Chapter 13.

First Private Meeting, Lucius Malfoy, Part II. Justice

After knowing some important secrets, Harry realized the supposed topic of this meeting was actually Lucius' imprisonment. That sneaky snake was pretty good at distractions. "Lord Malfoy, I undersstand that you do not want what you did to become Draco'ss weakness later. With that in mind, what crimess did you commit?"

Lucius' face tightened, then went back to neutral. "Lord Potter, ass for the ensuing legal processs, I need to clarify that I did not conduct all the crimess that I wass accussed of."

Harry did think some of the things people said about Lucius might be exaggerated, but he was still a murderer among other atrocities.

Lucius' face showed a hint of frustration. "Firsst, I have never violated any of the sso-called rape victimss, let alone other crimess of ssuch nature. Karkaroff hass a tasste for strong boyss, not me."

From what Draco told him in the train station, Harry had thought the multiple-rape part of Lucius' crimes were quite likely to be true, but since the man had denied it in Parseltongue - well, Lucius was rich, handsome, young and single, he didn't need violence for his sexual desires; or, Lord Malfoy had done it more discreetly, so no victim actually remembered anything wrong had happened.

And if Harry were to believe everything being said about Lucius' sexual life, then the senior Malfoy was both a male and a female, both a veela and a vampire, both gay and straight, both a sadist and a masochist, impregnated by Voldemort/Grindelwald/Dumbledore/Abraxas Malfoy/fellow Death Eaters/his time-turned self and gave birth to Draco himself… When the rumors got to the point where Albus Dumbledore abducted Narcissa Malfoy because he was jealous and wanted Lucius all for himself, Harry felt it had gone too far and put his foot down on the juicy stories in Daily Prophet and other major magazines. Unfortunately, the Quibbler was still publishing stories such as how Voldemort had a secret daughter with Lucius, and disguised her as a boy named Draco, the Dark Lord failed in his experiment to make Draco a unicorn, and Hermione was revived as a partial unicorn by accident. Harry could still see that Draco needed to exercise extra self-restraint not to hex Luna Lovegood while the girl was saying "Draco, I am so sorry that you lost your father's child, but miscarriage isn't the end of the world."

Then Harry realized why Lucius might appear to be frustrated upon this part of his crimes: some of the more believable part of the stories could be somewhat difficult to explain to the wife that he hadn't seen for eleven years. And soon, Lucius would be locked up, so he probably wouldn't have much chance to repair his relationships with Narcissa for, say, the next several hundred years. Harry didn't mean to cause marriage issues in Death Eater families, but they should have thought of that before they teared other families apart by their atrocities. But it could be hard on Draco.

-And crap, isn't Karkaroff the Headmaster of Durmstrang? If what Lucius said is true, Karkaroff needs to be removed from his position ASAP.

Harry sighed inwardly. "I have no intention to put anything you didn't do on you. As for Karkaroff, evidence?"

"Karkaroff tesstified that I wass in charge of the raid that killed Madam Boness' younger brother'ss whole family except the newborn girl Ssusan Boness, and he alsso claimed that I violated her great-nephew before killing him. Actually, Karkaroff himsself wass the leader of that raid. I wass not even there." Lucius looked quite indignant. "And I wass not in the raid that sslaughtered Monroe family, either. Bellatrix led that one."

Harry was surprised to hear that information in Parseltongue. Those two were the most notorious murders in Lucius' record. Harry could understand why Karkaroff would want to put the Bones case on someone else, but Karkaroff didn't have much motive to frame Lucius on the Monroe case, did he? So Harry asked. "Tell me more about the Monroe casse."

"The Dark Lord ordered uss to kill everyone in the House of Monroe including the housse elvess before David Monroe arrived. I," Lucius said reluctantly, a bit of confusion in his eyes, "I did not undersstand why we should leave the sstrongesst of the family unsscathed. And eradicating old familiess wass not my plan, either. Sso I gave my leader possition to Bellatrix in the lasst minute."

Now Harry saw why Lucius wasn't in the Bones case or the Monroe case: Lucius picked his enemies carefully. If they were ordered to kill a whole family but to leave the strongest and the youngest unscathed, Lucius would not do it. He didn't want to make strong mortal enemies, and he didn't want to fall into literary traps. A true snake indeed.

Then Harry remembered the first murdered that stroke him two years ago in Diagonal Alley. "How about the writer Yermy Wibble and hiss family?"

To that question, Lucius reluctantly nodded. "It was my firsst raid in the Death Eaterss. Bellatrix led the raid, I killed Mrss. Wibble under Bellatrix'ss wand point."

"Did you torture them?" Harry remembered the empty skins. "Or sskin them?"

Lucius' face showed a hint of disgust. "No, I did not. Grayback ate the insside of the three female Wibbless in front of Yermy Wibble, and then Yermy himsself, even Bellatrix was ssick of that. And I tried to sstay away from Grayback ever ssince."

Harry had to suppress his shudder. "And other cassess?"

"Lord Potter, to my undersstanding of British wizarding law," Lucius' face was neutral as well as his voice, "I am not required to prove that I am guilty. But I can asssure you, the number of people that I killed or tortured wass far lesss than what people accussed me of. For example, I am ssure that the hex that I ssent wass different from the one that took Fabian Prewett'ss life, but the battle field wass too chaotic for me to point out who did it. And I never tortured people for pleassure."

