Over the next few days Lucius did more physical labor than he had ever done in his entire life. His hands were sore from scrubbing, his feet were sore from too much standing, and he was sporting all sorts of bruises that he didn't know the cause of. He had gotten to know Marty a little better as well. Surprisingly, this had been the best part of the entire mess he'd found himself in.

Marty had a sense of humor that he had never seen in a woman before. Bellatrix Lestrange had a very brutal and cruel sense of humor and while Marty had a tendency to be very honest in the things she said, there wasn't a cruel bone in her body. In fact, Marty was quite insistent on being nice even though Lucius had sneered at her more than once for acting like a Muggle. Of course, that had made Marty act like a Muggle even more just to spite him.

"Guess what?" Granger squealed as she ran into the kitchen a piece of paper clutched in her fist. It was lined and white which made it Muggle. Marty paused in her chopping.

"What?" she asked.

"Mum and Dad are coming tomorrow!" she said. Marty gave a genuine noise of happiness but Lucius was confused. On the one hand, he had not yet dealt with Muggles directly since he had defected and he was honestly wishing he wouldn't have to. But on the other hand, he was thoroughly curious about how Granger's parents could interact with the eclectic group of people that had gathered at Odie's motel.

"Why are they coming?" Lucius asked.

"Mum and Dad are dentists," she replied. "They come in and help the werewolves and homeless Muggleborns with their teeth."

"Really?" Lucius asked surprised. He had known-for decades-that a large portion of the Magical homeless population consisted of Muggleborns and werewolves. That had always just been fact and most people easily ignored it. Especially when those people were from Lucius's own social class and clubs. He had never known that there were places that they could go to get help with anything, least of all their teeth.

"Yeah," Granger said, her smile still stretching across her face. "I'm going to go find Harry. He has a molar that's been bothering him."

"Bye!" Marty shouted after her as the girl ran out of the kitchen as quickly as she'd come in. "Have you ever met her parents?"

"No," Lucius replied honestly. He had seen the Muggles in Diagon Alley once a few years ago but he had never spoken to them. At the time, such a thing would have been beneath him. He still wasn't sure if he was going to talk to them.

"They're very kind," Marty said. "And they're very supportive of Hermione being a witch. You don't always see that with Muggle families."

"No, I guess not," he said quietly, not sure how he was supposed to respond to such a statemate. Thankfully, Fenrir wandered in at that point.

"Hermione said her dentist parents are coming tomorrow," he told them.

"We know," Marty said, tossing him an orange before he could stick his dirty hands in the box next to her. He smiled a thanks and began eat the orange, rind and all. Tucked underneath his arm was a book that Lucius was now familiar with.

Fenrir had somehow located a battered copy of Potter's book in one of the empty rooms and had been reading it ever since. It had been decades since Fenrir had picked up a newspaper much less a novel and he was trying to plough through it on his own. Granger could sometimes be seen helping him relearn how to read certain words and phrases. Fenrir said it was a good book but Lucius doubted he would be reading it especially after Fenrir had told him that his son really was a little prat.

He didn't like his parenting failures thrown in his face. He was perfectly aware that Draco was spoilt and he was also perfectly aware that his son was quite hateful towards Muggleborns and Muggles. It had never been a concern for him until now.

"Are you going to grab an appointment with them?" Marty asked, cutting through Lucius's thoughts and bringing him back to the conversation about Granger's dentist parents.

"I think so," Fenrir said. "My fangs hurt sometimes. What can they do for that though? They're Muggles." It was a perfectly innocent question but Marty didn't really see it that way. Their reputations as killers and Death Eaters had not even been marginally wiped away in the time they'd been with Odie. People didn't trust them and they didn't expect them too. There was far too much blood on the page to expect a simple defection to wipe it all clean.

"Just because they're Muggles doesn't mean they're useless," Marty snapped. Fenrir put his hands up in a gesture of peace.

"I didn't mean anything by it," he said. "I was just asking." Marty eyed him critically. However, after a moment her tense shoulders relaxed and she continued with a much more civil tone.

"They'll be able to do more for you than you think," she said. "Just give them a chance."

"Alright," Fenrir said and left. Once Lucius finished chopping he followed him, glad to leave the remaining awkward atmosphere behind him.

00000

Lucius started to wander back to his room but came across Potter and Granger whispering in the walkway. Granger was still holding her letter from her parents and was shaking her head furiously at whatever Potter was saying. He was nodding and clearly trying to convince her of something. Lucius would have normally ignored it but they were standing right in front of his door.

"Hem, hem," he coughed, not politely but quite sardonically. Both teens immediately fell silent and looked at him. "What are you two doing?"

"Nothing," they said at the same time. Lucius wasn't convinced. He may not have been the most present father but he recognized a teenaged cover up when he saw one.

