A/N: All right kids, here it is finally. I apologize for the time in between postings but a trip back across country and back for best friend's wedding, followed by being sick for a week has really kept me floored. Add to that the fact that every time I turn on my netbook to work on this chapter, I ended up playing Free Cell for hours and…well…it wasn't a pretty picture. Warning for some of my readers, there is toppy-bottom!Lucius in this installment. Happy Halloween!

The wedding day was quickly approaching and Harry was at his wits' end. He wished that there were somebody who could tell him what to do. Of course he couldn't ask either of his best friends about it and if he went to some counselor or shrink, they'd probably just tell Harry he needed to figure it out for himself. That or Harry would have to answer a bunch of useless questions and then be left to figure it out for himself. Either way, he didn't want to waste the energy or money just to end up back where he began.

The major problem, as Harry saw it, was that he was honestly in love with two people. He really wished that one of those people wasn't Ron's sister. It sounded horrible to even think that but everything would be less complicated if he didn't have to worry about two people hating his guts if he ended up with Lucius.

After a while, he decided that maybe he could talk things over with Hermione if he spoke in very vague terms. Sighing, he rubbed at his eyes as he stared down at the report on his desk.

"You look stressed out."

He glanced up to see Ron at the opening of his cubicle. "Yeah. I am. It's all this wedding stuff. I love Ginny a lot, you know, but I wish I didn't have to go through all of this."

"I hear you," Ron agreed with a nod. "'Mione is dropping hints about getting married now. I'm going to have to ask her soon. As soon as I can afford a ring, that is." He sounded a little glum at the last.

"I can recommend the jeweler I got mine from. If you'd like, we could go over now and talk to him. I've read the last two lines of this report at least a hundred times and I still couldn't tell you what it says.

"Yeah, why not? I could use a break too. I'll let Jamie know we're going."

The redhead strode off to a nearby cubicle while Harry cleared off his desk and put the folder into a locking drawer. They all had to follow Ministry security protocol when dealing with sensitive documents and he didn't want a dressing down for something as simple as a neglected report.

Once it was safely locked away, he pulled out his watch – the gift from Lucius – and checked the time. It was only half ten. That would mean a very long lunch for him and Ron but he didn't think anyone would actually complain. Being Harry Potter did occasionally have its perks.

Harry was just winding the timepiece when Ron reappeared. "Wow, that's a nice watch!" He moved closer to peer at it, "Where did you get that?"

"Wedding present from a friend," Harry reluctantly murmured in reply.

"Must have been a loaded friend! That thing would cost us a month's salary."

"I never knew you were a connoisseur of watches, Ron."

"Oh. Well, I like em. That's all."

Nodding, Harry stuffed the pocket watch back into his pocket, refusing to say anything else on the matter. "Ready?"

"Yeah. Jamie said to have a nice time."

"Good of him. We'll have to pick him up some takeaway."

"I asked if he wanted anything and he said he brought lunch."

"Ah. Fair enough then. Let's go." Harry grabbed his coat, and slung it around his shoulders before leading the way out of the office.

oOoOo

Lucius was having a lovely day in Diagon Alley. He'd been tempted to invite Draco for lunch but instead he'd gone alone and had a quiet but thoroughly enjoyable meal.

Afterward, he found his way to Norton's Fine Jewelry and was now browsing through the expensive baubles on display in glittering cases. Several pieces caught his eye and it was hard to keep from buying them for Potter. The temptation to shower the auror with presents was difficult to resist but Lucius knew that he must. One gift could be explained away; many would be much harder.

Lucius had moved on to perusing a selection of ornate rings when an intimately familiar voice raised the hairs on the back of his neck. Harry entered the shop with Weasley in tow and their eyes met as Malfoy turned his head toward the door. Weasley spotted Lucius at about the same moment and muttered something the elder wizard couldn't hear. Harry grabbed his friend's arm to keep him from leaving.

