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Sakura had hoped the house rivalry would stay at Hogwarts. Really, it was bad enough to endure the constant competitions and classmates trying to pull her into their latest top-secret plan to win the house cup. Honestly, who cares? She and Shikamaru had the right idea, hiding in the library while the more enthusiastic Ravenclaws hatched their devious plots and created total chaos – and then successfully shifted all blame to the Gryffindors.
Looking back, she isn’t sure how she survived all the drama and made it out with the marks to get into mediwizardry. Throughout it all she’d wondered over and over if she’d chosen the right path, if she should’ve taken an easier and less time-consuming path.
If she had the chance right this second, she’d go to her past self and tell her to run the fuck away. Go do something calmer, like dragon training.
“It’s his fault! He lost control of his broom and smacked into me,” the seeker from the Taka Terrors, Sasuke Uchiha, glowers from his bed in Emergency. He barely winces as Sakura fixes his arm into a stable position, securing the cloth so she can get the right potion. She doesn’t want to risk fixing such an important bone from such an important person with a ‘simple spell’.
She resists the urge to roll her eyes. Sasuke’s manager has enough money to sue her for her entire house.
“I didn’t lose control, you got too distracted by your reflection and flew into me,” Naruto Uzumaki, seeker for the Konoha Kneazles gripes, already tugging at the cloth Sakura had carefully tied around his neck. Damnit, she’d secured him first for a reason.
Sakura knows house rivalry when she sees it and these two had been terrors even in school, on a whole other level that had Slytherin and Gryffindor denying all responsibility.
She keeps her manner warm yet professional, answers their managers’ questions as well as she can without disclosing patient information, and keeps the smile on her face until she’s at the potions storage.
A noise draws her attention and long blonde flips as Ino spins to face her. She takes one look and grimaces in sympathy. “What’s wrong?”
Sakura makes a wordless whine and Ino laughs as she moves for a hug, dropping her face into Ino’s shoulder. “Why are people so stupid.”
Ino hums and gives her back a friendly pat, but then her hand lingers a little longer. “To give the rest of us something to do,” she shrugs. “I have one patient who somehow lost the bones in both arms and is demanding to be spoon-fed, and a kid with parents who are a little… off. Swap?”
Sakura sighs into her neck and feels Ino stiffen in her arms. “Do you want to handle Mr I’m Perfect and Poised Until My Honour is Attacked and Mr I’m Everyone’s Best Friend Except That Bastard?”
Pulling away with a hint of reluctance, Sakura catches Ino’s contemplative frown. Her hair has shifted to block her face and without a second thought, Sakura sweeps her hand through it to tuck it behind a reddening ear. Ino clears her throat. “Sasuke and Naruto are here?”
Sakura huffs a laugh, her heart giving a hard thump as she realises Ino isn’t stepping away like usual. “Yes, and did they stop their arguing long enough to give me a proper greeting? No. And all our staff know them so I can’t even change.”
“A war will do that,” Ino muses, tilting her head just so and suddenly her eyes match the glittering bottles behind her. “All the seniors gone away. When are we gonna catch a break?” The blush hasn’t left her cheeks, and Sakura may be less than experienced with the whole romance thing but surely Ino knows what she’s doing, is doing it on purpose.
Right?
“We don’t get much opportunity,” Sakura agrees, leaning in slow enough to give Ino a chance to back away. She doesn’t. “I did see we both have Friday off, though. I have some recipes to try if you want to taste test?”
That’s bold and obvious, surely. If that doesn’t work then Sakura is going to go high school style and send a Howler screaming I LIKE YOU until it gets a reply.
Ino blinks in what Sakura swears is satisfaction. Her pink lips stretch into a pleased smile. “It’s a date.”