All Hallows Eve

All Hallows’ Eve: October 31st, 1980
Poppy was never much for parties or celebrations as they most often lead to an injury or two or five. As she hurried down the street, she saw it was packed with bodies even though it had to be close to sunrise by now. There was an occasional spark of fireworks followed by loud cheering and laughter. Witches and wizards carrying on their celebrations as if they weren’t in the middle of a street filled with muggles on a holiday. Although, she supposed the holiday made the festivities seem much less out of place, she still felt unease as she watched the careless expressions of magic near so many muggles.
No one paid her any attention as she wove through the crowd, making her way downtown. She walked quickly, head down, clutching her robes around herself. She came to a tavern with a reputation for being one of the oldest establishments in this part of Surrey. The tavern smelled of wood smoke and butterbeer. Poppy went up to the bar to catch the attention of the bartender. “G’day Miss! How may I help you on this most malevolent day?” the bartender grunted with what Poppy assumed was a smile. It was difficult to tell due to the lack of teeth and the man’s desire to smile as if his mouth were full of them.
“Good evenin’ sir, I’ll not be needing much, just an audience with an elf if you catch my meaning.” Said Poppy in a low voice.
The bartender sniffed and looked her over for a moment before turning around and disappearing into the back room. Poppy stood there for a moment wondering if she should try to leave. For all she knew he could have been going to get someone she most likely wouldn’t want to talk to right now. She took too long trying to decide and was still standing at the bar when the man returned with a short stocky witch who slowly made a beeline for Poppy. “Follow me.” She said with a wave of her hand as she passed the anxious woman. “My name is Maeve and I’ll be helping you get where you need to go my dear.”
“Poppy.” She said with a sigh “My name is Poppy, I am very appreciative of your assistance, Maeve, will we be going far?” She asked anxiously taking a peak into her robes.
“No, now come along, we’ll be there shortly” Maeve led them out of the tavern and back onto the street. Despite her stature and width, Maeve wove through the crowd with a quickness that Poppy almost missed her chance to follow as she stood there wondering how Maeve managed to become so fast. Poppy would have lost track of her had she not run after her and stayed close enough that she was practically stepping on the older lady’s heels. It was almost as if no one on the street noticed her, she slipped passed them moving through gaps between bodies that were not more than cracks in the crowd, seemingly undetectable.
They ended up on the opposite side of the street moving down towards the center of the city. The cities late night celebrations were finally winding down and the sky was a bright navy blue in the distance. Poppy saw many muggles and wizard’s stumbling back to their homes with drunken smiles on their faces as they greeted each person they passed. The joy was infectious. But not to her.
Maeve ducked into an alleyway so quickly that Poppy almost missed her, if not for Maeve reaching out to grab onto her sleeve as she passed, they would have lost each other. “This way.” She said in a low voice as she led them down the empty alleyway. They came to a stop in front of a door with a large round door knocker in the middle of it and no doorknob. Poppy watched the other woman pick up the knocker and rap on the door three times, but she didn’t hear any noise. Maeve stood back and stared at the door waiting.
“Maeve, I don’t mean to be rude but I don’t think that door knocker works properly, I saw you use it but I didn’t hear a—” she was cut off by the door opening with a quickness that startled her. She looked at the other woman sheepishly and followed her inside. She noted the smirk on Maeve’s face as the door swung shut behind them.
“Calliope!” Maeve called out. There was a small pop which introduced a small house elf with very large ears. “Goodness! There you are!” she said. “This woman needs the services of a house elf.” She turned to Poppy, “I have found you a house elf. It’s been lovely meeting you, good day.” Before swiftly exiting the building.
“But—” Poppy stood there with her mouth hanging open staring at the closed door where the woman had just abandoned her. She looked down at the house elf. “Calliope?” She asked.
“Yes miss.” Squeaked the elf.
Poppy looked at the elf for a long time, Calliope seemed uncomfortable under her scrutiny as she looked down at her feet. “Is there something I can be helping her miss with?” Calliope said tentatively.
The woman let out a great sigh, “Well that’s what I’m hoping for, I’ve heard that there are certain elves that help when witches, or wizards, find themselves in rather… unorthodox situations.”
The small elf stared up at the witch in confusion, “You know, when there are children involved who can’t… stay… with them…” Poppy looked at the ground and then at Calliope who’s eyes had grown wide. “Yes miss, yes, Callie is understanding what the miss is needing now. Stay here, I will be back.” And she disapparated with a pop.
Poppy looked around the small space she found herself virtually alone in. It looked like it had once been a bar or a shop itself with a counter off to the far side that covered the entire wall. There was staircase leading up to an unknown second level straight ahead of her and a few pieces of furniture scattered around a coffee table in the front of the counter. She barely had time to walk to one of the couches and consider sitting down before there was a pop followed by a second one. She turned around to see Calliope standing next to a very tall wizard wearing periwinkle robes and half moon spectacles in front of his bright blue eyes.
The wizard looked at her intensely for a moment before drawing his wand and with a flourish he produced a small fire with a teapot hanging over it on top of the coffee table. “Would you care for some tea?” He asked. Poppy stared at him for a moment before realizing that her mouth was open, she closed it and was able to croak out “Yes, that would be lovely, thank you.” Before taking a seat on one of the armchairs.
“What is your name?” He asked.
“Poppy Pomfrey.” She replied in a tired voice.
“Well Ms. Pomfrey, it is lovely to meet you. My name is Albus Dumbledore, you may call me Albus if you’d would like. Now if you wouldn’t mind my dear lady, please tell me what it is that’s brought us here together today.”
“Well Mr. Dumbledore, Albus, I seem to have found myself in a bit of a situation which I am most definitely not prepared to deal with.” She began. “I am a Healer so I am not ignorant of what happens when a person has had their mind messed with in more than one way. I have almost no memory of anything that has happened to me recently, not for months. Up until today.”
As I said I’m a Healer so I assume that’s why I found myself delivering a premature baby from a very violent woman who passed away too quickly to have even held her child.” As she told her story she pulled back her robes and untucked her sleeping bundle she had wrapped up in blankets. She pulled back the blanket’s revealing an impressive amount of curly black hair on top of a tiny pale face. Her lips were a sweet red like a cherry underneath her button nose, her eyes were still closed for the moment so Poppy continued her story rather quietly. “I couldn’t tell you who the parents are but I do know that we were alone in a one room, unenchanted safehouse with a dead woman only a few hours before now.”
Albus had plenty of questions, only a few of which could be answered by Poppy herself. “So you helped to deliver a child that you then witnessed become an orphan and you saved it from being abandoned in an empty house and now you are seeking assistance in the care of that child?”
“I don’t think I would be the one to care for this child at all, sir. I need to help her find a new home and I had heard rumors that there were ways to find those kinds of families in secret. I don’t believe the origins of this child’s life are going to be easy to overcome. Nor do I think that she is safe from those who would wish to do her harm even now. I’ve hidden her as we’ve traveled but that doesn’t mean that the evidence of her birth and the body of her mother is still in an abandoned safehouse where anyone could find it and guess at her existence. She needs to be safeguarded, not just taken into a home.”
Albus looked at her over his spectacles, “what is it that makes you most anxious for her safety?” he looked down at the sleeping girl and nudged her hand with his own causing her to close her tiny finger’s around his pointer finger while she slept.
“Her lineage will always be debatable but I can tell you one thing for certain, she is not safe. The woman whom I helped give birth to her was no ordinary witch and I don’t think I could have been in any ordinary safehouse.” She said staring at Albus with a fierce look, “Her mother is Bellatrix Lestrange.”