Hey guys,

this is my second fanfiction, well technically third. I started writing the same one a while ago – but for the lack of time, I stopped. I abandoned the first one a couple of chapters into the story because I didn't like where the story was going, but I decided to try something new. We've all read stories about the last couple of years at Hogwarts when Lily and James get together as Head Girl and Head Boy and what not, but I wanted to try something a little different this time. Hope it works out, reviews are greatly appreciated.

Lily Evans brushed her hair out of her eyes as she concentrated on the parchment in front of her, and bit her lip nervously while muttering under her breath.

"Gahh!" she finally yelled out in frustration a couple of minutes later throwing the papers in the air. She slammed her hand on the table and shut her eyes, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

"You do know that if you continue freaking out like this, you really won't be able to pass the test tomorrow," a teasing voice came to her right in the dark shadows of the bookshelf. Lily opened one eye and looked, smiling wryly.

"Of course, Kiera knows best," she chuckled shutting her book.

"You know it's true Lily!" Kiera Wilkins replied coming out of the shadows.

"I just, what if I don't pass?" Lily asked, worry etched in her voice.

"Lily Evans! Are you seriously telling me that after all the work you've put into this program for the last couple of years, you think you are not going to pass? Or wait, do you mean get one wrong?" Kiera replied in mock horror. Lily shoved her papers at her in a playful manner, and then got up sighing as she looked at her watch.

"Okay, we better get moving before Annie freaks out wondering where we are."

"Wait, won't it be funny to see her eyes bulge and pull her hair out?"

"No Kiera, let's go!" Lily yanked her friend and the two of them apparated into a decent-sized apartment.

"There you are!" came a loud and angry voice. Kiera winced as she turned sideways to face a very tall girl who had her hands on her hips and was tapping her foot impatiently. "Well?" she asked.

"Well what?" Lily asked.

"Where have you been for the last hour? I've been driving myself nuts! Do you know all the crazy scenarios I just imagined up? For all I know, you could have been lying in a muddy ditch after being ransacked by a serial killer who cuts out your eyes and preserves them as souvenirs!"

"Both of us?" Kiera chuckled.

"You do know that there are worse dangers out there other than rampaging murderers." Annie thundered back, her voice ice now. Grimacing, Lily replied.

"Annie dear, I promise you that we were fine. I was just caught up in studying and Kiera here decided to wait for me."

"Oh well, then didn't you think it would make sense to send me a note or something? Especially when we agreed this morning that we would meet here at 5:30, and it's already close to 7:00?"

"Well Lily over here kept on wanting to stay a little while longer at the library! I mean, come on Annie, wonder what's going to happen to her tomorrow if she finds out that she failed, which according to her is getting a couple of questions wrong? Imagine the shame, the embarrassment!" Kiera joked.

"You forget about the humiliation, how would she ever be able to live it down!" Annie grinned joining in the game as the two girls chanted around Lily,

"Oh what a shame! Oh what a shame! Oh what a shame!" Laughing, Lily chucked a couple of pillows at her best friends.

"Shut up you fools!" Lily narrowed her eyes at them, trying her best to maintain her haughty manner and stalked off, leaving two girls shaking with suppressed humor.

The next day morning, Lily got up, with nervousness building up in her stomach like when you're about to go on the roller coaster ride of your life but you keep thinking about how the coaster will get stuck in mid-air or run you to the ground. She quickly got dressed and went out to grab breakfast before she left to take her test. As she walked out, she already saw Annie and Kiera there, waiting for her.

"What are you guys already doing up?" Lily asked surprise evident on her face.

"Well, we figured that this is a big day for you, and that you won't be in a mood to sit and make breakfast, so here we are!" Annie chirped in.

"Oh Anniekins! What would we ever do without you mothering us around?" Kiera teased mercilessly. Annie stuck her tongue out, and turned to serve Lily breakfast.

Lily could barely eat anything then, but she knew that she would appreciate the food when the hunger pangs came halfway during the test.

Apparating quickly to St. Mungos, Lily walked to the testing area of the hospital, her legs weighing her down as if they were filled with lead. Every step brought her nearer to her doom, a doom that had the potential to change her life forever. Being the first in the room reminder of those days at Hogwarts when she would always be the first one in the room ready to take an exam. Shrugging herself out of her reverie, Lily picked a seat and sat down, tapping her fingers nervously as she tried to calm herself.

