Voices flittered in and out for a long time. But she had no concept of how long.

She woke at one point, her vision blurred and her mind hazy. She blinked once, twice, and then she was asleep again.

Again, she woke. This time she stayed awake for longer, trying to figure out where she was. Trying to figure out if anyone was coming for her. Coming to help.

But she was alone. No sounds. No footsteps.

Her head pounded, making her feel nauseous.

She didn't know if she decided to go back to sleep or if her injuries made her.

Then raised voices pulled her from her unconscious state again.

They went on for a while, calling, shouting, arguing over each other.

They were asking where Harry was.

She concentrated on them, and used their words to pull her out of her haziness.

She listened for a while, opening her eyes and looking around, and then there was even more of a commotion, and then silence. Poppy must have fallen asleep, because the silence was suddenly broken again by even more raised voices.

Finally, Poppy began to register some of what they were saying.

"You-Know-Who - back?"

A growl… Poppy was unsure what was going on - dogs weren't allowed at Hogwarts, were they?

She slowly opened her eyes, wincing even in the dark light of the dimly lit room.

She blinked again, and breathed deeply, trying to focus on where she was.

The Hospital Wing, she concluded, noticing the arched ceilings and feeling the starched sheets underneath her hands.

"You are prepared to believe…" a man said, his voice raising and lowering enough that Poppy could only hear some of his words now. "-on the word of a lunatic murderer, and-"

Moody.

Poppy's eyes widened and she sat up, instantly regretting the movement - her head pounded, and she reached a hand up to her forehead. She traced her fingers over the bandage she found there.

She looked down and saw that she was now dressed in a pair of pyjamas, rather than her robes. She was surrounded by privacy curtains, keeping her from being seen, and seeing outside.

"A Parselmouth, eh?"

Poppy frowned and tried to swing her legs round. She struggled to push off the covers, feeling extremely weak.

"Harry is as sane as you or I-"

Dumbledore.

Poppy struggled more now - she needed to tell Dumbledore about Moody. She thought… she thought it was him at least…

"Look, I saw Voldemort come back!"

Poppy's eyes widened and she stilled, listening properly now, her senses returning quickly due to the adrenaline, her breathing increasing.

She looked for her wand, turning to the bedside table.

She began to shuffle quietly towards it as Harry and the unknown man shouted over each other, naming names and refuting them.

"Avery - Nott - Crabbe - Goyle."

She knew those names… she knew some of them at least. She'd heard those names around the school. Slytherins. Death Eaters? Already? Voldemort?

She clasped her hands to her forehead and tried to concentrate.

No… not the kids… their parents.

But Voldemort couldn't be back… he just couldn't. She'd read about him. She'd read about the night Harry had stopped him…

But here she was, listening to Harry shouting that he was back.

She managed to loosen her bedsheets and tore them away from the bed, freeing her legs.

"You fool!" shouted Professor McGonagall. "Cedric Diggory! Mr Fudge! These-"

Wait… Cedric? He's-? No… stop. Wand first.

Poppy panted now with the exertion of reaching for her wand. She tuned out the conversation, pouring her efforts into grabbing at it.

Finally, her fingertips brushed the wood and she sighed.

"Voldemort has returned." Dumbledore stated, and Poppy knew now that it was all true. If Dumbledore said that it was, then it was.

She sat upright again, listening to the conversation, barely keeping up - Death Eaters. Dementors. Voldemort. Fudge. Giants.

Giants?

It was unbelievable, what she was hearing.

But she had a strong feeling that what Dumbledore and Harry was saying was true. She listened and listened, her mind coming back with every word. Her strength coming back.

"There," said… Snape. Snape? "The Dark Mark."

Poppy's eyes bugged and she slowly lowered her feet to the ground, being careful to not to make a sound.

"Every Death Eater had the sign burnt into him by the Dark Lord. It was a means of distinguishing each other, and his means of summoning us to him," Snape continued.

Poppy stepped closer to the curtains which were drawn around her bed. She could just see through a gap. There, Snape was showing his forearm to Fudge. She swayed and caught herself on the side of the bed.

"Karkaroff?" she whispered to herself, blinking slowly.

She took the time to let the blood rush back into her legs, feeling the shakiness reduce.

The voices fell to a level Poppy couldn't hear anymore and she waited, standing by the curtains.

Finally, the door slammed and Poppy knew that the antagonist… Fudge, she presumed… had gone.

She gulped and slowly moved the curtain back just a few inches, revealing the group of witches and wizards to her properly - Hermione, Ron, Harry (who was lying in a bed), Bill, Mrs Weasley, Professors McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore, and… a dog?

"Molly? Am I right in thinking that I can count on you and Arthur?" Dumbledore asked Mrs Weasley.

