Across any Divide

Chapter 5

"Is it true?"

Casey came to a stop, turning to glance at one of her classmates as they jogged to catch up to her. "Is what true?"

"You were there when Mr. Hampton collapsed," Haney, an exchange student from Italy, fell into step beside her. Casey sighed, doing her best not to roll her eyes. She'd already had to tell this story about fifteen times in the past few days, not to mention the reports she had to file with the school administrators.

"Yes, I was there," Casey admitted reluctantly. "I think he had a spontaneous MI. His heart stopped - I got it beating again and then the paramedics showed up and took him to the hospital. He's going to be fine."

"Wow! Your first save!" Haney grinned at her, patting her arm in congratulations. "Were you scared?"

"Terrified," Casey admitted with a small grin. "But everything worked out."

"It's a good thing you were there," Haney agreed with a wink. "Hampton's nearing his expiration date, but he's the best professor this school has. I'd like to see a few more classes get the honor of learning from him before he kicks the bucket."

Casey managed to stifle her chuckle - the wording might be crass, but it took a certain kind of fucked up to go into the field they were entering, and unfortunately that meant some darkly clouded humor about death. "He is a good teacher. Hopefully he'll get to keep teaching for a few more years."

"Well, good save, Casey!" Haney broke away from her with one last smile as the girls parted ways. Casey continued on down the hallway, picking up her pace to catch up to another one of her girlfriends. "Hey, Lilac!"

"Yeah?" The white haired girl turned around, dreamy smile on her face. "Oh, hey, Casey. What's up?"

"Nothing, just have some time before my next class. You on a break too?"

"Yeah, my schedule got messed up so now I have two hours before my next anatomy class." Lilac sounded upset by this, but the smile on her face said otherwise.

Casey shrugged, "That gives you time to start on the homework we got during our procedures class this morning."

"Oh, I already did that," Lilac waved her hand like it wasn't a big deal. "I have plans tonight so I'm trying to get my work done before I leave campus."

"Plans?" Casey gave her a mock look of surprise. "You mean you can have a social life and have this major?"

Lilac laughed, "Believe it or not, Casey, some of us need human socialization outside of our boyfriends."

Casey laughed at the gentle teasing, "I socialize. I just don't do it often."

"You should do what I do," Lilac said knowingly.

"And what do you do?"

Lilac winked at her, "I visit Hogwarts in my sleep, of course."

With that, the snow-colored hair girl waltzed away, leaving Casey more than confused by her outrageous statement.
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Draco stormed into the common room at mid-day, tossing his book bag down on the couch and sprinting to his dorm room. How he had managed to forget a meeting with his overseer he had no idea, but his meeting was schedule in Hogsmede in less than half an hour, and he was going to be late. Draco was dashing back out the common room a minute later when a voice rang out behind him, "Wait up!"

"I don't have time to wait," Draco barked back, seeing Riddle following him at a more leisurely place. "I'm late for -"

"Your meeting with Garlsen. I'm late too," Matteo sounded much less bothered by that than Draco was.