A/N: Mid-week update for you :) Only a short one but something to keep everybody going!
Poppy's POV
Soon enough, October was upon us which meant the first quidditch match of the season and the first Hogsmede trip. Since my night spent in Sirius's bed, Fiona thankfully hadn't broached the subject of me liking him again, although I felt her eyes on me whenever I spoke to him and knew she was watching me carefully. My arm was still in a sling, although I had gotten much better at getting dressed and I had practised using my wand in my left hand, so I was able to do some spells, although not too many. I was working on this at every available opportunity and felt like I was improving well. I had an appointment to see Doctor Ford the day of the Gryffindor Slytherin match and I was hoping that my arm would be healed by now. If it was, it would also give me the opportunity to begin my lessons with Professor Dumbledore which I was keen to do as I wanted to be able to control my magic properly.
The first week of October I went down to breakfast with Lily as per usual (Remus and Sirius weren't around for some reason today), asking her about what was going on with her and Luke. There was nothing official between the two of them, but they hung out a lot; either studying together in the library or walking round the grounds and castle. For some reason, Luke hadn't made any sort of move on Lily which had taken me by surprise, and so I spent a lot of time reassuring her that I really did genuinely think Luke liked her, and was just as confused as her as to why he was dithering. By half eight, the Great Hall was full, the girls having joined us about fifteen minutes ago and the Marauders all sat up the other end of the table, when Professor Dumbledore took us all by surprise, waving his wand to get our attention and a silence fell.
"Good morning everybody" he started cheerily, and I glanced at the girls to see them all look as surprised as me. "I just wanted to let you know that we've decided to deviate from our traditional Halloween feast and your head boy and girl have organised a Halloween dance. Fancy dress of course. I do hope that we can enter into this with the right festive spirit" he told us before sitting down and I could hear excited conversation spread out immediately.
"Oh my gosh this is so exciting!" Alice said, her face lit up and I saw the girls all looked equally as excited.
"Isn't it?! What are we going to go as?" Fiona asked, looking round at us all. "It naturally has to be something that we can make slutty" Fiona said, making us all laugh. "What?! I'm just saying what you're all thinking" she told us with a grin.
"Well, we have plenty of time to think about it and then we can use the Hogsmede weekend to get our costumes" Lily told us excitedly; Hogsmede was the weekend before Halloween.
"Are you not going with Luke?" Lizzy asked her and she sighed, shaking her head.
"He hasn't asked. Besides, it's Poppy's first one! We should go as a group" she told her.
"I don't mind if you go with Luke" I said quickly, seeing the others nod.
"No honestly. I'd rather go with you lot" she told us with a smile. We didn't say anything else on the matter and conversation instead soon turned to potential costume ideas, everybody very excited.
The quidditch match was set for the middle of October and the tension around school increased as we moved towards that date. Apparently, there would be an after party regardless of outcome which was traditional. The different houses took turns to host them and apparently fifth through to seventh years were all invited. This time, it was the Ravenclaws turn to host and they were holding it in a disused classroom on the fourth floor. I wasn't quite sure how they got away with it, but it was 'tradition', according to the others, and there was as much hype around that as there was the actual quidditch match itself.
The day of the quidditch match dawned cold but bright, optimal quidditch conditions (or so I'd been told). As usual, despite the fact that it was a Saturday I was awake by seven and crept quietly into the bathroom for a nice hot shower, my hopes high at hopefully getting my splint taken off today. Once out, I managed to get dressed, wearing a burgundy jumper I had been saving for the occasion before heading out and seeing Lily awake and getting her stuff together.
"I'll meet you in the common room" I whispered to her and she nodded as I made my bed and grabbed my coat and Gryffindor scarf before heading downstairs. I was surprised to find Remus sat by the fire, staring into it contemplatively.
"Morning" I greeted him, seeing him jump and give me a small smile, motioning for me to join him.
"Morning Poppy. How are you?" he asked as I noticed he was in his full quidditch gear, broom leaning against the armchair next to him.
