Pitter Patter

Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

When Molly Weasley went into labor, Andromeda was brought to the Burrow to keep her company. The two witches spent the morning chatting, and Andromeda knitted. They were interrupted at fifteen minute intervals by Molly's contractions, which Andromeda thought might not be so bad after all. Molly simply stopped for a few minutes and breathed heavily as the pains worked through her lower body.

After lunch, the pains came closer and intensified. Andromeda's opinion about the experience of childbirth started to shift a bit. The mediwitch came and shooed her from the room, judging that the first time mother shouldn't be present for the more active portions of the process. Andromeda spent the last two hours chatting with Arthur and caring for young Bill, who was as worried about Molly as she was.

Finally a small cry alerted them to the presence of young Charlie. Arthur jumped up and went to his bedroom to see his wife, while Andromeda hugged Bill until the little boy protested loudly. After a while Arthur came and took his son in to meet his baby brother while Andromeda went to the kitchen and set it to rights.

Arthur and Bill came noisily down the stairs and went out into the yard. They went to a shed, and after a while all sorts of ghastly noises came out. The mediwitch came downstairs and gratefully drank the tea set out for her. She smiled kindly and sent Andromeda upstairs. She walked nervously up the stairs and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Andromeda went in and did not expect to see her hostess sitting up in her bed. She looked like a radiant queen, although a tired one. As she stepped closer, she could see that the tiny bundle in Molly's arms was nursing. She quietly sat down, and as she watched, the baby fell asleep and shifted his face away from his mother.

"Why don't you hold him?"

"I've never held one, I don't know how..."

"Then don't you think it's time you learned?" Molly laughed. "You'll have to do most of the holding in a few months, yourself."

She took a deep breath walked over to the bed. Molly clucked over the way she held out her hands. "Here, you go. Let his head slide into the crook of your arm, like that, yes, and steady him with this hand. That's just right."

Andromeda sat down and looked at the tiny human being in her arms. He shifted slightly into a more comfortable position and let out the biggest yawn she had ever seen in her life, all without opening his eyes. She felt something tingle and prickle in her chest, and then she felt something else. From deep within her belly, she felt the slightest stirring of something, someone, whom she already loved dearly.

Andromeda welcomed the approach of Christmas as never before. It was fun to think of surprises for the people in her life and consider whether they would like them. It was also fun to realize that for once she could spend a Christmas that didn't involve Father and Aunt Walburga reciting family trees from Nature's Nobility to each other. There was no worry that they would get to certain families and look her over speculatively, as though considering what her children would look like if she married some scion of the page they were reading. With a start, she realized the answer to such a question resided in the firm bump of her belly, which was starting to push out quite convincingly.

Ted was beside himself with joy. For some reason, toys started appearing at their house, toys that wouldn't be played with for several years, but that the new father couldn't resist. Andromeda found that she had to be the voice of restraint on several occasions as well when he looked through the catalogs. It was hard not to join in his delight, however. Having both been somewhat lonely on previous Christmases, they found this one gave them additional common ground.

It was with great enjoyment, then, that they decorated a tree together and hung mistletoe. Andromeda and Bennie made delicious smells in the kitchen while Ted decorated the rest of the cottage. Uncle Alphard looked on in delight, huge smiles covering his face.

When the day finally came, they lazed in bed a bit, tired from certain celebrations they had started the night before. Andromeda became aware of her husband's body against her back, his hand over her expanding middle, and felt waves of well-being. With a jolt, she realized that he was awake, too, and rolled over to kiss him good morning.

It was some time later that the couple came down the stairs to see Uncle Alphard in front of the Christmas tree. The elder wizard was drinking his coffee and looked at the two with a twinkle in his eye. He bade them to have some breakfast, and then the trio looked at their gifts.

The most impressive one that Andromeda received was a pendant in the shape of a princess, dotted with diamonds. It was when she looked closely at the diamonds that she understood. "It's the constellation!"

He smiled. "My princess Andromeda."

She pointed him to a gift she had gotten him. It was a watch. Behind the hands was a sketch of a young man, similarly dotted with small diamonds. "Perseus," he said smiling. Their eyes sparkled at each other in a shared private moment. The two kissed until a harrumph interrupted them. Uncle Alphard had gotten them both a special clock. It had two hands on it, one that said "Andromeda" and another that said "Theodore". A smaller, third hand, didn't have a name on it. All three were pointing, instead of at a number, at a spot on the dial that said, "At Home."

"Molly has a clock like this," said Andromeda. "She said if any of the hands ever point to, 'Mortal Danger,' she's leaving the country."

After Christmas, most of Andromeda's time was spent in preparing for the baby. Ted worked hard at the Ministry and was allowed to participate in some of the meetings of Dumbledore's group. He was taught some new spells, including one that nearly put Andromeda into early labor.

She was working on laundry one afternoon, when out of the sky a glowing white horse with wings dropped into the garden. It opened its mouth and Ted's voice said, "I love you."

