A New Understanding
“Hans?” Poppy raised her head from his shoulder, pushing just slightly against his body so she could look up and into his eyes.
Hans lifted his chin from her head, lifting his arms from her back and letting them rest on the curve of her forearm, holding her gently as he stared into her adorable brown eyes. “Mmm?”
“What now?”
His brow furrowed at her question, as he considered her question. What now? Hans didn’t know, he didn’t know how to answer that kind of question, so he decided it would be best to figure out what she meant, “What do you mean?”
Poppy stared at him for a moment, thinking, before answering quite timidly, in a way that made Hans’s heart bloom, “Well, I, I don’t know. What happens now? Where does this go? Where do we go? Me? You? Us?”
Hans considered her question for a moment, thinking how he would answer, how it was best answered. He decided, once more, he would continue forward by turning a question on her, “Let me ask you this, what do you want to happen?”
“I didn’t- I don’t know. I like you, I like you a lot,” Poppy began stammering and stumbling her way through an answer, “I really do. You’re amazing. You’re smart, and cute, and funny, and brave and you’re just so many great things. But, but, what about- about my Gran? What about your parents? What about the summer? What about-“
Hans brought one of his fingers up to her lips, pressing it gently against her to stop her from continuing. His smile was warm and gentle, and despite her intense embarrassment and blush, she couldn’t help herself to feel the same fuzzy feeling as before as he smiled, “Shh… I didn’t ask any of that. I asked what you wanted to do.”
Poppy stared at Hans with wide and reproachful eyes, not tripping over her words this time as she answered slowly, “I want to stay with you… forever.”
Her answered surprised Hans a great deal, so much so that all he could do was break out in a wide grin and pull her close, embracing her tightly. Poppy melted into the hug, resting her head back on his chest and listening to his heart beat, feeling how just listening to it slowed her own. They stayed there for a moment, wishing to themselves that this would never end.
“You still didn’t answer my question,” Poppy mumbled, muffled by his chest.
Hans’s hands rose from their place locked behind her back to Poppy’s shoulders, pulling himself away from her as he looked back into her eyes, a grin on his face, “I suppose I didn’t.”
“What that was supposed to say was that I would gladly keep you with me too, by my side no matter what. The worries and the questions that come with it are valid, and I get it, but we should answer those things as we go, let’s not try and digest it all at once,” Hans paused, flicking his eyes up to the Graphorn that was walking past them, moving behind Poppy and back toward his resting place before they arrived, before continuing, “I really really really like you, Poppy, and I’m glad we have come this far. So, if what you want that we should brave the darkness together, and take this relationship one step at a time, then I’m all for that. Let’s get through school, let’s court and enjoy each other.”
Poppy was staring up at Hans in surprise, digesting everything he had just said. He was speaking so fast, and everything he said just made sense. Her face lit up into a bright smile, and she pulled him back into a powerful hug. “Yes, let’s do that, I like that,” she whispered into his shoulder, leaning into him so much that he had to take a slight step back to balance himself.
“Good, I like that too,” he mumbled back, setting his chin back on her head. He fell silent for a moment, before deciding that he would keep going, “and I really like you too, I don’t know if I said that already. I think you are just the most amazing and brightest thing on this planet.”
Poppy smiled into his shoulder, “No, that’s you.” She closed her eyes and hung onto this moment for as long as she could, as if her life depended on it.
After only so long(in their opinions not long enough) in each other’s embrace, they pulled apart. Hans shook down the sleeve to peer at his watch, which glinted in the seaside sun. The watch face was black, with the numbers and lines that made the clock itself were a cream white. The glass of the watch was severely scratched, and the hands were slightly bent. The leather strap that held the watch his wrist was, much like the watch face, worn, though still quite durable. He peered at the time, before dropping his hand and looking back at Poppy, who had been watching with interest.
“We should probably start heading back, I don’t think we should miss dinner tonight,” Hans said, smiling at her and turning toward the door to exit the vivarium, that appeared to be only an opening in the cliff face behind them.
Two questions went through Poppy’s mind as she followed next to him, trying to keep the gap between them as minimized as possible, keeping him close. Hans’s left arm(the side Poppy was on) moved around her shoulders and ensured this desire of Poppy’s whilst she pointed out, “I didn’t know you had a watch.”
Hans chuckled slightly, “I keep it hidden beneath my robes, usually. It was my father’s, German crafted. He took it with him when he moved to America.”
These words made Poppy realize many things, the biggest being that the boy she had just kissed, she didn’t really know. That is, she didn’t know much about him. Poppy knew him for things he did, and the things he said. She knew he had an American mother and a German father, alongside his two younger siblings, but beyond that, she didn’t know much else.
Poppy got to know Hans off of her adventures with him. From the days after he met her and Highwing, their friendship only became stronger and stronger. It became well known to her that he was a good soul, with a heart full of compassion. Despite being a Ravenclaw, and a brilliant and insightful thinker for that, he had the heart of a Hufflepuff. Not only that but he had the spirit of Gryffindor, the only thing he seemed to lack was the ambition of the snake.
This was clear to her on the day they met, when she watched him feed and brush all of the animals, taking care to not harm or frighten them in any sort of way. Poppy also saw it in their adventures. Despite his anger with the poachers in their terrible acts against the animals, whenever they showed any kind of hesitation he would show them instant mercy. Not once did Poppy see him use an Unforgivable Curse, and more than that, she had the chance to discuss the Dark Arts with him on many occasions.
Hans was heavily opposed to the Dark Arts in any sort of way. No. Not heavily. Religiously opposed. Hans saw the Dark Arts, in any sort of way, as a blight, and necessary to be treated as so. Yet despite this, Hans did not see those who used the Dark Arts as lost or terrible; he pitied him.
And that was what Poppy saw the most, and saw as the best out of him. His compassion. There was nothing anybody could do that would make him turn his back on them. Did he believe that they should know the truth of their actions, and their actions be condemned? Yes, often enough yes, but he would not turn his back on them.
Despite all of that, however, it was only Hans’s character that Poppy knew. The actions he took. The things he did. His past? No, that to her was a mystery, and it did intrigue her. He never spoke of those kinds of things, and whenever they were brought up, he would avoid those kinds of questions. Poppy wondered why, but figured that he had his reasons.
“Oh,” Poppy nodded at this sudden knowledge, before continuing with her second question, “why shouldn’t we miss dinner?”
Hans signed, pausing and looking up at the ceiling. Poppy stumbled forward, and were it not for his arm already around her shoulders, she would have most likely fallen. “Why did you stop?”
Hans did not speak for a moment, instead he kept his eyes on the ceiling. Poppy turned her body so it was pressing against his chest so she could get a better look at his face. “Hans?”
“Professor Weasley… Professor Weasley said that they were going to talk to the school about.. about Monday,” he said, still not looking at her, despite her intense gaze at his face.
“Oh,” Poppy gazed up at him, wishing he would just look at him, “I’m sorry,” she whispered, taking her left hand and placing it on his chest and leaning into him.
“It’s- it’s okay,” Hans finally looked down at Poppy, lowering his left arm and letting his hand fall into her right hand.
Poppy intwined her fingers with his, smiling at him in a way that she hoped would cheer him up, or at the very least distract him. Hans smiled back, leaning into her and bowing his head, kissing her gently on the forehead. “Thank you, thank you for caring.”
What kind of statement was that? Of course she would care, Poppy was utterly bemused. “Why- why wouldn’t I care? Of course I care, anybody would care, right?”
Hans just smiled at her, before pulling his hand out of her grasp and putting it around her shoulders again. “Come on, let’s hurry up so we don’t miss anything.”