"Good thanks. How are you? Ready for today?" I asked in return, noticing him pale a little at my question. "Are you nervous?" I asked softly and he sighed before nodding.
"It's stupid I know" he said with a shake of the head, making me smile.
"Not at all. I'm sure you'll be great though" I told him, and he gave me a small thankful smile in return.
"Thanks Poppy" he replied, hopefully feeling just a tiny bit better about today.
After fifteen minutes, Lily came downstairs and the three of us headed down to breakfast together. As per usual, Lily helped me get my breakfast together and Remus made me a cup of tea in Sirius's absence before we chatted about the match, Lily and I doing our best to boost Remus's confidence a bit. As the morning wore on, the volume in the Great Hall increased significantly and Remus had drifted off to sit with the rest of the team once they had appeared at half eight. We stayed in the Great Hall with everybody until about half nine when everybody seemed to move as one out of the Hall. We managed to catch up with the team and wish them luck, most of them seeming overly confident with their chances. I had to say, they did all look stupidly hot in their quidditch gear, James and Sirius in particular.
"See something you like Turner?" James had called to me cockily, giving me a wink as I rolled my eyes at him, shaking my head, but I saw how many other girls were eyeing him up.
"I was going to wish you luck, but I don't know if your ego can take it" I had replied, making him laugh at me.
"Ouch. And here was me about to say I'll dedicate my victory to you" he teased back, holding a hand over his heart.
"Your victory?" Sirius had questioned with a grin and James had nodded before positively strutting off, the others all laughing at him as they followed him down.
"Good luck" I called, seeing Sirius give me a wink before he followed and obviously making me blush.
"Feeling all flustered?" Lizzy asked as we resumed our walk down and I did my best to not blush again, just shaking my head. "Seriously though, nothing going on with James?" she asked. The girls had asked me numerous times as James had fallen to teasing me/flirting with me although I wasn't quite sure why. It had, however, become quickly apparent that Lily had noticed he was no longer focused on her, and I often saw her looking at him curiously when she thought we weren't watching her.
"Seriously nothing" I confirmed, seeing Lizzy look a little mystified but thankfully saying nothing more on the matter as we approached the stadium. Here, we said goodbye to her and Susan and I followed Lily, Alice, Peter and Frank up to the stands with the rest of Gryffindor. It was blooming cold today and I had regretted not bringing my gloves with me. Although, it definitely would have highlighted how different I was given that nobody else thought it was really cold. I tried not to think about it, wedging myself between Lily and Alice in the hope of nicking some of their body heat to keep me warm.
Thankfully the game kicked off soon after and Alice gave me a running commentary which really helped me as I wasn't hot on my quidditch. It was, however, clear to see how well organised the Gryffindor team were; they moved seamlessly as if they knew what their teammates were thinking and responded to it accordingly. The Slytherin team were good but I felt like the Gryffindors edged them and sure enough, after a mere hour, James had successfully caught the snitch which sealed a solid Gryffindor victory. The rest of Gryffindor house flooded the pitch in celebration but with a delicate arm I kept well away, Lily and Alice instead accompanying me back up to the castle with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. We chatted away, the girls telling me more about the party and we discussed what we might wear as we went. Once back, Lily and I grabbed our stuff and managed to coerce Alice into coming to the library with us so that we could do some homework.
We spent the rest of the morning in the library, only moving for a quick lunch. We couldn't get anywhere near the quidditch team who seemed to have amassed a small fan club and just figured we'd see Fiona when we got ready for the party. At six, we stopped for dinner and then both Lily and Alice came with me up to the hospital wing where we hoped my sling could come off. Once in there we found Madam Pomfrey with Doctor Ford, the pair of them chatting with a cup of tea.
"Oh Merlin, talent alert. Who is that god of a man?" Alice murmured beside me and I did my best not to laugh.
"That's Doctor Ford" I told her, and she turned to me, confused.
