"Oh, goodness," she said, flustered by his response. Sorry? Minister Urquart had nothing at all to be sorry about, and particularly no need to express such sentiments to her. It wasn't as though she had any right to know as much of his family's personal business as she did. The fact that it was trotted out in the newspaper for all to see was such a tragedy, she thought, but predictable; the news was so interested in scandal, and his position had meant the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his daughter's condition had been of particular interest. His political critics had probably expected that he would backtrack on everything his administration had stood for, once he had a member of his own family afflicted with lycanthropy, but she thought he'd acted faultlessly through the entire ordeal. Committing to the registry, despite its faults, showed a faith in the system — not that it was working, necessarily, but that it could — and, of course, standing by his daughter was a strong statement in support of the equality he had made such an integral part of his campaign.

"I'm sorry to have brought it up," she said. "Particularly if you came out today looking for Christmas spirit — given —" she stopped. She had been going to say that she regretted having reminded him of it when he would, necessarily, be right in the thick of it on Christmas Day due to the timing of the moon this month, but it occurred to her that if she let on that she knew the date of the next full moon, that might require explanation. It was not the sort of casual knowledge most people had, because of course most people had the luxury not to think about such things. She could not, however, think of any other way to finish her sentence. For a moment she merely stood, looking quite stricken, trying to think of how to salvage this interaction.

"I'm terribly sorry," she eventually continued, speaking quickly. "I'm tripping over my own tongue today. I've never been a particularly graceful conversationalist but you must know I'm usually not this hopeless, honestly. I suppose the fall addled me. I was hardly expecting to ever be speaking to the Minister of Magic — or even the former Minister of Magic. My mother would positively lose her head if she could hear what a fool I'm making of myself."