Lily was in a hurry. This was nothing new, as Lily always had a million things to do. She was a healer, she was up for Chief Residency, and she was helping with some very important studies at St Mungo's in experimental medicine. She did not have time to sit at cafes and enjoy a book. She did not have time to catch up with friends. She did not have time to remember that the apparition point at work had been temporarily shut down for spell maintenance.

She woke up at her usual time, tried to apparate when she was stopped. It felt like when you trip on a crack in the sidewalk, but catch yourself before falling. A spell popped up in front of her in big gold and purple lettering explaining how long the apparition check points would be down. She had been told about this but had completely forgotten.

Lily had woken with just enough time to shower, dress, and get to work. This would make her nearly thirty minutes late for rounds. She grabbed her loose-leaf folders, along with her overstuffed briefcase, and left the apartment feeling more tizzied than usual.

She apparated to the nearest point and broke into a sprint. She soon found herself windedly walking after a block.

She walked with as much haste as her lungs would allow. Everyone on the pavement seemed to move a bit too slow for her liking, and she was quickly maneuvering her way around them. It was as if fate had given her a human obstacle course, with many a little old lady, groups of three people taking up the sidewalk, and men carrying carpets.

She was only a few blocks away and could feel the burning in her shins, and her fingers hurt from clutching so many papers. When she finally reached her building, she was certain she would drop everything if she didn't reach a flat surface to lay her objects on.

She was almost to the reception desk when she ran into a man who suddenly stopped in front of her.

Her fingers could not withstand the shake of running into a person, and soon papers were spread wide throughout the hallways, falling in a cascade.

"Dammit!" Lily spat, dropping to her knees and frantically picking up papers.

"Are you alright?" the man asked, kneeling to gather papers.

"Don't touch those!" she snapped. "They're confidential records!"

"I won't read them, then," he replied cordially, gathering more papers.

"You shouldn't stand around in a busy hospital," she ground out, gathering her papers as quickly as she could. She didn't even care if they were creased at this point.

"I was looking at the map," he said with a smile, pointing to the one on the wall.

She gave an eye roll. He gave her a hand that she begrudgingly took to get up. If she weren't so tired she would have snubbed it entirely.

"I'm sorry your papers got mussed," he said, still looking all too friendly given her rudeness.

"Me too," she said turning to storm away. It was then that her bulging briefcase decided to pop open and let the rest of her papers fall to the ground.

Lily felt her face flush with anger and she was ready to shout or kill someone, she did not know which she would prefer.

"Here let me help," said the man again stooping and gathering papers for her.

"Fine," she said gathering her papers with much less speed than before, the stress of her morning slowing her movements to almost a crawl.

"You wouldn't happen to know where people go if they are in a coma, would you?"

"It depends on why they were brought in," said Lily, looking the man in the face for the first time. He had dirty blonde hair that looked like it could use a haircut, being a bit too long in the back and curling up at his collar. He was wearing some sort of shell necklace and looked like he didn't shower enough for her tastes (which was twice, daily.)

"Oh wow, you're Lily!"

"Sorry?" Lily asked.

"You're Lily Potter! We haven't seen each other in years. Lysander Scamander!" he said with a wide grin, giving her hand a shake.

"Oh! Hi!" she said with a forced smile. She hated playing 'catch-up' with people she was never actually friends with. "Nice to see you!"

She wanted to get rid of him even more quickly now that she was in danger of being trapped at making small talk with some kid she hadn't seen in over a decade.

"The best way to find who you're looking for is not by looking at the map. Here- Leslie!" she called to the receptionist.

"Yes?"

"Here," said Lily pushing him to the front of the long reception line. No one looked very happy with him cutting in line, but Lily never cared what people thought. "Help him with whatever he needs. He's looking for a patient. He gets top priority."

"Yes ma'am," she replied quickly, looking puzzled.

"Well, there you go! I have to get to work, I'm already very late," Lily said trying to pull herself away.

"Healers are always in a hurry, I understand. Maybe I'll see you around the hospital then?"

"Sure," she said automatically. "Good luck."

She had no intention of talking to Lysander again. He seemed to have aged nicely since she last saw him. He was about six year younger than she, and she hadn't seen him since he was thirteen or so. Last she heard he was off traveling around the world, like the rest of his odd family did. It was strange seeing someone after fourteen years. He was now twenty seven. And God she was thirty-three. She had never thought of herself as old until this moment. She remembered when she babysat him. He was always a weird kid, playing instruments from random countries and wearing things like daishikis to bed.

