Author's note: I got about an even number of votes for forest and astrological, and an even larger number of votes for both. Thank you all for the inspiration. I think I'll have Harry painting the nursery next chapter!
The Monday of the following week, Harry reported to the Ministry's Secure Treatment Facility. Minister Fawley himself was there in Lucius' room as they prepared to release their first prisoner. Lucius' nurse already had him looking his best; freshly bathed and dressed in his finest robes with his long grey hair brushed and pulled neatly back. He had no wand, as part of his initial probationary restrictions, but he did have the Malfoy cane, which Draco had insisted upon. Lucius required a cane to walk and the Malfoy cane had the advantage of possessing a strong shield charm, which would protect him; given the lack of the wand, it might come in handy.
Elliott Kyffin, the department head Fawley had appointed to be in charge of his newly created Parole Department was there, along with Senior Auror Dragonrider. Between Kyffin and Dragonrider, they were in charge of this whole parole experiment. If something went wrong, Fawley would place the blame squarely on their shoulders. Thus they were going over the legal forms with Lucius and his attorney Peregrine, doting every I and crossing every T. They were very thorough in making sure that everyone involved understood the restrictions before Lucius was released into Harry's care.
The initial restrictions were numerous, with the parolee required to report back into Auror custody in the morning, when Harry was due for work. The plan was to slowly increase Lucius' freedoms during Harry's off hours, so that if there was any loophole they'd missed, he would be home to deal with it. Once the final terms were worked out, tested, and agreed upon by the Wizengamot, the babysitting detail would end and Lucius would be released permanently.
The goal was to have everything worked out in a month. This first day Lucius would be limited to a small part of the Manor: his bedroom, office, and personal sitting room. That would be increased to cover the entire third floor of that wing of the house, then that entire wing of the house, then the entire Manor, followed by all of the Manor grounds, and eventually all of the Malfoy family's properties within the country. The Malfoys owned multiple properties, which all had to be investigated and analyzed before he could be allowed free reign. That was one of the reasons why an entire month was needed to reach the final stage.
Traveling by non-magical means from one location to another would violate the terms of Lucius' parole, because it would involve physically passing through out of bounds areas. That was why he'd eventually be allowed to travel by both apparition and floo. It wasn't an issue yet, with him being limited to just three rooms, but it could potentially cause trouble if convicted Death Eaters were just let loose with such freedom. He might not cause any trouble, but he was only the test case upon which the releases of hundreds of other Death Eaters would be based. Thus it was critical that the parolee be tightly bound to the terms of his release.
To ensure absolute compliance to the letter of all terms, Lucius and all future parolees were to be bound with the unbreakable vow. And because his release terms were still experimental, his vow was to last only until the next morning, when he vowed to return to the Secure Treatment Facility where he was normally housed. Harry watched as Lucius vowed to abide by the law, not be involved in any Death Eater activity, never hold a wand up against a Ministry employee, and stay at Malfoy Manor, unless his life depended on it. Even if his life was in danger, he swore to only apparate to one of three places, the Secure Treatment Facility, St. Mungo's, or a halfway house for parolees that Fawley was just establishing. Because he was putting his life on the line, he was given the one out that if situations arose that would lead to his breaking this vow, he was to report immediately back to the Secure Treatment Facility and apprise an Auror.
With the vow finished, the parole office had a few forms for Lucius to sign. Once the proper signatures were in place, Dragonrider gave Harry one last reminder, "Now remember, Potter, you are not to leave him alone at Malfoy Manor. If you leave, Lucius here needs to be brought back. That includes trips to the Zabini's or the Weasley's."
Harry hadn't been to a Sunday dinner at the Weasleys in a month, since he was concerned about leaving Draco during the final trimester. Sure he had to leave his husband sometimes, including his forty hours a week spent at work, but he only did that as much as he had to. He'd even started planning his errands around Draco's waking hours, dinner being an hour his husband was almost always awake for. Thus he'd declined the last few invites to the Burrow and hadn't even bothered asking Draco to go with.
