Thank you for all the reviews!

Chapter Two—Late Night

"Stop looking as if you're going to your own execution, Potter. I'll have you know that I'm a rather coveted date."

Harry only smiled at Malfoy as best he could, and saw Malfoy check at the strained nature of it. "I'm only going out with you to make Ginny happy. You have to know that." He glanced up and around, and wanted to snort. The whole restaurant seemed to be made of glittering, cold marble. Not his kind of place at all.

Not your kind of marriage. Not your kind of date.

But still Harry let Malfoy take his hand and escort him towards the table in the center of all that cold whiteness, because he had promised Ginny.

"That is less than flattering," Malfoy muttered. Harry wondered if he would carry the charade far enough to pull Harry's chair out for him, but magic did that, or maybe invisible air currents. Harry sat down in his and felt the lightness as it was shoved back in. Definitely enchanted air currents. "I don't want to date someone unwilling."

Harry sighed and toyed with the glass of water that appeared in front of him, followed by a curving line of light that outlined the rapid writing of various foods. "But then you should go find someone else. Not follow me around like a puppy."

"This is not puppyish." Malfoy looked at the menu and tapped his fingers rapidly against three words, although Harry couldn't see which one. His menu sparked and disappeared, while the lines of light in front of Harry pressed insistently closer to him. "No one else would suit my requirements."

"Your requirements?"

"Irritating the hell out of Astoria."

Harry shook his head. "I don't understand that, either. She's been in favor of your having lovers before, and Ginny is in favor of this, and the only one really uncomfortable here is me. Why am I the only one who'll do?"

Instead of answering, Malfoy watched him intently. "You're really uncomfortable."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I'm straight."

"But you're here for a reason."

"I love my wife."

Malfoy sat with his head oddly cocked, as if listening to some distant word. Harry hoped it would be the one that convinced Malfoy to let him get the fuck out of the restaurant. But Malfoy looked at him and said, "Order. Then I have something I want to show you. It always takes the food a while to arrive."

Harry grimaced and leaned forwards to study the menu more intently. When he got close enough, the golden lines resolved into actual words. He sighed as he saw the prices. He and Ginny were doing well enough on an Auror and a Quidditch reporter's wages, but he didn't actually want to spend lots of money. In the end, he chose a small basket of bread seasoned with several different kinds of spices, and water.

The menu dissolved. Harry settled back and looked at Malfoy. "What did you want to show me?"

Instead of answering his question like a sensible wizard, Malfoy leaned forwards in his seat and let his hand glance over Harry's arm. Harry felt gooseflesh break out as Malfoy trailed his fingers up, a heavier touch than the one he'd used on Harry the other evening.

Harry grabbed his hand and halted it, glaring. "What was that supposed to prove?"

"That you're less straight than you think."

"I don't think anything's wrong with being bisexual," Harry said shortly. "That's what Ginny is, and I love her. I love everything about her. It doesn't mean I am."

Malfoy picked up what was suddenly a glass of white wine for some reason and sipped. "Why don't you tell me what you love about your wife?"

Harry eyed him, but for the moment, Malfoy seemed to have given up on his weird crusade. Harry nodded. "Sure. For one thing, I love how beautiful she is. The way her hair shines in the sun when she flies, and the way she quit trying to hide her freckles after she left Hogwarts, and how her whole face lights up when she smiles..."

Their food came, Malfoy's some kind of complicated shrimp dish that he silently took pieces from to put near Harry's bread basket. Harry rolled his eyes as he ate, but he was hungry. He just wished he could erase the smug look in Malfoy's eyes at the sight of Harry eating food he'd bought.

Well, it was his funeral. He had to listen as Harry described the jokes Ginny told, and how she looked when they'd finished making love and she was lying back with one hand on the pillow, and how she'd been brave and honest enough to tell him what she needed from their marriage.

"...And she handles the whole thing well, better than I do. I agreed to let her sleep with whoever she wanted, but I'm still jealous. I know she isn't."

"Do you know that, Potter?"

Harry blinked and glanced at him. Throughout the last part of the conversation, which had almost been a monologue, it had been easy to pretend he was talking to a portrait or something. And now Malfoy was calling him by his last name, as if they weren't on a date at all. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you've never stepped outside her bed, right? So this will be a new experience for her, watching you date someone else. You don't know how well-controlled her jealousy is until she watches you kiss and touch me."

"Look, Malfoy, I think we should stop pretending. I don't want to fuck you. You don't really want to fuck me. You just want to irritate your wife."

"I think there's something else you need to see," Malfoy said, and stood up, the magic drawing his chair back again. "Come with me?"

Harry sighed, drained his water glass, and stood as well. When he reached into his pocket, Malfoy waved his wand, and a stream of Galleons sprang out of his fingers, appearing like coins in a Muggle magician's. "This will be more than enough to pay for dinner," he said, staring at Harry.

