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1.
Poppy loves Minerva’s hair.
Poppy loves the colour of Minnie’s hair and the way it reminds her of the night sky. She loves how it shines when it catches the candles that light their bedroom. The way it flows down her back as she unravels it after a long day of teaching, Poppy often finds herself mesmerised by the motions as it stops just above Minnie’s hips. And best of all, she loves the feel of it in her hands as she runs her fingers through the soft strands while Minnie snuggles closer to her in the early hours of the morning.
Both women have very distinct routines which they follow before going down to the Great Hall for breakfast. In the morning they flow around one another occasionally sharing a morning shower or dragging the other back to bed for just a few more minutes. However, one part of their morning routine that Poppy particularly adores is when her wife sits patiently at their vanity waiting for Poppy to brush her hair.
Knowing how much Poppy loves her hair, Minerva has come to allow time in their routine for Poppy to brush and style her hair into her iconic updo.
Poppy goes over to the vanity and kisses her wife’s forehead before getting to work. Brushing through Minerva’s long hair takes time, so Poppy works carefully allowing the brush to flow through the strands making sure that no tangles remain. Once Poppy is satisfied that Minerva’s hair is tangle free, she moves onto gathering it into a ponytail before braiding. She then takes the braid and flattens it against the back of Minnie’s head, making sure that the hair tie cannot be seen from the original ponytail, and secures it with at least eight bobby pins to ensure it stays put throughout the day.
Poppy assesses her work making sure that the bun isn’t too tight, knowing that Minnie’s hair often gives her headaches. She also checks that the bun is low enough at the back of Minnie’s head so that her hat can sit perfectly on her head without an issue.
“There you go, my love, all done and ready for the day.” Poppy says as her eyes connect with Minne’s in the mirror of the vanity. Poppy’s breath is taken away by the amount of love and thanks present in her wife’s gaze even though she does this every morning.
“Thank you love.” Minnie gets up taking Poppy by the waist and kissing her softly before presenting her hand for Poppy to take as they make their way down to breakfast. As they head out of the door Minerva grabs her hat and places it on her head while Poppy thinks about how beautiful her wife looks as they prepare to face the students of Hogwarts.
2.
Dancing is one of those things that comes naturally to Minerva, but not so much for Poppy.
Poppy loves watching Minnie dance at official events and balls but even more so when they are in the privacy of their room and Minerva is swaying to a tune that is only present in her head.
It brings a smile to Poppy’s face as she watches Minnie sway to a tune that she has been humming non-stop for the last couple of days. It’s a muggle song that has gripped the student population in the last week or so, with many students turning up their radios whenever it was played.
As Minnie is browsing their bookshelves, Poppy is captured by the sway of her hips and remembers a time when they were younger when they first started dating. They were still students as Poppy took Minerva to the top of the astronomy tower for a midnight picnic, with a basket full of the finest things that they had been gifted from the kitchens and a portable radio. As they laughed the night away a song came on the radio that held Minnie’s attention.
“Oh, Pops I love this song, me da bought me the record of it,” Minnie rushed to her feet and held her hand out to Poppy who was staring at her like she hung the stars, “Dance with me Pops?”
Poppy remembers taking her hand despite not really knowing how to dance with somebody but wanting to follow Minerva’s lead no matter what. Minerva drew Poppy close to her as they twirled around the tower, close enough that Poppy could rest her head on Minnie’s shoulder.
Poppy chuckles softly at the memory causing Minnie to turn around looking at her curiously, but Poppy shakes her and holds out her hand. Minerva takes it without hesitation which causes Poppy’s heart to flutter. Poppy pulls Minnie close and starts to sway resuming the tune that Minnie was humming aloud only a moment ago.
“You know Pops that song has been stuck in me head, but I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it. It’s been quite frustrating.” Poppy spins Minerva bringing her back so that they were pressed just that little bit closer.
“Darling, I do believe the song is called She’s Always a Woman by Billy Joel. I believe that the song has been a hit amongst the students especially a certain James Potter who I know has been severing detention with you this week.” Poppy says as Minerva and her come to a halt.
“Please don’t remind me, I swear that boy has given me a few extra grey hairs in just the last two weeks alone.” Poppy smiles at Minerva’s statement knowing that she cares for the boy really and kisses her soundly.
3.
Poppy loves and shares many of Minerva’s hobbies but hiking she could do without.
“My love, are you sure you want to continue to the top? I don’t mind if you want to take a break, there’s a couple of large rocks here that will suffice as a place to rest.” Minerva looks at her concerned but Poppy smiles back and pretends that she doesn’t flop down heavily into Minerva’s lap as they take a break from their hike.
As Poppy’s curls her arms around Minnie’s neck she wonders how she lets her wife convince her on these hike that she loves so much. Minerva’s love for hiking was inherited from her father who used to take a young Minerva on hikes around the highlands as part of their father daughter bonding activities. And while Poppy loves that Minerva can just exist in nature for a couple of hours, she did wish that sometimes Minerva would take her to a nice field or county trail rather than up hillsides that are too steep for Poppy’s liking.
