Poppy's home life was… complicated.
She had brothers and sisters of her own (she was one of five siblings in fact - an only child of her mother and father, she'd been joined by two step-siblings and two half-siblings from her dad and stepmum together), but while they'd grown up together, they were estranged from her now.
She'd been sent her Hogwarts letter during the summer before she turned 12, and McGonagall, as the Deputy Headmistress of the school, had arrived at her door later that day to further explain the situation to Poppy and her parents.
Poppy's father initially refused to let her attend and said that magic was evil, that he refused to allow any of his children to attend a school which taught witchcraft, and would certainly never pay for anything to do with it.
Poppy had thought that was the end of that, until Professor McGonagall had explained what could happen if Poppy suppressed her magic. She also told Poppy's dad and stepmum that she would send an owl with Poppy's bursary so that she could buy what she needed.
"You can still choose us," her dad had said calmly once Professor McGonagall had left. "Do not accept this magic. Reject it."
"I can't," she'd whispered, since she was more terrified of what Professor McGonagall had said would happen if she began rejecting and internalising her magic. "I can learn to control it. I'll learn, dad."
"So you're choosing magic over your family?" he'd replied, and then he'd turned his back on her and left the room.
Later that week, her dad had taken her to the street outside the Leaky Cauldron and told her to come back with the things she needed, leading to the cauldron fiasco of 1988. He'd then locked everything in her trunk and put it in the shed until she left for school.
The separation from her siblings started the moment she came home with a wand, and when Poppy's step-sister asked their dad if he knew how Poppy had come to be magical, her dad had said that it must have been something that had, "Been afflicted by her mother's side of the family," and said that he hoped her siblings wouldn't have it too.
On the 1st of September 1988, Poppy's stepmum had dropped her off at Kings Cross Station and tearfully hugged her goodbye. This was the last hug she remembered her stepmum giving her.
Because of her father's actions, Poppy had found herself wholly unprepared for Hogwarts, having not been able to read up on the school or magic in general. Which led to Poppy's first negative incident as a witch - during her first Potions lesson, someone at her table had said that they were, "Half and half," and Poppy had thought they'd meant mixed race and announced that she was as well.
The Slytherin at their table had then proudly announced that they were Pure-blooded and said that they were glad to not be sat with, "Any bloody Muggle-borns."
Poppy's breath had caught and her skin had prickled when she'd realised that she was, in fact, a Muggle-born, and that they weren't referencing their parents being of mixed ethnicity.
This was part of the reason why she'd joined so many clubs in her first year - she'd wanted to get a firm grounding of as many magical games and interests as she could to feel as though she fit in, rather than being the outsider who knew nothing of the new world she'd chosen over her family.
When she'd returned home the summer after her first year, she'd found that her father had given away her bed - he said that they had assumed she wouldn't be returning and would live with her grandparents instead. This confused Poppy, as her grandparents were no longer living, and realising his mistake, her father had let her sleep on the sofa but locked her trunk in the shed again.
In the summers of her fourth and fifth years she'd spent more time outside the house, working odd jobs underage and trying to stay away from her family and the new pressures, stresses and physical harm her parents were piling on her to try and stop her from harming her siblings with her wand (Poppy tried to tell them that she would never harm her family, that magic wasn't allowed outside of Hogwarts, and that her wand was locked away, but to no avail).
By this age, her relationship with her siblings had soured irreparably as well - none of her younger siblings had received a letter from Hogwarts (her step-siblings were her age and older) which meant that she was alone in her magical abilities and this further proved to her family that her father was right - she was a, "Wrong'un," who had, "chosen magic over them."
Her stepmum, who might have understood Poppy's magic more than her father, refused to help Poppy, preferring to keep the peace.
Which was why Poppy found herself overwhelmed with emotion when she watched the Weasleys over the next week. Simple things like seeing Ron and Harry playing wizarding chess, noticing that Bill was reading up on a new curse, or listening to Charlie try to explain how to tell the difference between girl and boy dragons, "It's all in the scales, though it doesn't hurt if they surprise you with an egg one morning"; made Poppy feel as though she was having proper family time for the first time since she'd received her Hogwarts letter.
The days passed too quickly.
Mr Weasley and Percy barely surfaced over the week, darting off at all hours of the day, running back and forth to work still.
Charlie and Bill took it upon themselves to try and keep the kids busy where they could.
Poppy thought for a day or two that she wasn't invited to watch the family Quidditch matches, but then Charlie sheepishly asked her after breakfast one morning if she fancied coming to watch, and she found out that they'd just assumed she had cooler things to do, or more books to read.
