Chapter 12: Revelations
"Why did Oliver punch you?" Poppy asked one morning, at breakfast. "He said you told him something that made him want to punch you. What was it?"
She had been going over the scenario in her head for almost a week straight and had finally realised, that Marcus never told her why Oliver hit him. Replaying the words in her head, she specifically remembered Oliver saying it was the result of something Marcus had said, but he wouldn't say what it was.
"I told you, he said to stay away from you and I said no," Marcus replied, casually.
"No, that can't be it. Oliver wouldn't hit you over that," Poppy argued. It was true, Oliver hated Marcus a lot but would never just hit him over something so small.
Occasionally, while trying to figure out the details, Poppy fiddled on the idea that maybe Marcus had similar feelings for her as she did for him. Grace had been joking about that for a while but Poppy never thought she was too serious and if Marcus did like her, why would he tell Oliver? Surely he wasn't that stupid.
"I also told him he needs to stop trying to run your life," Marcus grumbled. "Now stop asking about it."
There was no use trying to get more information from Marcus. It didn't seem like Oliver to start a fight over small things, usually he had better reasons for punching people, like when he thought Marcus was spreading nasty rumors about Poppy. That was a good reason. Then again, Marcus did have some unique ways of presenting his thoughts and a unique, sometimes vulgar vocabulary. It was possible he had just spoken in a way that pushed Oliver off the edge. He was already tense about Quidditch and his last year of school, and Poppy's friendship with Marcus was not exactly helping him relax.
A week ago, Poppy had hugged Marcus. She regretted it immediately. Marcus was not really the hugging type, though he had hugged back, and she was worried the hug might have sent the wrong message. A message of something more than friendship.
Marcus was munching on a breakfast roll when Poppy interrupted him with a question.
"Do you know anyone who would want to date me?" she asked, in an attempt to make the hug seem meaningless.
"What?" Marcus asked, nearly choking on his roll.
"You know, a boy who would want to take me to Hogsmeade and buy me things from Honeydukes," Poppy said.
"I can do that for you," Marcus replied and quickly added, "I mean, you don't need a boyfriend for that."
"What if I want one?" Poppy asked.
"I'm sure Adrian would love to have another chance," Marcus mumbled, sounding almost angry. "Excuse me."
He left without finishing his breakfast. Poppy sighed. Boys were difficult and she didn't know how to read them. She wanted to know if she was just imagining things, or if Grace was right and Marcus really did fancy Poppy. She decided to do straight to the source of information and approached Grace at the Hufflepuff table.
"I need your help," she said.
"Oh, finally!" Grace said happily. "With what?"
Poppy sat down. Breakfast was nearing its end so there were few students around.
"I need to know, if he likes me," Poppy said and saw a big smile forming onto Grace's face.
"Just ask him, silly!"
"No, I don't want him to know how I feel."
"Oh. I think I have something that could help."
Grace rummaged around in her bag for a while, looking for something. It wasn't an easy feat, since her bag was always messy, filled with things she'd never need but carried with her anyway, just in case.
"Ha, found it!" she exclaimed happily and pulled out an issue of Teen Witches Weekly. On the cover, a blinking headline read 'How To See If He's Bewitched By You'.
"Grace, I don't think that's going to help," Poppy said, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course it will, this is quality journalism!"
She flipped through the magasine to get to the right article. Pictures of a winking young wizard adorned the pages.
"Let's see... Does he smile at you often? Well, that's a big, fat no," Grace said, scanning the article with her eyes. "He doesn't smile at anyone."
"That's... Sort of true."
"When you speak, does he look like he's actually listening and understanding?" Grace asked.
Poppy shrugged.
"Okay, another no. Blah, blah, blah... Does he try to find reasons to touch you... Probably not... Is he nervous around you?" Grace rambled, reading parts of the article out loud.
"Well, no," Poppy answered.
"Does he gently tease you? YES! He did do that! We got one!" Grace exclaimed happily.
"Great. So far, it seems he's not interested."
"There's one thing in here you could try," Grace said. "You could flirt with him and see how he reacts."
"I don't know how to flirt!" Poppy gasped.
"Right, that's true. Just compliment him on something. Tell him he smells nice. Touch his arm, they like that. Try to be subtle, though I know you can't, but try anyway."
It was easy for Grace to say, these things came so naturally to her, and she had two older sisters from whom she'd learned how to act around boys and how to do girly things. Poppy was sure it would be a huge mistake but at lunch, she decided to put her flirting skills to the test. Marcus was sitting right next to her and students around them were chatting away. It was the perfect moment.
