"Sorry, old boy," Terrence said, grinning at the dog. He messed with him a bit, brushing the cold canine nose briefly with his own, and then relaxed back against the couch as Katie joined him. "Won't be so long next time."
How to explain what he'd been doing? Really, he'd just been getting further into his work as a Death Eater, befriending the new head of Magical Law Enforcement - or rather, enabling the new MLE head into having his brand of fun, a more violent kind of fun than he and Katie had. And he couldn't really tell Katie about the specifics of it, not without risking the potion making the decision for her about whether she was alright with it. But he could give her a general idea.
"Working, mostly," he said. "Ever since I got the Mark, they've given me a lot more to do in the Department of Mysteries. Among other things." He sighed, and glanced at her. 'Sorry' wasn't a word he liked to use, but this was a situation in which he would have used it. "I really didn't mean to go so long without getting in touch. How've you been?"