the_debt_of_time

His face paled, and his breath caught in his throat. Hope and terror battled for
dominance in his heart because truly she could not mean... He inhaled sharply. "A mate?"
Mia smiled. "Yes."
"But I―"
"We should keep going," Mia interrupted him. "Do you have questions about the
letter?"
Remus could barely understand her words as he tried to process the knowledge: he
had a mate. He had known it since the first night he and Mia had slept together all those
years ago. He had fought it, but she had always insisted, promising he would one day find
his perfect mate. And that was because this whole time she knew. Mia knew he had found her
in the future. He had someone out there, waiting for him. Someone that he would protect
and keep safe. Someone meant just for him the way that Sirius and Mia were meant for
one another. Hope triumphed and settled inside him, easing the nausea caused by the
previous memory. He tried to pull himself together so he could answer her and ask the
questions he knew he needed to know.
"Why did I send you back?" he blurted out.
"Apparently, because I asked you to."
"When?"
"Now. I'm asking you now, Remus." She turned to face him, and her eyes bore into
his. "On the nineteenth of September in 1998, you will be in possession of a Time-Turner
that's also a charmed Portkey. You will present it as a birthday gift and trick Hermione
Granger into going to the past, specifically to the first of August, 1971. You charm the
Portkey to land me in the Defence Against the Dark Arts room."
He frowned. "Trick you?"
"Yes. I wouldn't have accepted it otherwise. I—Hermione is stubborn when it
comes to time travel. She won't understand why I need to come back."
"You're... Aren't you the same person?" He shook his head. "I can't do that. She's
just a girl."
"You have to," Mia argued, her face suddenly stern. "If you don't send Hermione
Granger back, then Mia Potter will never have existed. Hermione won't become me. I
wouldn't have known you, wouldn't have loved you, or been friends with Lily, or been
Jamie's sister, or fallen in love with Sirius." At that last declaration her stony exterior broke