The war is over
At the Close: A Harry Potter Wars Comment Ficathon
OH DEAR HEAVENS! What a perfect thing to find right as I open my LJ friends page for the first time since Thursday evening!
I've written one thing so far and I want to post the link so I'm going to put the first story here and then do another post with any others I write. Or maybe I won't write anymore. Or maybe I'm kidding and I'll post ten.
Title: What Was Left
Fandom: Harry Potter
Character: Andromeda Tonks
Word Count: 413
Prompt:andromeda tonks - post-war - I write to give word the war is over/Send my cinders home to mother/They gave me a medal for my valor from anythingbutgrey
The baby started crying as the first owl arrived. A scrawled message was barely readable but Andromeda tried her best to make out the words through the haze of tears. Nothing good came by owl post. As she crumpled the paper, she could see the next owl on the horizon. Still the baby screamed.
Not just the baby now, she supposed as she leaned over the railing to pull little Teddy into her arms. The little face was purple with frustration and, dare she imagine... despair? Did he know that death had arrived at their door yet again? "Hush, poppin. Hush now. Grandmother has you. Grandmother will always have you, poppin."
She wasn't comforting to make him stop his tantrum but holding him close to try to get one last bit of her daughter squeezed into her heart. Her dear, sweet Nymphadora was gone. The pain couldn't be any more intense if her last words to her daughter hadn't been, "You're a mother! Start acting like one instead of a pig-headed little girl!" And, as always, Tonks had changed her face into that of a vile pig and snorted with laughter.
They had parted in anger. The note didn't dampen her regret any. Her daughter's last words were, as always, full of hope.
We're outnumbered, Mum, but that won't stop us. We've got Harry and right on our side. I know you'll keep Teddy safe until we come home. You always were the best mother in the world. Perhaps, one day, I'll be able to finally learn those lessons on parenthood you've been pushing at me lately. Teddy deserves the best, after all. I'll see what I can absorb once this fight is over at last.
It was days before she could read the second owl. If it hadn't been for the needs to the baby she wouldn't let go of, she might have fallen into a faint, as a good Black woman would have in times of distress. But she'd never been a very good Black woman, had she? The short note from Minerva came as no surprise. Her heart had told her all she needed to know.
"Your mumma's not coming home, poppin," she whispered in to the boy's silken blue hair. "Nor your papa. It's just you and me now, love. Just you and me."
As she said the words, Andromeda felt some of the sorrow evaporate. Her daughter had left her with a gift. She would not squander what was left.