The waiter set down the cups of water and slid two straws across the table before disappearing again.

"First, I'd like to apologize," Harry began. A snort. He exhaled deeply, reminding himself that he didn't expect this to be easy. Severus was a difficult man, after all. "I was being a selfish asshole before, and I should have apologized to you earlier on behalf of my bank and the situation you're in now."

Severus just sat and stared. It was all Harry could do not to throw his hands up in the air. What else did the man want? I guess he could try complimenting the pub owner. (That always went over well when he tried it with Hermione.) He was wearing a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. Along with the black slacks, the outfit looked like the perfect mix between formal and casual. It was a very attractive look on Severus. Wait. What?

"Is that it?" Severus asked dryly.

Shit. So he did want to hear something more. This was going to be a problem since Harry hadn't quite figured out a reasonable solution to Severus's problem yet and hoped to avoid that fact until a bit later (preferably at Never o'clock).

"Umm…"

His lunch partner rolled his eyes. "You said 'first,' implying you had at least one other thing you'd like to say." Harry fidgeted in his chair. "Really, Mr. Potter. Do try to hurry up. Molly's may be open until 9pm, but I have no intentions of waiting here until closing for you to get the nerve to finish the rest of your speech. So let's hear it. What else would you like to say?"

Some sympathy is needed here. Harry was already nervous as it was. Apologizing wasn't one of his strong points. It wasn't necessarily that he hated saying sorry. He understood that responsible men admitted when they did something wrong. Harry's problem was that he freaked out imagining what would happen next. Would he be forgiven? Would he be ignored? Would he have a glass of wine poured over his head? (This had happened once with one of his girlfriends. It was in college, and he didn't want to think about it.) He could never quite be sure how the other party would react, and that always unnerved him.

As mentioned before, there was also the matter about fixing Severus's little dilemma. When Hermione dropped that bomb on him, he only had about 18 hours to prepare for the lunch meeting. That wasn't nearly enough time for Harry to think of any legal loopholes that might dig the older man out of the hole he'd fallen in. To be honest, he only had one plan, and he knew that Severus would bite his head off for even suggesting it. So Harry had essentially come to Molly's empty-handed aside from the twenty-second apology spiel he'd memorized on the ride over. Clearly, it hadn't taken Severus long to catch on to how ill-prepared he was for this, and he knew the man was going to make this terribly uncomfortable for him.

To make matters worse, Harry had been frustrated the moment he walked into the tiny diner and found Severus seated at one of the booth tables at the back. Normally, he enjoyed opening the door and being welcomed by the smell of a fresh apple pie coming out of the oven and a warm greeting from the owner, Mrs. Molly Weasley. This time was different. He's opened the door and immediately was distracted by…

"You smell really nice," he blurted out, surprising the both of them. Oh, great. He winced. Why couldn't his mind ever come up with something else to say?

"Are we at this again," Severus asked seriously.

"That's the second thing I wanted to say," he lied, not sure why he was even talking anymore. They hadn't been together for more than three minutes, and he'd already messed everything up.

"Mr. Potter, is this some hobby of yours? Do you enjoy wasting people's times with these jokes? Because I, for one, fail to be amused, and I thought I had made that quite clear the first time you tried this comedic routine."

Harry grimaced at the growing look of anger on Severus's face. "No! No! I didn't mean it as a joke." He scratched the back of his head. "I'm sorry. I'm kind of obsessed with scents, and your cologne fascinates me."

Inhaling, he tried for the millionth time to describe the smell. It was like a rain forest and an ocean were somehow combined to create something beautiful and mystical and wonderful. Then some god captured the air around it, bottled it up, and sold it to Severus. All Harry asked was that Severus share some of his supply with him. Or at least tell him where to buy his own stash. But he supposed this wasn't the time or place to try to convince the man to give up his secrets.

Harry took a deep breath and tried to focus. "You're right. We have more important things to talk about like your contract." A grunt. "Severus, you understand that the conditions were binding, right? Unless you tell me they forced you to sign the document under duress, you're kind of…well…stuck."

