Deep within the confines of the Ministry, there was a corridor behind the courtrooms with holding cells to house transports to trial or Azkaban. Theo and Lucius were separated into cells in different rooms along the same long corridor. He had assumed they would give them Veritaserum at once, and at the very least then Lucius knew they would have to release him, but no one came for him.

He could not be sure of how many hours passed, but he knew they did. There were many stages to how he spent his time. He sat still on a bench with a glassy stare at the floor, pondering all of the reasons he should not be there, that this should not have been his life. When sitting so still began to ache, he moved to pacing around like a caged lion, prone to muttering and sighing heavily. Twice he had lost himself to rage and moved around the room in a hurried pace. There was nothing to wound or destroy but himself, and no instrument in which he could harm himself even if he had wanted to, so in the end he resolved to sit down. The process of sitting, to standing, and to pacing once more was cyclic and compulsive and went on for much longer than he would have cared to admit.

The door down the far hallway opened as Lucius sat on a bench fastened against the stone wall. He heard skirts swishing against the stone floor. He thought to ignore them, until the sounds stopped in front of his cell.

"Lucius," the voice said, the tone deeply threaded with amusement.

He expected anyone but Narcissa Black. She stood in front of the cell in dark green Healer robes with her hair braided and wrapped around her head like a crown. There was a small purse over her arm, and her blue eyes were bright and shiny against the drab backdrop of the cells behind her.

He unfolded himself from the bench and slowly made his way over to the end of the cell. They stood six or so feet apart with the iron bars between them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her quietly.

"Well, I was on the night shift at St. Mungo's and on those nights, I come to the Ministry to bring Papa breakfast," she replied, "If you don't, he won't eat, see. Then lunch comes around and he decides he's too busy for that, and by the time he gets home he's completely intolerable."

"You know your way around stubborn men," Lucius murmured, recalling their first conversation, "I will give you credit for that."

She flashed him a bright smile. "I do possess a unique skill for it, I admit. Anyway, when I arrived here, I barely made it to the atrium, and it was all buzzing in the elevator that they had arrested you. Papa confirmed it when I saw him, so I came down to see you before I left."

"Why?" he asked, furrowing his brow.

"Because I brought gifts," she said, as if it should have been obvious.

She pointed her wand at a stool beyond his line of sight and pulled it to her. She sat upon it and rummaged through her purse until she procured a silver case, which she opened for him. Inside were a dozen or so cigarillos, likely she had purchased from somewhere in the Ministry. She plucked one from the box and held it out for him. He stepped closer to the bars and pressed it between his lips, and she lit the end with her wand.

He sighed after the first inhale. Narcissa looked delighted to have pleased him. She handed him the case to hold for her while she rummaged through her black bag some more. She produced a thermos of coffee and a croissant wrapped in fine pale green paper.

"You won't have your first meal until noon," she announced, "But I thought you might be hungry now."

"I'm not," he said.

Narcissa passed him the items anyway, and he accepted them as otherwise they would have dropped to the floor.

"I will be gentle with you for just this once, Lucius Malfoy, but be assured I will not be so kind on the subject of you not eating next time," she told him, "I will unleash the fury of my persuasion upon you."

He inhaled smoke into his lungs and shook his head as he exhaled. She produced a small glass ash tray from her purse (which he had a suspicion belonged in her father's office upstairs) and held it out for him, which he ashed the cigarillo into. It was unbecoming for men to smoke in front of women; in fact, in their society it was banned, but Narcissa seemed quite used to it. He supposed she must love her father very much to be at the end of her hospital shift and come to his office after to care for him.

"Have they administered the Veritaserum yet?" she asked him.

Her voice was so light and casual she might have been asking him the weather.

"No," he admitted, "But I suppose they will soon, and everyone will know the truth."

"Ah," she said, and her voice took on an edge he had not heard from her before as she added, "So you did kill her then?"

She was not judging him, Lucius realized. It was disappointment he heard in her voice.

"No," he said, and then turned his face away. "I didn't kill her. I don't even know who did."

