot. You know? My sister, my blood? She shot me.”
“Yeah and you still have yet to heal.” Phaedra muttered, moving her hand to lightly touch the poorly healing wounds on his shoulders. If he hadn’t fussed so much then he wouldn’t have had so much potion in his system but he had been difficult – far, far too difficult. “Minister it’s not good for him to be this stressed.” She said, pulling her hand back when he hissed in pain. "It's detrimental to his health."

Matt sighed and looked at Phaedra who was speaking now. Then he returned his gaze to Rob, he was dreading what was coming next. "Rob, you were illegally selling potions!" he said. "That I had expected from you, but then...I heard you used them." he said looking back at him. There were people stopping now to look at them, he didn't want to cause a scene. "Well Ms.Mariatos, he wouldn't be so stressed had you managed to stop him!" he said angrily. "You should be in bed anyway Rob, not trying to escape the country! You know me, I would've found you anyway," he told him still angry. He groaned and looked at someone watching them, "Move along! Nothing to see here!" he yelled to the ones watching.

They went off but he knew someone would chance at watching them still. "That's what you think Rob! Loads of people got hurt!" he said moving closer to him. "You don't think! You didn't even wonder why Jen shot you? She was hurt Rob! And Khaat! What about your wife! Well, soon to be ex wife!" he yelled at him. "What about me? Hmm? You didn't even tell me about this yourself! I had to hear from Khaat's father!" he continued to rant. "You've made bad choices Rob, and this is one you can't just drink away! You need to take the consequences for you actions!" he said. He pulled out his wand, many people looked at him oddly. "I am constable Matthew Lestrange!" he called out to everyone. "If there is anyone left here before I count to ten, they will be sent to prison for a duration of their lives!" and with that, everyone left onto the ferry.

"Rob, I'm sorry...you're going to Azkaban," he said. He aimed his wand at Rob shakily, he wasn't even sure if he could do it. Then the rage building inside him exploded, he looked up angrily at him. Thinking of all the stupid things Rob has done! "Incarserus!" he yelled aiming for Rob. "The evidence is against you Rob! I'm really sorry!" he yelled.

Rob just held a blank look on his face but his eyes were trained on Matt, waiting for any movement that could be the end of him. He was impressed with Phaedra but he didn’t know what the Minister had been smoking. He was quite a bit bigger that Phaedra, wand or not she couldn’t have overpowered him. If Rob had, had it his way he wouldn’t have even brought her with him but he had a feeling that fate was playing god-awful tricks on him. He felt Phaedra move and glanced down to find her beside him. She gestured to Rob and then to herself before scoffing, “Oh come on, be realistic. There’s no way I could move that.” Rob pressed his lips together and bit his tongue so he didn’t comment. He had quite a bit of self-control today – he was impressed with that although he had a feeling that control was going to go out the window if Matt raised his wand to him.

Khaat was going to divorce him? This didn’t exactly pull Rob up short but he paused for a few seconds before regaining some sort of, what he thought was, control of the situation. He didn’t doubt that it was probably the best day of Robert Lupin’s life. ‘Oh happy day, he gets his little charity case back.’ A voice came in Rob’s mind which sounded a lot like Christophe – that was scary. “I used them? Please Matt, get your head out of the clouds. This is just one big story that that narcissistic twat wants you to believe. I won’t lie – yes I have the company but we sold civilians stuff they could get from anywhere! It wasn’t as if they were anything new. Unless of course you been the improved ones. Double the pain in the case of the liquid Cruciatus.” He paused and looked thoughtful before continuing. “I know what I’m doing Matt, okay? Just let me go and take Phaedra home.”

Rob watched as the wand rose in the air and he muttered something under his breath which Phaedra pinched him for. She smirked and he reached into her back pocket to retrieve her wand. He had no idea where his was but hers worked well enough and wasn’t hard to manoeuvre. He watched the spell fly through the air and Rob moved Phaedra so she got the brunt of the spell. She fell to the floor and began to struggle in the binds. He looked at her apologetically before throwing his own spell back at Matt. “Stupefy!” it was a useless spell but he didn’t want to hurt Matt. If it was Robert then he probably would have thrown Avada Kedavra around like loose change.

Matt had expected this, he was prepare for a fight. And he was sure he knew Rob enough to tell his fighting style. So, as soon as he saw Phaedra on the ground he was ready. First spell that came into his mind was Protego. So, naturally he casted it and the Stupefy bounced off it. "Rob, this can go some much easier!" he said. His shield disappeared and he moved closer. He didn't want to hurt him, but he would have to. "Rob, you can't go home...the next stop for you is Azkaban. You won't be there long, just a measly five years..." he said. "It's not all that bad, if it helps your sister's getting a life sentence!" he called. His wand sparked, he looked at it curiously.

