Old Author's Note (Abridged): I got a request for Lucius to use a pensive instead of write his experiences; that's a good idea, but I intend to do something with Lucius' writings, so I must stick with that. Also, I don't think that Lucius is emotionally ready to share his experiences with Draco in detail yet, but once again, the writings come into play. Also, I should warn you that Lucius does some odd things in this chapter, like purchase a stereo. I see it as a sort of teenage rebellion thing twenty years too late (Lucius is quite emotionally stunted, after all). All flames regarding this will be ignored.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. You knew that.

My Angel is a Dragon, My Devil is a Snake

-Catspook

Chapter 10: Life and Lawsuits

Lucius, as always, kept his promise to Draco. Every night, after Draco was soundly asleep, Lucius sat in his office and wrote about Abraxas in a heavily charmed journal. At least, he tried to write about Abraxas. The first few nights, all he could do was grip the quill tightly, shaking like newborn puppy, awash in memories. He felt like he had been dropped in a den of dementors. And even when he managed write any of it down, the effort left him drained and shaken. He dared not even attempt to sleep until hours later.

Finally, a week after he had given Draco that promise, Lucius' thoughts of dementors produced another thought. Lucius had never been able to produce a patronus until after Draco was born. It was no surprise to Lucius that his patronus took the form of a dragon; only thoughts of Draco were ever joyous enough for Lucius to base the spell on. That night, after Lucius had finished writing about Abraxas ' reaction to Lucius' fourth year marks, he staggered to Draco's room.

Lucius was extremely careful not to wake him, but he could not help but skim his fingertips over Draco's corn silk hair. His son looked so beautiful, so innocent in sleep; Lucius knew that he did not deserve Draco. But deserving or not, Lucius had him in his life. Lucius returned to his own bed, feeling, for the first time in months, that he might sleep peacefully through the night.

O~O~O~O~O

Draco woke the next morning feeling a bit more rested than the day before. He was quickly recovering from the Weasel's 'prank', but he would soon have to decide what to do. Lucius had made it perfectly clear that it was Draco's decision whether he would go back to Hogwarts or not. Draco had to admit that he did not feel entirely safe there, and he really did prefer to be home, but... Somehow, Draco always seemed to came back to 'but'. Every argument he came up with had an equally convincing counter-argument. Draco did not know what to do.

Draco smiled at his father when he entered holding a tray laden with breakfast. "We could eat in the dining room, you know."

"You need to rest," Lucius replied as if he were making a holy pronouncement; 'you need to rest' had become his watchword ever since Draco came home. Draco wanted to tell his father that he did not have to baby him so much, but Draco rather liked being pampered.

"How did you sleep?" Draco asked carefully.

Lucius smiled, "Quite well. How did you sleep?"

"Fine."

They did not speak for a while; Draco because he was eating and Lucius because he did not seem to say much anymore unless Draco spoke first. After breakfast, Draco decided it was time to bring up the subject again. "Father? I don't know if I want to go back to school, and I don't know how to decide."

"Well," Lucius began a bit hesitantly, "You have three choices; you can stay home and be tutored, you can go back to Hogwarts, or you can go to a different school."

"I don't want to go to a new school."

"Your choice, then, is between home and Hogwarts."

"What do you think?"

"I think you need to make this decision for yourself." Seeing the put out look on Draco's face, Lucius seemed to feel the need to elaborate, "I don't mean to put a great burden on your shoulders, but I want you to make your decision based on what you want, not what you think I want. I want you to be happy; where would you be happier?"

Draco shook his head, "I don't know. My first thought is that I never feel as safe as I do at home, but I don't want to be stuck here for the rest of my life. I don't know what to do; I don't want to mess it up."

"You don't have to decide right now, and any decision you do make is not set in stone. You can always change your mind."

"It's not that easy. I could end up on a completely different schedule from the school one."

"True, but I'm sure Severus would help you with that."

"Yeah... do you think he'd like me to go back?"

Lucius seemed to consider this for a long time. "I think he probably would like you to return, but not if staying home was what you truly wanted."

"I don't know what I want."

Lucius wrapped one arm around Draco's shoulders and hugged him affectionately, "That's all right, but you should not try to decide what you want using what you think others want you to do. Neither Severus nor I have the right to decide how you live your life."

"I guess."

"Do you need anything else?"

Draco shook his head, "Not right now. Can I go outside a bit today?"

Lucius frowned slightly. "I don't know. It's quite cool out now, but it may become warmer this afternoon. You have to be careful..."

