Closed; Morning Coffee and Empty Flats

[daphne_x]

The flat just didn't feel the same since Cecilia had been arrested, there was an eerie silence there that reminded Daphne of Greengrass Manor. It gave her the chills to feel such a cold echo in this smaller space. Everything seemed to remind Daphne of Cecilia's absence, a heavy pressure building up in her chest every time she let herself think of

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[george_goesboom]

It was a good thing she had recognized him before letting lose a spell, completely zoned out and unaware of her approach as he had been. It took a second still from George to blink the kitchen back into focus, tearing his gaze away from the mug held between his hands he had apparently been staring at long enough for it to have gone cold

[daphne_x]

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said, letting her guard down completely now. Honestly, she didn't have the energy to keep it up anyway.

Daphne placed her wand down on the breakfast table before going for a mug of coffee herself, knowing it was going to take nearly an entire pot to get her through the day.

Maybe two pots.

"It's good to see you-"

It really was.

[george_goesboom]

George had stopped being strangely awed at the fact that he and Daphne, a person so far removed from the type of people he ever would have thought he would be associating with, let alone being comfortable in calling a friend, had actually done just that in recent months since that first week of daily morning coffee talks. Beyond having wanted to escape the weirdness of his own empty flat (which had always felt perfectly cozy in all the years he had lived in it alone), if there was one person who was feeling Cecilia's absence as painfully as he was- well, misery loved company

[daphne_x]

Daphne had always been a creature of habit, even more so following her years at Hogwarts when everything had to be perfectly calculated and timed to ensure her safety. She had spent years on edge, always looking over her shoulder, noticing even the slightest detail that had been moved out of place and it was just easier to build up a specific routine, made it easier to catch the imperfections

[george_goesboom]

George let out a huff of dry, humorless laughter, shaky fingers idly tapping against the rim of his mug.

Managing. Right. If this was 'managing', he didn't want to know what falling apart looked like.

As much as he had been trying to keep some kind of optimism up, to go about his life as best as he could, most of the time it felt as if he might as well be in that cell with her. He couldn't eat with thinking of the slop they'd be feeding her, couldn't sleep without picturing her on that slab of a bed, couldn't even get dressed and go to work without imagining those dreadful prison robes and that lack of anywhere to go.

And right now, he was just too damn tired too keep up the front he had been struggling to cling to for the sake of everyone else.

"Yeah- no- definitely not-"

[daphne_x]

She was busying herself with the coffee, measuring out just the right amount of skim milk and sugar the way that she liked it, the way that made her feel a little less guilty about adding sugar to her beverage at all.

It was an excuse, a distraction, and mostly just for George so that he wouldn't have to see the way she bit into her lower lip at the break of his voice.

The sound seemed to echo and bounce around them, shattering the silence that had found its way into the flat that afternoon Cecilia hadn't come home.

"She'll be out soon," Daphne told him, taking a deep breath before finally turning around to join him at the table.

"And I'm going to be visiting her today. I hope-"

[george_goesboom]

"Yeah?" he looked up automatically, wide-eyed, his heart working in an extra thump to chase the one it had skipped, even that unspecific 'her' somehow enough to push that permanent lump that had settled in his chest right up into his throat

[daphne_x]

Daphne nodded, knowing that she wouldn't have passed along the message with or with out the request. It was probably obvious to Cecilia how terribly George was doing, the strain that this was putting on him as he laid awake every night thinking about her, but she'd say it nevertheless. She would want to know the same-

Her coffee was warm but did very little to sooth her, the taste bitter and stale on her tongue as she watched George get lost in his own thoughts. She'd never seen him look like this before.

"I'm hoping they'll let me see her," she confessed, shifting her seat. "I've gone four times already but it seems she's only allowed one visitor a day-"

[george_goesboom]

One visitor a day. The rest of the time spent either in complete isolation with nothing but the occasional gruff passing guard or barely-an-excuse-for-food meal delivery to mark the passing of time, or piled into a room with the worst sort of witches and wizards that Ministry had managed to wrangle up over the years-

George shook his head again, heavily leaning against the counter and pressing the heel of his hand against the pulsing pressure point that throbbed between his eyes.

