
Gilderoy finally found Lucius sitting on a chair in the back of the shop, reading. "Are you ready to leave?" Lucius asked, not looking up.
"Lucius…" There was a silence that was very uncomfortable for Gilderoy but didn't seem to bother Lucius in the least.
"Are you or are you not?" Lucius said, setting the book aside and finally looking at Gilderoy.
"Yes," Gilderoy said.
"Good."
A few minutes later, Gilderoy found himself back in the sitting room of his home. "I'm sorry," he said when Lucius came into the room.
"Sorry for what?"
"For -"
"Sorry for what?" Lucius said again. Gilderoy finally got his point: it didn't really matter anymore. He smiled at Lucius, who gave him an odd look.
"That looks incredibly strange with your lip the way it is," Lucius said. Gilderoy's hand quickly moved up to cover it. "Do you want me to fix it?" Lucius continued.
"Can you do that?"
"Of course. I'll need my wand, though -"
"I don't know, Lucius…"
"Well, if you want to go out tonight still looking like that, you go on ahead. Just don't say I never offered."
Gilderoy considered. "Oh…fine. Come upstairs; your wand's in my room."
Upstairs, Lucius released the catch on his stick and drew his wand out. "Now hold still," he said. Gilderoy flinched, closing his eyes, as Lucius touched him lightly with the wand. He wasn't sure how Lucius did it, but he felt his injury heal immediately.
"Thank you," he said, going to look in the mirror. Sure enough, it had healed.
Lucius didn't reply, but instead turned and started back into the hall, looking around as he went. "Tell me, Gilderoy, why do you need such a large house?" he said as he went.
Gilderoy shrugged, then realized that was utterly pointless, as Lucius was in the hall and had his back to him besides. "I don't know," he said, coming to walk beside Lucius. "I'm sure it was a good idea at the time that I bought it."
"Of course it was."
"Hm?"
"If it had seemed like a bad idea, you wouldn't have purchased it, now would you?"
Gilderoy laughed. "You have a point."
They came to a stop outside a door opposite the stairwell. "Dare I ask what's in here?" Lucius asked.
"I don't know. The only rooms I've been in are the ones you've already seen."
"I see." Lucius made no move to open the door.
"Aren't you going to go in?"
"And why would I do that?"
"Oh, come now, Lucius, it's probably just storage!" Gilderoy flung the door open with a flourish. The room was empty. "You see? Absolutely nothing to be afraid of."
"Afraid?" Lucius said. "I'm not the one who spent four days alone in this house, yet didn't look in any of the rooms until I had someone else with me."
"That's not the point!"
"Would you care to enlighten me as to what is the point, then?"
Gilderoy was trying to come up with a witty response when he realized that Lucius was smiling. True smiles from Lucius were rare, and Gilderoy smiled back at him.
"You're so incredibly odd," Gilderoy said.
"Mmm…why do you say that?"
"You just are."
"And how should I take that?"
"It's not an insult."
"Oh, right," Lucius said, rolling his eyes in mock-exasperation. "It's not an insult, but it's not a compliment either."
"Well…"
"My, you are getting bold."
"You're rubbing off on me, I suppose." Gilderoy paused for a moment, thinking. Then he said, "It's at times like this that it feels like you might actually like me, or at the very least not dislike me as much as you say you do."
"Why are you so obsessed with me liking you?" Lucius said.
"I've told you already, I like you a great deal."
"So you have, although I have no idea why -"
"And it's very rude to insist on disliking someone who likes you."
"The world isn't all sunlight and roses. You're going to come across people who dislike you. Get used to it."
Gilderoy stared at Lucius. Something was bothering him, and he didn't know what it was. There was something Lucius wasn't telling him…
"I hurt you, didn't I?" he said finally.
Lucius blinked. "What are youon about now?" he said. "If this is about that dream you were having –"
"No, while we were at Hogwarts…" Gilderoy closed his eyes for a moment. "There was the lake, and you were sitting on the bank…you said that if I ever touched you again, you would hex me into the hereafter." He opened his eyes and realized that Lucius had gone very still.
"Who told you about that?" Lucius asked, his voice frighteningly quiet.
"No one," Gilderoy replied. "I just sort of knew."
"And is there anything else that you just sort of know?"
Gilderoy thought for a moment. "No, that's about it," he said.
Lucius didn't look pleased; he quite bluntly changed the subject. "Do you have anything to eat here?"
Gilderoy looked at him in surprise. "You're actually hungry?"
"Famished."
Gilderoy smiled. "That's good. Maybe you're finally –"
"Are you going to stand there and tell me how good it is, or are you going to actually get me something to eat?"
"You can eat at any time, you know," Gilderoy said as they went downstairs.
"I can't cook."
"You can't? Why not?"
"I've never had to." They turned and walked into the rather large kitchen.
"Oh, but it's easy! All you have to be able to do is –"
"I don't know how, and I don't care to learn, as I'm probably never going to have to use it. So skip the lesson and make me something." Lucius sat down at the table and looked at Gilderoy expectantly.
"You have to learn sometime, Lucius, and it might as well be now."
"And why, exactly, do I 'have' to learn?"
"Do you expect me to cook for you the entire time that you're here?"
"Yes."
Gilderoy found himself staring at Lucius again. It wasn't a command, nor was it said in sarcasm – it was just something Lucius truly expected of him. As Gilderoy stared at him, he noticed something odd - Lucius' sleeve was pooled around his elbow, exposing his arm. And…
"Lucius, why don't you have any scars?"
"Scars?" Lucius repeated, arching an eyebrow.
"Yes…from when you cut yourself in the ward. You don't have any scars or cuts. Why?"
"Why would I have scars?" Lucius said, apparently not following what Gilderoy was trying to say. He paused for a moment before something seemed to strike him. "Oh. Because of the amount of magic in my blood. You have it too; look, come here." Lucius stood up and pulled a knife out of the block on the counter.
"Lucius, what are you doing?" Gilderoy said, alarmed, as Lucius pressed the blade against the skin of his left palm. Lucius closed his eyes as the blood welled out of his hand, then removed the blade and laid it on the counter. He then ran his right hand over the cut repeatedly until it stopped bleeding, and then was gone altogether.
"There," Lucius said. "That explain it?"
Gilderoy stood in silence for a moment, then turned away, determined not to ask Lucius anything else for quite awhile.