DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter...blah..blah...blah...Twenty year old Lily Evans sat back in her office chair trying to concentrate on the forms in front of her. She tried to forget the insulting remarks her boss had just yelled in her face. She had worked for St. Mungos for a year now. One long hard year. She tried her best at everything just to prove herself to a boss who clearly hated her for no reason. Ever since Lily first entered on her first day of work Brock Bolter made her life hell. She couldn't do anything right. If it weren't for the fact that being a healer was her dream she would have quit.

She wasn't completely stupid. It didn't take rocket science to figure out that all her co-workers were male. Male co-workers who Brock was so easy on. If you added two and two together it was obvious that Bolter hated the fact more women were becoming healers or just hated women in general. Lily was getting so sick of all the mistreatment.

She thought back to the one-sided argument, they all were one-sided. He dared said she wasn't committed to her job. She was the most committed one in the whole hospital. While her fellow workers were out taking two hour lunches she was filling out reports that they left behind. While they were with their families during the holidays she was taking care of the sick. While Bolter was hiding in his office from an angry patient who he misdiagnosed she was there fixing his mistakes, once again. But it never mattered, she would never be considered an equal in Brock Bolters eyes.

Lily rubbed her eyes thinking. Bolter was a good name for him because that's what he did best. She looked up and her eyes fell on her degree, it took her a year to get that. Usually it took longer but she enrolled once she graduated Hogwarts. She wanted to get her career going as soon as she could. And for what? For this? She shook her head, this was not how she thought she'd be spending her first year as a healer.

There was a quite knock on her door followed by, "Lily?"

Lily looked up finding the only other female worker on the fifth floor, potion and plant poisoning, "Hey, Julia."

Julia was the receptionist and the only one who knew how Lily felt. Julia walked in and closed the door behind her. She would always come on her lunch break giving them both time to unwind and complain about their crappy lives.

"How are you?" Julia asked taking a hair tie and pulling up her black hair.

Lily groaned and laid her head on her desk, "Things just seem to be getting worse."

"I'm sorry, I heard about what Bolter did when you were late this morning," She said sympathetically.

Lily pulled her head up, "Great, I bet the whole hospital heard. Just what he wanted to. I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't in his office now sending out memos that said Lily Evans screwed up."

"No."

Lily raised her eyebrows, "Huh?"

"He's not in his office, he left twenty minutes ago with the little blonde."

Lily pushed back from her desk, "I don't get it! I mean here I am doing all the work, taking the time to talk to the patients, finding out what's wrong, treating them, and then doing the paper work. Plus, fixing his mistakes. Yet he finds the time to tell me what I'm doing wrong when he's cheating on his wife?"

Julia shrugged, "I can tell you what you're doing wrong."

Lily glared at her friend, "What?"

"You're doing his work for him. If you weren't here this floor would have went to hell already and he knows it. They all know it."

"What am I supposed to do?" Lily asked with defeat.

Julia shook her head sadly, "I don't know, Lils. With men like Bolter running the show I don't think we women have a future in medicine."

Lily looked at her degree for the second time that day. She was a fighter, she always had been. She couldn't just give up because of a boss who hated her. It wasn't how she was raised and that certainly isn't how her children are going to be raised.

"How's Steve?" Lily asked changing the subject.

Julia smiled and a look flashed across her friend face, happiness, "Oh, he's great."

Lily smiled at her friend, "I'm really happy for you. You deserve it."

"Thanks, Lils," Julia said, "Listen it's Friday and we need a girls night out."

Lily groaned, "Ju, I can't."

"That's what you always say!" She said rolling her eyes, "You can't get out of this one. I called Sam and Nicole are expecting you."

"I have work," Lily replied.

"You're not scheduled for tomorrow."

"I know," She said slowly, "but I was planning on coming in and catching up on all my reports."

"No, you were planning on doing all of Bolters reports," Julia looked down at her watch, "Listen you're not getting out of this Sam and Nicole won't allow it, not again. I'll talk to you after work."

Lily nodded and watched Julia leave her office, shutting the door behind her. Lily sighed, she hadn't seen Sam and Nicole in such a long time. They were her best friends from Hogwarts. Since she had introduced them to Julia it seems they were spending more time with Julia then her. She couldn't be jealous or angry it was her own fault. She was so busy trying to make Bolter see she was a good healer that she lost track of her social life.

