When Kinglsey Shacklebolt had arrived on her doorstep on the second of May, Andromeda knew before he spoke that her daughter was gone.
"Andromeda I'm so sorry" he had said, reaching out to take her hands in his. The sympathy in his eyes was all too familiar. It was the same look he had given Andromeda when he had told her of her husband's murder. Andromeda was glad that Kingsley was the one to come. He was the only one whose sympathy held no disgust hidden away inside it. They were disgusted that she came from the family she did. They were disgusted that when they looked at her, they saw the face of Sirius's murderer, Frank and Alice's tormentor, Mad-Eye's killer. They saw the face of one so twisted that she would kill her own kin. They tried not to be repulsed, but they were.
Her face disgusted her too.
A wail sounded from behind her, coming from the nursery. Teddy. She hurried to the flailing baby, his face red and scrunched up as he screamed, his hair a vibrant bubblegum pink as it always was when he wanted Nymphadora. My baby. She changed his diaper, and then bounced him up and down in her arms, quietly shushing him back to sleep, putting him back down in his crib, his hair still pink.
"Kingsley can you watch him?"
"Of course."
***********************************************************************
Andromeda walked into the ruined hall quietly, a mother's grief written over her face. Down the line of the dead. She wondered how many in the line were under seventeen. Far too many.
Her baby…
She spotted her from across the room, lying next to Remus.
A horrible scream echoed through the room. Inhuman. Heads turned her way.
She fell to her knees. Her baby… the short pink hair… the old ratty t-shirt Andromeda had tried to throw out so many times… the torn jeans they had fought over… the nose ring Andromeda had claimed to hate…
Andromeda realized how beautiful it all looked. It fit Dora perfectly. Her baby…
Her sister had done this. Her sister. Trixie. Andromeda had been the only one to ever call her that. They had been inseparable as children, and their own mother couldn't tell them apart at times.
She couldn't do this she had to leave she had to leave the body- her baby. HER BABY!
She looked up, looking around the hall to see just how many other mothers were suffering the same as her. Molly was. Molly couldn't stop crying. Andromeda couldn't start. In the corner, on the bench of a table, sat Narcissa huddled with her son (What was his name?) and her despicable husband. Narcissa refused to look her way. Her boy did, though. He looked horrified as he saw his aunt for the first time, over the dead body of his only cousin.
What a family.
Andromeda stood up, head held high. She walked calmly over towards the little huddle. Pathetic.
"Hello, Narcissa. Long time,"
"Andi…"
"No. You have no right to call me that. I only wanted to ask on question. And you shall tell me the truth." Narcissa stared up at her, tear tracks shining on her cheeks. What right had she to mourn when it was Andromeda who had lost everything? How dare she?
"Were you there the night Ted was murdered?"
"W-what?"
"You heard me. Did you take part in his murder? Did your husband? Did your son?"
"Don't you dare implicate my son in this."
"Did you watch Bellatrix do it? Did you even try and stop it? TELL ME!"
Her anguished command echoed through the room, and silence fell heavily on the crowded hall.
"Come on, let's talk outside, Andromeda," a soothing male voice cut through her hysteria. She felt a hand on her shoulder, guiding her out of the godforsaken room.
Kinglsey.
When they had reached the grounds, she collapsed on a bench, burying her head in her hands.
"My baby… my baby… my BABY…"
"I know, Andromeda, I know."
"How could you possibly know? My sister" she spat the word "Killed my only daughter, and my husband! She left my grandson an orphan. People are terrified to see me in the streets because they think that I'm her. HOW?" She started pulling at her hair. "Teddy, oh Teddy, where's Teddy?" She would not cry.
"He's with Molly, he's fine." Kingsley said calmly, soothing her momentary pang of fear. He paused, massaging his temples briefly before continuing.
"When I was seventeen, there was a girl, Sally. We had been dating for a while when she told me she was pregnant. We had just graduated, and neither one of us was prepared, but we managed the best we could. We both joined the Order that year, and I went into the Auror department, sometimes working double overtime to make ends meet. When Samantha was born, we were living in a bad neighborhood, to say the least. We couldn't afford anywhere better. That December, on Christmas Eve, I came home to a Dark Mark above the apartment building, and Sally and Sammy dead."
He faltered, staring off into the forest. "They murdered a baby. A defenseless baby. And I couldn't do anything to save them." He said bitterly. "The first war ended less than a month later. So yes, Andromeda, I know some of what you feel."
She looked up into his tear-stained face. She would not cry. No, no, no she would not.
"I- I'm sorry," She said, fumbling around for something to say. "I didn't know"
"Very few do. I don't appreciate pity."
A long silence stretched out between them, but neither seemed willing to break it. At length she spoke again.
"How did you move on?"
"I didn't. You can't. You pretend that you are fine when you will never be 'fine' again. You keep going because they would have wanted it. But you will never move on. You will never forget, not for a second."
They stood like that for what was perhaps hours- just staring at the broken and bloodied battlefield, waiting for a healing that would never come.