"Did you know?" Esther asked, running up to Poppy and Cass, who were making their way inside, heading to the common room.

It was now the first day of term, and Poppy hadn't fancied going straight to breakfast since she had a free lesson first. Cass had felt the same way, and so they'd summoned pastries and gone to the Quidditch pitch, where Poppy had run a few laps to practice her solo flies, and Cass had critiqued her (rather harshly in Poppy's opinion, but she knew that any direction was better than none). Esther, whose budding romance with Mathieu appeared to be going swimmingly, had gone to breakfast with the Beauxbatons students and was now busting with gossip.

"Know what?" Cass asked sleepily, continuing to tie her tie as they walked.

"That Professor Hagrid is a…"

"A what?" Poppy asked impatiently. She could figure what was coming. "A bad teacher? A-"

"A half-giant," Esther hissed, shoving a piece of parchment into Cass' hand.

Poppy and Cass stopped immediately and began to read.

"Holy mother of-" Poppy whispered, reading intently.

"This makes sense, but wow… Dumbledore's really not doing well, is he?" Cass whispered. "First a disgraced Auror now this?"

"I thought you liked Moody?" Poppy asked. "When I said he was weird you two defended him…"

"Yeah… but he is weird, I'll admit that now. Gives me the creeps with that eye of his and he keeps hexing us. But Hagrid… he's been here for years. Dumbledore must have known."

The girls looked at each other and grimaced.

Poppy knew what the Wizarding world thought of Giants, but she also knew that Hagrid had a soft heart - he'd always had a kind word for her and even though he chose to teach them about dangerous animals, he wasn't a terrible teacher.

"Do you think he's going to leave?" Cass asked. "He can't stay anymore, can he? First a werewolf teacher, now this?"

"Dumbledore or Hagrid?" Esther asked.

Cass rolled her eyes. "Hagrid of course. Hogwarts without Dumbledore is like… well, just doesn't work."

"I hope he stays," Poppy whispered, looking around at the near-empty Entrance Hall. "Hogwarts is his home. Imagine being told that half of what you are is wrong, and that you should be locked up for that…"

Cass, a Half-blood, pursed her lips and nodded. The reference went straight over Esther's head.

That evening, Poppy decided to add to her letter to Charlie to tell him that they had been assigned a new Care of Magical Creatures Professor since Hagrid had taken to hiding in his hut, and to ask what he thought about the news about the groundskeeper-cum-teacher.

But she didn't send the letter yet, as she knew that Charlie had said he'd write to her first - she didn't want to jump the gun and send him a letter first.

Poppy's schoolwork kept her busy - when the term began again properly their professors piled on the pressure, reminding them that their NEWTs were just months away - and Poppy found herself in the library even more than before, this time joined by more of her friends, housemates and schoolmates.

She waved to Ginny when she saw her in the corridors or at mealtimes, but their paths didn't cross much otherwise, and Poppy made a mental note to try and track down a chunk of time to have a good chinwag with the younger redhead.

The person she saw the most apart from their friends and schoolmates was Hermione, when they'd meet in the library to work on essays together. But even then Poppy was unhappy to say that wasn't able to give all of the help the bushy haired girl really needed.

She was also distracted, having Charlie's lack of letter in the back of her mind. Had she misremembered? Should she have sent him a letter by now? It was infuriating thinking like this, having never really done so before. When they were just friends, she'd handled the long periods between correspondence well. But now…?

Just three weeks into January there was another Hogsmeade trip and Poppy spent the day with her friends, enjoying the first proper day off in the town that she'd had in almost a year. They went for lunch at The Three Broomsticks and stayed for a little while - it was far too cold outside and they wanted to wait until Honeydukes and Scribenshafts were less crowded.

She saw Fred, George and Harry at the bar when she went to buy her round of butterbeers. They were talking to Ludo Bagman, who walked off quite quickly, looking over his shoulder as he went.

Harry departed soon after and Poppy, despite telling herself she should wait to speak to them, went over to the twins.

They both looked annoyed, and were talking in hushed whispers which stopped the instant she said, "Afternoon!" cheerily.

"What's up?" George asked distractedly.