He watched as she held out her hand for the cigarillos. He obliged her, and she lit one herself with her wand. It looked natural—she had smoked them before. She exhaled smoke above her head and leaned her shoulder against the bars.

"What truth will they uncover?" she asked him.

He hesitated, and she tilted her head.

"Impropriety?" she guessed.

"Yes," he said.

Narcissa nodded, crossing one leg over the other, and drawing the cigarillo to her lips. "You hired a woman from a brothel?"

"No," he answered.

"That was my first guess," she admitted, shifting on the stool, "Because Scarlett worked for a brothel near Bath to help offset her family's debts. At least she had been thinking about working for one, I am not sure if she ever did it. She came into St. Mungo's on one of my shifts; she had taken something, and was quite out of it, so they initially thought she had been poisoned. So, when you became involved and it seemed clear you did not murder her, I assumed the three of you had hired her and something went awry."

"Why would you associate with me then?" Lucius asked her quietly.

"Because I assume every many is improper at some point in their lives," she answered simply, and with a flash of a smile she added, "We cannot all be as perfect as Elizabeth Nott."

He sighed deeply. "You saw that?"

"No, but my mother saw the entire affair and said Elizabeth was, if I recall, 'a detriment to her sex' for being so dramatic," Narcissa replied.

He laughed, the sound hollow and echoing across the room. Narcissa passed him the thin ash tray through the bars and he pressed his finished cigarillo to snub it out. Idly, his hands moved to the thermos of coffee and he uncapped it.

"How much did you fancy it, Lucius?" she teased him, "You, her dashing prince, coming to aid against the savage rain?"

Heat rushed to his cheeks and she laughed loudly, a harsh bark that echoed across the room. It was unlady-like to laugh so, but Lucius realized he hardly minded the woman in front of him who smoked like a man and held a laugh that rang out with truth.

"So," she said, without quite meeting his eye, "What did you do that you are so determined to keep secret?"

He thought of not telling her, but it was intrinsically easy to talk to her. He did not know if this was another skill she possessed, to appear to intimate to others, or if she had become such a center of his thoughts that it created a false intimacy between them.

"I was down the alley where she was killed," Lucius said, his throat restricted and hard. He pressed his palms together and rubbed them together slowly. "And I didn't see who killed her because Theo and I were…snogging."

"Is that all?" she said, and then her laughter rang out like bells across the room.

When she finally settled, her lips still twitching, she added, "You have good taste."

"I'm sorry?" he repeated.

"Theodore," she answered, "He is very handsome, I was merely commending your choice."

"Thank you?" Lucius said.

He was dumbfounded by her, which made her laugh again.

"This will disgrace me," Lucius told her when she finally settled again, "I'll never be able to marry. The Malfoy name will die with me."

Narcissa bit her lip, forcing peals of laughter back into her throat. "That is quite a thing to say."

"You don't agree?" he asked.

"I think it would be more damaging were you not a Malfoy and if you didn't enjoy the company of women too," Narcissa replied, folding her hands together in her lap primly, "But seeing as I know you were quite pleased to be snogging me, I should say you will be the feature of gossip for a while, and the news of your ambiguous sexual nature will pass just like Scarlett Greengrass's death will fade into obscurity, because the famous men tied to her are innocent."

"I'm not so sure we are all innocent," Lucius added quietly.

She nodded matter of factly. "Ah, yes, Candra."

Lucius sat down on the floor and spread his legs out. He leaned his shoulder against the bar and curled his hair to one side as he slowly broke the croissant into pieces in his hand.

"You suspect him as well?" he asked, "What do you think of that considering his relationship with your sister?"

She raised her eyebrows. "And here I thought that Lucius Malfoy was only capable of being observed and not observing. This truly has been the most enlightening conversation I have ever had sitting outside of a jail cell."

"Feel free to come by whenever you wish," Lucius quipped, "I'll be here all day."

"Witty even when incarcerated," she remarked loftily.

"I promise it is the effects of your company and not my nature," he said, "I was quite silent for the hours prior to your visit."

She passed him another cigarillo through the bars and lit it for him.

"I still never claimed my prize from the game I won," she said.