The rest of the day went by not getting any better. A guy came in looking for a cure for a potion he made himself. Apparently he had a date and wanted to impress the girl. He wouldn't tell Lily what he used for a whole hour until Lily told him that unless he told her what the problem was she wasn't able to help him. He finally told her he mixed Re-em blood and runespoor eggs hoping to come out looking strong and have enhanced mental abilities. The only problem was the date was a week ago and the potion wasn't wearing off. It was just getting worse. When her shift ended she almost cried with relief. She made it to Julia's front desk without seeing Bolter which she could only take as a good sign.

"Hey," Julia said grabbing her purse. They got into the lift and went down. When the door opened for the forth floor healers got on that she recognized and politely said hello. She should recognize them Bolter "lent" her out to the forth floor all the time. When they finally made it out of the building Lily sighed with relief. There was no way she was going to step back in that building until her Monday morning shift.

"I take it that means you're going to come tonight?" Julia asked eyeing her hopefully.

Lily did want to see her friends but she also just wanted a night to herself. The look on her friend's face made her give in, "Okay, I'll come."

Julia's face lit up, "Good because I was afraid that I was going to have to kidnap you tonight," She said before apparating.

Lily walked into her apartment that she shared alone. Looking at her clock she realized she didn't have much time before the girls got there. Turning on the living room light she saw a body on her couch and screamed. The sleeping body sat up startled and pulled out his wand looking around. Lily put her hand to her chest.

"Jesus, Sirius, you scared the shit out of me!"

Sirius rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and smiled, "Hey, Lily. How was work?"

Lily sighed and dropped down on the chair beside him, "Ugh, it was horrible! I was late to work so the boss from hell yelled at me. He actually accused me of not being committed to the job! He said that if I didn't get serious that he would find someone who would. Meaning he would gladly find a man to do my job for me. Like hell he would ever find a man to do the shit I do for him." Sirius smiled sympathetically.

Sirius Black was a friend from her Hogwarts days. It was really a great surprise that they even were still friends. After her split from James Potter, her ex and Sirius best friend, she expected Sirius and her to stop talking. Instead he always seemed to show up when she needed a friend the most. At Hogwarts she thought he was just as bad as James, lazy, ignorant, and a jerk. Then she started to hang out with them more and got to know them better.

"I swear if you would let me I would have killed him already," Sirius said.

Lily sighed running her hand threw her head, "Yeah I know."

She looked at the clock again, "Ugh, I'm running behind," She said.

"For what? Surely my Lily doesn't have a date? Who is he?"

"I'm going out with the girls tonight," Lily said laughing at Sirius suddenly upright posture.

"Girls? I love girls."

"Yeah I know, but you're not going," Lily said laughing, "I'm going to get in the shower. You can order a pizza if you like. I'm starving."

Sirius saluted her and she went in the direction of her room. She jumped in the shower washing the day off her. The only positive thought she had was that work could not possibly get any worse. Right?

It didn't take too long to get ready. Walking out to the living room, Sirius was grabbing a soda from the fridge. Lily opened the Pizza box and smiled. He got her favorite, sausage with black olives. She grabbed a slice and took a bite. God it was so good. Sirius started laughing at her face.

"What? I didn't get a lunch today."

"Why?"

"I didn't have time to take one. Besides I had forgotten my lunch here and I didn't have any money on me."

Sirius frowned, "you could have called me and don't you and Julia have lunch together?"

"Yeah," She said looking down. She felt like she was getting a reprimanding from her mother right now.

There was a knock on the door and Lily yelled out to them. The three girls came in laughing and stopped at the sight of Sirius.

Nicole threw her brown hair over her shoulder, "Lily you obviously have a different definition of girls night than we do."

"Hey, Sirius," Julia and Sam said.

Sam reached over Lily's shoulder and grabbed a slice of Pizza. Nicole gave her a dirty look and Sam stopped chewing.

"What?" She asked confused.

Nicole rolled her eyes and Sam just shrugged.

"Relax, Nicole, he's not coming," Lily said.

Few seconds later Nicole became warmer toward Sirius. Nicole was not the biggest fan of Sirius ever since their third year at Hogwarts. He had died her hair pink and wouldn't tell her how to change it back for a week. Sirius still laughed about it.

"Okay well, we should get going," Julia said. The three girls nodded.

"Then I'm going to get going," Sirius said giving Lily a hug.

"Bye, Sirius," The four girls yelled as he bowed out the door.

Julia had picked a muggle bar three towns away from Lily's apartment. The girls walked into packed bar, not surprised since it was a Friday night. People were drowning themselves in alcohol pushing back their work and home problems. The girls found a empty table in the back of the bar. Julia made her way to the front of the bar to get their drinks while the other three stayed at the table.

"Lily, we're so glad you came out tonight," Nicole said.

"Yeah, it seems like we see less and less of you every month," Sam said.

