Chapter 12.

2:53 pm, June 24th, 1993

First Private Meeting, Lucius Malfoy, Part I. Secrets and Knowledge

With his regular wand, Harry cast the seven privacy spells that he could master without tiring himself out, then stopped. He might need his magic later, and he didn't want to show the Elder wand in front of Lucius, who might not have deduced that Harry had it.

Harry turned and looked at the fully-bound blond aristocrat on the couch on the bottom of the suitcase. The elder Malfoy's robe was as fine and expensive as ever, yet the design was too extravagant for the current simplistic trend; his neatly combed long mane had lost some of its former glamour, wearing a sense of fragility; and his face was as pale as paper, yet the blue-grey eyes were still calculating, showing that he might strike with his mind alone at any moment.

Lucius spoke. "Lord Potter, I know the dangerouss water that my sson iss treading through bessidess you, and I have no dessire to tilt the balance further toward world desstruction."

Harry was then reminded of the fact that Lucius was the binder of the Unbreakable Vow and a snake animagus, and… Harry's heart dropped as he realized what Draco might know now.

"As for my temporary demisse," Lucius continued, "I have only told Draco that I have no idea what killed me, I jusst know that the Dark Lord failed to kill you. And I told him he iss not to know, and not to inquire. He might think that the Dark Lord tried to ssacrifice all the Death Eaterss to kill you, but failed for ssome reason."

Lucius' emotionless words were sort of a comfort for Harry, because some part of human nature still made Harry want to postpone the potentially disastrous confrontation with Draco as long as possible. Come to think about it now, if no other Death Eater present could understand Parseltongue, the explanation provided by Lucius could be another version of the "true" story, even after Harry revived all of them. Lucius was indeed a Slytherin who could be quite considerate for whichever master he served.

Harry gave an inward sigh. Mad-Eye and Madam Bones had reminded Harry repeatedly on how the Malfoys had served as lieutenants for every powerful lord in Britain with the utmost efficiency, just that they always dumped their previous master for a new one when the next most powerful lord emerged. This description reminded Harry of professional business managers and the Home Civil Service in the muggle world, which Harry considered highly useful. And since Harry planned to stay as the most powerful lord forever, he wasn't too worried about Draco's loyalty problem. Besides, Harry had thought, with Harry providing guidance instead of Lucius, Draco would become a much better person than his father or any previous Malfoy.

But Lucius was back now, and Harry didn't want to prohibit Draco from contacting his father. Harry started to worry that Lucius might hone Draco differently. The older Malfoy would undoubtedly teach Draco how to please a lord, a skill that had been perfected by generations of Malfoys over the past one thousand years. Harry knew that he would find Draco's new skills pleasant and quite convenient at times, but he didn't want that. Harry wanted Draco to be his friend more than his lieutenant or minion, and Harry wonder if the older Malfoy would ever understand the difference.

It went without saying that Harry wouldn't give up on Draco, he would just keep Draco closer.

Lucius observed Harry closely, pondering, then said. "Otherwisse, what would be your ssuggesstion?"

"That'sss a fine ansswer to give," Harry answered. And coincidentally, true.

"It iss to my undersstanding that all major powerss in the world covet the power of the Sstone for themselvess," Lucius calmly stated. "Yet Wizarding Britain doess not have any power that it can publicly demonsstrate that showss the world that it can defend itsself."

