Disclaimer: The world and most characters of this story belong to Jk. Rowling.
If the truth was told, Lucius Malfoy had been very alone for a long time, a year had passed since his wife had left him, it had been a strained relationship to say the least.
Narcissa blamed Lucius for endangering their son's life and for making their family social outcasts, maybe she was right and, while Lucius had cared about Narcissa deeply, he had never Loved her as one should Love their wife, he had assumed that with time the Love that he wanted to feel for her would happen, it never did.
He didn't know much of Narcissa's current situation, what he did know was that she was now living somewhere in London, he knew that she didn't have his smarts, no, Lucius Malfoy was very intelligent, he was working hard to regain his power.
Lucius had taken a small job for the ministry, he worked from his home filling out paperwork, a tedious job, but, it had got him some good contacts and from his paperwork he had a good idea of the misdeeds of the ministry, information he could use against them.
The ministry was in panic, they feared the dark arts more than ever now, what if some other witch or wizard decided to go bad and cause havoc as Voldermort had? Security was up, a new force of wizards patrolled the streets, their job was to keep the peace and identify threats, they were different from the Aurors, more brutal, more violent, they were licensed to attack at the slightest sign of suspicious behaviour.
Naturally, some witches and wizards objected to this, they believed it unfair and a breach unto their privacy, those stupid enough to act on their displeasure openly were taken straight to Azkaban, those who acted anonymously were labelled a threat and hunted down. Every few weeks Lucius received a pile of paperwork pertaining to those that had been found guilty, most of it was dedicated to the covering up of the monstrosities committed against them.
Lucius had sent off his last bit of paperwork for the day, he was relaxing in his study with a glass of wine, the same type that he had drunk at the christamas eve of 1997.
It had been a cold night, very cold, yet he had decided to go to the masquerade ball anyway, he remembered arriving and walking around the hall, he knew people there, but couldn't tell who they were beneath the masks, he knew that Snape had sent his NEWT level students too, amongst the costumes and masks however, there was no way of knowing who anyone really was.
He had picked up a glass of wine and made his rounds talking to other attendees, as it was the polite thing to do, he had passed the balcony once already, he didn't expect anyone to be out there in this cold, he was wrong, and, she was alone.
In a black and burgundy ball gown, she stood, leaning on the balcony, looking at the moon, contented in her thoughts, when she heard footsteps, she turned around to look at the man approaching her.
"Good evening" He said politely
"Good evening" she replied and went back to looking at the moon in a dreamy sort of way.
"Are you not enjoying the ball?" He asked
"Oh, it's alright, but the moon is unusually bright tonight, I thought I'd come out to enjoy its beauty"
He chuckled, she was a rather unusual girl, she intrigued him, the more they talked, the more unusual she seemed to be, she seemed as if she were an unusual and rare diamond.
"Do you dance?" he asked eventually
"No, I don't know how" she replied honestly
" Then I shall teach you"
When the bell sounded at midnight people started to remove their masks, Lucius did not, he didn't want it to get back to Narcissa that he had danced with another woman.
The girl removed her filigree mask and revealed a pale face, her paleness accentuated her shockingly green eyes.
"Don't I get to see your face?" she asked her mystery man
"Not yet" he said, he kissed her hand "Stay safe"
She left moments later and returned to Hogwarts castle with the others.