Andromeda serenely carries Teddy, little Teddy who had decided to turn his head a bubbly pink like his mother before him. His little squeal of laughter and subsequent clutch of Andromeda's hand makes her chuckle, a chuckle of times past.
She gently coos to the small toddler, who decides that a shiny red button on her black shirt is so interesting that all his undivided attention is focused on it. Teddy lifts his chubby arm for the button, and the small hand closed in a vice-like grip around the red button. Andromeda chuckles once more, before gently prying the child's hand off the button, and laying him in the cot.
He throws a tantrum, he's 'not tired'. He screams and flails and cries for his mummy, so yearningly that it brings tears to Andromeda's soft brown eyes.
"Mummy, MUMMY!" his disjointed screaming of words fill the air, and all Andromeda can do is stand there, arms insecurely half-around his tiny waist, watching him wail and the tiny little tears dropping rapidly out of his eyes.
"Oh, Teddy," Andromeda feels the tears dropping gently out of her eyes, and she smoothes the now mousy brown hair. She brings the toddler up and cuddles him close to her chest, stroking the little mop of hair, so much like Dora's when she was as little as him.
"Oh, Teddy."
The toddler slowly drifts off, his little eyes closing, and Andromeda lays the child once more into the cot, covering him with Dora's blanket, and giving him a light peck on his forehead. She watches him sleep so peacefully, and a pained smile creeps onto her face. She retreats slowly from the room, and closes the pale blue door lightly behind her.
The grief's too much too bear, it suddenly hits her. All the loss, all the pain of the last year. She staggers to a squashy armchair in a corner of the room, next to a table with an ancient lampshade, and she collapses into it, tears threatening to overcome her.
The droplets of tears slide down her saggy cheeks as she gazes around the lonely house. There's no one, no one but Teddy and her.
Ted's gone. Ted, her husband of so many years, gone. He had to flee because of the pursuing Death Eaters so determined to wipe out every drop of 'tainted' blood, and so determined to ruin her life.
They did. Not only is Ted gone, Nymphadora, Dora, little adorable, yet then tough, resilient Dora is gone. When she heard the news, she felt her heart shatter, she felt the world collapse under her and she had no control. Smiling Dora who changed her hair to a bubble gum pink and rebelled against her name.
They are her family, Ted and Dora. They were...are meant to still be here, to still rejoice over You-Know-Who's death, they are still meant to be here to watch Teddy Jnr grow into a big boy and even if Ted Snr and herself were gone, Dora was still meant to be there to watch Teddy Jnr get married and have kids, and for Dora to grow old with Remus, like Andromeda did for a while with Ted Snr.
Andromeda's a mother, and a wife. Now, she's lost all those who need her love, other than little Teddy who won't ever truly know Dora nor Remus. At least Teddy has her.
Andromeda's body shakes slightly as she cries out the remaining tears in her system. The sky doesn't deserve to be a brilliant blue, she thinks.
She's lost so many. Ted, Dora, Remus.
Sirius, Bellatrix, Narcissa. Those last three were lost years ago. Sirius was returned to her briefly, but then so cruelly taken away by Bella, her own sister.
When they were young, it was Bella, Meda and Cissy. The proud Black sisters, a tight knit group of three. Andromeda loved her sisters...she still loves them now, even though they refused to ever see her again and Druella blackened her out of the tree. It's something that stays with you forever; a bond that's as strong as steel and can't be broken, no matter how much is in the way.
She pities Cissy, little Cissy. The Cissy who always hugged her when she was sad or lonely, and retained such innocent notions of the big bad world. She knows what has happened to the Malfoys in the past year, and she understands. Her family was shattered, too.
Andromeda wonders if Cissy ever thinks of her as well. Even though her sister's a blood traitor and a disgrace to the family.
She even wonders if Bella ever thinks of her. Even though Bellatrix now hates her, and hates Teddy and Dora more, does Bella remember the closeness they once shared?
But Bella's dead, another of her family gone. Meda doesn't know whether to feel relieved or sad. She feels both, it's strange, but she is able to.
Suddenly, a cry is heard from the pale blue room. Andromeda is roused from her thoughts, and she hurriedly rushes over and opens the little blue door, and strides over to the cot in the middle of the mess of toys and photos.
Teddy's laying there, mouth wide open and bawling, his hands balled into small fists. When he sees Andromeda, he shuts his mouth, then stretches and yawns, before smiling at his grandmother's face.
"Ga," he lifts his arms up, and Andromeda picks the toddler up, and kisses his temple.
"Teddy."
She may not have all her family, but she's got Teddy Lupin.