Though, Poppy thinks as she breaths in Minnie’s scent of lavender and something that is entirely Minnie, she can’t really complain all that much as she knows just the right ways to convince Minerva to carry her for a couple of minutes. Some of these ways include kissing the particularly sensitive spot behind Minerva’s ear or whispering seductive promises of all the things they could be doing when they get home.
Saving that thought for later Poppy kisses Minnie’s cheek explaining that she is rested and wants to continue their hike. Minnie asks her if she’s truly sure but Poppy, if nothing but determined, says that she is really looking forward to the view Minerva promised would be waiting for them at the top.
When they finally reached the top of their trail to say the view was stunning was an understatement. From where they were standing, they could see little pockets of human life surround by rolling hills of various shades of green, with of few of them being home to herds of sheep or cattle.
Minerva wrapped her arms around Poppy who leaned back into her embrace listening to the words being whispered in her ear, “Me favourite part about the view is how it perfectly shows the balance between nature and life, and how harmonious that can be.”
Poppy hums in response before turning around and letting her hands trail up Minnie’s sides before coming up to cup her face as she pulls her close. There’s a moment before Poppy leans in to capture Minnie’s lips where she thinks in passing how lucky she is to be able to have Minerva by her side. Their kiss turns heated, and Poppy is forced to break it when the need to breath becomes too important to ignore. She rests their foreheads together while they take the time to breath one another in.
“Minnie please do remember that I come on these mini adventures with you because I love you, truly. And even though you had to drag me on this, long, and treacherous hike,” Minnie chuckled at her wife’s theatrics as Poppy made a show of being extremely tired as she slumped into their embrace, “I must admit that the view was totally worth it.”
4.
Paperwork is something that Minerva is always drowning in and as her wife and primary healer, it is Poppy’s sworn duty to make sure she is still well rested.
Poppy looked up at the clock to see that it was almost midnight and Minerva still hadn’t left her office to join her in bed. This happens sometimes and Poppy understands that being a teacher, head of house and deputy headmistress, typically came with a lot of paperwork that needed to be completed. But despite her many roles, Poppy would never allow Minerva to push herself to her limits and finds that the best way to get Minnie to stop working was to retrieve her herself.
Poppy places the book she was reading on the bedside table, pushing the covers back she slips on her slippers and goes in search of her wife. She doesn’t bother to put a dressing gown over her red silk camisole and matching shorts, that were extremely too short to be wearing around the castle, but she knew the likelihood of her encountering any students were close to none.
When Hogwarts gifted the couple their shared rooms it also included two passages that lead directly to Minerva’s office and to the Hospital wing. These are extremely convenient, and Poppy made her way down the passage that would lead to her wife.
Coming towards Minerva’s office Poppy knocked on the door, just to be on the safe side, in case Minerva was tending to the concerns of a student. Despite Minnie’s stern demeanour, her office was always open for students across the school to come and talk to her about anything and everything, even after curfew. Plus, these days it wasn’t uncommon to see Mr Black or Miss Evans looking for some advice from their head of house. It did concern Poppy that it seemed the two had a lot of worries that stretch beyond school life, but she was sure that Minnie would help and listen to them like she always does.
Hearing a mumbled greeting from the other side of the door, Poppy stepped into the office and as expected was met with the image of her wife hunched over her desk working on some last-minute paperwork. Poppy glanced over Minnie noticing how some strands of her hair had come loose from her bun, framing her face in a way that Poppy found very endearing. How her glasses had fallen right to the tip of her nose, but she was obviously too engrossed in her work to be bothered to push them up. And how her tongue was slightly poking out the side of her mouth in concentration which made her look adorable if you asked Poppy, but it was a habit that Minnie always denied doing.
Realising that Minnie was too engrossed in her work to look at her, Poppy walked right over to her desk and perched herself near where Minerva was working. As predicted, this forced Minnie to look up from her work and acknowledge her wife’s presence. Poppy smirked as she watched Minnie’s eyes slowly travel down her body, noticing how intently they travelled down and back up her bare legs. Poppy cleared her throat which made Minnie’s eyes return to her face.
“Minnie it’s getting late.” The statement made Minerva look at the clock on the right side of the room, as her eyes widened when she realised that it was in fact later than she thought.
With a sheepish smile she turned back to Poppy, “Sorry, love, I lost track of time. Albus dropped by, bringing with him a bunch of his paperwork that needs to be reviewed before his meeting with the Governors tomorrow and I-“
“Minnie tell Albus to fuck off. I mean come on the man is grown and still hasn’t learnt that there are consequences for his actions. I say let the man go to that meeting unprepared and come up to bed with me.” Poppy doesn’t despise Albus, but she wasn’t thrilled that he would often leave his dirty work to her wife while he would be missing from the school grounds doing several tasks that were always more urgent. The man would find that with an effective schedule and less procrastinating he would be able to finish and review all his paperwork with time left over to eat way too many lemon drops, if he so wished.
