Regulus had never really cared for the festivities of Christmas. Always condemned to spending them alone in his chambers

However, this year would be his first as a married man. Although man would be putting it politely. He was nineteen, and he had known he was to marry you for years. But it felt different.

You had not been married long, and each of the days you had spent as a couple had been in silence. With your rooms placed at opposing ends of the home, both cold and lonesome. Even though you would never admit it.

So Christmas had been an unwelcome reprieve. In the sense that it was the same as always, with Regulus seated on the love seat, book in his hands as he flicked through the pages, preferring the company of the characters in the novel to that of his own bride.