the_debt_of_time

"The Executioner! He's gone to get the dementors! This is it, Hermione!" Harry said before
helping her on top of the back of the hippogriff.
They flew, flew far too high and much too fast for her liking, all the way back to the castle where
she could see Sirius Black, escaped convict, sitting in a room and looking out of the thirteenth window from
the right of the West Tower.
"Stand back!" Hermione said to Harry, and she took out her wand, still gripping the back of
Harry's robes with her left hand. "Alohomora!"
The window sprang open, freeing Sirius Black.
Sirius climbed onto the back of Buckbeak, flinging a leg over the large flying beast and leaning
forward, looking at Hermione with an apology in his eyes and... something else that she did not know
how to place. She nodded to him with a sympathetic smile, silently saying it was okay for him to hold onto
her as they flew away. While Hermione kept her eyes shut tight for most of the flight, she opened them the
moment Buckbeak put his claws down on the top of the West Tower.
Harry jumped off immediately, but for a brief moment, Hermione could not move because Sirius
still had an arm around her waist.
"Sirius, you'd better go. Quick," Harry panted. "They'll reach Flitwick's office any moment.
They'll find out you're gone."
Suddenly, Sirius let go of Hermione.
She turned and smiled at him, and he looked on the verge of tears as his slate grey eyes met her
gaze. She passed it off as gratitude, knowing that the innocent man probably had not seen kindness in a
very long time.
Sirius Black smirked at her. "I owe you a life debt, little witch."
He'd known, Mia thought, her breath catching in her throat as she continued to run,
the memory clearer now than ever before.
It all started that night. The Shrieking Shack. Sirius, Remus, and Peter. A full moon
and a transformed werewolf. Hermione had howled to distract Moony from their earlier
selves, and he had come straight for her. She remembered the essay she had written for
Snape: werewolves only respond to the call of their pack.
Future Remus was right; time was a circle. She was a catalyst, and everything that
was happening was meant to happen. The night she had saved Sirius's life, he had
recognised her. Recognized Mia in Hermione Granger's eyes. The night she created the life
debt that he owed her. The same night she called into the forest, and Moony had responded.