Denying Draco

1 - The Boy On The Train

'Dad, are you going to be okay?' Poppy asked her father, as they gathered the last of her things from the car and piled them onto a trolley at King's Cross Station.

'Don't you worry about me,' Sable said, as they hurried onwards into the station. 'She will bring hell down on me but I can handle it. Anyway, what's life without a little risk, eh?'

'She will come to Hogwarts to get me though, Dad!' Poppy cried, as she hurried to keep up with him, still giddy with excitement that her father and uncle had cooped up a plan to sneak her off to Hogwarts for the beginning of seventh year.

'That she will, my dear, but once you're already there let's hope she sees sense,' Sable sighed.

'So we are just chancing our luck then, Dad,' she giggled, too overwhelmed with joy to care about future problems.

'I've never agreed with your mother and neither has your uncle,' Sable told her. 'This is your last chance to experience Hogwarts and I want that for you. Trust me, kiddo, it's a wonderful place. Your mother is right about there being a lot of strange happenings over the years since the arrival of Harry Potter and you-know-who's return. You just be careful and stick to your studies, okay?'

'Okay, Dad,' Poppy chuckled.

'Please, of all things, of all people, do not write to me to tell me that you are in love with the Potter boy either,' Sable joked. 'I'm sure he's a great boy and I know his parents were wonderful people but...yes, no dating the Potter boy is the only thing I ask of you.'

'I'm sure I can manage that,' Poppy laughed.

'Okay, here we are,' Sable said, as they reached platform 9¾. 'Your first time going onto the platform. Off you go.'

'Just run right at the wall,' Poppy whispered to herself, with a hint of hesitation in her voice. She walked right up to it with Sable, glancing around for any muggles close by.

'Don't worry about that,' Sable told her, as if reading her mind. 'Bleedin' muggles won't notice a thing.'

Poppy smiled and watched as two young boys giggled nervously, urging the other to go first. They were clearly first years. It was sad to her that she was long past the age that should have actually been her first time doing this, and not seventeen years old beginning school in her final year.

'You ready then, Poppy?' Sable asked.

'Ready,' she said, letting out a breath.

Running at the wall, she tried to keep her eyes open, but closed them at the last second as the foot of the trolley came into contact and when she opened them again, she had arrived and was quickly followed by her father.

Poppy gasped in amazement at the Hogwarts Express in all it's glory, as children's voices yelled goodbye to their parents, older students rushed around clearly arriving last minute and hands stretched out from the windows waving cheerfully at bystanders.

They headed forward and her luggage was taken by a porter to be loaded onto the train. She had taken with her plain, black robes that her uncle had supplied, the books from her chest for the subjects she wished to study aswell as several other essentials for her classes that her father had gathered last minute for her. Eagerly but nervously, she made way onto the train after hugging her father goodbye, strolling through to find an available seat. She did not want to join anyone already seated incase that was something that was weird to do and she began to panic incase she did not find a seat at all.

'Are you okay there?' Poppy paused and turned to see a brown, curly haired girl sitting in a carriage with a redheaded boy. She knew who they were from articles she had read in The Daily Prophet. They were Harry Potter's best friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.