His brother seemed more normal, but loved to climb things and got into much more trouble, generally.

She hoped she would not have to make nice with him any more. When at the market place she tended to avoid eye contact or even going to the same aisle if she recognized someone from school or some such that she hadn't kept up with. She kept up with very few people, and only cultivated the friendships that mattered.

There was a time when being popular and feigning intimacy with others was all she cared about, but those days were a good twenty years behind her. Oh god, twenty years. She was getting old.

Feeling weary and all too tired considering how many hours of work she had ahead of her, she trudged to her usual desk to see what files she had in her box. She had four interns staring at her, expectant and fearful. Oh right, interns. She hated interns.

"Healer Potter! We were getting worried! We each have your patients, and have checked in on them," the fat boy said. Most of them would wash out by the end of the year, so why bother learning their names.

"Wonderful. I'm sure they were all really comforted seeing your clueless faces," Lily said with a roll of her eyes.

"I have organized your files from least complex to most," the one with glasses said, quite pleased with herself. Lily looked over the charts quickly.

"It would have been better to organize them from most urgent to least urgent," said Lily, feeling a twinge of glee at how the intern's face fell.

"I- I-" said the tall thin boy.

"Save your breath," said Lily giving him a look of disdain.

She turned to the small black haired girl in the back who hadn't said anything.

"Well?" Lily asked impatiently.

She simply handed her a folder.

"This seemed the most interesting case," she said handing it to her with trepidation.

Lily looked through the file and did find it the most fascinating. Young man, unconscious with no obvious signs of a wound or spell, potion screens all negative. Found in the Andes. All renovate spells ineffective.

"Good job," said Lily with a slight smile. They waited for her to snarl and say something nasty. She loved their scared anticipation. "You get to come with me."

"Really?"

"Don't talk," Lily said quickly letting her face drop.

"Tubby, Glasses, Pipecleaner," said Lily, fixing them with a harsh glare. "Here are your assignments."

Each of them had horribly boring grotesque jobs, such as rubbing salve on boils, spelling away intestinal dingbats, and monitoring vomitting kids.

"Tiny, come with me," she said to the small one.

The fourth floor always promised the most interesting cases, and today it brought her a most fascinating one. She loved a good mystery; it made her job worth it.

"So, what will we find in the room?"

"The patient and his brother. His parents should be here later this week. They haven't been reached yet. They're in South America."

"I said what, not who," said Lily. She did not care much about the personal side of things in a hospital. She cared a bit more when she started out, but in the end that stuff didn't matter.

"Erm... The patient is stable. No swelling of the brain seems to be present. No history of any illness that may explain symptoms. Serum glucose, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphate, urea, and creatinine are all at normal levels."

"Congratulations, Tiny. You're not a complete waste of space," Lily said before walking through the door to the room of the patient. She walked in with her nose in her clipboard.

"Hi there, I'm Healer Potter. I hope you weren't waiting too long. I'm going to do a quick examination of the patient, and see what his responses to stimuli are."

"I did a few of them already," said a man's voice from behind her.

She looked to see Lysander Scamander standing with his back leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Lysander!" she let out.

"Thought I'd see you around the hospital," he said with a smile.

"Uh yeah..." What was it that Tiny said? The patient's brother was here. That meant that-

Lorcan Scymander lay on the bed looking very pale. Unlike his blonde haired brown eyed brother, Lorcan has black hair and blue eyes. His hair was cropped short, and he had a few days of black stubble around his jaw. For twins the two brothers looked very little alike.

"I already did a few preliminary stimuli tests in the Andes, and did them again here. I'm a Mediwizard."

Lily kept herself from snorting. Mediwizards had their place, but she didn't need him trying to take over her case. They were about as useful as a paramedic in the muggle world.

"Right, let's see what, if anything, has changed since then," she said raising her wand to perform a variety of spells rapidly and proficiently. She was known in the hospital for being able to perform diagnosis spells faster and more accurately than almost anyone in the hospital.

"Impressive spellwork," said Lysander, watching all her movements very intently.

"That's why I'm a Healer," said Lily with a smirk.

"Yeah. Too bad you forgot to check his Aural stimuli."

She had forgotten that. That was a rookie kind of mistake. Probably because she was trying to show off.

"I was getting to that-" she lied.

"Of course. That's why you're a Healer," Lysander said with a smirk.

She decided Lysander had not grown up so nice after all. He was a smug hippie who needed a haircut, desperately. Healing Lorcan needed to be a priority now. Not because she cared about him, as much as she wanted to get rid of his annoying brother.