Poppy listened as they made plans to speak to Arthur, and then Bill was on his way out of the Hospital Wing.

Now that she was standing there, listening, she wanted to help. She wanted to do something, anything to help.

But she didn't know how to announce that she was there, especially because they were now talking about Hagrid and Madame Maxime… and House Elves?

She was lost for a long moment, and swayed slightly, just stopping herself from falling over.

She thought she'd gone mad when the dog turned into…

Oh my god, she thought, when the dog turned into Sirius Black.

She acted on instinct and when Mrs Weasley cried out and stepped backwards, Poppy lunged forwards and held her wand up to the Black's throat.

He looked just as surprised as she was, and simply raised his hands, stared at her, and let out a laugh.

"Poppy! No! It's okay!" Hermione shrieked, pulling on Poppy's arm.

"Him!" Snape snarled, and Black glared back at Snape.

Poppy lowered her wand immediately. She felt even more foolish when Dumbledore held up his hand to stop her.

"He is here at my invitation," Dumbledore said.

Poppy stepped back and listened to the rest, and watched as Black and Snape shook hands.

And then Dumbledore was ordering Black to alert people - Lupin… Lupin? Poppy frowned at Hermione. Black and Lupin knew each other?

Black turned into a dog again and left, and then Snape was leaving as well.

"Why did you stop?" Hermione asked Poppy when all of the others fell into silence.

"Snape has the Dark Mark. He said so himself. If Snape reacted like that then he and Black aren't friends. And why would Harry be willing to have Black in his room if he didn't trust him? I… I'm going to need to understand why though… or… or how he's trustworthy… if I'm allowed to know."

She looked at Dumbledore, who was silent, and then back at Hermione.

"Why am I here?" she asked, her eyes moving out of focus for a moment. She sat down heavily in a chair.

"You uh… you fell down some stairs," Hermione admitted in a whisper. It seemed as though there was even more going on here, and that they were frustrated that Poppy was there.

"No," Poppy said, frowning. And then she remembered the clunks, the spell... "Professor," she said urgently to Dumbledore. "Professor Moody. I think he attacked me."

Dumbledore raised his eyes, his gaze harsh and unwavering. "And why do you think that?"

"I went to see him when I got my letter for the Auror programme. There were weird noises coming from his office, but he made excuses and invited me in. I… I took a list of books from him and then… I saw a cauldron. It was full of Polyjuice Potion. And… and his detectors. None of them work properly. And… and this is going to sound ridiculous, but I've had a terrible feeling about him all year. Charles…" She coughed, suddenly conscious that his mother and younger brother were there. "Charlie Weasley told me that I should tell Moody that I didn't trust him. He said his dad said Moody would find it funny. I felt so off when I was talking to him so I told him… he found it funny at first but… I guess I picked the wrong time."

She explained about the Owlery and what had happened, and then they fell into silence for many minutes, and Mrs Weasley moved to Poppy's side and squeezed her shoulder. Then she moved back to Harry.

Without replying to what Poppy had said, Dumbledore bade his leave to speak to the Diggorys.

Poppy frowned and looked at Hermione, who avoided her gaze, pulling her away from Harry's bedside and over to the window while Harry and Mrs Weasley shared a moment.

Poppy stumbled and braced herself against the wall. "What happened to Cedric? How long have I been out? Wh-"

Hermione ignored her and lunged, slamming her hand onto something and scooping it up. "Sorry," she whispered to the room at large.

Silence fell then, and Poppy couldn't find it in herself to ask more questions. Not yet at least.

She was led back to her bed by Madam Pomfrey once Harry had been sent to sleep. She took one look at Moody, lying unconscious in his bed, and panicked. So, Mrs Weasley came to her bedside to tearfully explain to her what had happened - that she'd been unconscious for a week… that the tournament was complete… that Cedric had died.

Poppy shrieked and began to gasp. As it was, under normal circumstances she'd have been overwhelmed, destroyed and grief stricken at the news, but with her head as fragile and overloaded as it was… it felt compounded. Overwhelming to the nth degree.

She couldn't regulate her breathing properly so Madam Pomfrey administered a dreamless potion for Poppy as well, and she fell asleep with tears streaming down her face. She didn't know if she whispered it aloud or in her head, but her last thought was, "Charlie." She needed him that much.

Dumbledore came to her after Harry was discharged, and told her that they would need soldiers in the war ahead.

"You want me? Why?" she asked, frowning, moving to sit up more despite the aches in her bones. Dumbledore assisted her, gently moving a pillow to help her sit up more. "Thanks," she muttered.

"Poppy, you saw what I did not," he said, sitting down again. "You are right that Moody - the real Moody - would have been proud if you had told him that you did not trust him. I hope that you will be able to meet him in time, and come to your own conclusions of his character."

