Denying Draco

35 - Little Paper Bird

The next day Poppy was still reeling from the hostile encounter with Draco. When she got lost in her daydreams, she remembered his tight grip on her wrists, his clench on her jaw and his grasp on her thigh that slowly moved up to touch her intimately. Even during a ferocious argument, he still liked to tease. The physical side of their fight should have been something that scared her to the core; an uncontrollable, unpredictable, dark side of Draco that set off red flags and alarm bells and would send any girl running for miles. Not Poppy. This side of him awoke another side of her; a side that began to think up ways to provoke him just to get that reaction from him again and feel alive from his rage. To be aroused by such intimidation and control was not something she considered to be normal and she tried to blame it on years of missing out on teenage life, but deep down she knew it was just the way she was, the way she had likely always been and Draco had just been the one to activate it.

She had told Ginny everything when she'd returned to the common room and Ginny being Ginny had warned her of the problematic side of it whilst still hooting with laughter and encouragement when Poppy had confessed that it had aroused her.

At the breakfast table the next morning, Poppy was still reminiscing the feeling of his hand up her skirt as he threatened her and as her friends chatted about the NEWTs around her, she realised she'd been zoned out for some time.

'Bacon?' Ron offered her a piece from his plate. 'You haven't eaten anything.'

'Thanks but I'm good,' Poppy said, grabbing a piece of toast to nibble on to appease her friends.

'Malfoy hasn't given you anymore shit has he?' Ron asked.

'Even if he has, you won't be doing anything about it this time,' Hermione said, sternly. 'It's not your place to get involved and cause fights over other people's situations.'

'I was just defending my friend, Hermione,' Ron replied, rolling his eyes. 'Somebody has to because that tosser is treating her like garbage!'

'Pipe down, Ron, she's a big girl,' Ginny groaned. 'Trust me, she knows what she's doing. She can handle Malfoy.'

Poppy felt Ginny nudge her and she refrained from smirking, hiding her mouth with her toast.

Glancing up, she watched as Draco entered the Great Hall with Blaise and he gave her an unimpressed roll of his eyes as he passed by. Clearly he wasn't over what she had done to his friend.

'Do you want to study at the library with me tonight, Poppy?' Hermione asked, clearly trying to distract her from Draco's entrance.

'I can't,' Poppy sighed. 'I have detention.'

Harry and Ron burst into laughter and Poppy rolled her eyes.

'I'm sorry, I just can't get over it,' Harry chuckled.

'I just wish I'd been there to see it!' Ron cackled.

'If you're so amused by it I can happily cast the same spell on you two so we can see how you look compulsively tap dancing,' Hermione said, but her mouth dared to smirk as she held back her laughter.

'I bumped into Snape on my way back to the common room last night and he'd been the one to step in and counteract the spell in the courtyard,' Poppy told them. 'He wasn't pleased but a tiny part of me liked to think I actually saw a very subtle, glimmer of a smile on his face when he mentioned it. I honestly believe he found it funny.'

'Snape finding something funny?' Ron scoffed. 'You were seeing things, Pop.'

'Anyway, I have the honour of an hour long detention with him tonight and I'm dreading it,' Poppy sighed. 'It's not the first time I've made it into his bad books.'