She tried remembering the instructions that she'd received from her professor, Professor McLaine a couple of weeks ago.

"Now remember, the test is different per person. It depends on what the supervisors have in mind for you, they could test you on healing charms, or they could test you on regular check up spells. It all depends on what your progress has been all these years, and what we've noticed. There is no real way to prepare for this test, except to go over all your charms and spells and have confidence. Really Lily, you should have no problem passing this test." Groaning, Lily put her face in her hands. She knew that she should have reviewed more, should have studied more. But before she could continue berating herself, the door opened abruptly and shut with a bang.

Lily looked up to see a short little woman with hair as frizzy as if she had just been on a life-threatening crusade in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Her glasses were perched so far off her nose that they were almost dangling off her face. Lily had to resist a sudden urge to push the glasses up for her so the woman could see her properly.

"Hi love, I'm Healer Lorraine, what's your name?"

"Lily, Lily Evans!" she squeaked.

"Oh Lily Evans, of course," her eyes scanned a piece of paper that had magically appeared in front of her. She snapped her fingers and the paper disappeared as fast as it had appeared. "Shall we start the test then?"

"Start? But what about the others?" Lily asked softly.

"Others? Oh no dear, this is a one-to-one test. How else shall we ever know whether are you capable of handling it by yourself or not?"

"Handling what?" Lily asked in a slightly bold voice and then bit her tongue to remind herself that this wasn't someone who knew her usually, and that could get her a bad reputation.

"Oh you'll find out in a moment." Healer Lorraine replied, a sudden grin cracking across the withered face. "Shall we go now?" She asked, and Lily nodded, wondering about her test.

"Okay, so first we are going to go into the Deadly Injuries and Maladies Ward." Lily followed Healer Lorraine across familiar doors and hallways.

Lily took a deep breath and pulled out her wand, ready, all the spells and charms she'd spent the last two years learning, strong in her mind.

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked Healer Lorraine, looking around the empty room she stood in.

"Now dear, let your natural instincts come to you." Lily looked at her confused, but before she could ask any more questions, a figure materialized in front of her.

It was a man lying on a stretcher, his face contorted in pain. Months of training took over her mind, and the natural impulse kicked in. Lily ran over to him, and checked him for symptoms for poisoning. Then she noted where his injuries were and quickly formed a possible conclusion in his mind. Knowing that time was of the essence, she hurried around grabbing vials that had magically appeared as soon she thought of them and applied them on him. A couple of minutes later, the man was bandaged, his hollowed breathing had returned to normal, and Lily turned to Healer Lorraine, her face sweating and her own breathing a little shallow.

"Excellent job Miss Evans! Let's keep moving shall we."

Once again, Lily had no time to think. This time in front of her was a small boy. His dark black hair was matted onto his forehead with a trickle of blood slowly oozing down his face. Lily's heart lurched as the face turned into one she'd seen everyday for the seven years that she was at Hogwarts but she shoved it to the back of her mind as paranoia and ran to heal him. Using all her concentration and every ounce of magic within her, she managed to heal up his gaping wound from where you could see his stomach, leaving only a faint scar. Finally, when she was done, she sagged against the wall, her hands shaking.

"Miss Evans, that was a remarkable job to do so in such a short period of time. I must say that when your supervisors said that you were an excellent healer, I was afraid that they were slightly exaggerating your talents a bit, but now I see why they hold you to such high esteem."

Lily looked up, weariness etched into her face, her heart heavy, wondering what her next test would be.

"What's next?" she asked, her voice shaking as she couldn't get the face out of her mind.

Instead of replying, Healer Lorraine just turned around and walked away at a fast pace, her dark green robes swishing against the ground. Catching her breath, Lily caught up to her, wondering what could possibly top the previous part of the test. They walked for quite a while, Lily got into the rhythm of following Healer Lorraine's robes instead of looking up so when the healer stopped, Lily bumped into her quite abruptly. Turning red, Lily looked up to see the healer's eyes rest on her in a solemn gaze.

"This next part of the test is…different," Healer Lorraine murmured softly. Lily had to strain her ears to hear her clearly. "This will be the hardest of all parts of the test, the true indicator as to whether do you have it in you to be a healer or not. Knowing spells and charms is one thing, knowing how to use them is another, but this…this cannot be learned, it comes with some people naturally, and those develop into the type of healers who find cures for the diseases that haunt our time and such. Maybe it is something within them that pushes them to it or is it just that they have the drive and motivation, I don't know. Anyone can be a healer, I mean, if you can do magic, you can help out a great deal, but to truly heal, and I mean really heal, it requires strength. Let's see, Miss Evans, how you fare in this, for this is when your books are of no use."