Harry just shrugged and walked out of the restaurant beside him. Fine. Malfoy was the one who had asked him on this date. Therefore, by some standards, he was the one who should pay.

Malfoy held out his arm, and Harry accepted the Side-Along Apparition. He'd already accepted one to the bloody "date," so it was a little late to quibble now.

He did roll his eyes when he found himself in front of Malfoy Manor, though. "What is this? Are you going to show me your bed and hope it convinces me?"

"Not mine."

Harry shot him a curious glance, but Malfoy simply opened the wrought-iron gate-wrought with writhing dragons breathing fire, Harry saw-and gestured him through. Harry walked quietly up the white gravel pathway that glimmered in the moonlight. The dinner had lasted longer than he thought. Well, he hoped that Malfoy had got his fill of how much Harry loved Ginny.

Which wasn't ever going to change.

They entered a corridor that looked distinctly different from what Harry remembered of it, from the apricot-colored marble to the lack of portraits on the walls, but Malfoy led him up a winding staircase before Harry could really look around. Harry watched the marble change colors as they climbed. He wondered idly why Malfoy hadn't installed a lift, but perhaps he liked to stand on the stairs and gaze out over his domain.

They arrived at a door that had a tree etched in silver on it. Malfoy tilted it open a slow few centimeters, then stepped back and gestured.

Harry leaned in, wondering if he would see the edge of a treasure hoard, and how long it would take Malfoy to realize that wouldn't convince him, either.

Instead, he saw Ginny and Astoria Malfoy lying in a bed as big as Harry and Ginny's twice over, their hands resting on each other's shoulders. There was an expression of wonder on Ginny's face as she gazed at Astoria.

Her lips were moving as they talked, but Harry didn't listen to what they said. It could have been about when the price of Firebolts would finally come down, for all he knew. He just jerked back, his eyes averted, his heart painfully pounding.

There had been an expression of love on Ginny's face that he'd thought was only for him.

Malfoy spoke to him, but Harry heard the voice as being distant, underwater. He stared at the far wall and said nothing. He couldn't, not when the thoughts were dancing around his head-you knew she was built to love more than one person, why is this a shock, why did you come here, this was a betrayal, this is her betrayal-and he started when a hand came to rest on his shoulder.

"Shit, Potter, I didn't know you'd take it that hard," Malfoy muttered, and nudged him back towards the stairs. "Come on. The elves have all the Firewhisky we could want, and anything else you can think of to drink."

Harry would have fallen down the stairs if not for the railing. He had to stop and close his eyes when they were probably only halfway. The thoughts just swept back and forth in his head like wings opening and closing.

He had agreed to this, that was the thing. He had no right to be upset and betrayed now. Ginny hadn't said that she was just going to have sex with other people outside the marriage, and she hadn't said that her bond to Astoria was just sex for a long time now. She had said she was in love. She had said, when they first negotiated this agreement, that she was built to fall in love with more than one person. If anyone had been lying to Harry, it was himself.

But it still hurt like someone had reached into his chest and squeezed his heart dry of blood.

"Potter?"

Harry averted his eyes from Malfoy's. He didn't think he understood the bastard's motivations as well as he'd thought. Had Malfoy really only wanted to hurt him? It still didn't make a lot of sense. "I need to go home."

"Why? You're in no condition to Apparate, not with the shock you've had."

"I-I spied on Ginny. I shouldn't have. We always agreed that our time with our lovers would be strictly alone-"

"And that's bollocks." Malfoy had wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders to guide him more firmly down the stairs. Harry hated to admit that he needed the support, but he'd tried to stand on his own, and it wasn't happening. "She's never had to keep to the agreement, has she? Because you never had a lover."

"That's my own choice." Harry's lips were numb as he spoke, and Malfoy probably didn't hear him. At least, that was the most coherent reason for why he just kept talking.

"There's something you don't know about your Ginny, other than the fact that she's in love with my wife, I suppose." Malfoy nudged a door open, because somehow they had reached the ground floor without Harry noticing, and ushered Harry inside. Harry didn't care about much other than the blazing fire and the large armchair in front of it. He sank into it without noticing how rich it was, how soft it undoubtedly was. "Shall I call for Firewhisky from the elves?"

"I shouldn't."

"Shit, Potter, stop being so bloody noble for one night."

Harry closed his eyes. He still didn't want to let the hurt overpower the fact of his own hypocrisy, the fact that he had done something he'd promised Ginny he wouldn't, but drinking Firewhisky wouldn't be letting the hurt win. Probably not, anyway. "All right."

"Dio, Firewhisky!" Malfoy called, and sat down in the chair opposite Harry. Its back was to the fire. The thought flitted through Harry's mind that that was kind of an odd choice, but he didn't have the strength to pursue it right now, Auror training or not. He opened his eyes and stared at the fire again.

The glass appeared next to him. Harry picked it up and gulped it down, then choked. The flames that raced through his throat stung his nostrils and pumped his brain back to life. He leaned his cheek on his hand and stared at the fire.

