Lucius Malfoy's trial had been going on for over an hour, contending against charges of perjury regarding death eater activities during the Dark Lord's first rise, the usage of two of the three unforgivable curses against fellow human beings, attempted mass murder via one of the Dark Lord's horcruxes, bribery, coercion, theft, trespassing and hosting wanted wizards. Things were looking very bleak for the once aristocratic wizard, who had once been one of the most trusted death eaters, and who had once had the majority of the government either in his pocket or too afraid to stand up to him. But Lucius was not the most slippery wizard in Britain for nothing. Having once been the Dark Lord's right hand man, he had information which he knew he could use to strike a bargain.
"I feel great remorse for my actions now that I have seen for myself just how terrible the Dark Lord was. And whilst this does not erase the impact of my actions on others, I am willing to give you names of remaining sympathisers of the Dark Lord, and to give the Auror Office information on the possible whereabouts of his escaped accomplices, as a sign of penance." Predictably, much distrustful muttering broke out at Lucius' statement. Lucius was no fool to think, even for a moment, that Shacklebolt or the Wizengamot, which had been thinned down considerably ever since the arrest of those members who'd complied with the Dark Lord's regime, would genuinely buy his sob story, but Lucius knew how to make a politician speech, and this was the way to tell them, 'I have information you need and your position is too weak not to strike a bargain with me.' Arthur Weasley, now head of the department of magical law enforcement, coldly asked Lucius, "so you want to snitch on your comrades to keep yourself out of prison?" Knowing there was no point lying, Lucius nodded. The new minister of magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Weasley began to hurriedly whisper to each other alongside the reconstituted Wizengamot, who were looking at Lucius through narrowed eyes. He fancied he could sense the very matter of their discussion: striking a deal with a man who'd done so much wrong didn't sit well with them, but what else were they meant to do - push Lucius in to a corner and let these escaped death eaters, Snatchers and secret sympathisers remain at large, and in the latter case, remain apparently normal members of society, ready to disrupt the new status quo at any moment?
Shacklebolt called an hour long recess, during which, Lucius had enough experience to know, a lot of double talk would take place which would arrive at the conclusion that they would take Lucius' information. Two aurors he did not know led him to an interrogation room where he was bound and waited in silence, contemplating exactly which names and pieces of evidence to give up.
The hour ended all too soon, and Lucius soon found himself again chained before the minister, Weasley and the Wizengamot, with the former saying, "the Wizengamot has discussed your offer and we have come to the conclusion that we are in vital need of evidence..." and the rest of the expected politician speech and Lucius knew he had to begin. "Barnabas Cuffe," he began, to gasps of mingled shock and horror from the audience, "he used love potions to rape muggle women and would mostly then kill them but would sometimes obliviate them to make them forget. And as for the Daily Prophet's material during the war, he was acting on my orders by slandering Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter when they proclaimed the Dark Lord had returned, and he willingly printed the Dark Lord's propaganda under his regime." Furious muttering broke out and Lucius already knew he'd struck gold: Cuffe was not only a murderer but in a large part responsible for the country's poor preparation against the Dark Lord, so that evidence in itself would very likely gain Lucius leniency. Nevertheless, now he'd given up one name, he was a traitor and the others would be singing for his blood, so for Draco, for Narcissa, he must cooperate fully. The Wizengamot clerk, Percy Weasley, was muttering so furiously that ink was splattering his face. Lucius' next option was someone else he thought could prove very dangerous to him if they remained free, "Nerys Vaughan," he said, predicting their shock at the naming of a St Mungo's healer, "she had a secret interest in esoteric dark magic and has practiced spells on people unlikely to fight back, mostly muggles." More furious muttering. "Oscar Shyverwretch," he next supplied. Not a great surprise, he mused, but they would need evidence to remove the shopkeeper off the streets, and Shyverwretch could certainly be dangerous to Lucius' family if left undiscovered, "he supplied us ingredients free of charge that were necessary to make dangerous poisons and venoms as he was a supporter of our cause." Now that one brought looks of relief and triumph to their faces more than anything else, as these people had no doubt been hoping for a while to bust some Knockturn Alley proprietors and now they had one. Next he decided to volunteer, "Hector Taunton, he was a friend of Cuffe's, and was well aware of Cuffe's actions, and willingly spread the Dark Lord's propaganda on the wireless during his reign." That didn't seem to surprise them much, for Taunton had not been a well-liked man, as he had been a fan of spreading rumours about people. Lucius felt panic start to set in as he realised he only had three more names to give, only one of which was likely to surprise them, and none of them of people with violent crimes to their names, at least none he had any proof of. He decided to go from least surprising to most surprising though, "Nimue Zabini", he supplied, wishing he had any proof that she had murdered all those husbands, "she sponsored us and fully agreed with the Dark Lord's aim.", which predictably did not shock the Wizengamot. He suspected though, that she would be interrogated with veritaserum as he had been, so they would probably be able to gather enough proof to charge her with murder. "Rita Skeeter," was his penultimate name, "I bribed her to carry out character assassinations of Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter when I noticed the dark mark growing darker.". More outraged muttering from the Wizengamot, but Lucius, steeling himself to give the final name, did not care. "Charles Willoughby", he supplied, betraying his father's old school friend, to the shock of the Wizengamot, who were clearly shocked that the owner of Nimbus could possibly be a sympathiser of the Dark Lord, "he provided us funding and helped draft a couple of his employees into the Snatchers." After a long moment, Lucius added, "And that is all of the new names I have to give." Looking at Lucius long and hard, Shacklebolt said, far more coldly than Lucius had ever before heard him, "very well Malfoy, you have provided us valuable information - we will review it and consider your case. In the meantime you will cooperate with the Auror Office to aid their searches into fugitives." He nodded a the aurors, "take him away," and Lucius was led back to the interrogation room.
An ostensible period of a month passed - for it is hard to maintain a hold on such mundane matters as the passage of time while locked up - before Lucius found himself once again shackled before the minister, Weasley and the Wizengamot. He was informed that the evidence he'd provided to the Wizengamot had checked out, that his evidence to the Auror Office had led to the tracking and death of Rodulphus Lestrange and to the release of certain individuals who had been enspelled to serve the Dark Lord, and that he would not be imprisoned, but that he was to pay a sum of 500,000 galleons (Lucius winced), to the ministry towards repetitions, that he would not be allowed a wand or to leave the country for five years, and that any further criminal activity on his part would lead to an immediate life sentence for him.
Lucius was then released, to find Narcissa and Draco, nervous and yet delighted to see him waiting in the atrium. Abandoning all of his former aristocratic behaviour he hugged them both and apparated home with them. He knew he should feel guilt at betraying everything he'd ever stood for so egregiously, but all he could really feel was relief that he was not to be separated from his family, because maybe love really was what mattered most in the world.