"So, how were your classes?" she asked, looking him in the eye, as she placed her hand on his arm. He looked down at it and then up at her with a slight scowl, before pulling his arm away.
"Boring," he muttered.
So far, his level of interest appeared to be at a zero as physical contact was completely rejected.
"We have practice later, right?" Poppy asked.
"Yes," Marcus replied.
"You always smell so good after practice," Poppy said, trying to sound confident and alluring, though feeling nothing of the sorts.
Marcus turned to look at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. His eyebrows furrowed.
"Have you been drinking?" he asked.
"What? No!" Poppy said. This was going so well. It was time for one last attempt, something she had seen Grace do a hundred times and it always seemed to work. Poppy, who wasn't wearing a robe over her uniform, slowly arched her back, pushing out her chest, and threw her head back, running her fingers through her hair. She heard a whistle from across the table, probably Montague, but Marcus did not seem interested. He was looking at Poppy almost deadpan, with just a hint of anger.
"Is that how you'll find yourself a boyfriend?" he muttered, quickly leaving the table, and Poppy more confused than ever. The magasine had not said anything about a boy getting angry when flirted with. Poppy took that as a bad sign.
Later in the day, the Slytherins had Quidditch practice. It was almost the end of November and it had been raining since the last Quidditch match. The team was groaning about having to practice in such horrible weather but Marcus didn't seem to care. They were out on the pitch for at least two hours but to Poppy it felt five times as long. The rain was coming down so hard it was difficult to see ahead and the wind was almost knocking players off brooms.
Marcus signalled and the team landed.
"Everyone else can go but I think Wood could use a little more practice!" he shouted to be heard over the rain.
"What? Me? What about Malfoy? He's not exactly seeker of the year!" Poppy shouted back and saw Malfoy smirking, as the rest of the team headed for the locker room.
"You were fine," Marcus said, moving closer to her. "I just wanted to get you alone for a minute."
Poppy froze as Marcus kept inching in closer and closer. What was he talking about? Why was he getting so close, had the flirting actually worked? He stood barely an inch from her and leaned in to her ear. She felt his breath and shivered.
"I don't appreciate being made fun of," he whispered before turning and walking away.
"Wh-what?" Poppy stuttered and ran after him. She grabbed his arm to turn him around. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not stupid, I get it. You think I fancy you and you wanted to tease me about it," Marcus said and continued walking away.
"No, that's not what I meant!" Poppy shouted, following him.
They reached the locker room where Marcus found some towels. The rest of the team was already gone.
"You should probably get out of those clothes or this towel won't be much help," Marcus said and Poppy raised an eyebrow. "I won't watch or anything."
He disappeared behind the corner, to the showers. Poppy took off the clothes she had worn for practice and was just now realizing how cold and drenched she actually was.
"Are you decent in there?" Marcus shouted after a while and Poppy replied, "Yes."
Marcus walked back to the locker room and he was only wearing a towel around his waist. This wasn't an unusual sight to Poppy as Marcus walked around with just a towel on all the time after practice. She sometimes thought he would probably walk around naked if she wasn't on the team and it would be all boys. She was sitting on the bench, wearing a towel around her and another one in her hair. Marcus sat next to her.
"Are you mad?" Poppy asked.
"A little," Marcus said with a stern face.
"I wasn't trying to make fun of you. I just wanted to know how you feel about me," Poppy tried to explain.
"You could have just asked."
"I didn't want to ruin our friendship."
"You want to know how I feel?"
Poppy nodded. Marcus looked as if he was hesitating for a moment but then grabbed Poppy's bare shoulders, pulling her closer. And he kissed her. It wasn't just a light peck, no, this was a full-on, passionate snog. Poppy's first kiss. It felt good, better than she had ever imagined. Though, nothing about her first kiss was how she'd expected. She was half naked, with Marcus Flint, in the changing room of the Quidditch pitch. Grace was going to have a fit over this.
The kiss must have lasted for minutes. Poppy didn't try to pull away, instead she tried to reciprocate, not knowing if she was even doing it right. Marcus finally pulled away and let go of Poppy's shoulders.
"So, uh, that's how I feel," Marcus said, after a moment of silence.
"Right, yeah, good," Poppy said. She couldn't think of anything else.
"How do you feel?" he asked.
"You know, pretty much the same," she replied. He simply nodded. Neither of them knew what to say, or do, next.