Passengers waiting for their trains instinctively scattered before two silver-haired figures striding across King's Cross Platform. Muggle-Repelling Charms and a layer of Notice-Me-Not sufficed to disguise the fact that they were both wearing flowing black robes and carrying long, slim sticks of wood.
"How are friendships formed?" Abraxas Malfoy was saying, as he followed the wooden trunk scurrying ahead of them on ornately carved legs.
"Acquaintances are formed through familiarity in a strange place, and close friendships are formed through conflicts overcome together," Lucius recited as they approached the barrier between platforms Nine and Ten.
"Very good," his father said approvingly. "What is the train?"
"A place to institute yourself as familiar, in order to become acquaintances at Hogwarts," Lucius said.
"What determines an alliance?"
"Fear, respect, or," Lucius paused in his answer to walk through the brick barrier and onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, "mutual benefit."
The platform was full of steam and people. Lucius followed his father's voice, unable to see more than a silhouette against the white fog.
"Which is the best to have?" Abraxas continued.
"Fear or respect. Mutual benefit is fleeting."
"Very good," Abraxas repeated. "Very good indeed. As we are now at the train, there is not much more I can teach you." He flicked his wand lazily, and Lucius' trunk hopped awkwardly up the steps of the train, and vanished through the compartments.
Lucius nodded obediently. "Yes, father."
"So I shall content myself with two pieces of advice. Do all you can to get into the graces of Horace Slughorn; he is renowned for handpicking students he thinks will go far, and he is often right. The very reputation of being one of his chosen will be a weapon for you. And second, never, never trust a Slytherin."
Lucius slid open a compartment door, and was pleased to see that there was one inhabitant, a slightly chubby boy reading a magazine.
"Hello," he said pleasantly.
The boy looked up. "Oh. Uh, hi."
"Mind if I sit here?"
"Sure," the boy said.
"I'm Lucius Malfoy," Lucius said. "What's your name?"
"Um, Frank," he managed. "Frank Longbottom."
"Oh, a pureblood," Lucius said, making sure to inject a good amount of approval into his voice, but not enough to scare off a mudblood lover. He was both pleasantly surprised to find another pureblood, and dismayed that one of his own blood status could be so idiotic. "What House do you think you'll go to?" he inquired.
"Er, I'd like to go to Gryffindor," Longbottom said, a little nervously, as if he was afraid his choice might be wrong. Well, it was wrong, but it would have no benefit to point that out. "What about you?"
"Oh," Lucius said casually, "most of my family has been in Slytherin; it's expected of me, really. Still, Ravenclaw sounds worthwhile, too." He was careful to couch it in bland, passive terms, and express an interest in the only other House that wouldn't leave him stalking of of Hogwarts in a huff.
"I've heard you don't want to go to Slytherin," Longbottom said tentatively.
"I'm sure it's just superstition," Lucius said with an air of reassurance. "Just like they say Hufflepuff are a lot of duffers." Privately, he thought that Hufflepuffs really were a lot of duffers, but he needn't say that out loud.
"Oh," Longbottom said.
Lucius took out his platinum pocketwatch, and set it to alert him when four and a half minutes had passed, which he judged to be a decent interval. He read four and a half minutes worth of Epistulae ad Atticum, and then a trilling, quite like a lark, sounded in his head. Instinctively, he looked up to check if Longbottom had heard it, despite the fact that he knew only he could hear the alarm.
"It was nice to meet you," he said, standing to leave.
"Where are you going?" Longbottom said, and Lucius was pleased that he sounded as if he would have liked Lucius to stay.
"My cousin's starting at Hogwarts, too," he explained, which was mostly true, except that the Blacks were slightly more distant than cousin. They might've been second cousins. "I promised I'd see her on the train sometime." That was a lie.
"Oh," Longbottom said.
"See you at Hogwarts," Lucius said, and slipped out. On reflection, he decided that he could probably have injected an even greater note of familiarity in his goodbye - the boy was clearly alone and friendless, and he would have welcomed it. On the other hand, the cousin excuse was excellent, and he repeated it many times over the train ride.
Despite telling everyone he made himself familiar to that he had promised to meet his cousin, the first time he saw Black was in the Great Hall, waiting to be Sorted.
