A/N: I'm not actually sure this is canon compliant, so just consider that Luna was kidnapped on the Hogwarts express by Lucius Malfoy.

Title: bitter Spring wind

Summary: Lucius had everything. Money, power, a perfect family. So why is all that disappearing? And how did he get to the point where he is kidnapping pureblood girls?

Word count: 1,075

Triggers/warnings: mentions of torture, kidnapping

Genre: Hurt, Angst

Character: Lucius M., Corban, Yaxley, Luna L.

FOR HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDY

House: Ravenclaw

for assignment 3:

Task/Subject: Calligraphy task #7 Kidnapping - write about a kidnapping

for august auction:

Day 4/ Auction 4: character Lucius Malfoy

FOR ILVERMORNY SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

for summer assignment #5

Class/subject: Ancient studies Task #1 Shabti write about servitude

Bonus prompts: 14) [action] cry

Lucius Malfoy had been brought up like any other pureblood boy. Proud, arrogant, morally superior. Maybe even more so because he was a Malfoy. And Malfoys were la crème de la crème of the pureblood society. They were part of the Sacred 27, the Elite, were ridiculously rich and held an enormous amount of power within the Wizenganot. Also, if Lucius Malfoy was being honest, he could probably add good-looking and handsome to the list of his desirable aspects.

So of course, he had married la crème de la crème, Narcissa Black, a beautiful pureblood girl who had been raised the same way as him and who had brought him even more power and money. She had given him a perfect son and heir, and they had raised him like any other pureblood boy. Proud, arrogant and muggle-hating. As was expected of him, he had joined the Death Eaters and served dutifully his Dark Lord and all was well.

Even when the Dark Lord disappeared, beaten by a baby, much to his followers' embarrassment, he had skilfully maintained the argument that he had been under Imperius. After all, with money and connections like his, only the best of all lawyers was acquired and a couple of witnesses were easily bought off or blackmailed. So Lucius Malfoy remained as he always had been, powerful, rich and morally superior.

But it was when the Dark Lord came back, an event so much awaited and which would bring Lucius to the height of power, that things began to go awry.

The Dark Lord declared Malfoy Manor to be his new residence, an immense honour. He was eager to follow the others, to make muggles cower in fear and make the ministry understand how much of a threat muggle-borns were. But then there was the battle. And Lucius was blamed.

The couple of months in Azkaban had ripped his soul apart. Everything he treasured so far away. There he was, powerless, in a position where no money could get him out, while the Dementors clawed at the few happy memories. (Sometimes, the pain was so much it almost made him regret putting people there in the first place).

And when finally his master freed him, he found what he treasured the most to be as lost as him. His wife was fraught with worry, her famous beauty had disappeared under the equivalent of years of riddles and greying hair from worry. And his perfect son, his perfect heir, already having joined the movement, already being tasked with the impossible. And Lucius' own life was always on the brink of ending.

Though the Battle at Hogwarts had been a success, and Draco spared, the Lord was still so angry at them. Lucius could only flinch whenever he spoke to him and he was so, so desperate to warn his good graces. He would do anything for the Dark Lord. Hurting muggles, taking over the stupid Ministry, rounding up all those Mudbloods. Anything to rise to power again, to feel safe again.

That was why he found himself flying above the Hogwarts Express in the bitter Spring wind, preparing to kidnap a girl, a pureblood girl. Where had it gone so wrong? Surely kidnapping a sacred 27 girl was contrary to everything he had been taught? And in a train where his own son was? Lucius prayed he wouldn't see him here, but only at Malfoy Manor in a couple of hours, where he would be safe. No, not safe. Definitely not safe. But rather in a familiar place, one where danger wasn't immediate.

When Corban, Yaxley and himself entered the carriage, a terrible feeling of dread filled him. He was desperate, but this desperate? When the blonde girl looked up at them, Lucius felt like they had crossed a line. The girl, the Lovegood girl, the crazy one, had the same expression as Draco, that beat down look of despair and anguish.

"Come one, crazy!" growled Yaxley as he dragged her out of the carriage. The girl had been alone in the carriage, no friends around her. All of them already scared. Or maybe they were all Mudbloods. But still, even if she was friends with that filth, was kidnapping her really justified?

She didn't even struggle and looked at them passively. Lucius cast a quick spell so that her hands would be tied.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked calmly.

"None of your business," spat Corban.

Malfoy Manor. That's where she was going. Lucius Malfoy was kidnapping a pureblood girl and holding her hostage in his cellar. The idea was so terrifying and gross he would have laughed if he wasn't already on the brink of tears.

"You really shouldn't be trying to hurt me," she added as she was roughly shoved out of the carriage, blonde waves pooling around her. She almost reminded him of Narcissa, when she was the same age and he had fallen in love with her. "Wouldn't want to spill any pureblood," she said softly, perfectly echoing Lucius' doubts.

"Shut up!" he barked at her, and still she looked at him impassively, just as if she knew exactly whatever was going on in his mind at the very moment. And yet, Lucius was perfectly aware that she wasn't using Legilimency. She positively terrified him.

Yaxley began to climb up to the latch at the top of the train, so that they could regain their brooms. Corban hauled the girl up after him, delighting as he groped her and she still didn't react. Lucius was disgusted. Was this what he had been brought up to?

A tear pearled from the corner of his eye and ran down his nose. He had crossed the line of what was acceptable to do. He quickly brushed the drop away.

"Come on Lucius, we don't have all day."

"Yes, come one. You're lucky the Dark Lord trusted you with this mission. Wouldn't want to dawdle now would we?"

The two brutes relished being more powerful than a Malfoy, they who had once cowered before him like little girls.

He hurried up after them and they mounted their brooms. As they flew, the tears came spilling down again. Lucius was broken inside, no longer that proud arrogant boy, but an old man who was probably beyond forgiveness. Everything he had ever cared about was crumbling before his eyes. Maybe the line had already been crossed a long time ago.