The clerk was nervous. Severus couldn't tell if he was the cause of the nerves or if it was his reason for being in the office. Possibly it was both.

"Two arriving," the door knocker shaped like a bull's head said. The clerk sat up straighter, though Severus wasn't sure how he managed it.

The air crackled, and then his ears popped. Lucius Malfoy and a prison guard whirled into being, the guard holding the chain of the handcuffs that were the Portkey. Malfoy looked about as he had at his trial—ungroomed, unrested, unwell. His hair was a mess and streaked liberally with silver and white. He had had a wash recently; he didn't smell and he didn't have any facial hair. He wore the same gray-green velvet coat he'd had on for his trial, though it was moth-eaten around the edges from improper storage during its owner's incarceration.

Sunken gray eyes darted around the room and finally landed on Severus. Pale eyebrows rose.

"Severus?"

"Lucius."

The guard stepped between them, a ring of keys clanking as he unlocked the handcuffs. A moment later, the guard stepped back and held out Lucius's wand. His hand shook as he took it.

"Sign here," the guard instructed, holding out a quill and pointing to the parchment in front of the clerk. After a quick glance at Severus, Lucius stepped forward and signed.

"You are free to go, M-mister Malfoy," the clerk said.

Severus held the door open, then fell into step—a slow, slightly unsteady pace—as they walked to the elevator.

"Where is—?" Lucius tried, then had to stop to clear his throat. Severus waited until the gate closed them into the elevator before he spoke.

"Your daughter-in-law is in labor, or they would be here," Severus said.

"Daughter…"

"Astoria Greengrass. The younger daughter; she was two years behind Draco at Hogwarts. They reconnected in France a few years ago. They're both Healers. They married almost two years ago now."

"How long was I there?"

Severus pressed his lips together, drawing a chocolate bar from his robe pocket and handing it over. Lucius had spent the first five years of his sentence in maximum security with Dementors as guards. The last two years had been in a mid-level security, several floors away from the Dementors. He'd expected at least some news to reach him.

"Seven years. Draco negotiated your parole."

"He didn't visit."

"He wasn't allowed to. He did petition for visitation." Only in the last few years, after he'd begun seeing Astoria. Severus thought Draco had been punishing his parents by not asking to visit them, a sort of passive aggressive thing against their putting him in the horrible position during the war. They hadn't talked about it, but he thought Astoria might have brought it up. The girl was good like that.

Lucius ate half the chocolate before the elevator reached the lobby. He put it in his pocket, straightening his shoulders like he expected a crowd to be waiting to throw tomatoes at them.

"It's a Tuesday morning," Severus said. "Just a quiet morning at the Ministry."

"There aren't…"

"The world has largely moved on. Your release will be a footnote on page seven at best, and no photo. The big news will be all the births. It's always the births these days." He rolled his eyes.

"Draco's child?"

"Yes. And the Potters just had another last week. All the children from the war are having children. They're talking about splitting classes at Hogwarts a decade from now to accommodate them all."

"You're still at Hogwarts?"

"No. I'm independently wealthy. And it wouldn't have gone over well if I'd stayed at Hogwarts after that last year."

Lucius blinked, looking absolutely lost. Severus took pity on him, taking him by the elbow and Side-Along Apparating him to the cottage. The Malfoy house would be empty, and Lucius was in no state to be brought straight to St. Mungo's.

"Where are we?"

"My home."

They'd arrived at the base of the staircase, beautiful carved stone connecting the two levels of the terraced yard. There was no drive or road for the steps to connect to, just the moor, but they'd been too interesting to remove. The patch of level grass at the bottom of the steps was a perfect place for the gap in the wards traditionally placed inside the house as an Apparation room. They could look out a window and see who had arrived, and it gave them a moment to collect themselves before the visitors knocked at the door.

The cottage looked very quaint from the stairs. The ivy had been controlled, but the front of the house was still largely green. The front door was deep red, almost the same ochre color as the apron Hermione had worn in Australia. In the center of the door, a bronze door knocker, a simple ring. He half wondered if Lucius would say something about the almost-Gryffindor colors.

Inside, the entryway was bright and airy. There had once been a huge dangling chandelier in the space next to the staircase, but Hermione still had scars from the Malfoy chandelier and it had been more interesting to light the space ambiently with spells. The walls were white and speckled with framed photographs. There was a gray-blue runner up the stairs.

Lucius made a huffing noise that was probably the ghost of a chuckle, and Severus looked to see him smirking at the library. It was the most Expanded room in the house, full of overstuffed bookcases. There was barely enough room for the sofa and a few wingback armchairs. They'd raided other Prince properties for most of the furniture in the house, incorporating them bit by bit and removing hexes and curses as they went.

"That is Amelia Prince's writing desk," Lucius said, indicating the rolltop desk squeezed between two tall bookcases. "I thought the Princes had disowned your mother."

"Ah, yes. Well. Luckily, the last of them reinstituted me before they realized I was a traitor to the cause."

The silence was awkward, which was not what he'd intended.

"Is there… Where is my wife?"

"Narcissa went to St. Mungo's with Astoria this morning."

"Not Draco?"

"He was already there. She wasn't due for a few weeks yet, so he was on his shift as usual."

"I was… I think…"

"Sit down," Severus instructed, pointing at the end of the hall where the dining table was in plain view. Lucuis did as he was told. "Do you want to bathe and change first, or do you want me to tell you what happened first?"

Lucius put his hands on the table and looked down at them. Severus had never seen his nail beds so dirty.

"What happened?" Lucius looked up from his hands.

Severus sat down across from him and took a breath. He hadn't talked about the war since the year it ended. It wasn't something he liked to think about; it wasn't something anybody involved liked to talk about.

"You were sentenced to ten years. You served seven of them. Narcissa was sentenced to two years and was released after one."

"A whole year?"

"Never near the Dementors."

"Good… good."

"The summer following, Draco stayed with us at Hogwarts. Lestrange—Rabastan—and a few others that had evaded capture were making random attacks, putting up the Mark. Potter captured them, of course. Draco moved to the London house, took his N.E.W.T.s—I will let him tell you his scores. He went to France for the Healing program. I think it was good for him to get out of England. He took a placement there, brought Narcissa out with him when she was released, and that was where he and Astoria reconnected."

"Narcissa always wanted to live in France."

"She didn't like it."

"What?"

"There was one shop she told me about that had 'acceptable pastries,' but otherwise I've yet to hear a positive thing about France. And they've been back for three years."

Lucius smirked, but his eyes were sad. Severus stood and went to the kitchen to prepare tea in order to give Lucius a moment for himself.

"Mum?"

"Hugo," Severus said, looking up to see his youngest wandering in the front door. He was in jeans and a t-shirt, bare feet, his curly mop of hair messy like he'd just woken up even though it was nearing noon. He was like Bast in miniature, though his hair was a touch closer to Hermione's brown than his and Bast's jet black.

"Dad. Where's Mum?"

"Up on the landing." Trying to give Lucius his privacy.

"Mum! I can't find my socks!"

Severus shook his head, bringing the tea to the table. Bast was the climber, getting into all sorts of things. Sofia was the mouth, talking herself into corners. Elaine was the clever one, causing the sort of trouble they didn't notice until it was far too late. Hugo was the one that was always losing things, from his socks to his brother's Charms textbook.

"We ought to get you a toy wand and see if you can't get a Summoning Charm out of it," Hermione said, her voice fading as she and Hugo headed into his bedroom.

"Life goes on, hm?" Lucius said, taking the tea and slowly stirring in a dollop of honey.

"And now you're a grandfather," Severus said, smirking when Lucius's spoon rattled against the cup.