"I swear, every time I go there's some new ridiculous bullshit rule," he huffed, scraping his fingers back through his already completely haphazardly spiked hair.

Another moment of heavy silence stretched out between them, cold and weighted with their shared desperation and the too-obvious absence. "I still keep expecting to wake up-" he said, barely loud enough to even really crack the silence.

[daphne_x]

"I know. Me too. It's so- well, it's our nightmare," she sighed, leaning against the table now.

This was something that Daphne Greengrass never did, both elbows propped up onto the table like some child with absolutely no manners. But she was just so tired, unsure she'd be able to keep herself up.

She rubbed at her temples, hoping to sooth the dull ache.

"We always talked about this, to prepare ourselves. But it's not-" Daphne took a deep breath, a sob catching in her throat.

"It's wrong."

[george_goesboom]

"I didn't-" He wasn't even sure whether he had said it out loud at first, quiet as he still was and forcefully repressed as those thoughts had been. "I didn't talk about this, I didn't get to prepare-"

Even as his voice faded and broke off, he was fully aware of just how wrong and selfish and childish and unfair that line of thinking was. But as much as he knew it, there it was, butting in with that inner childish cry of 'but it's not FAIR', compensating for helplessness with the occasional flare of poorly targeted anger.

They had talked about it, they had prepared. They had had years to worry and see it coming. But despite how he had been (still rather vaguely, he had come to realize) clued in to the life Cecilia had left behind since the war, he had very much been left unprepared for something like this.

Despite himself, he had gone and fallen so ridiculously deeply in love with someone, and just when he was starting to think that all those things he had been scurrying away from all these years might actually be worth it, that

[daphne_x]

Daphne was getting lost in thought, nodding idly to George as he spoke and trying to focus on not falling apart right there at the breakfast table. She was disappointed in herself, for not keeping it together and for not being stronger.

The two of them had planned for this, for the last ten years or more in fact. Daphne had done the research and they had taken the proper steps, had safe houses all over Europe and even in the States as precaution. But never had the imagined one of them would be arrested.

She had never imagined they'd be separated.

"-I've never had to do this alone," Daphne whispered, her voice catching there at the edge as her chest grew heavy and twisted up.

"She's the one that got me out, you know. I wouldn't have made it on my own. I wasn't brave enough on my own."

[george_goesboom]

As much of a mess as he had been over this, barely managing an occasional hour of sleep per night and spending every waking moment chasing Ministry workers down, yelling at receptionists, pacing around waiting rooms, generally doing everything he could think of to somehow tip the scales in Cecilia's favor, he knew that if anyone was struggling more intensely with this turn of event, it was Daphne

[daphne_x]

"It's just happening so fast and so slowly at the same time. Do you know what I mean?" she asked, finally tearing her red and puffy eyes from the ceramic mug in her hands.

Daphne didn't understand how this had all blown up with out any of them seeing it coming, each and every one of them taken completely off guard by the arrest and the articles. But every day since, every hour and every minute, was a slow and painful crawl forward, waiting for answers that just didn't seem to be coming.

It was completely maddening and it was clearly taking its toll.

She was sure that soon somebody would be coming for her too.

"I just need to be strong for her. I can't let this get to me or -"

[george_goesboom]

George did know what she meant. Each day that passed by simultaneously seemed like both a slowly dragging eternity leading up to the chances of Cecilia's release, and a lightning fast checkmark being added to the tally of days she had spent locked away - too fast and too slow.

"No one'll blame you if you do, y'know. It can't not be getting to you-"

[daphne_x]

"I can't. I have to be strong for her-"

Daphne wasn't even thinking about herself now, knowing that she'd keep pushing through until there was nothing left.

Though, that end point was quickly approaching if she kept on the way she was.

"We have a plan for these sort of things. We used to talk about it all the time-"