AN: Hey. New story. Again. Sorry about that one. Just read it though, will you? I think maybe I can actually do this one.
Disclaimer: Me own the plot. Not Harry Potter. And unfortunately, not James Potter. But happy late birthday to him anyways!
Couldn't Be Love
by: tradingforeverx
Chapter One: The First Day
Lily Evans ran through her messy house at full speed. It was her first day as a real Healer, not just a lowly intern, and her and her best friend, Brittany Brittle, had already picked out the shoes she was to wear with her Healer robes: black pumps, but for the life of her, all she could find were ratty old sneakers. The same ones that her older sister, Petunia's, annoying dog had chewed at the toes of.
"Where did we leave those buggers?" Lily muttered angrily under her breath, checking under the dining room table for the third time. After seeing that they were, in fact, not present, she slammed the table cloth back down and gave a screech of frustration.
"Having troubles, darling?" a voice asked from behind her, and she spun around to see her fiancé, Benjy Fenwick, leaning against the doorframe and eating a sour, lime green apple.
"Have you seen my black heels?" she asked, scanning the room again. "I can't find them, and I need to be at work about, oh, three minutes ago–"
"By the door," Benjy answered. "You put them there last night to remember."
Lily sighed, relieved, and walked up to give him a kiss in thanks. "I'll see you tonight," she promised.
"You better," he answered, leaning in for another kiss. She turned at the last moment and his lips collided with her cheek. "Oi, what's that for?"
"I'm going to be late!" she squeaked, passing a smirk over her shoulder at him while she exited the dining room and walked down the hall to her shoes. After slipping them on, she yelled good-bye, and apparated away.
"Name?" the woman behind the reception desk at St. Mungo's asked, barely glancing up from what she was writing.
"Lily Evans," Lily stated proudly. "It's my first day."
The woman glanced up, her glasses, filled with gems, glinting in the light. She sighed once she took in Lily, turning her head a fraction to the right to yell over her shoulder, "Laura! Take this one back. It's her first day."
Another woman turned around from where she was standing, hunching over a chart of some sort, and nodded, beaming at Lily. She looked to be about thirty, or in her late twenties, with shocking blonde hair and deep brown eyes.
"Hey," Laura said amiably. "I'm Laura. You can just follow me."
Lily nodded, a nervousness creeping up in her stomach as she followed Laura through a door to a hallway with lots of doors leading off, all into different rooms with healing patients. Although Lily had already been here all the time for her training, walking down the hall was suddenly different. It was real this time.
"So, what's your name?" Laura asked.
"Lily Evans."
Laura shot her a look, whistling lowly. "So you're Evans. Jackman has said some good things about you to us."
Lily blushed. "Really?" she asked timidly.
"Yup," Laura asked, keeping up her fast pace of walking. "Don't worry about today. You'll be great, if what he says is correct. Not to mention that it's your first day. You're allowed to make some errors."
"I don't want to make errors," Lil protested, struggling to keep up.
"No one does," Laura said simply. "Come on, can't you walk any faster?" she added.
Lily blushed again. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize. You'll be walking even faster than this by next week."
They turned a corner and Laura stopped abruptly, turning sharply to a door on the left. She tapped her wand against the wood and a handle appeared. At Lily's startled look, Laura smiled. "Break room. They don't show interns this. But you'll find your schedule in here."
Entering, Lily noticed that the room was a bit crowded, a coffee maker producing coffee loudly on the counters that ran the perimeter of the room with tables and chairs crowding the inside. A hallway led off of this room and Laura led Lily down it, turning into a room filled with racks of paper.
"Evans, Evans, Evans..." Laura muttered under her breath. "Ah, here," she said, pulling out a folder and holding it out to Lily, who took it reluctantly. Opening it, she saw that a stamp was forming under the date. At Lily's furrowed eyebrows, Laura explained, "Shows you came to work. Sort of like clocking in in Muggle terms."
Lily nodded, following the paper down to where multiple numbers and descriptions were written, and read through them quickly.
"Those are the room numbers and the patients. You know how to do everything, right? You should have learned that in training," Laura told her, grabbing her own folder, under the last name, Walker.
"Yeah, I can do this," Lily muttered, still reading.
