- May, 1874 | Poppy is born to Georgiana and Alexander Dashwood on May 10th to a brand new nursery decorated specifically for her. (Or so she’d like to think.) She is a spoiled baby and she cries a lot.
- Jan, 1877 | Poppy lives a fairly simple, charmed life. At the age of three she displays her first signs of magic by levitating a toy that the nursemaid had left just out of her reach. Likely for good reason; the eye button is loose and there’s fear she might choke on it. That said, Poppy never once touches the poor thing’s eye instead opting to pull on its ears instead.
- Aug, 1883 | At nine years old Poppy is caught, again, by her governess getting into mischief. This time she’s found with ripped tights, a muddied dress, flowers in her hair and collecting mice for one of her make-believe ‘potion’ brews. (She fancied herself a capable witch from a young age and tried to prove it to everyone.) The governess yells at her in the parlor thinking Mrs. Dashwood is from home, and calls her “a hellion sent from below”. The governess is promptly dismissed that afternoon but the phrase sticks with Poppy, always undermining her self-esteem when it comes to getting into trouble. Also this year scandalous things occur behind closed doors that Poppy is not privy to regarding her half-brother Langston. She never had much of an opinion on him, but now she feels she has reason to turn her nose up. (Even if she doesn't quite know what that reason is.)
- 1885 - 1886 | Poppy receives her official letter to Hogwarts and ships off with her owl, new quills, and a massive pit in her stomach that she’s going to be sorted into Slytherin and turn into an evil hellion. Later that year she meets Juniper — solidifying that very prophecy, even though she’s ultimately sorted into Ravenclaw.
- 1886 - 1889 | Nothing too remarkable happens in Poppy’s second, third and fourth years. She comes into her own as a student, realizing she has a penchant for academia, and she expends equal effort studying and getting into trouble. In these three years she likely looses as many house-points for mischief as she gains through her correct answers in class.
- 1889 - 1891 | Throughout her fifth and sixth years, Poppy focuses a great deal on her O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts, specifically focusing on Potions, Herbology, Alchemy, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. In this time she also begins to get into a new kind of mischief, one that involves boys and bears a lot more risk to her reputation. She becomes sneakier and even more rebellious than before.
- Fall 1891 - 1892 | Now seventeen, almost eighteen!, and preparing to graduate from Hogwarts - Poppy is on the cusp of being unleashed upon society. Her mother has determined this upcoming spring is to be her first social season as a debutante. Poppy is both wildly excited and secretly terrified at the prospect. She’s absolutely not yet ready to be married, but if the ‘perfect’ suitor were to come along and offer her the adventure of a literal lifetime, she supposes she’d be inclined to accept. But only after graduating from Hogwarts with the highest possible honors: all Os in her N.E.W.T courses.
- Spring 1892 - Spring 1893 |Having graduated (with honors, thank you very much) and debuted in the ball of the season, Poppy enjoys a very prosperous first season on the marriage market. She entertains a revolving door of suitors, none too seriously, until she meets Cassian Valenduris. Introduced by her former potions master, Poppy strikes up a friendship with a Ms. Sabine Valenduris first. It's only just at the very end, as the ton begins to retreat for the cold season, that the two of them seem to spark and a few letters are exchanged until Mr. Valenduris goes away to Capri on business. Poppy spares no shortage of interest but passes the time entertained with others, namely one friend she has grown quite fond of...
- Spring 1893 - Spring 1894 | Poppy's second season is again filled with visions of Mr. Valenduris. The two are more deliberate in their meetings, seeming to hedge with intention towards courting and perhaps engagement, but tragedy strikes midway through (July xx) and Laurel is killed in a carriage accident. For the remainder of the season Poppy falls into mourning, retreating to Dashwood Hall for the first time in over a year, and is not seen in English society for a good time thereafter. As her mourning period ends in December, just in time for the holidays, she makes her way to the Foxwood residence. It's good to be surrounded by the family she has come to adopt, her Aunt Viola and her cousins, Atticus and Basil, and here a scheme is hatched for her to go abroad (at last!) with Aunt Viola, just until the next season begins. It is a trip meant to shake the rust off, so to speak, but Poppy gets up to her own mischief regardless.
- Spring 1894 + | Now, going into her third season with too many experiences for a girl of merely twenty, Poppy has a renewed sense of determination to make something of her future. She is... not impressed by the idea of marriage as much as she feels she might be ready. The security of it amidst all of life's turmoil has a certain allure. Back in England once more, Poppy is again stepping out into English society with her sights set on two one particular gentleman with whom she has thankfully, not lost complete contact...