Andromeda dropped what she was doing and went into the kitchen, where she fell into a chair. Her uncle came, and she was trembling so hard that he asked her what happened. She described what she had seen and Alphard laughed, to his niece's chagrin. He then explained that it was a Patronus, and that it must be Ted's. He told her that it was used by Dumbledore and his helpers to send messages quickly. He showed Andromeda the spell and taught her how to use it. After several days, she could make a passable dove appear from her wand.

By the end of April, she was able to use it to send a very important message to the Ministry. Ted was working on end-of-month reports when the white bird flew into his cubicle and said, "It's time." He jumped up and barely hollered to Anderson where he was going as he ran to the Ministry Floos.

"Going somewhere?" asked a girlish voice behind him.

"I have urgent business that requires I be elsewhere," he informed Dolores.

"That's too bad, Teddy. I was coming to tell you how you could make things up to me."

"I'm sorry, Dolores, it will have to be another time."

"All right then, but don't make me wait too long."

When he arrived home, Ted discovered that his wife was in their bed and that a mediwitch was with her. Alphard was in the sitting room with Sirius. The mediwitch had come from Hogwarts, and Dumbledore had asked Sirius, as one of the cottage's secret keepers, to bring her. The group of men waited in the sitting room, eating and drinking at intervals when the house-elf brought food.

Andromeda had no idea her body could do such things to her. All her life she had known her body very well, thank you, and it had done as she had asked. Today it did as nature intended, which had nothing to do with her intentions. The mediwitch encouraged her and instructed her to work with the pains and try to relax, but just as she thought she was getting it, Andromeda was overturned by another pain.

Finally, the mediwitch gave her a potion.

"What is it?" asked Andromeda suspiciously.

"It's a mild calming draught. It won't do much at all, but should help your body relax enough to work with these contractions."

She took the liquid and seconds later was hit by another pain. After a while, they were just as painful, but her body wouldn't let her tense up as before. She found that she was starting to work with the contractions. The pains suddenly hit with a new intensity. The mediwitch checked her progress and decided she was ready.

Teddy was called upstairs and instructed to hold her in a sitting position as she pushed. Andromeda pushed and pushed without exactly understanding what she was doing. Suddenly she could feel where the baby was and what needed to happen. When the next contraction came, she took a deep breath and bore down with new intensity. In less time than is needed to describe it, the head appeared. The midwife gently grasped the head as first one shoulder and then the other came out and the baby slid out with a whoosh and a feeling of great relief for the mother.

Ted gently leaned his wife back into the pillows. Then he leaned forward to look at... the midwife held the baby up and they saw it was a girl. The baby was cleaned up and handed to the father, who carried her over to the mother. Andromeda was so delighted to be done with labor that she was content to see the baby in Ted's arms. The mediwitch concentrated on the afterbirth and clearing up.

"She's beautiful, Dromeda."

"Bring her here."

Ted sat on the bed near his wife and both kissed the little face. Andromeda watched as the light colored fuzz on the baby's head gently turned pink. "Look, Ted, she has your hair."

The mediwitch's next set of instructions for the new mother were met with amazement. "I need to do what?"

"You need to feed the baby. I'm not leaving until I see that the two of you can do this together."

"But, you'll see me."

"I've seen a lot more than that, today, dear," was the practical response.

"I was in so much pain I didn't notice."

"Come on now, this will be fine once you've done it. Listen to her fuss, and see the way she's rooting around."

Andromeda opened her nightgown and held the baby up to herself, just as she had seen Molly do with Charlie. It didn't work, and the baby's fusses became more pronounced cries. The mediwitch came over and twisted the baby somewhat so that they were chest to chest. Then she helped line things up a bit, a process the young mother found highly embarrassing. The baby latched on with gusto and started sucking, making Andromeda jump.

"There you are, that's fine. You need to feed her every two to three hours, and you will probably need to change her diaper just as often. I'll wait an hour or so to make sure you're still doing well, but then I'll leave and come back in a couple of days.. You shouldn't need me, but if you do, contact me at the school."

Andromeda nodded, her eyes watching the little face that was so close to her own, but then she looked up. "Oh, wait. I didn't hear you when you told me your name."

"It's Poppy. Poppy Pomfrey. I was recently certified, and I'll be the matron at Hogwarts from now on."

After the baby finished her first meal and went to sleep, Alphard and Sirius came to meet her. Sirius noticed her pink hair. "Hey, how come she can do that?" asked the boy.

"She's a Metamorphmagus, like her father," answered the new mother. "She can't control it yet."

"I didn't know you were one of them," said Sirius, looking at Ted with new respect. "I wonder if sometime, I could ask you some questions. It's for a Transfiguration project I'm working on with my mates."

"I don't know how much help I can be, but I will be happy do assist you if I can," answered Ted.

The mediwitch indicated that she was ready to return to the school, which meant that Sirius would leave as well.

After a while, the young family was alone in the bedroom. Ted watched the baby's hair turn shades of pink while she nursed.

"She seems to be happy."

"I hope so," answered the tired mother. "Have you thought of a name?"

"Nymphadora."

"Nym what?"

"Nymphadora."

"Where did it come from?"

"Nowhere. I just like it."

Andromeda looked mournfully down at the small bundle in her arms. "Learn a lot of protective jinxes, little one. You're going to need them."

A/N: Thank you to Trickie Woo for beta reading this.