It had been almost a week since Poppy had returned from her interview at Gringotts. She had spent the rest of her disrupted weekend finishing off various essays which she'd put off so that she could finish her Auror application, but rather than being rewarded for her efforts, she'd been handed even more essays from her teachers in the following week's lessons, and Moody had even sprung a surprise practical duelling test on them, shouting, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE," before he attacked them one by one, seeing who could fend him off the longest.

Poppy had managed to fight back for a good few minutes, but had taken a combination of the conjunctivitis curse and an extremely strong shock spell for the trouble - Moody had upped the ante with every passing minute, and had, fairly, given her warning that he would be resorting to the, "Dirty tricks every Auror should be prepared for."

The combination of curses had been the single worst experience of her life so far, as she found herself deprived of sight and convulsing with the strong electric-like currents conjured by the shock spell as she heard horrified shouts around her.

"Walk it off," he'd shouted at her as she'd crawled out of the duelling ring once he'd lifted the electric shock spell, tears streaming down her face as she admitted defeat.

She couldn't see anything, as her eyes had swollen shut, and she had relied on Galina to help her to her feet and keep her upright for the rest of the class. The class had continued somewhat hesitantly once Poppy was upright, but then a girl who was still yet to duel began to cry and Moody had dismissed the class so that Poppy could go and get a pain potion and perform the countercurse to stop her eyes from being shut - he said only she could do it, to teach her another lesson on self-healing.

Even now, days after the experience, Poppy's muscles and body ached from the time she was under the shocking curse.

"I'm so tired… I feel like I might just do a Binns," Poppy said, placing her head onto her arms at the Hufflepuff table.

"Please don't," Esther replied, buttering a thick slice of toast. "I'd like us all to graduate together."

Poppy raised her head and smiled at her friend. "Yeah, alright. I'll try my best."

"How're you feeling?" Esther asked, dipping the edge of her toast in an egg yolk.

"Fine," Poppy replied, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. She wondered if she'd always been able to feel her tailbone or if it was still the pain from the curse.

"Oh! Did I tell you? My whole class refused to participate in another Defence lesson if Moody used any curses on us. He flat out refused to teach us. Walked out saying that we needed to grow up! I can't believe you willingly asked him for a letter of recommendation. He's absolutely crazy."

Poppy shrugged. "I feel weird about it too, but I want to be an Auror…" she replied, thinking about what Moody had said - if the enemy were using these spells, she needed to be prepared. She just hoped she'd not have to come across it again, especially not in her training.

"Have you heard anything?" Esther asked, referencing the Auror application - it was all Poppy could talk about properly these days, as she still couldn't talk about her feelings around Charlie much. She was still waiting for his reply to her original letter.

Poppy shook her head. "Should find out more by May I think."

"Hopefully sooner," Esther replied.

Poppy grunted and put her head back down on the cool table.

"Have you talked to the Sanctuary recently?" Esther asked slowly.

Poppy opened her eyes and looked up. "Why?"

"Nothing," Esther said, shrugging her shoulders and trying to look far too nonchalant. "I was just wondering because I know you haven't told them if you're taking the job or not.."

"I don't have to confirm anything until the summer," she mumbled, putting her head down again.

"And… well… are you sure that-"

Poppy looked up and glared, then returned her forehead to the table.

Esther stopped trying.

A bang at the Gryffindor table startled Poppy and she pulled out her wand, turning round in her seat quickly.

"You don't deserve either of them, you two-bit gold digger!" a red envelope shouted, hovering midair in front of a very embarrassed looking Hermione.

The awful Witch Weekly article which had surfaced after the second task had really caused a tidal wave of negative post for Hermione from people who thought that she was two-timing Harry with Krum. (Even though the people who knew her well knew that romantically, it was Krum and only Krum.)

Poppy sent her a sympathetic look and then turned back to her table. "Poor girl."

"Alrigh' there, young Poppy?" Hagrid greeted when Poppy walked up to him a week later; she had decided to go for a long walk to clear her head. She was walking past his hut when he waved and she'd double backed to see him.