Lucius accepted the light and exhaled smoke above his head.

"What would you like?" he asked her, "I have a half-eaten croissant, a cigarillo, and coffee."

"So many options, I fear I will never be able to decide," she replied.

He glanced up at her shining, intelligent eyes and nearly lost himself in them.

"You distracted me from answering the question I posed about your sister," he said.

Her smile still fixed upon her face, she said, "Yes, I did."

"And you are not going to offer your thoughts on the matter?" he asked.

She angled her body to press closer to the bars, leaning her elbows against her upper thighs. "I will if you eat the rest of your croissant."

The fact that she had distracted him enough to begin to eat at all was a feat in itself, but Lucius obliged her and ate the rest in between taking drags from his cigarillo. When he was done, she held her hand out to take the paper wrapping from it and placed it into her bag. He watched her expectantly for an answer, and as she clasped her purse shut, she began.

"Rodolphus doesn't like women," Narcissa explained, "It's an agreed arrangement between the two of them. They are very close friends and always have been. This is why Bellatrix married so far beneath her; he offered her freedom."

Lucius had never considered such a match before, though it was likely to him now that this occurred more than he knew. How many parents were in his society that were the same way? Were these the ones who never talked to each other at all, and instead found opposing corners of the rooms and spoke to anyone but each other? Or were these the ones who seemed like dear friends to one another, but lacked the longing looks which Lucius had caught his own parents exchanging often throughout the years?

"Very well," Lucius said, "Your thoughts on Candra then?"

"The news chose you to focus on because of your name," Narcissa replied, "but Candra and his siblings played with us in the woods when we were little. He has always been a man on the verge of implosion. It would not surprise me if he killed her in blind rage."

"He asked me to tell everyone he was with Theo and I the entire time," Lucius told her.

"Bet he wouldn't say that if he knew what the two of you had been doing," Narcissa replied, raising her eyebrows.

"Indeed," he agreed with her, a smile crossing his face.

The doors at the end of the room clanged open, and while this startled Lucius and he jumped to his feet, Narcissa did not get up from her stool. She remained with her shoulder halfway through the bar, and her leg pressed against the cool metal. This was the first time Lucius felt significantly taller than her, and he was admiring the braid coiled around her head when the Auror who arrested him appeared in the corridor at the end of his cell.

"What is this?" he barked, "You're not allowed visitors."

"I'm not a visitor," Narcissa replied coolly, "I'm Judge Black's daughter and a Healer at St. Mungo's, I was merely inquiring on the health of your inmate, McTavish."

The Auror sneered at her. "He looks fine. You can go, Miss Black. I have official Ministry business to tend to, and Mr. Malfoy has a confession of murder to make."

"Well, Lucius, when you do finally confess to brutally savaging that girl," Narcissa said, looking at him over her shoulder, "Be sure to write me a letter."

She stood up slowly, smoothing her robes as she did, and then picked up the end of the stool. She scraped the wood loudly against the stone floor, emitting high pitched squelching as the chair dragged behind her.

"Oh," she said, turning around before she left, "Where might I find Theodore Nott? The next one over? I want to make certain he knows to write to his girlfriend."

The Auror nodded. "Down the corridor, third door on the right. Don't dally, Miss Black, or I'll send for your father to collect you."

"Thank you," she said, and she and walked swiftly from the room.

The Auror pointed his wand at Lucius and bound his arms again. The jail door locks clicked out of place and slowly rolled open.

They took him down a back corridor which was dark, long, and winding. When they opened the door, Lucius recognized it as the interrogation rooms they had hauled him into once before on the night Scarlett Greengrass died. A man in black robes was standing off to the side with a tray. A small grey bottle and a dropper was the only thing on it. The Auror placed him roughly into the high backed chair and left his wrists bound together. As the Auror settled on the other side of the chair, what Lucius assumed were Aurors in training filled the corners of the room and stood silently to watch him.

"This is possibly the highlight of my career, Mr. Malfoy," The Auror said with satisfied glee, "I have wanted to deconstruct the pureblood families for a long time."