"Doesn't look like nothing," he said. Potter puffed up, pulling at the hem of his Hawaiian shirt, and shuffled his bare feet.

"It's none of your business," he said. Lucius raised an eyebrow at him.

"Just ask him Harry," Granger whispered. "You never know."

"Ask me what?" Lucius asked. Potter was shaking his head so furiously at Granger that Lucius was surprised the boy's glasses didn't fly off his face and shatter.

"What exactly are you planning?" she asked suddenly. Lucius could tell that it wasn't the question Potter had expected her to ask. He was looking at her in surprise, a bit slack jawed but Granger ignored him completely.

"Excuse me?" Lucius asked, not understanding what she was fishing for. There were quite a few different ways that he could answer such a question.

"With this whole 'reforming' thing," Granger said, eyeing him with narrowed eyes and clear suspicion on her face. She hadn't looked at him that way in a while and he was surprised to find that it made him uncomfortable.

"I'm doing exactly what I told you I was doing," he said. "The Dark Lord has gone too far."

"How far is 'too far'?" Potter asked.

"More than you could stomach," Lucius said truly believing that. He had been there when the Dark Lord had tried-and failed-to kill Potter in the graveyard. The thought itself hadn't bothered him in the slightest. He wasn't doing this for Potter, he was doing it for Draco. His spoiled and naive son who would get himself killed if Lucius didn't find a way to get rid of the Dark Lord from their lives once and for all.

"The type of devotion you had," Granger said, "to Him. That doesn't just break. Most people like you would be proud to think their son was following in their footsteps. So why not you? What really happened?"

"I haven't lied to you," Lucius said.

"I didn't say you lied to me," she sent back. She was smarter than he had thought. She definitely understood the subtlety of words. "I said you haven't given me everything."

"You don't need to know," he told them firmly. "If Odie or Dumbledore need to know, I'll tell them but you don't need to know." They looked thoroughly put-out by such a thought and he was instantly reminded at how meddlesome these two had a tendency to be. They may have been down a member but they were still relentless.

"Whatever," Potter said, seemingly dismissing the conversation but Lucius expected to hear of it again soon. "I've got something I need you to do."

"I'm not at your beck and call Potter," Lucius snapped. He may have had his back against the wall but that didn't give Potter any right to boss him around.

"Technically, you're still our prisoner," Granger said. "You don't really have a choice." Lucius looked at her coldly knowing that she was right but not wanting to admit it, even to himself. The two of these kids had already kept him in line on their own but now there was Odie to worry about. One word from either of them and Lucius was likely to end up dead. He had yet to see Papa Odie display any kind of significant power but Severus had already backed up everything that he had heard about the tattooed man. And Severus he was willing to believe.

"What do you want from me?" Lucius asked.

"World Peace," Potter said, snidely and then winced when Granger's foot landed solidly on his toes. "Ow, Hermione. Fine. I need your help is what I need."

"For what?"

"The Ministry Hearing," Potter said and Lucius remembered that the boy was going up against Fudge for underage Magic. The reaction at the Ministry to Potter's Patronus charm had-in his opinion-been completely ridiculous. Not because everyone was fighting about whether there had actually been a dementor but because a criminal court was being used to try the boy. It didn't matter how famous Potter was or how many buttons he had pushed. Fudge looked like idiot for blowing it all out of proportion.

"What could I do?" he asked and Potter gave him an annoyed look.

"Seriously?" he asked. Granger jumped in before he could go on a tangent that was deeply insulting and in no way helpful to anyone.

"Your son has made it quite clear that you have deep influence in the Ministry," she said. Lucius nodded. It had hardly been a difficult matter to get Fudge wrapped around his finger. "Harry has to return to Hogwarts. Can you help with that?"

"Probably," he said. "What's in it for me?"

"I won't let Papa Odie eat you for breakfast," Potter replied, his arms crossed, daring Lucius to challenge him. Since he wasn't entirely sure if Potter was just being sarcastic or not he swallowed, and made up his mind.

"Fine," he replied. "I'll need proper clothes."

"I think Papa Odie has some dress shirts stashed away somewhere," Granger said, darting forward and grabbing him tightly around the wrist. "Let's look."

She and Potter led him away from his room and to another room he hadn't been in before. It was packed with clothes and shoes, some hanging on racks, some spilling out of dresser drawers, and some folded in piles on the floor. The two teenagers began looking for clothes that he could wear to Ministry without looking like a fool.

"Don't you think people are wondering where you've been?" Potter asked, the thought clearly just occurring to him.

"Narcissa is efficient at handling curious lackeys," Lucius said quietly, sitting in a chair and mostly ignoring them. Granger hummed.

"Ah! Lookit what I found!" Potter shouted gleefully and held up a t-shirt with a word on it Lucius didn't recognize.

