1st July 1997

Lucius raised his cane towards the peeling paint of the door. He refused to accept that his hand was trembling, in spite of the vibrations of the silver snake head. He lowered it again and took a few deep breaths. His lungs had not recovered yet from his stay in Azkaban. That was all, though. He would not admit that any other part of him had suffered any damage. He had never thought of himself as having a soul, after all. He had sold that to a Dark mage many years before.

He swallowed and this time he raised his fist. Probably Percy would not even be there. He would be working. He was, after all, always working. Lucius tapped his knuckles against the wood.

He stood on bare, ill-fitting floorboards, above a small shop which sold dried herbs to Wizards and Muggles alike. His disgust at that thought made him shiver. Muggles were beneath him, only a few feet away. The shop was on the border between the Magical and Muggle areas of Pickering. It was a small, unremarkable enclave of the Wizarding world, and it had taken him some weeks to locate Percy here.

He had been so busy since the break-out: managing his family, following the orders of the Dark Lord, planning with other Death Eaters. All the while, through his fear and panic, he had been distracted by this need to find Percy. He could have approached him at work, of course, at the Ministry, and soon – if all went according to plan as no doubt it would – that would be straightforward enough. Not yet, though. As yet, it might not be safe for Percy if he was seen to be communicating with a convicted criminal. There was a chance that Ministry officials might recapture Lucius if he went anywhere near the place. He had escaped Azkaban after all.

He would not think of prison. He raised his hand one last time, resigned to the idea that Percy was not home. He tried to marshal his thoughts. He did not have the time to sit and wait on his former lover's doorstep – his time was no longer his own to command – though that was what he yearned to do. He shook himself. Pathetic. He would be strong soon; he would recovered his health and then he would be stronger. Then this softness of heart would go away.

The door opened. Percy blinked at him and then his mouth fell open in surprise. Lucius was mesmerised, catatonic in the living presence of the man who had inhabited his thoughts since his escape. Percy recovered first and then he started to panic. He looked down the shabby landing, before gripping Lucius by the robes and pulling him into the bedsit.

"Did anyone see you?" he asked.

"I was careful," Lucius insisted. "I am not an idiot."

Percy sighed and Lucius watched his shoulders relax as the door closed. "I know you're not. Sorry. That was a shock. I didn't know you were out. Well, there was a rumour last month and I hoped, but then -"

"You hoped?" Lucius felt his silly, softened heart warming.

"Of course I hoped." Percy smiled for the first time. He reached out and touched his fingertips to Lucius' long silver-blond hair. There was more grey in the mix than there had been before, but it was not so noticeable. "Did you think about me? In there?"

Lucius shook his head. "The Dementors make happy thoughts impossible. I worried about what might become of you from time to time, but that was all. Mostly I dwelt on thoughts of my father. Thoughts I should not have revisited. Ever." He did not understand why Percy made him tell the truth. He had admitted that to no-one else since his release, or rather his aided escape. "Since I got out, though..." He could not admit to the obsessiveness, "you have been in my thoughts," he ended with instead.

Percy's hand moved to Lucius' cheek. He said nothing.

"You could have stayed at the apartment you know." Lucius' gaze took in a quick sweep of the neat, clean, but tiny and worn room in which they stood, before his eyes were drawn back to Percy's.

"I didn't know. I sent Migsy back. Did your wife even know that I had the Elf? Or the apartment? I wasn't sure. And she must have been the one to take charge of everything when you were arrested. I thought it more prudent to leave."

"Always sensible." Lucius smiled fondly. "And I understand that it would have been unhelpful in your career had you been closely associated with a criminal. In their terms. I do understand." Lucius placed his hand over Percy's. "Always so rational and clever, no emotional distraction. You could easily have been in Slytherin."

Percy looked away. "I was just scared."

Lucius did not believe him. He touched the freckles on Percy's chin and tipped his face back round so that they faced each other again. Their eyes locked and their mouths fell together into a kiss. It was gentle at first, a movement of tentative remembering which took minutes. Soon it built to something fierce and hungry.

Lucius looked for an empty bit of wall to press Percy against. Everywhere he looked, though, there were shelves of books, cupboards, and grids from which kitchen paraphernalia hung. Percy pulled him onto the floor, but there was hardly any space there. After knocking elbows and ankles against furniture a few times, he pulled Lucius upright and dragged him to the bed in the corner. He pulled his wand from his pocket as they fell and the curtains closed themselves.

Percy's body had changed; he matched Lucius' even better now. He had grown into the man Lucius had wanted him to be from the beginning. There was no schoolboy left. It wasn't that he was fatter or thinner, or noticeably taller. He might have been a little hairier but that wasn't it. He was just older.

Lucius was thinner, though. He knew it was obvious, but Percy did not comment on the fact. His back stooped a little and his muscles had withered. He was older, too.

