Order of the Phoenix

Sturgis Podmore is a member of the Advance Guard that arrives at the Dursleys' to bring Harry to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix.

When Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, and Hermione leave Grimmauld Place for the Hogwarts Express, they almost miss the train because Mad-Eye Moody is waiting for Sturgis, who was supposed to be one of the guards for Harry. Harry later finds a small article in the Daily Prophet that says Sturgis Podmore was found in the Ministry trying to get through a top-security door. He had not offered any defence of his actions, and had been sent to Azkaban for six months. Ron guesses that he had been lured there by the Ministry, because they knew he was one of "Dumbledore's lot." Hermione tentatively agrees.

After Harry sees Mr. Weasley attacked, Dumbledore sends Harry and the Weasley children to Grimmauld Place to get them out of the way of Umbridge. When Mrs. Weasley arrives to thank Harry for saving her husband, one of the thing she mentions is that it gave Dumbledore time to make up a story as to why he was there, and "you have no idea what trouble he would have been in otherwise, look at poor Sturgis..." The implication in this seeming throwaway line is that Mr. Weasley had been at the door that Sturgis had apparently been caught trying to go through.

Harry later hears, in a dream in which he experiences Voldemort's thoughts, that Bode had been put under the Imperius curse by Malfoy, in an attempt to retrieve something. Discussing this with Ron, Harry and Ron determine that the thing Voldemort had wanted Bode to retrieve was the weapon that had been mentioned at the meeting of the Order of the Phoenix immediately after Harry had arrived at Headquarters. The following morning, Hermione suggests that, as Lucius Malfoy had been present just outside the door to the Department of Mysteries immediately following Harry's hearing, he might have placed Sturgis under the Imperius Curse then. If Sturgis had been on guard at the door, he might have made some small noise; or Lucius could have just guessed that there was someone there and used the Imperius curse just in case there was someone.