Pride, Prejudice, and Poppy [Pomfrey]

To say that Poppy Pomfrey was nervous about what she was being forced to undertake would be a gross understatement. It was almost as if she was a walking nervous wreck; her fingertips reached up and tugged on the list of supplies that was sticking out of her book. It was the Wolfsbane Potion, after all, it was experimental and...as she had learned yesterday from a most upset Professor Dumbledore, it could be lethal if it were not brewed correctly. Looking down the list, she realized that there was far more tinkering that needed to be done. That was the thing about the potion; it had to be tailored to each individual werewolf, lest something be wrong in terms of the brew. For Remus, Poppy had been studying him, and so far, she had found that he seemed to be a boy that wanted desperately to control what was happening to him. She could only hope that she was in the market to help him.

Sighing, Poppy pushed the list back into the center of the book, making sure that it was unseen. She didn’t need people knowing what she was up to. Neither her nor Dumbledore thought that people would not take kindly to the idea of a werewolf living but a moderate walk to the east within the castle’s walls. Stopping in the middle of the busy street, Poppy looked up toward Hogwarts in the distance. It was her home. The students were her responsibility. And thus, it was up to her to do as much as she possibly could for their well-being. Remus’ especially. She couldn’t mess up this potion; it just wasn’t in the cards. Satisfied with her feelings about the subject, Poppy began walking again, this time, cracking the book to the second chapter where she had left off. It was a chapter on Bloodroot and Witch Hazel, both effective in calming and healing. There was a very real possibility that both of those ingredients were at the Potion store that was-

She looked up from the book and realized that she was standing directly in front of said potion’s shop, ”Almost walked right past it-” She said with a slight laugh as she closed her book and walked inside. The tingle of bells alerted the owner to her presense and he gave her a smile and a nod, obviously recognizing her from the countless times that she had been down to his shop. She was about to ask him the whereabouts of what she was looking for when she heard a loud booming voice behind her...accompanied with a nickname that she hadn’t heard since she was in school, ”I’m sorry but-” She turned around so that she could find the source of the obnoxiousness, only to find herself face to face with none other than Cooper Bailey, a Hogwarts classmate that had been about five years older than her. She didn’t remember much about him seeing as they were so far apart in age, but she did know that he was a handful, ”Mr. Bailey.” She offered him a slight nod of her head, unsure of how to behave around him, ”Just some shopping-” She said, picking up an ingredient that was to her left and holding it up to him so that he would indeed be satisfied that that was what she was doing. She would have to wait to speak to the owner until Cooper was long-gone. She noticed the Ministry emblem on his shirt and raised her eyebrows, ”You’re a long way from home, I see.” She noted.

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Poppy hadn’t expected him to get so close, so quickly, but she suddenly found herself only a few feet from the Ministry man. He seemed so quick to pick up right where they had left off; Cooper was always the kind of man that would flash a smile of such...charm that most of the girls would have a hard time keeping their bodies to themselves. Poppy, on the other hand, had always been wise to his little tricks - only having the smallest of crushes on him when she was in her third year. Terribly embarrassing to admit now, but it had been the truth. She swirled the liquid in the vile, knowing that she had picked up something that would be utterly unhelpful in her Tournament healing, ”It’s important to make sure that the cupboard is fully stocked before the Cup begins. Wouldn’t want to have an snafus.”

[/b] Poppy hated the very thought of imagining that she would be responsible for not having the correct materials for the Cup. That being said, this wasn’t the reason that she was here at all; She had just placed an order for all her potions last week and they were set to arrive in the castle within the next couple of days. He said how much she had enjoyed the tournament and she felt her nose wrinkle, ”I think enjoyment is used a little too loosely in that context.”[/b] She had hated the tournament. She had hated everything about it. It was dangerous, the children were reckless, and none of them were prepared for what was ahead of them. It made her uncomfortable to say the least. To think that it was all happening again was horrifying at the very least. That being said, she had been Bryant’s most important asset throughout the previous Cup, which apparently was what Cooper was eluding to. She refused to acknowledge it.

