pmfry

[pmfry]

poppy being the second person (after minnie mcg) to put her wand up for dumbledore in the movie version of hbp makes me really happy

[pmfry]

i do just get really emotional over the faculty members who work together for decades and the sheer amount of shared history,  both personal and collective,  both joyful and traumatic.   like... what a beautiful found family. 

[pmfry]

lupiinee​:

OOH  MERLIN  THAT  WAS  SOME  POTENT  STUFF  .  remus  found  his  eyes  drooping  the  second  that  he  had  sat  down  ,  but  had  hoped  that  he  would  get  a  chance  to  read  some  before  he  completely  drifted  off  .  the  potion  was  strong  ,  but  had  definitely  taken  away  a  lot  of  his  pain  .  just  the  bare  minimum  remained  &&  if  he  was  honest  ,  the  bare  minimum  was  a  good  day  for  him  .  so  ,  it  was  GOOD .  it  felt  nice  .  a  warm  feeling  in  the  centre  of  his  stomach  that  spread  out  across  his  extremities  .  the  armchair  he  had  chosen  was  a  deliberate  choice  .  he  had  hoped  that  if  he  had  settled  in  the  staff  room  ,  then  he’d  be  less  inclined  to  sleep  .  less  INCLINED  to  drop  off  .

closing  his  eyes  ,  he  felt  himself  drop  slightly  .  head  pressed  against  his  hand  ,  he  felt  exhausted  ,  &&  book  in  his  other  hand  ,  remus  felt  HIMSELF  being  sucked  into  the  world  of  dark  ,  comforting  ,  potion  induced  sleep  .

|| OPEN

she was in a rush,   as ever she was ;    decades had gone by since poppy moved through this world with anything other than overt purpose with an undercurrent of haste.   appearances in the staff room,   which had always been a rarity and usually at the behest of another member of the faculty,    had become all the more infrequent that year.     shadows of dementors passing over the windows of her wing like macabre ghosts cast deeper shadows in the fine lines of her face,  and every moment not there to keep watch over her charges alighted a new anxiety in her bones.   

so it would have been easy for her to miss him,  and how shameful that would have been.   the first sight of him stilled her hummingbird heart,   gave pause immediate to the rustling of her skirt from her shuffling steps.   

then she was back in motion,  locating from her periphery a blanket on a nearby couch,   one warm and soft and calling forth to memory at least one christmas eve by this very room’s fire.    it was muscle memory to carry it to him,   to softly shake loose its folds and to drape them gently over his aching frame.   a standard of care achievable only by hand,   of course.   magic never would do,   never had done.    not for him.       his current position rendered impossible the complete tuck-in she would have liked.   she reached to extract the book from his hand,   setting it aside without regard for its title.   empty fingers twitched,  then,   resisting an urge she could identify as self-indulgent to push back a hair she deemed out of place.  

had he ever had a sleep so peaceful ?    none she could recall. 

[pmfry]

making teenage poppy icons knowing damn well there is no conceivable way for me to need to use them

[pmfry]

old people who still have stacks of love letters from their young loves >>>>

[pmfry]

a man walks into a bar,   orders a drink,   sees a pretty barmaid who catches his eye. 

said pretty girl,  it turns out,   is a raging lesbian who denies his advances,  but takes note of how respectful he is when she turns him down,   how warmhearted he is when he greets his friends upon their arrival,   and how chiseled his jawline is.    so she finds out when he next intends to wander in and painstakingly arranges for her sister to come pay her a visit at work that same night.    

and the rest,   as they say,   is history.    

COMPARATIVE STUDY :   COURTSHIP

maximillian john etheridge iv --- known to his loved ones as max ---- and penelope marie pomfrey --- known to literally everyone as poppy ---  begin their courtship in the spring of 1968 at the behest of her older sister,  pippa.   perfect equals and perfect opposites ;   they are both found quickly head over heels,    magnetically attracted.   their relationship unfolds through flowing,  prosaic love letters,   as he travels frequently with his job as a curse braker,   and she,  in her third year as matron of hogwarts,   hardly has an abundance of free time.    but they are consistent with one another.    he is tender with her heart and she is open to his humor.  

the summer of 1968 is long and languid,   and they learn that their bodies,   much like their souls,   fit together as perfect puzzle pieces.   the 1968-1969 school year,   poppy uses more leave than ever before or ever again in order to see him,  to spend evenings with him when he can come to town,    laughing together and dining with pippa at the three broomsticks and kissing under the moonlight.  

