Keep this to ourselves

There was something about sneaking around that was appealing. Though it could be said that sneaking to the Hospital Wing took some of that appeal away. Who would ever want to be caught dead in there if not to have their wounds, bumps and bruises tended to?

However, one specific Slytherin boy didn't seem to mind being in there all that much. He actually quite enjoyed hanging around the Hospital Wing, though he didn't do all that much hanging around. He actually helped out with little bits where he could. Obviously leaving any healing to the healers that were on duty there.

As long as no one he was somewhat close to showed up, he was golden.

It was odd to think that Cronis Yaxley, of all people, would enjoy the hospital wing to that extent. But here's the thing; Cronis wanted to become a healer when he graduated from Hogwarts. It wasn't an entirely odd thing, but it most definitely would not please his father - who wanted him to become a ministry official. But the Ministry just wasn't Cronis' cup of tea. He didn't want to be a lawyer, or a specialist in the creature department or anything government related.

As odd as it might seem, he wanted to help people who were injured or needed some kind of medical help. He couldn't even explain what created the interest, he just knew it was something he wanted to do.

As he left the hospital wing, door closing behind him, Cronis found himself in the empty hallway not really knowing what to do with himself now. He couldn't just walk back in and hang around any longer, it would seem weird to the healers. He always went without anything needing to be done to him, just stood around awkwardly for a bit and left. If that wasn't already weird enough, he didn't need them to call him out on the fact that he came back in.

He begun pacing back and forth in front of the door, trying to figure out what to do with himself. Surely there had to be something?

Quiet. That was what she was looking for. A quiet place to work on her potions essay, where no one would bother her. She had tried her own common room and that hadn’t worked. She had even tried the library, but found too many people there to actually concentrate and get her assignment done. She started racking her brain as to where she could go where she more than likely wouldn’t be bothered save for outside when it hit her. The hallway outside of the hospital wing always seemed to stay fairly quiet.

Eva wasn’t quite sure if it was because most students would rather suffer than to go there, or if it was just the fact that the healers that frequented the school to run the Hospital Wing made sure they kept the area as calm and serene as possible, it didn’t matter. She knew she could work on her essay outside of the wing without anyone bothering her.

As she rounded the corner in the hallway, she was sure she saw someone leaving the hospital wing. In fact, she was almost sure she had. She looked closer and realized it had been someone from her own house. She had a few classes with Cronis, but hadn’t really interacted with him outside of class. She tended to stick fairly close to Tyler.

“Cronis?” she asked coming closer, “Are you alright?” she asked curiously. “If you aren’t feeling well you should go a head and go in there you know.”

Crap.

It was happening. The one thing he didn't want to happen, ever, was happening. Someone had finally caught him, but he could work with this. Cronis turned on his heel, having heard a female voice from behind him midstep. He blinked, as he was surprised to see a housemate there, and a younger one who he'd never really spoken too before.

Technically, he could just be an arse and tell her to mind her business. But Cronis didnt think he needed to make enemies of younger classmates. Not to mention, he didnt want to hurt the feelings of a younger girl. Regardless of what others think or say of him, he wasnt that much of a monster.

"I'm fine.. actually. I just, um.. wanted to get away from the ruckus from everywhere else..?" The last bit of that sounded more like a question than a statement and Cronis mentally cursed himself for not being able to maintain a cool image of it. He needed her to believe that he had just been there to get away from everyone, nothing more.

If there was one thing he wasn't going to risk, it was definitely not going to be being found out by a younger student.

"What are you doing here? Something wrong with you?" He asked, trying to divert the conversation.

Oh good, she was hoping she had gotten his name right. Seeing him respond had confirmed it. She rarely spoke to anyone outside of her small group of friends, but Eva wasn’t near them today and she was oddly curious for some reason. If he had told her to mind her business, she probably would have went on her way, especially considering she didn’t usually stick herself in other people’s business.

“But you’re pacing in front of the Hospital Wing.” She said looking at him confused as she ran her hand through her hair, pulling it out of her face. Eva noticed how he had seemed to turn that into a question and quickly picked up on how much it sounded like he wasn’t even sure himself about his answer. Something about it, she didn’t quite believe because of the inflection at the end of it.

She seemed surprised that he would even ask if anything was wrong with her. Most people wouldn’t even bother to ask. “No, nothing wrong.” She said with a bit of surprise in her voice. “I’ve got an essay to work on and there were too many people in the library to concentrate.” She explained holding her books up.

“First place I thought of actually since no one really comes down this hall.” She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly, “Are you sure you’re ok? Seems to me like you’re a little on edge.”

So she had caught onto it. Cronis was hoping that even though he messed up with his answer, she wouldn't catch onto it. But she had and and now he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get himself out of it anymore.

