Winning Lucius

Winning Lucius

This is a musical accompaniment. The music relates but not the videos to add a little more meaning to the story or just plain fun. Please let me know what you think. You may need to hit pause since it isn't timed to reading. My profile on youtube is bennyletendre.

Chapter 1: Guess Who's Coming to Azkaban [Red Rain by Peter Gabriel]

For the past several months, Hermione enjoyed many cherished moments with her lover. Over those months, when his eyes beheld her, they always reflected eternal love and on many occasions lust which warmed and excited her. When they beheld his office, they reflected ambition which inspired her. When they beheld his family and his close friends, they reflected love and loyalty which comforted her. When they beheld his enemies or enemies of his friends, they beheld hatred and cunning without mercy which frightened her. All of this made the man she loved and all of it she would not change, not even his darkness. However, when his eyes beheld any remembrance of his father, they reflected the one thing she could not bear: anguish.

She reflected on all this as she approached Draco's gubernatorial office. Now, he openly held both the Governorship of Hogwarts and Head of Archival Records. With a politically savvy maneuver, he honed up to his alias, Adam Ocrolfy, which he used to obtain the Archival position and enact changes. In an exclusive interview with the Daily Prophet, he announced that he wanted to prove to everyone and himself his qualifications to do the job without the influence of the family name. Nowadays, his fashion reflected his political style: a blend of regality with his cape bearing the Malfoy crest on its clasp and dragon's head on his cane: all worn to the office and most events; while his tattoos, which he proudly displayed when training with the Aurors or going to trendy events, reflected vitality and change. All of which seemed to be well received by the press.

Though both their lives and the relationship reflected happiness and success, she caught him looking forlornly at a photo of his father confirming the governorship: the one shadow that that fell on his happiness. "Puro," she said as Draco turned suddenly and smiled. She hopped in his lap and threw her arms around his neck, snogging him soundly. "I brought you this." She handed him an autographed first copy of her first book.

"Thank you," he beamed. "So I don't have to wait in line?"

"Not so long as I enjoy fringe benefits," she teased.

"I feel so used," he joked. He hugged her tightly. "Still up for your celebration party or do you have time for the little people anymore?"

"Stop teasing me," she laughed. "You know I'll never be like that."

Soon after a reminder note jumped up, startling them. "You have a gubernatorial meeting in ten minutes."

She glanced to another picture of his father. "I know he treated you horribly but have you ever thought about just visiting him? I mean maybe he wants to talk to you."

He pulled back from her. "For all my life I tried to be close to him." His entire body stiffened. "I won't waste another moment on the matter." As he stood up, he gently lowered her to her feet. "I have a meeting to attend." He barely brushed his lips against hers. "I'll see you tonight." A small jet stream of cool air followed in his wake as he bolted out of his office.

Several lonely, dull months dragged by as Lucius rotted in prison. Honing certain magical abilities, reading, exercise and sulking only entertained so much. In a fit of bitterness, several months prior, he verbally disowned his son for standing up to him and making his own choices. Every day he regretted that moment. That only added to his list of mistakes as far as his wife was concerned. Desperately, he longed for Narcissa. She spent several months in Spain; with whom, he jealously wondered. She returned just prior to last Christmas, spending it with their son and Hermione's family. He had no idea how to approach her or if she even cared about him anymore. If she didn't, he couldn't blame her. Ambition had blinded him to the things that he now realized important.

For most of his incarceration, Draco visited him once a month as the prison allowed. Since their last visit months ago, his son hadn't visited nor contacted him in any way. After that visit, words from an old enemy from long before continually haunted him. "Avert your eyes Lucius so you know these words will ring true because of who you are and that I'm not using my familial ability." Lucius dutifully looked away from Edwin's hypnotic eyes. "One day Narcissa and your future family, should she give you one, will realize the loathesome, selfish, cold-hearted wizard you are. When they do, they'll leave you. You'll end up alone." Completely alone, Lucius questioned his prior decisions.

In June, to his surprise, the prison announced a most unexpected visitor: Hermione Granger. Sheer loneliness made him accept her visit and listen to the reprimand that surely followed.

After a light tap on the door, Hermione entered his cell. "Good morning, Mr. Malfoy," she said. "How are you?" He refused to reply. "I understand," she said as she took a seat. "Your wife and son are doing well. Narcissa helps Draco with some of the gubernatorial duties since he is kept busy with his position in Archives." Time silently passed. "My book has been published and is a top seller." She placed a copy on his desk. Then she waited for a response.