"...Not to catch cold. Yes, I know. But I'm bored," Draco pouted.

"Would you like to play chess?"

"No. I've had quite enough of chess for the time being, thank you."

"Hmm..." But Lucius did not have the chance to propose another activity, as Dibby popped into Draco's bedroom, holding a letter aloof like a trophy.

"Master Draco sir is having mail, sir. Wouldses Master Draco sir like to take his letter now, sir?" Draco snatched the letter from her long fingered hands and ripped it open. It was from Millicent. Draco smiled as he read it.

Dear Draco,

How are you feeling? Blaise said that your father said you would be fine, but he did not say how long it would take, and I want to hear it from you. Are you coming back to Hogwarts? Blaise said that hadn't been decided yet. I want you to come back; most of the Slytherins do, even Blaise. In case you didn't know, Weasley lost a hundred house points and got his Hogsmeade privileges revoked and detention until Christmas because of what he did to you. Blaise said he would have gotten more, but Black kind of put him up to it. Dumbledore is really mad at Black; he made him give a public apology to all the kids he cursed, and I think he has to write you one too. Dumbledore is going out of his way to be nice to Slytherins now; it's really quite weird. Everyone thinks he's planning something big, so no one really trusts him. Everyone really hates Weasley now, too; the Slytherins because he cursed you and everyone else because we are almost certain to win the cup now.

The first quidditch game is Slytherin versus Ravenclaw, on November 23. I'm really nervous; I don't know if I'll be good enough. I hope you are going to be there. Anyway, I hope you feel better and come back soon.

Sincerely,

Millicent

Millicent was the best friend Draco had ever had; Crabbe and Goyle certainly never would have written him if he was ill; he hadn't even heard from them since they transferred to Durmstrang. Draco guessed had always known that they weren't really his friends. Draco now knew that he had to go back; not just to make Millicent happy, but because if he'd didn't go back, he'd be losing something that was really important to him. Draco just hoped his father would understand when he told him. He was going to wait a few days, because he did not want Lucius second-guessing his decision, saying it was made in haste. Still smiling, Draco folded the letter and carefully placed it in his pocket.

"Good news?" Lucius asked mildly.

"Yeah."

O~O~O~O~O

"Goodbye, precious," Lucius said, forcing himself to smile. He hugged Draco tightly, unhappy that once again he would be without him for weeks.

"Goodbye, father. Thank you for taking care of me."

"Of course, son, of course. Remember, if you need me at any time..."

"...I can owl you; I know. Don't worry; I'll be fine. The Christmas hols are only four weeks away anyway."

"I know, but I will miss you." Lucius was starting to feel that emptiness again. The nightmares had abated somewhat since Draco had been home, but he was sure that they would soon return full force.

"I'll miss you too. I have to go now or I'll be late for my first class."

"Run along then. I'll owl you soon." Draco gave Lucius one more quick hug before running into the castle. Lucius was left alone at the front gates, once again trying to think of somewhere else to go so that he did not have to return to that dark, empty Manor alone. Lucius finally decided to apparate to Diagon Alley and begin looking for Draco's Yule gifts; he wanted to avoid the crowds as much as possible this year.

Lucius ordered a firebolt for Draco and bought him some books. He considered getting Draco an invisibility cloak or a Hand of Glory, but decided that he did not want Draco wandering about the Manor or the castle at night. All the drafty air could make him very ill, and there was no telling what his curiosity might get him into. Furthermore, Lucius was avoiding Knockturn Alley these days; considering how interested the media seemed to be in him of late, he did not think it was the best time to be dealing in the Dark Arts.

Lucius perused almost every shop in Diagon Alley. He came across Molly Weasley at the pet shop (she was purchasing a new owl), but they merely glared poisonously at each other. The arrogant witch didn't even have the decency to apologize for what her son had done to Draco.

In a foul temper, Lucius once again headed to the Leaky Cauldron, and once again, he found himself fleeing into the muggle world. This time, no vehicle pulled up to him; no one spoke to him. Many of the muggles gave him odd looks, and Lucius remembered what Lynda had told him about his clothes. He noticed that the muggle men all wore trousers, and most had short hair. Not that Lucius really cared what the muggles thought of him.

Finally, Lucius found himself glancing into a 'music shop'. Lucius did not see how the shop could claim that title, as there were no actual instruments inside, only large, black boxes of different types and what looked like orderly shelves of very small books. He at first thought that the large, black boxes were wirelesses, but they were far too large and many were attached to other boxes.

