3am. Again. It wasn’t a habit if it had only happened a few times so far, right? Imogen wondered as she poured herself a pot of camomile tea and headed for the couch.
She hadn’t seen her family yesterday. She hadn’t spoken to them. She hadn’t wanted to, ignoring her mother’s calls on Christmas Day in favour of helping serve pudding at the Ollivander’s instead.
Because Graham was a Death Eater. And he was a brother. And these two things seemed impossible to reconcile, and yet… undeniable.
Gilbert woke up in that way that you do when you know something woke you up but you're not sure what. Reaching over for Imogen he saw she wasn't there and got up, rubbing his eyes sleepily as he padded into main room. “Imogen, love?” he asked, then spotted her on the couch. “Can't sleep?”
“Not really,” she admitted and shifted so that he could join her.
“Knut for your thoughts,” he offered, grabbing a blanket and draping it over them as he settled next to her.
“Just…” She was about to lie, but he knew her too well and would push anyway. Imogen knew better than to try to pass off her lack of sleep at this hour as perfectly normal behaviour and not the result of a nagging worry. “Never spent a Christmas without my family.”
“Oh, Imogen,” he breathed, reaching an arm around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. “I was hoping my family would help fill the void, but I know it's not really the same. Maybe next year we can do something completely different. Go travel or something, just the two of us, so that nothing about it is familiar, it's all new, but in a fun, adventurous way.”
She let herself fold into his embrace and nodded dully. “That would be nice.”
“We can do something for New Years too, if you want? Go someplace new, stay at a swanky hotel, really live it up if you want? Change up the routine some?”
"We don't need to do that," she replied, even though the sound of not being here where everything seemed to remind her of Graham seemed pleasant. "Besides, someone's throwing a party. A party would be a good distraction."
“A party then,” he agreed. “With lots of good alcohol and a portkey to get back so we don’t have to worry about apparating.”
“Sure.”
“What else?” he asked, unconvinced by her one-word answer.
“I don’t know!”
“How can I help?” he pressed. “Or can I help? Is there something to do, or it just something we need to wait out?”
“Gilbert, I don’t know,” she repeated.”This isn’t exactly something I have a lot of experience with.”
“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “I'll just follow your lead, we'll figure it out.”
Giving her shoulders a squeeze he settled next to her in an unhappy silence, wishing he could say something to fix things, but knowing that this wasn't a problem that was going to be easily fixed.