"It's a shame I have to disappoint you then," Lucius said, leaning toward the table as he tried to readjust his wrists for more comfort.

McTavish grimaced and unfolded a roll of parchment from his pocket. He smoothed it in front of Lucius, who read over it quickly. It was a request for Veritaserum administration. The Auror watched him read it with a wicked smile that deepened as Lucius flicked his eyes at last to the bottom of the parchment with the Minister's signature and seal.

"Now you know your rights," The Auror said, and then gestured to the potions master with the tray.

They forced Lucius back, pinning him by his shoulders, though he was compliant and had not made effort to resist. His nerve was unyielding and strong, which the Aurors in the room whispered about. He heard them, as the potions master pulled the stopper from the vile and reached for his jaw.

"He doesn't seem frightened," one of them whispered, "And he's about to confess to murder!"

"That's how the Malfoys are," another one replied.

The man plucked a dropper into the vile and brought it back up again. Lucius had seen Veritaserum before; he brewed his own in his seventh year of Hogwarts. It seemed no different from water, which was perhaps one of the reasons it was so dangerous. One could slip it into almost anything. When the man swiveled back to him, he opened his mouth and let him place three drops of it onto his tongue, and then dutifully, he swallowed.

"When does it start working?"

"Instantaneously," the potions master responded dryly.

Something was wrong. Lucius knew the effects of the potion should have made him slightly dazed, as if part of him was locked in a drawer. Recognizing this was his only chance to obscure the true nature of his actions that night, he determined he should not give away that he was unaffected. Lucius imitated what he learned in school by slacking in his chair, his face neutral and unfeeling. Whatever they had given him was either not Veritaserum, brewed improperly, or was something else entirely.

"We have to get this right," The Auror said, his legs bouncing beneath the table, "I'll ask him questions to test the effectiveness before we get his confession."

The Auror cleared his throat. He pointed his wand at a quill and parchment on the desk so that it would begin transcribing the interview for him. A clock on the wall above him was ticking rhythmically, the pendulum swinging back and forth as a wizard in a top hat and blue robes ticked away on the minute hand.

"What are your parents' names?" he asked.

"Abraxas and Ophelia Malfoy," Lucius answered, keeping his voice low and mechanical.

"Who were you visiting with before we came to collect you?"

"Narcissa Black," he answered.

"Is Narcissa Black your girlfriend?" The Auror asked.

"No," Lucius replied.

The Auror nodded his head. "Very well. Did you kill Scarlett Greengrass?"

The room went quiet. Some of the trainees tittered around them after he asked the question.

"No."

The room exploded in buzzing at once at the revelation, confirming to Lucius that they must have been inexperienced in the matter. The Auror had to raise his hand and quiet them. After their whispering stopped, he began again.

"What were you doing up to the point that you discovered the victim's body?" he asked.

The truth was not bubbling or frothing at his lips, and it did not spill out from him helplessly or out of his control. He was calm and assured, as he began to answer. It was difficult to hide his elation with the notion that, in this moment, he somehow evaded possibly destructing his entire life.

"Theo and I ran down an alley," Lucius said, "I don't remember much because I was drunk, but before we made it to the end, I heard the sound of someone Apparating. When we walked back, we found her."

"Where was Candra Zabini?"

Lucius paused for a millisecond and then answered, "I believe he was one street over, but I cannot say for certain. I did not confirm his whereabouts."

"When you first gave your statement, you said that you 'all' went down the alleyway," he said, "Was this a lie?"

There was no room for error or hesitation. He had no idea if they had already questioned Candra and therefore knew more than him. It was possible that they knew everything already and were quite aware that he was lying, but he could not think about that. Lucius knew he could only move forward.

"Yes," he said smoothly, despite the fact that his heart was racing.

The Auror stared at him for a long time. He wondered if he suspected that the Veritaserum, for whatever reason, had not worked. Instead, he sighed heavily and shifted in his chair. He gestured for the students to file out, though he made no move to leave himself. Once they left and the door shut behind him, the Auror leaned forward on the table with his elbows.

"You were right," he said, "You disappointed me."