Harry had been reminded again about how stupid he was a year ago. After spending his first year thinking about how to finish off Voldemort, Harry's thought were pretty much limited to that level of threat. He had thought the only danger to the Stone would come on the order of a dark lord plus a few dozen minions. He had also forgotten that ancient and/or powerful wards did not actually work without powerful lords who didn't make mistakes. Dumbledore could sneak into Malfoy Manor and kidnap Narcissa Malfoy even though the wards might be set up by some ancient wizard who was stronger than Dumbledore; and Voldemort could sneak into Hogwarts and teach for a year, because Dumbledore didn't verify his identity using the Map. What was worse, Harry had completely forgotten that the threat could come in the form of several magical nations, in which case they could just brute-force through whatever ancient wards Hogwarts had and whatever protections money could buy. He should be better than that. He should have realized that since muggle governments went to war with other countries for oil and resources all the time, magical governments would just do the same when the incentive was high enough. The difference was, these days muggle nations had nuclear weapons so the major powers were kept in check by the fear of mutually assured destruction; yet wizards only had powerful lords and ancient artifacts.

-And that's been the central problem for a while. It seems Lucius has guessed that I have some extra powerful weapon that can actually cause great destruction. Well, I have threatened Voldemort with massive explosion in Parseltongue, so Lucius might have guessed from that. The problem is, the ideas about antimatter, unbounded quarks, and mass-production of nuclear weapons are simply too dangerous to let anyone know. Britain needs another Dumbledore or someone similar: powerful, yet not outside the regular thinking box of wizards.

While Harry was thinking, Lucius continued to hiss. "To that problem, I have formulated ssome sspectulationss ssince my revival. Lord Potter, you might be able to revive ssome of your powerful ancesstorss, such ass the Peverell brotherss."

Harry didn't think it was possible that anyone could preserve the Peverell brothers' brains for more than a thousand years, but he didn't plan to tell this to Lucius, so he continued listening.

"After I wass revived, I deduced that the preservation of ssome part of the body might be esssential for the ritual - ssince my head wass least affected by the declining power of transfiguration, Sseveruss might have preserved my head after I died. Previoussly, I have heard that the core of the Elder wand iss thestral hair, and the ssign of Deathly Hallowss were drawn with thestral blood on the inner side of the Cloak of Invisibility. Of the Resurrection Sstone, I knew little. Then I began to sspeculate, what if the core of the Elder wand wass not thestral hair, but ssome part of Antioch Peverell, and the blood inside your Cloak of Invisibility wass in fact from Ignotus Peverell? As for the Resurrection Sstone, ssince few information wass out there for the making, I dare not speculate. If that containss ssome part of Cadmuss Peverell, and if my deduction about the wand and the cloak are true, then all three brotherss can be revived using the ritual. "

Harry almost asked Lucius how he came to realize that the materials used in the Elder wand and the Cloak of Invisibility were not from thestrals, but he closed his mouth in time. After all, Draco had demonstrated amazing abilities and instincts in solving mysteries prior to any systematic training from Harry - Draco could deduce Professor Sprout was involved in Hermione's murder all because the Herbology professor assigned less homework during that period of time. Draco might get his ability somewhere.

Then it occurred to Harry that the odd construction of another wand that might lead Lucius to doubt the core of the Elder wand: the Malfoy family wand.

Due to Mad-Eye's lectures on Malfoy history, Harry had known that unlike most wands that only fit one person and barely worked for other family members, the Malfoy family wand could fit every male Malfoy. Harry had originally speculated that wand was made to respond to a specific Y chromosome, but now it seemed the Malfoy family wand might indeed been made from the body of some Malfoy ancestor.

"What iss the core of the Malfoy family wand, then?" Harry asked.

Lucius raised his eyebrow as if half expecting this question, then answered proudly. "Heartsstring of Armand Malfoy while he wass dying in the form of a wyvern, made by Lord Sslytherin himsself."

Now Harry saw the scheme: some body part in the core of a powerful wand, passed down from generation to generation, so that magic will always flow through it and preserve the core. And if someone later figures out how to revive someone from their body part, even only for a limited amount of time, there might still be enough time to pass down important information and powerful magic, bypassing the Interdict of Merlin.