Harry listened, and an image of a Blue Krait silently hiding in the darkness emerged in his mind: careful, calculating, patient, dangerous, and deadly. It picked its victims carefully, so that there would be less retributions afterwards. The snake didn't strike for fun, but only because the kill was necessary. Lucius' murder and torture counts might indeed be smaller than what people thought, but that was because Lucius perceived excessive violence as unnecessary and time-consuming, and he evaded the powerful enemies carefully. Harry doubted, with a few exceptions where Lucius couldn't control the situation, none of Lucius' victims had strong family members left alive to revenge for their loved ones.

"Lord Malfoy, I undersstand the law. But I do need to know, how many did you kill?" Harry hesitated whether he should use Draco's name again, but decided against it.

Lucius inhaled, exhaled. "Seven to nine. The firsst posssible one wass before I joined the Death Eaterss, I wass under falsse memory charmss that time, sso I am not really ssure if I had actually killed the muggle. After becoming a Death Eater, I participated in a total of sseven raidss, killed six people in all the raidss. And I have unexpectedly encountered aurorss twice, killed one or two. I am not ssure whether it wass me who killed Gideon Prewett."

-Oh, wait.

"You were under falsse memory charmss in your posssibly firsst kill?" Harry asked in surprise.

Lucius answered reluctantly. "The firsst killing cursse wass imposssibly hard for mosst people. My tutor memory charmed me to think that the muggle he captured killed my mother, sso that I could hate the muggle enough to usse the killing cursse. But ssince I wass memory charmed anyway, I wass not even ssure the entire sscene ever happened. And I sstill felt it extremely difficult to kill Mrss. Wibble when under Bellatrix'ss wand point, sso I probably did not kill the muggle."

Harry fought down a chill in his spine. Whether Lucius actually killed the muggle or not, if Harry were not here to intervene, that would be a lesson that Lucius would arrange for Draco to receive, and Draco's soul/mind would be cracked because of the lesson. Harry had to keep Draco closer to protect him from THAT.

-And seven to nine murders, only the first one might be forced or forged.

Harry focused his attention, and hissed. "My ssuggesstion would be fifty yearss for each account of murder. You might argue for the one you committed under the wand point of Bellatrix that your hand wass forced, but ssince you did ssign up for the Death Eaterss yoursself, it might still account for thirty yearss."

Upon hearing the sentence suggestion of three hundred and thirty years, Lucius' face ashened. He opened his mouth, and closed again. After several seconds of hesitation, Lucius argued for himself. "Wouldn't my contributionss to the general public be counted as a reason for shorter time?"

Harry had always been furious toward the injustice in both muggle and magical legal systems where rich people could get a lesser sentence or even walk free, and the poor had to serve the full time. Harry hissed. "No, gold cannot buy the law, not any more."

Lucius' eyes flinched a bit upon Harry's wrath, but his voice was steady. "Lord Potter, I meant my contribution in the Unbreakable Vow."

-Oh, that. That's actually a valid argument. Even though Lucius was forced to be the binder for the Unbreakable Vow, his magic was still vital for the Vow to stand. Even if only 0.01% of the Vow could be attributed to Lucius, the number of people Lucius potentially saved…

Harry did a quick mental calculation: 0.01% times six billion people on earth, times the four incidences where Harry could have destroyed the world without the Vow, the number is 2.4 million.

Harry wanted to argue further for the compulsory nature of Lucius' involvement, but Ravenclaw quickly pointed out: hey, even though we might have tricked Lucius a bit at the time in Gringotts, if Lucius had not agreed to participate in the deal and returned all our money of his own free will, and if he didn't enforce the changes in Hogwarts and elsewhere, Voldemort would not have picked Lucius as the binder.

Hufflepuff backed Ravenclaw up. Lucius did treat Bones, Crouch, and Longbottom fairly after he signed the deal as far as we know.

Gryffindor argued against them: Lucius also went to the graveyard that night with his own free will. Our priority is to protect Draco from Lucius, so we should lock Lucius up as long as possible, and ban all communications.

Are you sure the reason you want a long prison sentence and a ban on communication is not that YOU want to find an excuse to further manipulate Draco? I am sure Draco would want to write to his father and visit him sometimes. Hufflepuff countered Gryffindor. Plus, a man who has saved 2.4 million people and murdered seven doesn't deserve to be cut off from his family. Ravenclaw, multiplication backup?

Gryffindor smirked triumphantly. Ah ha, I knew you would argue that. In that sense, Voldemort should be a saint, since more than 99% of the Unbreakable Vow should be attributed to him. Anyone want to argue against that?

-Errr…

Harry wanted to give up. His inner characters had never been quite right ever since the Azkaban breakout.

-A smirking Gryffindor? What should Slytherin do, then?

Slytherin suggested timely, we should let Madam Bones sentence Lucius for three hundred and thirty years, and add some more years for things like torture, illegal animagus, money laundering, etc., only allow him to communicate with Draco with our consent, and monitor all their exchanges. This way, Lucius would alway be eager to use his mind and knowledge to our service, and we can make sure that Lucius won't have any bad influences on Draco.

We want a FRIEND! Hufflepuff screamed. Not a manipulated minion.

Harry needed a pencil and paper to figure this out. And, oh, the Vow. Harry needed to ask Hermione's opinion as well.

"Lord Malfoy, I need more time to decide. Vow requiress."

Lucius' face turned grey when he heard "Vow requiress". The man's voice betrayed some nervousness that he had never shown in front of Harry before. "Pleasse take all the time you need, Lord Potter."

Harry nodded, opened the suitcase door behind him, and called for Severus.