Lily felt her heart grow cold. What if after all these years of hard work, starting all the way from first year till the night before meant absolutely nothing? What if she didn't have it in her to be a true healer, after all, Healer Lorraine had said that books won't help you over here, it has to be natural. What if…

Lily shook herself out of her rants and decided to concentrate on the task ahead. She noticed that Healer Lorraine was waiting for her to come back, so she nodded and steeled her mind to figure out what to do next.

"Okay then Miss Evans, I shall leave you alone, good luck!" Healer Lorraine wished her, no trace of the previous solemnity left on her cheery face. Lily waited for a couple of minutes, impatient to start, and yet wanting more time to sort her thoughts out. Just as Lily had fallen into the pattern of softly muttering a spell under her breath after knowing what it was used for, a bed appeared in the room. Lily looked around, wondering what to do.

Suddenly, the room expanded and she was in the maternity ward. In front of her lay a woman, her face screwed up in pain as her breathing grew heavier and heavier with each breath. Lily felt the rush of adrenaline shoot through her veins and she went into healer mode.

She'd trained for this hundreds of times, practiced on countless dummies as to what to do if a pregnant woman came, and you were the only healer on duty, even if your specialty wasn't with babies. However, as Lily advanced closer, it seemed that this case was different. To ease the woman's pain, Lily put a numbness charm on her, but still she started screaming. Then she noticed that the mother had lost a lot of blood. Setting her mind to the task, she went ahead to work.

A couple of minutes later, she was still working, but she'd noticed that the woman was losing a lot of blood. It didn't seem as if she would survive. The woman gasped,

"My baby! My son, is he okay?" Lily couldn't trust herself to speak without breaking down, so she just nodded. This woman was on the brink of death, and yet she was worried about whether would her son survive or not.

"No, I will not let her die. She needs to live to see her son grow, she needs to be there for him, to take care of him when he's a child and to have him take care of her in old age. I will NOT let her die." Muttering those words again and again, as if they were a mantra, giving her the strength to complete the task, Lily managed to replenish the lost blood without causing further damage.

Around 15 minutes later, the whole ordeal was over, and the woman was holding a tiny boy in her arms, her face glowing with pride as she gazed at her child in a dream world.

"Thank you," she said softly, her hands already getting to known her infant son. Lily nodded, not trusting herself to speak. In a moment, the whole scene in front of her vanished. Astonished, Lily wondered whether had she gone senile and was it all a dream. But she looked down, and the bloodstains on her clothes were still there, which meant that it did happen. But where did the woman go?

"She's gone back to the maternity ward." Healer Lorraine spoke from behind Lily. Lily jumped up in surprise, this woman kept on scaring her by sneaking up on her!

"Oh." That's all that Lily could manage.

"That was quite an effort you put in there,"

"For a while, I thought that I was going to lose her."

"I didn't. I always knew that you had it in you, but you had to find out for yourself. Just out of curiosity, what gave you that final push to try harder than you did before?"

"I don't really know. I think it might have been the concern that the mother had for her son, she knew that she'd lost a lot of blood, that she probably wouldn't survive if that continued, but all she asked for was, whether was her son okay."

"Ah yes, the love a mother has for her child. That is deeper than any charm or spell even the most powerful wizard of witch can conjure, it surpasses all boundaries and portals. Of course, love of any kind is powerful, but that is unconditional love, which is very rare to find in today's world. But, this is not a philosophy class, and this wasn't a theoretical discussion. You, Miss Evans, have passed the Healing test. Do you have any questions at this point in time?"

"Yes, I actually do. Does every trainee get the same situation or is it different every time?"

"Oh no, absolutely not. Your supervisors spend the last two years observing you, seeing what your capabilities are. Then, they decide what level of healing you would probably be placed into, and that's how we base your test. That was the hardest test of them all, because you shall be assigned to the most difficult, the most challenging position a healer can have right now."

"To deal with the injuries as I did with that man before? Or the woman with her baby?"

"Oh no dear, that's not the biggest of all challenges, that is the beginning of the ordeal that you shall begin to face soon, actually starting tomorrow." Healer Lorraine added.

