it's your heart, it's alive, it's pumping blood [caroline]

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It was strange, the way the world whispered to her in the middle of the night. Zytka always knew that she was a child of earth, and not of the stars as so many seemed to claim. She could feel it moving if she sat still for long enough, and nothing made her happier than to know that when the earth sang, Zytka could hear it. It had started just after curfew, a strange bass beat that was barely louder than the sound of her own heart. She could hear it, yes, but she could also feel it. Even through the flagstones of the castle she could feel the steady bumbumbum through the bottoms of her feet. Zytka was no musician, but she did know that music was best heard in certain places. There were no classes tomorrow – it was Friday night, or rather, Saturday morning – so she could wander as long as she wanted trying to find the exact place where the song was the strongest.

It occurred to Zytka about a half an hour later that, to the casual observer, she would look insane. The thought just so happened to occur when she was outside the door to the infirmary, and she let out a small chuckle. Moments like this solidified the fact that luck was most certainly on her side. Only in her life would such a perfect example of dramatic irony occur without any logical explanation.

@caroline

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The attacks were still fresh in everyone's minds and a few students still remained in hospital beds so Caroline was up, doing her nightly checks. Every night she would wake mid-night to check on the sick and injured to make sure they were doing okay. She approached one girl who had suffered head trauma during a blast when the attackers had blasted through a wall. The girl was writhing in her bed, asking for water. Caroline approached the girl and gently took a hold of her hand. She turned to the night stand next to her and there stood a house elf, the one who always stuck around to help her in the Hospital Wing. "What is it, Tinka?" Caro whispered as she tapped a glass with her wand, conjuring water into it.

Tinka quietly pointed and whispered about there being someone standing outside the main doors and Caroline's brow furrowed in slight confusion. Caro helped the girl sit up in the bed to drink her water and then when she was settled away back in her bed, Caro crossed over to the doors. Quietly, she opened the right one and stuck her head out into the corridor and was quite surprised to see Professor Kamuntu. "Zytka," she blinked, surprised. "Come in, by all means. We can speak in my office." Caroline gestured the professor inside and then led her to her office, quietly closing the door behind them and leaving Tinka to continue the mid-night rounds. "What brings you to this part of the castle so late, my dear?" She asked, walking over to a small table against one wall that held a tea pot and two small mugs as she began to pour tea for the both of them.

@zytka

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Zytka jumped a little when the doors to the infirmary opened. Actually, instead of jumping, her weight just shifted to the balls of her feet, preparing her to move if need be. Caroline, the head nurse, appeared as if out of nowhere, and Zytka felt a slight pang of guilt in her chest. She should have expected that a house elf or someone would be watching the doors of the infirmary at all hours, just in case a student should fall in in the middle of the night, but she hadn’t intended to actually go inside. She had just been standing there to reflect on how strange her luck was. Still, it would be rude to deny her host, especially if Caroline had been woken specifically because the Ancient Runes professor had appeared.

She considered lying about her purpose, making up some malady or other that would give her enough of a reason to be visiting in the middle of the night, but decided against it. As silly as it made her sound, she had been looking for something, and she still hadn’t found it. Zytka followed Caroline into the office, watching in silence as the nurse poured tea until a question was posed to her. “I keep hearing this…noise. Like a bass drum.” Zytka said, hoping it didn’t sound as silly out loud as it did in her head. “I was hoping that I’d be able to find where it was loudest, so I started wandering around the school. When I was outside your doors, I realized how strange of a scene it must have looked, and I suppose that’s when your house elf saw me.” She paused, pondering. “It's the earth, you know. The sound I heard. It used to be much louder, when I was younger. I don't suppose you've ever heard it?”

@caroline

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Caroline never turned people away. Ill or not, she was always there to listen to people. One never may know what a person was going through, and Caroline had vowed a long time ago to herself to always be available when someone came knocking. A coworker in the middle of the night was no exception. Caroline turned and handed Zytka a cup of tea just as she mentioned she had heard a sound like a drum. Caroline raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly at this information. How very odd to hear a drum at this hour.