they talk about forever – a place in hogsmeade where he can stay when he isn’t traveling for work and how they will balance her work and his work and their kids and their parents. 

and so,   at christmastime,  with rising tensions at the beginning of the first war sparking around them,  he, like so many young men in love in these times, asks her father for her hand,   and by the new year,   a pretty diamond sits upon it.     poppy weeps with joy and their mothers begin preparations for them to wed at the end of the school term in may. 

tragedy strikes  in april of 1970 when pippa is killed in a death eater strike of hogsmeade village.   sorrow encircles the pomfrey family like a dark cloud and poppy’s mother,   already in poor health from chronic illness which has plagued her for decades,   falls especially fragile.   max shows up for poppy’s family unwaveringly and,  against the will of his own mother,  petitions for the wedding to be postponed to august to give the pomfreys time to grieve. 

they never make it there.   

COMPARATIVE STUDY:  BROKEN ENGAGEMENT

one fateful summer night,  max informs poppy she must plan to resign from her position at hogwarts.   max reveals to her his plans to flee britain.    he plans for them to travel,  he says.    see the world.    he plans to bring her parents with them,    he says.    take them away from this war,   find a climate more suitable for her mother’s condition.  they could settle somewhere in america,     he says,    have that house and kids they’ve can dreamed of,  a beautiful life away from the death she has known too long in her line of work and the destruction that tears their life apart from every angle.

one can imagine how well poppy reacts to the proposition that she would want,   that she could ever dream,  to simply leave.  her home.  her patients.  her students.  her life’s work. 

COMPARATIVE STUDY:   IMPACT

and so their engagement is broken.    and so he leaves her,   crumpled on the staircase,  never to be heard from again as long as they both live.   and so she never loves again,   having learned from him the most somber lesson :   that nothing and no one reigns over her heart as much as her sense of duty.  

[pmfry]

netflix and cry about poppy’s thestral patronus 

[pmfry]

@proditeur​ :   liked for a starter back in august

❛  i’m fine,   madam.    alright,  madam.   right as rain,  madam.  ❜  tutting mockery as she circumnavigates a bed destined for him,    corners of fresh sheets tucked by hand despite knowing magic would do.    ❛  now if i had a galleon for every time i’ve heard that,   i’d have enough to buy the whole of hogsmeade !       SIT.     HUSH.  ❜  

[pmfry]

has it been long enough that i can repost the meta abt poppy’s broken engagement

[pmfry]

i love poppy pomfrey

[pmfry]

weird hour of the night to be posting this but if you see this and want a poppy starter,  like it and i’ll throw one @ you next time i’m on

[pmfry]

i really value the “madam pomfrey never asks too many questions” line from harry.  i really do.  

[pmfry]

i tend to focus a lot on poppy’s gentleness and her good qualities.   and i do,  genuinely,  think her to be a pretty virtuous person.

but i also think it’s impossible to write a character who is motivated primarily by a sense of duty without acknowledging that there is pride inherent in that.   like... you’ve gotta think p highly of yourself   (or,  at least,   your abilities)   to think that your ability to offer your services is what defines you.    to think that you are that much of an indispensable piece in the game of life.

poppy is damn good at her job.  canon shows it.   even harry -- who has good reason to be critical of how adults/caretakers/authority figures in his life handle shit -- is complimentary of her within his narration.   but she’s definitely gotten an,,,,, aggrandized view of her role.   and has certainly tried to overplay her hand on different school issues over the years.  

[pmfry]

*blows a kiss to anyone who originally found me for kingsley but then also followed me me over here on poppy*

[pmfry]

i just woke up from a nap but if we’re spreading fandom hate

fic that erases poppy from the narrative for hurt/comfort purposes.    sometimes,  for small ailments,  i can suspend my disbelief for the sake of whump.   but w*lf/star shippers in particular love to throw in lines about how “pomfrey can’t help this time” or that remus is in such bad shape only padfoot’s cuddles can save him and it makes me want to bleach my eyeballs

[pmfry]

something about poppy is that she simply doesn’t talk about things that have happened to her in the past ?    like unless you KNEW HER when something happened,  she probably won’t bring it up.  

[pmfry]

pmfry​:

a fact that i learned 5 years ago that still lives rent free in my mind is that sunday september 4th --> 5th 1971 was a full moon, which means that remus spent his first weekend at hogwarts transforming