Draco was the first Malfoy to be sentenced. In the face of everyone's distain, he held his head up, and Lucius suddenly realized that his son was a man, a man modeled after himself. Like his parents, he had cleaned himself up after the battle, but his perfect posture was marred by an invisible weight on his shoulders.
It was in Draco that Lucius saw all of his mistakes reflected. How he regretted the way that he had changed his boy into the man that he now saw.
He remembered the first time that he had held his son. They had had such difficulty getting pregnant, going to numerous Healers and fertility specialists. They had decided to try one last time, promising that if it didn't work, they wouldn't put themselves through the heartbreak again.
It had been a rough pregnancy, and when Narcissa went into labor prematurely, they were terrified that they would lose the baby. But, many hours later, the midwife placed their baby boy in Narcissa's arms, and she had positively shone as she smiled down at her impossibly tiny son. Lucius thought she had never been more beautiful than in that moment. Her honey blonde hair, damp and unbound, framed her flushed face, which radiated more joy than Lucius thought possible.
Malfoys weren't supposed to cry, but Lucius could feel himself getting choked up at that miraculous sight. And then his son—his son—had looked at him, with that searching grey gaze that was so much like his own, and Lucius's normally steely eyes went misty.
They had never wanted anything other than the best for their miracle boy, and here he was, paying for the way that they raised him.
The Wizengamot recognized that Draco was young and easily influenced. His crimes were announced, and then followed by a caveat: Evidence indicated that he had been coerced into many of them. Therefore, he would spend a year being closely monitored in the newly created Rehabilitation and Reformation program, and only if he showed no sign of genuine remorse would he end up in Azkaban.
Lucius expected no such mercy, and he was unsurprised when he was sentenced to life in Azkaban without a second thought.
Narcissa, though, was an interesting case. She had welcomed the Dark Lord into her home but had not taken the Mark. She knew about many horrible atrocities, and had even witnessed several of them, but had the demure Lady Malfoy truly been in a position to do anything? Some argued that she had been willfully complacent, while others said that she was a victim of circumstance and the high society that she had been born into.
Lucius felt a surge of admiration for his wife. She played the part of a perfectly dainty Pureblood wife so well that no one could see her backbone of steel. It was through her strength and support that he had survived two wars, and she was such a consummate actress that she had dared to lie to the Dark Lord himself. Still, they underestimated her, and for that, Lucius was relieved. It meant she would walk free.
And yet, before they could clear her, she confessed that she had been willingly complacent in the evil perpetrated by her husband.
Her cool blue gaze connected with her husband's wide grey eyes, and she smiled at his confusion. "I vowed 'til death do us part."