"A doctor? I thought you were seeing a healer?" she questioned, and I froze, realising what I'd just said. However, just at that moment he and Madam Pomfrey looked up and came towards us.
"Miss Turner. Lovely to see you in the same state I left you" Doctor Ford greeted me and I gave him a small smile in return.
"Miss Evans, Miss Brooks could you please wait at the other end?" Madam Pomfrey asked. I saw them glance at me and I nodded, hearing Alice murmur to Lily as they went.
"Everything okay?" Doctor Ford asked, ushering me to a bed and I gently hopped up on to it.
"Fine" I lied, knowing my eyes reflected this, but it wasn't as if he didn't know about what I was.
"Ah, assuming your friends don't know about you?" he asked wisely as he gestured for me to take my sling off which I did gingerly as I shook my head. He didn't say anything in reply, just waved his wand and I unfortunately saw him frown as he gently took my arm. I tried not to wince, but I think he saw it anyway as I had a small shoot of pain through it.
"I'm afraid we're not quite there yet" he told me, grabbing a rectangular looking object from behind him and scanning it over my arm as he waved his wand. He looked down at it and I was surprised when I saw the bones appear, as though it were an x-ray. "You see just here?" he turned it around and pointed to a small line that ran across the bone. "This is your break. It's more like a fracture now, but it's still not fully healed" he explained, and I couldn't help but sigh.
"How much longer do you think it will be?" I asked as he cleared the image and replaced the rectangular thing.
"I can't be certain. I'm unsure why your magic isn't healing it" he said with a small frown. "If we go based off its previous trajectory though, I would say another couple of weeks" he told me, helping me back into the sling. "You're going to need to keep resting I'm afraid" he said with a smile. I nodded, feeling a little down about it and wondering why my magic would help speedily heal my leg and ribs but not my arm. Hopefully Professor Dumbledore would have more information for me. "Can I give you a small piece of advice?" he asked me, and I looked at him curiously before nodding. "You seem to have a good group of friends around you. I don't think you'd lose them by telling them about yourself" was all he said. I shrugged but didn't say anything else.
"Thanks for checking on me" I told him as I got off the bed and he gave me a small smile.
"Chin up. You'll get there. I'll be back in two weeks. Same time okay?" he asked, and I nodded, realising that two weeks would be just before the Halloween dance. Fingers really crossed I'd be okay for that.
"Okay. I'll see you then" I said, and he gave me a smile before I moved away, seeing Lily giving me a sympathetic look and Alice looking puzzled.
"No joy?" Lily asked as we started moving out and I sighed, shaking my head.
"Poppy I might be being dense, but I don't get why Madam Pomfrey can't just heal it?" Alice asked, somewhat tentatively. I glanced at Lily who looked conflicted and, in the end, gave me a shrug as if to say it was up to me. I turned back to Alice who had been looking between Lily and I carefully.
"It's my blood" I said slowly as we went, glancing round to make sure we were alone. "It doesn't respond very well to magical remedies" I told her, and she looked surprised by this.
"Really?" she asked, and I nodded. "But why?" she questioned further. I hesitated, unsure whether to go on. "Sorry Poppy, you don't have to say if you don't want. It's none of my business" she said hurriedly as we entered the common room to a blast of noise.
"I…it's just…" I started but wasn't sure where I was going with my sentence. Alice stopped me, putting a hand on my good arm and looking at me with a smile.
"Poppy I mean it. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. If you tell me it's to do with your blood, then that's all I need to know" she said gently and I felt relieved, able to smile and relax now.
"Thanks Alice. I will tell you at some point it's just…" I said, gesturing around at the noise and she laughed, nodding.
"I get it. Honestly Poppy though. It's up to you. We're friends" she said, squeezing my arm before dropping it and I saw Lily smile at the pair of us.
"OI! WHERE'VE YOU THREE BEEN?" Fiona demanded, breaking up our moment as she dragged us over to her, moaning about how we hadn't celebrated her victory with her and making us all laugh.