"Don't you want to know the other thing you don't know about your Ginny?"

Harry lifted his head, stunned with misery still, and shook it. Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "Love's made you into a coward, then?"

"It's done the same thing to you. Since you want to scare Astoria away from Ginny somehow instead of just demanding that she end the arrangement."

Malfoy closed his eyes. Then he said, "Well, I suppose I deserved that. Come on, Potter. Let me tell you."

"Then just tell me. I have no idea why you want me to bloody ask."

Malfoy muttered something under his breath that Harry didn't bother to pay attention to, since he was fairly sure it would make no sense. "All right. She told Astoria that she feels like sex with you is a duty. She's thought about leaving you, but she's afraid it would break your heart. So she cares about you that much, I suppose."

Harry felt that blow, too, but it was a dimmer one than seeing Ginny in love with someone else. He shrugged and stared into the fire. "Is that something Astoria told you? Or do you and she not have that rule about spying on each other?"

"Something she told me. She seemed to think it was amusing. Come on, Potter. What reason do you have to keep this charade going? I still don't think your Ginny's as blasé as she pretends. She can feel this way and sigh about it, but she hasn't had to watch you with a lover, has she? Hasn't had to watch you fall in love with someone else? And now she's given you bloody permission."

"It-it doesn't matter, Malfoy. For right now, she's content to stay with me. Maybe she told your wife that and didn't mean it. I'm in love with her. I don't want to give her up."

"Tell me that you find that convincing, Potter, and I'll leave you alone."

Harry closed his eyes tightly. The problem was, he didn't. But his hurt and his spiraling grief didn't matter, did they? He and Ginny had negotiated this arrangement, had carefully discussed all the rules-including not dating among their immediate friends-and it would be hypocritical of him to change the rules now.

"Is being a hypocrite worse than being in love with someone else and telling that person you find sex with your husband a duty?"

"Stay out of my head, Malfoy."

Harry's voice must have been deep enough to be convincing. Malfoy raised his hands in front of him. "I honestly wasn't. I'm not a good enough Legilimens to do it when your eyes are closed, anyway. You were muttering about hypocrisy under your breath, and I don't think you need to. Unless you're referring to Weasley's hypocrisy. Then I'll gladly join in."

Harry swallowed and said, "I don't want to hurt her."

"On the other hand, I am good at spotting lies after long afternoons among Death Eaters. That was one."

"I just-I agreed to it. How can I object to it now?"

"You didn't say anything about falling in love with someone else, did you? All of these arrangements I know of that are really successful have different people paying attention to each other on a regular basis, not sighing about it and encouraging them to sleep with someone else to soothe a feeling of guilt."

"Ginny said she needed multiple people to love. I'm the bastard that can't deal with that."

"Then you follow the rules. Sleep with someone else and see if she's as mature as she pretends."

"She's not pretending."

Malfoy raised an eyebrow in silence.

Harry shook his head roughly and downed his Firewhisky, feeling but ignoring the burn. "I do know some other people in this kind of relationship. One that's lasted longer than ours, even. I'm going to talk to them."

"Oh? Do I know them?"

"Not my secret to tell. Their parents wouldn't be happy if they did know about it, so they asked me not to spread it around." Harry stood up and put the glass down on the table next to him, staring at the wall. "Thanks for telling me the bloody truth, Malfoy. But I reckon I'd still be happier if you hadn't, and especially if you hadn't brought me here to spy on my wife without telling me."

"She's using you, can't you see that? You-"

"No more than Astoria's using you," Harry retorted, and strode through the Manor towards the front door. He would go home and pretend he had never come here, never seen Ginny lying with Astoria in the bed. It was best that way. Whether or not he'd intended to, he'd spied on her. He'd violated the agreement by being jealous, and now this.

No wonder she thought of sex with him as a duty. No wonder she wasn't in love with him anymore. How could she be, when he violated her trust that way?

"Potter, wait."

Harry turned around, wary. Malfoy had a record of stupidly surprising revelations this evening. If he did something else similar, Harry wasn't sure that he could stand it.

But Malfoy only halted behind him and searched his face with a slow, careful gaze, as if he was looking to see damage his actions had left behind.

"If you want someone who can pay the kind of attention to you that should be paid, you know where to find me."

Harry rolled his eyes and stepped out the door. "You're in love with your wife, Malfoy. I want someone who's in love with me."

"Then Weasley doesn't qualify, either."

Harry walked to the end of the path and Disapparated without replying. He thought that Malfoy might be wrong. Ginny had said again and again that she could love more than one person. With time, Harry would adjust to this revelation. That he wasn't the only person Ginny loved didn't mean he didn't have a piece of her heart.

So many negatives. Does that make things worth it?

Harry sent off an owl as soon as he could. It wasn't late enough that it should bother them, he hoped. Then he lay down and watched as the hours ticked by and the time Ginny had said she would be home tonight came and went.