Slightly surprised, Poppy raised both of her eyebrows. She couldn’t imagine Cooper Bailey being around for the entire Cup duration. That was going to be uncomfortable to say the least. She coughed slightly, trying to hide the look of surprise that still seemed to be concreted upon her face, ”South Cynabarr Abbey. Beautiful this time of year.”[/b] She said quietly and then reached up to push a stray tendril of dark hair back into her bun. She hated when she looked out of sorts, and now was most certain not one of those times that she wished to look even the slightest bit disheveled. He mentioned that he would be acting as the representative of the Minister and Poppy nodded her head. She had met the Minister of Magic a few times over the past couple of years and found that Millicent Bagnold was quite an interesting woman. She had a certain flair about her, one that Poppy had come to appreciate. As the gears began turning in her head, she realized that Cooper would have to be pretty far up the Ministry hierarchy to secure such a right, ”What is it that you do again, Mr. Bailey?”[/b] She asked, tilting her head slightly to the side as she slipped the fuchsia vile back onto the shelf from whence it came. She realized that he had the same smile plastered on his face that he had had a few minutes ago and she shifted uncomfortably.

Cooper brought up Bryant and Raven again and Poppy felt her lips purse in displeasure. Bryant - although he had been her best friend while they had attended Hogwarts - had not spoken to her in over seven years. They had simply fallen out of touch. Poppy had often read about him in the papers and seen him at various events over the years, but apart from the consistent nods that they offered each other, there was no interaction whatsoever, ”I can’t say that I have.”[/b] She breathed, her heart suddenly catching in her throat. She had only seen the pair of them once and they had been all over each other in one of the Hogwarts corridors. Luckily for Poppy she had managed to escape the scene both unscathed and unseen, ”They’re staying up in the castle, however. Dumbledore made special arrangements for them to have one of the tower suites. I heard the other day that Miss Monroe through a fit over the sheets on the bed,”[/b] ‘That nasty bi.tch,’ Her mind added. Immediately Poppy’s eyes grew wide as she realized how much distaste she was harboring for Bryant’s girlfriend, unbeknownst to even herself, ”I’d assume that they’re having a lovely stay. I’m surprised you’re not living in the castle as well...?”[/b] She questioned, wondering why he had chosen to situate himself outside of the realm of Hogwarts.[/blockquote][/blockquote][/justify]

Poppy blushed profusely at the man, something that she was not used to feeling. The heat in her cheeks made her extremely uncomfortable, but she knew all too well that it would take her at least five minutes to calm down about the whole ordeal. She didn’t want Cooper thinking that she wasn’t doing her job at Hogwarts; after all, she was the one who took inventory and wrote up the orders, ”With the cup coming up, Mr. Bailey, it is vitally important that we have a surplus of the usual tricks and ingredients up our sleeves. After all, we can’t have any mishaps, lest I be responsible.”

[/b] It was the honest truth, although she hadn’t necessarily come into the shop looking for the ingredient, it served as the perfectly explanation for her being there...instead of her having to admit that she was there looking for the ingredients for the elusive Wolfsbane Potion. Poppy had rightly assumed that Cooper already knew about the way that she felt about the cup. Madame Pomfrey had never quite liked the idea of the Hogwarts students fighting one another. A simple oversight could cause the death of a student almost instantly and that wasn’t something that she wished to deal with this year. Biting down on her lip, she shook her head, ”Professor Dumbledore may have mentioned something along those lines.”[/b] She wasn’t too fond of the idea of someone overseeing her work, it meant that she would have to spend more time with the likes of Cooper, ”I assume then you’ll be in the hospital wing a few times during the duration of the Cup?”[/b] Trying to figure out just how much she would have to deal with him.

Poppy restrained herself from rolling her eyes when it came to Cooper’s mention of his own apartment. She was sure that the man had had various conquest there and she had no intention of inquiring further about his loft in London. Reaching up, she pushed some of her brown hair away from her eyes, trying to calm the nerves that seemed to be settling in the pit of her stomach and manifesting themselves in the blush in her cheeks. It wasn’t Cooper’s presence that made her uncomfortable, it was the fact that she had almost been discovered brewing a potion that was considered to be highly experimental, ”Traveling by floo is quite the adventure. I dare say that the Ministry couldn't have arranged a Portkey for you to travel back and forth? No matter-”[/b] Poppy was slightly relieved that the man wasn’t staying in the castle; she detested the very idea of Bailey showing up at her quarters at all hours of the evening abhorrently drunk and bothering her, ”I’m sure that you’ll get quite enough of the castle when you’re around doing your errands.”[/b] She offered him a cordial smile in response to his flashing one...the very smile that left her feeling slightly put off about the whole thing.