His curiosity piqued, Lucius actually entered the shop; he noticed that there were several men with long hair standing behind the counter or looking at the odd books and boxes. Upon closer inspection, however, Lucius realized that the small objects were not books at all; they were boxes as well, made out of a strange material that Lucius had heard referred to as 'plastic'. The boxes were labeled according to title and what Lucius guessed to be composer, but Lucius did not see how these boxes could possibly produce music.

Lucius wandered up and down the isles looking for all the world to be an ordinary customer, but he was really searching for a clue as to how these strange boxes worked. Finally, one of the store's employees (a bizarre fellow with many earrings all over his face and blue, spiked hair) provided another customer a demonstration, and Lucius watched out the corner of his eye. The clerk opened one of the thin, square boxes and pulled out a very shiny disk. He then pressed some buttons on one of the large black boxes, and a platform emerged from it. He then placed the disk on the platform and pushed the platform back into the box. Music immediately began to emanate from the black box.

"...As you can hear, the sound quality is brilliant. We have a smaller system, but if you really want to *feel* the bass, you want one with a lot of power..."

The music was horrid. Crashing drums, unbearably loud bass, and some sort of instrument that wailed and screeched drowned out most of the lyrics. What Lucius managed to hear and understand was laced with foul language and pornographic images. Reeling in disgust, Lucius snapped at an employee emerging from a back storage room, "This profanity is not truly your idea of music, is it?"

The employee, a normal looking woman with long, brown hair replied, "I'm sorry, sir; it is our policy not to play these types of lyrics the shop, if you would excuse me..." She then marched up the blue haired boy and pressed a button on the black box. The 'music' ceased. After dealing with the customer (he needed to "think about it"), the woman ordered the boy into the back room then turned back to Lucius. "Again, I apologize, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?"

He did not know what compelled him to do it, whether it was curiosity or merely procrastination, but Lucius replied, "Yes, how much do one of these 'systems' cost?"

The woman smiled the exact same 'selling' smile that the retailers on Diagon Alley smiled when they saw a Malfoy enter their shops, "Well, this model here..."

The next day, having changed a pile of galleons into 'pounds', Lucius returned to the music shop. He purchased a small 'system' and a large bag full of the shiny music disks (he had been told they were called 'compact disks' or 'CDs'). Most he chose based on what he had heard over Valini's recorb, but there was also booth of sorts in the shop where he could listen to samples of music through a set of very heavy, black earmuffs. When he found a song he liked, he ordered that CD. He went home with over thirty. The shopkeeper also assured him that he could later improve his 'system' by adding extra 'amplifiers' if he so desired.

The 'system' proved a thoroughly distracting puzzle. He positioned it on a table not far from his bed, stacking the CDs next to it alphabetically, according to composer. He then sat in a comfortable chair and read the book-like 'instructional manual' from cover to cover; if he was going to do this, he intended to do it right. He understood about every three words in the manual, but based on the pictures, he slowly came to understand that for the 'system' to work, he had to shove its tail into a peculiar socket in the wall. The Manor being a wizard's dwelling, there was, of course, no socket available.

Very put out that he had ended up spending so many galleons on a 'system' he could not use, Lucius angrily flipped through the manual again until he came upon a section labeled 'mobile features'. As the device was clearly designed to be usable away from walls, Lucius realized that there had to be another way for it to work; Lucius was then introduced to the concept of 'batteries'.

Having realized that he needed these 'batteries', Lucius returned to muggle London with the instruction book in hand. He found another store with black boxes displayed in the window (some of them had paintings on the front, which kept changing backgrounds). Imperiously, he demanded of the shopkeeper, "I need 'batteries' for my system" and shoved the book into his hands.

The shopkeeper gave him a quizzical look but replied, "Very well, we keep the batteries next to the counter." And ten minutes later, Lucius was back at the Manor, batteries in hand. Using the pictures in the 'manual', Lucius inserted the batteries successfully, then attempted to insert a disk. He discovered that finding the right button was much harder than the shopkeeper had made it look. When the platform finally emerged, Lucius had to figure out how to get the disk out of the little plastic claws that held it in place. By the time he had managed that without damaging the disk (they looked terribly fragile) the platform had retracted itself. Thankfully, Lucius remembered the location of the extension button after the third try. Remembering that the blue-haired boy had put the disk in shiny side down, Lucius placed the disk on the platform and pushed it in.

