the_debt_of_time

James's hazel eyes were soft and yet commanding at the same time. Mia stared into
their depths, losing herself in them, wondering how no one else saw it: Harry. Everyone
always said that he was the spitting image of his father except the eyes; Lily's eyes, they
always said.
No. He's right there, Mia thought. The shape and the colour were all wrong, but she
could see Harry kneeling in front of her in the visage of his father. All strength and sacrifice
and boundless love.
"You have to fight, too," James insisted. "We're all fighting now. Each for the same
reason―"
"The Greater Good?" Mia spat bitterly.
"What? No. Or, well, maybe. In the end, I suppose that's the goal isn't it?" James
asked, looking torn. "I'm fighting for you. For Lily and Sirius and Remus and Peter and...
and Mum and Dad," he said quietly. "I signed up, agreed to put my life on the line, for all
of you. And I know Remus feels the same."
"What if none of us make it out of this?"
"Then... Then it's not a world worth sticking around for. But we won't let that
happen. We're going to win this war. We're going to find Remus," he promised, rubbing
the apples of her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs. "It's my job to make sure the rest of
you get through this."
Mia rolled her eyes and grit her teeth, remembering that Harry so often had been
the same way—all too willing to be Dumbledore's sacrificial lamb. The arrogance of a
martyr. She recalled a furious Sirius Black storming through the Great Hall during the final
Battle of Hogwarts, searching for Harry, who had run off to the Forbidden Forest to
confront Voldemort:
"Never thought I'd live to see the day when I'd agree with bloody Snivellus! Harry really is as
arrogant as his father!"
"Jamie?" Mia said her brother's name, looking into his sweet, devoted face. She
wanted to tell him everything and prevent the awful future that awaited him.
He offered her a supportive smile, squeezing her hands in his own. "Yeah, love?"
She opened her mouth, knowing the words would not come out; Dumbledore had
seen to that. But they continued to flow through her mind as though she could tell him—
tell him everything: Oh Jamie, if you only knew. If you only knew that you and Lily would sacrifice