the_debt_of_time

"Let's talk about something else," Mia said, wide-eyed as she covered Sirius's mouth
with her hand while he chuckled beside her. "How is your father, Luna? Are you going to
go back home and finish spending Christmas with him?"
"Oh no. Daddy's tracking down the elusive tempussalito. They're known for
sneaking into clocks and setting the time backward and forward when you're not looking.
I'm meeting Neville and Hannah at St Mungo's later. Neville wanted to introduce her to
his parents, and I agreed to go along for support."
Mia frowned, and a deep weight settled in the pit of her stomach. "Oh,
Merlin.. ." she whispered. "Alice and Frank. I didn't even think... How could I not even
think about them? Sirius, I haven't even thought about visiting―"
"Do you want to go, kitten?" he asked with a frown. "I'm ashamed to say I haven't
gone myself."
Mia nodded and swallowed hard as she wiped away the tears from her eyes.
Luna, Harry, Ginny, Mia, and Sirius left everyone else behind at Grimmauld Place
and headed to St Mungo's to see Neville and his parents. Remus remained bitter over the
fact that he was still not allowed inside the hospital due to his lycanthropy, and Mia put
that at the top of her list of things to set straight once she called in Kingsley's life debt. But
before that, she had some debts of her own to pay.
As the group reached the fifth floor and headed toward the Janus Thickey Ward,
Mia felt her heart beat rapidly in her chest. When the doors opened, and she looked around
at all the people stuck in the hospital due to long-term spell damage, she frowned.
"Cheer up, kitten. It's Christmas, and you don't want to make Neville feel worse,"
Sirius said, forcing her to nod, swallow down her guilt, and put on a holiday-worthy smile.
"Hello there!" a blond wizard said as he jumped out at the group, startling Harry to
the point that he pulled his wand in shock. "Would you like an autograph?"
Mia's mouth fell open. "Holy shit," she mumbled as she stared into the blank,
innocent-looking face of Gilderoy Lockhart. "How come we always forget that he's here?"
"Isn't this the wanker that's on the cover of all those books Molly likes to read?"
Sirius asked, staring at the man who was appraising his outfit with interest. "Oi, back up,
pal."
"Sirius, he's... broken," Mia quietly scolded him. "He was the Defence Professor
we had during second year. The one that had the Memory Charm backfire on him."