At her [Narcissa Malfoy’s] touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely. The sun was casting long shadows when Lucius Malfoy, Disillusioned invisible, again stood in the street by the house where the Potter brat lived. By sunlight, Lucius saw that one of those painted rolling machines rested in front of Potter’s house. Meaning, Potter’s adult housemates were home. Lucius waited until Fudge had finished writing out Lucius’s pardon. Then Lucius casually remarked, “Corban Yaxley has the same problem I do. If you could write a pardon for him as well, C-O-R-B-A-N, Y-A-X-L-E-Y, I’d be grateful.” AUTHOR’S NOTE: In other of my stories, the so-called “blood-wards” are in fact vampiric wards that are powered by a siphon off Harry’s magic; but Dumbledore calls them “blood wards” to guilt-trip Harry into spending a certain amount of time each summer with the Dursleys. However, in this story the “blood wards” are what they claim to be—except that Dumbledore has made a disastrous presumption. Dumbledore set up the blood wards to be powered at first by Lily’s love for her son, then to be recharged by the love between Harry and Petunia and between Harry and Dudley, who all are related to Lily. But alas for Dumbledore’s design, the strength of those loves, H-P and H-D, is nil. To make an analogy between the Privet Drive blood wards and an automobile battery, what Lucius discovers is that the rubber belt that turns the alternator has broken long ago, and now in 1990, the car battery’s charge is almost gone. Anyway, when the Dark Lord returned, now he would have twenty-eight Death Eaters legally free to serve him. Lucius was certain that House Malfoy someday would be well rewarded by the Dark Lord.

Lucius smiled a completely insincere warm smile. “Congratulations on your election, Minister Fudge.”The films' take on Lucius using his cane as a shield of sorts while wielding his wand is similar to the daisho configuration of Japanese swordsmanship, where a samurai or other swordsman would use a smaller secondary sword as a shield while using a full-sized katana in their dominant hand. Ironically, the shaft of Lucius's cane is longer and is used for defence while the shorter wand is used for offence in duelling. This is quite appropriate for Lucius, as daisho configuration was typical among the elite samurai class during the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and Lucius' old pure blood beliefs certainly mimic such institutional classism. Lucius was sure that the DMLE, as underfunded as the department now was, would cause Lucius few problems; but if Lucius were arrested, he was sure that now he could buy another pardon from Fudge. As for Dumbledore, Lucius had no worries about him at all—the worst that would happen to Lucius tonight would be that Dumbledore would tag Lucius with a Stunner. Lucius did not bother to worry whether Dumbledore might cast an harsher spell than a Stun spell at him. The Malfoy grimoire, besides giving Lucius this spell, also had explained “triangulation.” With the spell, which was repeated as needed, as well as some map-marking and Apparation, it took Lucius only three minutes before Disillusioned Lucius was standing in the street in front of a disgustingly Muggle house. This evening, he, Lucius Malfoy, would return to Little Whinging, Surrey and would cast the Killing Curse on Harry Potter and on his Muggle housemates.

Lucius was willing to bet all of the Malfoy coinage vault that it was the bearded Muggle-loving fool who had erected these wards on Potter’s house; but Lucius could not begin to guess why the wards were now so weak as to be almost worthless. What was Dumbledore thinking? Malfoys did not show their emotions—otherwise Lucius would be grinning when he walked out of Fudge’s office. Lucius had walked into the idiot’s office being willing to pay twenty thousand galleons for an “Imperiused Death Eater” pardon; but now he was walking out with two such pardons and for half that price. Fudge opened up a drawer of his desk and dropped the moneybag into the drawer— clink—then shut the drawer. Fudge’s look at Lucius now was shrewd. “That’s a friendly thing you did for me, Lucius. How can I show my appreciation?” Lucius, with his wand in his right hand and his snake-head cane in his left, entered Harry Potter’s Muggle house. Lucius made himself revisible; he wanted the Muggles and Harry Potter to see their killer.The man who followed could only be his [Draco’s] father. He had the same pale, pointed face and identical cold grey eyes. Mr Malfoy crossed the shop … Lucius’s good fortune continued. He had paid out another 130 thousand gallons to Fudge, and had bought pardons for another twenty-six of the Dark Lord’s most fervent followers. Lucius smiled as he thought, Tomorrow, when news of this breaks, every Death Eater in Wizarding Britain will be thinking, “Killing the Brat Who Lived—why didn’t I think of that?” Lucius replied, “I find Amelia Bones to be overzealous and bothersome. I can’t convince her that my Death Eater activity all was done whilst under the Imperius Curse.” Moreover, it is explicitly confirmed by the actor who played Malfoy (Jason Isaacs) that he was the one who came up with the concept and the design

Fudge smiled greedily; but what he said was “Purebloods have enough problems without needing to worry about Amelia Bones bothering wizards when she shouldn’t. Hand me another five thousand galleons and I’ll soothe your friend’s worries.” Fudge gave Lucius a sharp look as he asked, “Would you be willing to swear on your magic that whatever illegal things you did between 1973 and 1981, you didn’t do of your own free will?” And every knut of that additional G130 000 was secretly documented: Cornelius Fudge’s greedy words, and the clink of coins in moneybags, all had been recorded by seven more recording orbs. No, I can’t swear such a thing on my magic. But the reasons are complicated and embarrassing. I wish to not embarrass Narcissa publicly.” Splendid,” Lucius said, “Here comes another five thousand.” Lucius waved his wand again, spoke the coins-transfer spell again, and another G5 000 was transferred between the moneybags. Clink-clink-clink.I complained after [film] four or five that I didn’t have my own wand. I invented and designed my cane, that had a wand in it. I’d try to steal it at the end of the film and they’d catch me,” ( Interview with Jason Isaacs on Milling About at the Edinburgh Film Festival in Scotland, sourced here) Within the UK and USA the price you see is the price you pay - you won't be charged any extra fees. I’d like to think so,” Lucius said, still smiling. “And as a friend, I’m about to do something to help you out.”