As for the Zabini's, Pansy's baby shower was this upcoming weekend. Harry had already said he'd go with Draco and when previously asked about any reason why he wouldn't be able to watch Lucius during the upcoming month, he'd revealed as much. Knowing Draco and Cissy, they would have the baby shower relocated to the Malfoy ball room just so that Lucius wouldn't be taken back to the Ministry's Holding Facility a moment early. Then again, it was last minute and Draco was approaching his eighth month, so maybe they wouldn't.
"Not to worry. I'll bring Lucius back for the shower and pick him up afterwards," Harry promised.
"That's a good chap, see that you do," Fawley said, clapping Harry on the elbow to initiate a final handshake.
Peregrine was next up with the handshake, saying, "Make sure you take care of my client, Auror Potter. It was good doing business with you."
Dragonrider and Kyffin shook Harry's hand as well and with that, Lucius was left in his care. He side alonged them to the designated sitting room, which was in the same wing of the house Harry and Draco used, but one floor up. Harry knew it as Cissy's sitting room, but it had always been shared by the couple. Lucius' bedroom was the next door over and also shared. His office was conveniently located off of his sitting room. From the time he was a child, until the war, he had control of the entire floor, with a private bedroom, sitting room, drawing room, office, and potion laboratory, but half of those rooms were off limits for now. Before those rooms could be added to his list of acceptable locations, the Auror department would have to go through them with a fine toothed comb and ensure that there was nothing dangerous in them. Given that it had taken the entire week just to clear these three rooms, it would probably take a while.
Cissy greeted Lucius with a plethora of arduous kisses, which Harry didn't want to see, so he slipped out of the room. Harry went downstairs, where he retrieved Eiona from an elf in the nursery, Draco still being asleep for the regular afternoon nap. He brought his daughter up to see her grandfather, clearing his throat loudly upon his re-entry, to make sure the older couple knew he was there. Lucius and Cissy broke apart from their kiss then, Lucius greeting his granddaughter enthusiastically. "Eiona! My precious granddaughter! Come to Grandfather for some kisses!"
After Eiona came and was kissed to the point of fussing, Lucius finally changed gears. "Where is Draco?" Lucius asked, letting Eiona down.
"Asleep," Harry replied.
"He'll be up by dinner time," Cissy added.
"I am eager to see him," Lucius said.
"And why is that? You saw him just last week." Harry pointed out. "You're not planning on causing any trouble, are you?"
"No, on the contrary. I am eagerly awaiting the addition of my grandson. In the meantime, I shall endeavor to play with my precious Ipheion," Lucius said to Harry, before turning to Eiona and using a higher voice. "Eiona, dear! Come back to grandfather."
Eiona looked torn between going to the adults and continuing her attempt at climbing up the display case in the room, trying to reach a crystal serpent that was slithering realistically and making hissing noises as its tongue darted in and out of its mouth. It was just like her to go for the most dangerous looking thing in the room.
"Grandfather has a surprise for you," Lucius said, holding out his arms, his cane propped up on the side of the rocker.
Eiona abandoned the crystal snake and toddled over to Lucius. He sat down on the settee with her and helped her climb up into his lap. He then picked up a lollipop from the end table and offered it to her. She took it with a smile, popped into her mouth, and snuggled into the old man.
"Such a good girl," Lucius said, stroking Eiona's blond curls. "She reminds me of my Cissy."
"Lucius?" Harry asked, wanting to get this over with, before Draco woke.
"Yes Harry?"
"Next week Draco and I have a court date," Harry said. It would be the first since Draco had agreed to put the divorce on hold. "I plan on asking the court to throw out the case. If Draco seconds the motion, it will be the end of the divorce." The documents they'd filed would still be in the records and the divorce could be reinitiated for up to twelve months, but as long as neither of them did anything, it would be the end of the divorce proceedings.
"And you wish to know what I think of this? You are not certain enough of your husband's mind to trust that his father has no sway?" Lucius asked, eyeing Harry quizzically.
"I just want to know what you and Cissy are thinking. I didn't ask your permission to seek Draco's hand and I should have. Now I am on the verge of having him back permanently and I am asking your approval," Harry clarified.