"No, not really if I'm honest," she muttered, keeping her hands in her jacket pockets. "Nothing to worry about," she called, when Hagrid frowned.

"Fancy a cuppa?" he asked, setting down his spade.

Poppy nodded, and soon enough she was sat at his dining table, a large mug of tea between her hands, her legs swinging slightly from the height of the stool.

"Now then, what's all this?" he asked, pushing over a plate full of rock cakes.

Poppy took one and ripped it into smaller pieces - she'd found, over the years, that the cakes were much softer and edible even, if they were dipped into tea.

Since Hagrid had been in hiding for the first part of January, and then rather preoccupied and not really himself since, they'd not had a proper chat in quite a while, and it was only when he asked, "Well then, tell me all about Romania. How's Charlie? How are those dragons?" that she realised just how long it had been.

She bit her lip, and then took a sip of tea.

Hagrid, to his credit, waited for her to answer, and listened to her as she poured everything out about her time in Romania, her feelings for Charlie, her confusion, her upset and anger, her want to write to him and her want for him to write to her to explain, her want to forget him completely…

"It's ridiculous, isn't it?" she asked, finally, accepting a large cloth from Hagrid, which she used to blow her nose. "It all means nothing and I'm making a mountain out of a molehill."

"Nah, I reckon you've got a good poin' there. Your problem is tha' you're a Hufflepuff through an' through. Yeh put your mind to summat and you're gonna do it, and yeh're bloody loyal teh boot. So I reckon when Charlie thought yeh could jus' forget about him and move on as quick as a flash, it hurt. Am I righ'?"

Poppy sniffed and nodded.

"An' it can'ter been easy for yeh, hearin' tha' he's been limitin' his letters teh yeh just 'cause you've got a boyfriend. Now, listen 'ere though. If I know one thing abou' young Charlie, it's tha' he's a dab hand at dragons. He loves 'em. He understands 'em. Now," he said when Poppy opened her mouth to protest, "I'm not sayin' what 'e did or didn' do was righ', but I am sayin' that dragons and women are very differen' creatures. I should know. An' I reckon he's a bi' confused."

Poppy frowned. "I know that," she whispered. "But he needs to tell me himself… needs to explain and grovel or something… but I got a letter earlier today and it was the same as the others have been recently. It was just to the point. There was no embellishment…"

"Have yeh tol' him how yeh feel?" Hagrid asked.

Poppy shook her head.

"Well, maybe he needs a good tellin' to?"

"Maybe…" she said, pouting slightly. She knew Hagrid was right, but she also knew this was something best done in person. "But I'm still sulking to be honest."

They sat in silence for a few moments.

"Fleur said you're avoiding Madame Maxime… what happened?" she asked as she lifted a now softer piece of rock cake to her mouth.

"Oh, nothin', nothin' teh worry abou', nothin' teh worry abou' at all…" he said, sighing. He took a sip of his tea. "Jus'... 'ad our differences."

Poppy chuckled, and then began to laugh.

"Wha'?" he asked.

"I'm sorry!" she said, still laughing. "It's just we're quite the pair right now, aren't we? Both drinking tea and trying to forget while we avoid the people we like… just in a way it's funny…"

Hagrid thought for a second, and then he smiled slightly.

They fell into a nice silence while they finished the rest of their tea, and then Poppy made her way back up to the castle feeling a little lighter.

She replied to Charlie's letter as simply as he had written it, and asked if he would be free in the summer for a chat in person.

In the run up to the Easter holidays, Poppy found herself busier than ever before, something which she hadn't thought was possible.

They were piled with so much homework in the two weeks before the holiday began that Poppy began to think her hand might fall off.

And then they were told that their revision should start as soon as they broke for the two weeks off.

Which, as she wanted to get good grades, meant that Poppy's side of the room was covered in a layer of books, parchments, coloured ink, quills, and post-it notes by Easter Sunday.

On Easter Monday, Poppy sat at the Hufflepuff table forcing herself to eat some fruit; Cass had pulled her out of their room and made her come with her to eat something, since Poppy had been skipping breakfast in favour of lie-ins, and had been working late into the night.