"Uh… I was wondering if you've heard from Charlie?" she asked awkwardly, regretting her question immediately.

"Charlie? Why?" he asked, frowning.

Poppy felt her cheeks heat up. "Oh… uh… or Bill? Or Percy? Just wondering how they are?" she asked, trying to cover her tracks now.

"Charlie's back in Romania, Bill's in Egypt and Percy is… honestly, I don't know? Sorry, got to go," Fred said, and they both headed out of the door.

Poppy felt her stomach drop. She went back to her friends empty-handed and had to run back to the bar to buy the drinks she was meant to have brought with her. She spent the rest of the day in a little haze of unhappiness, her head buzzing - it seemed it was just her Charlie wasn't contacting now.

Could she have imagined it all? Was there someone else? Did he suddenly think she was too young?

She couldn't work it out. But she decided not to try. It was his loss…

She felt foolish for her feelings when, the next morning, she received a letter from him;

Poppy,

All hands on deck here training the new guy. He's doing alright so far. Seems like the assessment centre worked, though Flek's still on the fence about him - I reckon he's still in awe that you saved him. Dragan wasn't joking when she said no one saves Flek before we're on the job.

The fireball egg finally hatched and I won the pool! Thanks for your help.

Hope school's going well,

Charlie

Poppy was disappointed. She didn't know what she'd been expecting, but she'd hoped for something… more. And she didn't like that he'd called her Poppy, not Bounce, Pop, Popster, or even been cheeky and called her Margaret again.

But weird or not, she couldn't fathom the idea of not replying to him so she found the letter she'd been slowly adding to since the Yule Ball and took it to the Owlery that night.

The only thing that distracted her from overthinking the shortness of his letter was her having to approach Professor Moody a week later to ask him if he'd write her a letter of recommendation to go into her Auror application.

"What?" Moody asked, clearly distracted.

He'd been on his way out of the class already, his leg clunking against the flagstone flooring.

Poppy almost chickened out of asking again, but she needed a big distraction from the pit in her stomach, so she pushed herself to.

"A letter, sir. To go with-"

"I heard you the first time. Why me?"

"Well, uh… because you're an ex-Au-"

"Ex-Auror. Mad-Eye Moody. Asked to retire," he spat at her, his magical blue eye whizzing around in its socket.

"Professor Sprout thought it would be better coming from you," she reasoned. "Said that there are still people who respect you…"

Moody stared at her for a long moment, both of his eyes focussed on her now. "You think you've got what it takes?"

"I do," she replied, making sure not to freeze or retreat under his gaze.

"Jacobs… Half-blood?"

"Muggle-born," she replied defensively. "It won't hold me back. Never has, never will."

"My office. Second of February. Five o'clock," he said, his eyes narrowing.

Poppy swallowed thickly, and Moody clunked away.

On the second, Poppy stopped outside Moody's office door. She was technically three minutes early, but she wasn't sure if he respected people who were early, on time, or a little late… She was just deciding if she should knock when the door swung open.

"Get in here," he growled from within the room, and Poppy took a deep breath before entering.

She walked into the office and sat down in the seat opposite Moody, who was sat back in his chair, his eyes both trained on her. She noticed that his various dark detectors were spinning and squeaking. She thought they might be malfunctioning. That, or she posed a threat to him.

"Haven't worked properly since I got here," he growled, leaning forwards to flick a sneakoscope with his index finger. "Had to disable some of them. Do you know what they are?"

"Uh… no, Sir. Not all. Some, though," she said truthfully, watching the shadows in his foeglass move around.

"Why do you want to be an Auror?" he asked gruffly, holding his hands together on his lap and sitting back again.

"It's been my dream for a while…"

"Why?"

"Well… it's quite personal, and-"

"Spit it out," he growled.

"I want to protect people who, like me, couldn't be protected."

"Like you?"

"My father wasn't too happy that I was a witch. He separated me from… sorry, this is hard for me to say," she said, clearing her throat. Though the look he gave her made her trip over her words as she tried to make some sense of the story. "He uh… he wasn't too nice about me being a witch, I'll put it that way. And then I came to Hogwarts I found that being a Muggle-born wasn't great for some people… and one of the kids in the year above me, his dad was an Auror, and he was always telling us how his dad's job was to protect people, and I guess I thought that maybe if I was an Auror I could protect another Muggle-borns going through what I went through? And then with-"

"Aurors are dark Wizard catchers. Not Muggle catchers."

