Sitting alone in his holding cell at Azkaban, Lucius prepared himself for the day ahead as he was due to go to the Ministry and receive the verdict of his two day trial. He wasn't a stupid man and he knew full well that he would be returning to Azkaban once the verdict was read, only this time there would be no leaving again. He was about to be imprisoned for life for his crimes as a Death Eater.
Lucius knew he was facing life imprisonment as his was the final trial, and the precedent had already been set with the earlier trials. The trials had started six weeks after Voldemort's downfall, starting with those facing lesser charges and ending with the most influential Death Eaters. Lucius was actually proud of the fact his trial was the last as it meant that the Ministry viewed him as the most dangerous Death Eater left alive.
Despite being in holding cell in Azkaban, Lucius still knew the verdicts of other trials as his lawyer visited him every couple of days and kept him abreast of the latest news. The first people to be tried were Draco's classmates, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson and Vincent Crabbe. They were the youngest marked Death Eaters, and although the only battle they'd taken part in was the final battle, they were made an example of. They each received a year in Azkaban, with their future magic then subject to monitoring for the next ten years.
The verdict had shocked many people, but it was a sign that the Ministry weren't going to be lenient this time around. Association with the Death Eaters was going to lead to incarceration, no matter who you were or how old you were. After the first verdicts, every other Death Eater then received a custodial sentence, the only difference being the length of the sentence which varied from prisoner to prisoner.
Much to Lucius's annoyance, one of the lesser sentences went to Nott. He was only sent to Azkaban for three years, and that was for taking the mark in the first place. He was virtually pardoned for events of recent years, and was in fact praised for keeping his son and Blaise Zabini out of the clutches of The Dark Lord. Lucius had been fuming when he'd heard that Nott had saved Theo and Blaise, and if he'd been free, he would have made sure the other wizard had paid for his betrayal of Voldemort. However, he was stuck in Azkaban with no way of getting to Nott, so for now the other wizard was safe.
It was via his lawyer that Lucius discovered that both Draco and Severus Snape had avoided even being arrested, let alone put on trial. Yet again, Dumbledore had stood up for Snape and claimed he was working as a spy all along and was never loyal to Voldemort. Lucius had thought Snape was just taking advantage of Dumbledore and his trustful nature after the headmaster had saved him following the first war, but now he knew the truth. Snape was a traitor, and his loyalty had always been to Dumbledore rather than The Dark Lord.
As for Draco, Lucius wasn't really surprised that his son avoided being arrested. Too many people knew the story of how he'd been forced to do Voldemort's bidding, and Lucius suspected quite a few of them felt pity for his son. More than likely Draco had been let go without and charges because the Ministry felt sorry for him. Not only had he been forced into serving Voldemort, but his daughter had been killed in the process.
At the thought of the daughter his son had lost, Lucius let out a low cackle. His lawyer hadn't been able to give him any information about Draco's personal life, so he didn't know if Hermione was still standing by him, but Lucius doubted it. It had now been three months since Voldemort had fallen, and in Lucius's opinion that was more than enough time for Hermione to have dealt with her loss and decided that Draco was to blame for the death of their little girl. After all, Voldemort had only killed her because Draco had failed him.
Lucius was still thinking about what his son's life was now going to be like when the guards appeared to escort him to the Ministry to hear the verdict. Lucius didn't put up any sort of resistance as the guards magically cuffed him and escorted him to the Ministry. He was then placed in a waiting room beside the courtroom until he was called to hear the verdict.
As he sat and waited for his name to be called, Lucius thought back over the previous two days of his trial. Every Death Eater had been given the chance to defend their actions and Lucius had been no different. However, unlike some people who tried to backtrack and say they were forced into doing what they did, Lucius had stood proud and openly admitted that if he had the chance again, he would still join The Dark Lord. He knew he was destined to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban, so he wasn't going to deny his dark allegiance. It had been different after the first war, when Lucius had managed to avoid jail by doing just that, but this time The Dark Lord wasn't coming back. He was gone and the war was lost.