She was just peeling an orange (since Cass refused to accept that orange juice was the same as eating the actual fruit), when a brown eagle owl swooped down and landed gracefully by Poppy's untouched cereal bowl. She frowned and removed the parcel that it was carrying.

There was a letter attached, and Poppy recognised the writing immediately. She pushed it to the side, gave some bacon to the owl, and then began to peel her orange again as the owl flew away.

"Not going to open it?" Cass asked absentmindedly. Her own owl had brought her a gigantic hamper of chocolate goodies; it was tradition that she'd get a special hamper on Easter Monday filled with extra snacks and treats from her grandparents.

Poppy shook her head.

"Your middle name is Margaret?" Mathieu asked, sitting down on her right, looking at the letter which was addressed to Poppy 'Margaret' Jacobs. Esther sat opposite him.

"Inside joke," Cedric said before Poppy could answer, sitting down next to Cass. He turned to her and said, "So, plays-"

Poppy stopped listening to their conversation as Cedric had only popped over to recruit Cass for a quick Quidditch game that afternoon.

"Is that from…" Esther asked.

Poppy simply nodded. She finished her orange and then stood. "I'm going to the library," she said, walking off without the package or letter. She felt lucky that it was still half term and so she didn't have any classes, and so had no chances of having to speak to anyone while she 'studied'.

Ginny found her in the library an hour before lunch and sat down at Poppy's table.

"You forgot this," she said, placing the package on top of Poppy's Transfiguration essay.

Poppy sighed and scratched her nose. "I thought you said no boy was worth it," Poppy reminded her.

"Yeah, well… it's still worth checking what it is, isn't it?" Ginny asked.

Poppy sighed and picked up her wand, waving it at the package. The twine fell down, and the package unwrapped itself from its brown paper. Inside was… a blue box.

Poppy stared at the box for a minute, and then looked away.

"You're not curious?" Ginny asked.

Poppy sighed in annoyance and flicked the clasp to open it.

Inside lay a large chocolate dragon which was sitting in a nest, surrounded by a multitude of multi-coloured eggs.

"That's cute," Ginny mused. "Very Charlie…"

Poppy shrugged and flicked her wand, closing the box again.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Poppy asked.

"Are you going to read it?" Ginny asked, pushing the discarded letter forwards.

"I'm busy," she replied, going back to her work. She was curious, but that was a can of worms she didn't have the time to open yet. The gift and letter combined told her that this wasn't going to be one of Charlie's average replies.

He must know. Now that he'd replied, she felt like she'd just been overly dramatic… and wasn't that the reason she'd not said anything to him thus far?

Ginny huffed. "It's Easter. You're meant to have some time off. And you're meant to stuff yourself with sweet treats."

Poppy groaned and rubbed her temples. She understood why Ginny (and everyone else) was so frustrated with her, but she couldn't explain anything in a way that would make them understand. "Yes, well, NEWTs aren't called Nastily Exhausting for nothing…" She sighed deeply and put her quill down. "How're you doing anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject.

"I'm okay, school's fine…"

"Really? Not getting possessed by anyone? No mass murderer trying to kill your crush?" Poppy joked.

Ginny pursed her lips and shook her head, trying not to smile. "No, funnily enough, it's a bit of an average year…"

"Ah rats. Well, there's always next year," Poppy teased.

Ginny smiled and began to take her things out of her bag. Poppy smiled too. Despite what Ginny had said about the holidays and not being for studying, she'd still come prepared for a long library session.

"I need to apologise," Ginny said slowly, taking her ink pot out of her bag.

"For what?"

"I thought what Percy did too. And I was mad at you for it. I thought there was a chance of… well, I thought you were keeping things from me and I sulked."

"So you were avoiding me?" Poppy confirmed, putting down her quill again, glad it hadn't all been in her head. "Then I have an apology to make as well. I'm sorry that I noticed you were pulling back but didn't do anything. I've been so stressed with all this work… I should have noticed earlier. And I'm sorry for avoiding you when I found out what Percy had said. I just didn't know what to say about my outburst… I'm sorry. Here," she said, opening the box again to pull two chocolate eggs - one green, one red - out from under the dragon. She handed the red one to Ginny, who grinned and popped the sweet in her mouth.