"Alright," Laura said. "You'll want to see Jackman before you start your rounds, but after that go crazy. Ask about your lunch hour, too. I'll eat with you if I see you." She winked. "Off to work," she announced, before exiting the room quickly.
The sudden quiet startled Lily as she starred at the room she stood in. It was messy and slightly disorganized, but as Lily left, folder clutched tight in her hand, she felt a smile creeping across her face.
The cafeteria in St. Mungo's was much like the break room: cramped. As Lily stood in line, a tray in hand, she glanced around at the people. She already had the distinct impression that this was like first year in Hogwarts all over again.
"Hey, Lily," a voice said from behind her, and she turned, a spoon full of mashed potatoes in hand, to see Laura behind her.
"Oh, hi, Laura," she answered, about to slap the potatoes onto her plate before Laura's hand stopped her.
"Nu-uh," Laura told her, grimacing. "This place doesn't have the best food, and their mashed potatoes taste exactly like dirty socks."
Lily put the spoon back into the mashed potatoes at once. "Never did like the taste of dirty socks," she commented lightly, and Laura laughed.
"You've tried them before?"
"Actually, yes," Lily answered, much to Laura's surprise. At her queer look, Lily continued, "I was in sixth year at Hogwarts, and...well, these boys in my year tried to kidnap me. They didn't have anything to stop me from talking, and I talked a lot, let me tell you, so they put some dirty socks in my mouth. Never got over that one." She ran her tongue over her teeth as if tasting it again.
Laura laughed openly. "That's a great story. Ooh, try the salad, it's delicious."
"Are you sure?" Lily asked. "It looks a little limp."
"Trust me," Laura said while picking up a slice of pizza and grabbing a bottle of pumpkin juice. "It's great."
Lily shrugged. "If you say so." She took the salad, a roll, and a butterbeer, before pulling out her ID, flashing it to the witch who was making sure that everyone was paying. At the woman's nod, she continued walking, Laura a step behind her.
"Come on," Laura said. "You can sit with me and some of my friends. They may seem a little eccentric, but..." Laura grinned. "Well, you get used to it."
Lily followed Laura to a table a few feet from them, filled with people in green robes like Lily's. They were making quite a racket, much to the displeasure of the other patrons, and Laura grinned again before slipping into an empty seat easily. Lily sat next to her, placing her tray down lightly.
"Oi, guys," Laura said. "Pay attention. This is Lily. She's new."
"Newbie!" one of the men at the table yelled loudly. "I love those. What's up?" he asked, nodding to Lily.
Lily smiled back. "Hello," she said, taking in his dishwater colored blonde hair and blue eyes.
"That's Will, and this is Emma, Vince, Joe, and Andy," Laura introduced, pointing to each person separately, who all welcomed Lily willingly.
"Today's your first day?" Emma asked her, her cropped brown hair falling into her brown eyes, a donut in front of her that she picked at with her fingers.
Lily nodded. "Yeah, I've been an intern for a few years."
"I remember being an intern," Vince said, running a hand over his bald head. "Those were some good times."
"Yeah, back when you had hair," Andy said, snickering under his breath.
"Vince is a very competitive swimmer," Laura explained to Lily as the men across the table from them continued to bicker. "He takes it very seriously."
"A swimmer?" Lily asked, surprised. "It's mostly just Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch in the wizarding world."
"Muggleborn," Vince explained.
Lily smiled. "Me too."
"How'd you react when you got your letter?" Vince asked. "I think I'm the only Muggleborn I've met that didn't freak out. I just yelled, 'I knew it!' and that was that."
"You can't meet yourself, doofus," Andy muttered, but Vince only elbowed him, eyes trained on Lily.
"Oh, well, it was my sister who freaked out more than I did. She's a year older than I am, and when Dumbledore came to my door she wet herself in fright."
Laughter erupted at the table.
"No!" Joe yelled loudly, slapping his knee. "Had he even mentioned magic yet?"
Lily chuckled. "Nope." At this, the laughter intensified. "Just opened the door and bam! She wet herself. Of course, I had to clean it while my parents talked to Dumbledore privately. I smelled like piss when I first met Dumbeldore. He can never look at me without a smirk now."
Joe slapped his knee again. "That's great. I love that man. And I officially love your sister, too. Tell her to owl me, eh?" he joked.
