I order a chocolate brownie, while Draco orders a green tea sundae, and we return to the terrace seating of Florian Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, bathed in bright sunlight.
"The matter of the Ministry of Magic's surprise inspections, but just in case, you two should also…"
Just as we sit down, Mr. Lucius is speaking with a slightly stern expression, discussing something that sounds rather complicated.
"Father, is this about the Weasleys?" Draco asks.
Lucius hesitates briefly before opening his mouth.
"Yes. To avoid having faults picked during inspections, I intend to sell any questionable items to Mr. Borgin, but there is always the possibility of the unexpected. Draco, you should remember this as well. If you ever find yourself in trouble, rely on Victorica here."
"Could you not treat me like a convenient fixer?" Mother says with a wry smile, then meets Draco's gaze as he tilts his head.
"I may not look it, but I am a lawyer now. Because of that, I have many acquaintances in the Wizengamot Supreme Court Office."
The Wizengamot Supreme Court Office is, in essence, the judicial system of the wizarding world. It operates as a single-instance court and is a department within the Ministry. In the Muggle world, such a system would be considered undemocratic or outdated, but in the wizarding world, this is simply the norm.
After moving through various professions, Mother has spent the past several years working as a lawyer, handling a wide range of cases, and she has built a fair number of connections within the Ministry of Magic.
"I've been helped by Victorica in many ways in the past. Well, especially about twelve years ago."
Lucius speaks as if feigning ignorance, but Draco seems to understand exactly what he is implying.
Twelve years ago was the very year when Lord Voldemort was defeated by the so-called "Boy Who Lived," Harry Potter.
And after Voldemort's disappearance, one of the first to surrender was the man sitting before us now, Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy.
During Voldemort's reign, he was infamous as one of his supporters, the Death Eaters. Yet, like many others, he denied any real involvement, claiming he had been "forced to obey" or "placed under the Imperius Curse," and managed to secure a safe and comfortable life.
Naturally, for those who had resisted Voldemort, such as the Longbottom family who suffered greatly, such sophistry was impossible to accept so easily.
To avoid imprisonment in Azkaban and the confiscation of his assets, Lucius sought help from Mother, who had been his classmate at Hogwarts.
"That time was truly difficult. If I hadn't been asked to handle the trial, I would have been touring New England with Elaina, who was still a baby back then."
"Narcissa scolded me many times, saying we should have done the same," Lucius says with a wry smile in response to Mother's words.
Incidentally, during Voldemort's peak, my parents promptly fled to the American wizarding world, citing reasons like "it's dangerous" and "business would be ruined otherwise."
Unlike Grindelwald, Voldemort had little interest in foreign countries, which worked in their favor. Mother apparently enjoyed a peaceful life in America while Britain fell into chaos.
Then, when Voldemort disappeared, they casually returned to their homeland, and the very first case Mother handled was the defense of former Death Eaters.
"Besides you, Lucius, there were Crabbe, Goyle, Karkaroff, Nott, Avery, the Carrow siblings… was there anyone else?"
"Don't forget Macnair," Lucius adds with a snort.
In any case, a considerable number of Death Eaters, for better or worse, avoided Azkaban thanks to Mother's defense.
There were several reasons they escaped imprisonment, but the most significant was that many Death Eaters included pure-blood aristocrats like Lucius and even high-ranking Ministry officials. Nearly half of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families were involved. Imprisoning them all would have made rebuilding society extremely difficult.
In particular, with the Black family, once considered the royal house of the British wizarding world and the center of all pure-blood families, all but destroyed, with Sirius and Bellatrix in Azkaban, Regulus dead, and Andromeda erased from the family tree, the Malfoy family inherited the leading position among the pure-blood faction by marrying Narcissa, the last legitimate heir of that bloodline, and producing a son.
It is easy to imagine that without Lucius unifying them, the pure-blood families would have scattered, plunging both politics and the economy into chaos.
Based on this line of thinking, the leader of the moderate faction advocating reconciliation was the Celesteria family. They argued that the war-weary British wizarding world should be rebuilt as quickly as possible and return to peacetime, and even engaged in lobbying, insisting that the swift restoration of society required the reinstatement of former Death Eaters and a policy of tolerance.
This conciliatory approach faced strong opposition, particularly from Aurors and the families of victims. However, after the fall of Bartemius Crouch Sr., the hardline leader and head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, the moderates ultimately seized control.
At that time, the Minister for Magic was Millicent Bagnold, the previous Minister and a pragmatic politician.
"Is it not better for the sake of future children to accept the surrender of Death Eaters and have them contribute to postwar economic reconstruction, rather than driving them into a corner and turning them into terrorists?"
In addition to enacting measures such as the Special Wizarding World Reconstruction Act, Minister Bagnold sought the cooperation of my grandfather, Abraham Celesteria, who had emigrated to America and wielded considerable influence in its wizarding society. By securing massive reconstruction aid for Britain, commonly known as the C Plan, or Celesteria Plan, she declared the end of the civil war that had lasted over a decade and the beginning of societal reconstruction.
As a result of large-scale investments and donations from pure-blood families and foreign sources, the British wizarding world achieved a rapid economic recovery and social rebuilding. The succeeding and current Minister, Cornelius Fudge, largely continued this moderate approach, and the economy rebounded sharply, now enjoying a full-fledged boom.
Diagon Alley overflows with people, and even when former enemies like Arthur Weasley and Lucius encounter one another, they do not descend into an endless cycle of blood-soaked vengeance.
Of course, the Celesteria family, which played not just one but several key roles in the reconstruction, has earned an enormous amount of money.
Relatives in America have built lavish mansions in places like Florida and New England, in styles such as French Colonial and Tudor. Our own home in Robetta may be modest, but we also own a Mediterranean-style villa in Oregon.
"…I seem to have strayed from the point," Lucius says, clearing his throat lightly as he turns back to Draco.
"While you were buying sundaes, this is what we discussed. At the instigation of that accursed Weasley, the Ministry of Magic will conduct inspections until the end of this year's Christmas season. We never know when Ministry officials might arrive at the manor without warning."
Hearing this, Draco seems to grasp what his father is getting at.
"So you're saying I have to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas?"
"That is correct."
Draco looks displeased, but Lucius cuts him off firmly. "This is a final decision."
"But Father…!"
"Do as you are told. I did say I would buy you a competition broom in return."
"That's meaningless if I'm not even chosen for the house team."
As Draco sulks in irritation, Lucius wears a confident smile.
"No. You will be chosen."
He declares it with absolute confidence, but neither Draco nor I can understand where that certainty comes from. We simply exchange glances and tilt our heads in confusion.
Only Mother seems to realize something, shrugging her shoulders in exasperation.
"Lucius, don't people ever call you tsundere or an overindulgent parent?"
"Don't worry. I'm aware of it."
(End of chapter)
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