He stood up and went around the table to wrench Lucius up from his chair. He walked him back down the corridor to his holding cell and placed him inside and then slammed it shut. Lucius sighed heavily. The Auror released the binds on his wrists from outside of the cell and then marched off, fuming. He slammed the door at the end of the hall behind him, and Lucius thought he heard him shouting down the corridor.

The next thing, he supposed, would be questioning for Theo and Candra. Lucius presumed he would be able to go home once the others were done, though they had never given him a time frame. He laid across the bench and covered his face with his eyes and sighed, hoping it would all be over soon.

The next morning, the clanging of the door down the hallway woke him. They had given him a single meal at dinner and allowed him to shower, but his entire body was aching from sleeping flat on the bench. He expected to see the Auror, who would announce he discovered he had somehow managed to trick the potion, but it was his parents who appeared on the other side of the bars.

"Lucius!" Mrs. Malfoy exclaimed, tears rolling down her cheeks, "My sweet boy. They have only just allowed us to see you, I swear. We have been trying since they arrested you—it's been so awful!"

He uncurled himself from the bench and stepped across the small square cell to the bars where she was. He placed his hands through them, and she grasped hold of his hands in her own and kissed his thumbs.

"You look awful!" she sniffed.

"Thank you, Mother," Lucius retorted.

His response elicited a small and nervous smile from his father, but his mother was crying so profoundly that notes of humor could not breach the wall of sorrow blanketing her.

"How have you been getting on?" she asked, "Are they abusing you in anyway? Your father was in the Minister's office practically all last night. We will let him know if they are not taking care of you."

"I am fine," Lucius assured her.

The ramifications of telling his mother they had not served him high tea and provided the utmost finery was not a complaint he wanted to make when he was at the mercy of his jailors. Mr. Malfoy pulled his wife from Lucius and into his arms. She was inconsolable. He doubted she slept through the night or had done much more than fly into hysterics every few moments over the thought of what happened.

"How did the investigation go?" Mr. Malfoy asked.

"Fine," Lucius admitted, "Er—it didn't seem to work. The Veritaserum. I told the truth anyway, of course, but…"

Mr. Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "The Ministry would not give you malfunctioned potion, Lucius. I am sure it worked just fine."

Lucius knew it had not worked. He knew that because he had spent the better part of a month in Hogwarts procuring the perfect Veritaserum with the finest ingredients. And he spent countless nights staring at it, tweaking and perfecting it until his potion was the only one entirely clear, tasteless, and odorless. Lucius knew something was wrong because he had slipped it in a first year's breakfast, cornered him after, and asked him every embarrassing thing he could think of.

There was something wrong, he just did not know why the potion did not perform as it should have and had little resources to discover why.

"Are you faring well in this dreadful place?" Mrs. Malfoy asked, "It's so damp and cold! They should keep you in better conditions! This is despicable, to keep you in the same place they keep criminals! And you and Theo should at least be kept together—oh Lucius, tell me you are not lonely!"

Lucius reached for her hand again, as it seemed to provide her some comfort. She clutched his hand with hers and left her husband's side as fresh tears dropped down her cheeks.

"I am fine," he assured her, "Narcissa Black paid me a visit yesterday to pass the time, it was—"

"How did she get in?" Mrs. Malfoy exclaimed, "They wouldn't let us past the doors! They only let us today because your father got a letter from the Minister. How could that be? How did she get inside?"

"She just walked in," he replied, shrugging his shoulders.

Mrs. Malfoy turned to her husband and snapped, "I told you that we should have just barged in! What are they going to do? Arrest me?"

"Yes, that was precisely what I thought they would do," Mr. Malfoy replied bitterly.

Lucius could tell this was an argument that occupied much of their day as his mother anguished and his father tried, in vain, to find a solution for her. It was with great reluctance (and tears) when a guard advised that their time was up, and they would have to return home.

Mr. Malfoy turned bristled and enraged, demanding his son be released, while his mother kept her handkerchief to her face and sobbed. He heard them, either arguing or sobbing, the entire way down the hall until the door shut behind them, and then Lucius was left alone.