For his part, Lucius wasn't sure what to do. His first urge was to leave the men alone so that he stood less chance of outing Potter. However, he felt an overwhelming joy at seeing his lover and he couldn't quite bring himself to go. He gave a little smile to Harry and then returned to his browsing, pretending to ignore the other men completely.

Harry and Ron strolled over to a case at the other side of the room and began discussing engagement rings with the clerk stationed there. Knowing that Harry and Ginny had already been engaged for some time, Lucius reasoned that Ron must be buying a ring for Granger. Malfoy had assumed that they were already engaged, which just showed that the old adage about assumptions was true.

That also went a long way toward explaining Draco's continued infatuation with the mudblood. Perhaps that would end once and for all when Weasley and Granger were married; Lucius certainly hoped so. Draco needed to find a good, strong woman to love, not some muggle-born witch that he would forever have a love-hate relationship with. The elder wizard made a mental note to discuss the matter with Narcissa once he returned home. Maybe he would buy her a pretty while he was at it since he couldn't get one for Potter.

Glancing again toward the boys, Lucius spotted Potter watching him. Weasley was listening to the sales clerk as he talked about cuts and karats and extolled the virtues of various metals for the band.

Lucius couldn't keep from smiling again at his lover and he added a wink. After another minute, Harry drifted away from his friend as if idly browsing. Soon he stopped, not far from where the older wizard was standing.

"Meet me tonight, Harry?"

"Okay, yeah. Usual place?"

"Sounds perfect."

There was a short pause before Harry glanced over at him. "You're not shopping for me, are you?"

Malfoy chuckled. "I don't know. Would you like something?"

Potter blushed and shook his head.

"Well let me know if you do, Potter, and it will be yours."

Smiling again, Lucius moved on to the next case and began to pick out a pair of earrings for his wife. She would wonder what he had done that he needed forgiveness for. Lucius would smile and tell her that he had simply felt like bringing her something nice. Of course she wouldn't believe him.

Women were like that, always looking for the motivation behind an action, even if it was a random desire to please. Then again, Lucius didn't expect that he could want it any other way.

Once he had settled upon something and told Mister Norton to put it on his account, Malfoy tucked the little box into his pocket and turned to go. Potter had returned to Weasley's side and as Lucius made his way past, he bumped Harry with his shoulder.

"So sorry, Potter," he drawled smoothly, smirking at the venomous glare that he received from Weasley. Lucius raised his eyebrow at Harry, taunting just a little, and then continued on his way out the door. Sometimes it was just too fun being bad.

oOoOo

Ron griped about Lucius the rest of the day – or at least he griped until Hermione showed up at three in the afternoon to visit him, bringing with her a pile of pastries. She'd saved them from a party in her department and while Ron was gleefully distracted with his snack, Harry pulled Hermione into his cubicle.

"What's up, Harry?"

"I wanted to get your opinion on something."

"Sure," she settled into his spare chair, "what's on your mind?"

"Well," he took a breath before plunging on, "what would you do if someone you disliked and who disliked you back, let's say for example Draco Malfoy," Hermione pulled a face as he said the name, "what if he decided he fancied you and started just showing up everywhere you went?"

"He already does that, Harry, but I don't think it's because he fancies me."

"Just assume that he did. And assume that you started fancying him back. What would you do? I mean, if you thought you liked Draco but you still loved Ron?"

"Harry, are you trying to tell me that Draco is making moves on you?"

"No! No, this is a hypothetical question. I just meant to use someone you dislike and that seems to dislike you in return. What would you do if you found yourself in a situation like that?"

"I don't know, Harry. I love Ron and I can't really fathom loving someone else at the same time, especially if it's someone like Malfoy." She made another face.

That's what Harry would have said too only a few months before. Hermione's answer didn't help him very much but it really had been expecting a lot to think that he would get a good answer from his friend. All he could do was nod.

"Harry, are you thinking of breaking off the engagement?"