She joined them and cheered along as Charlie showed Harry how to carry out certain Seeker movements, and the Weasleys played three-a-side games. She tried hard to keep her crush on Charlie a secret though, and didn't allow herself to stare at him too much. Even though he did look rather dashing on a broom...
The next few days flitted away in a familiar routine of filling breakfasts, reading under trees, watching Quidditch games, having long chats with Charlie, chilling with Ginny and Hermione in the orchard, and post-dinner games with all of the Weasleys.
Most of the Weasley kids (apart from Percy) appeared to cotton on to her crush by the fourth day though, and kept smiling at Charlie knowingly when Poppy found herself sitting next to him after dinner, or if she struck up a conversation with him during the day.
Even Mrs Weasley had begun to huff whenever Charlie approached Poppy at mealtimes, only to be distracted by her husband who would wink at Charlie.
Feeling conscious of this, Poppy started to invite people into her chats with Charlie, much to her own well-hidden annoyance and their amusement. Charlie didn't seem to be too bothered by it (though the tips of his ears did seem to be permanently red these days) and she wondered if he had any inkling of her feelings. She decided not, as she was sure he'd run for the hills if he did.
Despite her embarrassing crush, she found that Charlie and she became closer in those eight days in August, and she knew that she'd miss him terribly when she went back to school.
The night before she returned to Hogwarts, Poppy found herself sat cross-legged on one of the larger sofas between Charlie and Percy. She was reading Charlie's copy of A Beginners Guide to Dragonology: Where to study and why you should always remember your socks, while Charlie darned a balaclava and Percy had his nose buried in The Daily Prophet since he, "Hadn't had a chance to read it today."
The rest of the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were squeezed into the living room as well, playing various games and chatting. Ginny had invited Poppy to take part in a game of exploding snap, but Poppy wanted to spend the last night with Charlie, and so had pretended that she wanted to ask him more about the job opportunity at the Sanctuary. But now she actually found herself incredibly interested in the work and within an hour she was halfway through the book he'd grabbed from his room for her.
"So the Sanctuary has a good relationship with the Norwegian and Swedish reserves?" she asked Charlie, frowning as she turned the page. "And if they're all privately funded, why isn't there enough money to share?"
"Ah, no," Charlie said, putting his work to the side. He braced an arm on the sofa behind her and leant in, pointing at a small passage on the opposite page. She tried not to sniff him, but her heart pounded when he got closer and his cologne filled her senses.
"It's just the way we're all set up," he explained, oblivious to her interest. "There's an international fund and then there are private donors. There's only a finite amount of public money every year and dragons are getting more and more endangered so we all need all the help we can get."
"That makes sense," she muttered. "Sorry, I just want to get my head around it all before I put my application in."
Charlie looked at her and smiled, his breath tickling against her cheek. She returned his smile and moved her hand, accidentally touching his, which was still resting on the book. Before she could apologise, his larger hand encased hers. It was considerably rougher than hers – from his years of working outside she supposed.
Poppy felt her breath hitch and she looked slowly from his eyes to his lips, to their hands, and back, trying to keep her face as neutral as she could.
A bang from Ginny and Bill's game of exploding snap shocked her out of the moment and she gulped, moving slowly away from Charlie and dropping his hand.
"Have you seen this?" Percy asked from her other side, pointing to an article. She turned to read what he was pointing to, glad for a distraction from the butterflies in her stomach.
Once she'd nodded and said that she had read the passage, she looked around. Bill and Ginny were grinning at Charlie, but everyone else seemed to have gone back to their games or reading, and none of them seemed to be paying her any attention. She glanced at Charlie, who was busy darning again. He didn't mention their moment, and so Poppy decided that it had all been in her head and that she was lucky that she'd gotten away with it.
Mr Weasley arrived home soon afterwards and gave them all a debrief about work, and then it was time for bed.
The next morning Mr Weasley ran past Poppy in the hall, with his robes on backwards. On her way back to Ginny's room after rounding up her toiletries, Mr Weasley ran past her the other way.
"What's happened?" she asked Bill when she walked into the kitchen, levitating Hermione, Ginny and her trunks behind her.
"Nothing to worry about," he said, taking the trunks. "Someone Dad worked with is in a spot of trouble." He then began to lug the trunks outside by hand, though when he got to hers he laughed. "I'll have to take the charm off," he said, talking about the Feather-light charm she'd put on her hulking case, "otherwise the Muggle driver will notice. Good spell though, I can't believe I didn't think of it when I was at school."
"They had charms like that in the sixteen-hundreds?" she joked, earning another laugh from Bill, joined now by his siblings.
