the_debt_of_time

required to leave her position at the Ministry and jump into the fray of war with her family
and friends.
Despite self-righteously preaching the perils of playing with the future, Dumbledore
looked as though he was taking note of the specific words that Mia had spoken, trying to
connect them in some way. Mia smirked, knowing that he would not be able to do it. Not
until 1993, when Harry would provide him with a destroyed diary and a basilisk fang to put
the pieces together.
"I don't understand," he said with a frown.
Mia leant her body against the weathered door frame, bracing her weight against it
to prevent herself from collapsing. She exhaled, still trying to catch her breath from the
exhaustion of fighting through the spell. "No, sir, I don't imagine you would—yet."
He allowed her several minutes of silence to regain her senses before speaking once
more. "It appears the truth spell needs to be strengthened once again," he stated calmly, as
though expressing something as simple as "Hogwarts starts on September the first" or "I
really like socks."
Mia boldly met his gaze. "I look forward to it, sir."
Dumbledore looked less than pleased with her attitude. "May I ask, what do you
mean to accomplish by hurting yourself this way?"
She thought for a moment and coldly replied, "We're not just weapons and tools
for you to move around at your leisure."
Her jaw was tight as she bitterly remembered the broken look on Harry's face when
he realised Dumbledore had been keeping so many secrets from him, never telling him the
full truth of anything. She recalled the anger in his voice when he had recalled to her that
he at least partially blamed Sirius's death on their headmaster because of his manipulation
and lies.
At the time, she knew there was no use sitting and pondering the reasons or her
own reactions to it, but, years later, Mia found herself bitter that Dumbledore had
essentially sent three children into a battlefield with no instructions or guide, and only a
torch, a golden ball, and fairy tales as weapons.
"I could tell you exactly why your manipulations are a problem, sir, but I'd probably
fall into a coma if I even tried." She took note of the way that Dumbledore nodded subtly
as if agreeing with her theory. "You should have become Minister for Magic instead of