"Yeah, I know, I'm sorry guys. Work is just crazy." They nodded understanding, they all knew about her boss and what a jerk he was.

Julia shortly came back with their drinks. The girls spent an hour catching up with each other talking about the guys in their life or there lack of, their families, and work. They helped Nicole with the pros and cons of moving in with her serious boyfriend, Adam. Julia stuck to her argument that Nicole should just move in and get it over with. She was convinced they were going to end up getting married. Sam told Nicole to keep her freedom as long as she can. Lily pointed out that Sam was just saying that because she would have to find another roommate.

"Lily, what do you think?" Nicole asked, "Should I move in with him?"

Lily stared at her drink. She knew what Nicole was thinking. She didn't want to end up like Lily and James. James and Lily had been having problems for while before their relationship ended. They were just too busy with work. He was in training to become an auror and Lily wanted her Healer degree fast. They barley saw each other and they were under a lot of stress. The lack of sleep didn't help them at all. They fought contently. Then James asked Lily to move in with him. It seemed like a good idea to James. His argument was they could see each other a lot more but Lily didn't want to give her apartment up. She didn't want to move to fast with him. Lily looked at her friend. She could hear Nicole's real question popping in her mind, was it worth it?

"Do you want to move in with him?

Nicole shrugged, " Things are good right now. I finally feel like I found someone who gets me and I don't want to lose that."

"Then it sounds like you know what you want to do," Lily replied.

Sam made a sound, "Thanks, Lils, just so you know you just volunteered to help me find a new roommate."

They all laughed. After hours of dancing, more talking and defiantly a lot of drinks the girls decided it was time to head home. By the time Lily got home that night her head was spinning like crazy. She tried to walk to her bedroom with the lights off but she kept bumping in to everything. She finally got to her room and laid down in bed. Before she could even debate on weather or not to change she fell asleep.

The sun shone brightly, flooding Lily's bedroom with light. She rolled over groaning. Her head was pounding and she could hear every little noise going on outside her apartment. It didn't help that someone was in her kitchen banging around pots and pans…wait…someone was in her kitchen? She sat straight up and immediately regretting it. Putting her hand to her head she slowly got out of bed. She stood still for a moment, her body getting used to it.

Lily noticed her wand on the bedside table and grabbed it. Not that it was really going to help if someone was really in her house. She couldn't see straight and wouldn't be sure if she could aim it in the right direction. When she made it to the kitchen two men started to laugh and she was pretty sure they were laughing at her. She turned around and looked in the front room Remus and Sirius were sitting on the couch watching TV. What was it with those boys coming over unannounced?

"Morning sunshine," Sirius said laughing, "You look like hell."

"Don't you two have apartments of your own?" Lily said.

"Yeah but it's much more fun bothering you," Sirius said.

"Sirius you bother me no matter if you're here or at your place. You live across the hall!" Lily said.

"Yes well your place is cleaner," Sirius replied.

"Ugh," Lily complained putting a hand to her head, "What is wrong with you two? Banging around here like it's a zoo."

"Zoo?" Sirius said excitedly, "I wanna go to the zoo!"

Remus groaned, "Now look what you did, Lily."

"No, seriously we should go," Sirius said grinning.

It was Lily's turn to groan, "Not today Sirius."

Sirius stood up, "Nope, too late. You put the idea in my head and now we shall go!"

Remus and Lily put their head in the hands both groaning and half laughing. Sirius stood on the couch and started jumping up and down, "I wanna go! I wanna go!"

"Okay, okay, okay," Lily said holding her hands over her ears, "We'll go as long as you be quite."

Sirius grinned, "Yes!"

After a long shower, coffee and lot's of Advil Lily, Sirius and Remus made their way to the zoo. Seeing the animals got Lily feeling like a kid again. Sirius and her kept dragging Remus animal to animal. They even got into a fight about what animal was cooler, Lion or Tiger.

"Lions are better than Tigers, Sirius," Lily said like everyone would agree with her.

"Nah uh," Sirius said, "Tigers are, look at their cool stripes."

"Stripes have nothing to do with it," Lily argued, "Lions are the king of the cats."

Sirius stuck out his tong at Lily who did the same. Remus rolled his eyes, "You two are like children."

"Yeah, just see how children like we can be!" Sirius said.

Lily jumped on Sirius back and Sirius took off with her. Lily was half laughing half screaming, Sirius did not know how to steer his own body. Sirius looked to his right and crashed into someone. When they saw who it was Sirius dropped Lily who landed on her butt.

"Sirius!" Lily yelled.

