Invisible String - Sebastian Sallow

Chapter Nine: The Hogs Head

Poppy caught up with me as the entire student body of Hogwarts raced through the halls for dinner. I could hear her calling over the loud hubbub of students, all of their chatter about the week of classes bubbling around me. I smiled at her as we fell into step side by side one another, her hair still tied back into its new braid, a leather-bound notebook clutched tightly in her hands. I gestured towards the book, noting its yellowed and worn pages, how there seemed to be pages added in, their corners sticking out at odd angles.

"What's in the book?"

She smiled at me shyly, tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, eyes glowing excitedly. "It's one of Grans! More notes on Snidgets- I know the Centaurs will take care of them, I just want to check on them myself too. I thought reading Grans old notes might be helpful, and with any luck I could add or fix things myself."

"That's a wonderful idea, Poppy!" I was beaming at her as we stepped off the crowded staircase.

Just as we were nearing the Great Hall, she paused in her tracks. It took me a moment to realize that she'd stopped and it was only when I heard several students grumble about her as they passed me that I turned around. I walked the few paces back over to her, my healed tilted slightly to the side in confusion. "Poppy? What is it?" She grabbed my arm tightly and I was taken back by her strength for a moment, then she was pulling me off to the side, out of the way of the stairs and far enough away to not be listened to. "What- Poppy, relax, will you? Let go-"

"I was thinking we should go to Hogsmead instead, actually. Do you want skip dinner?"

I caught sight of Sebastian and Ominis just as they walked down the final flight of stairs, the two deep in conversation, and I caught myself wondering if he'd- no, no, if they'd be looking for me for dinner. I shook myself at the idea. We were studying together. The flowers and note the Sebastian had left me was simply on olive branch. And truth be told, this could be the perfect time to tell Poppy about the study group idea we'd cooked up, as we hadn't had another Defense Against the Dark Arts class yet.

On the other hand, I did need to meet Sebastian tonight at our spot.

"I don't know," I said a little unsure of leaving the castle so soon in the year. Playing coy with Poppy wasn't something I was good at, but I felt it necessary with her sudden change in behavior. "What did you see in the notes?"

She shifted from foot to foot, a mischievous smile on her face. "Okay, okay, look at this," she started, thrusting the added parchment paper into my hand. I stared at the inky page, taking in everything for a moment. There was a clear path laid out here, a trail with landmarks pinpointed on it, creases along the parts of the page where it had been previously folded. I recognized some of the drawings as buildings, a large circle over one that I knew to be The Hogs Head Inn.

"It's a map," I stated, clearly not seeing why this meant we needed to skip dinner and go right this second. "But for what?"

"Right, okay so look in this bottom corner here, see the marking? I've noticed a couple of students sketching it in the corners of their papers, and wanted to make sure it doesn't have anything to do with new poacher camps."

I gave her a quizzical look, "Why are you looking at other people's notes, Poppy? How did you notice that?"

"Intuition," she said. "I just noticed, and then I found this-"

"Found?" I hissed, grabbing at her arm. We had decided after everything with the poachers not to get involved with more mysteries at school. Poppy didn't know the half of it with me, but she'd agreed too after her Gran had been put in risk. "Poppy, where did you find this?"