Lucius thanked Flora, Georgina, and Nicola for supporting Narcissa during his arrest and trial before promising them that he would do whatever it took to get their husbands out of Azkaban and back home with them as well.

Lucius and Narcissa were then surrounded by several Ministry officials, including Fudge, Giles, and Eva, whom personally wanted to tell Lucius how relieved they were that he was now free.

"I thank you all for your support and kind words, but this is not the end," Lucius spoke. "My wife has friends whose husbands are in Azkaban, even though there is no evidence that they ever willingly served You-Know-Who."

"Lucius, you've just become a free man," Eva responded. "You and Narcissa should be celebrating."

It was clear, though, that Eva was touched by Lucius's concern for the men whom were still imprisoned.

"We are looking at the files of everyone who were arrested on the charge of being a Death Eater," Giles said. "We will see to it that there are trials for them as quickly as possible and that all innocent people are released from Azkaban."

"Please, do this as quickly as possible," Narcissa spoke up. "My friends have not been able to sleep since their husbands were arrested. It's just so horrible to think about what those poor men are suffering in Azkaban. The short time that the dementors were in the courtroom today was horrible enough. Just imagine what it's like to be around those dementors all of the time."

Giles glanced over at Crouch, who was clearly trying to leave the courtroom as quickly as possible.

"Assure your friends that it won't be long before their husbands are back home," Giles then said to Narcissa. "After all the defeats that Crouch has suffered lately, I don't think he has much more fight left in him."

Narcissa smiled her appreciation for Giles's words before she and Lucius politely excused themselves. Lucius needed his rest, after all.

Cygnus and Druella quickly rose from their chairs to greet Lucius when he and Narcissa were escorted into Black Manor by a house-elf to pick up Draco.

"Oh, Lucius, what did they do to you?" Druella cried as she took in Lucius's unkempt appearance. "Cygnus, we must do something. This is unacceptable treatment of a proper Pureblood like Lucius."

Narcissa gritted her teeth.

"I thank you for your concern for me and for your zeal for justice, Mrs. Black," Lucius spoke, "but right now I would like nothing more than to put all this behind me. I will be just fine after a few days of rest and good food."

"We can have some food brought to you if you're hungry," Druella offered, acting completely like the proper hostess.

Narcissa gritted her teeth some more.

"Thank you for your generous offer, but I do not wish to trouble you or your husband further today," Lucius responded. "It is enough that you watched Draco for us. How was he?"

"Oh, he was a good boy," Druella assured Lucius. "He's taking a nap right now. I'll get a house-elf to bring him down here."

"No, if it's all right with you, I would like to go get him myself," Lucius returned.

"Of course," Druella smiled.

Narcissa continued to grit her teeth.

"Draco," Lucius spoke in a soft voice as soon as he opened the door to the Black family nursery.

Draco's eyes immediately popped open at the sound of his father's voice.

"Dada," Draco cried happily as he sat up in the crib and stretched out his arms towards his father.

Lucius wrapped his arms around his son and lifted him out of the crib.

"Dada," Draco repeated.

"It's good to see you as well, Draco," Lucius spoke.

He then turned to Cygnus and Druella. "Thank you again for watching Draco for us."

"It was no problem at all, Lucius," Druella smiled.

Cygnus echoed his wife's words.

Narcissa continued to grit her teeth, and her goodbye to her parents was quick and to the point, even though her eyes and her tone of voice were softer for her father than they were for her mother.

"You're angry at your mother about something," Lucius said in a matter-of-fact voice as he (still carrying Draco) and Narcissa began to walk away from Black Manor.

"I wanted to hex her so badly," Narcissa hissed. "When I came here after receiving the news of Bella's arrest to give support to her and my father, all she could talk about was how disgraceful her family was. Bella's a disgrace for getting caught supporting the Dark Lord, who apparently is no longer worthy of such support in my mother's eyes. She even mentioned Dromeda indirectly. Then, Mother told me that I was soon going to be another source of disgrace for her because of the fact that my husband was on his way to Azkaban. But now, she's acting as if she never spoke a bad word about you."

"That is the world we live in, Narcissa," Lucius said softly.

"I know," Narcissa sighed, "but she's my mother."