Poppy did the same and moaned with delight as she chewed. "Oh my god. Mint…"

Ginny screwed her nose up at Poppy's liking mint, but finished the chocolate in her mouth. "Chilli."

Poppy gasped and looked into the box. "The colours are flavours. Like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans!"

"You're excited about that?" Ginny asked, wriggling her nose and peering into the box.

"You're not? This is something straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!" Poppy gushed excitedly.

"What and a who now?"

Poppy smiled, shook her head, and reached in for another. But before she could take one, the dragon woke up and moved forwards quickly, snapping at her hand. Poppy gasped and shut the lid quickly. "I'll come back to that one."

"Good present then?" Ginny asked with a knowing smile.

Poppy pursed her lips. If she wasn't mad at him, she would have thought this was the most romantic gift she had ever, and would ever receive. It was so well thought out and beautifully executed, and in keeping with the dragon she got him for Christmas. She wanted to thank Charlie profusely. But she was mad at him, so she couldn't say that.

Luckily, she didn't have to answer as what looked like a stack of books surrounded by a cloud of bushy brown hair approached them.

"Pop? Ginny?" Hermione greeted, placing the stack of books onto the tabletop.

"Hermy-o-ninny," Poppy said, nodding.

Hermione didn't look impressed as she pulled her hair out of her face, but Ginny snickered behind her hand.

"Can I join you?" Hermione asked after a moment, looking between the two girls.

Poppy frowned and waved her hand. "Of course. Sit down."

Ginny narrowed her eyes when Poppy moved the box and letter to the floor beside her chair, but otherwise didn't say anything.

Hermione didn't notice, but sat down quickly and began flicking through the top book from the stack. "Thanks. I wasn't sure because Ginny's been avoiding you, and I know you're busy preparing for your exams…"

Ginny blushed and dropped her head, and Poppy smirked at Hermione, who seemed to have no idea what she'd done.

"Whatcha doin'?" Poppy asked Hermione finally, looking at the books which were all to do with magical devices, defence against the dark arts, and surveillance. Poppy frowned at one, So You Want to Eavesdrop? A Guide to Picking Up the Best Gossip.

"Can't beat 'em join 'em?" Ginny asked, frowning at the books as well.

"I thought you hated all this stuff," Poppy added, picking up, Ear Ear: Train Your Pets To Listen Out For Pests.

Hermione huffed and took the book back from Poppy. "I'm just trying to figure something out. Not that it's any of your business… now, Poppy, how's NEWT prep going?"

"Fine," Poppy groaned, curling her lip up. She looked back at her parchment which was half finished. "Everyone's stressed apart from Fleur. Stupid champions not having to do exams… I reckoned the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang lot had it worse, having to take their exams in English, but Mathieu just told me that they get to take their usual exams in their languages, so we're all in the same stressful boat. Esther and Cass are better at handling all the studying though… they have actual timetables and stick to them."

"You're always in the library," Ginny said, raising an eyebrow.

"I normally come here for the peace and quiet," Poppy replied with a small chuckle.

"But you must be the most organised person I know behind-" Ginny said, nodding at Hermione, who was carefully writing notes from a gigantic book, and barely listening to their conversation.

Poppy smiled. "Maybe, but that's because I leave everything to the last minute and it piles up… my issue is that my mind wanders when I'm on my own for too long. I spend way too long on my essays because of it, and I'm much more of a stress worker anyway. You should ask Esther. She'll tell you I'm so much better under pressure, and then she'd complain about my side of our room right now. It's plastered with notes. I just hope I'll remember it all by exams…"

"What're you aiming for?" Ginny asked, dropping all pretence of working now.

"This is what I'm talking about. I'm too easily distracted…" Poppy said, but there was no mistaking that she was happy for the distraction, "well, I'm taking six NEWTs and I need at least an exceeds in five of them."