They were taking three Muggle taxis to London, and Poppy was happy that she was going to be in a car with Charlie and Ginny, while Harry, Ron and Hermione were in one with Bill, and Fred and George were sitting with their mum. The seven trunks barely fit into the boots and front passenger seats of the five-seater taxis, and the owl cages (in Harry and Ron's cases) and Hermione's cat carrier had to be stowed on their owners' laps.
"I've never seen this crest before," one of the drivers grumbled, trying to slot the last trunk into the boot.
"It's Scotland's version of Eton and Cheltenham Ladies' College combined," Poppy replied quickly. "We're all boarders."
"Makes sense," he said, eyeing up Hedwig and Pigwideon in their cages.
"Summer projects," she said confidently. "As long as they come back alive our teachers will be happy."
"At least we're bringing back two," Hermione said, cottoning on to Poppy's plan of hiding their school in plain sight. "There were meant to be three…"
Poppy winced dramatically, and the driver grimaced and nodded. When he didn't ask any more questions Mrs Weasley thanked her, and then they got into the cars and, despite the grumbling of the taxi drivers and a bit of traffic, they made it to the platform in plenty of time (though they were all very tired from the four-hour car journey.)
Trunks, pets and students safely on the platform, it was time to say goodbye.
"Thanks," Poppy whispered to Charlie who hugged her tightly. "I had a great time."
Charlie was grinning when she pulled back, and Poppy tried not to blush at the fact that his hands remained on her waist; she didn't really know what to do so she moved her hands from around his shoulders round to rest on his biceps… but that was immediately too distracting, so she moved her hands to his forearms, distinctly aware of how close they were still standing, and how strong his arms felt under her fingers.
"Don't mention it," he said, "I'm really glad I got to see you."
"Just like old times, eh?" she asked.
She was disappointed when he let out a laugh and shook his head. "Nah, definitely different," he said, winking at her. "I'll miss you, Bounce."
She felt his hands tighten around her waist. The move sent butterflies through her, and Poppy smiled, biting her lip. "I'll miss you too," she whispered.
They heard a cough, and Charlie let her go and they turned to his family again.
Poppy was embarrassed to see that Mrs Weasley was eyeing her up, and Ginny was trying not to laugh. She could have imagined it, but she thought that this time, Charlie's entire face had gone a little red. She felt bad for constantly embarrassing him.
"Poppy!"
Poppy turned, looking for the voice, grinning when she spotted one of her best friends, Cass, leaning half out of a carriage towards the back of the train. Esther, her other best friend, popped her head out as well, and Poppy turned back to the Weasleys.
"I'm just up here," she said, pointing over to her friends. "I'll see you all later," she said to most of the Weasleys and Hermione. "Thanks so much for having me, Mrs Weasley," she said, pulling the matriarch into a hug. "This summer has been the best."
Mrs Weasley let her go with a smile, and Poppy hugged Bill quickly and smiled at Charlie one more time before she levitated her trunk and ran towards her friends.
"See you later, Poppy-gator!" Fred shouted behind her.
"In a while Fred-odile!" she called back through the crowd.
She climbed into the compartment when she reached it and hugged her best friends in turn - Cass, who was an average height, barely reached up to hug her, but Poppy had to bend down to hug the petite Esther.
Cass, Esther and Poppy had met when they were eleven and had found themselves all sorted into Hufflepuff. While they got along like a house on fire, Poppy had secretly always been a little self conscious of her looks around her friends - Cass had sparkling deep brown eyes with long straight black hair, a beautiful button nose that Poppy coveted, a bright smile, strong but slight build, and a blemish-free rich brown complexion. But it was her confidence that made her even more captivating.
And then there was Esther, who had similar beautiful qualities - her blue-green eyes stared out of wide eyes, her blonde hair fell effortlessly down her back, spilling over her shoulders, and her rosy cheeks and petite yet curvy frame made her a sight to behold.
In their presence, Poppy just couldn't help but feel... inadequate - she just felt that her brown eyes and brown-black hair seemed to pale in comparison to her friends, even when they told her she was pretty. But, as she smiled at her friends now, she thought that she wasn't too much of an outlier in the little group now.
A new outlook on herself was one of the perks of spending time with Charlie, she supposed.
"Poppy love, you're looking gorgeous, beautiful, strong," Cass complimented in her Irish lilt, laughing as Poppy twirled around.
Esther rolled her eyes and laughed as well. "She said the same to me. She's on some kind of niceness kick."
"I'm just saying it as I see it," Cass replied. "Life's too short to not compliment your friends."
