the_debt_of_time

"Professor Lupin?" Hermione replied, sounding surprised.
At her words, he let her go and sighed. What he would not give to hear her call him
by his name. To be his best friend again. Mia would know what to do. Remus had never
felt more lost without her.
"What happened? Can you cast a Lumos? I don't know where my wand―"
"No. It's... It's better that it's dark." Turning his head away from her, he rubbed
his eyes. He did not want her to see him crying. "You've been unconscious for several days,
and... and the light could be painful," he muttered, choking on the words as they left his
lips.
"What happened? Where's Harry?"
"Harry is fine," he promised her. "Safe, at least. The Order arrived at the Ministry
in time. Or, well, none of you were... Some were injured, but you, Neville, Ron, Harry,
Ginny, and Luna made it back."
He had chosen his words carefully, not even knowing how to tell her that Sirius was
dead. A part of him wondered if she could feel it the way he could.
"What happened to me?"
"Not sure," Remus lied and then cleared his throat. "You were hit with a powerful
curse. Neville and Harry mentioned that the Death Eater who threw it had been silenced.
We think you survived because of it."
He remembered Charlus's body, hit with the same curse at their graduation. He was
relieved that, thanks to a simple Silencing Spell, Hermione had survived the same fate.
"Can I see it?" Hermione asked.
Remus remembered the first time he had seen the scar in the Shrieking Shack after
a night of lovemaking followed by a full moon and a morning of languid exploration. He
had seen the scar which had worried him at first but somehow endeared her more to him.
He was covered in scars, and she had always told him he was beautiful.
After about a minute, he wordlessly lit the end of his wand and handed it to her.
He kept his eyes forward, aimed at the curtains that surrounded her bed to offer her privacy
as she examined her own wound. He listened as she undid her bandages, heard her gasp of
breath followed by the whimper that she tried to stifle.