"What're you predicted?" Ginny asked, leaning her elbows on the table and resting her chin on her hands.

Poppy smiled. The idle chat was really helping calm her and take her mind off everything, even though it was technically to do with her exams.

"At the moment I'm just scraping an exceeds in Muggle Studies. Ironic, I know, but it's weird to have to think like a wizard to explain all this stuff I learnt as a Muggle. Sometimes I get something right but it's wrong according to the sheet. Bizarre. Otherwise I'm looking at hopefully exceeds or Os in the others. I'm predicted Os but we'll see."

"Really?" Hermione asked, looking up from her book.

Ginny hid her laughter behind her hand.

"I mean, it's not that surprising…" Poppy complained, looking between the two younger girls. "It isn't, is it?"

Hermione went red, shook her head, and looked back down at her page. Poppy rolled her eyes and Ginny bit her lip.

"Why're you worried?" Ginny asked.

Poppy waited a beat to watch Hermione's face and then said, "Care of, Transfiguration and Defence are the easy ones for me. I don't know why but I always have a bit of trouble with Charms theory."

"Can I ask you something?" Hermione asked a little while later.

Poppy looked up when Ginny didn't reply, and saw Hermione looking at her intently. "Oh, yeah, sure."

"If you were going to keep tabs on someone to find out what they were saying confidentially, how would you do that?"

Poppy frowned and pursed her lips, looking up. She thought for a while. "Er… I'm not too sure… the ol' ear to the door trick could work… I don't think we've really covered surveillance in defence yet. Let me know when you figure it out though, I think it would be good to know for training."

"I will," Hermione sighed. "But I've looked through so many books and still can't find it out."

Poppy felt a lot better that she had no idea now. Hermione was often heralded as the smartest witch of their age by Fred and George, and if she had no idea…

"Wait," Poppy said quickly, "have you asked Fred or George?"

Hermione nodded gloomily. "They said they're working on something but I don't think it'll be ready in time."

"When do you need it for?" Ginny asked suspiciously, but Hermione didn't answer.

When they packed up for lunch, Ginny reminded Poppy about the things on the floor, and Poppy sighed. "You can have it if you want."

"The letter?" Ginny asked, raising her eyebrows.

Poppy thought for a moment. "I meant the chocolate, but yeah. Actually, take it all. I don't think I can mentally or emotionally deal with any of it right now. Here," she said, pushing the box and letter towards Ginny.

Ginny shook her head and tried to push it back.

They entered into a stalemate until around four in the afternoon, when Poppy managed to leave the letter at least, and get back to her dorm room before Ginny could catch her.

That evening she hid in her dorm and Esther, in a little routine now, brought her a plate of lasagna for her dinner. Poppy thought she'd see the end of it all, forgetting that she was going up against Ginny Weasley.

When she woke up in the morning, she saw Charlie's chocolate dragon sitting on top of the open blue box, staring at her. She wondered when the magic would wear out so she could eat it…

Then she noticed that it was no longer just guarding its eggs, it was now guarding the letter as well.

She stared back, and then rolled over and went back to sleep, deciding that it was something to read after she'd finished her revision.

"Read it yet?" Ginny asked the next morning, skipping to a stop in front of her. Poppy shook her head.

"Read it yet?" Ginny asked again the next day, pushing Poppy gently on the shoulder as she sat down with her, Esther and Cass in the library (it had suddenly dawned on them that as cool, calm and collected as they were, exams began at the end of May, in just a month's time). Poppy groaned and shook her head again.

This went on for days, until finally it was the first Monday of the summer term, and Ginny sat down next to her and asked, "Read it-"

"No!" Poppy complained loudly, turning to her with tired eyes. "Sorry, no I haven't."

"Read what?" Fred asked, sitting down on the bench opposite Poppy. George sat down next to him.

"Oh my god. Here," Poppy said, pulling the letter out of her bag and ripping it open.

Pop,

I don't really know what to write, but Hagrid told me you thought I was writing shorter letters because you have a boyfriend and I 'don't want to step on another man's territory'(!?), and that's not true, so I had to write immediately to explain myself.

