Chapter 18: (Almost) Everyone Is Happy

The next morning, Poppy woke up in Marcus's bed. She faintly remembered him placing her there and as she opened her eyes, she saw him sitting on the next bed over. Last night had been crazy, she had lost control completely and quickly regretted it.

"Morning," she said, sliding out from under the covers. She sat up on the bed with her legs crossed.

"We need to talk," he said.

Poppy agreed. She was ready to apologize for acting so stupid, for being unfair towards him. She didn't think it was right of her to start kissing him, when they had agreed to just be friends. Hurting him was the last thing she wanted to do and she feared she had done just that. She didn't have a chance to say any of this, as Marcus did all the talking.

"I can't do this anymore," he said.

"What?" Poppy said, weakly.

"I can't be your friend. We're done."

"W-what? Wh-why?" Her eyes were welling up.

"You need to get over me," he said, his voice breaking only a little. "Stop feeling guilty about everything. You've done nothing wrong."

He left the room without so much as a goodbye. Poppy sat in silence for awhile, her eyes wide and mouth open with shock. Tears streamed down her face but she was completely silent, motionless. When she felt she could finally move again after what seemed like hours, she wrote a letter to Grace, letting her know what had happened, in a nutshell.

Dear Grace,

Marcus and I, not that there ever was a 'Marcus and I', are officially over. I snogged him and now he hates me.

Love, Poppy

She felt it summarised the situation well enough. She sort of understood what he had said. She did feel guilty about everything. Sleeping in his bed had been lovely but she would wake up in the middle of the night and not be able to go back to sleep. She would imagine what Oliver would say if he knew where she was. And not just Oliver, she imagined what people would say or do. The rumor about her and Marcus had been bad enough and that only lasted for a few days. He was older than her and also her captain. People could say horrible things about him. Poppy imagined Grace would be shrieking with joy if her scandalous life became public knowledge. Oliver would not be happy. Even their friendship, and the possibility of more, had been hard on him. But still, in between moments of guilt, her imagination ran wild. When she finally did it, kissing Marcus turned out to be everything she dreamed of. And then she snapped back to her senses.

They went back to sleeping in their own dormitories. During meals, they said nothing to each other and whenever Poppy caught Marcus looking at her, he quickly turned away. She cried everyday until Grace and Oliver came back to school.

"He just... Ended it?" Grace asked, sympathetically, after Poppy explained the situation better than she had managed to do in her letter. They were sitting on the steps leading down to the Hufflepuff common room.

"He did. We are no longer friends," Poppy said. "He said it's so I can stop feeling guilty."

"Well, you can. You don't have to worry about Oliver anymore," Grace replied.

"Great. Oliver is happy as a clam, I'm miserable and Flint is an evil mongrel."

"I'm sure he was just thinking of your best."

"And I'm sure he started to hate me and wanted an easy excuse to get out of this."

Quidditch practice started up again soon after everyone got back. They had almost two weeks to prep for an upcoming match against Ravenclaw. Marcus barely spoke to Poppy during their training, only once in a while shouting at her to do better. She held back tears every time.

Now that Marcus was out of Poppy's life, Oliver had jumped back in. He had been secretive about his visit to London but decided to share the reason behind it one morning, as he walked Poppy to class.

"I was hired for the Puddlemere United reserve team," he said, beaming. "I went to London to finalise the arrangements."

"When did all that happen?" Poppy asked, dumbfounded. He hadn't even hinted at something like this.

"They wrote me in October and I scheduled the meeting for Christmas break," Oliver said. "I didn't want to tell you since it wasn't a sure thing yet. But now it's official."

"That's great," Poppy said, mustering up a smile, the first one in a while.

"They're helping us find a house over there."

"In Dorset?"

"Yeah. Everything is going to be great, you'll see. Soon you'll be back to your old self."

He grabbed hold of his little sister and hugged her. Poppy didn't say anything, just congratulated her brother. She didn't want to start an argument about how there was no going back after what Marcus had done. She had, for obvious reasons, not told Oliver everything, just that Marcus had decided to end the friendship, out of the blue. Around Oliver, Poppy tried to seem normal but even he, usually oblivious to everything, knew something was wrong.

Poppy spent her days doing what Marcus had told her to do, getting over him. She tried thinking of all his bad qualities, how he had once thrown Montague off his broom at practice for slacking off or how last year he had broken Roger Davies' nose after a match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, but everytime she tried, the thought of something like their first kiss would find it's way into her head. Or the birthday present he got her, or the beautiful earrings that were now just thrown into to the bottom of her trunk along with the shirt he'd given her. She tried her best to hate him but it just wasn't happening.

Grace's budding relationship with Cedric wasn't helping matters much, either. The two of them were always sitting together at the Hufflepuff table or canoodling in the hallways. Poppy didn't even dare to imagine what went on inside the Hufflepuff common room, or Cedric's dormitory. Poppy was happy for her friend but felt little pangs in her heart whenever Cedric kissed Grace or held her hand. It wasn't easy being around the happy couple and Poppy didn't want her misery to ruin their happiness, so she had slowly drifted away from Grace. She couldn't take it when Grace invited her over to the library to study with her and Cedric or outside to build a snowman, so she made up lousy excuses.

