A/N: Just a little thing about me, I am short, with the same hair and eyes as Poppy, same views on makeup and I am always late, oh and I'm my two reviewers out of the 23 viewers, and 3 followers. I love you all :). Lizaluvsdoggies, Yes there will be a love story, but not the way you think, I can't make it too obvious can I? ;) she won't be an official marauder for another few months, and they get into the dorms because in my mind they cracked the charm for the staircase and Lily is fairly okay with Remus and Sirius, it's just Peter and James that she gets angry at. In my mind no one likes Peter. Thankyou for your review and I did update soon. I'm sad because I wanted to keep writing but I didn't want to be an overkill. So I will leave this be until the end of the week when I complete the next chapter and feel like typing again, this was 2,600 words and I'm over typing for the rest of the week.
When she walked down the stairs she was surprised to see Remus sitting on a chair close to the fire, he was reading.
"watcha doing? Why aren't you at breakfast?" she suddenly felt very conscious of how poofy her hair was, how visible her freckles were and how short she was. Was he waiting for her? She silently kicked herself for not coming down sooner. She had been woken up by the girl next to her, Sam, telling her they were going down to breakfast, but now there was only ten minutes of breakfast left. She was always late. She remembered standing in front of the mirror trying to make her brown frizzy, but curly hair sit straight. She then put on a small bit of concealer for her few pimples that had decided to pop up during the night. She usually never wore makeup but she put some eyeliner on to make her blue eyes pop before cursing her freckles, but she had run out of time so she grabbed her bag and rushed down the stairs. She hadn't expected anyone to still be in the common room. Remus stood up, not talking, took her arm and walked her out of the common room before explaining himself.
"The marauders, Sirius, James, Peter and I, believe it would be divine to have you as part of our group." His politeness was confusing.
"Why?"
"Why what?" apparently she had to spell it out for him.
"Why do you want me as one of you?" he hadn't thought about that.
"Can I get back to you on that?" She rolled her eyes, but he continued anyway.
"We made an initiation process just for you. We've never had anyone new come in with us, and we wanted to know if you were game, if you're loyal, if you can keep up with us." He winked at her.
"do you know what an animagus is?"
"Better than most. Why?" Did he know she could change? He couldn't have. She hadn't changed here. Yet. She had better watch herself. She remembered her first time she changed. She had read about being an animagus, but you had to be registered before you could change. She remembered studying and trying so hard to change. She remembered her first change. She had gone straight to a pond to inspect herself. She was a tall and beautiful horse. She had a tan coat, a brown mane and tail, a poppy tattooed onto her back, that she had had since she can remember, but it was her blue eyes that gave her away. They screamed human.
"Would you be willing to become one?" Remus' voice had brought her out of her memory, but the question caught her by surprise. Wasn't that illegal? Well at least he didn't know she was one.
"Why? Are all the marauders animagus?"
"That would be telling." He winked at her as they walked through the great oak doors leading to the Great Hall. People were staring at them, some glaring at Remus, some gawking at her. Why was everybody staring? Did she have something on her face? She touched her face instinctively and Remus chuckled.
"Why are they staring?" She hissed.
"Staring because you are so beautiful, glaring because I am the one to escort you, not them." She looked around once again, and Remus' words made sense, but she wasn't beautiful.
"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Remus blushed, looked away and didn't answer. She was a little hurt, but didn't dwell on it for too long, as they sat across from James and Peter, whereas Sirius was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Padfoot?"
"Getting your timetables from the old cat." Poppy looked up to see Sirius talking to a middle age witch at the professor's table. She nodded and handed him two sheets of paper. He walked back down the table and handed Remus his timetable, but wrote on Poppy's before handing it to her. Sirius grinned and sat next to her. He had written what classes he had with her, which was every class today except Muggle studies.
"Double potions, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies and Defence Against the Dark Arts." Poppy read her timetable out loud. "Not too bad I guess."
"We have the same schedule except Muggle studies," Sirius pointed to her schedule, "I have a spare, so we can talk marauders all day." He smiled at her whereas she frowned.
"Why do I have to be an animagus?"
"You don't." James answered from across the table. "It's just awesome. And keep your voice down. It's illegal you know."
"I know, I know." She grabbed a piece of toast and walked out of the great hall and to her potions classroom. She was the first one there, which was surprising, considering she was usually late. She sat against the brick wall and thought about why the boys would want her in their group. A boy with greasy black hair walked down the stairs and stood looking at her for a moment before asking her name.
