Lucius Malfoy stood beside a ten year old Harry Potter-Malfoy, both of them watching the memory of a one year old Harry Potter being carried into the Ministry of Magic by a lady in a white sundress that had bright yellow sunflowers on the fabric. She was walking quickly, like she wanted to get something over with and get back out, and she had something bundled up in her arms.
The Memory was the first glimpse that Lucius Malfoy had gotten of the boy and his caretaker. He had been in a meeting with Minister Crouch after his Death Eater trial. He knew that a lot of the Death Eaters had been angry that he had gotten free while they didn't, but he had needed to be in place for their Lord to make use of when he returned. It had been several months since Lord Voldemort had fallen.
At first, he hadn't been able to send anyone to look for Tom Riddle because he had been watched. Finally, when they grew complacent, he had sent several lower ranked Death Eaters - that somehow hadn't even registered on the Ministry radar, and therefore were never caught - on to several places that Lord Voldemort had been to before.
The lady in question walked right up to the desk, and was about to go past it when the Wand Checker called out to her. "Ma'am, I need to check your wand..."
He had called out to her politely but she turned and sneered at him then snarled with quiet vehemence, "I don't have one. I don't need one. I am not a freak."
She turned and flounced away from the man and everyone around him, leaving them gaping at her and realizing that she was a muggle. She made her way to the elevator and stepped on right before Lucius and Crouch had gotten on. She ended up standing beside a younger version of Amelia Bones - who had just been appointed Head Auror, and was working her way up into the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
The doors closed and Amelia looked at the lady and asked her what floor she needed.
Petunia Dursley pursed her lips, "I need the Minister for Magic's office." She said it grudgingly, and all three of the other occupants looked at her oddly.
Mr. Crouch cleared his throat, as the elevator started moving. "I am the Minister, Ma'am what exactly do you need?"
She looked to the other two people for confirmation, and when she got it, she thrust the bundle in her arms into the Minister's. "Take it! Take it! I will not have it in my home!"
The magic-user's looked down at the bundle and saw that it was a baby, a baby that had been quiet the whole time - a baby with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
Amelia gasped, Lucius looked faintly surprised, and Crouch was completely flummoxed. Amelia started, "He's Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived-"
"I know exactly what that freak is! I will not have him in my house, contaminating everything! Using magic," she hissed out the word in disgust. "To float things around the house! It isn't normal, I tell you! I won't have him near my son!"
"Dear lady, it's almost Yule time..." Crouch said, but before he could get any farther, Petunia started again.
"I don't care what time it's almost... What I care about is not having the freaky spawn of my freak of a sister and that no good, freaky husband of hers! ... I never want to see that thing, ever again!" Petunia Dursley was on a roll. She was angry enough that her face was flushed and she was gasping for air in-between sentences. "It's bad enough that that Dumbledore person left it on our doorstep with just a note, saying that it was my nephew and to keep him safe as my sister was dead. He didn't even ask if we wanted to keep it. We were willing to give it a chance to be normal, but no more..."
They tried to reason with her, but when they got to the Minister's floor, she pushed them off of the elevator as quickly as possible and pressed the button for the Atrium. She pressed the button to close the doors, and kept pressing it, until the doors closed - blocking her off from sight.
Lucius, who had been quiet the entire time, looked into the emerald green eyes of the one and one-half years old baby boy. The boy was looking at him as if studying him, then reached out his arms for Lucius Malfoy to take him. Crouch and Amelia looked on in amazement as the Lord of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy took the child into his arms. It was the most warmth they had ever seen him give in public.
Crouch groaned. "What am I going to do with him? His muggle relatives don't want him," He ignored the snort from Amelia, "but his Godfather is in prison for killing Peter Pettigrew and some muggles..."
Amelia spoke up, "I can take him, I have a niece he can play with."
Lucius held up his hand, then tried to pass Harry into Amelia's arms. Harry wouldn't go and started to scream, attracting attention from the secretarial staff to the fact that there was a baby in the small group who had gotten off of the elevator.
Harry only stopped screaming when Lucius quit trying to give him away. Lucius sighed, and was glad that none of the staff could see his face or hear them from where they were sitting. "I will take him, Narcissa and I have a son only a few months older than Harry. He will have another boy to play with, they might have more in common." He paused as if debating something with himself before asking, "May we endeavor to go into your office for a more private arena for this discussion?"
"Yes, yes." The man ushered them into his office and Lucius backed away from them slightly as he pulled out a mirror. He placed a silencing bubble around him before speaking into the mirror. Narcissa Malfoy appeared in the mirror and they spoke long enough for Crouch to get tea and sandwiches for the three of them and some soft food for the teething Harry.
Lucius came out of the silencing bubble as he put away the mirror. "Narcissa will be here with Draco, momentarily. We have discussed it, and decided to go ahead and adopt Harry into the family. He is just a child and does not need to be passed around. No one has been able to find him, now we know why. Dumbledore placed him with muggle relatives. We will seal off the Potter vaults until Harry starts school, then we will see what happens."
It was surprising, to say the least, that Amelia didn't object to Lucius Malfoy adopting him. When Narcissa came in, Amelia stuck her head out and called to one of the secretaries, "Emma, would you come in here for a moment?" It was then apparent that Amelia was willing to put Harry's happiness first, and if Harry wanted Malfoy, then she would help Malfoy. Since it was apparent that Dumbledore had stepped in and done something he shouldn't have... again.
Emmeline Vance stepped in, and Amelia looked around to count them. "Okay, now we have the two witnesses, the officiator - in this case, the Minister himself; the adoptee - that was abandoned here by his blood relative, even though she was muggle - and the adopters - the Main-branch of the Malfoy family. We can proceed."
V^V^V^V^V^V^V
When Harry and Lucius came out of the pensieve, Harry nodded. "I see why you want me to decide for myself. I'm glad that you've taught me all that you have taught me."
"You are welcome, Harry."
It was Harry Potter-Malfoy's tenth birthday, the day that Lucius Malfoy had promised to tell him the truth about how he was adopted. Harry knew that it wasn't all muggles that were bad, but Harry knew that a lot of them didn't understand magic and that it sometimes brought out the worst. Harry being adopted had ensured that the magical world held stricter laws about magical children being in the care of muggle relatives.
Muggleborns now got two sets of parents, their muggle parents and then a pair of magical parents to guide them into the Wizarding World, and the parents got a stripend from the Ministry to look after them properly if they didn't like magic - which was spelled to make sure they weren't abused.
Harry was happy, he knew all about the prophesy since he had been told by Severus Snape - after Snape saw and understood that he was nothing like his biological father. He knew that the Dark Lord wasn't really dead - the man had come by-way of snakes to check on everything, and it seemed that he had found his sanity while in whispy-ghost-soul form...
He knew that Dumbledore was manipulative; he meant well, but he had no right to meddle in other peoples lives like he had.
Lucius and Harry walked out of his study and into the main solarium where his party was being held.
Susan Bones, Pansy Parkinson, Padma and Parvati Patil, Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, Terry Boot, Hermione Granger, Cedric Diggory, and Fred and George Weasley. The last two - despite all odds - actually got along with Draco and Harry and had apologized for the fact that Bill and Charlie couldn't get off of work while their mum was staying home with a grounded Ron - who apparently was getting his mouth washed - a studying Percy, and a Ginny who was too shy to come over.
He could hardly wait until next year, he'd get to go to Hogwarts.
As he walked in, he heard them scream, "Happy Birthday, Harry!"
'I love my life' Harry grinned and laughed as he was bombarded with hugs and smiles all around him. 'I've made my decision.'