"Spew?" he asked. "Is that some sort of Muggle thing?" Granger immediately threw a shoe at Potter in a weak attempt to shut him up but the boy simply ducked.

"The more you eat the more S.P.E.W., spew!" he sang, doing an odd dance with his hips. Granger was torn between abject fury and giggling madly at Potter's antics. It was the oddest expression he'd ever seen on her face.

"What is Spew?" he asked, again, hoping for an actual answer.

"It's not spew," Granger snapped. "It's S.P.E.W. The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."

"I've never heard of it," he said.

"That was because Hermione could never get anyone to join," Potter said throwing the shirt aside and continuing to search.

"You and Ron joined," Granger said, hands on her hips.

"By force," Potter said. "Ah ha! Try this." He tossed a white shirt that was horribly wrinkled but Lucius tried it on anyway. It fit well enough and the plain white fabric wouldn't give away anything.

"I still need pants, shoes, and a light robe."

"People don't wear robes here," Granger said.

"I had gathered that," Lucius said. "However, people at the Ministry do wear robes and I would prefer to attract as little attention as possible, thank you."

"You're very welcome," Potter replied knowing full well that Lucius held no gratitude towards them but couldn't resist the opportunity to push back at him. Potter grinned cheekily. The two went back to searching through the piles of clothes and this time Lucius joined them. There wasn't much of a selection in the room and he was trying to avoid thinking about how these clothes had all ended up here.

However, ten minutes later when he turned around he found Granger and Potter thoroughly distracted. Granger had pulled on a bright green sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off and the hood pulled over her head. It clashed with the bright orange shorts and the pink sunglasses with no lens in one eye. She was hopping around, trying to get a pair of black boots with sequins on her feet, her tongue sticking out in concentration.

Potter was looking equally ridiculous. He had found a bright orange, blue, and pink striped shirt, red pants, and white shoes. His hair had managed to find a new level of untidiness and there was a green boa draped over his shoulders. The two of them were laughing hysterically at themselves.

"What are you two doing?"

Lucius wished he had been the one to ask that question but he was too shocked by their state of dress to manage to words. He had never seen Granger act so goofy nor had he heard of her being capable of acting goofy.

Everyone in the room turned to find a new person at the doorway.

Lucius recognized him immediately as Ronald Weasley and his father was standing at his shoulder. He felt his cheeks heat up faintly at the prospect of Arthur Weasley knowing about what had been happening. But the man didn't seem interested in him at all.

"Do we looking dashing Ronald?" Potter asked, in a false, simpering tone.

"Not really," Ron replied, trying not to laugh at the state of his friends. "What's he doing here?"

Arthur's attention was suddenly on Lucius who had a moment of panic. Ron clearly hadn't been told about the events of the last few weeks and Lucius wondered how much Arthur knew. Probably everything considering he was fairly close to Dumbledore and a suspected member of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Malfoy," Arthur greeted politely. Lucius nodded back.

"Weasley," he replied. It was tense exchange and he hadn't expected it to be any different. "I wasn't aware you knew Odie."

"Of course," Arthur replied, still coldly polite. "He sends me spark plugs every Christmas."

"C'mon, Ron," Potter replied one hand wrapped around Granger's wrist dragging her towards the door. He grabbed the young Weasley's wrist on his way out of the door. "I'll fill you in on everything and you can fill me in on everything. That way we're all filled in and the awkwardness of this room is far behind us. Let's GO!"

The last Potter shouted just loud enough for the two adults still in the room to hear. Lucius was suddenly wishing that Potter and Granger hadn't left. He had no desire to be alone with Weasley. And yet, that was exactly where he found himself.

Weasley didn't look smug but he did look as if he wanted answers from Lucius.

"Dumbledore told us about what happened," he said quietly, stepping fully into the room. "He seemed to think Harry vouching for you at Willow Point was enough. I'm not so sure however."

"I know," Lucius said not even remotely surprised that Weasley seemed to know the inner workings of the Muggleborn community. In fact, he was certain that Weasely would be the only Pureblood expert on the piece of world Lucius had suddenly found himself in.

"There's a lot of bad blood between our families," he said.

"I know."

"But I hear you're looking to make amends."

"Yes."

"Well, then. Good luck."

"Really?" Lucius asked, thoroughly surprised. "That's all you have to say about this?"

"I have plenty to say about this," Arthur said sternly. Lucius was aware that Arthur was likely the most influential in this place. He knew more about Lucius than Granger or Potter did and would likely feel no qualms about telling Odie everything.

"That isn't my place though," Arthur continued. "If Odie wants to take you into his little Kingdom that's his business. Just don't expect anything from me. Ever."

And with that cold-but admittedly deserved-reply, Arthur disappeared and Lucius was left alone in a pile of clothes to search for something he could wear to help Potter out of a mess with the Ministry.

It was hard to imagine that this was his life now.