I've been trying to give you space. Not because of any nonexistent boyfriend or girlfriend, but because I was worried that I pushed things between us when you visited the Sanctuary, which was the last thing I wanted to do. And I've not been sure how to not come off as a sleazeball in my letters, so I've been keeping them short and to the point just in case that's how you felt.

The thing is, I keep thinking about your last night in Romania. I should have slept downstairs, I know that, and I'm so sorry I made you uncomfortable by staying in my bed with you.

And I should have known how uncomfortable you were on the train as well, but I missed the signs and bought you a ticket straight to London without asking if that was what you wanted. Merlin, I didn't even ask if I could get the same train as you, I just said I would and you were too nice to tell me to get lost until you had to tell me to get lost.

So yeah… there's missing signs and then there's ignoring every one, and I'm sorry I turned out to be that guy.

I'm really glad we're still writing - I think you're great, and hopefully one day you'll be able to look past my idiocy.

Charlie

P.s. I hope the chocolates are okay, they're from Quent, Dragan the Elder (and Younger), and me. Dragan says it's not bribery, it's just a reminder that the Dragon Sanctuary is pretty cool.

P.P.S. If you still want to chat in the summer, I'll take some time off and come to England. Just shout and I'll be there (if that's not creepy).

"Oh," she said, staring at the letter.

"Well, do I have to kill him?" Ginny asked, cracking her fingers.

George raised an eyebrow, stood up, and said, "Fred, I think that's our cue to leave. Ginny's got her 'mum-face' on."

Fred shrugged and piled scrambled eggs onto his plate. "Sounds like that's an issue for another brother. I reckon we're safe for now…"

George watched Poppy for a minute as she reread the letter, and then joined Fred in piling pancakes onto his plate, seemingly satisfied that he wouldn't feel Ginny's wrath.

Ginny read over Poppy's shoulder and then squeaked. "A bed? Did you two…?"

Poppy stared at Ginny indignantly. "No," she said firmly.

Ginny shrugged. "Esther just told me that you were mad at Charlie because he was acting weird since he thought you had a boyfriend."

"She did?" Poppy asked. "She didn't say anything else?"

She'd assumed that Esther had explained that Poppy liked Charlie. She made a mental note to do something nice for her friend as a thank you for keeping this one a secret.

"No," Ginny replied. "Should she have?"

Poppy shook her head. "Just curious," she explained. She turned back to the letter and pursed her lips. "We fell asleep reading a book. It was all fine at the time… Merlin, I mean, nothing happened, and I checked if it was okay if I stayed… why would he be weird about it? Should I feel weird about it?" she asked out loud, muttering to herself. She'd thought they were on the same page…

Ginny sighed deeply and nudged her shoulder to get her attention. "Okay… so… well, I think you should know that Charlie has a bit of a thing for you."

"What?" George asked, his fork clattering to his plate. Fred looked just as shocked, and Poppy wrinkled her nose in disgust when his mouth dropped open to reveal a load of half-chewed pancake.

Ginny rolled her eyes at her brothers. "You don't have to pretend," she told them, and the boys laughed and picked up their forks while it was Poppy's turn to be shocked.

"You knew about- Wait… what?" Poppy asked, stammering over her words.

"Bit of a hard one to miss, that," Fred replied after swallowing his food.

"I've seen more subtlety from a First Year trying to hide a burnt frog," George added, laughing.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and asked, "What? Why was that so specific? You're so weird."

Poppy's heart was beating so fast now that she had to raise a hand to massage her sternum. "How long have you guys known?" she asked anxiously. She had no idea how to react. When Ginny had said it, she had been shocked, but when the twins had said that it was obvious? How had she missed this so catastrophically?

"Since the summer," George replied, laughing and shaking his head. "Mum's always said Charlie's more interested in dragons than anything or anyone else, but apparently not."