"I know exactly how you feel," Lucius muttered, thinking of his father.

After a brief moment of silence, Lucius said, "I'm sorry about your sister. I know that you had wanted a different outcome for her."

"You allowed me time to attempt to reason with Bella," Narcissa responded. "It's not your fault that she didn't listen to me. I'm just glad that I still have you and Draco."

Abraxas was there at the front door of Malfoy Manor to greet Lucius and Narcissa.

"So, you didn't disgrace the family name after all," Abraxas drawled at his son.

Abraxas's eyes then took in the hospital clothes that his son was still wearing, along with his unkempt hair.

Abraxas curled his lips in disgust but didn't comment.

"No, Father, I didn't," Lucius replied, struggling to keep his voice calm.

"But no thanks to you," Narcissa added, the anger in her voice clear.

Abraxas glared angrily at his daughter-in-law.

"If I had wanted your opinion, I would have asked for it," Abraxas hissed. "You would do well to remember that, woman."

"And you would do well to remember that I know how to get away with murder," Lucius warned.

Abraxas now glared angrily at his son.

Narcissa braced herself for yet another duel between the two Malfoys.

Home sweet home, she thought sarcastically.

To Narcissa's relief, however, Abraxas turned and left the room without another word.

"It's so good to be back home," Lucius drawled, the sarcasm in his voice clear.

Narcissa couldn't help it. She started to laugh.

It didn't take long for Lucius to start laughing as well.

Draco didn't know why his parents were laughing, but he decided that he didn't want to be left out, especially after Dada had been gone for so long.

Draco began to giggle, his happiness clear.

Lucius stayed at home for the rest of the day to keep up the appearance that he was exhausted.

"That isn't exactly a lie, Lucius," Narcissa said as she took another look at just how red her husband's eyes were. "You need to get some rest."

Lucius sighed, but he allowed his wife to lead him to their bedroom.

By the next morning, however, Lucius was already restless and ready to get out of bed.

"I spent enough time in bed at St. Mungo's," Lucius said as he worked on making himself look more presentable for public. "I'm ready to be on my feet again."

A free spirit indeed, Narcissa thought with a combination of annoyance and affection.

"Will you be going to the Ministry?" Narcissa asked.

"Yes," Lucius answered. "Flora, Georgina, and Nicola are intelligent women, but their husbands do not share their brains. They are going to need all the help that they can get."

"I want to be there at all of their trials," Narcissa spoke. "I need to support Flora, Georgina, and Nicola like they supported me."

Lucius nodded his head. He then gave Narcissa a quick kiss on her lips before he turned to leave.

It quickly became clear that Giles had been speaking the truth when he had said that Crouch did not have much fight left in him. It did not take long for trials to be held for most of the Purebloods that had been arrested and sent to Azkaban, which included Flora's, Georgina's, and Nicola's husbands.

Narcissa was there to sit beside her friends at each of their husband's trials. Lucius was there to speak on each of their husband's behalves.

Crouch glared angrily at Lucius each time the blond-haired wizard approached him, but his exhaustion always seemed to overcome his anger and he quickly gave up on questioning Lucius. Afterwards, it didn't take the jury long to vote that the prisoner should be released.

"Thank you, thank you," Flora, Georgina, and Nicola told Lucius and Narcissa.

"It was no problem at all," Lucius told them. "You helped us out when we needed it. We're just glad that everything turned out as well as it did."

Narcissa smiled as she embraced each of her friends, and they were quick to smile back at her.

Mr. Nott, Goyle, and Crabbe also gave Lucius and Narcissa their thanks for everything that they had done.

Lucius just nodded his head at them, and Narcissa gave them a slight smile.

"Let's go celebrate," Narcissa told Lucius as soon as they were once again alone in the hallway right outside the courtroom.

"How would you like to celebrate?" Lucius asked with a smirk.

"Do you really need an answer to that question?" Narcissa smirked back.

Author's Note: There's just one more chapter to go. As for this chapter, I'm sorry that parts of it were rushed, but I didn't want to risk having things starting to drag too much. As for the end of this chapter, I'll just say that the action quickly became M rated and leave it at that since I want to keep a T rating for this story, LOL.