Chapter 6: The Rumor
The very next day was a beautiful yet rainy Saturday that began exactly as any other. Poppy noticed the girls in her dormitory staring at her a little more than usual but they didn't say anything. They sometimes made fun of Poppy's clothes or mocked the way her hair looked but most of the time they would just laugh at her behind her back. This morning was no exception as they glared at Poppy, sharing glances between each other and trying to stifle their laughter.
The girls in her dorm, Becky, Victoria and Mary, were all purebloods (and proud of it) and were all related to one another by some distant cousin or something. Poppy didn't usually mind them and just let everything slide. They hated being ignored. Usually they left her alone but a few times a month, they would start up about her clothes, hair or anything, really, just to get a reaction from Poppy. She didn't want to give them the satisfaction.
As Poppy made her way towards The Great Hall for breakfast, she noticed a lot of students whispering and pointing at her, some of them laughing. And it wasn't just Slytherins, all the houses seemed to be in on the joke.
The Great Hall was already packed with students and they were making a lot of noise. Poppy noticed many of them looking at her. Before sitting down, she noticed Grace across the hall, waving her over. Poppy headed for the Hufflepuff table, where she saw many friendly faces, though a lot of them looked worried for some reason. Grace got up and hurried Poppy to the side. She didn't look quite her happy self today.
"There's a rumor. About you," Grace stated.
"That explains it, everyone's been looking at me funny all morning," Poppy said. It wasn't anything new, there had been rumors about her before and it was always something stupid and quickly forgotten, so she wasn't worried. Students would soon move on to something and someone else.
"It's sort of a serious one this time," Grace said rather morbidly. Usually the two of them would laugh at whatever was being said about them.
"Well, what is it?" Poppy asked, impatient.
"Poppy, people are saying you had sex with Flint for a spot on the team. And that you're still doing it," Grace responded.
"WHAT?" Poppy exclaimed, it was the only thing she could think of to say in the situation. It seemed ridiculous, who would believe that? She had never even been kissed and suddenly everyone believed she was having sex! "That's... Ridiculous."
"Yep, I know," Grace said. "I already told everybody in Hufflepuff it's not true and if anyone spreads this rumor, they'll have me to answer to."
"Who told you?" Poppy asked. She wanted to know who had started it. She suspected the girls in her dormitory might have been behind it.
"Uh, I overheard some Ravenclaws talking about it earlier. They said they heard from Roger Davies who heard it from someone on his team who heard it from his Slytherin girlfriend who heard it from..." Grace hesitated.
"Who? Was it Victoria?" Poppy asked when a horrible thought popped in her head. "Oh, Grace, don't tell me it was Flint himself!"
"No, no, course not. It was Draco Malfoy," Grace said and quickly added, "but don't go punch him or anything, you'll get in trouble."
"Why does everyone think I'll punch Malfoy?" Poppy questioned.
"Everyone?" Grace asked, confused.
"Never mind, I have to go eat something before I can even process this information," Poppy said and headed for her table.
Students were whispering when she arrived and sat down. Draco Malfoy looked even more smug than usual and her roommates looked both disgusted and overwhelmingly happy. Everybody fell quiet, turning their heads towards the door. Quietly they began whispering again. Poppy's eyes were fixated on the plate in front of her, she was wondering if a chocolate muffin would be a good breakfast. Suddenly someone was standing next to her.
"Is this seat taken?" Flint asked. Poppy lifted her head and saw he was smiling. She looked across the table and saw everyone staring but Flint didn't seem to notice.
"I'll take that silence as a yes," Flint said and sat down next to her.
"Um, yeah, it's fine," Poppy muttered.
"How's the happy couple doing this fine morning?" Becky asked from across the table, flicking her long black hair.
"What?" Flint asked, completely confused. "What the hell are you talking about? And who are you?"
Neither Becky nor Poppy had a chance to provide Flint with answers as somebody swooped in and in a flash Flint was on the floor. After the initial shock of Flint disappearing, Poppy noticed he was now pinned down on the floor under Oliver, who was punching Flint's face to a bloody pulp.
"How dare you do that to my sister?" Oliver shouted.
"Ollie!" Poppy screamed. "Get off him!"
But it didn't help. Other students had rushed to see what was happening and some Gryffindors were cheering Oliver on. Cedric Diggory emerged from the crowd to try to pull the two apart but was pushed back by Oliver. Suddenly Oliver was floating in mid-air and everyone saw the teachers had finally arrived. The whole fight couldn't have lasted more than a minute. Flint was lying on the floor, it didn't seem as though he had fought back much as Oliver was practically undamaged.
Dumbledore lowered his hand quickly and Oliver dropped to the floor with a thud. Dumbledore whispered something to professors McGonagall and Snape. McGonagall asked Oliver to come with her as Snape helped Flint off the floor.
"Ms. Wood," Snape said, turning to Poppy. "I think we might also need you."
They exited the Great Hall and Dumbledore quickly followed. Oliver, Poppy and Flint followed the professors to the nearest classroom where they were told to sit down. Flint's left eye was barely open as it had swollen so much and his lips were bloody. He hadn't said a word yet and neither had Oliver.
Dumbledore sat behind the professor's desk. He looked disappointed more than anything, Dumbledore was rarely angry. McGonagall's lips were tightly pursed together and Snape's face was red, as if he was trying hard not to yell from the top of his lungs.
"So," Dumbledore spoke. "What happened? Mr. Wood?"
"Ask Flint," Oliver snapped.
"Well, Mr. Flint, can you tell me what happened?" Dumbledore asked and turned to face Flint.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Flint answered and proceeded to wipe some of the blood on his sleeve. "I was just sitting there, trying to enjoy my breakfast when he attacked me."
