the_debt_of_time

his future self had not used his connection to Mia Potter to take advantage of this girl called
Hermione Granger.
Remus frowned as he watched her observe the long scar on her ribs.
Remus knew that scar well: deep, thin, and purple, cutting across pale, soft flesh. He had
intimately touched that scar—kissed it affectionately. Mia never seemed to mind the flaw
on her flesh, but this girl in the bed certainly did. She laid there, teary-eyed as she stared at
the disfigurement and whimpered.
Almost as though he could try and ease the discomfort of the girl, Remus tried to
speak to her, but his older self got there first.
"They're just scars, Hermione. 'Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive
characters are seared with scars.'"
And then the scene faded away in front of them.
"Were we close?"
"We were friends." Mia nodded thoughtfully. "I respected and adored you above
many others, though I can't exactly tell you the reasons why," she said with a smile. "Even
though we weren't as close as you and I are now, I loved you. You were my friend, and I
would have done anything for you."
"Who are Neville and Harry?" Remus inquired as he recalled those names, one of
which had been in the letter.
Mia frowned. "I don't know if I should say."
"I made the Unbreakable Vow," he pointed out.
"Neville is Frank and Alice's son."
Remus digested that information with a smile. "Wow. What's he like?"
"Brilliant, when given the chance," she replied in a sweet tone she usually reserved
for James. Remus could already tell by how she spoke that Mia thought of Frank and Alice's
boy as family. "He's so much like his father, it's amazing. Neville was a very close friend of
mine. He was the first person I met on the Hogwarts Express. You could say he was my
first friend."
"And Harry?" Remus asked, breaking her from her reflection on the past.
"Harry," she said, the name sounding like it choked her. There was emotion there,
thick and heavy and deep, and Remus wondered if this Harry fellow had been a