She'd been in a slowly moving downward spiral for seven days now.  The first couple of days since Damien had asked her about the situation with her nieces and her family had been almost normal.  She'd hung out with her boyfriend and acted like nothing was wrong, but then things started to change.  The knowledge that her older sister was so jealous of her that she didn't want Imari to meet her own flesh and blood newborn twin nieces {okay, they were a year old now} began to eat away at Imari's consciousness.

She started by being late when they said they'd meet up. She'd apologize profusely even though she knew he wouldn't mind and would just start worrying about her when they went their seperate ways.  It slowly got worse though, sometimes she'd just not show up, sending him a note by owl or house-elf that she wasn't coming - but with no explanation as to why.  Imari wasn't used to having someone care for her like Damien did and it wasn't registering with her that she wasn't acting like a girlfriend should.

It had gotten steadily worse.  She'd started skipping breakfast, then lunch, then all meals all together.  The thought didn't cross her mind that someone might be worrying about her.  She did go to the kitchens when she got hungry, but even she knew that she wasn't eating as much as she normally would had she gone to the Great Hall for meals.  This issue with her family was slowly eating away at her and she didn't know what to do about it.

So after seven days of steady decline, Imari sequestered herself in an empty classroom on the sixth floor.  She conjured a beanbag chair on the floor by the fireplace[1] and sat her book bag down by her feet.  She hadn't been taking as immaculate care of herself as usual either.  She didn't understand why she felt like this.  It was like something was pushing down on her, making her not want to function in an everyday situation.

This was new for Imari.  She'd never felt like this before, but with the last letter from her mother telling her that she shouldn't come home for any holiday unless she had a very important reason, had hit her where it hurt - - her heart.  Imari had always been a family-oriented young lady.  She cared very deeply for every member of her family, including her sister.  It wasn't in her to hate anyone.  Sure, she didn't like the circumstances surrounding her sister's disapproval of her,but she wasn't going to hate her for it.

Imari sat down in the chair and pulled out the note she'd received earlier that day from her new brother-in-law.  It was the first time she'd ever gotten anything from him and now not only was she in a downward spiral with the situation with her sister, she was quite nervous about meeting this stranger in Hogsmeade.    She reread the note and realized with a jolt that she didn't want to be alone right now.  Jotting down a quickly scribbled note to Damien, she summoned the only house-elf she knew and pleaded for it to deliver the note swiftly.  Once the creature had gone, Imari curled up in the beanbag chair as the tears began to fall - her brother-in-law's letter clutched in her hand.

1.	I imagined there being one in every classroom, right?

He was on the edge. And this was not a good edge for Damien to be on. He was worrying himself sick over Imari and habits as of late. She was skipping meals, showing up late when they'd planned to meet up, and sometimes cancelling all together. He was starting to think that he was losing her.

But he didn't want to think like that because it made him upset and he couldn't handle that emotion right now with everything going on in Imari's life. He needed to be there for her; he wanted to be the one to catch her when she fell, but it was pretty damn hard to when she wouldn't let him catch her. Ever. She was trying to be strong, or so it seemed like, but she wasn't strong enough to do this on her own. There was no way she could.

And that's what led him to his frenzied search for her. He'd rushed his homework and gone on the hunt, looking to track down his girlfriend and get to the bottom of her behavior. Damien wasn't upset with her, he was worried about her; too much for his own good. You couldn't blame the guy though, he was head over heels in love with her, and when the one who occupied a strong percentage of your thoughts was in rough shape; then you were in rough shape.

Finally, a house elf delivered a note to him and Damien was off. He ran towards the location where he would find Imari, getting strange looks from some of the people in the hallway. Out of breath, and in the realization that he needed to run more; he pushed open the classroom door to find Imari. In tears.

Oh, Damien didn't like tears. Tears were bad and they just weren't a good thing for Damien to deal with. But he took a deep breath, because this was Imari. And she needed him. "Imari," he said, rushing over and dropping to his knees in front of her. He leaned forward and wrapped his strong arms around her, enveloping her smaller frame. He rocked her back and forth gently, "I've been worried sick about you. Are you alright? Can I do something for you?"

Imari's tears slowed the minute she felt Damien's arms around her, but she didn't say anything, or sit up.  She was so confused about what to do.  How hard could it be to go to Hogsmeade and meet her brother-in-law.  But that was a problem, Imari had never met him, and so she wasn't sure what he'd look like, or if the letter was even from him.

She held the letter out to Damien as she wiped her eyes and sat up.  "I don't know what to do." she whispered as she looked down at the floor.  "I'm just not sure anymore."[1]

1.	I know it's short, but I'm low on energy.

Damien took slow breath's as he rubbed his hand softly on Imari's back, he heard her rapid breathing slow and was hoping that the waterworks were slowing. He found that with everything good that came with Imari, there was a fair share of bad. But he was willing to take everything that came with her.

