Dark Synesthesia | Sirius Black ͛

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She felt the world crashing down on her in that moment at the sight of the baby still in the woman's arms.
Sirius helped Hera to the sofa so that she could sit as he peered intently at Andromeda's crestfallen face.

"I'm so sorry, " Sirius said heavily.
He didn't need to say anything more — their arriving home as two and not four was enough information for the older woman.

"Could you hold him?" Andromeda said wearily,
"I need to sit — I haven't for hours. He won't sleep. "

Sirius extended his arm to take the crying baby, helping Andromeda to her seat on the sofa beside Hera.

Even so, Teddy wouldn't stop making those painstaking little whimpers, his torso shaking as he cried.

Hera weakly extended her arms.

"Sirius. " Andromeda called out, tears streaming freely down her cheeks as she pointed at the woman beside her.

"She can't right now, she's too weak. " Sirius said coolly, "I'm not letting her pass out from— "

Hera angrily made to stand, only for Sirius to relent, passing the baby into her arms so that she would stay put. She curled up with him, allowing him to cry it out. He wouldn't do so much longer; the sounds began to sound more like screeches that pained him, his throat dry.

"Milk," she tried to say, but her voice was garbled and quiet.

Sirius frowned, desperate to understand her as she tried to talk.

Frustrated by her state, Hera fumbled for her wand in the pocket of his long coat draped over her.
Upon retrieving it, she pointed it at the fridge and wordlessly summoned the bottled breast milk from the refrigerator.

They'd have to buy formula soon; Teddy would have to forego breast milk entirely, as Dora's supply would likely only last two days.

He drank a small amount from the bottle before pushing it away with his small, squirming head, beginning to cry again.

Hera sighed and dropped her shirt so that it hung lower around her chest, paying no mind to the fact that Andromeda was beside her as she pressed Teddy to her breast.

He let a few weak screeches out before settling with his small hand gripping her hair while he suckled on her nipple.

She swallowed uncomfortably — was it strange to use her breast to comfort a crying baby who had not been born of her?
It would probably be months before she could produce enough milk to nurse him; she was so early in her pregnancy that she couldn't even be sure she would be pregnant after her seizure. Who was comforted more by this, she or the baby?

Hera didn't want to imagine how the past few hours had been for Andromeda. Waiting.
Waiting was all she could do, and when they returned, she had lost her daughter.

Hera kissed Teddy on his forehead — he was still a newborn, barely two weeks old and already orphaned — and she cried with him. She cried with the baby and with Sirius and Andromeda beside her as he recounted the battle to the woman.

She didn't know how long they lay like that, but the sun was bright and incandescent through the windows behind them, towering above them all.

Only then, with Teddy asleep on her breast, and Sirius and Andromeda's conversation at a lull, did she feel she ought to get some sleep.

Sirius helped Hera to her feet, supporting her as she climbed upstairs with the baby still in her arms.

Hera didn't know how she would ever measure up to provide the same love that Remus and Dora possessed for their only child in the short time they had with him. She didn't know if she would ever be as good a mother. She found herself wrought with a strange empathy towards her aunt, one which she could not justify nor deny.