The question surprised him. Ford looked up at Tycho with an expression that implied he wasn't sure that he'd heard correctly. He knew that society at large disapproved of men being in relationships — Muggles had even made it illegal — but he also knew that it happened. Quite frequently, if his own experiences were any indication. Lestrange, Macnair, him... Tycho, too, he was fairly sure, or else he'd entirely misinterpreted when Broadmoor said he'd been spending the night. It was just something people did — particularly wealthy people who were killing time before they were old enough to get married and start families — and he had never anticipated that Tycho would be particularly conservative when it came to the issue. He wasn't conservative about anything else.

"That he was married," Ford said, as though it were obvious. "It — it matters. To me, anyway. I — I didn't think I'd ever be the sort of person who would do something like that." He shrugged and sagged into his chair a little farther. "I don't know. He said it was different and she didn't expect him to love her. But it still felt — wrong, whenever I let myself think about it."

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