Love or Something Like it?

The first week of summer was over and Lily was now running through the house trying to get ready for her first day interning at St. Mungo's. Crawling under her bed and searching for her shoes was just part of her morning routine. If everything she needed didn't get lost then she would sleep through her alarm or forget something after she had already left the house and have to double back for it. No matter how organized that she thought she was, she always seemed to be in a hurry for everything.

She looked herself over once in the mirror and took a deep breath. Her St. Mungo's robes looked perfect on her. They made her feel confident, professional, and like an adult. Satisfied with herself, she put her hair up and walked over to the kitchen counter to eat her breakfast.

Lily was glad to be getting out of the house. As beautiful as her parents' vacation home was, she felt slightly out of place being there all by herself. Her parents had bought it after she had been accepted into Hogwarts, thinking that it would be the perfect way to spend time together having both of their girls home during the summer.

When she arrived everything had already been uncovered and cleaned, the pantry stocked with food, and all of her things moved into her room. The first thing that she wanted to do was to pick up the phone and call her mum to thank her for everything that she had done. She had already started dialing before she remembered why she was there in the first place and tearfully put the phone back down on the receiver.

But that was over. Now she would be too busy for the rest of the summer to have time to worry about all of that. And if there was one thing that Lily Evans was good at, it was making herself busy beyond distraction. After putting her dishes in the sink, she signed with relief. For once she would actually be arriving somewhere calm, cool, collected, and on time. She took a sip of her orange juice just as the alarm (which she had set the night before to remind her when to leave) went off causing her to spill the rest of her orange juice all over her white robes.

"Well, so much for that," she said, annoyed with herself.

Being permitted to use magic only while she was at St. Mungo's, she ran up the stairs to her room to soak her robes in detergent and change into her other set.

~ ~ ~

Lily ran the halls of St. Mungo's looking at the numbers above each door. She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, Madam Harris - Room 213, but before she looked up she ran into someone and fell to the floor.

"I'm so sorry. It's my first day interning and I'm late," she explained, scrambling to pick up all of the papers and return them to their owner.

"Don't worry, I know what you mean. First days are the worst!" a young man reassured her.

"Tell me about it." She stood up to hand him the papers she had collected, when she finally saw the victim of her clumsiness. He was a tall, very good looking blonde with light blue eyes, only a few years older than herself.

"Devin Sanders," he said, smiling down at her.

When she reached to take his outstretched hand she dropped all of the papers onto the floor. Blushing, she bent down to pick them all up again.

"I've got it, you're already late. The internship office is just up there to your right. Good luck," he told her, piling the papers into his arm.

"Thank you," she said, taking off down the hall.

She stopped at room 213, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

"Lily Evans, I presume," said an annoyed voice from inside the room.

"Yes, ma'am." But before she could walk through the doorway a tall, thin, stern looking woman pushed passed her.

"Keep up," she said, walking down the hall so fast that Lily had to run to keep up. "My name is Madam Harris. Let me welcome you by saying that if you would like to stay in this internship program than I suggest that you're never late again. I have a unit to run and patients to see. What I don't have is time to wait around for interns, especially undergraduates, such as yourself."

"Yes, Ma'am," Lily replied nervously, following her down the hall.

"Miss Zantrick." She called to her side a young witch in her twenties, who ran to match their pace down the hall as Madam Harris slowed down to sign some forms that a hurried looking heeler had handed her and continued walk through the hospital giving orders and signing more forms.

"Madam Harris, you needed me for something, ma'am?" the woman asked.

"Miss Zantrick, this is Miss Evans. She will be under your charge; she is to assist you in whatever you require of her. I expect that everything will be handled accordingly?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Good," she said, stopping without warning and turned to Lily. "This is not Hogwarts, Miss Evans. If you put a toe out of line you will not simply get a slap on the hand for bad behavior, you will be eliminated from this program. You will do as you are told and stay out of the way. Do make myself clear?"

"Yes Ma'am," Lily replied, a little fearful.

Madam Harris turned to her heel and walked away.

"Welcome to St. Mungo's," Miss Zantrick said, turning around and walking back the way that had came, Lily followed. "Don't worry about her. You'll mostly be working with me for the summer. Just do what she tells you to do and stay out of her way and you should be fine. And don't be late again!"