Feeling immeasurably satisfied with himself, Lucius waited for his music, but all he heard was a whirring sound. Frowning, Lucius examined each and every button on the system trying to figure out how to get the music to play. Aha! There was a 'play' button, what luck! Lucius pressed it, and after more whirring, music finally began to emanate for Lucius' system. Lucius grinned happily; he'd done it! As much as he hated to admit it, muggles were obviously more competent, at certain things, than Lucius had given them credit for.

Only after he had settled himself in an armchair to listen to his new music did Lucius realize that he had not had a single memory of Abraxas all day. Lucius smiled slyly thinking about how affronted Abraxas would have been if he had known that a muggle box could now command Lucius' attention better than Abraxas himself.

Happily, Lucius also discovered that playing with his 'system' helped calm him after writing about his experiences with Abraxas (just because Draco was no longer there didn't mean that Lucius could give up on the promise he had made). Lucius also discovered that a muggle wireless was built into his new system, and there were many more muggle wireless stations than wizard. Lucius perused them all. He found stations that played music like he had bought on his disks and discovered that they were an effective way to find new disks he wanted to buy without returning to the shop and wearing those silly earmuffs. He also found stations that played the blue haired kid's sort of 'music' (he avoided those). Muggle classical music, he found, was not very different from wizarding classical music. He also discovered that muggles had stations that only broadcast news, or other 'talk programs'; he did not really care for those.

After many hours of exploration, Lucius decided that while he preferred the honesty of some muggle music, he still was not interested in muggle culture in general. Some of the problems they had would be laughably easy to solve if only they had magic, while others were completely new to Lucius and confused him. He also discovered that most of the news was bad; this confirmed his impression that muggle culture was fundamentally flawed. Much like wizarding culture really, but muggle culture did not include his precious son and was therefore irredeemable.

All in all, Lucius found much to distract him from his memories of Abraxas, and the Christmas holidays seemed to come sooner than he expected them to. On December 18th Lucius arrived an hour early at King's Cross station, so eager was he to see Draco.

Instead of apparating directly to King's Cross, Lucius apparated to Diagon Alley and walked the rest of the way; the exercise was good for him, and he enjoyed peeking into music shops to see if they had different systems than the one he owned. In one shop, he saw much larger disks made out of black plastic, and he wondered what they were and why the shop he went to didn't have them. He concluded that because the shop with the black disks advertised 'second hand records', the black disks were for poor people, while the smaller, shiny ones were for the wealthy.

Smiling to himself that he had immediately chosen the higher status disks, Lucius sauntered over to the barrier between platforms nine and ten, surprised to see Lynda there. She smiled at him, "Good afternoon, Lucius. How have you been?"

Lucius actually managed to smile a genuine smile of his own, "Better than expected, thank you. How have you been?"

"Very well. I've just come from a client's office; my deposition ended early, so I've found myself arriving quite early to meet Flare. Would you mind walking me through the barrier?"

For obvious reasons, muggles could not pass through the barrier onto platform 9 3/4 unless a wizard or witch walked them through; this allowed for muggle parents to accompany their children to the Hogwarts express without having emotional goodbyes or greetings in front of the barrier (after an incident involving a muggle mother, her magical twins, a station security guard, and a tourist with a camera, the Ministry had come to realize that they wanted to avoid drawing attention to the barrier). Lucius nodded agreeably and extended his arm to Lynda; as far as muggles went, Lucius found her to be the most interesting and capable of the lot.

"Thank you," Lynda said once they were through the barrier. "I'd have hated to have ended up hanging around there for an hour; they told us not to draw attention to the barrier."

"Not at all. In fact, being seen escorting you would probably be good for my reputation; the Daily Prophet still marvels over your part in the battle of King's Cross. Few muggles would have been able to do what you did."

She waved her hand dismissively, "For most people it's a matter of discipline. If they bothered to put in the effort to train as I did, they would be able to defend themselves too. Some people, of course, have real limitations, but must people are just too lazy to even bother to discover what those limitations are, and they are usually far beyond what you think they are if you put in the proper effort."

"Quite true. I hear that your Flare is doing wonders for the Slytherin quidditch team; we might even have a chance to beat Gryffindor this year."

"We? You were a Slytherin, then?"

"Of course. The Malfoys have been in Slytherin for centuries."

"Really? How odd; Flare told me that the houses were sorted according to personality traits. Are all Malfoys so similar in personality then?"