"And I know more than I should? Because of what I overheard?"

"And, you know more than you should," he agreed. "Unless you would prefer a memory charm? You would be able to forget everything."

"No," she said, "I need to help. I want to help."

Their chat soon moved on to how she could help, and she quickly explained about her potential employment options for post-Hogwarts.

"Either role would be beneficial to us," he said, smiling once she'd told him of the Gringotts job. She didn't mention Romania. She didn't know if she'd be needed there. "Of course, an Auror would be more so."

"I'll try my hardest," she promised.

"I do not doubt that in the slightest."

And then Dumbledore left and Poppy was visited by her friends. Friends who sat in silence, friends who held her hand, friends who were mourning.

When they finally left, Poppy felt herself relax slightly, and she sank back against the pillows again, staring up at the white ceiling.

"Leave me alone," she called across the wing.

"I didn't say a word," came Moody's deep, rumbling reply.

"You're staring at me."

"How do you know?"

"I'm the only other person in here, and your eye keeps squelching when you look this way," she said, shuddering slightly.

There was silence for a moment and then she heard the noise again. "I said, leave me alone!" she shouted now, sitting up and ignoring the blood rushing quickly to her head, making her feel lightheaded. Despite her vision turning into a haze of grey and black squares, she schooled her features into a glare which she aimed at the general direction of Moody, whose bed was surrounded by white curtains.

The curtains moved back slowly as Poppy's vision came back, and she was confronted with the sight of a malnourished and gaunt looking Moody.

"You don't like me?" he asked.

Poppy blinked, tears fogging her vision. "Everyone told me I should trust you and I got tortured for it. Excuse me if I don't trust you now."

"You don't know me. You know an imposter."

"Yeah, and look how that turned out. I ignored my gut and now I'm here."

"Your gut?"

"I didn't trust him. I ignored that because everyone said I should."

"Do you trust me?"

Poppy thought about it for a moment, and then leant back, reaching for her wand. "I don't get the same feeling from you, but do I trust you? No. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…"

The side of Moody's lips twitched up into a grimace of a smile and Poppy was instantly transported back to the Defence classroom, when the Imposter-Moody had cast the Cruciatus on her and smiled.

She swiped her wand and the curtains near to her moved around her bed, hiding her from view.

"I can still see you."

"But I can't see you. Which was the point," she replied, incredibly uncomfortable.

She spent the next hours staring at the ceiling or reading the same page of a book over and over again. Finally, at around four in the morning, Moody's voice rang out again.

"Go to sleep."

"No," she replied angrily. "I don't know if you'll try to attack me in my sleep."

"Why d'you think I'm not sleeping? I don't know if you'll try and attack me."

"I won't."

"I won't either. So sleep."

"No."

When Madam Pomfrey found them in the morning she was horrified that neither had slept, and quickly tried to feed them both dreamless sleep potions. But Poppy and Moody both refused theirs, maintaining that they couldn't know for sure that the other had definitely drunk theirs.

Madam Pomfrey walked off muttering under her breath.

Hours later, Moody called, "It wasn't me."

Poppy replied, "I know, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to get past the fact that the person with your face tortured me and then attacked me, even if it wasn't you."

"Use it as a learning exercise. Next time you see me, call me Al. If I respond, you know it's me."

"What? What does that mean?"

"First name's Alastor. Most people call me that, or Moody."

"Most people call you Mad-Eye," she quipped.

"That too. Anyone impersonating me will know not to answer to Al. I hate the name. Call me it. If I respond, you'll know it's me."

"Margaret," Poppy replied. "Call me Margaret and I'll know it's you."

"Why?"

"It's my real name."

"What?"

Poppy smiled despite herself. "My parents named me Margaret but everyone called me Peggy or Peg growing up. First day at Hogwarts I was on the train and introduced myself but I was really shy, so some random person misheard it as Poppy, not Peggy, and I went along with it.

"Even after sorting it just stuck and in my first classes, whenever the teachers would ask for Margaret, someone would pipe up and say, 'Her name's Poppy!' and the teacher corrected it every time. So a month into school and I was Poppy. I didn't say anything and then things went downhill at home after my first year and I liked that I had a new name to go by. I legally changed it last year but it sometimes still comes up on legal documents."

"And I thought I was complicated. Right. Al and Margaret… No… Peggy. If anyone sees your legal name they'll call you Margaret. Can't trust it."

Poppy nodded and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"If it makes you feel any better, I knew a Margaret once," he said after a while. "Good woman. Good Auror. Good name. You can trust a Margaret."

"It doesn't," she replied rather harshly.

Moody's laugh rang out across the hospital wing.

They fell into a now comfortable silence which was broken only when the Healers from St. Mungo's came to fetch Moody.