My Headcanons for Poppy Sweeting for Hogwarts Legacy:
• Looks like a cinnamon roll but will actually show that Badger side of Hufflepuff if anyone harms animals or someone she trusts. Cause she is a fierce duelist she just doesn’t like to show it.
• Growing up with her parents as poachers she’s got tough skin and not afraid of any bully that tries to pick on her at Hogwarts.
• I feel like Poppy and Ominis would get along very well. At first Ominis wouldn’t want someone new in his inner circle but as the MC invites Poppy to sit at the Slytherin table and on the adventures with them, they start getting along because they both know what it’s like being raised by horrible parents. It’s a surprise friendship.
• Prefers being around animals instead of people because animals won’t judge or harm you in ways people can. Being around creatures helps soothe all the pain she’s seen growing up and strives to make sure all animals are protected.
• She had enough of being around poachers when she was traumatized by a huge slaughtering of innocent creatures which resulted in her being able to see Thestrals. She immediately left her parents and moved in with her Gran.
• She is the sunshine and healer of the group. She radiates positivity and keeps everyone in the light of any dark situation they get themselves in. She’s always ready for any adventure outside the castle and is there for her friends and will stand by them thick and thin.
• After saving the Golden Snidgets Dorran spoke to his herd and they had Poppy and the MC become trusted by the Centaurs which is high honor and it is rare that Centaurs will trust a witch or wizard. So whenever they’re in danger in the Forbidden Forest they’ll come to their aid.
• After everything Poppy opened herself up and to making new friends at Hogwarts. She became close friends to Adelaide Oakes, Natsai Onai & Ominis Gaunt.
• She cherishes any gift given to her by her friends and she’ll already have another gift planned for them.
In this story, Garreth, Poppy, and Zsuzsi set off the to go get advice and assistance from the centaurs to save another magical species that is in danger of extinction.
“Poppy wait up!” Zsuzsi called out to her Hufflepuff friend with Garreth Weasley following behind her.
Poppy stopped in her tracks with a jump, somehow not noticing they had followed her after herbology. She looked at them carefully, “What are you two doing here?”
“We were going to ask you the same question.” Garreth noted, “We haven’t seen much of you since you left the dragon hideaway in such a rush. And now you seem to be in the same rush again.”
Zsuzsi looked at her sympathetically, “You were in such a state when you left, we want to make sure everything is alright.”
“It’s a long story…” Poppy attempted to inform them
“We have time.” Garreth told her firmly.
Poppy sighed, “Alright, the truth is, I found out that the poachers got to my gran. Someone recognized me at Horntail Hall and they got to her.”
Zsuzsi watched as Garreth’s expression change to one with more concern, “What do you mean? Is she alright?”
“She’s fine.” Poppy assured them, “Thank goodness,But they were at her house, they assumed I took the egg there. Gran told me that the poachers took the whole play apart looking for it, screaming that we had cost them everything.”
“I’m sorry Poppy.” Zsuzsi apologized even though she was fully aware it was not any of them to blame for the poachers actions, “I am glad she’s alright, I don’t think any of us could have anticipated that outcome.”
Poppy stamped her foot on the ground, seemingly mad at herself, “I should have known, I underestimated the minds of the poachers, and they haven’t stopped. They refused to leave empty handed so they took valuable journals that Gran had discovered during her research of the Golden Snidget and other rare creatures. They contained journals on where the long thought to be extinct Golden Snidget was hiding. Gran says the journals were a bit cryptic, which is good I suppose. Perhaps the poachers won’t be clever enough to decipher the riddles, however I have underestimated them before. From what my Gran recalls, they only mentioned the key to finding them ‘lay in the moonlight’ and she luckily thinks it can be narrowed down to only a handful of locations.” She looked at her friends with a dire expression, “I am going to the centaurs for guidance so I don’t have to drag you two into this mess again. After all, this will be more dangerous. Because the Snidgets are so rare, the poachers will get more money than ever before, I don’t want to imagine it. My gran doesn’t want to me to intervene, but I know she will be devastated in the snidgets officially become extinct because of the greedy poachers.”
“We are coming with you whether you like it or not.” Garreth assured her.
“He’s right.” Zsuzsi smiled, “If you want to outsmart the poachers you will need as many minds as you can, and we have helped you before so we know what we are up against.”
Poppy sighed, “Seems like I don’t have a choice, but alright, I thank you for your loyalty, just…try to be safe.”
“Fair enough.” Garreth shrugged, “Now let’s meet these centaurs.”
“Follow me.” Poppy instructed as she turned and continued her way towards the forest, noticeably slower than before so Zsuzsi and Garreth could keep up.
They walked alongside the wooded trail and a small body of water in silence before Poppy calmly broke it with her soothing voice yet cautious words, “Hopefully the centaurs will be able to see that we are sincere. There is something about them that’s so knowing, it’s almost unnerving.”
