Denying Draco

20 - Pity The Living

'Hey, Poppy.' Harry entered the common room and joined Poppy in front of the fireplace where she was studying from her Transfiguration textbook on the dark and warm evening.

'Hey,' Poppy replied, with a friendly smile. She hadn't seen Harry for almost a week now since the The Three Broomsticks. She knew he'd been busy with her uncle and she had also avoided him with her feeling anxious ever since the Katie situation. She'd heard things about trouble and darkness following Harry Potter wherever he went from her mother and she did not want to believe it to be true but the first time she had hung out with him a girl had been thrown up into the air, dragged across the snow and was still in hospital because of it.

All she had been doing all day was reminiscing the bathroom situation with Draco and how demanding and possessive he had acted. She wasn't surprised. He'd struck her as the type who got what he wanted from the beginning and he obviously believed it would be the case with her. Had he been more polite and kind about it, she may have compromised, however, she refused to be treated as his property.

'How are things with Ginny?' Harry asked, as he sat perched on the edge of the armchair. 'I know you said you felt like things were a bit off with you and her.'

'I haven't really seen her,' Poppy replied. 'I've actually been spending most of my time in the library or in here and she's never around much. Have you heard anymore about Katie?'

'She's still in the hospital,' Harry told her. 'It turns out she was cursed by the necklace she was carrying. She touched it.'

'Necklace?' Poppy questioned, putting down her book. 'How could a necklace be cursed? What was she even doing with it?'

'It's a dark object, The Opal Necklace, and according to Hermione, it's claimed the lives of nineteen different Muggles so far,' Harry replied. 'She was delivering it to...Dumbledore.'

'My uncle?' Poppy cried. 'Katie was trying to get a dangerous, cursed, dark object to my uncle?!'

'She was delivering it for someone,' Harry explained. 'Katie wouldn't harm a fly! She obviously had to be under the Imperius Curse or something to get that necklace to Dumbledore and she accidentally touched it.'

'So you're telling me that someone gave that necklace to Katie in The Three Broomsticks and put a curse on her to deliver it to my uncle in order to kill him?' Poppy exclaimed. 'Who the hell would want to kill my uncle?'

Harry blinked several times and hesitated but continued confidently. 'It was Malfoy.'

It was Poppy's turn to blink and she did so rapidly, leaning back to study Harry's face as she tried to take in whether he was joking or not. 'Malfoy?'

'He was in The Three Broomsticks that day,' Harry continued.

'So were a lot of people, Harry,' Poppy replied, feeling a low rumble of frustration in the centre of her chest. 'Maybe flippin' Neville gave her the necklace! Come on, you can't just blame Draco Malfoy because he's a Slytherin that you really can't stand who just happened to be there.'

'Whoa, whoa, Poppy, calm down,' Harry cried, waving his hands at her. 'Look, I have my reasons for saying so.'

'Because Draco's a death eater, right?' Poppy sighed, shaking her head. 'You have no proof Draco did this.'

'Trust me, Poppy, I don't need proof,' Harry murmured.

'You want to know who I think it was?' Poppy questioned, and Harry nodded slowly. 'That shady looking woman who worked there. Did you see her when she walked past our table?'

'Madam Rosmerta?' Harry questioned. 'No chance, Poppy.'

'She looked guilty!' Poppy cried.

'Madam Rosmerta has no reason to harm Dumbledore!' Harry got to his feet and protested with a look of frustration on his face.