Busy was — a word for it. Not the word that he would have chosen, if someone had asked him to describe the past year, but it wasn't exactly the wrong word, either. Even when there wasn't anything dramatic going on (which was seldom; the past year had been full of unexpected dramatic turns, from the elopement to the death of Melody's cousin to the disaster at the Quidditch World Cup to the entire mess of January), he had been purposefully filling up his days with so much stuff just to keep afloat. It was easier to keep busy than it was to sit with something long enough to dissect it.

"Yeah, busy enough," he said vaguely. "Probably in less entertaining ways than you have. Where've you been?"