The house was silent.
Andromeda Tonks looked around the living room, standing motionless. Her brain was clouded with disbelief as she thought of what she had just returned from doing.
He was gone.
It wasn't like when he would go to his godfather's house for dinner or to stay the night. He always came back after a short period of time. Christmas seemed so far away- much farther than it normally would seem.
She looked outside at the setting sun. He would be arriving soon. She wondered what house he would be sorted into. Gryffindor, like his father and godfather? Hufflepuff, like his mother? Or perhaps he would surprise them all with Ravenclaw? Slytherin?
Her eyes flickered over to the wall with the photographs. There was a picture of Ted and herself in their Hufflepuff and Slytherin uniforms respectively, getting ready to board the train for their seventh year. Next to it was a photograph of Nymphadora next to the train on her first day, wonder shining on her heart shaped face, hair its traditional bubblegum pink.
The frame she had just placed on the wall next to the picture of her daughter was of Teddy.
She couldn't believe that it was his first day already. She didn't know where the last eleven years had gone.
She had never felt so lonely.
Her husband, daughter, and son-in-law dead; her grandson off on his own next adventure.
His adventure- where he would be sorted, make friends, make enemies. Where he would learn and (though she begrudgingly accepted it; only because there was no denying it) prank. He would pick a career, date, and eventually fall in love...
Where had the eleven years gone?
She doubted that anyone had had to go through what she's gone through- perhaps the only exception being Augusta Longbottom. She idly wondered how Augusta did it- living alone after raising her grandson.
The house just seemed to be lacking something. It lacked warmth and noise and chaos that only Teddy could bring.
The house was silent.
Disconcertingly silent.