"Since you refuse to speak to me, I'll get right to my point. Mr. Malfoy, I came here to thank you." Lucius turned in astonishment. "Thank you for making Draco the wizard he is today and treating him better than you were when you were growing up. That's why you kept your distance: out of fear of treating him harshly like you were." Her eyes revealed compassion. "Instead, you took it out on Dobby, didn't you?" Angrily, he crossed his arms and stared out the window. "Mr. Malfoy, I'm only guessing and I haven't, nor will I ever say anything to anyone about my suspicions, not even Draco. You can tell me if I'm wrong and I won't be offended."

After a painfully long silence, she continued. "You instilled in Draco many excellent qualities." Lucius sighed in disbelief. "Well, he gets his assertiveness, ambition, self reliance and political savvy from you." Then they sat in silence. "Draco and I love each other very much. To that end, I want us to, at least, not to be enemies."

"Not be enemies," he retorted. "You have a great influence on Draco. You have caused him to scoff all his family traditions."

"The only tradition he has scoffed is arranged marriages. He steadfastly upholds all the other traditions. It seems hatred of Muggle borns was more of an adopted belief." She glared at him. "As far as influence, I have some but he makes his own decisions and follows through. He is very stubborn. I know where he gets that." She stood up to leave.

"Tell me more about what's going on with my family," he asked, "please."

"Narcissa and Draco both miss you." She seated herself once more. "Narcissa returned from a spa in Spain last December. She looks so relaxed and beautiful. She has some admirers but she hasn't shown any interest in them."

"Has she mentioned," he hesitated, "divorce?"

"No," she answered, "at least not to me."

"And my son, has he asked about me, at all," Lucius inquired.

"I'm sorry but he hasn't. He doesn't like anyone to mention your name." She lowered her voice to almost a whisper. "He told me what happened with his last visit. You hurt him so much," she said misty eyed. We have all been through so much pain. It needs to stop." She looked slightly guilty. "He doesn't know that I am visiting you now.

Long silence passed before Lucius satisfied his curiosity. "So you came here to thank me knowing the reception you would get and how I feel about Mudbloods? There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

"If you truly treated Draco better than you were, that means you have some decency in you. There's always hope." Then the guard knocked, signaling their time. "Goodbye, Mr. Malfoy."

"Goodbye, Miss Granger. Visiting day is the 11^th of next month."

After she left, Lucius reflected his past and the cruelty he endured at the hands of his father. Oddly, his father instilled in him to never hurt a woman for they are far too weak. However, for his son, a good smack by his hand or shock of pain from his wand when Lucius misbehaved made him tough and obedient. When Lucius grew up, that pain would make him a strong and resourceful wizard. Indeed the cruelty did but he still remembered the pain.

One month after Draco's birth, alone, Lucius proudly stared into the crib at the blond, blue-eyed cherub before him. As his child gripped his finger tightly and smiled at him, Lucius returned the smile. "On our family's name, I vow that you will never suffer what I have endured." Over the next few years, his son would crawl then trot to him into his study right before his bedtime and tightly hug his leg. Unfamiliar with that sort of affection, Lucius would very lightly pat his back in return which seemed to satisfy his son.

One evening, when Narcissa volunteered at some function, he worked on some paperwork in the family room while Draco, now four, sat and played with his toys. Lucius scrounged for some leftovers in the kitchen, not wanting a full meal for dinner. Fifteen minutes later, he brought his son a ham sandwich but Draco wasn't there. He called for him, checking his study, adjacent rooms and then the bedrooms. With the fear of a possible kidnapping, he checked the Floos and the outside of the house but found nothing irregular. Systematically, he checked every room in the manor and then with great relief he found his son sitting in his lab.

From over his shoulder, he watched as Draco used some innocuous potion ingredients and finger painted on the lab floor. Rage, over him desecrating the floor of a room clearly forbidden to him, welled in Lucius as he slowly withdrew his wand behind the boy. Lucius' hand trembled in fury and restraint as his son obliviously continued to paint. Suddenly, that control snapped and the tip of his wand crackled. As he approached, Draco turned to him, green potion splattered all over him, with the same dazzling but now toothy smile from babyhood. Draco's blue eyes filled with glee as he exclaimed, "Father, look." He pointed at his representation of their family crest. "I'm a Malfoy." Clueless to the danger of Lucius' wand, Draco hugged his father's leg smearing green all over his pants and went back to painting. Abruptly Lucius retreated knowing he had become the monster that raised him. He kicked Dobby into the lab to handle the matter.

