July 16th, 1974Mia and Sirius did not speak again about what had happened in the secret passage.
They also did not speak about the fact that the passage was no longer a passage. After
Sirius left her there alone post-kiss, she shot out an angry "Bombarda!" and the walls
collapsed. Sirius had already been long gone when it happened, but she was certain that he
knew she had done it since she overheard Peter asking about the broken passageway days
later only to watch as Sirius hushed him and cast a sideways glance in her direction.
Everything else seemed to go back to normal after that.
Sirius returned to Potter Manor a week after going home to Grimmauld Place. Mia
had asked him how things went with his parents when they found out he had stolen
Regulus's wedding invitation. As usual, he responded with an, "I don't want to talk about
it," but she caught the glimmer of something on the back of his hand where the
words Toujours Pur sat on his skin: a scar. She wanted to press for information but knew
better. Sirius rarely opened up about his family, and he certainly was not going to let himself
become vulnerable like that with her—not after their kiss.
That kiss had rivalled her first.
Very much the same yet perfectly distinct from one another. She frowned at the
thought that she might not feel his lips again for many years, if ever. Mia was ultimately
terrified that if the timelines ever caught up with one another, she would vanish into thin
air—into non-existence. She worried that since Future Remus remembered her enough to
send her back in time, that it meant she had perhaps died somewhere along the way. She
had never recalled meeting an older woman in the Order, and Harry certainly never
mentioned having an aunt other than Petunia Dursley.
It had taken her days to push that unbearable thought from her mind, knowing that
if she died here in the past, Remus would not have sent her back to face it.
Remus.
"Remus is in love with you."
That was what Sirius had said to her in the dark passage. He apologised, said she
deserved better, and then stepped aside and showed her whom he thought was just that:
better. To him, better was Remus; and Remus, apparently, was in love with her.