For the first time he found himself wishing that Hermione wasn't so shrewd, "I don't know. It's… complicated."

"Don't you hurt her, Harry."

"I'm trying not to, Hermione. I really love her."
"But?"

"I just don't know what to do."

"Harry…"

"I know what you're going to say. I'm sorry that I brought it up."

"You haven't actually fallen for Draco have you?"

For a moment Harry wondered if he ought to be disturbed. It was clearly not much of a stretch for Hermione to presume he could fall for a man and he wondered whether he really came across as the sort. Then he realized how ridiculous that thought was, considering that he had fallen for a man, and he let it go.

"This has nothing to do with Draco, really it doesn't. Please don't think I'm lying and go confront him about it either. The last thing I need is that git bothering me any more than he already does."

"Okay Harry, I believe you but something is definitely wrong; it's really obvious. Do you want me to have a talk with Ginny, maybe see if she's willing to put everything off a little?"

"Thanks for the offer but I don't want to upset her just because I'm having issues."

"Harry, you're getting married. Your issues will become her issues."

Harry frowned. "I just don't think putting the wedding off will solve anything. In fact, I think it would make everything worse. Thanks for the offer though, 'Mione."

Hermione reached over and patted his arm. "You'll let me know if you need anything, won't you?"

"Yeah, I will."

"What are you two whispering about?" Ron reappeared, just finishing off a pastry and then licking cream from his fingers.

"We were discussing your appalling eating habits, Ronald." Hermione winked at Harry.

"Oi!" the redhead looked offended as he always did when she criticized him.

"It's not his fault," Harry chimed in, "Mrs. Weasley was too busy with all the others to teach him manners."

"Whose side are you on anyway?"

"Hermione's of course. She has the ear of my beloved fiancée and could easily use her position for evil."

"I'm Ginny's brother," Ron pointed out.

"That means she will do the exact opposite of whatever you tell her to do, Ron," Hermione told him with a grin.

"Not necessarily!"

"Oh please."

Harry was laughing hard at his two friends by this point. It felt so nice to forget his problems for a minute. "Hey you two, let's take off a little early and go for a drink at the Golden Goblet."

"Hey, that sounds like a plan. Can you make it, Hermione?"

"Sure, give me a couple minutes to get my things."

"Meet us at the entryway?"

The woman nodded and hurried off toward her office. "Be right there!"

Harry looked up at his best friend expectantly. "Are you going to ask her tonight?"

"I don't know," Ron's smile faded and he looked hesitant, "do you think I should?"

"Unless you can think of something more romantic, it would be a good time. I'll be there for support."

"That's a good point." The redhead settled his hand atop the box in his pocket. "Maybe I will."

Rising from his chair, Harry patted his best friend on the shoulder. He was glad that he'd lent Ron the down payment for the ring. "We'd better go then, before she comes looking for us."

"After you, Harry."

Harry smiled. He had a feeling it was going to be a very good night.

oOoOo

"I wish you could come to my bachelor party," Harry murmured to Lucius later that evening. They were cuddled snugly into the cottage's queen-sized bed with a fire crackling happily in the grate.

"That would hardly be appropriate."

"I know. I still wish you could though."

"Even if your in-laws didn't hate me, I'm not sure I could bring myself to go. Stag dos are for you young bucks, not elderly gentlemen like me."

Harry propped himself up on one elbow so that he could look down at the older wizard. "Lucius, why do you feel the need to point out the difference in our ages all the time?"

"I don't know, Potter. Perhaps because it's so vast."

"Well stop it. I don't care how old you are, you're still young at heart." Lucius laughed at that and Harry scowled dangerously. "You think you aren't?"

"I suppose I've never thought of it in those terms."

"Then take my word for it. You are. I have known men three times your age that were still very sprightly." Harry thought of Dumbledore and Lucius laughed again.

"I'm not sure I want the term 'sprightly' used to describe me."