If Lucius had been in a less positive mood, he may have taken great offense at that comment. As it was, he considered it thoroughly before answering. "In some ways, we are all very similar, though we may differ in other ways. In any case, house is truly determined by personal choice; most of us were in Slytherin because we desired to be surrounded by those as ambitious and cunning as ourselves."

"Ah yes, now I remember Flare telling me that that Potter kid got into Gryffindor because he asked to be. I didn't understand at the time why that mattered so much, but he's some kind of celebrity or something, isn't he?"

Lynda now had Lucius' full attention; the sorting hat had not automatically placed Potter in Gryffindor? "What house did the hat intend to put Potter in?"

"I think Flare said Slytherin." Slytherin? Dear Merlin, what was Dumbledore going to hide from them next? Although it did explain Potter's liaison with Valini; the 'true' Gryffindors were probably not his type.

As few other people were on the platform, and they both had an hour to kill, Lucius and Lynda commandeered a bench and talked about, what else, their children. Lucius discovered that Lynda had gotten pregnant with Flare earlier than she intended, but she and her husband, a professional football player (whatever that was), has decided to go ahead and have the baby. Because of this, Lynda felt that she had not really been ready for children, and she often had doubts about how well she had done with Flare.

"She just doesn't talk to me much, you see, so I worry that she doesn't feel she can. What about Draco, does he tell you much?"

"Quite a bit this year. Not so much before." Lucius did not elaborate; he did not want to talk about that. Lynda seemed to sense this, and she changed the topic.

"So do unicorns really exist?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't they?"

"Is it true that they can only be captured by virgins?" Lucius gave Lynda an odd look.

"No, though they strongly prefer females over males, and have a moderate preference for the young woman over old."

"I see. What about dragons? Can they really breathe fire and fly?"

"Some breeds can do both, some can do one or the other, and some can do neither."

"Hm. Are there dragons in Britain?"

"Yes."

"So how is it that they haven't been spotted by muggles?"

Lucius smirked, "They are, but the ministry alters people's memories so that forget the experience."

"What? You can do that?" Lynda looked extremely offended.

"Yes. In the case of dragons, it's necessary in order to protect wizards, dragons, and muggles."

Lynda narrowed her eyes, "How does that protect muggles?"

"If muggles knew that dragons were real, some would try to hunt them and get themselves killed."

"Well, anyone who's stupid enough to do that deserves it. Though I have to agree with you on the protecting the dragons part; they'd instantly become the most desired trophy animal. Do wizards hunt them?"

"Yes, though there is a limit on how many can legally be killed every year. There are poachers, of course, but the penalty for poaching in Britain is very harsh, and that discourages most would-be trophy seekers."

"What is the penalty?"

"One to three years in Azkaban and a very stiff fine; the prison sentence is longer if the fine can't be paid."

"I assume Azkaban is the wizards' prison?"

"Yes," Lucius shivered, "It's a horrible place."

"You've been there?"

"Yes, for Ministry business." That what an outright lie, but Lucius wasn't about to admit the truth to Lynda.

"What's so horrible about it?"

"The dementors; they consume all the positive feelings from the prisoners. Most go mad."

Lynda looked horrified, "That is not only barbaric and a heinous violation of human rights, it's utterly ridiculous! What happens to the prisoners after they are released; they live in a state hospital on government money? You're loosing all the possible productivity those prisoners could produce! What idiot thought up that system?"

"The minister after the Grindewald war; they wanted to punish the dark wizards as much as possible and they needed something to do with the dementors he had bred." Lucius had to admit; Lynda's argument made a lot of sense. If the dementors were an effective deterrent, after all, Voldemort would never have risen.

"Someone should do something about that. Surely the families, if not the prisoners themselves, could file a lawsuit. They did it for Alcatraz."

"Alcatraz is a muggle prison?"

"Was. They closed it down decades ago because it was too expensive. Before they closed, they had to make a lot of changes because they were driving prisoners insane. There was a successful lawsuit filed on behalf of a prisoner who was kept in solitary, in the dark, for three years."

Lucius considered this. He did not really want to get involved, but it did seem like someone aught to do something, didn't it? "Suggest the idea to Sirius Black; he has as much a right to sue as anyone, and he's actually capable of testifying for you."

"Isn't he the DADA professor?"

"Yes, but before that, he was in Azkaban for twelve years."

Lynda's eyes opened wide, "What did he do?"

"Nothing. He was framed."

"Hmm." Lynda then got a very devious, sly look on her face, and Lucius almost pitied Fudge.

* End Chapter 10*