Bill wanted to get up and help, and if he had his wand he would have helped from right where he was, but he didn't, neither did he get up, he just stared at what Ginny was doing. Then before he could even give her the go-ahead to ask her question, she went ahead and asked.
"It's not any longer than we usually go. Okay it's a little longer than we usually go, but not by that much. She just wanted- " Bill stopped then. He was about to make more excuses, but what was the point. He wanted it over, he wasn't ashamed of it, and he wanted to talk about it. All he had done up to now was drop very unsubtle hints. "Because she didn't want to spend Christmas with me."