Surviving in Harmony

Chapter Nineteen | Godric's Hollow, December 2001

                                          Godric’s Hollow had seen several summers and winters, frosts and thawings since Hazel Bowen had been buried. Her headstone had been submerged in snow and ice, covered in leaves falling from the oaks shading her. Flowers had grown even in the middle of winter, her magic seeping through her relatively young bones and into the earth.

Often people came to visit her. Witches and wizards, some who had never even known she existed until her act of bravery, knelt by the carefully picked tombstone, a small bird made of white stone resting atop the grave, watching over her with its wings spread.

The most frequent visitors were Sonia and Andrew. Max grew used to his mamma walking him through the maze of ancient graves, standing before the grave of his grandmother.

It was almost Christmas was Andrew stood in one of the places he felt closest to his mother. Her body may be six feet beneath his shoes, but her spirit was stronger in the places she had loved; in Hester House, Hogwarts, the woods. Every time Andrew entered his childhood home he could feel her, smell the lingering scent of her lavender perfume. She was everywhere, watching him live even while she was gone.

He had arrived early, before his twin would come; he wanted to tell his mamma the news first.

“I’ve got something to tell you,” he told her. An unusually warm breeze drifted past his jaw, and he “Amara’s pregnant, Mamma.” The cold air shifted around him, and Andrew felt safe in its chilly embrace. “I’m so happy Mamma, honestly. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life. But I’m sad, too.” He knelt down, running his fingers over the engraving.

Hazel Florence Bowen

February 6th 1960- May 2nd 1998

Light always overcomes darkness

Andrew had chosen that quote. It was something Sirius had always said to Sonia, that she in turn had murmured to herself for years. Andrew had picked it up, and Hazel had once told him she had told Sirius that once, when they were young and the world was plummeting into war.

“This child will never meet you,” he said softly. “If I ever have a daughter, she won’t have the honour of meeting her namesake.”

The sound of the creaky cemetery gate opening alerted Andrew to the presence of another, and he stood straight.

“Andy?” Sonia called, weaving between the headstones. Their path to Hazel was worn, memorized after four years. “What’s the rush, I was putting Max down for a nap.”

“Sorry Sunny, but I have some important news.” Andrew tried to contain himself, restrain his grin. He simply couldn’t. “Mara’s pregnant.”

Sonia’s jaw dropped. “No!”

“Yes!” he cried, and Sonia flung herself at him.

“You’re going to be a Daddy!” she shouted, yelling right in his ear and hugging him as tightly as possible with her skinny arms.

“I am.” Hearing it aloud it hit Andrew – he was going to be a father, a daddy. Just that morning Amara had come into his study, told him with tears in her eyes; he couldn’t believe it had only been a few hours.

“You’re going to be such a good dad, Andy.” Said Sonia, sniffing.

“Are you crying?”

“No.” she sniffled. “Okay, a little. I just…I know how important this has always been for you, having a family, a white picket fence life.” Her expression shifted slightly “How’s Amara taking it?”

“She’s ecstatic, like me!” said Andrew, but he saw the look on his twins face. “What? Don’t look at me like that, Sonia.”

“It’s just – well, what happened to the four year plan?”

“It changed.” He said simply. “She saw that she wasn’t thinking about my desires, and she acomidated.”

“She’s not even finished school though, is she?”

“She’ll be done a little after Christmas,” he explained. “Early graduation, since she did all those courses in the summer.”

Sonia eyed him suspiciously. “Does she really want this, right now precisely?”

Andrew shot his sister a glare. “Of course she does! She wouldn’t have gone off the pill otherwise.”

“The what?”

“Muggle stuff.”

“Has it occurred to you that magic ‘stuff’ can overpower the Muggle bits?”

“My stuff didn’t do anything, thanks.” He grumbled. “Except get my wife pregnant.”

“Okay, okay. Sorry.”

The twins said goodbye to their mother, left her flowers (daisy’s, one of her favourites) and left the cemetery arm in arm. Andrew didn’t want to think about what Sonia had said, that Amara might not want their baby – he just wanted to be happy and stay that way.

 A/N: Uh oh. Sonia always knows, she takes after her mother.

Question: Do you think Andrew will have a little boy or a little girl, and what would he name them?

Rose<3