With the way things were going, the divorce was all but officially canceled. Harry and Draco's marriage was stronger than ever, with the two of them communicating openly and honestly on a regular basis. Harry was so close to his goal of permanently getting his family back that he could taste it. But, he didn't know how Lucius' return would affect that, which made him nervous. Plus, he'd been so busy lately preparing for the new baby and pampering Draco that he hadn't had a chance to volunteer at the Secure Treatment Facility. In fact, he hadn't seen Lucius since Christmas.
"Divorce is unbefitting of a Malfoy and should only be undertaken with the most extreme circumstances," Lucius answered.
"Er…" Harry wasn't sure if this qualified as extreme circumstances or not, he was after all, a halfblood and the Savior of the Wizarding World.
"Mister Potter, I would never sacrifice my son's happiness for my own means. I am grateful to you for helping to obtain my release, but if you ever treat my son that way again, I will personally murder you with my bare hands if I must. I don't care if my parole and my wand are dependent on good behavior," Lucius warned.
"And if I do my best to treat him right? I promise to never treat him like that again. I was selfish and inconsiderate of his feelings and what's worse was that I didn't realize he was sick."
"Then I hold marriage with the upmost sanctity and you will not have a problem from me," Lucius answered.
"Welcome back to the family Harry," Cissy concluded from her husband's side.
Harry sighed with relief, the Lucius hurdle navigated. With Draco's parents on his side, things were looking up. They'd soon go to court and dismiss the entire divorce case. And it wouldn't be long after that until their son comes into the world. Everything would turn out alright.
Harry sat down on Eiona's other side on the settee and Cissy squeezed in next to Lucius. Together the three adults happily listened to Eiona narrate a story she was acting out between her favorite toy ant, a hybrid ant/beetle, a wooden unicorn, and a stuffed dog. Eiona had pushed the unicorn into Lucius' hands and he was now moving the figurine in a galloping like motion and making neighing sounds whenever Eiona pushed her ant towards him. Cissy had the stuffed dog and she reached out to tickle Eiona with it whenever the ant went her way. Harry had the hybrid bug, which he was pretending was munching on the sofa, until Eiona's ant came back over to scold him again.
"An' isses," Eiona said, holding the ant out to her grandmother and making a kissing noise.
Cissy was having her stuffed dog kiss Eiona's ant back when Draco entered the room.
"Father!" Draco exclaimed, rushing forward as fast as he could in his heavily pregnant state.
Lucius lifted Eiona off of his lap, handing her over to Harry. He rose up, reaching an arm out to Cissy to steady him on his crippled legs, and embraced his son. "Draco," he breathed lovingly.
Harry got up with Eiona, both in order to hug Draco and so that his husband could have his seat.
"Thank you for getting my father back. Our lives will be so much fuller now that we have the grandfather of our children living with us," Draco said to Harry, returning the hug vigorously.
They took dinner in that sitting room that evening, Draco and Eiona both staying up well past the typical hour. Harry saw them both to bed, before taking the usual time to himself. Cissy was there to help with Eiona, but with Draco so heavily pregnant, Harry felt obligated to take care of his daughter himself when he could. It wasn't as simple as before, because he was no longer dropping his daughter off and leaving; now she was always just in the next room over and hard to ignore.
Freshly showered and dressed in his pajamas, Harry headed back up to the approved sitting room. He intended to see Lucius to bed as well, after all, he was responsible for the man, but from the stairway he could tell that the room was dark, the wall sconces having been extinguished. When he gained the landing, the sitting room was empty. The lights were off too in the bedroom and for a moment he thought Lucius and Cissy had gone to sleep. Then he noticed the light coming from under the door to Lucius' office.
Harry let himself into the office, both his father-in-law and an old male elf looking up at him as the door opened. It wasn't often that Harry saw the old elf, who kept well out of the way and never tended the humans of the house, but he knew it was Doddy. Doddy had been Dobby's father and was Dobson and Dotty's grandfather. Doddy was standing on a chair next to the one Lucius was seated in and they were both bent over a large desk strewn with bits of silicone, solder, half assembled computer chips, and paper; not parchment, but muggle paper.
"What's going on?" Harry asked, surprised.
"I am catching up for lost time. I can sleep while you are at work, Harry," Lucius answered.