His hands formed a steeple. "Tell me, Potter. Do I look like an idiot to you?"

"No, of course n-"

"Then do you really believe I didn't read over every word of the contract before even touching a pen?"

"Well, most people don't actually re-"

"That's not what I asked," he growled.

Harry sighed. "No, I don't believe that. I know you read every single sentence. That's why I'm confused. Yes, the bank gave you a horrible deal. That's a fact. No one's going to argue with you about that. What I don't understand is why you'd agree to it."

Severus leaned back in his chair, some of his anger apparently diffusing. "I didn't."

Harry pressed his lips together. "You read every word of the contract?" Severus nodded. "But you didn't agree to it and yet signed the contract anyway?"

"I signed a contract," he corrected.

It took a moment for Harry to realize what the other man meant. "Are you saying there are two contracts?" He slumped back in his chair, his mind boggled by all the implications that this meant.

Severus sniffed. "I'm almost impressed you managed to work that out."

Harry looked up at the man, eyes wild. "Are you telling me that they forged your signature on this other contract?" That was illegal for God's sake! They could wind up in jail!

A raised eyebrow. "I'm telling you that I signed a contract with a five percent interest rate but was sent a copy of the contract in the mail with a fifteen percent interest rate and that both of them supposedly have my signature. You can make of that what you will." He flippantly waved his hand.

He didn't understand how the man could be so calm about this. "I can't believe… How could this have…? Why would they…?"

"Ah, I wondered when this would happen." Harry threw him a confused look. "Your brain must be strained after coming up with so many complete sentences in one day. I was waiting for the signs of distress to appear. You held up longer than I expected"

"Severus! They lied to you and stole your money," he shouted.

Severus blinked. "I know," he said simply.

"We've got to do something about this!"

"Like what, Mr. Potter?" Some of the heat returned to his dark eyes, and Harry started to question how much of his anger had been just concealed this entire time.

Nonetheless, Harry was starting to run out of steam as he realized this was the problem he'd been facing since the beginning – there didn't seem to be a way out. "Did you try talking to them?"

The man laughed at his naivety. "And what would I have said? 'I think you gave me the wrong copy and accidentally signed my name on it. Can I have the original copy back please'?"

"I don't know," he whined. "Maybe they would have felt guilty and switched out your contracts."

Severus didn't even bother acknowledging that idea, and Harry felt frustrated with everything, not the least bit with his inability to do anything.

"So what was your plan? Were you just going to sit there and pay the ridiculous charges until when? You ran out of money?"

Severus didn't take too kindly to his misdirected, snappy tone. "What did you expect me to do, Potter? If I didn't pay, they'd take away my pub, which so happens to be my only source of income," he snarled.

"Shit," he mumbled, deflated once again.

"I would have put it more eloquently, but yes." He too seemed to have calmed down.

For a few minutes, none of them spoke. The waiter came back with their lunch specials, and both of them began to eat away without really tasting their meals. How could Harry enjoy his burger knowing the man sitting across from him had been ripped off and was suffering the consequences alone? Eventually, he just stopped eating.

"So what made you decide to bring your files to me in the first place?" Harry asked.

The question seemed to have caught the man off guard. "I thought you could help," he admitted hesitantly.

Fuck. Now Harry felt even worse than before. His bank had messed Severus's life up so badly that the proud man had to stoop as far as hoping to get help from the one person he loathed most. He suddenly felt ill.

"You did?"

Severus smirked halfheartedly. "You may be ignorant, but you're not stupid."

While Harry still felt the need to excuse himself and puke, a part of him was soothed by the quasi insult. Whether or not Severus would actually say so, Harry realized that the pub owner basically admitted to trusting him, if only a little bit. Severus believed that he wasn't another Dudley. And Harry was shocked at how much that meant to him.

"Thanks," he said softly.

Severus grumbled something that Harry couldn't decipher.

"Hey," he said, waiting for Severus to make eye contact. "I'll fix this." Severus looked skeptical. "I promise."

"Humph."