Poppy couldn’t help but feel slightly impressed by the title that he offered her as his own. It was no small feat, that much was for certain, especially for a man his age. In fact, she was fairly certain that she hadn’t heard of anyone else below forty climbing that high on the Ministry ladder as of late. Poppy’s eyes drew up immediately as Cooper commented on the jump that Bryant seemed to have made from her to Raven, ”I hardly think that Bryant and I were ever anything more than friends. It’s very interesting to me the way that people saw us, but I can assure you, that relationship was strictly platonic. His choice in Miss Monroe isn’t all that radical at all, in fact, I applaud him in his choice.”[/b] The last part of her statement came off a little harsher than she had intended and for but a moment, jealousy seemed to seep through her words. Ever since Bryant had won the cup, their relationship had been severed. Bry - once a sweet man with a love for knowledge and learning - became almost obsessed with his celebrity. That was the real reason that they had never spoken...Poppy tried not to think about it too much; she tried not to think of the hurt that she had felt when she had cut ties with the only man that she had ever really loved.
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The very thought of having both Cooper and Bryant hovering over her during the duration of the Cup was unsettling to say the least. There would have been a time when she would have been more than ecstatic to spend the time with the pleasant Mr. Xavier, previous Cup champion, but the awkwardness that had grown between them remained stale and uncomfortable...like starched under-clothing. Cooper on the other hand was awkward in an entirely different manner; he was too comfortable around her; the way that he seemingly was around most women. It was unnerving when she was around him because of the extreme level of charm that he seemed to be putting off at any given moment. Poppy Pomfrey sighed heavily as she moved forward, picking up a few ingredients that she would need. Cooper was right, they would both be stuck there forever if they insisted upon sitting about and chatting instead of getting things done. She hoped that things would be more smooth than normal that way she would have to see even less of all of them - except for perhaps Dumbledore whom she admired very much these days, ”How brutal are the tasks to be this year? Some of them that I wittnessed last night were...grotesque to say that least. I’m not sure how the Madame Katrine handled them while we were students.”

[/b] She shivered at the very thought of some of the injuries that had been sustained those seven years ago. But she was quickly drawn out of her thoughts, ”Of course, I wouldn’t expect the Minister to suppose that I can handle my own students’ injuries all by my lonesome.”[/b] Her tone was rather snippy and she quickly corrected the oversight, ”Of course, it’ll be a nice change of pace to have someone around the wing to converse with.”[/b] She didn’t mean that. Conversing with Cooper was like talking to a rock...a rock that continually smiled at her.

”Mmm, broomstick. Quite an interesting way to see the world. But the injuries sustained from broom travel are by far the worst that I saw while at Mungo’s...or at Hogwarts for that matter. It’s nasty business having to repair mended bones from flying accidents, don’t you agree?”[/b] Poppy herself had never been too fond of flying but Bryant had often taken her for rides across the grounds during their time at Hogwarts. After they had lost touch, she had lost interest and subsequently hadn’t ridden in seven or so years. She watched as he pulled out his list and began reading it, hoping that she had committed hers well enough to memory that she wouldn’t need to pull out her piece of parchment as well. She didn’t need Coop trying to read over her shoulder every time that he thought that she wasn’t paying attention. Poppy Pomfrey was always on her guard, it came with the territory of dealing with various injuries and visitors with often malicious intent. For a moment there was silence between them, but Cooper seemed to sweep in from no where. Poppy was almost positive that she could feel his breath - thick and hot - against her face, making the insides of her stomach squirm with anger. ‘Hasn’t he ever heard of maintaining personal space?’ She seethed as she took a step back, pretending to be interested in a display that was to their right, ”The Fall Ball is going to be a disaster. They’ve even had to ask the faculty to come in to chaperone. With all the competition, Dumbledore’s gotten it into his head that there will be some sort of riot happening. Are you planning on attending?”[/b] She had no real interest in knowing, simply asked as a formality as such.

