Gilderoy made his way up the stairwell about half an hour later, a heavily-laden tray in his hands. Lucius is going to eat something tonight if it kills him, he thought as he turned to the left, quickly passing by several portraits of himself. He stopped in front of Lucius' door and awkwardly tried to shift the tray onto one hand. When it was apparent that this wasn't going to work, he braced a knee against the wall and tried to balance the tray on his leg, using his left hand to support it. When he finally managed to steady the tray, he reached out and knocked.

There was no answer from inside, and Gilderoy leaned over and opened the door, barely catching the tray before its contents slid to the floor. When he was sure he had control of it, he lowered his leg and walked inside.

Despite a few candles burning, it was rather dark in the room. Gilderoy's eyes adjusted slowly until he could see the figure of Lucius stretched out on the bed, back to him. He set the tray on a chair near the door, then moved to the bed.

Unlike the first time Gilderoy had tried to wake him, Lucius looked relaxed and calm as he slept. Gilderoy reached out and shook Lucius' shoulder gently until his eyes fluttered and opened.

Lucius grabbed Gilderoy as though through reflex, wrenching his hand off of his shoulder. Then his eyes seemed to focus and he relaxed again.

"What do you want, Lockhart?" he asked shortly, sitting up as he did so.

"I brought you dinner," Gilderoy said, gesturing to the chair. As he did so, something caught his attention. "You brought your own things up."

"What was I supposed to do, leave them on the lawn?"

But by that time, Gilderoy wasn't paying attention. His eyes were sweeping around the room again, finally stopping when he came to the low bookcase in the corner. He stood up and walked over to it. It was filled largely with photo albums - Gilderoy Lockhart, 1984…Gilderoy Lockhart, booksigning, 1991…Gilderoy Lockhart, DP clippings (Daily Prophet, he assumed)…he knelt down to get a better view of the ones on the bottom shelf. His eyes came to rest on one entitled simply Lucius Malfoy.

He reached out and pulled the book off of the shelf. "Lucius," he called out, "I found something odd."

"Odd?" Lucius said, coming over to look. "What kind of odd?"

"I think they're pictures of you." Gilderoy started to open the book, but was stopped by Lucius' hand slamming it closed again.

"What would you be doing with pictures of me?" Lucius said, taking the book from Gilderoy. He turned it over to look at the inscription on the spine..

"I can't exactly remember, now can I?" Gilderoy said, taking the book back before standing up and walking back to the bed. He sat down on it. Lucius remained standing across the room, leaning against the wall. Gilderoy opened the album and started to look through it, squinting in the dim light. The first picture showed Lucius leaning against a wall, looking away from the camera. He was dressed in odd clothing that Gilderoy couldn't exactly place. It struck him eventually that he was dressed for some kind of sport.

"I never knew you played…er…"

"Quidditch. I only played for a year. Injury."

Gilderoy continued to page through the album. All through the first half of it, Lucius was mostly by himself or with another person, two at most, and not quite looking at the camera. The way he looked, the way he moved implied that he hadn't been aware at the time that the picture was being taken.

The first shot that had Lucius looking directly at the camera showed him writing something. Every now and then he would look up crossly at whoever was taking the picture, and at one point he made a rather rude sign directly into the lens. Eventually, though, the pictures got less irritated and more relaxed; after awhile Lucius seemed to be enjoying posing for the camera, sitting on a desk and flicking his hair back, standing in the common room posing like a model for a clothing advertisement.

"Well, you certainly seemed to be enjoying yourself," Gilderoy said as he flicked through the pages. Lucius didn't reply.

There came a series of pictures with Gilderoy in them, standing with Lucius and who Gilderoy assumed were Lucius' friends, talking and laughing.

"You told me I followed you and your friends around, not that I was actually part of your -" Gilderoy broke off as he turned the page. He was finding what he was seeing hard to believe.

"Part of my what?" Lucius asked sharply.

"Nothing…" Gilderoy said, his eyes growing wide. Lucius crossed the room and sat on the bed next to him, practically wrenching the book from Gilderoy's hands.

On the page in front of them, Lucius and Gilderoy were sitting on one of the benches outside. Lucius had his arm flung casually around Gilderoy's shoulders. His other hand was clutching Gilderoy's. Gilderoy kept leaning his head against Lucius' chest, and Lucius made no move to push him away.

"Lucius…" Gilderoy said slowly. "We're being extremely friendly in that shot."

"I see that."

"Extremely friendly."

"I heard you the first time."

"Extremely -"

"Say it again, and I'll take your head off."

There was a brief silence. Then -

"Were we always that -"

"Will you give it a rest already?" Lucius took the book from Gilderoy's hands and closed it. "There's no point in bringing this up with me again, so don't even imagine trying it in the future." He laid the book down on the bed, then got up and brought the tray from the chair back to the bed. He sat down with it and stared.

"Do you really think I can eat this much, Lockhart?"

"I wasn't sure how much to give you," Gilderoy replied.

"I'm sure. I'll bring this down when I'm finished with it." Lucius stared at the tray for a moment, then at Gilderoy. "Well…?" he said when Gilderoy didn't move.

"I'm going to wait here until you finish it," Gilderoy said. "To make sure you don't cheat. You understand."

"Indeed." Lucius started eating slowly. After a while, he paused and said "You made this yourself, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, actually. You don't like it?"

"Did I say that?"

"No…"

"I've already told you, you assume too much."

So it continued for the next hour - Lucius ate, not looking at all self-conscious, and they both attempted to make small talk until he had finished. Gilderoy picked up the tray and started out with it.

"I believe I'm going to go to bed now," Lucius called after him.

Gilderoy turned. "Sounds good. Me too."

"Good night, Gilderoy."

"Sleep well." Gilderoy brought the tray downstairs, then made his way back up to his own room, where he fell asleep wondering what else there was that Lucius wasn't telling him.