Suddenly, before either Garreth or Zsuzsi could make a comment. The three Hogwarts students heard the sound of rapid galloping in the distance. They turned to their right and saw one centaur, then two, and then four, and then many more. By the time they turned around to their other side, there were just as many, all coming together to form a circle around them in an almost hostile manner.
One centaur in particular, Zsuzsi assumed he was the leader, stepped forward, “What do you humans think you are doing here?” He fiercely asked them.
“Please.” Poppy pleaded as she stood in front of Zsuzsi and Garreth being the voice of their group, “We were hoping to speak with you-“
“Ah.” The centaur interrupted her, “I’d suppose you’d like a tale for your friends of time you spoke to a centaur and ‘it’ spoke back.”
“No. Never.” Poppy assured him. “We are here because we need your help-“
“Enough!” The centaur exclaimed, once again interrupting Poppy mid sentence, the rudeness of the centaur and lack of empathy made Zsuzsi’s blood boil even though she knew he was in the right to be overly cautious, “You made a grave error in judgement in coming here.” He raised his hand and it seemed to be an order for the centaurs surrounding them to pull out their arrows and pull back their string in preparation to shoot. In fact, Zsuzsi noticed that some were just about to let their arrows fling, allowing them to pierce through their skin, when an older centaur stepped forward, preventing them.
“Let them be Elek.” He calmly ordered, “We do not harm the young. It is not our way.”
“You forget your place old fool.” The centaur that seemed to be the one speaking before named Elek spat, “I am the leader of this herd and while you cling to ‘our way’ their kind continues to slaughter beasts without a care.”
The old centaur carefully examined Poppy, Zsuzsi, and Garreth before turning back to Elek, “From what I can see, these children have slaughtered no one and they will leave the forest unharmed.”
Elek sternly glared at the old centaur but eventually compromised, “Mark my words Dorran, if I ever see them again, it will be all four of your heads.” And with that all the centaurs, except for the considerate one who had just saved their lives, galloped off into the distance.
The old centaur looked at them carefully once more, “Foolish children, Do you know what happens to wizards who wander here, now follow me before-“
“Golden snidgets are still alive and the poachers are after them!” Garreth blurted out rather loudly.
Poppy continued, adding on to what Garreth stated, “They know that the key to finding them lies in the moonlight. But they don’t know what that means.. yet. Please, help us find the snidgets before the poachers do.”
“Could it be-?” The old centaur breathed after being silent for what seemed like minutes, “In the south there is a cave within which lies what the poachers seek- a moonstone. Retrieve it and place it in the henge in the forest. You will find me when you have finished this, now if you don’t mind I must speak with the herd.” He finished before leaving in the same direction the rest of the centaurs departed in just moments before.
Zsuzsi turned to Poppy, “So the moonlight mentioned in the journal doesn’t refer to actual moonlight but to a moonstone. What do moonstones have to do with snidgets?”
Poppy shook her head, “I don’t know.”
“Why go to this mysterious cave when we can find moonstones much closer to the castle.” Garreth proposed, “It’ll be much easier and get us ahead of the poachers.”
“I don’t think it would be wise.” Poppy pointed out, “Knowing centaurs, I suspect he is referring to a specific moonstone, and if that’s the case, we will know it when we see it.” Poppy sighed, “It’s a shame how quickly he left, what was his name? I think the leader called him Dorran?”
“That sounds right.” Garreth ran his hand through his red hair.
“Well I suppose we should not question a centaur.” Poppy noted, “and he seems to be genuine, let’s go find this moonstone.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With the exception of the some rather aggressive dugbogs and a peculiar puzzle involving butterflies, the moonstone was fairly easy to retrieve if one knew what they were doing. Zsuzsi firmly held it now as she walked with Garreth and Poppy back to the forest. She admired its other worldly pure coloring, it truly did look like a moon that you could hold in your hands, truly whimsical.
“There’s the henge.” Poppy pointed to a stone structure with a hole in its facade just big enough to secure the moonstone without it falling and shattering. “Precisely where Dorran said it would be.”
“You seem hesitant.” Garreth observed.
“It’s just that Dorran never did say what would happen when we placed the moonstone in the henge.” Poppy explained. “It could be something truly amazing or truly disastrous.”
“Well we aren’t going to know if we don’t try.” Garreth confidently reminded her.
“Garreth’s right.” Zsuzsi agreed, “and if this is what needs to be done to save the snidgets from extinction, then it is something we need to do.”
“I suppose that is true.” Poppy nodded, “perhaps I am just worrying over nothing.” She then turned to Zsuzsi, “Let’s place the moonstone where it belongs, we are nearly at the end of this.”
As Zsuzsi carefully approached the henge and placed the moonstone where it belonged, she heard Garreth ask Poppy, “How is your gran holding up.”
