Today was the day. The day lily finally got her bandages off and was allowed to leave the hospital room and go back to her dorm. She had winced when madam pomfrey unwrapped the cloth from her torso and had immediately felt an odd tingling sensation from it. It had been wrapped around her for so long she had forgotten how it felt to be without it. Her ribs still hurt, but barely, and only when she hit them with something or laughed too hard. That was unfortunate because lily was the type of person that laughed with her whole body. She threw her head back and smiled wide, even though she hated her teeth. They weren't all that bad she just prefered a closed mouth smile because she had two crooked ones right towards the front for all to see, but when she laughed she didn't care. When lily evans laughed it was as if the whole world with its hatred and bigotry and bad days stopped, if only for just a moment. It was a feeling she wished she could savor forever.

Even now, she smiled at the happiest memories she had. A family dinner in the backyard at her parents house back when she and petunia had still gotten along. Her and her dorm mates staying up all night in third year even though they had classes the next morning with pastries and chocolate they had snuck up from the dining hall. Watching her fifth year quidditch match of gryffindor vs slytherin with sirius and peter. Remus had been out "sick". Slytherin had won but she still enjoyed the game itself and cheering with what then were her new friends. Last year when she and james had gotten drunk down at hogsmeade. The sensation of the firewhiskey slowly making its way towards her head while the feeling of james's lips on hers made everything seem a little bit better somehow.

She sighed a happy sigh as she grabbed her bag of school supplies that had lived in the hospital wing with her. It hurt a little when it bumped into her side but she was so relieved to finally be going to her classes again today that she hardly noticed. She had already missed her first class, ancient runes, but she could still make all her other ones.

"Oh, goodbye, dear!" madam pomfrey bustled over from where she was tending a small girl with unusually unruly blonde hair when she saw lily gathering her things "i'm going to miss having you around, you know. I had rather grown used to you."

"I had to go sometime." lily smiled "i would like to say i'll miss being here but i'm excited to be going back to my classes again."

"Only you, dear." madam pomfrey shook her head "i would tell you to visit but i don't exactly fancy telling students to get themselves hurt, you see. Oh well," she waved her hand "i suppose if something does happen you know where to find me!" and with that she went off to draw the curtains around a rather green-looking seventh year boy. In just her month here lily thought she had seen more magical ailments than most witches and wizards saw in a lifetime.

Just like that lily walked out of the hospital wing and power walked as fast as her slightly sore ribs would allow her. There was still ten minutes until charms started. Lily navigated the halls without a thought, as if she had never been in the hospital wing in the first place. The satisfying feeling of knowing without a doubt which staircase took you where was as gratifying as she remembered it. She neared the charms classroom and her excitement to back in the learning environment grew. She was a little strange, wasn't she? Oh well. A love for school certainly wasn't a bad thing.

There were loud students exiting the room, standing in the hall outside and talking inside the classroom. Lily sighed in contentment. she had missed the buzz of casual conversation. In the hospital wing everything was whispered and serious. She stood in the doorway and looked around for that familiar head of tossed up black hair. It didn't take her too long. Lily made her way across the room and put her hands over his eyes.

"Guess who." she chuckled into his ear. He pulled her hands off his face and turned around in an instant.

"Lily? Lily!" he hugged her, making sure to hug her shoulders and not her ribs. Lily was very grateful for how thoughtful he tended to be, despite his careless delinquent rep.

"What are you doing here?" he asked when he finally let go of her

"What, not happy to see me?" she joked

"Oh, you don't believe that for a second, lily evans! Why didn't you tell me you got out of the hospital wing today!"

"I wanted to surprise you, i suppose."

"Well consider me surprised!" he hugged her again

"Oi!" lily heard from behind them "is that- no. it can't be lily evans, can it? I never thought i'd see the day!"

"Hi, sirius." lily smiled turning away from james. He kept his hands wrapped around her waist and she felt her face warm a little

"Why, i'll be!" he exclaimed in the mock voice of an old lady "how long has it been? Ten? Twenty years?"

"Something like that." lily nodded a solemn expression finding it's way onto her face to play along with sirius's charade

"Lily!" she heard from across the room and saw peter bobbing his way across the classroom "lily! I missed you!" peter exclaimed. Lily laughed and her ribs ached a little but she didn't mind

"I missed you to peter."

"Oh. well hello." remus had appeared next to them. How lily had neither seen nor heard him coming over was a bit of a mystery.

"Well this sure is a party now, isn't it?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were getting out of the hospital wing today?"

"Ah, the eternal question." james rested his chin on the top of lily's head

"Well it doesn't really matter, now does it? I'm back now and i know the school was dying without me." she exaggerated "everyone in the entire building was asking the question when does lily get out of the hospital wing?"

"Oi, can't you just answer a bloody question!" peter laughed. Lily laughed with him. She couldn't even explain how good it felt to be back. Here, with these people, this was where she belonged.