Living The Destiny's Path

St. Mungo's

Lily both loved and hated the trainee Healers. They were dead helpful when it came to most things, like physical assessments and especially one on one care with patients. St. Mungo's was slightly understaffed, and Lily always wanted to spend more time with the people she actually took care of, but when she had as many as eighteen patients a shift, it just wasn't always possible. But with the trainee Healers, Lily was able to spent time with her patients. Hell, she even got to take a break – which was a very rare occasion.

Usually, the trainees hung on every word that a fully qualified Healer such as herself said, but this group was different, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. What with the nearly daily slams about Harry in the Daily Prophet, Lily was quite sure that this batch of trainees thought – like most of the wizarding world – that her family was crazy.

Not that she really cared what they thought. It was still very early in their training and if they didn't want to listen to her, they'd just have to figure things out the hard way.

She glanced at her watch – it was just after one. One in the morning, that is. Only a few hours left, she thought with a yawn. The night shift wasn't too bad. The hospital was generally fairly quiet, with the exception of a few freak accidents. As usual, she was working on the third floor, Potion and Plant Poisoning. She had just finished her midnight rounds and was working on her documentation when Crissy, a fellow Healer, came to the desk on Lily's floor.

"Could you do me a huge favor?" Crissy asked.

"That depends," Lily replied with a smile.

"My sister is really sick and she doesn't have anyone to watch her little girl. I've already written to Smethwyck and he should be here in about an hour, but could you cover the Dai Llewellyn ward until he gets here? There are only two patients..."

"Fine, but you'll owe me a dinner next week."

"Deal." Crissy told Lily about the two patients and left. They sounded like typical cases on the Llewellyn ward, but Lily wanted to speak with one of them.

David Kessler was at the bed at the furthest end of the ward. He was still awake, despite the late hour, lying down in his bed and miserably staring at the ceiling. Her heart couldn't help but go out to him – he had been bitten by a werewolf.

"Mr. Kessler?" Lily asked him.

He looked up at her and said, "Please, call me David." He sounded helpless.

Lily nodded. "Well, David, I'm Healer Potter and if it's alright with you, I'd like to have a look at your wound."

"Potter? You're not related to Harry Potter by any chance, are you?"

She smiled. "He's my son."

"Oh,"

Silence rang momentarily before Lily persisted, "David, may I please look at your wound?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," he turn onto his right side, facing away from Lily. She pulled his covers down, and his night shirt up. A large bandage covered most side.

"Is it still hurting?"

"Like hell,"

"I'll get you a potion for the pain and I'll be right back."

Ten minutes later she was back at David's bedside and gave him a white potion to help control the pain.

"Has anyone said anything to you about your condition?" Lily asked carefully.

"They've been avoiding it." David replied darkly.

"Well, now's a good a time as any." She conjured a chair and sat next to him. "More than likely, you'll have these scars for the rest of your life. The reason your staying here so long is because these wounds take longer than normal to heal."