From that point forward, he kept his study and lab doors locked while distancing himself from Draco. At first when he did it, each night for two weeks, he would hear Draco trying to open his study door, "Father," he said followed by plaintiff whimper. Lucius' chest grew heavy each time he heard that whimper. Then after a couple of weeks, Draco no longer bothered and neither did he.

On the 11^th of the following month, Hermione visited again. After a stilted exchange of pleasantries, he asked her to give him news of the family and everyone. She obliged him. Draco and Harry put aside their differences months prior and teamed up for Quidditch matches. They practiced together and drastically improved their game. Both refused to speak of where or how they practiced but both smelled of ocean air. The Secret Society of Seekers, they called it. They creamed their competition in virtually every match.

Within the Ministry, Harry became an Auror and would collaborate with Draco at times because Draco had an uncanny ability to think exactly as a dark wizard would. Through his Archival position, Draco continued to change Ministry policy in several areas, impressing many. She started writing a textbook in order to improve the potions curriculum. Frequently, she toured various academies and bookstores. They both travelled together when their careers allowed. Narcissa joined several committees and took an active interest in the various schools, actively trying to improve and update curriculum. Narcissa and her parents had many get-togethers.

Hermione continued to visit each month, not telling anyone, updating him on the family news and discussing literature as well. She also wrote him weekly telling him of the minor details of the family's life which made him realize just how much he missed them. Those letters gave him hope when he felt himself slipping into despair. During her last visit, she told him, "Mr. Malfoy, your wife and son love you very much."

"I doubt that," he replied, "and they certainly don't like me."

"With good reason," she countered. "Mr. Malfoy, your comrades in the past have asked so much of you and then turned on you, treating you horribly and nearly killing your family. All along, your family only asked that you love them while standing by you. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to reconcile with them. Maybe it's time you made concessions, if you want them back?"

"Draco has made it abundantly clear that he doesn't want me to have anything to do with the family." She tilted her head. "Yes, I verbally disowned him but never enforced that matter legally." He removed the copies from his desk and gave them to her. "However, that very day I did that, he had already out maneuvered me. He had drawn the paperwork, legally removing me as head of the family due to my incarceration."

"It seems you taught him political savvy a little too well." She handed the paperwork back to him. "Please reconcile with them."

"Some things are pointless," he replied.

"Can it get any worse," she asked wryly. "If you apologize, I'm sure he would let you back in the family. In the meantime, you should write your wife since she's not as stubborn as your son is. She still loves you and will probably forgive you." She looked at him with sadness and resentment. "I know the only reason you speak to me is because you are lonely. If Draco lets you back into the family, for his sake, we should pretend to get along. Privately, we don't have to be even friends." The guard knocked on the door. "Goodbye Mr. Malfoy and congratulations on your release."

As the Head of the Malfoy Family his duty was to expand the power, influence and prosperity of the Malfoy name while upholding its unity by ensuring the welfare of its members and he didn't while his family did. With the role in government his son now held, the prominence of the Malfoy name increased. Moreover, if Draco were elected Minister of Magic, a Malfoy would be in the most powerful government role. In society and in the governorship, Narcissa expanded their social and scholastic influence. When he thought of Hermione, he knew that as a writer she could sway popular opinion, even though that popular opinion would be of common witches and wizards. When he thought about the duties as head of the family, he had forsaken them.

Every day of his prison sentence, Lucius reflected on the events that had occurred, at first blaming everyone but himself. Very gradually, that changed. Reflecting on his family, his beloved Narcissa stood by him, through all the devastating consequences of his support of Voldemort. Throughout their marriage, she ignored all his faults and his ambition. If she hadn't, she would have left him long ago. Then he reflected on how indifferently he treated his son: a son who admired him and only wanted his praise and love. Then he thought to his son's newfound acceptance of Mudbloods. Draco once pointed out why, if Mudbloods were so inferior, why did Lucius follow one? All in all, he had treated the people who loved him horribly while trying to impress a treacherous leader.

It took excommunication by his family which he deserved, betrayal and mistreatment by his compatriots while his enemy, a Mudblood, showed him compassion, and his entire incarceration for him to admit the one thing he had never admitted in his life: he was wrong.

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