Lucius sat on the bench, enjoying the September sunshine, reflecting on his life to date.
He had been informed, at the age of 16, that his parents were arranging a match for him with one of the Black sisters. If he must marry, he hoped that it would be Narcissa, not the crazy Bellatrix or Andromeda who, by all accounts, held Certain Views about muggles.
He thanked his lucky stars that his wife was indeed to be Narcissa. He didn't know all that much about her, other than that she was a pretty girl in Slytherin house and a year younger than him. She was delighted, since her arrival at school, she had been enamoured of the tall blond wizard in the year above her. His arrogance was bolstered by the very fact of having a pure blooded and very beautiful young wife. Although to many outsiders, he appeared cold and inattentive to the young Mrs Malfoy, the reality was quite different and privately the young couple simply adored each other.
Their early married life was not without trial, they quietly grieved the loss of all but one of their children. Their firstborn child did not survive to term, the second lived only a few hours. The team of healers fought to save Narcissa's life at the birth of their daughter but could not, despite all their skill, save the baby. Lucius began to despair and question whether a curse of some kind had been placed upon him, that he should be deprived of heir and very nearly wife also.
When finally Draco was born, and in good health, they lavished all their pent-up love and care on him. Unfortunately, the boy grew up spoiled by his mother and in fear of his father who lived with the perpetual worry that his son might be taken from him at any time.
He was admitted to Hogwarts, rather than Durmstrang which was Lucius' first choice for the boy, and thrived at the school. Draco's time there was not uneventful, Lucius himself was infuriated that his son, who seemed rather to spurn his natural intelligence, preferred to play quidditch and torment some of the less desirable elements among the students.
There had been a serious humiliation at being removed from the post of school governor and he could do nothing to reprimand the teacher who saw fit to transfigure young Draco into a ferret in his fourth year.
With the return of Voldemort, there had been no question of which side to choose. The excuse for his allegiance during the first wizarding war had been the Imperius curse and Lucius was under no illusions that the same excuse would work this time. While Narcissa did not, perhaps, share the more extreme of her husband's views, she loved and supported him nonetheless.
They had hoped in some way to protect Draco by initiating him into the death eaters but when he was charged with the task of killing Dumbledore, Lucius realised with deep dismay that he was in disgrace and that his family was being punished for his personal failings.
-o-
Chaos reigned at Hogwarts, in the Forbidden Forest, Narcissa and Lucius were endeavouring to stifle their acute anxiety. Somewhere in the castle was their son, alive, dead or injured, they had no way of knowing. Unwittingly, the Dark Lord threw them a life line when ordering Narcissa to check the boy for signs of life.
Once the battle had moved to the building itself, the pair abandoned their allies and Voldemort's twisted cause, seeking frantically for Draco. They searched everywhere and finally found him at the top of a wide staircase, facing three bloodthirsty death eaters and protecting a terrified group of young students who had not been evacuated in time. Exhausted and bleeding from cuts to his arms and face, he roared with anger and shot more and more non-verbal spells at his opponents, critically injuring two of them with sectumsempra and launching the third into the air where he collided with falling masonry. A Ravenclaw prefect ran to join him while a sixth year Hufflepuff escorted the children to safety.
Draco was leaning against the chipped balustrade of the stairs, catching his breath and rubbing his side to try to rid himself of the stitch, when he saw his parents. A look was all it took for an understanding to pass between them, an understanding that, in spite of the pure blood ideology they had pushed at Draco during his youth, he had grown up to reject wholeheartedly the beliefs held by his father and his allies.
-o-
In the aftermath of the second wizarding war, Lucius was tried before the Wizengamot. No charges had been brought against his wife or son.
He looked up at the jurors at his trial, they were a mixture of muggleborns, half-blood and pure-blood wizards, one of whom was Arthur Weasley. At the sight of the red headed man looking sternly down at him, Lucius' heart quailed and he began to prepare himself for a length jail term at Azkaban. However, he underestimated Arthur who was his most vocal defender in the jury room and Lucius' acquittal was due largely to the strength of Arthur's arguments.
-o-
Draco had made it very clear that he would choose his own wife, defying the centuries' old tradition of arranged marriages in the Malfoy line. Against their will, they agreed and with their blessing, Draco married Astoria Greengrass.
So unlike his father had he become, that Draco freely permitted his wife to continue her work as an Unspeakable. Lucius had only once spoken to his son on the subject and was informed that Astoria's work at the Department of Mysteries was so important to her that, as her husband, he could not be other than proud and supportive, even if he had no idea what she actually did all day.
-o-
"Grampy!" A small voice and an insistent tug on his sleeve recalled him to the present. Four year old Aurora was perched on her grandfather's lap as they sat on a bench on Platform 9¾.
"Yes, princess?" he asked.
"More bubbles, Grampy!" she demanded.
"I think you've had enough bubbles for today, don't you?"
Aurora frowned, folder her arms and stuck out her bottom lip. While Lucius was able to withstand his grandsons and their tempers, the girl had learned at an early age that she could wind her Grampy around her little finger easier than blinking.
With an indulgent smile, Lucius made a myriad of bubbles fly from the end of his wand to the delight of his little granddaughter. She clapped her hands and the sound of her happy laughter rang out around the platform.
Narcissa looked over at them and rolled her eyes. She had taken their nine year old grandson, Titus, who was mad about trains, to see the shiny red steam locomotive and perhaps buy some cauldron cakes (if he behaved).
Further down the platform, Draco and Astoria were bidding a fond "see you soon" to Scorpius. His older brothers were already on the train, no doubt Octavius was arm-wrestling his best friend for the window seat and Aurelian had gone looking for his girlfriend.
Lucius certainly did not approve of young Catalina, partly because she was Charlie Weasley's eldest daughter, but as Narcissa kept reminding him, Aurelian was only 16 years old, the girl was descended from one of the oldest pure blood families in Romania and if the boy was even half as stubborn as his father and grandfather, there would be no changing his mind.
11 o'clock sounded and the train slowly pulled out of the station, Titus was holding his mother's hand and Aurora was sitting on Draco's shoulders, both waving vigorously at their brothers. Narcissa was sitting next to her husband in companionable silence, both of them watching their son and his family.
Privately, Lucius still fought with the demons of his past, but through living with the genuine regret which constantly assailed him and supported by the love of his family, the man found a kind of redemption.