the_debt_of_time

Later in the evening, Remus made his way up the winding stairs to say farewell to
Harry. Outside of the room, he overheard Hermione's name and decided to stop and listen
at the door while Ron and Harry conversed on the other side. The voices were muffled,
and—despite the advantage of werewolf hearing—Molly's wireless downstairs blaring
Celestina Warbeck made it that much harder to spy on the teenagers.
"Aren't you a little old to be eavesdropping?"
Remus jumped, surprised that anyone was able to startle him at all. He must have
been incredibly distracted. His gaze fell on Dora; her mousy brown hair made something
clench painfully in his chest.
"What are Harry and Ron are whispering about?" She pressed her own ear against
the door before looking up at him.
It hurt, even more, to stare at her because of the grey eyes that looked so much like
Sirius's. Remus noted that there was a small beauty mark just below her left ear. He noticed
a pattern of freckles covering her nose that had never been there before. All these tiny little
things that he realised Dora used to use her abilities as a Metamorphmagus to cover up but
no longer could.
He frowned, knowing that it was his fault her magic was not properly obeying her.
"More theories about how Snape's a Death Eater?" she asked him, looking eager to
fill the silence that sat between them. "Or are they plotting against my little cousin again?"
"Hermione told me that Draco broke Harry's nose," Remus said.
"I don't know what's wrong with that boy." Dora sighed in frustration. "Mum says
he's probably just like his father, and that his father was―"
"I went to school with Lucius Malfoy. Draco's nothing like him. He tries, but there's
something different about him. Hopefully, the good blood in him will win out in the end."
"Good blood?" Dora snorted. "He's half Malfoy, half Black. You know us Blacks.
Flip of the Galleon."
"I've only ever met one Black I didn't like." Remus growled at the memory of
Bellatrix Lestrange's voice echoing in the Ministry of Magic, screaming of her victory over
killing Sirius. The memory that Mia had shown him of the crazy witch only added to his
anger. "And I'm not counting Walburga's portrait. Though, I suppose I did meet her once
before she died."
Dora frowned in understanding. "Remus, have you—?"