Denying Draco

50 - The Harrowing Truth

'Poppy, where have you been?' Ginny got up from the armchair and walked over to Poppy as she entered the common room. 'You just disappeared.'

'I can't find him, Ginny,' Poppy murmured, feeling out of breath and frantic after running around the school looking for Draco.

'Maybe he's took off somewhere again,' Ginny said, trying to calm her down with her gentle tone. 'You know he's always doing that.'

'Ginny, Goyle is dead,' Poppy hissed, worriedly. 'You don't have to keep pretending you're not thinking the same as I am.'

'Of course I'm thinking the same,' Ginny murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder and lowering her voice right down. 'But what is running around like a crazy person going to do?'

'I don't know!' Poppy exclaimed, and a few students turned to look at them. 'I just need to find him. I need to ask him if he did this. I need to see his face because I will know...I'll just know when I see his face if he did it.'

'Does it matter?' Ginny asked, letting out a sigh.

Poppy frowned and looked at her cautiously. 'What do you mean does it matter?'

'It's not like it's someone we care about,' Ginny explained.

'Ginny, a boy has been found dead...murdered,' Poppy whispered, abruptly.

'Yeah, Goyle,' Ginny replied, firmly. 'You remember what kind of person Goyle was, don't you? You realise who exactly we are talking about here?'

Poppy blinked several times. It was something she hadn't actually truly thought over. All she'd heard was a boy was dead and all her mind had allowed her to think about was going to Draco. She hadn't really thought over the fact that the boy who had sexually assaulted her was the one who had been killed and truthfully, she didn't care.

'It's wrong to think like that,' Poppy muttered, uncomfortably.

'No, it's not,' Ginny stated, simply. 'In fact, anyone would think the same. He did a terrible thing to you, Poppy. You're allowed to be glad he's dead. If Draco is the one responsible for this, just ask yourself why he did it?'

'He wouldn't do that for me,' Poppy said, quietly, now thinking things over in more detail. 'No, no way. After the way he spoke to me earlier, I've realised he doesn't give a shit about me. He wouldn't do that to one of his best friends for me. He told me he fought with him and warned him off and that he got the message and won't be returning.'

Ginny shook her head slowly. 'Sounds rather suspicious...don't you think?'

'No,' Poppy lied, and quickly brushed past her friend. 'Excuse me, I need to go think.'

She made her way up to the dorm and laid on her bed, trying to replay the conversation with Draco about Goyle to see if she could pick up on any tiny detail he had said that might indicate he had done this. He had made it pretty clear that all he had done with Goyle was fight. His words had suggested that Goyle was very much alive at the time he'd confronted him.

Poppy ended up skipping the rest of her classes, staying in her dorm as she continued to think over the situation. When she couldn't possibly think anymore, she sat down to write a letter back home to her father. His owl had been circling the school since it had dropped off her father's letter and she popped it into it's beak and sent it off back to Tinworth, letting her father know that she'd be home for Christmas.

When the evening drew in, Poppy bathed, brushed her teeth, tidied up her area of the dorm and got into bed but she kept her clothes on under the duvet. When Ginny and the other girls came up, she pretended to be sleeping and after a couple of hours of chatter and moving around, the girls became silent as they all retired to bed. She waited another three-quarters of an hour for them to be asleep, then she got out of bed and crept out of the dorm.