AN: This chapter seems to have come rather easily to me between sleep over the last couple of days, I'm currently dealing with residual tiredness from returning to work post covid :( Harry's letter seemed to practically write itself and this chapter finished coming together this morning so that I was able to post before I leave for work. Hopefully the next chapter progresses just as quickly :)

Cleansing rituals always left Lucius feeling invigorated, his own magic battling to purify him of the foreign wild magic that he was saturated in. The ritual left him feeling in harmony with his own magic once more and he almost floated down to dinner to join his son and Blaise, who had arrived while he had been out with Harry. After taking his place at the table and greeting the others the house elves appeared with their dinner, and polite dinner conversation began.

"How were the races Father?" Draco asked between bites of his meal.

Blaise's head snapped round to look at Draco confusion showing on his face, everyone knew of Draco's complete disinterest in Abraxan racing, he hadn't even brought it up in polite dinner conversation since his first summer home from Hogwarts.

Lucius knew though that he was trying to ask how his outing with Harry had gone, but wasn't quite willing enough to ask the direct question. Deciding to toy with him a bit he started to talk about the races, hoping in a way that Draco didn't ask which Abraxan's had won as he couldn't remember for the life of him, having been distracted by Harry as he had been. "There was definitely a lot of interest in the races, we are considering putting on some races for charity." Lucius informed him, letting him know that it was an outing that would most likely be repeated again soon.

"Was it only the Abraxan's that there was interest in? I expected you to be home several hours ago and not to disappear for a shower as soon as you arrived home." Draco questioned him, sounding more like the parent in the conversation.

Lucius chuckled at that, "Trying to protect me Draco? We had lunch after the races and then took a walk through the Henge. I then helped Harry apparate home as unaccustomed to the wild magic we encountered it would have been remiss of me to allow him to apparate unaided. After helping him home I returned here for a cleansing ritual. Are there any more details of my outing that you require?"

"Surely Potter would have been willing to duel to burn off the excess wild magic?" Draco asked, looking straight at Lucius and ignoring the look of shock on Blaise's face as he realised who they were talking about.

"I am no saint Draco, the temptation that would have brought would have been too much at this stage." Lucius admitted, not looking Draco or Blaise in the eye, knowing that they would understand exactly what he meant. Deciding that he had spoken enough on the subject he turned to Blaise asking him about his trip and directed the conversation in other directions. He could tell that the young man had many questions, but Lucius was unwilling to answer them himself. He knew that Draco would fill him in on the situation, but he had no desire to do it himself, having had to discuss his desires with Narcissa, Draco and Heiress Potter-Black had been enough for him.

Dinner passed quickly after that and Draco and Blaise retired to Draco's rooms and Lucius made his way to his study to read for a while before retiring for the evening. He had just sat in front of the fire with a book when an elf appeared with a letter for him. He recognised the handwriting straight away and he wondered at such quick correspondence from Harry, not that he was complaining of course. He opened the letter carefully and scanned it quickly to make sure that there was nothing wrong that Harry needed his help with before sitting back to reread the letter at a more leisurely pace.

Dear Lucius,

Thank you for today, I had a great time, in fact I would probably say that today was the most fun I have had at a Wizarding event since the Quiddich World Cup Final. Despite my increased awareness of many things in the Wizarding World, mostly due to your guidance and help, I am still unaware of many parts of our life. I want to thank you for all the things that you have introduced me to so far, watching the Abraxan's race this morning was a magical experience. They are such beautiful creatures and their intelligence was clear to see in their eyes, I can understand why you enjoy the races so much and I would be delighted to accompany you to them again.

Setting up a race a fundraiser for the orphanage is something I would be really interested in doing with you, we could turn it into a whole day event, ticketed of course, with races in the morning a luncheon and then perhaps a charity auction in the afternoon. My mind is running away from me with plans, I'm sure you have lots as well and I would love to talk to you about them sometime soon, perhaps we could have the event set up for the end of the Summer Season before students return to Hogwarts.