Then Harry's heart sank: cunning as Lord Slytherin was, he probably didn't know much about anatomy. He might have believed humans used their heart to think, instead of their brain. Therefore, he only preserved his lieutenant's heartstring. And since Cadmus Peverell was said to be Salazar Slytherin's ancestor, Lord Slytherin might got the idea from Peverell brothers. In the Warlock's Hairy Heart story, a powerful wizard was able to live and function without his heart for a while before he died. And Antioch Peverell died the day after he had the Elder wand. So the core of the Elder wand might be Antioch's heart.

Harry felt a wave of sadness for his ancestors. Cunning, brilliant, brave and powerful wizards as they were, they lacked one essential piece knowledge necessary for their endeavor. But there were still some positive notes to the history: A man as cunning as Salazar Slytherin wouldn't rely on one scheme to achieve his goals. Slytherin's plot with Malfoy's wand didn't work, but his plot with the basilisk did. And I wonder how many other plans he had. And since I haven't seen the Resurrection Stone yet, it might contain some secrets that Voldemort didn't tell me or he didn't realize, which may or may not be essential in my ultimate plan to revive everyone.

Harry also wondered if he should tell Lucius the sad part about their family wand, but then decided against it. He couldn't tell Lucius or Draco about it, not until he had consulted with Hermione first.

There was also some nagging feelings that Harry couldn't quite point out. It's about -

Harry remembered the first lesson Draco taught him: sharing secrets can make people feel more intimate toward each other. Lucius showed that he had deduced some secrets in Harry's ancestral relics, and he had expected Harry to deduce the same for the Malfoy family wand. In this way, secrets were shared, and Harry would also feel good about himself for how smart he was. A sly snake indeed.

Even when Harry knew exactly the game Lucius was playing, it still worked. Sharing secrets on that level did make Harry feel closer to - maybe not Lucius - but Draco for sure. And even the part that Lucius hadn't realized yet had made Harry more protective toward Draco. Harry didn't want Draco to run out of all his resources - or when Harry was about to destroy the world and Draco needed to stop him - attempt to resurrect Armand Malfoy as a last resort, and find him brain-dead and unable to provide any help. And that might or might not be part of Lucius' plan.

Pondering all that, Harry slowly hissed. "Thank you for your information. I may think about it."

Lucius nodded, as if he hadn't just revealed one of the biggest secrets in the Malfoy family, and changed to another topic. "I expect my reappearance would attract great interesst world-wide, sso falsse identity or plaussible sstory iss needed."

Harry nodded absentmindedly. Compared to the important secrets about the Peverell brothers' relics, creating a false identity for Lucius was much easier. Severus could change Lucius' appearance, and then it could be fixed by the Stone.

"I have a falsse identity in the United Sstatess, sson of a British wizard and an American witch, home educated, with birth certificate and everything. It has been occasionally ussed in businessess in North America and carefully maintained for several yearss."

Somewhere from the back of Harry's mind, one of his versions of himself almost wanted to praise Lord Malfoy for his excellent foresight on having a suitable false identity ready and could provide it as Lord Harry needed. Harry needed to consciously have his dark lord instinct in check.

"But such an identity might prove problematic, ssince the Americanss might be eager for an excusse to intervene in British affairss already, and they would ssurely intercede if a ssupposed citizen of the United Statess iss imprisoned under British law," The blond politician hissed dispassionately. "A falsse identity from other countriess would produce ssimilar effectss."

-Once again, I am too naive for international politics.

The fact was, Harry's primary tutorial books on heroism, the science fiction ones, rarely dealt with affairs on this level; and the political science books that Harry had just begun to read recently rarely spoke on the finesses of international politics. And those books, mostly written by western muggle scholars, primarily discussed the proper strategies for powerful countries. Without Albus Dumbledore and with the Stone, Harry guessed that he should actually read books on strategies for oil-rich countries that didn't have enough power to defend themselves. Judging from what happened in the Middle East, the muggle strategists didn't have good solutions, either. Currently, Harry had barely maintained the delicate balance with help from Madam Bones, who was good at Wizengamot affairs but not prepared for the international stage, and Draco's untrained political instinct.