Poppy did not like what Coop was seemingly attempting to imply with his level of sarcasm, but refrained from saying something out of character for her. He didn’t deserve to see her angry about the entire situation - especially since he did not fully understand what had been going on between the pair during their time at Hogwarts. What people saw from the outside was often so different from what was going on in their heads. He seemed to hit the nail right on the head when he spoke about Raven. As much as Poppy wanted to deny that Bryant would have gone after such a...tart of a woman, she knew of Raven’s reputation, ”Well, good-”[/b] She said in a bit of a huff, grabbing something off of the nearest shelf and all but slamming it into her palm, ”Then the pair of them deserve each other.”[/b] She knew that she was letting the thoughts get to her head, but she just couldn't help it...not when there was so much that Poppy and Bryant could have been...He had just thrown it all away for the perks of being a celebrity.

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Poppy couldn’t help but watch him carefully; he replaced the list of ingredients into his pocket and then went on his way picking up potion ingredients that were both...unexpected and a little unorthodox. Realizing that she was staring and being uncommonly rude, she busied herself with the shelf that was to her right, admiring the vast array of components that frequented the ledge. She picked up a bottle that contained bloodroot and stared at it for a long time; it was very plausible that this would make the Wolfsbane potion perhaps go down a bit easier...It was a calming herb, one that she had used countless times in smaller quantities to keep her patients calm during particularly grueling injuries. Chewing on her bottle lip, she hardly realized that Cooper was answering her question until she heard her name. Almost immediately she spun around, pressing her back against the shelf that was behind her - creating as much space between them as possible, ”Certainly understandable, but one would think that it would be beneficial to let the Matron know sooner versus later what tribulations I should be prepared for, wouldn’t you say? I’m well prepared, to say the least, but everyone needs due time to compose themselves.”

[/b] She knew, however, that it would be fine. She was a smart woman with a knack for her job. That was the reason that she had become a Healer so early in life; she loved what she did. Poppy eyed Cooper carefully, trying to figure out to what level he was joking with her. ”Hardly-”[/b] She scoffed as he suggested that she dare to question the authority that lay above her, ”Minister Bagnold is quite the replacement, wouldn’t you say?”[/b] She had only met the woman once when she had come to Hogwarts before the start of term, but she had been surprised by her...aptitude for speaking to those who had less than complimentary views of the lower blood statuses.

Poppy’s mouth fell open slightly as he asked about how many bone-mending tribulations that she had gone through over the years. Being one of the most common sorts of injuries, she knew that it would be a long list if she tried to remember every one, ”When I was a Healer in Training at St. Mungo’s I would say that I saw about thirty per year. Quite a significant amount. But then I was promoted to the Spell Damage Floor as Head Healer. Not many of the broomstick fall injuries were transferred there.”[/b] At the thought of her previous job, Poppy reached up and touched the small scar that ran down her right cheek from where she had been slashed by one of her patients. Such a haunting experience, she hated when she thought too much upon it. Necessity mandated that she think of something else and she immediately answered the other part of the question, ”At Hogwarts I see at least one a Quiddich match. Someone being over-zealous with their flying ability. A couple of nights ago young Mr. Maxwell had to be brought in in the middle of the night so that I could set one of his bones. I swear, this children have no idea how to properly care for themselves.”[/b] She realized that she was nervously holding her hands together and immediately released them, letting some of the tension visibly relax from her shoulders. She was more than thankful for the change of pace regarding the Fall Ball, ”Of course there will be house-rivalry, but it’s nothing that a few staff members couldn’t handle. I-”[/b] She paused, realizing that he was asking her if she had a date to the function, ”I can’t say that I’m spoken for, if that’s what you mean to inquire.”[/b] She coughed loudly, hoping that he wouldn’t ask her...then again, if she had a date then she wouldn’t have to deal with the humiliation of seeing Bryant and Raven together.

She moved to the next shelf, placing the Bloodroot into her tiny basket and then picked up various other herbs that would be necessary for the potion...or at least she hoped that they would help. Some for healing, others for clarity. There were so many possibilities; it was a bit of a trial and error process. Although the Wolfbane potion was being recognized as complete, it was necessary to tailor the potion to each individual werewolf, lest they have adverse effects to some of the ingredients, ”Well for one, Mr. Xavier has most certainly let his celebrity go to his head-”[/b] She growled as she picked up another box of roots and placed it into her basket. A venom that was rarely seen by Poppy was rearing it’s ugly head again, ”Not to mention, he seems to have a certain lust for women who give it up easily. They’re perfect for each other.”[/b] In one swift movement, she picked up a bottle and threw it into her basket, but instead of landing neatly like it should have, it clipped the outside and immediately shattered into a million pieces. As if this day could not get much worse for her.
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