Lucius Malfoy had been through many things in his life. He was forced into a life of near servitude to a madman by his father and, as a result, he had committed unspeakable and unforgivable crimes in his name. He watched his first wife, Narcissa, get killed in front of him as a punishment for not getting the Prophecy. When the Dark Lord decided that wasn't punishment enough, he watched while his only son was tortured and sent off on an impossible task. But he was a Malfoy, so he held his head up high and persevered. He refused to let any of that break him and took pride in the fact that those events did not.

He thought himself unbreakable.

But then he was thrown in Azkaban (again), with no means for escape this time, for crimes he did not commit. He thought he could handle it, staying there for life, knowing he did it for his son. Even though the thought that his family thought he was guilty nearly killed him. Nearly, but he held on. But then his pretty young wife walked into the visiting room at Azkaban and did the one thing that years of horrible events could not.

She broke him.

Pregnant. She was pregnant. Despair had filled his heart when those words fell from her lips, knowing he would not get to watch this child grow up. That he wouldn't be able to watch his wife's belly swell with his child. He knew, he knew, that she still loved him. She wasn't the type to just be able to turn her feelings off at the flip of a switch. Knowing she would never be in peace unless she had some sort of closure, he did the one thing he had promised her he would never do.

He lied.

She had asked him if he had ever loved her. He wanted to shout that he did; that he loved her with all his heart and always would. Instead he was cruel and told her no, knowing that would break any hope she had that perhaps her husband wasn't this horrible monster. He hoped it would enable her to move on, emotionally at least, even if she had to remain Mrs. Malfoy by law.

He was able to make it back to his cell before he completely broke down. Huddled in the corner of the dark, dirty, cold cell, loud sobs racked his body. He cried until he was physically exhausted. His last conscious thought before he fell asleep was that if he ever got out of this gods-forsaken place, he was going to ruin the Weasleys.


The knock on his study door startled him since he knew he was alone in the house. Unsure of who could possibly be in his house without his knowledge he called out for the person to enter, his hand resting on his wand. The door swung open, and his eyes narrowed and a sneer formed on his face as he took in his visitor.

"Mr. Weasley. Whatever do I owe the pleasure of your company, unannounced I might add? If you are looking for Mrs. Malfoy, she's not at home and won't be for some time."

He smirked at the boy as he watched jealousy flash in his eyes.

"I didn't come for her; I came to talk to you."

"Pray tell, Mr. Weasley, whatever do we have to talk about?"

A short silence passed between the two before the red-haired boy threw a large envelope on Lucius' desk. Lucius arched his perfectly formed eyebrow as if to silently ask 'what exactly is this'. The boy merely mockingly waved his hand at it, motioning for him to open it. He heard him scoff as Lucius held his wand over the envelope and hit it with a curse and jinx detector spell. Lucius certainly was not going to trust anything coming from a Weasley. The moment he opened it, he immediately wished he had not. Inside were pictures, many pictures. Many pictures showing his son engaged in sex acts with various prostitutes. As he quickly flipped through them, he was horrified to see the last pictures were of Draco killing the poor women. For once in his life, he was unsure on how to proceed. Not that he would ever let Weasley see that.

"Quite an interesting array of photographs you have here, Mr. Weasley. There does, however, seem to be a problem with them."

The boy snorted. "And what would that be?"

"It's impossible that this is Draco in these photographs. I know for a fact he was here at the Manor having dinner with myself and Mrs. Malfoy on the nights that two of these young women were killed. For the third, he was not even in the country. So tell me, Mr. Weasley, just what you are hoping to accomplish here."

The boy had the nerve to smirk at him before he told him that Lucius could either go turn himself in at the Ministry, or the pictures would be turned in to the Head Auror within the hour.

"What are they going to believe? The word of a Death Eater or physical evidence of the killer caught on camera?"

Lucius felt his heart sink as he realized that Weasley was quite correct. There was no doubt that the pictures would be believed over his or his son's word. Even if Hermione verified their story, too many still believed he had used the Imperius to get her to agree to marry him. They would argue that he was controlling her. He had a very difficult choice to make: either he turned himself in or got his son sent to Azkaban.

"Well, Mr. Weasley, it seems you have me at a distinct disadvantage. Please do not think I cannot see what you are hoping to accomplish. You will never have her. And you should be aware, when I get out, and I will get out, you will rue this day."

"You aren't getting out of this, Malfoy. You'll be in Azkaban for the rest of your miserable life."

As he allowed the boy to accompany him to the Auror Department, he had only one thought in his mind.

Hermione, please forgive me.


Lucius had an increasingly hard time dealing with his imprisonment after the visit from his wife. He cursed himself for telling her that he never loved her. His despair at not being able to be with his family grew as each day passed until he felt as if it could physically crush him. He tried to keep his overwhelming feelings at bay by concocting plans to ruin the Weasleys. He gave no thought to the fact that the whole family wasn't involved in the plot. He did not care; he was going to crush them all. He found that thinking about that lifted his mood somewhat, but was usually quickly brought back down as his thoughts inevitably turned to his wife.

Lucius had kept his eyes on her the whole night. He watched as she danced with wizard after wizard (and even some witches), each more unworthy than the next. It was tough to admit, even if it was just to himself, but he was extremely jealous. His regards for the witch had greatly increased over the past six months while they were working on a new law regarding dark artifacts. Her department had asked him to step in as an expert. He chuckled softly to himself as he remembered her first reaction to him coming on board. To say she was unhappy about it would be quite the understatement. He was, however, able to charm her and they had even began to take their lunches together. But it was no longer enough. He wanted her and he would have her. Tonight.

Just as he made the decision to ask her to dance, he watched through narrowed eyes as yet another wizard approached her before he could. Placing his glass of champagne on the nearest surface, he moved toward the couple.

"Cormac! I already said no, multiple times, I might add. And I swear if your hands wander below my waist one more time, I will hex you."

The wizard in question just laughed at her protests.

"Come on, Hermione. Everyone knows you are single and have been for some time. You really look like you could use a bit a fun tonight. In fact, why don't we – "

Lucius interrupted then, seeing that Hermione was close to exploding.

"The lady is taken. Please go direct your attentions towards another witch and get away from mine. Now."

The wizard whirled around to face him, anger clearly written upon his face. His protests were quickly cut short as soon as he realized just who was standing in front of him. Muttering apologies under his breath, he quickly left as if the hounds of hell were barking at his feet. Lucius smirked at the sight before turning back to Hermione, who looked like she was warring between being angry at his presumption or being amused.

"Taken, am I?"

"Quite so," he replied as he swept her into a waltz, "I have reservations for two for dinner tomorrow night at seven. I'll pick you up."

"Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you? What if I said no?"

"Are you saying 'no'?"

"Well, no, but you can't just tell me that I'm taken and we are having dinner. Haven't you ever heard of asking?"

"Love, I'm a Malfoy. We don't ask; we don't have to ask. We just take what we want."

He smirked as she started mumbling something about him being a cocky bastard (it wouldn't be the last time she called him that). Regardless of her thoughts on his bastardly behavior, she was ready for their date when he picked her up the next night. The date went exceptionally well and only cemented in his mind and heart what he already knew.

He was completely head over heels in love with Hermione Granger.


AN: Thanks to erbkaiser for betaing. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter in Lucius' POV (and that you aren't mad that we still have a cliffie hanging over our heads). Also thanks to Liza, for listening to me whine constantly and helping with ideas. Please review!