Chapter 13: A Birthday
"So, then what happened?" Grace asked Poppy the next day. They were sitting on a window-sill by the courtyard as it was the quietest place they had found. Poppy didn't want any extra ears hearing her story. She had already explained what happened on the pitch and had just moved on to the locker room.
"He kissed me," Poppy said.
"WHAT?" Grace shrieked ear-splittingly loud. "Weren't you naked?"
"I was wearing a towel," Poppy said. "Why is that important?"
"Details are everything. How was it?"
"It was... Pretty great."
"You finally had your first kiss, I'm so happy!"
Grace was beaming like a proud mother as she hugged Poppy. "And then?"
"We sort of stared at each other and he mumbled he should go... And he did."
"Are you sure you did it right? Whenever I kiss somebody they don't just get up and leave seconds after."
Poppy punched Grace's arm.
"Hey, ow!" Grace cried out.
"What do I do now?"
"I wish I knew. Do you think he'll remember your birthday?"
"Doubt it."
Today was Poppy's fifteenth birthday. Grace had bought her a book about Quidditch, 'Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland', that Poppy had been admiring in a mail-order catalog. It was a great gift, Poppy thought. Oliver had gotten her tickets to go see the Falmouth Falcons next summer and Poppy was super excited for it. Oliver's birthday had been just two weeks earlier and Poppy now felt bad, having gotten him only hand-knit mittens.
Poppy hadn't seen Marcus all day. He wasn't at breakfast and he didn't show up for lunch, either. It wasn't until supper that he appeared but didn't sit next to Poppy. The Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw game would be played tomorrow and all week Marcus had been thinking about how it would affect Slytherin if Hufflepuff would win again, though he didn't think it was likely. Poppy thought maybe he was just preoccupied with Quidditch or maybe he just didn't want to think about the kiss. Maybe she had been bad at it.
After supper, Poppy was walking alone to the dungeons when somebody grabbed her, pulling her into a broom closet. She was about to scream when she saw it was Marcus. The closet was tiny, cramped with cleaning supplies, and they were standing right next to each other. He smelled nice, she noted.
"Sorry," Marcus said. "Didn't mean to scare you."
"Am I a bad kisser?" Poppy blurted out.
"What?" Marcus asked, surprised.
"Is that why you've been avoiding me?"
"What? I haven't... Well, if I have, it wasn't because of that. The kiss was bloody perfect."
"Oh."
"It was just... I don't think it should happen again."
Poppy, expecting him to say something completely different, didn't know how to respond.
"Anyway, I wanted to wish you a happy birthday," Marcus said and pulled out a huge gift from behind his back. It was wrapped in silver paper with an emerald green ribbon. Slytherin colours, typical Marcus. He handed it to Poppy, who was even more speechless now. "Open it."
She opened the beautifully wrapped box only to find it contained the exact, huge chocolate bar she had admired at Honeydukes a month ago.
"You said you wanted someone to buy you things from Honeydukes," he explained.
"I love it, you shouldn't have," Poppy said. "But why are we in a cupboard?"
"Trying to be considerate of you, for once. Thought you might not want to be seen with me, so nobody gets the wrong idea. And, I think maybe, considering your brother, we should just be friends," Marcus said.
"Since when do you care what Oliver thinks?" Poppy asked, pouting her lips. This was not going the way she had imagined at all.
"I don't, but you do. The kiss was great, but I don't want to come between you two. He is your only family."
"He would just have to deal with it."
"And if he can't, you'll have to make a choice and you would choose him, as you should. Trust me, it's best if we just stay friends."
Poppy wasn't pleased but knew he was mostly right, so she agreed. She wasn't sure how their friendship would work from now on, but decided to try it anyway. Was she supposed to forget the kiss, forget her feelings? How could she?
After breakfast the next morning, Hufflepuff played against Ravenclaw and it was apparent their latest victory had an effect on the Hufflepuffs' confidence. They were so confident, in fact, that they clearly thought winning wouldn't require much of an effort. Ravenclaw completely flattened Hufflepuff and won the game. Marcus said to Poppy that they had nothing to worry about and that the Ravenclaws won just because they were slightly less weak than the Hufflepuffs. The next game would be Slytherin against Ravenclaw but it wouldn't be played until after Christmas.
Grace caught up to Poppy after the game. She was just walking next to Marcus when Grace grabbed her coat and quickly pulled her aside.
"Sorry, I need her!" Grace yelped at Marcus who was left standing there, completely dumbfounded. Grace dragged Poppy a little further from the crowd heading towards the castle before finally letting go.
"What now?" Poppy asked. "What is so important you had to pull me away from-"
"From Flint?" Grace asked and raised an eyebrow.
"No, from the line of students all heading inside where it's nice and warm," Poppy said, annoyed.
"So, tell me, what's been happening?" Grace asked excitedly.
"He gave me chocolate for my birthday, said we should just be friends and told me I'm a great kisser," Poppy said. "To sum it up."
"Really? You were pretty snuggly during the game," Grace remarked.
"I was cold, he was warming me," Poppy said, and felt a twinge of guilt, as if she was lying to Grace. It had been a very cold, windy day, and Poppy and Marcus had sat huddled up against each other for warmth and in that moment, Poppy didn't think it meant anything, but now she wasn't so sure.
"Alright, if you say so."
At supper that night, McGonagall gathered the names of students staying at Hogwarts for Christmas and both Poppy and Marcus were staying. Oliver was going to London and said he had some important matters to tend to. Grace was going to spend Christmas with her family and even invited Poppy along but, as always, she declined. Christmas at Hogwarts was always the highlight of her school year and she couldn't possibly miss out on it.
