"You will have to do something, Shackelbolt, you have allowed my son and that mudblood whore of his far too much leeway already. You are jeopardizing our position." Kingsley flushed at Lucius casual use of the derogatory term and placed his glass of sixty year old Firewhiskey onto the side table.
"Our position, Lucius? Don't you mean mine?"
"I meant precisely what I said. I warned you to rid yourself of my son, he is cleverer than you on his worst day, and despite her unfortunate lineage Hermione Granger is one of the most powerful intellects in the wizarding world. You should have loosed Potter on them long ago then denied knowledge and had him Kissed. Kill three birds with one stone."
"Including your son and heir? Isn't that a little counter productive?"
"I am young enough to have another heir and Draco has proven himself, not suitable for the position. I will not have halfblood children in my bloodline."
"Potter is too useful, and public opinion still paints him the hero. And your son and the Granger girl haven't done anything I can pin on them to justify taking action against them. Not that I think they've done nothing, I simply can't find the first shred of evidence of it. They're also popular, Lucius, incredibly popular, and that protects them in and of itself."
"You should have had them both killed before it had a chance to go this far."
"I tried to get Granger shortly after she stole your sons wand out of my office. You recall how that turned out. She killed all but one of the werewolves I set up for the job and your son liquefied the last one. Liquified him, Lucius. Do you have any concept of how much power that takes? Rumor has it he doesn't even carry a wand, that he doesn't need it. If that's the case he might be a match for Potter. We need to keep Potter alive just in case that's true. If it is Harry might be the only one who could kill him."
"It should be true." Lucius smiled. "Pity he became soft in that exile. Had he remained true to his roots things would be much different by now."
"Oh yes, we'd be enslaved by a demented half blood Dark Lord instead, there's an improvement."
"You would be ruled by a wise council of purebloods who had the sense to get rid of the Dark Lord once he served his purpose. Voldemort was simply a means to an end, Shackelbolt. Once his usefulness was at an end he would have been replaced."
"By you and then Draco?" Lucius smirked. Kingsley smirked back.
"I think, Lucius, that your reign would have been short. Isn't murder the normal way for dark pureblood families to pass the torch from one generation to the next?" The smirk dropped and Lucius vanished the drinks with a wave of his hand.
"I think you must have better things to do than gossip like an old woman, Minister. And I certainly do. I shall attempt to succeed where you dare not move. You should have deniability." Kingsley inclined his head in agreement and rose.
"Oh, Lucius? Be careful. If this goes wrong I won't hestitate to throw you to the dogs." The door closed with a soft click and Lucius chuckled.
"Bloody Hufflepuffs. You cannot kill a ghost." He summoned another tumbler of whiskey and swirled it thoughtfully, plans forming in his mind.