the_debt_of_time

"I-I didn't... I can't tell you," Mia said, shaking and on the verge of tears.
Dorea reached for one of Mia's trembling hands and surrounded it with her own.
"Calm down, sweet girl. I did not slip Veritaserum into your tea. Though I'm not above
such things," she said with a wry grin. "I understand that you cannot tell me certain things
as they pertain to the future; is that why you refuse to speak?"
Mia felt her stomach drop. "The future?"
"Yes, dear. Where you're from."
"How did...? I don't.. ."
How had she messed up? Had she been talking in her sleep more than normal? Did
Dorea use Legilimency on her without knowing it? Did Dumbledore break his promise to
her? Had Madam Pomfrey been compromised?
"'Every action we take is the causation of destiny, time travel won't change
anything,'" Dorea said, quoting Remus's letter. "I went through your belongings the first
night you arrived here."
When Mia's mouth fell open accusingly, Dorea pointed at herself and said,
"Slytherin."
"You've known this whole time? You read my letter?" Mia tried to catch her breath.
"How have you not mentioned it until now? It's been years."
"Because it wasn't useful to bring it up until now," Dorea explained, and Mia stared
at her mother, never before seeing her more Slytherin than this moment. "I have no care
to learn the future. As ambitious as Slytherins usually are, my ambitions were always
specific. I wanted Charlus as a husband, and I wanted out of my hideous family. Both
achieved. According to your letter and my own research―" She grinned when Mia sat up a
little straighter. "—Yes, I have been researching. Time cannot be altered regardless of your
presence. According to your letter, you were sent back for personal reasons, not to change
the world or stop this heinous war that appears to be all too quickly upon us."
"What if I could stop it?" Mia choked on the words as they slipped past her lips.
"What if I could end it? Change it?"
"Is the time you're from a good place?" Dorea asked.
"Yes," Mia admitted sadly, "but only after so much suffering."