15th February 1973

Andromeda perked up when she heard the door: Ted was back.

He leant down to kiss her on the sofa by the fire; she had reached the stage in her pregnancy where getting up was very difficult.

"How was your day?" he asked as he settled down beside her.

"Awful," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "You know how much I hate being stuck in the house with nothing to do. I wish I could still be at work. But I can't even get out of this chair. Thank God for magic," she said, indicating the fire.

"Thank God for magic," Ted agreed. "I'm sorry you're feeling down, Dromeda. At least you don't have much longer of this left! Which gets me thinking," he added, massaging her stomach, "we ought to think of a name for this little man."

Andromeda made an indignant noise. "Little man? How do you know it won't be a girl?"

"I just do," Ted insisted. "A father's instinct."

Andromeda snorted. "So what names have you got in mind?"

"I like... Michael."

She made a face. "It's not very... original, is it?"

"Does it have to be?" he demanded indignantly.

"Well... I don't know. I just want our baby to be called something... individual," Andromeda mused.

"Such as?" Ted asked, looking wary.

"Well, I've always liked the name... Erasmus," she said dreamily, trying it out on her tongue.

Ted looked incredulous. "Erasmus? The kid will get bullied all its life! Why not David, after my father?"

"How dull!" Andromeda exclaimed. There was a silence between them - neither wanted to offend the other over such an important decision. Then, Andromeda had an idea. "Okay then. How about this. Since you're so sure it will be a 'little man', how about you choose a boy's name and I choose a girls name?"

"Okay," said Ted uncertainly, "say I said yes and we agreed on David if it's a boy. What on Earth have you got planned for the girl's name?"

"Well," she began, knowing full well that he wouldn't like the answer, "I spent today looking through this book." It was a Muggle book, given to her by Ted's parents, as they were so tickled by the eccentricity of her name and jokingly asked her what name she was going to inflict on their grandchild. "I really like the name Nymphadora. It says here it means 'gift from the Nymphs'. Isn't that beautiful, Ted?"

Ted looked torn. "It is kind of nice, yes. But Dromeda, what's wrong with normal girls' names, like Alice or Daisy or something?"

"Come on Ted," she pleaded. "Like it or not, this child has Black blood in her -"

"Or him," he interjected.

"Or him," she added. "I can't abandon the tradition of crazy names. It just wouldn't seem right. I want my child's name to have personality to it, not something flat like Sarah, or Jane."

Ted considered for a minute. "Well," he said tentatively, "I do kind of like Nymphadora. It's got something to it. And she can always be Dora for short."

Andromeda grinned, and flung her arms around him. "I knew you'd see it!"

"But," he said, turning stern, "if it's a boy, it's David. No discussion allowed."

Andromeda scowled. "It'll be a girl," she said.

"How do you know?" Ted teased.

"I just do."

A/N: Hope you liked it! Only 2 chapters to go... I will genuinely be upset when this is finished. Thank you so much for your support with this story - although there haven't been many reviews, the ones I've had have been fantastic. I just want to say another big thank you to kci47 who is always there to help me when I PM her in a panic because I'm stuck! And more thanks go to ErinnCroi for setting the challenge, it really motivated me to get writing multichaps again as I'd had a bit of a lull. Oooh and thanks to J K Rowling for writing the Harry Potter series in the first place ;) Oh dear, apologies for the overly emotional A/N, it's not even the end yet!