A/N - I know this is pretty bad; I'm cutting it pretty close to the deadline... again. So much procrastinating happened.


She could feel it dragging her under like quicksand. This despair; this overwhelming sense of loss.


Fresh out of Hogwarts, and she'd lost her entire family. There had been a time when she'd worried that it wasn't worth this - that he wasn't worth this - but that feeling was long gone now.

She had loved her family; of course she had. Especially her sisters.

Bella had always been headstrong; she knew what she wanted and she would do anything to get it - she wouldn't have been here worrying about all the things that could have been. And she certainly wouldn't have put off leaving for so long.

Cissi had been just about to go back to school by the time she'd left, but she'd still almost stayed because of her youngest sister. More childlike than she had any right to be at that age; you would think it would be annoying - in anyone else it probably would have been - but somehow Cissi made it endearing.

Ted was the reason she'd done it, but it was her daughter that had assured her she'd made the right decision.


He was gone now; she still couldn't fully process it. She didn't think they'd spent more than a couple days apart before this war, and now...

She didn't know when it had happened; didn't know how exactly - though she wasn't sure knowing that would make her feel any better. She'd only found out about it on the radio.

She still kept expecting to hear from him in some way. It didn't feel real.

And in a couple days, she'd be burying an empty coffin.


She'd only seen her grandson a handful of times before Nymphadora had rushed 'round one evening - all hurried words and unfinished sentences. Her daughter had only been there for a couple minutes, screaming baby drowning out half of what she was saying.

By the end of her visit, Andromeda had been left with a baby she could only just remember how to take care of, not enough supplies, and worry clawing at her chest for her only remaining family.

She'd stayed awake until mid-morning the next day waiting for any news.

They sent an owl.

She didn't sleep for another three days.


He had maybe been six or seven; he'd found a picture of his mother at the same age - laughing and waving at the camera, her dad carrying her on his shoulders.

Teddy hadn't meant anything by it - how could he have? - but he'd changed his eyes and hair to match the little girl in the faded photograph, and turned to Andromeda with eyes full of childish curiosity.

"Who are they?"


She tried to ignore it, but still... She could feel it dragging her under like quicksand.