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For the first time in over twenty years Andromeda found herself sympathising with her mother. The screaming, pleading and tears were familiar but this time she was in her mother's place and she had to admit that it was hardly any more pleasant than it had been from the other side. Of course the difference, she thought, was that her mother had been a twisted, prejudiced Black while Andromeda believed she had her daughter's best interests at heart. Nymphadora had admitted that obviously no parent plans for their only child to marry a werewolf, but she had eventually let loose that famous family temper and shouted that she had thought Andromeda and Ted, of all people, would understand. The problem was Andromeda had understood far better than her daughter realised. She knew how cruel people could be, with their stares and whispers and the way you can walk into a room and have complete strangers turn their backs rather than look at you. She had fought to give her daughter a life without her mother's worries but now the girl was throwing it all back in her face without even realising what she was doing.
However, despite all the anger, Andromeda knew she had already lost. Nymphadora would know it too soon because eventually she would try to storm out of the house, the way she had done so many times before when they had fought about silly things like her hair or the boyfriends with the awful tattoos. They were at war now and Albus Dumbledore, their greatest hope, had just been murdered. Andromeda had already agreed to open their home to Sirius' godson and she was not naïve enough to think that sheltering the Boy Who Lived would not have consequences. She was far too scared to let her daughter walk out, walk away from her, with anger like this hanging between them. So she shouted and raged, knowing that in an hour's time she would be planning what to cook when they had Remus over for dinner the next week.
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Andromeda did not know how to say goodbye. Ted had warned her weeks ago, when the Muggleborn Registration first came into effect, that he would have to leave eventually. It seemed terrible that he would be safer out on the run alone than at home with his family but she knew it was true. She could vividly remember the Ministry officials bursting into their home, remember lying on her living room floor and fixing her eyes on the family portrait above the fireplace, trying to keep her mind through the pain and find the strength to look her attackers in the eyes when lied. But then Ted was there beside her, screaming in pain with her and they had survived together. When he said he was going to leave she had argued and insisted she would go with him, only for him to refuse and insist she stay with their daughter. She knew he was trying to protect her but he knew her too well. Nymphadora was in the last few weeks of her pregnancy by then and she needed her mother more than ever. Ted knew that her daughter was the only thing that would persuade Andromeda let him go and there was nothing she could do about it.
That had been the most difficult goodbye she had said so far in her life, easily eclipsing the day she walked out of her childhood home for the last time. The three of them had stood in their hallway trying to put off the moment that had to come. Ted had shaken Remus' hand and asked him to take care of his family. Remus had promised then tactfully retreated upstairs, leaving the three of them alone with each other for the final time.
Afterwards they were lost. With red eyes and tear stained cheeks, the two women told each other that he will come back, neither of them believing each other nor themselves. A few months ago they had also sat here together, Andromeda holding her sobbing daughter, stroking her hair and insisting that Remus would come back. He had of course, as she had known he would, but this was different. Ted was facing not his own demons but the whole world they were living in which seemed to be against them, and it broke her heart that he had to do it alone. The news of his death was not a surprise but it felt like the end.
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The baby was a boy. Teddy for the grandfather he would never know. Andromeda sat beside her daughter's bedside through the night while Remus paced and an old healer friend of Ted's tried to reassure them all. The woman was a kind but professional type and they were grateful she was there but Andromeda could not help but notice the way the woman left as soon as she could once the little boy had been placed in his mother's arms. It was impossible to tell whether it was revulsion or just fear that the Ministry would knock on the door at any moment. Either way the new parents were oblivious, exclaiming over the way the baby's hair already seemed to be changing. Andromeda stepped outside for a while to give the new family some time together. The first light of the day was shining on Andromeda's neglected garden and, feeling hopeful for the first time in weeks, she sat down and started to gently untangle her flowers from the tangled mass of green. Maybe they would be alright.
Later on Andromeda would treasure up the memories of the next few weeks. There was still a gaping hole beside her where Ted should have been but Nymphadora and Remus tried hard to keep her occupied with Teddy. For a few weeks it seemed as though the war could not touch their little family, as though they locked it out when they sealed the front door behind them. There was always a nagging feeling that their peace could not last but they tried their hardest to push it away. Later on, Andromeda would look back and promise Teddy that, despite everything, they had been happy.
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