It was becoming apparent to him that he probably wasn't going to be able to get her off the subject of him being there with how worried he was about her finding out what he was doing. There wasn't much he could really do about it, though. Cronis sighed, shaking his head at her comment. "No, I'm fine, trust me." He tried to sound sure of himself, but the nervousness was definitely getting to him.

"Coming to the hospital wing for that seems a little odd though, don't you think?" He commented, though his interest wasn't really there. He didn't really care about where other students chose to do their work, but he had to admit that it was the strangest place he had heard of so far. "You could have gone to like.. the great Hall or one of the towers or something like, y'know?"

Wonderful. Now you have to explain to him why you’d rather study up here, she thought to herself.

No one really understood why exactly she came up here to study or get her essays done when she couldn’t concentrate, it was just something she always had done since she first arrived at the school. For some reason, she found she could focus better in an isolated hallway where there were hardly any other people versus the Great Hall or courtyard.

“Well, you’re pacing in front of the door like you need to go in, but are afraid to.” She pointed out. She could hear the tinge of nervousness in his voice and to her it sounded almost borderline shaky.

“I could have gone there,” she started, “But too many people to distract it and I’d rather just get it done than stop every two minutes for someone to try to talk to me.” There. She had said it. “Y’know, you could always say what it is you’re so nervous about too.”

"Just because I'm doing something, doesn't mean there's a real reason behind it."

Cronis shrugged. He could feel himself cracking under the pressure, though there wasn't much pressure to begin with. He was growing more and more paranoid and he started to question why he hadn't judt walked away from the beginning.

Clearing his throat he said, "There's nothing that I'm nervous about. I think you're just reading into it too much." It wasn't a great cover, but oh well.

Would it really be that bad if she found out? She's only a fifth year and no one from my family, except maybe Evander knows her. Evan wouldn't say anything either. He bit his lip as he thought. Could it really hurt too bad if this girl found out?

His need to confide in someone was starting to get the best of him. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to keep evading the question for much longer. Especially since he already wasn't doing such a great job of it.

"You know what. Fine." He finally said after a moment of silence that felt like forever. "I'll tell you but you can't let anyone else find out. Got it?"

He was trying to hide something, and she was almost positive of it now. She knew the sound too well to know, even if she didn’t know him that well. She was sure someone who wasn’t familiar with him in anyway could tell that just by how he was acting and trying to avoid the subject.

She looked up at him, “Who would I really tell anyway?” she asked him curiously. She knew it had to be something that he didn’t want anyone knowing at all for him to say that.

“Fine, I promise I won’t tell anyone.” She continued. “So what is it?”

Cronis had to prepare himself mentally to tell her. He could he an extremely prideful person and didn't want anyone to ever see the side of him that he thought was weak. But right now, he didn't know if telling her was going to make him or break him, and though he was still questioning why he even wanted to tell her, he still wanted to believe there wasn't anything wrong with it.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair, before saying, "I was already in there. When you came up, I was on my way out." He started explaining. "I've been trying to help out at the Hospital Wing whenever I can, and after I make sure no one who could give the information to my parents is there." He looked down, the hair he'd just pushed back falling back down onto his face.

"My father specifically would kill me if he found out I was ha going around the hospital wing. He doesn't know that I don't want to go into the ministry when I graduate, like he wants me to." He bit his lip and looked up at Eva again.

"I want to be a healer."

She had to wonder what was so important that he would make her swear not to tell anyone. Her mind was oddly curious for someone who generally stuck to the same circle of friends, but she honestly couldn’t help herself. Eva knew there was something up. Her face looked slightly concerned hearing him say that he was already in the hospital wing. Had he actually been hurt and not wanted to say anything? He certainly didn’t look like he was ill, although she thought he looked like he was going to be ill now that he was speaking.

“Why would your parents even care if it’s what you want to do?” she asked curiously.

Eva probably had some of the most laid back parents when it came to what she wanted to do. If she had an idea of something she wanted to be her parents encouraged her to go for it. Go all out and try, fail if you fail but at least you tried had always been what they had told her.

She took a deep breath, “That’s amazing that you want to be a healer.” She said smiling, “Not that your father won’t support it, but we need more healers in the world.” It was true. She knew it first hand from her own mother just how understaffed St. Mungo’s alone could be. She was even noticing it in the school, with the different healers in and out of the Hospital wing that they were certainly in short supply if the school couldn’t have a permanent one.

In all seriousness Eva looked into his eyes, “If you want to be a healer and your father wants you to go in the ministry what are you planning on doing? You can’t seriously plan on being stuck in a job you hate for the rest of your life can you? Just to please someone else?”