Author's Note:

Yeah, this is something that I haven't been able to get out of my head for a while, so I figured I would put it out here and see if anyone would like to read it. Don't worry, this won't take time away from the main fic.

It fascinated me to realize that there were essentially no Lucius Malfoy fics out there I could find. While I initially toyed with the idea of writing a "Canon-ish Lucius has a change of heart" fic, it just was unfeasible without coming across as too OC for a family that is often derided by the author herself. Thus, my idea to throw together quite the cornucopia of ideas in a "fantasy afterlife" fic.

There are likely not a lot of you who will know the Midkemia reference; I would encourage you to look it up and potentially read the original books if you like swords and sorcery.

The afterlife turned out to be a big waiting room. Well, big is a rather underwhelming descriptor for something that housed all the dead of past, present and future. Think of an endless, crowded airport terminal; minus everyone bustling around to catch their flight.

I snorted in disgust with myself. Dying from a car accident was practically a cliche, but it happens to hundreds of thousands of people every year. I guess that it really just made me a statistic in the grand scheme of things; a faceless ticking number that varies slightly every year.

Not that I was too bent out of shape about it; I had lived in a small town for forty odd years and had nothing to show for it besides a dead end, barely-covers-the-bills technical support job that would likely be downsized in a few years anyways.

The name's Russell, though my friends always called me Russ. Well, in high school at least; the friends thing hadn't really happened after that. It turns out, being over thirty with a dead end job and no prospects doesn't make a whole lot of people interested in having much to do with you.

Not to mention, being a single man past a certain age was practically criminal to small town folks; in a city nobody cared as you were just another faceless "I don't know you or care to know you" that they passed by the hundred every day. In a small town everybody was so bored they gossiped about old events or nonsensical new ones. To these folks, it was somehow more respectable to be some high school quarterback that lived his best years from sixteen to twenty and then went the cookie cutter route. Get married, went through a nasty divorce then became a "free agent" that ended up getting drunk every weekend to relieve the glory days. Or then again, maybe they just liked the predictability of cookie cutter Joe that they could easily identify and write off; someone who didn't fit that mold was considered "suspicious".

I shook my head angrily as old wounds opened up.

Enough of that.

I scanned the lobby, looking at the myriad of faces ranging from old to young, stone age to futurama, etc.

Countless people from across the ages sat with a glazed look over their face, eyes closed and shallowly breathing. This confused me until I realized that they must be experiencing some advanced version of VR, given the techy looking displays and holograms that were barely visible in front of their faces.

As if responding to my thoughts, a holographic display of my own appeared before me for my perusal as I sat down in a vacant seat.

"Welcome to the afterlife! Unfortunately, processing may take some millennia due to the demand, so please enjoy living through whatever fantasy you wish in the meantime! To be clear, there is little difference between our Virtual Life and your previous one; we pride ourselves on our "New Life" VR technologies that will feel like your old life, only better!

Once you make the choice upon which world you will live, you will remain in your new life until you die and are brought back to this station. If you choose one of our eternia options, you will be returned to our station at the time of your processing."

As the voice finished speaking, I scrolled down the display in front of me.

Based on some of your favorite entertainment options, we have the following options available:

A. Harry Potter

B. Naruto

C. Bleach

D. The Inheritance Cycle

How in the hell did the Inheritance cycle get on there? The first two books were dope but the third was meh and the last was total garbage; I definitely have some words for the author if we ever meet up here.

The options were not bad, though the choice was pretty obvious really.

Bleach and Naruto were a lot of fun to read, but can you imagine actually growing up in a village where child soldiers are common? Plus let's be real, even if you got to be Naruto or Sasuke your life would suck until 11 or 12. Sasuke you would have to deal with being the last of your clan, Naruto you would be treated like crap from day one by practically everybody.

Bleach might not be so bad, but being anyone besides Ichigo would be a waste of time. Plus, the way the author constantly nerfed him to make story arcs fit made me wary. I wasn't going to bleed out every battle just to find my hard-earned powers suddenly gone because of "reasons" that conveniently allowed the author to get away with lazy writing. No, if I worked hard for powers I planned on keeping them thank you very much.

No, the safest choice would definitely be to go with the Harry Potter Universe. Even if I was forced to play as Harry I could still game the system with my meta knowledge. Otherwise I would just be some no name kid that could enjoy school life for a few years before fleeing the country if necessary, until ole Voldy bit the dust.

Without hesitation I selected Harry Potter.

"Thank you for your world selection! Please select your requested gender."

There's an idea! I bet a lot of people swapped genders at some point just to try it out. Meh; maybe if I got REALLY bored at some point, I might try it.

"You have selected the gender Male; please choose a character from the following options."

A. Albus Dumbledore

B. Harry Potter

C. Tom Riddle

D. Lucius Malfoy

Well, that's an interesting group of choices. Obviously, Harry was out because that poor sap got the short end of the stick at every turn. Parents dead at birth, left with abusive relatives and forced to stay with them until 18, dealing with all the down sides of fame but never any good points, etc. I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Albus Dumbledore, arguably the greatest wizard of the modern age. All that power WOULD be enticing, but he had a rather rough time of it as well. Forced to battle his onetime lover, then be the one to have him locked up for the rest of his life. Plus, there was the mix-up with his poor sister getting killed at some point. Most importantly though, Dumbledore was OLD by the time the story's main events come into play. I would rather not have to muddle through adolescence in the 19th Century thank you very much.

