the_debt_of_time

shifted to a duller blue. He assumed that she noticed the look of pain in his eyes. "I mean,
I'm sorry, Remus, I know they were―"
"It's all right," he said, trying to ignore the dull, empty ache in the missing Pack
Bond that never truly went away. "Mia was James's sister. She went missing in the autumn
of 1979. Moody closed the case just a few months later, and she was presumed dead.
Dumbledore—I assume—kept her name out of the papers."
Dora frowned. "Why do I feel like that's not the end of the story?"
Remus sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "What do you know about Time-
Turners?"
An hour later, they sat on the ground of the basement, leaning up against the brick
wall where Remus's cage would eventually be placed. He stared nervously at Dora,
anxiously biting the inside of his lip, his left leg bouncing. She looked contemplative as she
took in all the information he literally dumped on her. Memories and knowledge he had
been collecting for two decades involving his entire time at Hogwarts and the ups and
downs that followed the many years since.
And he told her about Mia.
Told her everything he could think to tell her about Mia that would be at all useful—
and then some.
"Huh."
Remus stared at her, waiting for a proper reaction. He had expected her to at least
look partially baffled, perhaps even a touch—or incredibly—suspicious. Instead, when she
appeared only slightly thoughtful, he asked, "You don't believe me?"
"No, I believe you."
"Do you think I'm a horrible, lecherous monster?" he asked her, frowning.
"For what?" She snorted indelicately. "She was your age when you dated her, wasn't
she?" He inclined his head in affirmation. "Not like you could help she'd one day vanish
and suddenly become your thirteen-year-old student. Wow, what was that like? Being her
professor?"
"Almost as awkward and uncomfortable as finding out that a five-year-old was my
mate when I was eighteen," he stated and put his face in his hands.
"So that's why you were always sick when I came around Sirius's flat? And Mia
knew?"