the_debt_of_time

Everyone was laughing and smiling. The joy of the moment was slowly picking
apart the pieces of grief that had broken her heart upon arriving in 1998 and began the
work of putting them back together.
"Oh, it was amazing, Harry. Lily just walked right up and slapped Jamie across the
face."
"Called him a toerag," Sirius said with a chuckle.
"That was always her go-to insult."
"Then, the whole train ride home, he's describing the colour of her eyes," Remus
chimed in.
"It was ridiculous. Mum and Dad thought he'd been poisoned or confunded."
"My mum actually hit him?" Harry asked, laughing softly to himself as he stared at
the Christmas photograph in his hand where eleven- and twelve-year-old James and Sirius
stood side by side in front of the large Christmas tree at Potter Manor, the former sporting
a lovely bruise on his cheek.
"He told everyone he was going to wear it like a badge of honour," Sirius said.
Mia giggled at the memory of her brother. "Did you know it took me four days to
get him to wash his face? He was so in love with her. I had to pin him to the floor."
Upstairs there was a loud cry, and Tonks jumped up immediately.
"You sure you got it?" Remus asked her, and both Harry and Mia looked like they
were each eager to offer to take care of Teddy as well.
Tonks smiled at them. "I'm fine. Probably just needs to be changed," she said and
then quietly left the room.
In Tonks's absence, Mia tilted back and filled the gap on the sofa, leaning her head
against Remus's chest as though it were the most natural and comfortable thing in the
world. Remus reacted automatically, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, nuzzling her
hair intimately like a lover might, or maybe a tame animal. Mia's fingers still carded through
Sirius's hair, tugging at the locks lightly, grinning when he made noises of contentment.
"This is so weird." Harry laughed softly, looking at a photograph in his hand. Mia
could read the note written on the back and knew that it was one where the three of them
were in nearly the same position on a sofa in the Gryffindor common room, only in the
background Jamie could be seen sneaking up with a hovering ball of bluebell flame in one
hand and a firecracker in the other.