"Well," Ginny said, tugging on Poppy's arm so she'd look at her. "That's why I asked you to be kind to him before. D'you remember? Because Charlie's never really shown an interest in anyone before. Bill thinks that he just needed to see a good friend in a new light. So I think he thought you liked him, acted weirdly over Christmas about it, and has been trying to figure out how to remain your friend ever since because he's embarrassed. But don't worry, it's Charlie. He'll be normal by the time you see him in the summer, and I think mum will have forgotten about all this by then too."

"Summer?" Poppy whispered, trying to process all of this information. She knew that they'd been close over Christmas, but… he'd liked her since the summer? "Wait… what d'you mean your mum would forget? She doesn't like me?"

Fred and George roared with laughter and shook their heads.

"Nah, she likes you," George replied, grinning. "But she thinks you're a bit too young for Charlie."

"Not for Perfect Percy though," Fred replied, winking at Poppy.

"WHAT?" Poppy asked suddenly, her mouth dropping open. "Percy?"

Fred, George and Ginny began to laugh, but Ginny, seeing the genuinely horrified expression on Poppy's face, recovered quickly. "I'm sorry, it was just funny seeing Charlie and Percy trying to fight over you," Ginny explained quickly.

"How- how didn't you know?" Fred asked, wiping tears from his eyes.

"Well… I mean I missed Charlie's-" Poppy stopped to breathe for a moment. "I missed Charlie's summer crush, didn't I? I was trying to act all cool and collected and basically shot myself in the foot. Oh no, oh poor Percy, he never stood a chance. And poor Charlie!" she whined, hitting her forehead with the palm of her hand.

"It's okay, he'll get over it. He really didn't try anything did he?" Ginny asked in a concerned tone.

Poppy shook her head immediately. "No! He was an absolute gentleman. I had such a good time that I didn't want to leave. He asked if I wanted to get breakfast but I had to say no otherwise I would've been on the next train back to Romania! This is all my fault, not his."

"Okay, then I know it's weird to ask, but if you see him, could you be nice to him about it? He seems really sorry," Ginny said, frowning down at the letter again. "Like he said, he probably just misread the signs."

"Probably because they weren't written with claw marks," Fred said.

"Or have scorches on them," George laughed.

Poppy groaned and put her head on the table. She didn't know how she was going to approach this and still have the headspace to try and do well in her exams.

"Look," she said, raising her head after five long minutes of thinking. "Can you all just ignore this for a bit? Tease me when my NEWTs are done? And I promise, Gin, I'll talk to him after NEWTs, okay? And I'll tell him that now," she said, pulling out a spare piece of parchment and a quill. "I just need to focus on one massive life event at a time, and unfortunately NEWTs are pretty much fixed. And this isn't something I want to do over letter. I need to talk to him in person. I need to tell him how I feel," she muttered the last to herself.

"Speaking of NEWTs… have you seen the timetable yet?" Cass asked, sitting down next to Poppy while Esther slid in next to Fred. "Brutal."

"What?" Poppy moaned, putting her quill down for a moment.

"Worse than OWLs I think," Esther added.

"How?" Poppy asked, leaning forwards to hold out a hand for the parchment Esther was holding.

"They've spread them out. End of May all the way to the middle of June," Esther said, handing the schedule over.

"What?" Poppy asked, reading over the words and numbers on the parchment.

"That's bad?" Ginny asked, pausing with a forkful of scrambled eggs halfway to her mouth.

Poppy let out a whine. "Yes. Look," she said, pointing at a line near the top of the page. "My first one's on the twenty-ninth of May and my last is on the sixteenth of June. That's three weeks of stress."

"With OWLs you get them out of the way in a two week block, and there are tons of exams in that time. It means you don't have the time or energy to overthink," Cass explained to Ginny.

"Well, not much we can do apart from preparing, is there?" Esther asked, leaning her elbows on the table. "How long's left?"

"About four weeks," Poppy replied. "Yeah. 'bout four and a half weeks. That's not too bad actually," she said, the shock wearing off now. "Sorry, I've had a lot of news in the past few minutes..."

Esther waved her hand. "You're fine. Frank was in tears out there. Sprout sent him to the hospital wing for a good lie down and a calming potion."