Author's Note: Much thanks to my team for being so patient with me as I wrote this, especially Jordi for editing this. :)
Written for…
Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. Team/Position: Montrose Magpies, Chaser 1. Task: Write about Raybe's favorite character (Lucius) Prompts: beginning, memory, "Wealth is the ability to fully experience life." – Henry David Thoreau
Operation Crunch Banana Soup. Prompt: Lucius is cursed to tell the truth for 24 hours.
Double Cross
Narcissa was worried about her husband. It was after midnight and he'd only just gotten home from who knows where. His mysterious outings combined with his short temper over the past few weeks were Narcissa's justification for betraying her husband by placing the spell on him. In truth these were only part of the problem.
She knew, long before the war ended, that something would need to change. She had gone so far as to hope Lucius would be sent to prison to save her the trouble of dealing with him, but he'd somehow managed to escape punishment yet again. She'd foolishly believed he may even apologize to her and Draco for all he put them through – it would certainly make up for a lot – but Lucius continued as usual, without any care for his family.
As she sat up in bed next to him, worrying, she remembered the spell. She had found it hidden at the back of the dustiest volume in the Malfoy library. At the time, Narcissa thought it was a godsend: the possibility of making someone tell the truth for twenty-four hours. Maybe it would make the screaming in the cellars die down long enough for her to get a full night's rest.
She gave the spell to Bellatrix, but she should've known better than to think her sister would accept any method other than torture.
The book wound up collecting even more dust at the bottom of Narcissa's nightstand drawer. She stumbled across it again months later when she was allowed to pack a single bag before the manor and everything in it was repossessed by the Ministry as evidence, and now she had a new purpose for the spell. She waited until Lucius was asleep to cast it on him.
This was the final test, she decided. If he failed, she'd see to it that he never interfered in their lives again.
:-:
Lucius woke long after Draco and Narcissa had left their tiny rented flat in search of employment, as had become his routine in the last few days. In fact, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him for another hour, until he was seated at the Leaky Cauldron with every pair of eyes in the room watching him.
It was aggravating to say the least, but he didn't have much of a choice in where to eat these days. Most of his regular establishments had been temporarily closed down, and without a house-elf around a kitchen became useless to him. There was the added bonus of that the Cauldron's cook made the best breakfasts Lucius had ever tasted, not that he ever planned to admit this.
"How was your meal today, Mr. Malfoy?" his usual waitress asked when she came to clear his dishes. Like every other morning she was so overly sweet and bouncy that Lucius thought he might be sick.
"Delectable as always," he answered without thinking. He wasn't sure where that had come from, but chalked it up to sleep deprivation as he slid a few coins onto the table.
"I'll tell the cook you said so." The waitress flashed him a big, toothy smile as she picked up the money and left him.
Lucius shook his head at her cheery attitude as he left the Cauldron through the front door, ready for work.
:-:
Say what you will about Lucius Malfoy, but he was no idiot.
Perhaps in previous years he had been a tad naïve in thinking he'd never be caught with a house full of dark magic items, but he had learned a lot since then. Enough to acquire a hiding place for his most valuable and powerful artifacts: the things he couldn't risk Narcissa or Draco stumbling upon in the manor or vaults.
The one-room Muggle flat he had rented years ago had once been heavily warded and stuffed full. Now the wards were fading from neglect and only protected a cabinet and the handful of trinkets.
Lucius sighed as he looked over his last remaining treasures, selecting a bronze statuette from the shelf and running his hands over its smooth surface, feeling the magic surging beneath. It had belonged to his father; something of a trophy, he was told, though he'd never cared very much for it himself. All the ugly thing ever did – much like all the other items that had inhabited the flat – was bring up bad memories that were best left buried with the rest of his past.
He stuffed the statuette beneath his overcoat and locked the safe house up tight before calling on the Day Bus to take him to Aylesbury.
:-:
Lucius almost enjoyed having to refrain from his traditional forms of conducting business. The bus ride may have been a bit jarring compared to apparition, but it suited his needs well, being untraceable by the Ministry. And it was a relief to not be limited to dealing at Borgin and Burkes any longer. Convenient as the location may have been, Borgin never paid well for Lucius' hard-earned wares.
He departed the bus three streets from his destination and walked the rest of the way just to be sure he wasn't followed. He clutched a formal invitation in his hand, which led him to an old brick house: the newest headquarters of Egil Niequist.
Egil was a notoriously paranoid man who moved shop every three months and changed secret keepers as he went, though his eccentricities were widely accepted by the community, lest he decide to uproot his business and move out of the country … again.
Lucius tried not to let his impatience show as he spent several minutes on Egil's doorstep, trying to negotiate his way inside.
"You invited me," Lucius told him through a slit in the door. He could just make out two bright blue eyes looking him up and down suspiciously.
"I invited you months ago," the man replied in broken English. "You have not come since. Now I hear you have been arrested."
"Obviously I'm out, or else I wouldn't be here."
"Harry Potter did not see that you were let go?"
"No," Lucius growled. While it was true Potter had seen to Narcissa's and Draco's release, he'd done nothing to help Lucius. "Now let me in, Egil, or I'm taking my business to Wynstrom."
He could hear Egil mumbling to himself in Swedish on the other side of the door as the wards were slowly lessened.
"Come in quickly." The door only opened a crack, but Lucius managed to push his way through before it was slammed shut and the wards returned. Even afterward, Egil fidgeted nervously as he led Lucius through the hall into the parlor.
"What have you brought me?" he asked in a hushed tone.
