"I haven't been in his room since then, so I'm not sure what state it's in. You know how messy he was." Andromeda laughed quietly; it was a sad, and tired laugh and felt out of place. Victoire only nodded and followed the elder woman to the room at the end of the hallway.
"Take as long as you need.", she said and then she was gone.
Victoire stared after her for a while. For the first time in her life she really looked her age, she noticed. Her hair wasn't made in the neat bun as usual; and her usually shiny eyes looked tired and empty. But Victoire did not have the strength to say encouraging words.
So she turned around to the door in front of her again. Taking one last breath, she pushed the door open and entered Teddy's room. Immediately, she was overwhelmed with his smell she had missed in the past weeks so much.
She closed her eyes and inhaled for a few moments, before she calmed herself down again. With small steps she made her way to the middle of the room and looked around. The bed was surprisingly made, there were only a few clothes thrown onto his duvet. The rest of the room was the same as she had seen it the last time. The pile of books on the floor next to his bed; the leather jacket he loved so much was thrown on over the chair in front of his desk. On the desk were his university applications, ready to be sent just like hers. She swallowed the big lump that was starting to form in her throat. He would never go to university now.
The two small papers next to the applications caught her attention. She picked them up and looked at them carefully. A mall sad smile appeared as she realized what they were. Tickets for Captain America 3. Dated for April 23rd. The film they never got to see together.
She put the tickets in her pocket and then threw the leather jacket over her arm, before she made her way to his closet. She didn't need to look long before she found what she was searching for.
She grabbed his favourite dark blue hoodie with the Marvel Superheroes on the front. She had always complained about him wearing it too often, but he had only shown her his sheepish smile and said it was his favourite. She buried her face in it for a moment, before she smiled. It still smelled like him.
Putting the hoodie over the leather jacket, she gave the room one last look, before she exited it, leaving only the fading smell and a ton of memories behind.
Molly Weasley loved cooking. But more than cooking she loved to invite people to share her cooked things with. One of her known traditions among the family were the family dinners at The Burrow. Every friday she invited her whole family to her house, that included her own children, their partners, their children and people she considered family. That tradition was going on for years now, since Bill and Charlie had moved out. So every friday she invited her family over; the number of people growing with each year. But she didn't care; she had enough time to make dinner, and she had enough plates for everybody.
One particular friday evening, she stood in front of the stove, stirring the soup. It had been weeks since the last dinner; but regarding the events that happened, that was no surprise. Nobody had felt like a family reunion, and Molly hadn't felt like cooking for that many people. But 5 weeks had passed, and Molly thought that everybody could use a distraction, a family meeting with people you loved and cared about, who could give comfort. So she had called everybody, and they had thankfully accepted the invitation, including Bill, who had promised to bring Victoire, no matter what, and Andromeda, who had first politely declined the offer, saying she wasn't ready to go out yet. Molly couldn't really blame her; she was staying in that house all by herself, no matter how often she had offered to stay with her, but she couldn't let the poor woman deal with all that grief by herself, so she had called again and told her it would mean the world to her if she came, and after many moments of hesitation and talking back and forth, she had finally given in and accepted the offer.
With a sigh, Molly turned off the stove, and moved over to the cupboard at the other side of the kitchen. She opened the door where she stored the plates she specifically put aside for the family dinners and reached out to get a hold of the big pile to set the table.
She went to the wooden table and put the plates down; carefully setting one plate for every chair, and then moving to the couch table to put the rest of them there, as the children usually ate there. When every plate was put down, she made a move to go to the kitchen again and bring the silverware, but she halted as she realized her mistake. With trembling hands, she removed one plate. She wouldn't need that one anymore.
Ginny awoke from the distressed movements next to her. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the darkness and then looked at the clock on the nightstand next to her bed.
It was only 3:12 am. She sat up anyway and turned on the small lamp next to the clock, looking down on her sweating husband, who was obviously having a nightmare. He was still having those almost every night, though they were not as severe as a few weeks ago, when he could hardly sleep without waking up screaming. It would not help waking him now, he would be disorientated and maybe be more stressed than usually. If she would let him sleep through it now, maybe he wouldn't even remember having one in the first place.
She was worried about Harry, and she had told him so. Time was all he needed, he told her. But she begged to differ, he wasn't himself anymore. He barely ate with them, he slept less and looked like death most of the time. She couldn't blame him though. She had looked the same in the first two weeks. But looking at their children, she realized she had to be the strong one in the family. Someone needed to be there for the children; and for Harry, too. She needed to cook; to make sure everyone went to school and work; that Harry showered regularly. One day she had offered Harry to seek professional help, but he had quickly shut her down, and so she hadn't brought it up again. Looking down at his distressed face she wondered if she should. He had told her about the nightmares he had. In most of them he just replayed the accident, the same scene over and over again, always with him not being able to do something. In some of them Teddy was angry with him, screaming at him saying it was his fault he was dead. And sometimes he even saw Remus telling him how disappointed he was in him, and if that was how he took care of his son.
Ginny couldn't imagine how horrible that must be for him, knowing how sensitive he really was, even if he didn't admit it that often.
She winced as she thought back to that day. They had just finished lunch and had said goodbye to Teddy, Harry had brought him to the door. The next thing she heard was the shouting of a strange man, and Ron and she had run to the front door as she realized both Harry and Teddy weren't in the house anymore. Then she had saw Harry, running towards a unmoving body in front of a car, and she knew exactly what had happened. She remembered hearing a loud scream, only to realize it was herself. She remembered Ron telling Hermione to bring the children upstairs immediately, and to keep them away from the windows at all cost; before he ran to Harry.
It had been the worst day of her life, with no doubt. After seeing Teddy grow up, raising him with Harry and Andromeda since he was a baby, feeding him, having him over more than often, treating him like her own son; and then to lose him. It was like someone had ripped a part of her heart out, and she knew that her heart was never going to be whole again.
She watched Harry for a few more minutes, and when he seemed to be calmer again, she lay down next to him again. She turned off the light and snuggled behind her husband, hoping he would sleep peacefully for the rest of the night. She knew they all still had a long way to go.