If you can't get someone out of your head, maybe they're supposed to be there.

Declan caught her shrug out of the corner of his eye, but took it as a precursor to what she said next rather than what it really was: a weirdly secret conversation between his best mate and his girlfriend. Perhaps he would've liked to know that they were getting along. But perhaps it didn't matter in light of the circumstances and his concern. Now that he'd realized she could be in danger, it felt like every minute was one too long to wait.

"What if we wanted to write her a letter?" He asked suddenly, nearly cutting Dom off. He passed her a slight frown of apology, and then he shrugged as well. "Even if we can't see her, she can at least know we still care."

"Of course you do," Henry confirmed, looking up from the note he was writing to his contact. No matter how sincerely ridiculous the Welshman really was, his expression and tone were entirely sympathetic. "I don't see why a letter can't be sent, even if they have rules about contact face-to-face."

Declan, though he was nearly afraid to say it, had to admit his ulterior motives. "Perhaps... if we can't go to her, she can convince her mother to come and see us sometime. I won't ask her to, obviously, but maybe she would want to."

This was going far better than it could have gone, and Dom was thankful that Declan had Henry to go to. Without them, Dom supposed they could have gone to Hermione, but this was far from her circle of influence, even as wide as that circle was. Aunt Hermione probably could have made something happen, because that was what she did, but this was better, and it let Declan feel more in control of the entire process. And with all that had been going on, Declan feeling in control was a priority of hers.

As he finally said what must have been eating at him, Dom reached out to take his hand, giving it a squeeze. She turned back to Henry. "Thank you for helping. She's not the kind of kid you just forget about. And her circumstances weren't ones you leave unquestioned."

Declan nodded seriously as Henry's eyebrows lifted. The older man had never really provided a full backstory for Ant, so Henry couldn't quite comprehend precisely how bad things had been for the poor girl. Neither could he understand their fears about her mother and what their relationship might be like now that the two were back together.

Dom had Declan's hand clutched in hers, and no matter how unsure Henry had always been about the blonde, he was relieved that someone was providing some security for Dec, just as Dec was finally allowing himself to care about someone genuine. Henry had always felt Danica was too smooth, even when it came to his brother's relationship with her. The idea still made him feel like he needed to shake off an uncomfortable feeling, but he managed to hold still until he realized they wanted to write something.

Henry pulled out a roll of parchment and a quill, pushing it towards them before standing up. "I'll let you two figure this out. I need to check on a few people anyway, so just leave it in the top drawer, there, yeah? I'll take it over this afternoon."

Dom remembered as Henry left that this was really Declan's... thing. He had found Ant, had been the one to invest, the one with the particular feeling of wrongness once she was gone. But Dom was alongside him, because she loved Ant too and she loved Declan, and it felt right to take on his burdens as her own. Just as the Leaky did not feel like a place she just went to anymore, Ant did not feel like a child she had just met one time.

Henry left and Dom leaned her head to rest on Dec's shoulder for a moment, just to remind him that she was here, at his side. She released his hand and sat up, leaning forward to take up the quill and parchment, hoping to be useful. "Want me to write? You speak, I write?"