Harry blinked, opening and closing his mouth a few times while thoughts formed in his head. It didn't help that it'd been a long day and he was tired. It hadn't occurred to him that Lucius would do anything other than sleep during nights of freedom. Now that it was happening, he couldn't come up with anything against it, although he had a vague sense that there was something wrong with it. Lucius should be with Cissy, catching up with the wife he hadn't been alone with since the end of the war, not working. If it were Harry, he'd be shagging Draco senseless right about now; he shuddered to think of Lucius doing so with Cissy, but still, this wasn't right.
"Yeah, but what are you doing?" Harry finally got around to asking.
"Elves do not learn to make computer chips on their own, Harry, surely that must be self-evident. Muggles, on the other hand, do not purchase outmoded computer chips. I am not sure if you are familiar with muggle technology, but it is basically replaced every two years and I have been locked up for three. The chips Doddy here makes are currently selling for a fraction of what they were when I taught him to make them. Thus I am attempting to train the elf to make the latest model." Towards the end, Lucius indicated both the partial computer chip and the papers.
Peering over the desk, Harry saw the papers were indeed technical manufacturing details on the production of muggle computer chips. "Where did you get those?" he asked, referring to the papers. He was aware of the elf's manufacture of computer chips in the house, so none of the rest of it was out of the ordinary. The computer stuff and the elf had even been in the room, where they always were, when the Aurors had cleared it.
"Cissy obtained them for me. I assure you that she paid for the proper license from the muggle inventor." With that Lucius rose from his chair and began leafing through his filing cabinet and pulled out a file folder. He removed a thick stack of muggle paper, bound with a clip, and handed it over for Harry to see.
The papers were the bill of sale of manufacturing rights for computer chips. Harry didn't know what to make of them. He blinked, taken aback. He'd been positive he spoke muggle—he even could've sworn the muggles spoke the same language wizards did—but looking at those papers, he started to second guess himself; there were just so many words that he didn't know. There was more blinking and more mouth gaping before Lucius said, "See here," and pointed out the date and signature, which were really the only relevant parts. Lucius had a filing cabinet full of similar muggle papers and the only thing that made this one different was that it was new, dated last month and signed by Cissy as the purchaser.
"Right," Harry said slowly, finally processing that everything going on was legal. "And why aren't you spending the night with your wife? You know, doing conjugal stuff?" He waved his hands around in the air, as if to indicate the words he didn't want to say.
"Frankly, I do not think that is any of your business," Lucius answered in a stern tone, as if he were in charge here, not the other way around.
It was only then that it occurred to Harry that inmates at the Secure Holding Facility were allowed conjugal visits; Lucius even had a bed. His mouth fell open in a silent oh. Then he closed it, before finally asking, "And are you going to be at this all night?"
"Yes. Elves do not learn quickly and this is a highly complicated task; there is a reason why all wizards do not attempt elven manufacture. I happen to have a special knack," here the elf winced, indicating just what sort of knack Lucius had, "for the process."
Harry groaned, thinking of Hermione. "You know Fawley is reforming house elf-rights, don't you? If you hurt him," here he was referring to the elf, not the Minister, "your role as poster-boy for the probation program is history."
"Harry, I have no plans on laying a hand on this elf ever again." Doddy's ears perked up, his neck straightening to hold his high head higher. "Doddy is already highly trained and repetition should be enough for him to learn." The elf's head went back down. "I plan on working with Doddy here all night, every night, for the next month if I have to. Doddy will learn and the Malfoy family will make money again."
"Right. And Doddy? Is this true? You haven't been hurt?" Harry asked, turning to the elf.
"Yes, Master Harry Potter, sir. Doddy is not being hurt." The yet was implied.
"See to it that it stays that way, yeah Lucius?" Harry asked.
Lucius nodded. Harry nodded back; finally satisfied, he turned and left, going to join Draco in bed.
Author's note: It took me a while to figure it out, but I decided the computer chips should be Lucius' first order of business. After all, the Malfoy family's income has been on the decline for years now, while their numbers keep growing. It's time he made some money. Lucius seems like the type to put money first, above family, and he has been allowed plenty of visitation with his family while incarcerated.
Up next there will have to be more Lucius and a court date for Draco and Harry. Very soon the divorce will officially be history! Please Review!