Bones


"Yes. Yes, that is my daughter." One who'd known Nymphadora as her usual self, heart shape face, pink haired, wouldn't have been able to tell. This woman had mousy brown hair, thick, curling to her shoulders. Her face was oval like her father's, her nose turning up like her mother's. What her daughter would look like without her special ability. What she'd look like if she'd never contorted the bones in her face. What she'd look like if she wasn't alive.

Nymphadora was dead now. She was only twenty-five. She'd been a mother for less than month.

"Don't." Andromeda wouldn't take the baby her daughter was offering her.

"Mom, I have to go." she was looking impatient, eyes flickering between her mother and her wand, lying on the coffee table. "They're waiting."

"They don't need you to go!" The older woman cried, eyes brimming with tears. "Please, don't go, Nymphadora. Don't."

The young mother shoved her child into her mother's arms, the baby only squirming a little as his mother let him go. She turned sharply, grabbing her wand, heading for the front door.

"I'll be back." Dora looked back, smiling at her mother. "Both me and Remus will." She hesitated then, turning back and giving Andromeda a kiss on the cheek, then bent to give her son one on the forehead. "It'll be all right." she assured her mother, giving a confident nod.

Andromeda said nothing, giving her daughter a hard look while tears leaked from both eyes. Her daughter caressed her face with one hand before turning again, opening the door and taking a step out. She then waited, expecting her mother to say something.

"Don't make this child an orphan, Nymphadora." she uttered, looking down at the baby as Dora looked up at her, shock on her face.

"A patronus will be sent once it's over." She said, voice hallow. Dora slammed the door closed, a loud snap announcing her departure. The sudden noise woke Teddy up, the baby immediately wailing. Andromeda couldn't hold back her own sobs, clutching the baby to her breast, rocking him gently.

The waiting was horrible. The silence. Andromeda sat holding her grandson, staring blankly ahead while she waited for some sign that it was over, that the Wizarding World was no longer tearing itself apart.

Nymphadora was right. A silver lynx came bounding in to her home, announcing the end of the war and that her presence was required at Hogwarts. The man's voice, easily recognizable as Kingsley Shacklebolt's, didn't let on to the tragedy that waited for Andromeda.

She left.

The school looked like the ruin it disguised itself as. Whole towers had been torn down, stone walls shattered like glass. Fires still burned, being extinguished one by one by a group of wizards. Survivors scoured the place, looking shell shocked and tired, searching for any remaining bodies.

Andromeda didn't recognize a face till entering the Great Hall where the bodies were being taken, laid to be identified by family members. Some of the fallen had whole families gathered around, while some lay as if discarded, alone and unknown.

She thought, maybe Nymphadora is helping look. She thought, maybe she's putting out flames with others. Maybe she's waiting for me with another family, comforting them as they mourned for their loss.

Andromeda was met by the man who'd sent her his patronus, looking older than he ever had. He frowned, arm wrapping around her shoulders as he led her somewhere.

She immediately froze knowing exactly what lay ahead. Andromeda stared, eyes following the line of bodies until they fell on two lying closely, side by side. She gasped, head swaying, as if trying to erase the image from her mind. The lump formed in her throat, motivating tears to follow. Her teeth clamped down on her lip and she looked up at Shacklebolt, eyes almost begging the man to not take her over there.

But Andromeda had to. Someone had to identify the bodies.

"Yes. Yes, that is my daughter." The bones had shifted. The woman before her could have been a stranger, her face so unfamiliar.

And then Andromeda was left to cry. She fell to her knees, body bending over the child in her arms, forehead resting on Nymphadora's hip. She bared her teeth as she tried to hold back the sobs, letting out little whines as tears rolled down her face. But then she wasn't able to stop. The screams seemed to tear out of her throat on their own, Teddy's wails joining hers as the baby was surprised and scared by the sudden noise. Andromeda threw her head back, looking up at the ceiling, tears blurring her vision. Sobs racked her, body shaking almost violently. She was vaguely aware of someone at her side then, scooping the baby from her arms, allowing her to collapse on her daughter's body, clutching her clothes to her while the screams started again.

Nymphadora was dead. Ted was dead. Andromeda was alone, and it wasn't fair. She'd thrown it all away for them, the Muggle-born she loved, their half-blood daughter that had yet to be born. And they were torn away from her; Ted first, now her daughter. It wasn't fair. What had Andromeda done to deserve this? Why, why, why had she been left alone?

But she wasn't alone. No.

She picked herself up, wiping away the tears. Molly Weasley offered her a sad little smile, holding the baby out to her. Andromeda took him in her arms, wiping away his own tears, while giving his forehead a kiss.

She wasn't alone.

Andromeda clutched Teddy to her breast, rocking him gently as he settled down. She stayed on the ground, humming a tune. It was the lullaby Ted had sang to Nymphadora years ago.

"Sleep, baby, sleep." A whisper, shaky and tuneless. "Your father tends the sheep." Tears. "Your mother shakes the dreamland tree and from it fall sweet dreams for thee. Sleep, baby, sleep." Over and over, all she could remember. Teddy closed his eyes, calm. Andromeda was crying again, gasping out each word, finding it harder and harder to continue until she couldn't.

The woman held the only thing she had left close to her, crying over the body of her daughter.

Nothing seemed right anymore.


-Reels