Next morning, Grace came over to the Slytherin table at breakfast and squeezed herself between Poppy and Marcus. Marcus looked at her a little funny but didn't say anything. As Grace rambled on, he kept eating his breakfast with slight amusement.
"You'll never believe what happened last night!" Grace exclaimed to Poppy.
"I'm sure it's no more unbelievable than your other stories," Poppy said, noticing Marcus smiling a bit.
"So, Cedric was bummed out about the loss and I tried cheering him up," Grace said. "And one thing led to another and we ended up snogging on his bed!"
Grace wasn't exactly speaking quietly so quite a few Slytherins raised an eyebrow while at the same time trying to look as if they weren't listening.
"That's... Great?" Poppy said with uncertainty.
"Well, I think so. Hey, you're a man," Grace said, turning to Marcus.
"Apparently," Marcus replied.
"Do you think he kissed me just because he was sad or is there something more?"
"Considering it's Diggory we're talking about, he's not the type to just snog you and toss you away."
"Are you?" Grace asked with a snarky tone.
"Grace!" Poppy exclaimed, shocked. Grace had always been direct but this was a whole new level of rude.
"It's fine, Poppy," Marcus said and turned to Grace. "When it comes to women, me and Diggory are not all that different, believe it or not. But I believe he's the one you should be talking to."
"You might be right," Grace said, getting up. "But just so you know, I'm watching you."
Poppy rolled her eyes at her friend while Marcus laughed slightly.
"So, there's a party next Saturday," he began as Grace left to go back to her own table.
"What?"
"A party. A Christmas type thing. And I was wondering if you'd want to go," Marcus continued.
"With you?" Poppy asked.
"Yes, as my friend."
Poppy agreed but Marcus wouldn't give her any more details of the party except that it wouldn't be all Slytherins. Poppy was quite puzzled as she hadn't know there were any inter-house parties at Hogwarts but at the same time she was rather excited.
Later that day, Poppy met up with Grace.
"I just love Christmas, don't you?" Grace exclaimed as the two girls were walking down the hall and saw Hagrid and Filch putting up the last of the Christmas decorations.
"You say that about everything. A few weeks from now and you'll just love New Year's and then you'll love Easter and it goes on and on..." Poppy pointed out. It was true, Grace had a soft spot for every holiday imaginable.
"You forgot about Valentine's Day," Grace said.
"Speaking of that, what's happening with you and Cedric?" Poppy asked.
"He invited me to some Christmas party next Saturday," Grace said. "I don't know what it is, exactly."
"Well, Marcus invited me. I know as much as you do."
"Wait, Poppy, how are you going to tell Oliver you're going to a party with Flint?"
"Why would I tell him?"
"He might be invited."
Poppy stopped dead in her tracks. She hadn't even thought of that. Of course Oliver would be invited, why wouldn't he be? Marcus was invited, so was Cedric, and Oliver wasn't exactly unpopular. But the more she thought about it, she realized he wasn't exactly the party-going kind either.
"He won't go," she said finally. "He doesn't go to parties."
"Well, you don't know that," Grace said. "He doesn't tell you everything, you know that."
"Well, I'm not even going with Marcus. He's just bringing me along as a friend," Poppy said.
"How is that going? The friendship?"
"It's confusing. We kissed, then he says he wants to kiss me again but that we should just be friends for Oliver's sake. Why does he care?"
"He cares about you, not Oliver."
"I know. It's just annoying. He should stop caring so damn much."
Poppy spent the next few days studying and trying to catch up with all of her assignments. Teachers seemed to be piling on more and more of them right before the holidays. She also had her last Quidditch practice for the year. It was freezing and for once Marcus was fair and didn't have the team out in the cold for hours on end. Afterwards Poppy and Marcus enjoyed some hot cocoa with their supper. Marcus said he would have preferred to have his with a splash of firewhiskey.
On Friday, the day before the party, Poppy was nervous and she knew exactly why. She wasn't nervous about the party, she was actually excited to get to attend something with her friends. It seemed as though it would be more fun than a strictly Slytherins-only type of gathering. She was just a bit troubled about the fact she was going with Marcus. He had said they were going as friends but these days Poppy didn't know what those words meant anymore. Would there be dancing? Would Marcus ask Poppy to dance or would he find some other girl to have fun with in an attempt to move on? Should Poppy try to move on with someone else? Mostly she was worried her brain might explode before the party even began.
Grace was helping Poppy pick out what to wear tomorrow. She wasn't allowed in the Slytherin dorms so Poppy had lugged some of her clothes to the nearest girls bathroom and was trying them on. Grace was a bit anxious to be going with Cedric as it would be their first actual date. She said so far their one-week-old relationship had been more about snogging than talking.
"Don't get me wrong, he's a great kisser," Grace said. "It's just, I feel as if I can't think of what to say to him and we just end up snogging instead of getting to know each other."
"I never thought I'd see the day when you don't have something to say."
"I know!" Grace exlaimed.
"Do you think there'll be a huge mess if Oliver shows up to this thing?" Poppy asked, worried.
"Maybe. I mean, I know you're just friends and that is what I keep telling people who ask me but I don't know if they believe me."
"People ask you if we're a couple?"
This was new information to Poppy. Sure, they had been getting some looks from people and she knew the Slytherins liked to rumor about them a bit but she didn't know it was becoming widespread.
"All the time. Personally, I think you would be good together."
"You can tell that to Oliver."
"I could but I choose not to. I don't want him to hate me as much as he hates Flint."