As It Was *Complete*

4. Mama

And so Astra stayed with Remus and Teddy. It was a small cottage, but Astra fell in love with it as soon as she saw it. There were literally two rooms downstairs and two upstairs with a tiny bathroom in between. Nothing too elaborate or fussy. Actually, it was simple and positively charming.

Astra made a promise to help Remus as much as possible. She cooked, cleaned, and looked after Teddy for Remus while he went looking for work. He was delighted to find that after the war, he received an award for his work in the Order, but he still struggled to find work. As much as his best friend and newly appointed Minister For Magic tried to help him, it didn't work out. But he never let it stop him. Astra knew that he was doing his best to keep busy so that he didn't have to face that his wife was gone.

But Astra heard him cry at night, and each night, it would break her heart.

She had written to Maddi to tell her where she was and that she was safe. Maddi was delighted that she now had somewhere to stay. She did offer to let Astra stay with her and her mother, but Astra felt bad. She knew that her and her mother did not have much money and lived in a small studio apartment above her mum's bakery. She didn't want to be a burden both financially and physically to the woman who was just getting buy as it was.

It had now been a few weeks since the battle, Remus had held a memorial service for his wife Tonks, and they had also paid the respects to the family of Fred Weasley and quite a few others. It broke Astra's heart to know that she could not help everyone like she tried. She sometimes thought that she should have tried harder to make sure everyone was protected.

One thing she had not expected was for a letter to arrive at the start of August. She knew it before Remus had even handed it to her. It was a letter from Hogwarts. "I suspect they have finished rebuilding and are getting ready to welcome students back," Remus said as he smiled at her with Teddy in his arms.

"But I already had my seventh year. I mean, I never got to finish, but surely they don't want me back?" She said, still not having opened the envelope.

"You underestimate yourself," Remus laughed. "But I do think they are inviting everyone in your year back. You do not have to accept, of course. I think the choice is being left up to you."

"What do you think?" She asked him as he opened his own letter. A letter with the same seal and handwriting on it.

Teddy gave a gurgling noise and Astra took him in her arms and proceeded to make a bottle using her wand and then set herself in the window box to feed him as Remus read his letter...a few times.

"Can you give me a second Astra. I will answer that question when I get back. I just need to send a message to double-check something."

She smiled as he left the room, closing the door behind him, and stepped into the living room. It wasn't long before she heard a hushed conversation. She couldn't make it out, but she knew it was a female voice. Remus obviously made a floo call, and it sounded like it was to Professor McGonagall.

Astra tried not to listen to give him privacy, instead she fed Teddy, burped him and changed his nappy before feeding him the last of his bottle and settling him down in his little bassinet and rocking him to sleep.

When Remus came back in, he looked to be in shock. "Sorry, Astra," he said as he looked into the crib to see his son sleeping soundly. "But to answer your question, I think that you should definitely go back. It would be good to finish your education and to make some memories before you graduate. Plus, I hear you are taking Defence Against The Dark Arts, and I would quite like the chance to have you in my class again."

Astra was so busy re-reading as he spoke that her head snapped up, nearly giving her whiplash. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Remus smiled. "It seems that I have been appointed as the Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher again."