My Name – George Canyon

A/N - Okay, I'm giving you prior warning, this is pretty sad. Just in case you couldn't tell from the 'Tragedy' tag. But I hope you like it...please review!

"Teddy!" Victoire shrieked as her husband of one year came through the door of their little house, shrugging his coat off and dumping it on a chair. She cannoned into him and he lifted her up, kissing her in greeting as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Wow" he said, flicking his black hair out of his face in bemusement, a happy smile on his face "Why so much excitement? I've only been gone for a few hours!" He swung his wife around into the living room as she set her feet on the ground, and they danced for a second before collapsing down on the sofa.

"Aren't I allowed to miss you?" She pouted a little, loosening his tie and undoing his top button "And how was work?"

"Good, good" he muttered, running his hand through his hair as it changed to sandy brown. Victoire smiled ruefully: when he was at work it always changed to black, imitating the man who was like a father to him. When he was at home he tended to have it brown, like his biological dad. "You know how stressful it can be at the moment, what with all these anti-blood status protestors. They don't seem to understand that keeping records is important for the Ministry! How was your day?"

"Well, I went to St Mungo's…" She smiled coyly, catching her bottom lip with her teeth in anticipation of the delicious secret she was about to impart.

"And? Is there anything wrong?" Teddy sat forward, his worry showing clearly in his earnest eyes

"Oh nooo" Victoire giggled "Quite the opposite actually."

"Well spit it out, woman!"

"I'm pregnant."

There was a moment of silence as they stared into each other's eyes – Teddy in shock, Victoire in excitement – and then the father-to-be let out a loud whoop and jumped to his feet, lifting his little wife into his arms and kissing her soundly. That went on for a while.

"We're having a baby" He said, looking at her tearfully "A baby."

"Well that is generally the result." She teased him "Now, who shall we tell first?"

XXX

Victoire staggered through the narrow doorway upstairs, turning to allow her bump through, and levitating a can of paint in front of her, which the set down with a clang in the room. It was a small place at the top of the house, with huge windows that let in loads of light from the beach outside. Victoire bent down, huffing slightly as the baby moved, and began to paint the soft yellow paint onto the walls with measured strokes, smiling as she daydreamed about the moments to come.

He's going to grow up here. He might even take his first steps in this room. I can buy him a toy broomstick and Ted can teach him to ride it. He'll cover the walls with quidditch posters, probably, just like his dad did. I wonder what he'll be good at – maybe Herbology? Or Transfiguration, Teddy always loved that. He might be a Metamorphagus – or he might be a she? No, I'm pretty sure he's a he. And aren't mother's supposed to know things like that? Oh, this is going to be wonderful. I can cook him meals – I wonder what his favourite food will be? And I can teach him to talk, and walk! And he'll go to Hogwarts when he's older, much better than Beauxbatons for boys. And oh, he's going to have girlfriends! Hopefully not too many, but if he's anything like his dad he won't have any trouble getting them to fall for him. I wonder how many of them I'll get to meet? And I hope he writes to me every week.

"Hello, my beautiful Mrs Lupin" Teddy's arms slid around her and hugged her bump, and she flicked his face with paint. Affectionately, of course. "Hey!" he exclaimed, surprised. Then he grabbed another paintbrush and advanced threateningly.

"Hey! Careful! Pregnant here!" She gestured to her stomach, grinning wickedly

"I can't wait for you not to be able to use that excuse anymore" he grumbled, dipping it in the paint and joining her on the last wall, finishing off the job in companionable silence.

"What do you think we should call her?" Teddy asked, smiling

"Him"

"How do you know? Could be a her"

"I just have a feeling"

"That's called hormones. We're having a girl"

She flicked paint at him again.

"Fine, fine, him. Do you have any ideas about names?"

"I'm not sure" she said hesitantly "Nothing French, given the amount of teasing we had to endure at Hogwarts."

"And nothing vaguely relating to soft toys" her husband interjected, grinning at the memories of his schooldays. She laughed softly and turned to him, crossing her hands over the bump.

"Let's wait until we meet him" she suggested "we'll know then, when we see his eyes. I thinks that's how it's supposed to work"

XXX

"AAAAARGH" She screamed, leaning forward and contorting her face in pain as the contraction rocked through her body. This was the twenty-seventh hour of labour. Victoire fell back, exhausted, gripping Teddy's hand. Her eyes were drifting shut, and she was caught between the fatigue and the desperate pain that rippled through her body. Teddy looked at her, terrified. The nurses had begun to get worried two hours ago, when there was no change, and now they were conversing hurriedly at the foot of the bed with the head Healer in the maternity ward. Suddenly, Victoire arched her back and screamed again, a sound full of pain and anguish that turned Teddy's blood cold. She dug her nails into his palm, her eyes squeezed tight shut.

"Oh Merlin. Oh Teddy. Oh it hurts, it hurts, it hurts. Oh make it stop hurting Teddy, please, please" She begged, her voice broken and hoarse.

"Just hold on" he pleaded "Come on, Vic, I promise it won't be long now. They'll give you something to stop the pain." A nurse rushed over and cast a charm on the small witch, dulling the sensations that ripped through her with each new contraction. She stilled, her eyes closing, and her head turned to the side, looking away. She stayed like that for a full three minutes, the hospital room unnaturally hushed and quiet, and then everything began moving all at once. Victoire screamed again, long and loud. The nurses paled as one and began rushing around, supporting her back, fetching things, getting people. The head Healer faced Teddy gravely for a moment, pity in his eyes. Blood began gushing from under the sheet that covered Victoire, soaking the bed and dripping onto the floor in little rivulets. Teddy went ashen and the world went black as he sank into a chair.

XXX

A few hours later, Victoire was alone. They had forced her to take a Calming Draught after she tried to fight her way out of the room, hysterical in her grief. Now she just lay there, on her back, hands running nervously over her flat, empty stomach. The tears ran down her face silently. She turned her head slightly and caught sight of the cot in the corner, empty and cold. A moan escaped her lips and she closed her eyes to it, a spasm of unimaginable pain crossing her ravaged face.

He's gone. My baby. Gone, gone, gone. Oh Teddy, oh Merlin why? Why did he have to go?"

Outside Teddy was slumped in a chair as the Healer talked to him softly, but the words weren't really entering his brain.

"…We don't know why your wife had a miscarriage, Mr Lupin, and I'm sorry for that. She should be fine now, but I'm afraid there's more bad news. The trauma that her body has gone through in the past nine months…well, it doesn't look as if she'll be able to have children. At all. If she did it could kill her as well as the baby. We've scheduled an appointment with you both in a few weeks' time, when your wife should have improved enough to take in the implications. I'm very sorry."

The man got up and walked away, his heels clicking on the cold floor of the empty corridor. The moment when the nurse had covered the baby with a cloth flashed before Teddy's eyes, the tiny, helpless body, so perfectly formed, so empty. It had been a boy.

Victoire sobbed, alone, curling in on her small frame, the emotions racking her body with a different sort of pain from the one she had experienced mere hours beforehand.

I never even knew his name.