"Narcissa," he said, nodding to her.
"Lucius," she said. "How is your family?"
"Quite well, thank you," he said, "yours?"
"In excellent health," she said.
"The various Houses all seem to have their good points," Lucius said.
She blinked momentarily, and then registered the unspoken question. "Indeed they do. But as for myself, none compare to Slytherin."
He almost smiled - she was smart, this one. An excellent person to make a closer friend.
"Your sisters are in Slytherin, of course?" he said.
Narcissa nodded. "Andi took a little longer than mother expected - Bellatrix wrote last year saying it took almost two minutes for the Sorting Hat to choose. But Bellatrix herself took hardly ten seconds."
They both knew this, of course - Bellatrix and Andromeda were only a few years older then him - but it was an easy avenue to establish himself as familiar. He wondered idly if a girl this smart was using the conversation as her own route to make herself familiar to him.
At that point, Professor McGonagall took them into the Great Hall, and lined them up to be Sorted.
"Abbott, Leannah," she read off her scroll.
Abbott, a thin, peaky-looking girl, headed nervously to the stood that the Sorting Hat perched on, and placed it on her head.
The hat deliberated a moment, and then cried, "Ravenclaw!"
"Avery, Murgatroyd," McGonagall said.
"Slytherin!" the hat pronounced.
"Black, Narcissa."
Narcissa ascended smoothly to the stood, and delicately set the Sorting Hat on her head.
There were about thirty seconds of silence, and then the hat cried, "Slytherin!"
After Narcissa, Lucius tuned out except to register any new Slytherins. He drifted so much that he barely caught the tail end of, "-foy, Lucius."
He took a moment to collect himself, as a Malfoy must always be poised, and then walked over to the hat and put it on, hoping he looked as graceful as Narcissa had. But not quite as feminine.
"Hm," the hat said. "A Slytherin through and through, eh?"
Yes, Malfoy thought.
"Not much left for me to do then," it said, and Lucius felt it sort of gather itself to cry "Slytherin!"
He dared to interrupt it to think, You could declare me a super-amazing Slytherin who rules the entirety of Hogwarts.
There was a moment of utter thought-silence.
Then Lucius got a rather disturbing wordless impression of a hat doubled over, snorting with laughter.
The Sorting Hat collected itself enough to tell him, "You don't need me to do that for you. You'll do just fine on your own."
Before Lucius could process this and demand more information from the hat, it yelled "Slytherin!" to the entire school, and he was forced to take it off and go to the Slytherin table.
At the table, he noticed that all the first years sat at the end of the table, which was arranged roughly by seniority. There were exceptions, however, like a first-year named Rabastan Lestrange, who sat very near the head of the table, and Narcissa Black, who sat with her sisters.
He approached Narcissa, who had an empty seat next to her, and said carefully, "Would your sisters mind if I sat here?" He supposed that Narcissa was there by Bellatrix's invitation, which meant that he was really asking Bellatrix's permission, but Narcissa was the one he knew best, and it would appear impertinent to speak directly to Bellatrix.
Bellatrix, who was a fifth year, looked at him rather scornfully, but she said, "All right, then." Andi, who was only a third year, said hello in a friendly voice, and smiled at Lucius. She had always been the most easygoing of his cousins.
" - First Years," Bellatrix was saying in an undertone to Andi, who flushed slightly.
"Bellatrix," she said reprovingly. "Cissy and Lucius are - "
In a heartbeat, she turned on Andi, eyes flashing. "They're babyish idiots who have no idea what they're doing," she snarled. "And so is anyone who hasn't got the eyes to see what first years really are."
Andi was silent during the rant, her lips pressed tightly together. "Sorry, Bellatrix," she said quietly during a pause for air. "You're right."
She shot an apologetic glance at Lucius and Narcissa, who had sat, frozen, in their seats, but clearly, calming Bellatrix down was more important than mild slights to their feelings.
Bellatrix was left without much to go on, the wind abruptly swept from her sails. She threatened for a few more minutes about third years who didn't know their place, but then lapsed into a heavy silence.
Finally, after the last of the pudding had been cleared away, Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange stood, and ordered the first-years to follow them back to the dungeon dormitories.