the_debt_of_time

She sighed. "A lot of reasons. At first, I was terrified of making the future worse if
I tried to change something. You know how sensitive Time Magic can be, and I had the
fear of it driven into me during our third year." She turned around to face him but refused
to make eye contact. "My mum, er, Dorea Potter, she knew where I came from. She knew
about the time travel, and she had a feeling about Jamie's future. She told me that if I'd
tried to change something, stop him from dying... Death would just take someone else,
or maybe it would still take Jamie and the next time he would suffer. I did the calculations,
even spoke to a Seer―"
"You?" Harry likely would have laughed had they been talking about any other
subject. "You spoke to a Seer?"
She rolled her eyes. "I was desperate. Every calculation of a potential future made
things worse. We would lose the war. Jamie was a pure Gryffindor. If I'd done something,
and things turned out worse because of it... If he found out that it was because of him,
Merlin, I don't even want to think of what―"
"In the Forbidden Forest," Harry interrupted her. "When I died, I had the
Resurrection Stone with me, and... I saw my parents."
Mia, of course, knew this. Harry had told her what had happened in the forest after
the war, though then she had only been Hermione Granger, who had no connection to the
Potters save for Harry himself.
"They were okay. I mean... they were peaceful, you know? All smiles and support
for what I was doing. I'm not angry with you for not saving them, Hermione."
She did not burst into tears like she had done the night before, but when her eyes
prickled, she quietly wiped away the signs of sadness with the back of her hand.
"I couldn't lose you," she said, finally looking up to meet his worried stare. "I'm not
like you, Harry. I didn't do it to save the world. I did it because there wasn't any way to
guarantee that you'd survive. And I... Harry, I loved Jamie, but you were―" She nervously
bit her bottom lip. "It's because of you that he even became my brother to begin with.
Because you were there in my heart, first."
Harry moved forward and hugged her close to him. "It's okay," he promised her. "I
wish they'd been around, but honestly, I don't remember having them, so sometimes when
I miss them, I guess I'm just missing what I feel like I should have had. But if there was
any chance that something could have gone worse—even the slightest chance—I'm glad you