When the door to the room he was sitting in suddenly opened, Lucius looked up expecting to find the guards ready to escort him into the courtroom, but instead it was his lawyer that entered. Lucius's lawyer, an old wizard named Hugo Mann, had served the Malfoys for years and was paid a healthy retainer for his services, but Lucius knew that upon the verdict the pair would be going their separate directions. It wasn't as if he was going to be needing a lawyer where he was going.
"Is there a problem?" Lucius asked his lawyer.
"No, just a few things I thought we should deal with before you go into court," Hugo replied, removing several pieces of parchment from his briefcase.
"Our final bit of business," Lucius chuckled.
"You could say that," Hugo replied. "We both know what's going to happen to you today, Lucius."
"Indeed we do," Lucius answered, knowing his lawyer was watching him to see if he regretted the actions that had led him down this path.
The truth was, he didn't and while going to Azkaban for the rest of his life wasn't ideal, it was something Lucius had made peace with. The dark may have lost the war and he may be classed among the losers, but in the most important ways Lucius had emerged victorious from the war. He'd managed to get rid of the half breed granddaughter his son had produced, and give the Malfoy name the chance to start over. Draco could now go on and have legitimate, pureblood heirs with his first daughter dead before she reached her first birthday.
"You really don't regret anything, do you?" Hugo questioned. Even though he'd known Lucius for decades, and had helped him escape prison after the first war, he was still taken aback by the callous man in front of him.
"Not a thing," Lucius confirmed. "Granted, I wish the result of the final battle had been different, but there was nothing I could do to prevent that. But as for my own actions, I don't regret any of them."
Shaking his head sadly, Hugo began to sort through the papers that he needed Lucius to sign. "First of all we have the transfer deed for all the Malfoy money, houses and businesses."
"Do you really think Draco will take this?" Lucius asked as he signed the required forms which would make his son one of the richest wizards in the country.
"I don't know, but even if he refuses, everything will be transferred into his name the second you're sentenced to life imprisonment. As a life-long resident of Azkaban, you lose everything. I guess if Draco refuses to take his inheritance now, it'll just sit in his name until he's ready to accept it."
"Is that it?" Lucius asked, seeing that there were more papers he'd yet to sign.
"There is one more thing," Hugo said hesitantly, unsure of how Lucius would react to the papers he next wanted him to sign. "Divorce papers from Narcissa."
"Divorce?" Lucius snarled, genuinely shocked by the news that his wife had filed for divorce.
He'd never heard one peek from Narcissa since his arrest, but he'd never thought she would try and divorce him. He was positive she would just get on with her life and try to forget he ever existed. But yet here she was, trying to do the impossible and divorce him. Divorce wasn't easy in the wizarding would and a marriage would only be ended for a valid reason, but as purebloods both he and Narcissa had been raised not to believe in divorce. For them marriage was for life, no matter what state the marriage was in or the trials and tribulations it suffered.
"I won't sign," Lucius declared angrily. "I will not let her go."
"You won't have much choice in the long run, Lucius," Hugo said. "Narcissa had already placed the application with the Ministry. Even if you refuse to sign, they'll look at the facts and give her what she wants. All I'm trying to do is quicken things up and lessen the hurt all around."
"You mean lessen Narcissa's hurt," Lucius spat. "You want to help her avoid being referred to as the wife of a notorious Death Eater. Well tough, that's exactly what she is. She is my wife, and I will not sign one thing that ends our marriage. Let the Ministry do as they wish, but in my heart Narcissa will be my wife until the day I die."
"Very well," Hugo muttered with a resigned sigh as he returned the papers into his briefcase.
He hadn't really expected Lucius to give Narcissa an easy divorce, but at least Lucius hadn't kicked up a fuss about transferring the Malfoy fortune into his son's name. Although if he knew certain things, Hugo was convinced that Lucius wouldn't have done that either and he would have found some way to try and deny Draco his rightful inheritance. But it was too late for that now, the second Lucius had signed the papers he became a pauper and his son took over as head of the family.
"Do you think we can get this over with sometime today," Lucius snapped, growing impatient of waiting for a verdict that he already knew.
"It should be any minute now," Hugo answered.
