Chapter 11: Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff

It was a nice Saturday afternoon and the students of Hogwarts were pouring out of the castle and making their way towards the Quidditch pitch. Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff in the first match of the year and Poppy knew Oliver was nervous. The Slytherin house had won the Cup for the last seven years and this year would be Oliver's last chance to go down in Hogwarts Quidditch history as a captain that actually led his team to victory.

Poppy was walking to the pitch with Grace but she was not planning on sitting with her friend. During her first year she had made the mistake of sitting in the Hufflepuff section and being there with her friend had made it almost impossible for her to follow the matches. Grace didn't know much about Quidditch and had an irritating tendency of cheering at times when nothing was actually happening.

Grace had been asking what happened to Oliver and Marcus' faces, so Poppy told Grace what Marcus had told her.

"So, are you mad at him?" Grace asked and Poppy shrugged.

"Which one?" she replied and added, "Though I guess it doesn't matter. I'm mad at Oliver for trying to run my life for me and I'm mad at Marcus, uh, Flint for being the violent moron that he is and I'm mad at myself for ever fancying him."

"Wait, what?" Grace shrieked and a few nearby Ravenclaws turned to look at them. Grace stuck her tongue out and the Ravenclaws hurried away.

"I guess I should have told you, right?" Poppy said.

"So, I was right! There is something going on," Grace said cheerfully.

"Nothing is going on," Poppy said. "He's old."

"True, he's older than Oliver," Grace agreed.

"Not by much, just a few months."

"What? Oh right, you and Oliver were both born in November. So... He's eighteen, then. You're almost fifteen. That's three years, that's nothing!"

"Maybe to you. To Oliver it would be death. Besides, he doesn't like me in that way. I'm sure of it."

They finally reached the pitch and parted ways. Grace made her way towards the other Hufflepuffs while Poppy climbed the nearest steps up to the Slytherin section, thinking at the same time who she would sit next to. Usually she just got there early enough that all the seats were empty and she could sit in the front and follow the matches, and whoever had to sit next to her would just have to deal with it. It was starting to rain a little bit.

Luckily, the front seats were still empty. A lot of the Slytherins hadn't bothered showing up to the match early, as it was only Gryffindor and Hufflepuff playing. Poppy sat in the front, as always. She could see Grace on the other side of the pitch, standing up and wailing both her arms in the air even though the match had not started yet. Some first years sat next to Poppy and slowly the whole Slytherin section begun filling up. Poppy turned back and caught a glimpse of Marcus sitting in the back next to Malfoy and his friends.

The game, or what little of it was visible, was exciting and Gryffindor actually stood a chance of winning until the dementors showed up and Harry Potter fell off his broom. The little rain drops had turned into full on thunder and lightning, the worst imaginable weather for Quidditch. Some of the students had evacuated themselves because the cold wind mixed with the rain made it impossible to see anything. Cedric Diggory caught the snitch and Hufflepuff won. Poppy saw Oliver's disappointed face as the Gryffindor team left the pitch, which The Hufflepuffs had invaded to congratulate their team. Poppy climbed down and decided to wait for her best friend near the exit.

"We won!" Grace squeeled when she finally broke free from the giant Hufflepuff group hug that was going on. "Even if it was mostly because Potter fell, we still won!"

"Great," Poppy said and didn't bother mentioning that both teams were quite equal until Potter fell and Hufflepuff could have won even if he hadn't.

"Cedric said he wants a rematch. He thinks it wasn't a fair victory and he went off to find Oliver," Grace said as she skipped happily towards the castle in the mud. "I don't know why, everybody's so happy right now."

The two girls ran to the castle in an attempt to stay dry, which at this point was impossible. Then they headed towards their own dormitories to freshen up before supper. On her way to the dungeons, Poppy ran into Oliver.

"Sorry about the match," she said, knowing quite well her brother was a sore loser. "Did Diggory find you, he wanted to-"

"Yes, he found me," Oliver cut her off. "And I told him Hufflepuff won fair and square."

"So, no rematch?" Poppy questioned and frowned.

"No," Oliver said and added that he had to go visit Potter in the hospital wing. Poppy knew this was a lie and Oliver would probably go to his dormitory and start obsessing about what happens if Gryffindor loses another match and how this one loss affects their chances of winning the cup, but she didn't say anything. He could obsess for hours on end about some tiny detail and no words could offer him any comfort.

"How's your face?" Poppy asked.

"It's fine, a few bruises. Nothing I can't handle," Oliver replied. "Did Flint tell you what happened? The whole story?"

"Of course, why wouldn't he?" Poppy asked.

"Well you seem completely fine and not at all mad at me, so I assumed he didn't," Oliver said.

"Why would I be mad at you?" Poppy asked and was slowly getting confused. Was Marcus not telling her the truth?

"Well, I did hit him after he told me that-," Oliver said but quickly stopped. "I mean, he's your friend or something."

"You hit him first?" Poppy yelled. "What exactly did he say that made you punch him?"

"Uh, well, uh. I should go. I'm a bit confused about the events of that night, so you should just listen to Flint. I'm sure his version of events is the exact right one," Oliver rambled, quickly turned and sprinted away.

Poppy was mad. She couldn't understand why Marcus would lie to her and planned on finding out right then and there. She raced to the dungeons, to the Slytherin common room and when Marcus wasn't there, she ran down the steps to the seventh year boys dormitory. And there he was, laying on his bed but there were also others.

"Get out!" Poppy yelled. "All of you, except Flint. Out now!"

"And why should we obey you?" said a boy whose name Poppy had always known but couldn't care enough to remember.

"Just go," Marcus mumbled before Poppy had a chance to say anything. The other two boys got up and left.

"You lied to me!" Poppy shouted. "Why would you lie to me?"

Marcus looked confused, so Poppy elaborated.

"Oliver hit first, not you! Why would you lie about that, it makes no sense! And he said he punched you after you told him something. What was it?" Poppy kept rambling and raising her voice. "Why would you lie? I thought we were friends and friends aren't supposed to lie to each other and, what? Do you not want to be my friend anymore? I sure as hell don't want to be yours if you'll keep saying things to my brother that make him want to punch you and then you'll lie about it!"

"Don't you ever breathe?" Marcus asked and gestured towards the bed next to his. Poppy sat down on it. "I lied because your brother told me it would be best to stay away from you, so I tried doing that, but I can see you're not going to let me end this thing, even if it might be best for all of us."

"You're stuck with me, to hell with Oliver," Poppy said and laughed a little.

"I've been saying that for years," Marcus said.

His expression changed from mostly happy to completely shocked as Poppy wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. Marcus didn't know what to do but Poppy wasn't letting go so he had no choice but to wrap his arms around her waist. He didn't even mind that Poppy was soaking wet and her hair was dripping all over his shoulders.

In reality the hug only lasted for maybe twenty seconds but to Marcus it felt an hour long.