"I,... I know. I uh… I know… there were a few stationed around Hogwarts when they were looking for Sirius Black last year… And someone a few years ahead of me… Tonks? She said you knew her?"

Moody didn't give away that he knew Tonks, which Poppy thought was odd, but after a long moment he said, "Yes."

"Well, she went for the programme and she got it, and it set me off and I decided in my fifth year that it was definitely what I wanted to do, and I… I don't know… I just… it's just something I've always wanted to be. Even before I knew what magic was I used to run around and pretend I was solving magical mysteries. And after the summer as well…"

"The summer?"

"I was at the World Cup… when they set off the Dark Mark?"

"You were, were you? In the treeline? Hiding?"

Poppy frowned and sat up. Her worry and anxiousness turned into anger. "No," she said, clearly. "I fought."

"Ran away when you saw the Dark Mark?" he asked, cutting over her words.

"No!"

"Left those Muggles in the air, like some-"

"I caught those children. I held them in my arms while they came round and cried out for their mum! I helped them!" she said defensively, standing. "I made a judgement call and I ran straight forwards and I fought!"

Moody appraised her for a long moment, until Poppy's breathing began to slow down slightly.

She thought she'd messed up, until Moody's face twisted into an ugly smile. "I'll write your letter."

"Why?" she asked, staring at him in disbelief.

"Because I've seen your work. You're good. Very good. Especially for a Muggle. You'd make a good adversary for a Dark Wizard…" he said, leaning forwards, his eyes wide with what Poppy thought was glee...

She cleared her throat again and tried to hold her ground, even though right now she really did want to run away, or point out that she wasn't a Muggle.

His eye span when he said, "I'm sure you'd give 'em a good fight before they broke you."

"Broke me? I… well- hopefully it would end with us taking them in…" she whispered, her breathing shallow now. Did he really think she'd be that bad at the job?

But Moody didn't answer, he simply sat back in his seat and pointed to his open door.

Poppy took the hint and left.

It took Poppy about a week and a half after her meeting with Moody to shake the fear that she really was just a lamb readying itself for the slaughter, but then he stopped her after another class and said, "I've sent the letter. Get your application ready. They're changing the dates. Bringing them forwards and shortening the window."

"What? Why?" Poppy asked, her eyes wide. She wasn't in the least bit prepared for this.

"Why d'you think? They don't want just anyone applying. You've got to really want it."

"Right… so it's a test to see who's ready enough? Okay… but I don't have a pack yet, I was going to send off for-"

"Good job someone's got their head screwed on," Moody said, shoving a packet of parchment into her hands.

"Oh my god, thank you! Wait… but why're you still helping me?" she asked, holding back a shudder when his magical eye stilled, staring at her. "All I needed was the letter of recommendation."

"If there's one thing I hate, it's a Death Eater who walked free. And what do Death Eaters hate?" he asked, stepping closer.

Poppy tried not to stare at his half-missing nose. "Muggle… Muggle-borns."

"'A scourge on our great society', that's what they call people like you," he said, smiling, his face twisting oddly to accommodate the rare occurrence.

Poppy blinked. It wasn't the first time she'd heard things like this. Hell, even if she hadn't, she knew why the last war was so brutal, and why Blood Purists listened to Voldemort. "I know," she whispered.

"So who better to catch them than something they hate?" he asked. "A last humiliation."

Poppy tried to ignore that he'd said something and not someone. The voice at the back of her head reminded her that now he'd told her that she'd be a good choice for a Death Eater to 'break', and now an added humiliation for any Dark Wizards who were caught.

"Get the application in," he said, turning away. He clunked down the hall, and Poppy looked down at the pack in her hand.

At the top, in red writing, it said, AUROR PROGRAMME. DEADLINE 10th MARCH.

She looked up and watched Moody go. If he hadn't told her, she would have been a month late in getting her application in.

"How can I thank you?" she called.

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and without looking back, he replied, "You don't."