I sat down at a table in The Leaky Cauldron and Susan sat across from me. It was the first time we had a chance to catch up since I finished my assignment at Hogwarts. Susan returned to work in the Auror's office in May and her schedule had been rather hectic. Mine hadn't exactly been smooth sailing either. As soon as I returned to St. Mungo's they put me into rotation with the other trainees. We were actually handling our own patients and not just supervised rounds where the most we did was answer questions but someone else was in charge. The pressure was immense but the reward of doing well was even greater. I no longer felt in competition with Henry as we weren't being compared with each other anymore but on an individual capacity on how fast we diagnosed the patients and how well we treated them. If anything, Henry and I consulted each other as colleagues and in turn were the quickest pair and the highest rated.

"How was Hogwarts?" Susan asked, "I can't believe I haven't talked to you since you returned. I imagine it hasn't changed already."

I laughed. "It's exactly the same as it was. This time though I was able to wander the halls after dark. We didn't miss out on anything."

"No secret staff parties then?" She asked.

"None that I was invited to." I told her. "Though…there was a meeting in a broom closet I stumbled on."

"A broom closet?" She wondered.

I told her the story of catching Filch and Madam Pince together and how I fled the scene and in doing so ran into Severus. I voiced my confusion of how his words had been venomous since I had arrived but in that moment he hadn't looked at me as though I was a disgusting flobberworm and how words seemed to escape him.

"Do you think he remembers me?" I asked. The shock of speaking those words out loud after weeks of pondering them inside my head sent my heart into my stomach as I awaited her answer.

"You told me you erased his memories of you." She said.

"I did." I replied.

"Well then he can't." She said. "He was probably not expecting someone to take him by the hand and drag him through the castle. Or the fumes from his stupid potions have addled his brain and he's no longer capable of speech."

"He's as brilliant as ever." I argued.

"Ew." She said, "Why do you insist on remaining in love with him? I never saw what attracted you in the first place and there are so many better men. I've told you multiple times that Kingsley is available and I could set you two up easily. I've talked about you and he seems interested. His future is much brighter than some school Potions Master. If Kingsley keeps going in the same direction he'll be Minister of Magic someday."

I scoffed. "I'm sure Kingley is very nice but…"

"But what?" Susan cut me off, "He doesn't have a curtain of oily black hair covering his face? He doesn't constantly smell of the sour stench of experimental potions? He was never a death eater?"

"Susan!" I objected, "That's too far."

She smoothed out her menu. "I'm sorry. I thought we were done with this. You erased his memory. You left him. You made your choice but it feels like you won't ever let go. You were doing so well. Honestly, you shouldn't have gone back. Are you sure nothing happened between you two again?"

I shook my head. "I've told you everything now. Nothing happened."

"Then why torture yourself?"

"I wasn't ready to let him go."

Susan shook her head and raised her hand to call over the witch waiting tables.

I returned to St. Mungo's after Susan and mine's long overdue lunch. I busied myself attending to an average array of patients suffering from counterfeit potions (maladies ranged from boar like tusks protruding from the mouth to hair falling out from the head and rapidly growing from other areas), malfunctioned hexes, and accidental explosions. I attempted to help Henry identify a rather nasty bite from a mystery animal. The patient likely housed a collection of illegal creatures and they were not inclined to share what the animal looked like or how it was encountered. I sat in the hospital library looking through The Big Book of Bites as the patient's condition worsened. We were too scared to start administering any kind of potions or remedies on the off chance that something reacted poorly with the unknown venom that was making its way through the patient's veins.

My fingers began cramping from the speed I was flipping through pages. I stopped suddenly and gasped. I picked up the book and ran to the patient's room where Henry was still trying to get an answer about where the bite came from. I held the book out so that we both had a view to compare the picture with the patient. It was a pretty distinctive match.

"A Wyvern?" I asked incredulously, "Are you mad? What are you doing with a Wyvern?"

The patient slumped even lower in his bed and winced as the movement aggravated his wound.

"You realize you could have died, don't you?" I added as though I was scolding a child. "Healer Wood will get you fixed up and then I'm afraid someone from the Ministry will be here to find out where you are hiding this creature. We might be above using veritaserum here at St. Mungo's but I can assure you that the Ministry is not."

I turned from the room and closed the book with a loud slap.

"Ruby," I heard Henry's voice call. "Thanks for your help. You've always been better at research."

I nodded and smiled.

"Even if I am better at everything else, you'll always have research." He winked and turned to head in the direction of the supply closet to get a treatment started.

The end of our training was coming nearer everyday. There were only three of us remaining from our starting group. No one was guaranteed a spot to stay at St. Mungo's after the training was completed and the days seemed to speed by in tornado-like whirl, mixing every day into the next and smudging patients together in a vague blur.

I sat in the cafeteria absentmindedly stirring a cup of luke-warm tea. I was staring off into the distance at nothing in particular and my brain replayed different scenes from the past week.

"IT'S HERE!" I was jolted out of my near catatonic state by Henry's shout. "IT'S HERE, RUBY!"

I looked up at him, my eyes glazed over. I blinked a few times and he came into focus waving a parchment letter bearing the seal of The Ballycastle Bats.

"This is it!" He shouted gleefully, "This is what I have been waiting for!"

His expression changed from that of a giddy child on Christmas morning to that of a person stretched too thin with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He sat down, deflated, and stared at the sealed parchment he held in his hands.

"What if it's a no?" He asked, pulling his eyes from the letter to look at me.

"Then…" I started but I realized I didn't know. What was next? His plan had always been to work for a quidditch team as the team healer. The Ballycastle Bats happened to have an opening at the perfect time and he had sent an application. He was very skilled and I knew had they reached out to anyone at St. Mungo's that the review would have held only praise for him. "Then we keep doing what we're doing and you keep an eye out for another team healer position, I suppose. You could up your game a bit to try to keep up with me, good luck with that though."