"Liar", Oliver muttered. "I know what you've done."
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Flint asked, puzzled. He spit out a broken tooth. Snape glared at Oliver.
"Ms. Wood, do you know what happened since these two idiots clearly don't?" Snape asked Poppy. She looked down at her feet.
"There's this rumor," Poppy said' fiddling with her thumbs. She was embarrassed to have to talk to her professors about this. "That I got on the Quidditch team because I... Um, how should I put this? Because I, uh, shared my bed with Flint."
McGonagall gasped, Snape's eye twitched and Flint looked as shocked as he possibly could with his swollen and bloody face. It seemed clear he had never heard this before.
"Which I didn't," Poppy added quickly. "And the rumor got around and I guess somebody told Oliver and he decided to beat up Flint."
"Is this true, Mr. Wood?" McGonagall asked.
"Actually, the version I heard was a bit different and I think it might be true," Oliver said. "I was told Flint was going around saying Poppy had... Done that with him... And that she still does it and that's why he keeps her on the team. Obviously I don't think Poppy would ever do it but Flint is the kind of person to say she had."
"No!" Flint shouted and got up from his chair so fast the chair fell down. "Absolutely not, never!"
Oliver also got up and was walking towards Flint when Flint grabbed Oliver's collar and ran him to the wall.
"I don't care if you think I'm a troll or laugh at me behind my back," Flint said through his teeth. "I'm not trying to be your friend but I'm not trying to be your mortal enemy either, I try and save that for the pitch. Spreading rumors about your little sister would be a great way to get myself killed and I'm not quite so dumb."
Snape pulled Flint away and made them both sit down. Poppy explained that from what she'd heard, it had apparently been Draco Malfoy's rumor. Oliver was given two weeks of detention and Flint was given one. McGonagall told Flint to go to the hospital wing and decided it would be best if Oliver went later that day if he needed to. Oliver headed towards the Gryffindor common room but since the hospital wing was in the same direction as the Slytherin common room, Poppy and Flint had to walk down the same hall.
"I'm really sorry," Poppy said. "About Oliver. He's a bit overprotective."
"It's fine," Flint mumbled.
They arrived at the staircase leading to the dungeons.
"I guess this is where we part ways," Flint said.
"I can come with you, if you want," Poppy offered.
"It's fine, you don't have to," Flint said.
And he left. Poppy quietly muttered goodbye and headed down the staircase. It had certainly been an eventful morning so far.
Arriving in her dormitory, she found Mary, Victoria and Becky all sitting on Mary's bed, as if they'd been waiting for her.
"How did it go? Did the professors believe you're still an innocent teacher's pet?" Becky asked with a snarky tone.
"Shut up, Becky," Poppy snapped.
"So it's true! Because we weren't quite sure but I told people, look who we're talking about, of course it's true," Victoria said.
"Since you surely won't take my word for it, you can just go ask Flint and he'll tell you the truth," Poppy said with a sigh.
"You think he would stand up for you? These kinds of rumors, true or not, only make him look better," Mary said.
"Oh, I guess you're right," Poppy said with a fake frown. Mary scoffed.
Poppy gathered some books, got her bag and headed to the library to study. She thought it might be the only place where nobody would talk to her and even if they talked about her, it was the library and they'd have to be quiet. Poppy was sure Oliver had told all the Gryffindors the rumor wasn't true but the rest of the school probably still thought they were and Poppy wasn't counting on the Gryffindors even believing Oliver. She even got dirty looks from a few Hufflepuffs as she entered the library.
Poppy sighed and got to work. She tried to block all the stares and whispers by delving into her Defense Against the Dark Arts course work. By midday, as Poppy snapped out of her study trance, it seemed as if people were still talking about her and Flint. Clearly this wasn't one of those rumors that are quickly forgotten.
Deciding she needed a break from everything, Poppy made her way back to the Slytherin common room, where she found Flint sitting by himself. He was reading a book. Poppy recognized it as the seventh year Herbology book, as she had browsed through Oliver's copy of it out of sheer interest before the beginning of the school year. Poppy sat down on the couch opposite the one Flint was sitting on.
"That's a good book," Poppy said and Flint looked up, clearly surprised to see her there, as if he had not heard her come in.
"It's alright, I guess," Flint answered.
"Do you like Herbology?" Poppy asked, trying to stir up conversation. She remembered how professor Sprout had asked Flint about borrowing her books.
"It's alright," Flint said.
They sat in silence for awhile with Flint reading his book and Poppy desperately trying to think of something to say.
"I've noticed people are still talking about us," Poppy finally said.
"Alright," Flint answered without even looking up from his book.
Silence again. Flint had been rather nice to her the past few days, Poppy couldn't understand what was going on.
"Are you mad at me or something?" Poppy asked.
"Why would I be?" Flint asked, now slightly raising an eye.
"You're kind of acting as if you're mad at me," Poppy remarked. Flint looked up and looked at Poppy with his usual stern expression that made first year students cry.
"I'm not mad at you but I'm still not your friend either," Flint said. "We have practice tomorrow, don't be late."
"No, that's not enough," Poppy argued. "You were all smiles and happiness this morning, what changed?"
"Perhaps the fact that the exact instant I was nice to you, this happened," Flint answered, motioning to his face. "Also, I was accused of many things I wouldn't want anybody to think true. So, you can probably understand why I'm not jumping up at the chance to be your friend. So far you've been nothing but trouble."
Poppy was stunned. Flint got up and walked to his dormitory.
"Practice, tomorrow. If you're late, you're out," he said on his way out.
Poppy wasn't too excited for practice. She was sure one of her lovely team mates was going to kill, or at least seriously injure her. Tomorrow was going to be a great day.