Esther and Poppy looked at each other for a moment with wide eyes and pursed their lips to not laugh. Cass let out a frustrated groan. "Fine! I'll stop with the compliments. But we went through a life changing event, and-"
"Didn't you leave straight from the World Cup?" Esther asked, frowning. "You just said you had to go to your cousin Lakshmi's wedding."
Cass whacked Esther on the arm and glared. "Fine. Maybe Ma made us leave straight after the catch, but I was almost there," she said, pouting and sitting down with her arms folded across her chest.
Poppy bit her lip and began hauling her trunk up to the rack above Esther's head.
"Why don't you use your wand?" Cass asked moodily a moment later as she watched Poppy.
Poppy let out a long groan and stopped struggling with the trunk which was halfway up to the rack. "I forgot."
She lowered the case to the floor and waved her wand, levitating it easily.
"Had to take the charm off," she explained when her friends asked why it was even heavy again, since Poppy had charmed their trunks at the same time as her own.
Once she'd settled into her seat, Esther asked her, "Who was that?"
"Who was what?" Poppy asked, grabbing one of Cass' quidditch magazines. "Can I read this?"
Cass nodded immediately and sighed, grabbing Esther's Witch Weekly out of her hands.
"Oi!" Esther complained, glaring at Cass. She turned back to Poppy with a much kinder expression on her face. "The guy you were hugging on the platform," she clarified.
"Oh,... that was Charlie Weasley… do you remember him?" Poppy asked as nonchalantly as she could.
"Charlie?!" Esther cried, standing up and smushing her face against the glass of the window, trying to find the right angle to see the remaining Weasleys properly.
"Aye, Esther, they spent the summer together if you didn't know," Cass supplied, smiling. "You should have seen them at the World Cup. Cuddled together on a wee log…"
"What's a wee log?" Esther asked.
Cass rolled her eyes and Poppy scoffed. "How long have we all been friends?" Poppy asked.
"Wee. As in little?" Cass replied, sighing loudly.
Esther blushed. "Ah, I thought you meant something more sinister… Sorry."
"And ac-tually," Poppy added as Cass laughed and wrapped a comforting arm around Esther's shoulders, "I spent the last couple of weeks with the entire Weasley family."
Esther squealed and jumped up and down, before Cass joined her in pressing her face against the window to try and catch a glimpse of Charlie.
"He looks good!" Esther squealed again, though Poppy didn't know how she could see Charlie, with the crowd outside who were saying goodbye to their children moving closer to the doors and windows to try and wave.
"Is that Bill?!" Cass asked, fanning herself jokingly.
"Stop!" Poppy said, pulling them back.
Esther and Cass laughed and sat down, but when the train started moving they opened the window and waved, shouting, "Bye Bill! Bye Charlie," as they passed the waving Weasleys.
Charlie, at first bemused, grinned when Poppy shouted, "Ignore them!" as the train passed him.
"I hate you both," she huffed, sitting down and crossing her arms.
"It's your fault…" Esther said, smiling knowingly as she picked up her copy of Witch Weekly and turned it back to the right page. "You're the one who had a massive crush on Charlie. Just be glad we didn't single him out..."
"Oh yeah, you were super subtle about it," Poppy replied sarcastically. "I thought I hid it well," she complained a moment later, sinking down in her seat.
"You did," Esther agreed. "Until you were a bit too sad that he wouldn't be coming back when we went into fourth year…"
"Yeah, well, we're just friends and I want to keep him in my life, so please don't say anything to any of the Weasleys?" Poppy asked, frowning.
"Please," Cass replied. "Like we know them. But if you don't want people to think you still have a crush, maybe next time don't have such an iron grip on his biceps when you say bye, aye?" Cass giggled, and Poppy groaned.
"Was it that bad?" she asked.
"Didn't look like he minded," Cass replied, watching the scenery go by. "D'you think if you get married you'll move to the dragon sanctuary?"
"Ooh, imagine if a dragon actually performed the ceremony!" Esther added dramatically.
"What?" Poppy asked, gasping. "Marr- married? We're just friends!"
Esther and Cass burst into giggles.
"Your face!" Esther cried.
"It's not like that," Poppy whined.
"We know," they replied in unison, rolling their eyes.
Poppy sulked for a little bit, and then she gave herself a talking to, and decided to try and remain friends with him and control herself better. Especially since, packed in the top of her trunk, was a little parchment pack filled with the job description and application form for the role of Administrative Officer for the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary.
"Right," Poppy said when the trolley witch had finally passed by their compartment. "World Cup."
"Yes!" Cass roared, jumping up. "DID YOU SEE THAT CATCH?"