Lucius pulled out the statuette and handed it over.
"This is very nice." Lucius watched closely as his associate turned the statuette over in his hands, examining every inch of it before placing it on a table and running his wand down its length. "I can give you fifty galleons for it."
"It's a family heirloom; it deserves more."
Egil clicked his tongue. "I can't give you any more than sixty-five. This year has not been kind to me. My clientele has dwindled greatly."
Lucius frowned. He recalled his father saying the thing had only cost a few sickles originally, but it still would've been nice to get more.
"Fine," he agreed, allowing Egil to whisk the statuette off to another room and return a moment later with a small satchel of coins.
"As always, I appreciate your business. You will receive another invitation soon," Egil assured him, smiling for the first time that day.
Lucius nodded, hoping it wouldn't be necessary to sell off another artifact too quickly.
He pocketed the satchel and turned to leave, only to find the exit blocked by another man.
"Lucius, what a pleasure to see a familiar face," Rabastan said smoothly.
"I wish I could say the same, 'Bastan." It had come out wrong, but it could be covered up…
"You're not happy to see your old friend?"
'Naturally. I was only surprised. I thought you were dead.' The lies came to mind easily, but he couldn't force them out.
"We were never friends," he said instead. Truthful, but a dangerous thing to say to a Lestrange – particularly the youngest of the clan, who had always been the fly off the handle sort. Rodolphus had been much more level-headed.
Rabastan squinted at Lucius. "I suppose things have been tough since the Dark Lord fell. Nothing's the same, is it?"
"No, certainly not." Lucius breathed a sigh of relief. His mouth seemed to be working again.
"Still, selling off your collection? Seems a rather hasty decision to make. It could come in handy very soon."
"I need the money." 'What the hell are you telling him that for?'
"Money isn't everything, Lucius." Rabastan took a few steps forward. The blonde could see the outline of a wand in the man's front pocket. "It's better, in the end, to have nothing to lose. I suggest you think about that."
He was reaching into his pocket and Lucius felt his chest tighten, but Rabastan pulled out a ball of crumpled parchment and pushed it into the blonde's hand. He left the room before Lucius could say anything, and he took that as his cue to leave.
He didn't straighten the paper until he was safely on the Bus heading home. There was an address and a time and date, three nights from then.
He stuffed the note deep into his pocket, trying not to think of what it could mean. He'd barely survived the last war.
:-:
Narcissa was waiting for him when he came through the door, and she seemed surprised to see him. He supposed that was fair, given how late his business had been keeping him out until recently.
"Narcissa," he greeted coldly, heading for the whiskey.
"Where have you been?" she asked and he flinched.
A million excuses came to mind in the second it took for him to turn around and face her. He settled for the most realistic. More questioning at the Ministry; another hearing being scheduled…
"I had breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron and then I went to see Egil Niequist." He swallowed hard, waiting for her reaction. If this nonsense continued he was going to have to see a healer very soon.
"You did what?" she shrieked. He had expected that. "What for?"
"I sold off that hideous bronze statuette my father gave me." He pulled the satchel out and dropped it on the coffee table. "I got sixty-five galleons for it."
Narcissa breathed in sharply, staring at the little pouch. "Is that where you've been going every night? To pawn things to criminals? I never cared about the money, Lucius! Wealth is the ability to fully experience life, not being able to afford living in a manor somewhere!"
"It wasn't always about the money," he admitted, trying so hard to shut his mouth but unable to.
"Where had you been other times?"
"Meeting with Potter, mostly. Bloody hell; what's wrong with me?!"
"We'll get to that in a moment." He could've sworn he saw her smirk… "Why are you meeting with Harry? Is it about your parole? Oh Merlin, Lucius, tell me you're not going to prison for dealing with Niequist."
"I'm not, I swear." He hesitated in saying anything more. The moment he opened his mouth it would all come spilling out, and he couldn't have her know the truth.
"Lucius, tell me the truth."
"I agreed to be an informant for the Aurors. It was the only way they'd let me go. I just need to hand over any of the Dark Lord's supporters I run into and I'll be cleared of all charges. I've been selling what I had left from the safe house to see if I could find anyone, and to make us some money. Potter promised a stipend but it won't come in until they make an arrest."
Narcissa didn't say anything. She stood halfway across the room with an unreadable expression, and Lucius assumed she was angry with him.
"I did it for us," he said quietly. "I didn't want to leave you or Draco – and yes, I was selfish too. I can't go back to Azkaban. But I swear, Narcissa, I was trying to fix things. I made so many mistakes and I almost lost the two of you, and I just wanted this to be our new beginning. Please, just say something."
"I … I put a truth spell on you last night."
"I beg your pardon?"
She squirmed under his piercing gaze. "I found a spell in an old book … it lasts for twenty-four hours, and the person can't tell a lie for that whole time."
Everything started clicking into place, from his uncalled-for comment during breakfast to his close call with Rabastan, and certainly the last ten minutes since he got home.
"Why? Why would you do this to me?"
She blushed, looking down at the carpet to avoid his eyes. "I thought you were cheating on me. You were gone almost every night and you wouldn't say where you were going. I didn't think you cared about us anymore. It didn't seem like anything that happened bothered you so I … I just wanted to know for sure. I'm so sorry, Lucius."
He crossed the room in three strides, pulling her into his arms. She hung onto him tightly, savoring the feeling of being held again.
"Narcissa, love, nothing in this world matters to me more than you and Draco. You have to know I'm telling the truth now, don't you?"
She giggled, reaching up to kiss him. "No more secrets?"
"Never."