Lucius and the Waif - COMPLETE

The character of Lucius Malfoy belongs to J.K.Rowling. I am only borrowing him for a while. No copyright transgressions are intended and no profit is made.
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Chapter Twenty-One – Free at Last


Lea had spent the better part of two years living with Lucius in his multi-roomed ‘cell’ when the day came for him to be released. She had ventured out of his apartments only once, early on, to retrieve her few belongings from her old room. Lucius had hired a large guard from outside the prison, plus his solicitor, to escort her. The difference in her surroundings now that she had seen and lived in Lucius’ space was pitiful. Her room had been ransacked while she was with Lucius, but she had learned the hard way from a previous incident to carefully hide her few coins. She picked up her hidden stash of money, an old scarf of her mother’s she sentimentally cared about, and left. The Warden had been alerted she was out of Lucius’ apartments and tried to intercept her.


“I am the Warden here,” he began officiously. “Lea, you will come with me at once, bitc…miss. I will not allow you to return to stay indefinitely with a prisoner. Come along, I need you in my office.” The Warden tried to grab Lea by her arm, but the guard lifted him bodily and shoved him against a stone wall.


The solicitor stepped into the breach and asked the Warden, “What rights do you have over the young lady?” He waited impassively for the Warden, who pulled himself up away from the wall.


“Lea owes me – I mean the prison accounts – money for her room and board here for all the years since her mother died. She hasn’t been working off her debt, and she needs to start earning her keep again.”


“Doing what, if I may ask?” The solicitor looked at him coldly.


The Warden made another grab at Lea but she slipped behind the guard. “Lea serves as company for prisoners who are homesick. She keeps them company in their cells – it keeps some of them from going insane.”


“Well,” said the solicitor, “provide me with the documents showing her position, her employment records, her financial arrangements, including her salary, and all receipts for her entire term of employment, plus those ‘debts’ and I’ll determine what she may or may not be obliged to pay back. Bring them to Mr. Malfoy’s apartment and he can look over the records for me. I’ll let you know from his report what Lea owes you – I mean the prison accounts,” the solicitor said sarcastically.


The Warden’s complexion went more pasty than usual, and he fell back gibbering. “I don’t have all those records at hand. The employment was informal.”


“Then it is now over,” said the solicitor. “If any money is owed, the financial records should show that.” The solicitor and the hired guard left the Warden trembling with anger and fear while they escorted Lea between them back to Lucius.


Three months before Lucius was finished with his sentence, the Warden for the prison changed. Lucius met with the new Warden, but Lea wasn’t allowed to know what went on. Lucius only told her that the old Warden had disappeared, purportedly on an extensive vacation to Europe. Lucius said that with a straight face, so Lea wasn’t quite sure what to think.


On his final day, Lucius had the elves pack up all their belongings, the only exception being Lea’s special shirt and her mother’s scarf, which she packed and kept with her. Everything including the furniture was Apparated away with the elves. Finally, Lucius took Lea’s hand and walked out the double doors (symbolically, she thought) for the first time in five years. Turning, he gathered her to him, smiled down at her in his arms, activated the portkey his solicitor had brought and sent them both to his estate.


Lea had been confident she was much more sophisticated now, and living on Lucius’ estate would be an easy transition. Arriving in the main drawing room of his manor was a total culture shock for her. She almost slipped back into her old habit of disappearing mentally when faced with the overwhelming experience of seeing just that one room. It was so large one could say there was furniture in the distance.


Lucius saw immediately that the main drawing room had been a bad choice for her first view of his home. He Apparated them into his study on an upper floor, holding her in his arms when they arrived.


Lea shivered, wrapping her arms around his middle and hiding her face. “I don’t like it here, Lucius. I want to go back.”


Lucius dropped a kiss on the top of her head, then let her go and told her to look around again. Left alone, she fearfully looked around this smaller room, which looked much more like their drawing room at the prison. Lea gradually relaxed a little but stepped closer to Lucius again. “Are all your rooms like that other one?” she whispered.


“No, my dear. That was the largest one. I suppose I took you there to display the grandeur of my home to you. Forgive me. Pure posturing on my part I’m afraid. Many other rooms are much more in the proportions you are familiar with. We will see them a few at a time, if you prefer, but I do want you to become familiar with the layout. Then you can Apparate wherever you wish easily. And that reminds me, you’ll need to practice Apparating now that you are out of the prison grounds.”


“I don’t want to go anywhere without you,” Lea said, but seeing his slight disdain for her fear, she amended, “just for now. Please?”


“Well,” Lucius relented, “it’s still early for bed,” he gave her a dangerous smile of intent, “so perhaps we can see a few places together, to start getting you acquainted with my home.” Lucius took her hand again and Apparated her to his rose garden.


Lea sucked in her breath, “How beautiful. All those colors and the scent! This is wonderful. Oh, is that your home behind us?” she saw a building about a hundred yards off that stretched away on both sides from where they were standing.


“The main wing, yes. Two side wings form a U on the other side. We are at the back of my home. See that set of windows up on the third floor on that end?” Lucius pointed at the manor. “That is our suite of bedrooms and sitting rooms.”


Lea looked at him in dismay, “Are you putting me in a separate bedroom again?”


“Only if you wish it. I would prefer you slept with me, but it is your choice.” Lucius looked very formidable at that point, but Lea recognized his stance and stare for what it was – he was worried she would choose to have her own bedroom.


“Well, that’s a relief,” Lea smiled. “It took me how many months? to work my way into your bedroom. I don’t want to lose any ground, now.”


It was the right thing to say. Lucius lowered the angle of his chin and relaxed into a more natural smile. They spent the afternoon walking around the gardens while Lucius answered innumerable questions about Lea’s new environs. Lea was very talented at magic and was able to master simple spells without the focus of a wand, but he wanted her to have a much fuller range of magic to call upon. So far, all his teachings had, of necessity, been practice without one. He wanted to get Lea a wand, but they would have to go to Diagon Alley for that. The thought of appearing in public made him decide to put off that idea.


Lucius hoped she was becoming more accustomed to her changed
circumstances, but he worried when, for the first time in months, Lea wore his shirt to bed. It was her form of comfort, so he said nothing, just held her until she fell asleep. It had been a momentous day for them both, leaving Azkaban.