"Hmm? Oh I'm Poppy." She hadn't realised he was there until he spoke.
"Ahh how good. The newest marauder knows her own name; I see you don't need a code name then. Bloody Griffindors." His rudeness took her by surprise, what had she ever done to this boy?
"Why are you being so rude to me? What did I ever do to you? And I'm not a marauder." Yet, she added in her head. Her answer had taken him by surprise. He had always considered himself to be nice, a gentleman. He opened his mouth to apologise when Sirius bounded down the stairs calling her name.
"Oh Poppy! I see you have met snivellus here. Isn't he such a charmer?" she was surprised, even though Severus had just insulted her and her house, she stood up for him.
"Don't call him that." Both boys were looking at her in a stunned silence. Sirius was the first to recover and smirked.
"Don't stand up for filth like him. He's a filthy Slytherin half-blood."
"I'm a mud blood, and the sorting hat was going to put me in Slytherin. Does that mean I'm not worthy to you? Blood status doesn't mean anything except the size of the ego." She was fuming, glaring at Sirius like she was a filthy dog.
Lily and Alice strolled down the staircase and stopped at the bottom step to observed the scene before them.
"Sirius what did you do this time? Insulting our new babe? Or interrupting something?" she grinned mischievously and winked at poppy.
"No, actually, he called him," she said pointing from Sirius to Severus, "a filthy half blood. I told Sirius that I'm a muggle born and he has a too-big ego."
Lily gasped. Sirius winced. He knew muggle borns and mud bloods were her soft spot.
"Sirius Black! I thought you were better than that! You do not insult people by using their blood status! Don't worry darling, I'm muggle born too." She said as she walked over to Poppy, shooting Sirius one last dirty look before starting a conversation with the three of them. Alice just stood there awkwardly. She never liked Severus, but he was Lily's friend, and she didn't want to upset her best friend.
Severus was surprised at this act of kindness from both Poppy and Lily. Although blood status was a weak point for Lily. The rest of the marauders, excluding Peter, as he only did his compulsory studies, arrived and Sirius told them what happened. James groaned.
"We want her on our side. Why couldn't you have just given him a dirty look?" Remus placed his fingers to his temple.
"We'll just keep Sirius and Poppy apart for a little while. Maybe also stay away from Severus?"
"Moony if we had a choice we would never have met that greasy git."
"Calm down Prongs. Just avoid him as much as possible."
"But he is always there. I mean ALWAYS! If I didn't know any better I would think he was stalking us."
"Earth to Padfoot? What do you think?" Sirius had been thinking about apologising to Poppy at lunch but Remus interrupted his thoughts.
"What? I was thinking of a way to apologise to her. I didn't mean for that to happen. It kind of just slipped out."
"I have it!" James said, his eyes lighting up with excitement, "We make her see that he is worse than us, them whamo, she loves us!"
"I don't think it would be that easy, sorry prongs." Sirius had a feeling that this girl would be extremely complicated, but he loved a challenge.
Potions was an easy lesson, they had been paired up, Griffindor with Slytherin, to brew a love potion. Poppy was with Severus, Lily was with a uptight boy who Severus said was named Lucius Malfoy, Alice was with a pretty girl, but she had a crazy look in her eye, named Bellatrix Lestrange. Poppy and Severus got along well, after he finally agreed to play truth or dare while they waited for their potion to simmer.
"Don't laugh."
"What? Why?"
"Because if you do I will start calling you Snivellus"
"I'll do my best, so answer up." Severus had just asked her what she wanted to be after Hogwarts, it wasn't a hard question so he couldn't see why she was so nervous.
"Okay, well this will reveal a bit of my boring old family history, but I'm not muggle born. I think I'm half blood. My parents were murdered when I was little, they went out to their anniversary dinner and never came home. I can't remember them but everyone says I'm just like them." She paused, looking at the ground. Severus thought she was about to cry, but she looked up and continued.
"I was put with my aunty and uncle on my father's side, he was a muggle. I was never told I was a witch until I started school. My aunty and uncle want me to be an auror like them, but I want to be a fashion designer, weird I know." She giggled shyly, looking at her shoes, expecting him to start laughing.
"It's not weird. I reckon it would be awesome." She looked up to see his reassuring smile.
"So Severus, truth or dare?"
This continued for the rest of the lesson.
"Sirius how long is your dragon tail?"
"What?"
"You know, your dragon tail, you do have a dragon tail don't you?" Then he caught on.