She looked up and her heart dropped, James Potter, was standing there with a blond who was hanging on his arm. Lily's heart dropped. This was the last place she expected to see him. Everything seemed to slow down. It seemed like forever until Remus finally caught up to them and froze. This was not going to be a happy meeting at all.

Remus gabbed Lily's hand and helped her up, she gave him a small smile, "Thanks."

"Hello, James," Remus said.

James just stared at him then at Lily then at Sirius and back at Lily.

Lily didn't know what to say the last time she saw him was the night he broke up with her. A night she didn't want to remember. The only thing she could say was, "Hello."

"You said you were going to your uncles house," James said staring accusingly at Remus.

"I was, I mean I did. He wasn't home," Remus said, "When I got back Sirius was at my house, then we went over to Lily's and then Sirius wanted to go to the zoo."

Something was going on. Lily could tell because Remus rarely got nervous like this. He was over talking. Lily noticed the blonde staring at her and it was starting to make her uncomfortable. She didn't even know the girl and yet the girl was glaring at her like she made fun of her shoes. Speaking of which the girl was way to dressed up for the zoo. Her blonde hair was pined back, not a single hair was out of place. Her clothes matched perfectly to her shoes. It made Lily depressed, the girl was perfect. She also noticed Sirius and Remus were giving the girl dirty looks.

"Baby, who are your friends?" The blonde asked still looking at Lily.

"Er, right. You remember Sirius and Remus," James said, he pointed at Lily, "This is Lily Evans…an old friend from school."

Lily couldn't take anymore of it, "Exuse me, I'm going to get a drink," Lily said pointing over to the little zoo restaurant over in the corner. Remus and Sirius nodded.

Lily walked off leaving them to talk. Whatever was going on Lily wasn't so sure she wanted to be involved. She wasn't sure if she ever wanted to go back to a zoo again. Why was it that when she was finally having fun or finally had her life together James Potter had to go and ruin it. Until now it was just his memory that haunted her. Sirius and Remus entered five minutes later with grim faces. They were talking in low voices while they walked over to where she was sitting.

"So," Lily said watching Sirius steal her fries.

"So?" Sirius said with his mouth full.

"That's disgusting, Sirius," Remus said.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked.

Remus and Sirius gave each other looks. Remus nodded to Sirius.

"We haven't exactly talked with James for a while now," Sirius said, "Well I haven't."

"Why?" Lily asked confused and shocked. James and Sirius had been inseparable since their first year at Hogwarts. Lily didn't even know it was possible to even get them apart for a few hours.

"Well four months after you two broke up James started to see the bitch from hell-"

"Jessica," Remus interrupted.

"Yeah, whatever," Sirius said continuing, "Two months after they started going out she started to spend all his money. Taking up all his time. She told him she didn't want him talking to me anymore!"

"What?" Lily asked dropping a fry.

"Yeah, James told me that I couldn't come over as much because of her. I told him to tell her to shove it. But ever since you guys broke up the guy just doesn't care anymore. He's so brainwashed by the bitch he doesn't realize what's going on."

"So you don't talk because she told him not to talk to you anymore?" Lily asked.

"Not exactly," Remus said, "Sirius freaked out when James told him this and they got into a row. He called Jessica some pretty nasty things. James took it badly and told Sirius he wasn't welcome at his house if he was going to talk to his girlfriend like that."

"I haven't talken to him since," Sirius said, "Well until today that is."

Lily was still confused, "Why was she acting like she didn't know you guys then?"

Sirius growled, "Because that's her way of being a bitch. Acting like we are worth remembering or something."

Remus shook his head, "I think it had more to do with you, Lily."

Sirius and Lily looked at him, "What?"

"I'm serious, she made the comment while looking at Lily. It was her way of finding out who you were without seeming like she was jealous."

"Why would she be jealous?"

"Because we like you and not her," Sirius said.

Lily looked out the restaurant window thinking about everything, "We should go."

They nodded. Ten minutes later they were saying goodbye to Lily and making their way back to Remus' house.

Sirius sat on the couch sighing, "He lied."

Remus sat down next to him, "What?"

"He lied, about Lily."

Remus nodded, "What did you expect? Honey, this is Lily Evans the love of my life that I let go because I'm to stubborn to see that I really do need her."

"No but I didn't think he would be that heartless to blow Lily off like she was nothing to him."

"I'm not surprised. Jessica would have flipped if she knew about Lily."

"What could she do? She already took James from us," Sirius said.

Okay so that's the first chapter. I already wrote the second chapter out but I won't post it until the third one is written. Please tell me what you think, if it's even worth finishing or any ideas you have for the plot. I have a general idea of what's going to happen but I might consider your ideas if they're good: ) So please review!