Caroline never judged people when she listened to what they had to say, but she had never heard of someone hearing a drum so loudly before. She shook her head just the slightest bit. "I have never heard that before," she mused, looking at Zytka. "Was it... the loudest here? Is that why you ended up outside my doors?" The slightest hint of a grin appeared on her face.

@zytka

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Zytka couldn’t believe that no one had ever heard a drum before at Hogwarts. She heard it all the time, and as far as she knew, the Ancient Runes professor was perfectly sane. Of course, one could dispute that anyone who devoted her life to something ancient was perhaps a few bricks short of a castle, but Zytka was doing what she loved, so she couldn’t complain. When Caro asked about the volume of the drums, Zytka couldn’t help a smile spreading across her face to match the nurse’s. “As a matter of fact, it was.” She replied lightly. “I suppose it just had to do with the acoustics of the castle, though, because other than that, there’s nothing special about this room.” She teased. There was plenty special about the hospital wing, of course, and Caroline was not the least of the special things. Zytka took a sip of her tea, glancing at Caroline over the rim of the cup as she waited for a response to her good-natured ribbing.

@caroline

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Caroline had never heard such a thing; a pounding or drumming in the middle of the night (or day, for that matter,) but Caroline was never one to knock people down. Perhaps, Caroline thought, she had just never been truly listening. She supposed acoustics could have played a part in the drumming Zytka was hearing but Caroline had just never heard them. She was normally too busy listening to an ailing student or Bilius cawing away on his perch.

Caroline raised her eyebrows, pretending to be offended but still wearing a small grin. "Oh really? I'll just have to take that not so special tea away from you, then," she responded to Zytka's lighthearted teasing. "Well, I'm glad I'm not the only night owl in the castle." She said with a content little shrug.

@zytka

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“Just because something isn’t special doesn’t mean it’s not worth keeping around, my dear.” Zytka said with twinkling eyes. “That is why, I assume, you let me continue to talk to you.” She wasn’t anything special, Zytka knew, but that didn’t keep Caro from enjoying her company, Zytka hoped. The professor certainly enjoyed spending time with the nurse. “Sometimes I wonder how I don’t catch more students awake when I’m off wandering.” Zytka told Caroline, taking another sip of the tea. “Perhaps the students are also early birds, like most of their colleagues seemed to be.” The nurse would probably know better than Zytka would, since she tended to lock herself in her room rather than interact with other people. Being a healer necessitated more interaction with others, though, so Caroline had a leg up.

@caroline

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Caroline sipped on her tea and wrinkled her eyebrows at Zytka's comment. "Pish posh, you're plenty special!" She said, setting her cup back down. "Not everyone can hear that drumming... that has to be something pretty special," she shrugged with a small smile. Caroline enjoyed spending time with Zytka. She was a calm person to be around. And Caroline always appreciated being around people who were less stress than Caroline's job already was.

The nurse let out an exasperrated sigh at the mention of students. "Oh, I'm glad you don't see any students out of bed," she said. "Students out of bed means wandering around... which leads to trouble, and trouble leads to injuries. I'm all good on extra injuries!" Caroline loved the students, but she just didn't think she could handle more trouble or injuries after this year.

@zytka

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Pish posh? British sayings were still amusing to Zytka, and her lips flitted into a smile for a moment. She paused, considering what Caroline said about hearing the drumming in the school. “I don’t think that’s a strength of mine, personally, but rather the manner in which I was raised. We were always outside, and the earth was always around us. We had to learn how to listen, else we’d be in quite a bit of trouble.” There was little that Zytka remembered about her childhood anymore – everything was dulled with age – but she remembered that she was always, always in the sun. Being inside was an option, but not an attractive one. It was just better to be out in the open.

“I’m glad of that, too. I wouldn’t want to overwork our poor nursing staff.” Zytka murmured. She finished the last of her tea, and then looked at Caroline. “I suppose I should get back to patrolling, now that I’ve found the source of the mysterious drumming.” She set her teacup down softly. “Thank you for tea, Caroline. It was nice to get to talk with you. I should hope we're able to do it again.” She lifted herself from her seat, and then glanced at the nurse once again. "I can see myself out, if you don't want to move." Then, like a ghost, she was gone.

@caroline