He leaned back on the balls of his feet, lowering one knee to the ground to stable himself as she sat up. "Don't know what to do about what?" He asked before accepting the letter Imari was holding out to him. Damien scanned it once, then twice. He didn't know what to say about it, but at the very least he could try to help. Familial issues weren't a strong point for him, but he could understand missing someone to the point where all you could do with cry. He'd had his fair share of those moments.

"It's alright to not be sure," he said softly, reaching a hand out to place on one of hers gently. "We can figure this out together, I hope. It can't be so hard, this is your brother-in-law right?" He asked hopefully, "And it's a good sign that he wants to meet you."

Imari slowly calmed down and sat up straight.  "Yes, it is a great thing that he wants to meet me, it's just I have problems meeting new people."  She dried her eyes on her sleeve and looked at Damien, "What if he doesn't like me?" She took a deep breath. "I'm not sure I want to go meet him alone." Imari didn't look up at Damien when she said that, for she wasn't sure that she would see the reaction she wanted.

"I mean, I have been wanting to meet him, but it's kind of weird him asking me to meet him out of the blue."  She looked down at the floor and sighed, "I can't help but think that it's some kind of a trick."

Once Imari started to calm down, Damien let himself relax. He wasn't going to sit by and watch his girl cry, but if she was stopping and relaxing... he was perfectly fine with just chilling out. He was learning to deal with the waterworks better, but it was still hard to know what to do.

Damien couldn't help but think that it was odd that her brother-in-law just up and asked her to meet her for the first time, ever. It sounded too good to be true, and most of the time, it was just that. He took a deep breath and grasped for the right words, even though he wasn't sure they were.

"I think, I think if you really want to go, if this is a step in the right direction... then I want you to take the chance and meet him, because it might be good for you." He said, even if he wasn't a hundred percent sure that it was alright. "But, I also want to go with you. Because if this is a trick, I want to be there to protect you and hex this idiot off their feet for messing with you."

He wished she would look up at him, but she didn't, so he continued. "I'll be honest, I don't even know if this is for real. But it couldn't hurt to check it out? If it is him, that could be one step forward to meeting your nieces, and that would be great, right?"

Imari finally looked up at Damien after sufficiently calming herself down, though it helped that Damien was there now. "I wouldn't think of going without you." she told him.  "I would be scared to meet him by myself."  She would be afraid to even walk into the building.  Her fear of meeting new people hadn't disappeared when she met Damien, it only hid in the background waiting for it's moment to strike.

"We should ask my head of house if it's even possible to go before I write him back don't you think?" she asked softly. 

"It would be a wise idea," he responded. "We would need permission to go so that they knew where we were. Even if we are on break, we still need to let the people responsible for us know what we're doing."

Damien wondered if they'd just need to ask her head of house, or if he would have to ask his headmaster as well. He hoped not, because it would be much simpler if they could just ask one person. "You can probably just owl them, or stop by their office or wherever it is that they are when you need them."

Imari nodded, "I'll ask him, I don't want to keep..." she trailed off as she tried to recall her brother-in-law's name, "Jacob waiting."  She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill and after tearing it in two, wrote one letter to her head of house asking permission for her and Damien to go to Hogsmeade the next day, and one to Jacob, hoping it would find him before he went home.

After finishing writing the two letters, Imari smiled up at Damien, her depressing mood was passing, and now she had something to look forward to. The only problem now, was keeping the meeting a secret from her sister when she went home at the end of the year.  "I'm sorry I've been so distracted lately, I know it couldn't of been easy on you." she told him, as she placed her quill back inside her bag, set her bag aside and placed one hand gently on his cheek.  "Do you forgive me?"

Damien let Imari scratch out the letter's, one for permission and one to Jacob. Later that night, Damien made a mental note to go over defensive spells, and offensive spells for that matter. If this was a scam, then he needed to be ready to protect Imari and himself.

And finally, a true Imari smile. That made Damien's happy place feel all warm and fuzzy, and it made him smile a crooked, loopy smile.

"It's alright, I've dealt with worse," he reassured her, copying her moves and letting one of his larger hands rest on her cheek. "Of course I forgive you." He leaned forward to kiss her, capturing her soft lips with his; pulling back a little bit to clarify something.

"I love you, you know that? Probably too much for my own good, and now I'm head over heels in love with you, you beautiful girl." He said with a grin.

Imari heard Damien's comment about her being beautiful and smiled as his lips touched hers.  After a moment, Imari leaned back and then stood up.  "Come on, let's go somewhere else." She had a wicked gleam in her eye that hadn't been there for at least a week.  "Anyone can walk in on us here."  She held out her hand for his.[1]

1.	I figured we could end it here until I get the meeting Jacob thread up and ready.