Harry Potter was hiding, there was no other way to describe it, trying to avoid the outpouring of mail that his statement to the press seemed to have received. He had shut himself in the Black library, and surrounded himself with books, knowing that with the floo locked down and the apparition wards in a tight net over the house no-one but Hermione or Winky would bother him. The library had no windows, the Blacks not wanting to take the chance that the light could damage some of their rarer tomes or that someone could use it as a way to get in and steal from them. As a result none of the owls were able to get to him here, Winky was corralling them gathering their burden and screening it for him. She would then bring him any actual important letters.
Winky was an unexpected blessing for this sort of thing. Once the war had ended the little elf had been desolate, she had already lost her family because of it previously, but she then lost her best friend to it as well. If she had been floundering after losing the Crouches it was nothing like when she realised that Dobby too was gone. She had crawled all the way back into a butterbeer bottle, Dobby had managed to get her mostly dry before his end, and would even drink Firewhiskey when she could get a hold of it.
It had been Neville who had come up with the solution when they had been trying to work out what to do about her. He had theorised and the others had to agree that she was feeling completely lost and adrift; Neville had explained that bonding to a family again would help her. It would give her a sense of stability in both her life and her magic. Hermione had been averse to it at first, but Neville had taken the time to properly explain to her about house elves and their relationship with magic and the families they bonded to, he had also apologised for not informing her before but whenever she had gone on a tangent about SPEW she was a little intense and made him really nervous.
Discussing the situation with Winky had been the clincher and SPEW became more about the actual welfare of the elves rather than about trying to gain them freedom. Dobby had been a rare elf that actually wanted to be free, most of them wanted nothing more than to serve their families. Winky had bonded with Hermione, who had been nervous about it at first, but had worked hard at helping Winky overcome her alcoholism and start to heal from her losses; giving her a family and purpose again had helped.
When Harry had made the decision to leave the flat he had been living at in London to move back into Grimmauld Place he had asked Hermione to join him, and she had brought Winky with her. Both of their motivation for opening up the draughty old house was the library, the rest of the house could do with a lot of work, not just in terms of cleaning that Winky got onto straight away but in redecorating as well. When Hermione had become his sister Winky had informed them both that Master Harry was now her bonded family too and she would serve them both.
Winky had arrived in the library at lunchtime with a small platter of various sandwiches for him, carrying a few letters that he hoped had nothing to do with his statement, and informed him that Hermione was out for lunch and was considering going to Paris for dinner to meet with Narcissa. He did wonder at first why she hadn't invited him to join her, but realised that after his statement in the paper a public lunch wouldn't have been his first choice. As for the visit to Narcissa Harry could only assume that Hermione wanted to discuss some things with her. Unlike Harry Hermione hadn't had a guide or mentor when it came to traversing society in the Wizarding World, her knowledge of etiquette came from the muggle world and from the books she had devoured. Their closest female role model had been Molly Weasley and she hadn't even taught her own children the proper etiquette never mind reaching out to help Hermione.
Harry put the thoughts of Hermione out of his mind as he focused on the sandwiches Winky had brought him along with his post. The first was a letter from the Ministry of Magic granting him a temporary pass to the Ministry Archives for research purposes. He had applied to gain access to help him with his Mastery research and had been awaiting a response for a few days, he was glad that he had gotten approval it meant that he had another place that he could get lost in his research that wasn't readily accessible by the masses of the Wizarding World. The next letter was a bank statement from Gringotts and a request that he schedule a meeting with his account manager.
The last letter was written in an emerald green ink that he had come to associate with Lucius. They had continued their correspondence back and forth for months now, some were businesslike others were more personal. Today's letter must have been sent out before Lucius had gone for lunch, Lucius explaining that he was having lunch with Harry's sister at her request, no doubt about borrowing some of his library, and inviting them both to the manor that evening for dinner and to allow his Heiress to peruse his library. Harry was a bit bemused that Hermione had arranged to have lunch with Lucius without mentioning it to him, but he supposed when it was a way to gain access to more books it was just a small thing for her to do.
He decided to wait until after lunchtime and send Winky to Hermione to find out what her plans were before replying to the letter. He was sure that Lucius would make the offer in person as well. He didn't want to accept for them and Hermione have already said she couldn't attend. He thought it would be unlikely that she would go that evening though if she was already considering going to Paris. Finishing his sandwiches he picked up the book he had been reading trying to get back to where he had been before Winky had appeared but his mind kept straying.
He wondered if Lucius would be willing to dine with just him alone if Hermione did decline his offer in favour of going to Paris. The other man had offered him the sanctuary of his manor to hide in if he needed to escape, so attending dinner wouldn't be a problem. Harry didn't really want to eat another meal alone that day if he didn't have to. It was one thing to get caught up in his research and eat quick meals alone, but it was completely different to ignore human company and to eat alone. If the offer was still on the table for him alone he would take it and spend his mealtime with Lucius.
It would be nice just to have a meal just the two of them again, every time they had a meal together recently there had been numerous other people, a vast difference from previous meals they had shared at the manor just the two of them. Lucius using a late dinner as a teaching tool, teaching him the correct usage of cutlery for different dishes and allowing Harry to learn what types of things were acceptable dinner conversation. Harry had enjoyed those lessons, not only had the food been impeccable but the conversation had been interesting and the company as well.
Harry had gone into his lessons with Lucius with trepidation to begin with, accepting the other mans help because he knew that he needed it. Without Lucius' tutelage he wouldn't have been able to navigate Wizarding Society or politics as adeptly as he had been. His main reason had been to help the orphans, but he had also learnt more about his own family and his culture and had developed more of his own interests and passions.
He had matured quite a bit since he started taking lessons with Lucius, something that he was sure Hermione was grateful for, and had developed a more rounded view of the world. Things weren't black and white, there were shades of grey everywhere and the lines often blurred. Lucius had started out as nothing more than one of the Lords who was willing to teach him and the other orphans, with his own motivations of course rather than from the good of his heart, but had become a confidante to him, he would probably even go as far as to call him a friend.
Winky popped back into the library informing him that Hermione had left for Paris and had agreed for them to dine with Lord Malfoy the following evening. He pulled a sheet of parchment towards him, quilling a quick response to the earlier letter informing him that while he was aware they would be joining him the next evening now that he was wondering if it would be acceptable that he still came that night too. Sending the missive off Harry stood and stretched before leaving the library for his rooms to shower and change. After all it wouldn't be acceptable to turn up to dinner in rumpled clothes.