Lily smiled. "Hardly," she said dryly. "She's scared of birds too." She took a bite of her salad before turning to Laura and exclaiming, "This is good."
"How are you feeling today, Mrs. Truman?" Lily asked politely, smiling down at her patient with the woman's chart in her hands.
"Like a piece of shit, that's how!" Mrs. Truman answered.
Lily coughed to cover up her laughter, banging a fist against her chest. "Sorry?" she asked.
"Oh, you heard me, girl! And don't you cough in here, this is supposed to be a sterile room and I am sick enough as it is! Now where's my fucking potions?"
"Um..." Lily muttered, biting her lip as she held out a tray, multiple potions on top of it. "Drink all of that for now. You'll get your next dose at dinner."
Mrs. Truman did not need to be told again as her wrinkled hands took up the first potion, which was a silky color of purple.
"Is your back still hurting you?" Lily asked, taking note of it on the chart.
"No," the old woman answered in between potions, the next one held tightly between both of her hands, held close to her lips for easy access. "Now it's my damn toes. You Healers can't get anything right."
"Er, right," Lily answered, backing out of the room slowly. "I'll be sure to come check on you later, Mrs. Truman."
"You sure as hell better," the woman muttered, and Lily left the room quickly, chuckling under her breath as she slowly walked down the hall, headed towards her next patient in room 348. Her walk was interrupted as a stretcher came careening down the hall, Healers pushing it like in a Muggle hospital, talking frantically over the man laying unconscious.
Wait a second...Lily thought as she got a closer look at who was lying across the stretcher. Blood was covering the majority of his face, and his hair was wet with it as well, and the uniform he was wearing was ripped and battered, but Lily could tell it was him despite it all.
"Wait!" she yelled out as they passed her, still talking wildly. She jogged behind them, asking, "What happened to him?"
"Quidditch accident," one of the men pushing the stretcher informed her quickly. "Got hit with a Bludger in the chest and then fell fifty feet."
"Those damn Appleby Arrow's play dirty," one of the women muttered.
"You need to get him a Blood Replenishing Potion now!" Lily practically yelled, still jogging with them.
"We know that," the man snapped. "Where does it look like we're going?"
"No, I mean right now! He's stopped breathing!"
"Bugger," the woman said, increasing her pace.
"What are you even doing?" Lily questioned. "You're magical! It's called Accio!"
The stretcher came to a screeching halt as wands flew through the air. The four Healers all held their hands out expectantly and within seconds different potions and materials were given to them as they went through the task of saving his life.
"No, I'm seeing him now!" an angry voice yelled from down the hall. A woman argued with him, her voice quiet, but his voice was easy to distinguish with his loud tone. "I don't bloody care if there are patients resting! I need to know–"
The woman spoke again, but all Lily could make out was 'time' and 'not now.'
"Listen, lady," the man said. "I don't know who you think you are, but you need to stop following me and let me see if my best mate–Lily!"
Lily swirled around, her green eyes bright as she took in who was standing in front of her. "Sirius!" she exclaimed. "I knew I recognized that voice."
Sirius Black hurried down the hall, the woman that had been following him now leaving in a huff. "Is that him?" Sirius asked before running in the direction of where Lily was standing near the stretcher.
"Yes," Lily answered shakily. "But he's not in very good shape, Sirius..." she tried to warn him, but knew that if this Sirius was like the Sirius she'd known back in school, he'd only just come quicker.
Sirius stopped in front of her, his eyes taking in the sight before him, before all color drained from his face. "Bugger," he whispered, swiping a hand down his face. "I didn't know it was this bad."
Lily grimaced. "Yeah, well..."
"I was there, at the game. I should have saved him, I should have tried to help..."
"You couldn't have done anything to stop that, Sirius. He was hit with a Bludger. How were you supposed to know that from the stands?" she asked, taking in his T-shirt that read 'The Harpies' in large print.
"That doesn't change the–oi, what're you doing to him?" he asked indignantly, and Lily turned to see what the healers were doing. After seeing that they had succeeded in continuing his breathing, but not much else, she huffed angrily.
"Let me do this," she said, taking their place next to him and waving her wand as fast as she could.
Because James Potter was laying across the stretcher in front of her, his life slipping through his fingers, and that ring she hid in the bottom of her sock drawer was not there because she didn't think it was pretty.
