For Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Aquatic Studies: Task #1- Write about being scared of something or someone.
Also for the QLFC Quidditch Supplies using Title Prompt 1. The Fear Within
Word count: 1448 (excluding A/N and title)
THE FEAR WITHIN
It is almost midnight and Dora is restless. And she is growing more so by the minute.
Andromeda looks out of the corner of her eye at her daughter sitting on the couch, her blanket-wrapped, blue-haired son in her arms. Teddy will be a month old in about eight days and yet it seems like yesterday the baby was born.
She sees her look at the clock on the wall, bouncing Teddy in her arms. Her hair is a mousy brown, which tells Andromeda that she is anxious and uptight. It has been quite a few hours since Remus is gone, and they have no news of the Battle yet.
Andromeda stirs the tea with a spoon and approaching Dora, hands the cup to her.
"Let me hold him. You drink this," she says, and her daughter obliges wordlessly. Andromeda takes the bright yellow bundle in her arms and sits down on her rocking chair just beside the couch. The baby twitches in her arms and she gently strokes his aquamarine tuft of hair to make him go back to his slumber.
"How're you feeling?" she asks the younger woman who is looking intently at her reflection in the tea.
"I'm fine, I guess," she shrugs, and Andromeda can not help but notice how much her young Dora has changed and matured over the years. And somewhere in the back of her mind, it makes her feel bad that she is keeping her, a capable and fully trained Auror, away from all the action.
"I'm sorry, darling," Andromeda says, reaching out to put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. Dora looks up at her with a small smile on her face. "You don't need to be, Mum. I understand."
Andromeda does not seem convinced. "Listen," she says, "I'm only trying to keep you safe. I don't want anything to happen to you and neither do I want Teddy to become an orphan. He's going to face enough as it is, being the child of a werewolf -"
"Mum -," Dora begins to say, her voice raised and her face bearing an expression of outrage, "you can't just -"
"I have nothing against Remus, dear," Andromeda interrupts, "but you know it's the truth, no matter how much we all try to deny it."
"You're right," whispers Dora, sinking back into the couch and staring listlessly at the wall in front of her.
"But, Mum," she says, sitting up again, "You can't suppose both Remus and I will die together. One of us can, yes, but -"
"Would you like it if something happens to either Remus or you, and Teddy never gets to see one of his parents?" Andromeda asks quietly, watching the baby's blue hair change to pink in his sleep.
"I would never, Mum, but I'm an Auror," she pleads, putting the tea cup on the table beside her, "I was trained to fight dark wizards. I did not become an Auror only to have myself sit at home doing nothing and waiting helplessly for the others to do all the fighting and come back. I can't stay here like this, Mum, not being able to know what's happening out there."
She buries her face in her hands and goes quiet. Andromeda moves out of her comfortable chair to put little Teddy in his crib which stands near the couch. She comes back to sit beside her and puts an arm around Dora's shoulders, which are shaking slightly.
"I'm so sorry, sweetheart," she whispers, stroking her daughter's upper arm gently. "I'm so sorry."
Dora takes her face out of her hands and looks at her mother. "I'm sorry," Andromeda repeats, and Dora puts her head on her shoulder.
"I'll take care of Teddy, you go join the fight."
"What?" Dora asks, sitting upright.
"You're right - you are an Auror, I won't hold you back. You should go to Hogwarts and do what you should be doing," Andromeda asserts, nodding her head.
The corner of Dora's lips quirked upwards in a smile and she hugged Andromeda. "I'll try my best to come home, Mum."
"Come back victorious and make your old mother proud, will you?" smiles Andromeda, stroking her daughter's spiky hair. "And be safe. There is not much left for me to live for."
"Don't say that, Mum. I promise I'll be safe," Dora says, a tear escaping her almond-shaped eyes.
Andromeda smiles sadly and kisses her daughter's forehead. "Don't make promises you can't keep, darling."
Dora bites her lip and lets her mother fuss over her for a while before they hear the sound of movement followed by Teddy's loud wail.
"I'll get him," says Dora, rushing to the crib to pick her son up. The baby's cries quietens down to low whimpers as his mother rocks him gently in her arms.
"Be good for your grandma, Teddy," she says, dropping a kiss to each of his chubby little cheeks. "I love you."
She kisses his forehead one last time and as Andromeda watches them, she can't help but feel that this might just be the last time her daughter and her grandson are ever going to see each other.
She puts Teddy down and turns to her mother. "Mum," she begins, "if - if I don't come back, please tell Teddy his dad and I love him."
Andromeda nods and hugs her daughter one last time before she pulls out her wand.
"Bye, Mum," she says and Apparates into nothingness. Andromeda stares longingly for a while at where she just vanished before picking up Dora's empty tea cup and going to the kitchen to put in the sink. She points her wand at it and leaves it to clean itself magically.
On her way back to her rocking chair she thinks she sees Teddy smiling almost serenely in his sleep and she reaches out to pick him up. The boy snuggles further into his fuzzy blanket and continues to snore softly away.
Andromeda looks at the clock. It is twelve-thirty now and she wonders if she can fit in a bit of sleep before Teddy wakes up. He usually has two to three crying sessions in the middle of the night and she, Dora and Remus take turns to calm him down. As she looks down at her grandson, she recalls how her daughter was exactly the same.
She sits back in her rocking chair and rocks gently back and forth. She closes her eyes to sleep, but when she does so, all that flashes in her mind's eye is her daughter's face and she remembers that fateful day her husband left the house and she never saw him again. She only hopes the War ends soon and everything goes back to normal.
She is stroking Teddy's face when the boy wakes up and looks up at her with his big brown eyes all wide. Remus' eyes. She hopes Teddy will not start crying again and thankfully, he doesn't. Instead, he blinks up at her and continues to stare at her.
Andromeda smiles. "Can't sleep?"
Teddy blinks.
"You look so much like your mother, you know," she says, "but your eyes are your father's. Your parents are both very brave and it does my old heart good to know that your godfather is a great person too, although I have never really gotten to know him. Maybe we'll invite him over for a chat over tea after all this is over, what do you say?"
Teddy smiles this time and coos softly. Andromeda laughs when he reaches over to grab her finger in his tiny fist, examining it carefully. She kisses his forehead and he giggles.
"You are cuter than your mum was when she was your age," Andromeda reveals, winking at the infant and making him giggle again.
She loses track of time as she talks to her grandson and he absorbs all the words she says with his large curious eyes. Once or twice he turns this way and that inside his blanket or babbles incoherently, but the rest of the time his ears are perked up and he listens to her with rapt attention.
Teddy falls asleep again when it is almost three in the morning, and Andromeda finds herself unable to sleep. So she holds Teddy to herself and keeps her head against the back of her chair.
She tries to think about what she's going to cook Dora and Remus when they come home, but she's constantly bombarded with the thought they might never come home. She tries to think of better times that are going to come sooner or later, but she can't keep away the fear within.