Two minutes later the door opened again and the guards entered to escort Lucius into court. With his lawyer at his side, Lucius walked into the courtroom with his head held high. Settling down at the defendants table, he ignored the guards securing him to the chair as his piercing grey eyes swept along the spectator gallery. As with the previous two days there was no sign of his wife or son, but there were plenty of people he knew.
Right at the front of the spectators sat Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, both of whom had testified against Lucius. Next to Harry sat Draco's best friends, Blaise and Theo. They'd both been present since the start of the trial and Lucius was sure that they were reporting back to Draco. Giving his son's friends a smirk to let them know he didn't regret a thing, Lucius turned his head back to the front of the room as he watched the Wizengamot file into the room and take their seats.
Finally, the acting Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shackelbolt entered the courtroom and settled down in his seat. However, before he could begin the side door to the court opened and everyone turned in their seats to witness a composed looking Narcissa Malfoy entering the room, with Severus Snape at her side.
Lucius gasped at the surprise sight of his wife, but his face soon set in a hard scowl as Narcissa sat down next to Severus and the Potions Professor took hold of her hand. Lucius growled at the sight of another wizard touching his wife, and suddenly Narcissa's desire for a divorce made sense. She wasn't just wanting to get away from him, she was wanting to be with Severus, and Lucius wasn't having any of it. He would fight the divorce with everything he had and it would be a cold day in hell before he let Severus Snape take his wife off him.
Lucius was still smarting over seeing Narcissa and Severus together when he received a further shock as Draco then appeared through the side door. Draco paused in the doorway, his grey eyes locking onto his father's. Lucius had expected to see grief in Draco's expression after all he'd suffered, but instead his son smirked at him and Lucius felt his blood run cold as Draco stepped to one side and a brunette witch entered the room carrying a cute, blonde little girl.
"No," Lucius wailed, recognising the witch as Hermione Granger.
"Yes," Draco hissed, loud enough for Lucius to hear him. "We win father."
"It's not possible," Lucius seethed, turning to his lawyer. "How is this possible? How does the brat live?"
"Our daughter lives because people protected her. Dumbledore protected her," Hermione answered, knowing that everyone in the court was listening and watching Lucius's humiliation. "Instead of dying, Lyra merely fell into a coma when Voldemort snapped her ribbon. When he was then killed, our daughter woke up and our family was reunited."
"And so the Malfoy family line continues, not with a pureblood, but with a half-blood," Draco finished. "And we've come here today to witness the end of you."
"No, this is not the end," Lucius yelled, turning red as he struggled against the magical binds keeping him in his seat.
He could cope with going to Azkaban when he knew he'd triumphed over his son and that the family name wasn't tainted, but there was no way he could be sanguine about his punishment now he knew his granddaughter lived. How on earth was he supposed to cope stuck in Azkaban, knowing that he'd been foiled and that Draco had won? It would eat him alive being stuck in Azkaban knowing that his son was with a mudblood and that their daughter would be inheriting his fortune.
"This is not over," Lucius screamed as the guards tried to get him to calm down. "I won't let this stand, Draco. You're no son of mine, I'll disinherit you."
"Actually, it's too late for that," Hugo said quietly. "Draco is already the head of the family, it was legal the second you signed the papers."
"No, I won't allow it," Lucius hollered like a mad man.
"Enough!" Kingsley bellowed, pounding a gavel onto the bench in front of him. "Order in the court."
Lucius paid no attention to the Minister as he continued to rant and rave against his son and his family. Eventually the guards had to drag Lucius out of court before his verdict could be read. Not that it truly mattered as he was given a life sentence with no chance of release, just as he'd been expecting.
A couple of hours later, a far from accepting Lucius was shoved back into his new cell at Azkaban. He was ranting and raving like a madman and as he eventually calmed down he was forced to face the fact that he had lost. He was stuck in Azkaban while Draco was free to live his life with the witch and child that Lucius had worked so hard to get rid of. And to top it all off they would have all the Malfoy fortune at their disposal, while Lucius was penniless and stuck in a tiny cell for the rest of his life. Lucius would have to live with his failure night and day, knowing that somewhere Draco was happy and content with Hermione, Lyra and any future children they might have. Lucius had lost, and the love Draco had for his girlfriend and daughter had won.