I gave him a snarky smile to show I was joking.

He looked back down at the letter; his hands were visibly shaking.

"Go on," I said, "Just break the seal and be done with it. Rip it off like a plaster."

"A what?" He asked.

"Never mind." I said, "Just open it!"

He lifted the seal up and began to unfold the first flap. "My heart is beating so fast."

"Just remember," I said, "If it is a no, Susan will likely leave you and take Thomas with her."

He gave me a forced smile.

"Not the time for jokes." I nodded, "Noted."

He unfolded the letter and I watched his eyes rapidly skim over the words. He took a sharp inhale of air. "IT'S AN OFFER! THEY WANT TO HIRE ME!"

He jumped up from his seat, sending the chair flying behind him but the clatter was drowned out by his shouts of joy. He jumped in the air, thrusting his fist towards the ceiling. Several healers and visitors looked over in shock and annoyance at the commotion. He noticed and feigned a coughing fit. He made to sit down in the chair that was upside-down a small distance away and crashed to the floor. I slapped my hand against my mouth to stop from laughing. I sprung from my seat and ran to his side of the table where he lay, his body shaking with silent cackles. He must have knocked the wind out of himself. I let him resume until I heard an intake of air. His laughter became audible as I helped him lift himself off the floor and escorted him out into the hall.

He pulled me into a hug. "Thank you, Ruby. I don't know if I would have been able to do this if I wasn't always competing with you.

He released me from the hug and held me out at arm's length. "Good luck. I have to go write to Susan. She'll be thrilled!"

I sat in a chair just outside the cafeteria door. I was happy for Henry and for Susan but his excitement and surety of what his future would bring gave me a feeling of panicked uncertainty. What was I going to do? What was my next step? I hadn't planned for anything other than St. Mungo's but what would I do if no one asked me to stay on? Where would I go? An uneasy sickness landed in the pit of my stomach. It felt as though the butterflies I felt around Severus had turned into a hurricane. I could feel my heart being with growing strength and rapidity. I feared it might beat through my chest out onto the floor. I took a deep breath in and blew it out slowly. It did little to help. My fingers were shaking and I began to feel lightheaded, like the room was spinning. I tried to focus on breathing, but I could feel the color draining from my face. The outskirts of my vision began to fade to black. Breathe in, breathe out. The blurred darkness on the edges of my vision continued to expand while my usable vision shrank. Breathe in, breathe out. My heart was beating so hard I could feel it in my throat. I put my hand over my chest. Breath in, breathe out. The world around me blurred.

"Miss Winston," a muffled voice that was barely intelligible sounded. "Miss Winston."

I opened my eyes slowly. I had been unaware that I had closed them. I looked straight ahead at the ceiling. Why was I looking at the ceiling? Mathilda Rathbone knelt on one side of me looking down at me and on the other side was the man with the bushy white mustache whose name I had learned was Cornelius Page. How did I get on the floor?

"Are you alright?" asked Cornelius.

I looked between them trying to remember what had happened. I must have fainted. I've never fainted before, and this is quite possibly the most embarrassing place I could have done it. I lifted myself into a sitting position, my head spun in objection, but it was over in a moment.

"Why don't you go home for the rest of the day and rest." suggested Mathilda.

"No, I'm fine, really I am." I said.

"Come now, Miss Winston," said Mathilda, giving Cornelius a knowing glance. He returned her glance with an approving nod. I looked between the two of them in confusion. "St. Mungo's can't have its newest Healer down on the job before she even starts, can we? What would people say?"

"To my talented husband and my unbelievably brilliant best friend." Susan said as she raised her glass of red wine.

Before I had even left St. Mungo's Susan had already replied to Henry's message and told him to invite me to a celebratory dinner she had already decided to have that night. When he invited me I told him the news of the offer to be a real Healer at St. Mungo's. By the time I showed up to their house Susan had already turned it into a party for both Henry and I.

"So," said Susan, "How did they offer you the job? Was it a letter or did they call you into an office and you thought you were fired?"

"I fainted and when I came to they just sort of told me." I said with a shrug.

"You what now?" asked Susan.

"I fainted." I stated. "It was incredibly embarrassing but when Henry got his offer I started panicking about how I had nothing planned and started thinking about how foolish I had been to rely on a position at St. Mungo's with no backup plans. I remember my vision going dark and then when I opened my eyes I was on the floor and Mathilda Rathbone and Cornelius Page were hovering over me."

"Very unprofessional to nap on the job, Winston." Henry teased.

"Speaking of jobs," said Susan, staring at Thomas as he smashed peas with his bare hands. "I told Kingsley about your new job and he seems keen as ever to meet you!"

She refused to look at me after her announcement.

"I told you, Susan, I don't have time for dating right now." I said.

"No, you said you were too focused on finishing your trainee program." She argued. "You've been hired on. You're done. So now you can have dinner with him."

"Susan."

"Don't Susan me!" she shouted. "I just want you to be happy. You're going to end up alone. I don't want you to be alone. I want you to be as happy as I am but I GUESS I'LL NEVER DO ANYTHING RIGHT AND I WILL TELL KINGSLEY THAT YOU WANT TO DIE ALONE RATHER THAN GO ON ONE LITTLE DATE!"

She started crying and fled from the room.

My eyes widened and I looked at Henry.

He smiled into a cringe. "That would be the third reason she wanted you to come to dinner tonight. We're having another baby."

He got up from the table. I looked over at the glass of red wine Susan had been drinking.

"It's juice." He clarified before chasing Susan down the hall.

I looked over at Thomas covered in green goop from the peas. He smiled at me, his three teeth on full display.