"Why not?"

"It's an odd word."

"You're an odd man."

"Thanks ever so much, Potter. It's nice to finally know what you really think of me."

"No problem."

"So I'm odd and I'm young at heart. Any other words you'd use to describe me?"

"Smoking hot?"

"I'm flattered."

"You'd better be, Malfoy."

Lucius grinned again as Harry bent to place a kiss on his lips. The embrace lingered for a long time before Harry broke away again with a sigh. The elder wizard rubbed his arm.

"You're going to have a great last night of being single, don't worry about that. You'll go out with your mates, get absolutely pissed, stumble your way home and pass out. In the morning you'll feel like death warmed over and your future in-laws will drag you down the aisle to marry the girl of your dreams."

"And you're really okay with that?"

"Harry," Lucius slipped his hand across Harry's cheek and around his ear, settling his palm firmly on Harry's neck as he pressed a kiss on the boy's forehead, "what would you have me do? Do you want me to steal Draco's wand and challenge your fiancée to a duel for your hand?"

Harry laughed quietly at the image that conjured up. There was a traitorous little part of him that did want that. It was obvious that he couldn't make a decision on his own so maybe if Lucius and Ginny fought over him…he shook his head. The entire scenario was absurd.

"No, I guess not." His lip quirked in the semblance of a smile. "I'd hate to have to arrest you again afterward."

"Yes, that would be a shame, mostly due to the fact that you would then have to dream up ways to sneak into Azkaban for conjugal visits. Though I must say, the thought of such visits is rather pleasant."

"Mmm, very pleasant." There was a short pause before the auror asked, "Lucius, do you still hate muggles?"

The elder wizard blinked at Harry, as the question came out of the blue. "I have no idea why you're asking, but why shouldn't I hate them? Just because you destroyed the Dark Lord, I see no reason why my opinions regarding muggles should have changed."

"But there are a lot of nice people out there. So what if they don't use magic? They've come up with outstanding ways to make life easier, even without it."

"You do realize that they would try to destroy us if they knew we existed?"

"They would not!" But then Harry thought about Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and he wasn't so sure. They might have done him in as a baby if Petunia hadn't feared Dumbledore. He wouldn't put it past them. As Harry pondered that depressing thought, Lucius continued talking.

"Perhaps some of them wouldn't. I will admit that a goodly number of the mu…muggle-borns," Lucius' pause was almost imperceptible as he changed the slur he was going to say into the more politically correct phrase. Harry, of course, knew what he had been about to say and frowned anyway. The other wizard pretended not to notice, "such as your friend Miss Granger, who find themselves transported into our world seem to adapt well. However, those individuals have the benefit of being able to learn magic. Our abilities would inspire fear and jealousy in ordinary muggles, just as they have done throughout history."

"But don't you think there's some fear in the other direction too? You hate them because you fear what they will do."

Malfoy shrugged as though the matter didn't much concern him and Harry sighed. Lucius let silence settle between them before placing another kiss on Harry's lips. "You're arguing over a moot point, Harry. I'm not exactly in a position to do anything about muggles anymore."

"Hmm." In Harry's mind that didn't matter. He was frustrated by the fact that the other man clung to his prejudices instead of letting them go. Perhaps Lucius sensed that frustration because he pressed a more demanding kiss on Harry's mouth and rolled the auror onto his back.

In reflex, Harry wrapped his arms around the other man's waist and drew his nails over Lucius' skin. The elder man gave a soft, yet primal growl. Harry didn't want to let Lucius win the argument via distraction but felt his groin tingling back to life as the man's body rubbed over his own. The auror suddenly wondered if it was possible to fuck some sense into a person. It sounded like an idea worth trying at the moment.

Tightening his grip around Lucius' torso, the auror tried to use his body to leverage Lucius onto his back. The elder man stuck out an arm and managed to prevent the maneuver. Harry growled and broke from the kiss. He was about to say something very angry to his partner but Lucius prevented it by pressing a finger to his lips. "Hush Harry. You don't even know what I plan to do yet."