Harry couldn't help but think how useful it would be to have Lucius as a political counselor from time to time. In a country where there were merely eight thousand wizards or so, finding a cunning diplomat wasn't something as easy as having a Foreign Office in muggle Britain, where there were about fifty-eight million people. Mr. Bartimus Crouch, Sr. had been a good diplomat, but since his only son had been found among the beheaded Death Eaters, he had had a mental breakdown that no Stone could heal, and had stayed in St. Mungos for more than a year. Besides Mr. Crouch, there were few competent workers in the Department of International Relations, let alone cunning ones. What was worse, the diplomatic skills in the wizarding world were not trained by schools or governments like in the muggle world, only passed down from father to son in a limited number of old families. Either that, or someone would have to be as brilliant and powerful as Dumbledore to figure it out over a hundred years. With the Monroe family gone, the Crouch family soon to be gone, and Dumbledore frozen in Time, currently, there were only the Malfoys. Harry was pretty sure that since the total wizarding population of the world was only about one million, the diplomacy couldn't possibly be as complicated as it was in the muggle world. The problem was, Harry couldn't afford to make any mistakes; and if diplomacy failed, Harry couldn't just go into war with some magical country as muggle Britain did with Argentina.

-Of course, justice has to be served, but I wonder if I should sometimes use Lucius' mind, say, let Draco send his patronus to Nurmengard. Lucius doesn't want the world destroyed, anyway…

"However, faking a new identity in Great Britain wass not ass eassy ass it seemss. The Quill of Acceptance writess down the name of every magical child in Great Britain at the time of their birth. To my knowledge, until my demisse, the Ministry of Magic obtained a copy of the record each year from Hogwarts, and it wass not considered classified information. Everyone could see it if they dessired sso. Even the Dark Lord needed to murder David Monroe to take hiss identity, insstead of complete forgery. Unfortunately, judging from the general interesst in our internal affairss from the world, and if what I knew about the Ministry before iss partially true today, copiess of the birth recordss have already found their ways to the handss of multiple countriess and everyone with a generouss pocket. "

Harry was completely speechless at this point. He simply knew too little about how the Ministry functioned, and this could all be key information in a war. Harry started to wonder if Lucius should be locked up in a secret secured prison somewhere, and how secret the prison could be.

Lucius proposed his solution. "I wonder if the following sstory would ssuffice. In the night of June 13th, 1992, when the Dark Lord enforced the sacrificial ritual, much of my magic wass losst. Partially due to my ssecret animaguss ability, I barely esscaped my death. And the head and body people later found in the graveyard were transfigured. As I wass not ssure that the Dark Lord wass really dead, and I was afraid of imprisonment, I initially thought assuming another identity might be a good idea. Sseveruss uncovered me from my previous disguisse. Transsfiguration wass used in the ensuing exchanges of magic, and that wass why I need healing from the Sstone. I convinced Sseveruss to let me meet my family firsst, then I should face my trial willingly. To the outsside world, my wife and sson will act ass if they are in dissappointment and fury toward my betrayal that I never let them know before thiss day that I am alive."

Harry pondered Lucius' story, and found that every sentence in it was technically true, and whole story sounded pretty plausible. Mad-Eye had already made up some plausible dark ritual that a Department of Mysteries employee "accidentally" leaked some hints to the more shrewd crowd. Now, Lucius could claim his escape was part of the reason the ritual did not perform as intended. Harry believed Mad-Eye and Severus could fill in the details.

-And justice and trials, exactly how things should be.

As Harry was contemplating how to make the story more believable, Lucius smiled wryly. "By the way, I ssuggesst that in recognition for Sseveruss' contribution in bringing a dangerous Death Eater back for jusstice, he should be awarded an Order of Merlin, First Classs."

Harry nodded absentmindedly to this suggestion. Severus deserved it for figuring out how to revive people anyway.