“Pops, I get that Albus is busy and as deputy it’s me duty- “
“Nope, I refuse to leave you down here. Minnie, think about all the more…scandalous things we could be getting up to, if you would just take my hand,” With that Poppy hopped down from the desk, twirled Minnie’s chair around and straddled her wife. She started peppering Minerva’s face with feather light kisses as she tried to convey to her wife that her work could wait till the morning, “Perhaps all you need is some convincing…”
Minnie laughed at her antics, “Alright, Pops, I’ll come to bed.” Having kissed away her wife’s resolve, Poppy celebrated her victory with a rather passionate kiss with Minnie before getting off her lap and dragging her out the room.
5.
Poppy sometimes struggles with the fact that she fell for a Gryffindor.
“MINNIE! WE’RE TOO OLD FOR THIS!” Poppy wraps her arms impossibly tighter around Minnie’s waist, as they shoot through the air on the latest Nimbus model that Rolanda gave her for her birthday. Many of her close friends often teased that despite Poppy’s fear of flying and disinterest in Quidditch, she had to marry someone that was absolutely obsessed with being up in the air. Minerva chuckled at her plea but did indeed slow down just a touch for Poppy’s benefit.
Poppy sighed in relief but didn’t loosen her hold on Minnie just in case. For safety purposes only of course. She thought about how during their own years at Hogwarts Minerva played as a Chaser and would later go on to be Captain of the Gryffindor team at some point during their 5th year. Minerva participated in house games and in friendly matches and Poppy went to see her play at every opportunity. Now, just because Poppy wasn’t fond of the game, doesn’t mean that she didn’t appreciate how delicious Minerva looked while playing it. After a match Minnie’s hair looked wilder, as her cheeks were flushed in the most becoming red hue and that’s not even mentioning the feral look in her eyes when she’d won the game. And honestly, that look, it did things to Poppy.
Pomona often teased that Poppy was a disgrace to Hufflepuffs everywhere as she turned up at every Quidditch match draped in red and gold, cheering the loudest whenever Minerva scored. When they were officially dating, after every game she won, Minerva would always locate her in the stands flying over for a quick kiss before gathering with her teammates.
What their friends didn’t really figure out at the time was that while Poppy wanted to support Minnie in anyway possible, she was also at all her games making sure that she didn’t hurt herself too badly. There was only really one horrific accident in their 7th year in which Minnie took a bludger to the side that effectively knocked her off her broom and plummeting towards the ground. In the moment Poppy felt hopeless, watching her girlfriend fall from so high and she couldn’t move. Luckily, Minnie was playing Ravenclaw that match and was playing opposite Rolanda who was able to catch her just in time and lowered her softly to the ground of the pitch.
Poppy was the one who had to nurse Minerva that night in the Hospital wing. Minnie was being stubborn, and Poppy was being overbearing. But she managed to convince Minnie to let her shoulder heal completely before she attempted to fly again, which was no easy feet believe her.
“Poppy look.” Minerva’s voice brought Poppy back to the present, she had shut her eyes some moments before to try and rake in her nerves at being up so high. She opened one eye, noting that Minerva had brought them closer to the ground, meaning that she has come to the something they had come out to see in the first place. When she finally relaxed and opened her eyes fully, they widen as she saw that they were now hovering over the water of the Black Lake. Their feet barely skimming the glistening surface which reflected the ethereal moon. She carefully lowered her hand down so that it just broke the surface of the water as her eyes moved back up to see in which direction her wife was gesturing.
She gasped when she did. In front of them massive tentacles broke from the deep, moving in a motion that she could only describe as some kind of dance. The Giant Squid moved in synced repetitive patterns that created hypnotic ripples across the surface of the lake, and Poppy found herself indulging in the peace that the motions made her feel.
She let her head rest of Minnie’s shoulder as the pair watched in silence at the display before them. With one final splash, any trace of the creature disappeared as it returned to the depths of the lake below.
Poppy started to chuckle as she thought about how ridiculous she had been in trying to convince her wife not to take her on a midnight broom ride. Why did she make such a fuss when, in reality, she knew that she would let Minerva lead her anywhere?
“You know, I would never say that I hated flying…I mean if I truly did then I wouldn’t be here with you. Minnie, you make facing my fear of heights so worthwhile, never mind how much I grumble or complain…please understand that there is nowhere I’d rather be right now, than with you hovering above the lake. Because darling your presence is enough to let me know that there’s no need to be afraid.”
Poppy knew that the love sparking in Minerva’s eyes was reflected within her own. She smiled and kissed Minnie’s cheek and whispered for her to take them home.