the_debt_of_time

"I've been better," Mia admitted.
"Where are your parents?"
"Meeting with Madam Pomfrey." Mia took Sirius's empty chair so that if Lily felt
like sitting back down, she could. She let out another yawn and then took a large gulp of
her coffee. "They want to take us all home for Christmas now, seeing that holidays are only
a week away, and Jamie won't be able to attend classes anyway, even if he wakes up today."
"All of us?" Lily asked.
"Me, Jamie, Sirius, and Remus."
"How bad was it?" Lily questioned hesitantly as she looked over the bandages across
James's chest.
Mia frowned. "Bad. He could have... He almost died."
"I overheard Professors Scrimgeour and McGonagall arguing last night," Lily
whispered. "When Mary and I got back from Hogsmeade, they were practically screaming
at each other in the entrance hall. Is it true that the Carrows were using curses that no one's
ever heard of?"
Mia nodded.
"How is that possible?" Lily challenged, shaking her head in disbelief. "Those two
are incredibly thick."
Mia scowled, thinking of the myriad of ways she wanted to hurt Severus Snape. For
enemies is what was written inside his Potion book next to the curse, or so Harry claimed.
Mia knew who his enemies were, and while she did not doubt that James and Sirius could
use being knocked down a peg or two, there was a difference between schoolyard fights
and creating a curse like this one. If she had never found Professor Snape's notes on the
counter-curse, James would have bled out.
"They didn't invent them. Someone else in the castle did. Another Slytherin... I'm
guessing. He either taught them the spell, or, like a bunch of reckless idiots," she said,
rolling her eyes and thinking of Harry, "they just saw the spell written down somewhere
and decided to try it out."
"Someone... Someone invented it?" Lily's voice was shaky, and her eyes were wet.
Mia figured that, being best friends with Snape for so long, Lily would be privy to at least
some of his processes when creating new spells. "Mia, I think―"