Before the game against Ravenclaw, the Slytherin team was sitting in the locker room, waiting for their captain to give a motivational speech. Malfoy was saying how he shouldn't be expected to be in his prime since his injury only allowed for so much practice and though he was finally feeling better, he had lost a lot of valuable time.

"Nobody cares, Malfoy," Montague said, yawning. Marcus shot him a deadly look.

"Late night, Graham?" he asked, emphasising Montague's first name.

"Actually, it was, there was this girl..." Montague said before noticing the look in Marcus' eyes indicating he did not care nor did he plan to listen.

"Pull it together," Marcus snapped.

He had always been tough and occasionally angry with his players, but lately it seemed Marcus was more tense than ever. Three hour practice had become the norm and Marcus was irritated by the smallest thing. He began his speech.

"Listen, I know we can beat these Ravenclaws. They think they're smart but we're fast and strong. We'll destroy them. Malfoy, you have to watch out for that girl they've got as a seeker, she's not terrible even if she is a girl."

Poppy took slight offense to this statement, and judging from his frown, so did Adrian. Neither one said anything.

"This is what we've been practicing for. While they've been studying, we've been here. They don't stand a chance. Alright?"

"Alright!" the team chanted and players got up from their seats, but Marcus wasn't done yet. As they formed a line at the door, he added, "And if someone screws up, they'll have to answer to me."

The two teams were neck and neck until Malfoy caught the snitch from right under Cho Chang's nose. The Ravenclaw team had a very capable keeper as well as some fantastic chasers who managed to get the Quaffle past Poppy but Slytherin clearly had better, more aggressive beaters. Marcus played very well, Poppy thought, and almost managed to not break any rules until he grabbed Derrick's bat and swung a Bludger right at Cho Chang, nearly knocking her off her broom. This was a move Marcus was known to do and Poppy had previously thought it was just his style or maybe he thought breaking the rules was funny but now, she noticed desperation on his face as he swung that bat. He had once complained about not being able to play every position himself.

"If I could clone myself, I would," he had said. "Then everything would be done right, exactly the way I want it. I can train my team, and mine is really good, but I can't make them be me."

Poppy had to respect his determination. Luckily they won the game, maybe giving Marcus a chance to relax for once. After winning, it was customary to have a celebration back at the common room and this time was no exception. Someone had stolen butterbeers from the kitchen and two fifth-year students had charmed the words "Slytherin Wins" to float in the air, sparkling with green and silver. At previous victory parties Poppy had always sat in the corner of the common room, being silently happy for the team but this time, she was actually part of the team. The Slytherins had congratulated her just as much as anyone else on the team, they'd shaken her hand and patted her on the back. It seemed all she had to do to get onto their good sides, was to be excellent at Quidditch.

Malfoy was bragging to everyone about how he was a key element in this victory. The fact that he was right annoyed Poppy, but she let it slide, it was the team's big day after all and everyone was in a good mood. Everyone except Marcus. He was sitting in one of the leather chairs, sipping something that looked exactly like butterbeer, but Poppy was sure it had firewhiskey mixed in.

"Speech from the captain! Speech!" Montague shouted from across the room. Everyone's eyes turned to Marcus. He slowly got up and chugged down his drink.

"We won because we were lucky," he said, drawling every word. "That's all."

The mood in the room quickly fell. Students were looking around, not knowing if he was joking or not. Poppy knew he wasn't and so did Adrian. He emerged from the crowd and followed Marcus, who had been slowly making his way to the door.

"Who cares about him, let's party!" Montague shouted as soon as the door closed behind them. Students cheered and lifted him in the air. Poppy decided to follow Marcus and Adrian and quietly snuck out the door. Outside, she heard them arguing around the corner and listened intently.

"Why can't you ever admit we were good?" Adrian asked, raising his voice slightly.

"It was sloppy play," Marcus responded. "Simple as that."

"We were bloody excellent and the team needs some more respect from you! They've worked so hard for you and don't deserve to be treated this way," Adrian ranted.

"I get it," Marcus said, slurring his words a little. "This is about her."

"No, it's about the whole team," Adrian argued, stuttering a little.

"No, it's definitely about her. When are you going to get it through your thick skull she doesn't want you? It will never happen, so you can stop trying to be her knight in shining armor."

Poppy heard a smack, followed by a loud thud and the sound of someone falling on the floor. She hurried across the corner to find Marcus standing over Adrian, who was holding his bloody nose on the floor.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Marcus asked, raising his voice. Holding his fist, he glared at Poppy. She didn't answer and instead hurried over to help Adrian up from the floor.

"Are you okay?" she asked, kneeling beside him.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, glaring at Marcus who was returning to the common room, cracking his knuckles. Poppy helped Adrian up from the floor.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to hide the fact she'd been listening.

"Nothing," he said.

"He just hit you?" she asked.

"I hit first, it's no big deal. Just trying to gain some respect for the team," he mumbled, not looking her in the eyes. "Let it go, he's just drunk. It's nothing new."

They went back to the party. There was no sign of Marcus anywhere and Poppy decided not to let him ruin this moment. She grabbed a butterbeer and dove into the crowd, loving the attention she was getting. Even Malfoy grabbed her hand, raising it in the air as a sign of victory.

"Slytherin!" he bellowed and students around them cheered. Poppy couldn't help but laugh. She had a feeling tomorrow the Slytherins would go back to hating her but for now, she decided to enjoy being celebrated.