Seething with annoyance, Harry let his arms fall away from Malfoy's body completely and rest limply against the mattress. The white-haired wizard gave him a look of reproach as he lifted the finger that had been against Harry's lips and reached out for the bottle of oil on the nightstand. "Don't be like that."

"Like what?"

"Like a spoiled little boy who is not getting his way."

"Oh, because Lucius-bloody-Malfoy never has to get his way," the sarcasm fairly dripped from Harry's voice. The other wizard sniffed his amusement as he pooled some of the oil in his palm.

"Why don't you tell me how you really feel, Harry?"

"Okay, you're a bigoted, pompous, arrogant ass!"

Lucius let the words pass without visible reaction. Instead he reached down to stroke the oil onto Harry's erection. Kneeling astride the younger man, he looked down thoughtfully at his lover's face and hummed as he guided Potter to him. "That was a rhetorical question, you know?"

The auror felt a tingle of bliss shimmer through him as he slid into Lucius' tight passage. He was unable to respond with anything coherent but a moan snuck out through his parted lips.

"Mmm hmm, that's what I thought."

Lucius sounded far too smug but Harry was definitely not in a position to do much about it. His hands went to the elder wizard's hips as Lucius started up a slow and steady rhythm. The pleasure was sweet and tantalizing, blossoming slowly as the elder man kept to his pace. Occasionally he'd reach down and fiddle with one of the auror's nipples and Harry would gasp as the pleasure spiked. After several minutes of such torture, Harry decided to reach down to grip Lucius' bobbing erection.

It was the older wizard's turn to groan as he thrust more enthusiastically against Potter's hand. Tiny droplets of sweat stood out against Lucius' skin and as the level of their exertion grew, Harry watched little rivulets slide down over the man's tensing muscles. Lucius' nostrils flared as his breathing deepened and his partner knew that he was getting closer to his climax.

The younger man's gaze flicked down Malfoy's body to his cock, ruddy and solid with need. Bringing his thumb up under the head, Harry deliberately teased the over-sensitized flesh, smirking as a shiver passed down the other wizard's spine. Lucius gasped a curse, sat down hard on the younger man a few more times and at last spent himself with a loud growl.

Lucius slumped a little, struggling to catch his breath and Harry tightened his grip on his lover's hips. He shoved up quickly, seeking his own release. At last he found it and closed his eyes as the relief shuddered through him. He stayed that way until he felt Lucius lift off of him and then groaned, peering up through his eyelashes.

"Much better than prison sex, don't you think?"

"Why do you always have to get the last word?" Harry grumped.

"Because I'm a Malfoy."

"That's your answer for everything."
"I find it suffices."

"I'm going to stop letting you get away with that some day." Lucius' only response as he settled at his lover's side was a grin, so Harry continued. "And I haven't had occasion to experience prison sex. Have you?"

"I'll admit that it's hard to find a partner in Azkaban. One is more concerned with not being kissed."

The auror snorted and turned on his side so that he could settle against the other man's body. "You seem to have managed that rather admirably."

"Thank the gods!"

"Yeah because my love life would be a lot simpler if you hadn't."

"And a lot more boring."

"Not boring, just different. Normal even."

"I said more boring and how did we get on the subject of you? We were talking about me."

"Egomaniac," Harry couldn't hold back a yawn.

"You're very fond of insulting me tonight." Lucius smiled. "Why don't we call it an evening and start again in the morning?"

Closing his eyes once more, Harry burrowed close to the other man's chest. He felt warm and contented and suddenly it was hard to stay awake. "All right," he murmured, "I'll insult you more in the morning."

There was a chuckle close by his forehead and then a soft kiss. "It's a deal. Good night, Harry."

"Mmm hmm."

There was another soft laugh and Harry dropped happily into oblivion.