They learnt anew the fastenings to undo to make each other naked. Percy's eyes flickered between Lucius' skin as it was bared, and his face. They stared into each other's eyes as they moved. They kissed and rolled against each other. When they were both naked, Percy pulled Lucius on top of him and lifted his knees in one determined, confident movement. His own hand slid down and began working at his hole. He summoned a vial of lubricant from somewhere in the room. When he pulled out the cork with his teeth, the scent of it rose up to Lucius. It was the wrong smell; it wasn't the same one they had used before: Lucius' favourite.

That only mattered for a second or so, though, before Lucius found himself being kissed again, and found that his own fingers had joined Percy's and that they were opening him up together. Percy's tight warmth overwhelmed Lucius and he stopped thinking. It didn't matter, because Percy was desperate and he pushed forward with what was necessary. He took hold of Lucius' penis, stroked it a couple of times, and then angled it before jerking his hips and shoving himself onto it.

Instinct took over. This feeling was a maelstrom of memory and the absolutely current. Percy's orgasm came quickly as Lucius pumped himself into him and Percy stroked himself. With an animal roar which hurt his throat, Lucius came a few minutes later. He collapsed on top of Percy's chest.

After a few deep breaths, Lucius rolled into the tiny space left between Percy and the wall on the single bed. He lay his head on Percy's shoulder. A draft trickled onto his cooling skin from the ill-fitted window. Dark sleep threatened to take him, but he fought it, wanting to take every moment of contact that he could from this meeting. When he looked up, Percy was looking down at him.

"Those important people," Percy said. "The ones you said would be impressed by me, the ones you wanted to introduce me to. They were Death Eaters, weren't they? You are in this up to your eyes, aren't you?"

"And beyond, my dear boy. I am a very senior figure in their organisation. I still think that you should join us."

Percy sighed. "I don't know. My parents always -"

"Are you back in touch with your family?" Lucius asked. He looked about him. He could not see why Percy would be residing in such a hovel were that the case, surely he would be at the family home – the Warren or whatever it was called. Although he understood that that was a little poky and rundown, it could hardly be as poor as the digs they both found themselves in.

"No!" Percy replied. There was something in his tone of the petulant adolescent. It only ever appeared when he spoke of his family.

Lucius smiled fondly. "Do you believe everything they ever told you when you were growing up?"

"You know I don't. But this is different. My uncles..." Percy looked abashed somehow. Something prevented him from speaking of the Prewitt brothers to Lucius.

Lucius hoped Percy didn't know that he had been among those responsible for their deaths. He coughed nervously. Or maybe it was his lungs still working to expel the damp prison air.

Percy looked at Lucius. "I don't know what to think," he said openly.

"That is perfectly natural," Lucius replied. "I am in no great hurry for your answer. Soon enough there will be changes, some wonderful developments are afoot." He shook his head at the questions on Percy's face. "I can tell you nothing yet. Perhaps if you were one of us already..."

Percy grinned at the obvious ruse; Lucius smiled back.

"What I will say," he continued, "is that very soon it will be clear who holds the power and which allegiances would be politic for an ambitious young man." He kissed Percy gently on the mouth. "I am so happy to see you again." His voice did not crack, it could not have done. It was the damp in his throat. That was all. "I wish I could stay here all night."

"You can't?"

Lucius shook his head.

"You hardly ever can." Percy pouted. Then he took a deep breath. "I'm so thankful to have you back. I missed you. I'm going to try to just be pleased with what I have instead of wishing for more."

"How very Gryffindor of you. That sounds like one of Dumbledore's little start-of-term homilies. Ambition is all about dissatisfaction and the striving for better. Don't lose that. Anyway," he kissed the freckles which ran across the top of Percy's nose, "I like it when you sulk about my leaving, it shows how much you want me to stay. And that pout is very pretty."

Percy laughed. "How long do we have?"

"Now?"

Percy nodded.

Lucius cast a iTempus/i. "Only another half hour now, I'm afraid. There is an important meeting at the Manor tonight." Lucius rubbed at the Dark Mark on his left arm. "Very important."

Percy ran his fingers over Lucius' jaw. "I like this."

"What?"

"The new beard."

"Beard? Oh, I see. I'm sorry, I've had so little time for personal grooming-"

"No, I mean it. It feels nice. Manly. It's nice to kiss." Percy did just that. "Now, let's see... if it takes you ten minutes to dress and freshen up-"

"Less. I am sure."

"Well then, we have at least twenty minutes to fill. I can think of a place where I would very much like to feel that new beard scraping me."

Lucius laughed. "It's not a beard; it's just a little stubble."

"Is that a refusal?"

"Certainly not," Lucius said and – for the first time that day – he sounded in his own ears as smooth and seductive as he ever had. "I have been dreaming of doing just this." He slid down the bed and positioned himself beside Percy's cock, which was stiffening already in anticipation.

"I have been dreaming of you doing it," Percy admitted, before moaning deeply as Lucius sucked.