Lily felt her heart clench, wondering what could possibly be worse than what she had just experienced.

"However, this is not the place for this sort of discussion. Now if you please, will you follow me to my office please? There are some people who are anxiously awaiting our arrival." Lily followed Healer Lorraine, wondering what on earth was going on. This had never been explained in healing training at all. It was just the basic work which they were expected to know.

Healer Lorraine opened a brown oak door, and Lily followed her in, only to be greeted by two very unknown stern looking men, and a jovial man she'd known for almost a decade now.

"Professor Dumbledore!" she exclaimed in happiness, knowing that she was on the right path and this wasn't a big hoax planned by some jerk.

"Hello Miss Evans, it has been too long since we've met." Dumbledore replied, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement as he looked fondly at his ex-Head Girl.

"Miss Evans, I am Alastor Moody," one of the men croaked, his eye swiveling around, causing Lily to jump in fright. "I am a Auror from the auror department. I'm not sure if you're aware of the situation with You-Know-Who or not, but we are the ones who deal with his Death Eaters."

"Yes, know that, but what do I have to do with that? I am only a Healer," Lily questioned, with a trace of impatience that she immediately controlled at Dumbledore's pointed look.

"Ah that Miss Evans, is an excellent point you bring up. You see, the Aurors lead a very dangerous job, and often times, they have to travel far distances. Not only is it important that the Death Eaters are prevented from hurting any more people, it is just equally as vital that more people are stopped from joining their ranks. This job requires an Auror to travel far distances, sometimes, they travel so far, that it is not even possible for them to come back here in times of need for it might be too late then for them." Dumbledore interjected

"I'm not sure if I understand completely Professor," Lily replied, confused.

"You see Miss Evans, the tests that you went through back there were to prepare you for what you might see." Healer Lorraine explained.

"See where? In the hospital?" Lily asked.

"Oh no dear, you see, for what we're asking of you requires you to be a healer, though not at the hospital. We are asking you to work alongside an Auror, and be with them wherever they go."

"But I don't have the training to be an Auror."

"You have the talent within you to do this." Healer Lorraine's soft voice struck Lily's heart.

"You also have the stubbornness to stick with the task as well. Now if I remember correctly, you and a certain group of boys argued tremendously during your Hogwarts years. As I always told Minerva, boys will be boys whenever mischief was done. But in your case for the retaliation, she always rebuked with "will girls always be girls as well, Albus." Dumbledore joked wryly.

"Back to the point here Evans, you will have to work hard on this job." Moody interrupted impatiently in a slightly brusque manner.

"Agreed, which is why now that you've passed the Healer's test, you shall go through one month of vigorous training with the Auror department. That is if you agree." Healer Lorraine said.

"Now Miss Evans, there always is an alternative. For this isn't an easy job, and neither is it safe. You will be facing danger quite often, if not every day. And there will be times when it won't be easy." Dumbledore assured her.

"I'll do it." Lily replied without missing a beat.

"Now Miss Evans, this is not a job that you can take lightly. You have to be a 100 sure that you are willing, for you will be with this person day and night, you guys will be closer than you probably ever have than anyone else in the entire world. And once you've agreed, you cannot change your mind." Moody warned her. Lily nodded, knowing that she would do this.

"Okay, tomorrow then, come back here, and we'll introduce you to your Auror. He's newly trained, but one of the best we have out there. I think that you guys will work well together." The second man finally spoke up. Lily just nodded, not sure how she was supposed to reply to this. As he turned to talk to Moody, Lily took it as a sign of dismissal, however she was stopped by Dumbledore.

"Miss Evans, would you mind taking a walk with me?"

"Sure Professor."

As the door behind them shut, and the two walked down a hallway with rooms filled with patients on both sides.

"Now Lily, I know that you had your heart set on working in the hospital, being actually here to help save people, and cure people. I know that this is what your dream job was, and this is all that you've worked towards for the last 9 years. However, what you've been chosen to do, I think is a more noble profession."

"I know Professor."

"Now, you may not be helping the injured people, you may be helping to prevent people from getting hurt."
"True, I never thought of it that way."

"Also, I think that in this experience, you will find some things about yourself that you never knew existed. Learning how to deal with people, learning tolerance, learning how to understand other people. I firmly believe that this will be an enlightening experience for you, Miss Evans." And with that, Headmaster Dumbledore popped, leaving a very confused Miss Evans wondering what the Headmaster meant by the last statement.