Poppy Potter

Christmas

My first Quidditch Match... I was terrified, staring at the plate of food that Ron placed in front of me, still scared of my outburst at him and Harry a few days before. "Take a bit of toast, Pops, go on."

"Ron's right, Poppy." Hermione told me, giving my arm a warm squeeze. "You're gonna need your strength today. And you barely ate last night."

"I'm not hungry."

At which point Malfoy and his goons walked past, looking at me as Snape paused at the end of the table. "Good luck today, Potter. Then again, now that you've become top of the class, a little game of Quidditch should be easy work for you...even if it is against Slytherin."

He walked on, joining Snape who was now limping out of the room. Giving Harry and I the same thought about him. "That explains the blood."

Hermione frowned a little. "Blood?"

"Listen, last night, I'm guessing Snape let the troll in as a diversion so he could try and get past that 3 headed dog." Harry, that was potentially your worst ever theory, he only didn't like you because you weren't really trying. "But, he got himself bitten, that's why he's limping."

"But why would anyone go near that dog?" My friend asked, seemingly believing him. This was not going to end well, falsely accusing a teacher of something. He could have been hit by the troll before it reached the toilets.

My twin was really starting to get into this whole plan. "The day we were at Gringotts, Hagrid took something out of one of the vaults. He said it was Hogwarts' business, very secret."

Right, he was actually trying to accuse Snape of this. Why would Snape want it? "So you're saying..."

"That's what the dog's guarding. That's what Snape wants."

Then an owl screeched, a large tawny one that was carrying a large, long parcel, and dropped it down in front of me. There had to be some mistake... That was a broom... "Bit early for mail, isn't it?" Hermione asked, looking at is as I reached out a shaky finger.

Surely this was meant for someone else? "But I-I never get mail."

"Let's open it."

We all undid one of the ties, though it was my post, and Harry stared at it in shock, like he was surprised at what was inside. I thought my brother was smarter than this. "It's a broomstick!"

Ron was completely awestruck by the make of broom. "That's not just any broomstick, Harry. It's a Nimbus 2000!"

I carefully picked up the card on the front, which was just a little moving picture of Onyx in an office, where she started to spend a lot of time, and smiled up at the top table, where Professor McGonagall was stroking the owl who delivered the broom. "It's mine, Ron, not Harry's. I'll see you later, I need to meet up with the rest of the team."

Tying up my long auburn hair into a braid, I started towards the tower, warming up with them until we heard all of the bleachers slowly fill. Oh, God, I had to so all of this in front of so many people, a whole school... "Scared, Poppy?"

How could I not be, knowing that the bludgers were going to be zooming around and trying to hit me in about 5 minutes? "A little bit."

"That's all right." He smiled at me as the Fred and George appeared at my elbow, still like my bodyguards. They were great fun, some of their pranks on Filch were awesome. "I felt the same way before my first game."

"What happened?"

He frowned slight as I heard everyone start cheering still. "Er, I don't really remember. I took a bludger to the head 2 minutes in. Woke up in the hospital a week later."