Andromeda Tonks had stayed up so late the night before, the backs of her eyes ached with a dull pain by the time the sun began to come up. The baby was now eating almost every two and a half hours on the dot, but she could stretch it to three if she tried. Andromeda loved babies. She had volunteered for a while at St. Mungo's to take care of infants that were born a bit... differently. Particularly, ones like her daughter, and grandson alike, who came out of the womb screaming with bright red hair.
But tonight, feeding a baby was the last thing she wanted to do. Similar to her daughter's own mannerisms, Andromeda tended to become restless under stress, pacing and fidgeting until she inevitably walked into a counter without thinking, something she didn't want to do while holding a baby.
She was now on her... fourth cup of coffee? No, fifth. Unlike her daughter, Andromeda generally wasn't a coffee drinker, though it kept her awake better than tea. It was a constant battle with herself until she finally allowed herself a few minutes of sleep in between the baby's feedings.
The sun was coming up now, the sky a pale orange colour, tinted with yellow in the clouds. Andromeda grabbed her burgundy mug, the brim sticky from repeatedly drinking from it, the baby cradled in her arm and walked onto the front porch. She sat down on the swing, setting the mug down on the banister next to her.
The baby was stirring in his sleep, yawning a bubbly yawn, cooing quietly. Andromeda smiled softly, looking out onto the yard. The house was mostly quiet and secluded. Ted had thought it would be good to raise a pink-haired baby in a house that hid them better from the eyes of the neighbors, with a bigger yard and wall of bushes on both sides of the property. She didn't mind after living a life with two sisters living practically on top of her.
The baby slept soundly in her arms and Andromeda watched the sunrise. Her eyes scanned the front yard and the road across from it. It was still early, or perhaps time had slipped away from her, but the mailman walked up the drive to her postbox as he did every morning.
"Morning, Mrs. Tonks." He smiled at her.
"Good morning." She waved, putting on a smile.
The postman looked at the baby in her arms with a bit of a confused look. "Now don't tell me I missed this little one, did I?"
She laughed nervously, pulling the blanket over the baby's hair. Currently, it was brown, but that gave no indication that it wouldn't change in front of this muggle. "No, no, he's my daughter's. He's two weeks old."
"Tell her congrats, would you? He's a cute thing." The man smiled, handing Andromeda her mail, which consisted of two beauty magazines, a bill, and a reminder to make an appointment with the dentist. "You look good nontheless, Mrs. Tonks."
She waved again as he left. "Stay safe out there!"
"Same to you, Ma'am!"
She sighed, looking down at the baby in her arms, smiling softly. "I'm too young for this." The baby blinked his eyes for a moment. Blue, then hazel, like her own, before lulling back to sleep. Her son-in-law was barely five years younger than her and her ex-husband. "I'm too young to be a Grandma."
Cars passed by as people began to go to work, and now Andromeda's heart was pounding hard in her chest. It had been ten hours. Please... Not them too... She was left, alone except for her grandson , wondering what the hell was going on. She would've gone. Suddenly, she felt guilty for staying behind with Teddy.
Eleven hours, twelve hours... It was nearly eleven in the morning and she was still alone with Teddy. She had tried to go inside, but it terrified her to stay in the house for too long. She knew sitting on the porch wouldn't change anything, but there was something inside her that said if she stayed inside, she would have to answer the door to whoever was on the other side. On the porch, she would see who was approaching the house.
A truck drove by in front of the house, but Andromeda's eyes vacantly stared at a spot of peeling paint of the banister of the stairs. In a split second, two figures appeared on the other side of the street. She didn't notice as they approached the house, until they were right up to the porch. In her sleepless haze, Andromeda shot up from her seat, Teddy in her arm, her wand drawn.
Both figures looked startled. The man was leaning awkwardly on the shoulder of the woman, unable to put weight on his foot. "Mum... it's Dora. It's just Dora and Remus. Are you alright? Mum?" The woman asked.
Andromeda stared at the two, lowering her wand. "Where the hell have you two been? I've been worried sick for hours!"
Tonks laughed nervously, looking over at her husband, whose weak smile only amounted to a well-placed grimace. "Yeah, about that, actually..."
Andromeda turned, walking to the door, ushering them inside.
"Aren't you supposed to ask the security-" Remus started to argue in an exhausted voice.
"Lupin, I'm not about to fight you into this house, because you know damn well who'll win." Andromeda said sternly. "So tell me, are you a death eater?"
"No." He said plainly, closing his eyes. "Are you?"
"No." Andromeda replied in a slightly more polite voice in an attempt to keep the baby from fussing at the argument. "So come inside, quick, before I stand here with the door open long enough to let the real death eaters inside."