He was done talking, talking never helped. As much as he wanted to just sit and talk, sometimes sh*t needed to happen for sh*t to happen. "Forget it, I know you...you're not going down without a fight." he said. "But I hope you realize how much you've hurt Khaat." he said. "And how many more years in Azkaban you'll get if you fight back." he told him. He raised his wand once more and muttered "Impedimenta," under his breath.

Jumping to the side, the spell Matt fired just barely missed Rob. He was rusty at this and he knew it. It was Jen that would be hopping all over the show onto the huge crates or onto the cars. He was far too used to the political side of things and he was relatively unarmed without even his own wand. It didn’t inspire much confidence. He pulled Phaedra up on her feet and released her from the bonds before pulling her in front of him. H was going a strike too far but he was giving up on duelling Matt already for many reasons. The main one was that he wasn’t quite as steady on his feet as he had been. Rob pressed the tip of Phaedra’s wand against her neck and he felt her heartbeat get faster. “Don’t do it Matt.” He said, gripping Phaedra tighter. She squirmed and tried to wriggle out of his grip but Rob held onto her. “Let me go, or I’ll kill her.”

Phaedra’s back slammed against her ‘patient’s’ chest and she sighed. She wasn’t in the mood for Rob’s games, she just wanted to go home and sleep for a few hours or so. Rob was stopping her and she was really getting sick of playing the damsel in distress card. She never pretended to be one and never actually was one. She wasn’t going to start now either. Phaedra tried to wriggle out of Rob’s grip but the man held on tighter. She felt the cool wood against her neck and sighed. Death Threats; how original. Phaedra felt Rob begin to move backwards and she stepped lightly on her feet, following him where he lead her. Her breath was coming out gradually as she kept herself calm. A plan was already forming in her head, too.

In a flash, Phaedra’s leg reared up and she kicked Rob in ... well, a place he really didn’t want to be kicked in. He pulled away and Phaedra grabbed his wrist. Using all of her weight, she managed to throw him over her shoulder onto the floor. Rob landed on the concrete with a thump and Phaedra snatched her wand from him. She aimed another well placed kick in the groin and Rob groaned loudly. Phaedra cast a few subduing spells and put her hands behind her back. She glanced up at the Minister and smiled sheepishly. “Um... oops?”

Matt couldn't help but smile at what was unfolding before him. He laughed when Rob was kicked in the groin, and laughed again when Phaedra looked behind her and smiled at him. "This is a very nice accident Ms.Mariatos," he chuckled. "I know Rob, he wouldn't have killed you. He's all mush inside really, like a chocolate bar..I think." he said, he was even confused at his words. He aimed his wand at Rob and smiled, "Incarserus," he said quietly. He hoped Rob would just give up, resistance was impossible. He could've easily summoned aurors here but he didn't. He did it personally because he wanted Rob's sentence to shorten, but well that opportunity was gone. Rob was now pretty much facing life in Azkaban.

F*ck. He now understood why those men in the funny hats went spare when old Queeny’s jewels went AWOL. It didn’t take him long to break his lovely little Greek’s sedation spells as they weren’t that strong but when he came to he wished he hadn’t decided to free himself. Perhaps he had thought that she’d do him a favour but instead she’d just bought him a one way ticket to Azkaban – in and definitely not out unless he did it the hard way. Rob groaned mentally, he was truly past caring – what was this all over anyway? A few illegal potions here and brilliant discoveries there, he’d given the junkies what they needed to survive and he had his girls on new calming draughts and such. Was what he was doing truly bad? Probably. Whatever, though. Prison wouldn’t be anything new.

His thoughts drifted towards India and he visibly winced. Anything Azkaban threw at him he could handle but India – going back there – he wouldn’t survive. The bloody Indians had been hunting him for a while, along with nearly every boarding country but it wasn’t for illegal potions. If he remembered rightly, although it was unlikely, he had insulted someone pretty high in the government... probably the bloke’s daughter. Yeah, that sounded right now. Rob cracked an eye open and used it to glare at Phaedra before glancing at Matt. “C’mon then, let’s go. I’m dying to see dear Jenifer.” Rob wriggled a little and began to roll himself along, still trapped in the binds. He looked completely ridiculous but he was too tired to care about the strange looks the ungrateful Muggles by the Peugeot were shooting his way.