Sturgis Podmore

Square-jawed wizard with thick straw-colored hair. Member of the Order of the Phoenix and part of the Advance Guard that helped Harry escape from number four Privet Drive (OP3). Podmore was on guard duty at entrance of the Department of Mysteries on August 31, 1995 when he was apprehended by a Ministry watchwizard and sent to Azkaban for six months (OP10). His arrest report said he lived at 2 Laburnum Gardens, in Clapham, which is also where Stan Shunpike from the Knight Bus lived (OP14, HBP11).

Harry and Hermione figured out that Podmore had been on guard duty under the Invisibility Cloak when Lucius Malfoy heard him move and put him under an Imperius Curse to go into the Department of Mysteries and steal the Prophecy about the Dark Lord. That was impossible to do because only those named in a prophecy can touch the container. It was obvious that Podmore was not willfully acting against the Order or the Ministry during the alleged “break-in.” (OP14, OP35).

Percy Weasley used Podmore’s arrest to warn Ron about the “dangerous crowd” surrounding Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix:

If you are writing to Mother at any point, you might tell her that a certain Sturgis Podmore, who is a great friend of Dumbledore’s, has recently been sent to  Azkaban for trespass at the Ministry. Perhaps that will open their eyes to the kind of petty criminals with whom they are currently rubbing shoulders (OP14).

Digusted with his brother’s advice, Ron tore up the letter and threw it into the fire (OP14).