Zsuzsi could imagine Poppy looked more cheerful judging by her tone, “Nothing keeps gran down. She set up a Caterwauling Charm and threatened to make a coat out of the next poacher that stepped on her doorstep.”
Zsuzsi looked around after placing the moonstone in the henge, “It seems like nothing out of the ordinary happened.”
“Perhaps you should look in front of your Schroder.” Garreth advised.
Zsuzsi took his advice and looked in front of her and saw that a mooncalf was standing in front of her. The grey figure looked up at her with moonstone like eyes. As it’s head moved around curiously, so did the creature’s long neck. Zsuzsi was certainly relieved that the mooncalf was much calmer compared to the dragons she recently had to deal with
Suddenly, the mooncalf got on its hind legs and started dancing, along with other mooncalfs, creating some type of symbol on the ground that seemed to glow thanks to the radiant moonstone. Zsuzsi watched in amusement and awe and took a few glimpses at Garreth and Poppy who also had similar reactions, it almost seemed like everything was right with the world in that moment.
After the mooncalfs departed, Poppy was the first to speak, “That was a mooncalf dance! Do you both know how rare it is to even see one? They only ever happen under a full moon - although I suppose the moonstone allowed it to happen now.”
Garreth looked around him at the pattern confused, “Is this pattern they left behind on the ground normal?”
“All part of the dance.” Poppy confirmed with a smile, “No pattern is ever the same though, we will need to draw it for reference.”
“I’ll take care of that.” Zsuzsi offered as she pulled a notepad where she kept her potions and potion ingredients lists, as well as a quill and transfigured a nearby rock into a bottle of ink.
As Zsuzsi worked on the sketch she listened to Poppy as she continued where she left off, “I can’t wait to tell my Gran I’ve managed to not see one but two mooncalf dances. She’ll be jealous.”
Zsuzsi looked up from her work, “You never mentioned you’ve seen a mooncalf dance before, what was it like?”
“Well it was pure luck the first time.” Poppy explained, “Only reason I spotted it was because I was on Highwing, it was the night-“ she then began to stutter, “Well, the night I met Highwing, actually I-“
“You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to.” Garreth comforted her.
“I’d actually like both of you to know.” Poppy assured them, “About five or so years ago, Highwing had been captured by poachers. At first they planned to sell her, but soon decided they wanted to kill her instead, more money I suppose. I had finally had enough and freed Highwing and we ran. We had flown for ages when I spotted mooncalves dancing and we landed to watch them. It felt like an omen, a good one. A sign that the worst was over.” She took a deep breath, “You see, the night I freed Highwing was also the night I ran away from home, a poacher camp… I come from a family of poachers.”
“Merlin.” Garreth breathed with shock, “I don’t know what to say Poppy. I can’t imagine what that must have been like, hard enough seeing the animals tortured by the poachers for an hour much less all hours of the day.”
“I never fitted in.” Poppy explained, “but I became more apparent if it the older I got, Gran tried for years to convince my parents to let me live with her. Suffice to say, when I left with Highwing I flew straight for her house.”
“How brave.” Zsuzsi smiled at Poppy, as she placed the last few details on her sketch, “I think I speak for both me and Garreth when I say I’m glad you escaped.”
Poppy smiled heartwarmingly, “So am I. There were so many creatures I was unable to help when I was younger and now it’s all I want to do.”
“Well from everything I’ve seen.” Garreth commented, “You are doing great.”
“Thank you for listening.” Poppy beamed again, “I’ve never told anyone any of this, but I’m glad you both know, it’s better not to keep you both in the dark.” She then turned to Zsuzsi, “Have you completed the sketch?”
“Yes.” Zsuzsi confirmed, “Now let’s get to Dorran and show him, we still have some poachers to defeat.”
A Legend is floating around that a Steef Guardian resides deep within the cold forests of Northern Mudos. This beast is large, aggressive, and has fur blacker than the night’s sky. Those scared off by this beast claim it has smoldering green eyes that stare into one’s soul. He is a great protector of the lands and nobody dares to turn up his soil.
Dorran is one of very few tundra dwelling steef still alive after the hunting craze. Many of his people were taken for slaughter- hunted to near complete extinction. The steef were killed for their furs and poached for trophies, especially those with the best set of horns. Dorran has buried his past and refuses to let it keep him tied down. He still has night terrors of those unforgettable nights.
He is aloof, silent, and strong. Dorran’ s presence is just enough to intimidate anyone whether he means harm or not. The steef lives alone off the land’s resources and has become quite the blacksmith. Dorran forges his own weapons and armor in order to protect the North territory, and the indigenous Grubb folk that live there.
Warm-up turned impromptu reference haha. My OC Dorran before and after The Brotherhood. He spent nearly 20 years as a nomad, travelling across the country.