"Yeah, I caught that, sorry."

"Try not to take it to personal. Madam Harris hates everyone. I guess it's just her way of not showing favoritism." She stopped by a desk and grabbed a pile of charts. "Try not to use magic in the halls - there are too many people moving too fast, so it's better to carry everything. You'll want to get the lay of the land as soon as you can so try and pay close attention where you are and where you're going. Grab those." She nodded to a tray carrying a variety of potions. Lily picked them up and quickly followed her down the hall.

"If you get lost find someone behind a desk to ask, otherwise you might get in someone's way and you don't want to do that while you're still new."

She stepped to the side and with a flick of her wand, she sent the charts into their individual holders outside of the patients rooms, leaving only one in her hand. She continued to walk while reading the contents of the remaining chart.

"I'm Jane by the way," she said, stopping outside one of the patients' rooms.

"Lily Evans," Lily returned, calming down slightly.

"It's nice to meet you," said Jane, smiling down at her. "Come on, I'll introduce you to Mr. O'Brien."

Lily followed her into a room that was less like a hospital room and more like a bedroom. Photographs of famous musicians and authors adored the walls. One of which housed several shelves of books, awards, and memorabilia. The small dressers next to the bed were lined with what she assumed to be photographs of family members, and the window sill was filled with potted plants. This was clearly a room of someone who had been there a long time and wasn't leaving anytime soon.

"Good morning, Mr. O'Brien. How are you feeling?" Jane asked the man, lying in bed, reading a book. He was an older man, Lily guessed to be in his late sixties. He looked tired and agitated by their presence.

"Sick, obviously, or I would be at home in the comfort of my own study and not here in a hospital bed," Mr. O'Brien replied. "Why I am asked that insensate question everyday, I will never know."

"You can set that over there." Jane pointed to a small table next to the bed and Lily set the tray down. "Mr. O'Brien, I need you to take these."

"I suppose that you're not even going to allow me to finish this chapter," he said, sounding annoyed and reluctantly closing his book; Lily recognized the cover at once.

"To most, magic is defined by power. However, true magic does not come from a wand, but from the one who wields it. For the most powerful magic of all, emanates from the heart," she quoted from memory.

"Well now, the young lady has read Farson?" Mr. O'Brien asked her, sounding impressed.

"Yes, sir. He's my favorite author," she told him, as Jane handed him a potion.

"Such things are usually wasted on youth." He drank it without anymore argument.

"Which do you prefer, A Caldron of Contemplation or The Dangers of The Pensieve?" he asked taking another potion.

"A Caldron of Contemplation, he takes a seemingly basic concept and points out its complexities, which would otherwise be overlooked."

"Too right," he nodded. "It's about time this hospital hired someone with an appreciation of these things. What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?" He swallowed another potion.

"Lily Evans, sir, but I'm only an intern. It's my first day," she told him as he finished his last potion.

"Ah, yes," he nodded. "I didn't think I'd seen you before."

"I'll be back later to check on you," Jane told him. "In the mean time, please try and eat something." She put his tray next to his bed and motioned Lily to follow her out of the room.

"It was nice to meet you, Mr. O'Brien." she said as she left the room after Jane.

"Well done! It usually takes me about fifteen minutes of begging and pleading in order to get him to take his potions! I think we'll just have to keep you around, Miss Evans," Jane smiled at her and opened the chart of their next patient.

"I second that!" exclaimed a voice from behind her.

Lily turned around to find Devin smiling down at her.

"Look, I hate to be the barer of bad news, but Madam Harris wanted me to find you and let you know that the bedpans need to be changed," he told her hesitantly.

"I guess that's what I get for being late," she said taking out her wand.

"She also said to tell you that you should do it without your wand in order correct your punctuality."

"Right then." She put it back in robes. "Sorry again for earlier. I didn't mean to run into you."

"Yeah, I bet that's what you say to all the guys to make them feel special," he said grinning playfully at her. "I've gotta get going, I'll see you later?"

"You can count on it." He nodded and walked pass her and down the hallway.

"Come on you, we've got a lot of patients left to see this morning. Though I must admit, he's not to bad for your first day, huh?" Jane teased.

Lily sighed and bit her bottom lip, still looking toward the direction Devin had just been.

"No, not bad at all."