I meant to thank you while we were out for choosing the café you did for lunch, I know you chose it in deference to the fact that I am still not fully comfortable in High Society for prolonged periods of time. The ability to relax over lunch and just talk rather than making sure I was using the correct fork or spoon was a great relief. It was refreshing to have a meal in public that didn't seem to be being scrutinised by everyone around me, I don't know how you managed to stop us from being disturbed, but I know you did something, so thank you.

Our walk after lunch brought home several things to me, I have no real knowledge of our culture or rituals. I may have an increased knowledge of the history of the Wizarding World since I have started my studies, but the rich culture that is woven through that history is a mystery to me. It was clear to me however that you are very knowledgeable and passionate about the subject and I would like to ask you to share your knowledge of these things with the children at the orphanage. I have no doubt that you taught Draco all this information at a young age and are therefore have the ability to tailor the information in an age appropriate manner for the children.

I would also ask for several book recommendations for myself on the subject as I can't for the life of me remember the titles you mentioned earlier, the exhilaration of the wild magic we encountered was like nothing I have ever experienced. The only rituals I have any experience of where the rebirthing ritual back in my fourth year and the blood adoption ritual I did with my sister, and neither felt anything like what we experienced earlier today.

You were right that Winky would know exactly what I needed to do to cleanse myself of the magic, and I currently feel so in touch with my magic I don't think I have ever felt this way before. My sister of course has taken a great interest in learning about another aspect of magic we were unaware of and insisted on being present to watch the ritual to learn about it for herself. We did discuss the ritual over dinner and are both curious about the frequency of which you can perform the ritual and whether it is the only way to deal with lingering wild magic on ones person.

The more I seem to learn about the Wizarding World the more questions I seem to have to find the answers to. The Black and Potter libraries do make it easier to find those answers of course and I seem to spend an amazing amount of time in the Black library for someone who rarely picked up a book outside of class at Hogwarts. I would like to offer you the invitation to join me in the library one night for some drinks and a discussion of all the things I am learning. I often find it helps me learn to talk things through and it would be nice to have an intelligent conversation with someone other than Hermione. I hope I am not overstepping the bounds of the relationship that we are cultivating, but I do believe we have advanced from just being student and mentor.

I hope this letter finds you well,

Your friend,

Harry

Lucius had a small smile lingering on his lips as he finished reading the letter for a second time, things were definitely moving in the direction that he was hoping. That Harry was already considering him a friend and seeking out his company was something that he was elated at. He summoned some parchment and a quill and began to quill a reply.

He first commented on how glad he was to receive his correspondence, and that he was glad that they were moving away from the more formal letters they had exchanged, to letters more befitting their friendship. He then made arrangements for them to meet for lunch to discuss some plans for a charity event, agreed to his further teaching of the orphans and detailed a rather lengthy list of books that Harry himself might want to look at on the subjects, cautioning him again about performing unknown rituals himself without help or supervision.

Lucius paused before putting quill to parchment again to explain the different ways that wild magic could be dispersed from ones person. The cleansing ritual they had both partaken of that afternoon was the most thorough way of dispersing the magic, but there were other ways to rid oneself of it that made use of the magic. He explained about how wizards would often channel the magic in a duel, burning away the magic as they performed rapid spells at one another, the wild magic would boost the wizards own spells a bit and leave the wizard a bit high on endorphins. A duel also often led to the third way that the wild magic could be taken care of, Lucius paused for a second, trying to find the right words to tell Harry all about how a wizard could use sex as an outlet to release the wild magic that saturated them. It was pretty much unspoken knowledge within their world that there was often a rise in births after attendance at a bonding ritual, the magic so heady that people often got caught up in it and forgot contraception spells.

After accepting Harry's offer of drinks and an intelligent discussion he signed off the letter, your friend Lucius, before calling an elf to take the letter and send it. He then made his way to his rooms to retire for the evening, if he took Harry's letter with him to reread again well that was no-one's business but his own. Placing Harry's letter on his bedside once he was finished rereading it he settled back into his bed and into dreams of what would have happened if he had brought Harry back to the manor with him to either the duelling chamber or his bedroom.