"Ooh. Well, it depends how hot you are." He winked at her.
"So? How long?"
"You don't give up do you?"
"Nah."
"Too long for you."
"'Kay."
She went back to Severus.
"Sirius?"
"What do you want snivellus?"
"Will you go on a date with me?" Sirius choked on a piece of chocolate he had just put into his mouth, that boy was always hungry.
"Uh, *Splutter* What? *Splutter* No *Splutter*." Severus grinned and ran back to Poppy.
"Okay truth or dare?" She thought for a moment.
"Dare."
"Okay. Kiss Lucius on the cheek."
"Only if you kiss Bellatrix." He thought about this for a second. It was a fair deal.
"Done."
They snuck over to their unsuspecting targets. Poppy mouthed
"Three, Two, One." They both kissed their targets and ran back to their cauldrons, giggling like three year olds. Their targets shot them looks that could have killed.
The rest of the day was uneventful, although she was still a little wary of talking to Sirius. She went to dinner and looked around for the boys, why was she so disappointed she couldn't find them? She sat down next to Sam, who was studying how to transfigure a teacup into a teapot, and continued to wonder about the boys. Why was she missing them so much? She had only just met them? What was wrong with her?
"I'm not hungry" she said to no one in particular and left the dining hall to go to bed. Maybe she wouldn't sleep in and be late tomorrow. She walked up to the common room, still deep in thought when she saw the boys exit. They looked suspicious and, letting her curiosity override her common sense, she followed them.
"Hurry up Padfoot."
"Sorry Prongs. Can't stop thinking 'bout her. I need to apologise. Five minutes?"
"Fine, but if you're late, I will kill you."
"I could kiss you!"
"Save that for Poppy."
She drew herself deeper into the shadows as Sirius turned around and walked towards the great hall. She knew he would be looking for, and she wouldn't be there. She sighed in defeat and followed him down the hall.
"Sirius!" He turned around, surprised that she would be talking to him, let alone wanting to talk to him.
"Poppy. Umm." Everything he had rehearsed saying suddenly flew out his ears. He was staring into space as though he could actually see the words fly away.
"Earth to Sirius?"
"Huh? Sorry." She smiled shyly.
"I said sorry." Had he heard her right? Why was she apologising? She flushed and stared at the floor, talking so fast and quietly that he had to take a step closer to hear her. "I mean you have obviously had a hatred for this guy for years before I came and there was probably something that I missed and I shouldn't have said anything. It's just he called me stupid and rude and I wanted to prove him wrong. I guess I should just stay around you guys before I put my foot in my mouth again. Sorry."
He looked at her with wide eyes before pulling her into a hug.
"Honestly? I was the one in the wrong. I was coming to say sorry. I'm the one who usually eats my shoes, do you know how many pairs of shoes I've gone through since I came here? Every pair tastes worse than the last." He whispered into her hair making her giggle. He loved that sound. That was the sound that meant he had done a good job. "I have to go. But be good."
"where are you going?" she looked up at him with such curiosity that he wanted to tell her everything, but that was Remus' secret, not his.
"I have some business to take care of. I'll be back tomorrow though. I promise." He didn't know whether that was taking it too far or not, but she smiled.
"Okay. I'll see you later." Translated, YEAH BABY! Time to go running around the forest as a horsey! Wait, no. she wouldn't. She might never get another chance for a while though. No not yet, she had to get used to the place first. Not until after Christmas. Done and done. She made an agreement with herself in her head.
"Poppy? Did you hear anything I just said?" What? Crap.
"Uh yeah. Every word." He raised his eyebrows at her.
"And you agree?"
"Yes." she squeaked. He burst out laughing.
"Okay I wasn't listening. I was having a mental argument with myself. Happy?"
"You're mental."
"You're childish"
"Strange"
"Rude"
"Smoking hot." She looked at him in surprise. Where had that come from? Damn it, he thought. I've ruined everything. She flushed.
"You're pretty cute too. Goodnight Sirius." She left him standing there gaping at her.
Checking his watch he realised he had spent more than five minutes, and James would give him hell. Oh well. Where was Peter anyway? Why was he never around when they needed him? When Remus needed him. Wasn't that the whole reason for becoming animagus, to help Remus? He would talk to the boys later, but right now he had to help James and Remus.
A/N: Please review, even if it is just a smiley face or a sad face, any ideas you think I should put in or anything to help me inprove, I crave reviews like I crave chocolate after I post this. Om nom noms :3