When The Illusion Shatters

Marcus wondered which of them would be the first to break and come clean about their relationship with him.

Would it be Oliver, unable to act out a falsehood any longer?

Or would it be Katie, desperate to free herself from the farce she lived?

He’d met Katie by chance at Flourish and Blotts one day. He was there to sign copies of the autobiography a ghost writer had produced. Katie was there shopping for a birthday gift for one of her friends. He was the one who approached her.

Marcus had only wanted to taunt her, dropping cryptic hints about her boyfriend. But as they exchanged insults, he noticed the fire in her. Fighting with him got her blood heated, and one look into her eyes was enough to confirm that it heated her body as well.

He fucked her against the door in the store’s bathroom and she came so quickly that he realized just how pathetic a job Oliver was doing playing it straight. After she smoothed her dress down, she looked at the ground and asked him if he wanted to meet her somewhere sometime.

Only a fool would have refused the invitation, and despite what people said about him having the brains – as well as looks –of a troll, Marcus was no fool. He arranged to stop by Katie’s office two days later.

The thing with Oliver had started their last year at Hogwarts. They were in the middle of one of their frequent fights when Oliver suddenly mashed his lips and hips against him. Marcus had slammed him against the wall and kissed him roughly, cutting Oliver’s soft, full lips with his crooked teeth.

Over the years, Oliver had alternated between ignoring Marcus’s owls and showing up at two o’clock in the morning at his apartment. Marcus never turned him away.

When Oliver started seeing Katie, Marcus was a little concerned. He’d thought for sure that it was over, that Oliver would finally settle down like a proper wizard should. But Oliver kept coming to him, unable to get what he needed from Katie.

At first Marcus kept his affairs with both of them going for the amusement. It was so tempting to tell them. He fucked Katie in the bed she shared with Oliver while Oliver was at Quidditch practice, and later that day, he fucked Oliver in the Puddlemere United locker room. Imagining their expressions if he ever told them about each other provided him with hours of entertainment.

But after four months, Marcus found himself tiring of the arrangement. The thought of what would happen if they were honest was no longer amusing. Marcus wondered who they would choose. He knew that Oliver needed him more than Katie, but he also knew that Oliver might very well choose the illusion of normalcy over a socially unacceptable reality. As for Katie, he could give her more than Oliver, but he doubted she wanted it from him.

Marcus wondered which, if any, of them would choose him over continuing their false life. Sometimes he allowed himself to fantasize that they told each other about him and decided to share him. Slytherins were realists, however, so Marcus could not deceive himself into believing in that possibility. It was far more likely that they’d tearfully apologize to each other, abandon him, and suffer cheerfully for the rest of their lives.

He no longer wondered when they would break, he dreaded it. When the illusion shattered, he knew he would be the one left alone.