Harry smiled. Maybe the man didn't believe him now. Maybe Harry didn't exactly have a plan. But he was going to get Severus out of this mess one way or another. That much he knew. In the meantime, he figured he might as well use this time to get to know his client (?)/STA partner (?)/friend (maybe it was too early to use that title) better.

"So how did Hermione convince you to come have lunch with me?" he asked, exposing a question that had been nagging him the entire time.

"She said she wanted to discuss a new idea about the meetings," Severus replied.

Harry frowned. "Oh, really? Funny. She didn't mention anything about that to me last night."

Which was odd because they were business partners. Sure, he left most of the business decisions up to his female friend, but she always ended up filling him in before making any major changes. Thinking about it, Harry wasn't sure if this was necessarily true anymore. Hadn't she done that deal with Severus without consulting him? What was she up to this time?

"Perhaps she was still upset that you didn't show up yesterday," Severus suggested.

"Maybe," he conceded reluctantly. It was probably just a convenient lie, anyway. Still, Harry wanted to hear what fake idea Hermione had come up with. "So what is this new idea about?"

"I was under strict orders not to discuss the matter with you."

He groaned. "Are you serious?"

"A woman's wrath…"

"No kidding! Hermione can hold a grudge forever… So what did you guys talk about at the meeting?"

Severus raised his eyebrow. "The confidentiality agreement, Mr. Potter."

"Oh! Whoops. I forgot about that."

"Indeed."

"So…"

He didn't know how to continue the conversation. What could they talk about? Of the two times they'd been paired together for STA meetings, they'd never had real conversations. It was more like insults and accusations. Now that they were actually being civil, Harry was at a loss as to what to say.

"Want to go see a movie?" he suggested out of nowhere.

There! It had happened again! His mouth was acting crazy, and Harry like to believe that at some point during the meeting, some crafty aliens had landed and decided to take over his speech. They'd lead him to a false sense of security in which he felt like he had control over what he was saying and then press some buttons that would make him say stupid stuff like "Fuck! You smell really good" or "I want to be friends with you so that I can smell you more hours of a day. Since lunch is over, let's go to the movies so that I can sit next to you and sniff you more discreetly." (Okay, that was probably paraphrasing a bit.)

Unfortunately, said aliens were microscopic, so Severus hadn't seen them hijack his brain. Therefore, he was left to question Harry's sanity. "Don't you have work to do?"

"I only go to work after hours," he answered quickly. (Why couldn't Severus just put Harry out of his misery and say no already?)

"Is that so?"

"You said you don't watch movies, but I always thought it was more due to a time constraint than a lack of desire…and you seem free now," he explained (because why not make things more awkward than before?).

Severus sized Harry up as the younger man fidgeted in his seat, waiting for the onslaught of insults that were bound to come. "I suppose I do have a few moments to spare before I open shop."

His eyes widened. Had Severus just agreed to go out with him? And, Jesus, what had that alien done to his chest? It was beating at some erratic speed that surely wasn't healthy. Were they trying to kill him?

"Were there peanuts in your dish, Potter?"

"Huh. No, it was just an ordinary burger. Why do you ask?"

Severus stood up, and Harry followed suit. "Oh, no reason. I was just wondering why you were blushing…again."

And do you know what the worse part was? Those damn aliens didn't even have the common decency to shoot him and put him out of his misery. Great. This was about to be one interesting day.

A/N: Hope you guys liked the development in this chapter! Review and let me know what you think!

Also, if you have any movie suggestions, I'm willing to listen. ;)

I'm leaving a comment for a reader below because (s)he left a message without signing in, so I couldn't PM him/her. I won't normally do this, so I apologize to any of you who get upset or annoyed when you authors respond to reviews within chapters.

Moi: Thanks for the review! It seemed like you were a bit frustrated with Harry (or how the others were treating him), but I hope you stuck around to read this new chapter. I really appreciated your feedback because I never saw it as Harry getting treated like a door mat. I was more focused on seeing Harry as selfish and self-absorbed, so you allowed me to really sit back and think about things differently. Thanks for giving me this new point of view! I hope that you'll be more satisfied with the character development as the story progresses. :) If you do read this, please leave another review to tell me what you think of this newest chapter.