Lucifer

    She forgot the question until they were both getting dressed again. But waiting was no good...they had exams starting Monday and neither of them would get together like this while exams were on. And she didn't want to ask in front of the House.

    "Lucius?"

    "Yes?"

    "I've got an invitation for you from my mum and dad to come visit sometime this summer."

    "Oh?"

    "Yeah, she said that it was high time they met you."

    "Indeed," he said. His voice was a little odd, but she supposed that was due to being muffled in his shirt as he put it on. "Unfortunately, my father has already informed me that we're traveling this year. I believe we're visiting a business colleague of his in Sicily."

    "It'll have to be another time, then. Perhaps they can come up for a weekend sometime and we can have a visit with them. It's kind of traditional in my family to take boyfriends home before they get around to proposing."

    Lucius was preoccupied during dinner, and Adrian asked him about it when they got back to the room they shared.

    "Oh, it's that damned bint," he said, irritably.

    "What's wrong?"

    "Wants to take me home to be shown off."

    "What's she think, that you're going to propose this spring?" Adrian said with a laugh.

    "Apparently," he said.

    "Well, my friend, you'll have to do something about that."

    "Yes," said Lucius. "I told her we were traveling for the holidays, but she's perfectly capable of presenting me with a fait accompli. And my parents would roast me slowly if I got a mudblood like her pregnant. "

    "Then you'd better have something available to hold over her head, " Adrian said with a shrug. "Make her be willing to go away quietly around about next May."

    Lucius turned and looked at Adrian, with a grin slowly spreading over his house. "You're bloody brilliant, Adrian, you know that?"

    The other boy grinned."You've said so. I must say, I'm looking forward to visiting over the break, you know...."

    "Oh really?" Lucius's tone implied that he knew the reason quite well.

    Adrian just grinned at him. "I didn't think you minded."

    "Not at all, no. Do you have dress robes? There's going to be a dinner party and reception the sixteenth, according to this note from my father."

    "Of course I do," Adrian said. "Who's coming?"

    "He doesn't say....probably everyone."

    "Hey, Lucius," said Evan Carlisle. He was a tall young man with piercing blue eyes, and dark wavy hair. He had it short for a wizard, barely touching his shoulders. They were at the Malfoy reception, both in black formal robes, and around them swirled the careful business of social manipulation and the greater game of politics and business.

    "Evan!" Lucius said warmly. Evan Carlisle had been something of a mentor to him in Slytherin house in his younger years. "What have you been doing with yourself lately?"

    "Oh, a little of this, a little of that. Managing the family investments, and I've got a little money invested in some Muggle import-export businesses."

    "You'll lose your profit in conversion to Galleons," said Lucius judiciously. There was a reason most wizards stayed well out of dealings with Muggles. The money wasn't worth it.

    "There's so much profit here that you don't notice the Goblins skimming," said Evan with a grin.

    Lucius's brows went up. There was only one way that could happen....

    "So whose laws are you breaking, Evan?"

    "Muggle laws, mostly, although I found a chemist who has been developing the most interesting potions."

    "Drugs," Lucius said. Evan rolled his eyes.

    "Don't go all Gryffindor on me. There's a demand. I just inserted myself into the supply chain so that I could skim the profits."

    "And you haven't gotten any Aurors snooping around?"

    "Loopholes, my dear boy, loopholes and holding companies." They both smiled.

    "So what about these potions? Were you hoping to get my mother's approval or mine?"Lucius asked, as they strolled away to the side of the room.

    "Yours, although a statement on the safety of these from Libitina Beauvais would go over well in certain circles. It's pretty interesting," Evan said, taking a vial out of an inner pocket. "Absorbed through the mucous membranes. You don't have to ingest it per se. Undetectable in alcohol, and rather potentiated by it. It makes you feel on top of the world, and it makes for truly amazing sex. You don't remember much of what you did while you were high, but considering what it mostly makes you want to do is find someone and screw...well, it's not like you're going to commit murder unknowingly. GOOD stuff."

    "Really," said Lucius consideringly, taking the vial and looking at the amber brown liquid that shifted, viscous, within. "What's the dosage?"

    "One drop, to start. Tolerance does develop, though, we found. More than four drops at a time and you've got some nasty but temporary side effects. "

    "Hmmm....any way I could get my hands on a bit? Just to try, you understand."

    "Of course. You have it in your hands. Just do me the favor of writing it down, like Potions class. Every anecdote is helpful to the chemist."

    "Of course," said Lucius, smiling. Evan was tapped on the shoulder by someone else, and Adrian strolled over to Lucius.

    "What's up with Carlisle?"

    "Oh, this and that. We were talking investing and such."

    "How very interesting... you know, there were some of us going to get up a game, if you're interested."

    "I am indeed," Lucius said. "Bridge?"

    "I'll partner you. You're impeccable in strategy and vicious in play."

    Lucius laughed. "And you surprise with the risks you take and manage to pull off. People play like they live, I've found."

    "Oh, quite. Shall we?"

    And they retired to the blue salon, and in the soothing round of card play, Lucius found the idea he'd had germinating into a lovely plan. A very lovely plan.