the_debt_of_time

at her from the mirror were nearly purple from exhaustion, and she was struggling just to
reach for something to eat.
"You look awful, Mia."
"You flatter me, big brother." Mia narrowed her eyes but dropped the attitude when
James poured her a glass of pumpkin juice and slid a plate of toast in front of her. She let
out a soft sigh and smiled at him gratefully.
"He's right; are you okay?" Sirius asked, sitting down beside her. "Your hair is...
less puffskein nest and more ball of tangled yarn." He grinned and poked the knotted mane
on top of her head.
Mia growled, swatting at his hand, moving out of his reach as he tried to continue
petting her wild, messy locks. "Don't touch my hair, Sirius. I woke up late and didn't have
time to charm it properly."
"Why'd you sleep in?" James asked pointedly. "Were you... ?" he began to ask as
he did every morning, but Mia shook her head.
"No. Lily, Alice, and Mary kept me up all night giggling over a bunch of nonsense."
Though Lily was more prone to serious conversations than Mia's other two
roommates, she would still join in on ridiculous conversations about boys. It annoyed Mia
to no end. Mostly because, for the first time ever, she actually wanted to join in.
In her original timeline, she had not even thought about boys in such a way until at
least third year—the embarrassing exception being Professor Lockhart, and even then it
was barely a passing thought. Ginny once explained to Harry and Ron that Hermione was
far too sensible, but all other girls were normal.
"Did Evans mention me?!" James asked with a bright smile.
"I don't know, I tried not to pay attention," she lied.
In truth, no, Lily had not asked a thing about James. The only name Lily had
mentioned was Remus, and even then it was under a blushing whisper that grated on Mia's
nerves. It was not until Alice giggled about James, and Mary started talking about Sirius's
beautiful eyes that Mia had had enough and stormed out of the dorm and down the stairs
to get a head start on her homework, something she had not done—or needed to do—
since they came back from hols.
"Morning." Remus approached with a yawn, his face was pale and he looked just as
tired as Mia felt.