Tom Riddle; that one stuck with me for a while. Tom also had a very poor upbringing, but I could probably leave the orphanage fairly early on and find a better living situation. Plus, if I was the strongest future bad guy and chose not to go dark, then at the very least a lesser "Dark Lord" would likely be the result. Probably one Dumbledore would be able to best, even in his old age. Still though, I REALLY disliked the idea of having to live through the age before we had modern conveniences. I planned to be a posh wizard that enjoyed muggle conveniences, which would be useless before the 1970s.

The final choice it was.

"Thank you for selecting Lucius Malfoy as your character! Please choose your magical power level and quirk."

(Please note: power levels directly correlate with levels of expected danger in your new life.)

Please select your choice:

Great Power

Above Average Power

Average Power

Below Average Power

Low power

Ah, that actually made some sense. Average wizards typically were overlooked, whereas low powered ones would basically be living as a step above a squib. It might be fun to try a "Vanilla" walk through at some point with average power. Then again though, I was never much of a "slice of life" fan where typically teens just had school drama and whatnot.

If I had to guess, I would have put Lucius at Above Average power for the canon series. He was part of the inner circle of death eaters, but he was obviously not the most talented. Sirius was able to disarm him after twenty years in Azkaban, so obviously fighting wasn't nearly as important to the original Lucius as politics.

The choice for any fantasy geek was obvious though.

"You have selected Great Power; please note that you will experience the greatest level of danger possible due to your selection. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

"Yes."

Dying sucked, but so did working a 9-5 job. If this new life had me sitting at an office somewhere in the ministry, I would Avada Kedavra himself. If I had to take the risky path to have some fun, so be it.

"Please select the quirk you would like to receive."

A. Wicked Smart (Prodigy level intelligence)

B. Spell mastery (Your ability to learn and master new spells is increased substantially)

C. Wealth (You make the goblins look like paupers)

D. Charismatic (Everyone wants to be YOUR friend)

Wow, this was actually really hard. Intelligence was a crucial element in any society, so passing it up was quite difficult. Still though, raw intellect couldn't win over every situation.

That's where the other options came into play.

Spell mastery would be a huge boost all around, but it didn't seem to hold the same weight as the others.

Wealth was certainly tempting. I knew that the Malfoy family was fairly well off already, but if I became stupid rich I could hire mercenaries to take care of my problems and live like a sultan. It kind of rubbed me the wrong way though; I had already powered up for this new life so I might as well not be boring about it.

Which left the Charisma skill; this stank a little bit of the original Lucius and his politicking ways, but there was no getting around the fact that sometimes diplomacy was the only way forward.

I trusted my gut.

"Thank you for selecting Wicked Smart as your quirk."

Intelligence is the most important attribute for what I planned to accomplish. Considering the Universe I was going into, raw intelligence would serve me the best. I was planning to become a powerhouse that could hold my own with any of the great powers; to do that I would have to likely tweak some of the existing spells and look up rituals that would make me more powerful.

Intelligence would be the key to both of those things. Charisma would have been very useful, but there is only so far you can go with it. Just because someone like Dumbledore adored me certainly does not mean he would chuckle and hand me a dark ritual book if I asked for it. Intelligence I felt would give me the greatest edge in acquiring and mastering obscure powerful magic, just the thing I would need to survive the coming war.

"Finally, please modify your appearance."

Oh hell yes. I was unsure if the Universe was going to go by the vague description in the original text or the movie version of Malfoy. Jason Isaacs is one of the best actors out there, but I just don't feel like he was the best fit for the Malfoy character.

An avatar appeared of what I would look like when I hit about 17, thus I was sure the child version would be derived from that. I tweaked Lucius to where the face was a bit better looking (Think Orlando Bloom in the Fellowship of the Ring, sans elf ears unfortunately), made him about 6 ft 3 and adjusted certain other anatomical parts to be similarly above average.

After customizing my future appearance, I hit the finish box.

"Congratulations! For being the first player to choose Lucius Malfoy as your original character, you are awarded the ultimate starter pack! Please select one of the following options:

Please note: These options are derived from your reading preferences and do not include any options from works of film.

Aw man! Here I was hoping to get something crazy like the nine tails or the hollow Ichigo form from Bleach. Unfortunately, I never read the manga so I was out of luck.

Midkemia Starter Pack: Included are the arms and armor of the famous warrior Ashen-Shugar; these items originally were used to turn the human Tomas into a peerless warrior of great stature. As a Valhehu, you are granted similar powers to a demigod and are guaranteed to be a peerless warrior.

Alagaesia Starter Pack: Our Dragon Rider package includes a dragon egg attuned to you and a visit to Rhunon's forge for a personally forged sword.

Halo Starter Pack: Our Master chief package includes the famous Spartan's armor and his AI assistant Cortana. Once the armor is donned, you will assume the physical prowess and peerless tactical abilities of the famous spartan warrior John.

Whaaa? How did Halo get on here? Oh right, I skimmed through one of those books when it first came out.

The sword and armor of Ashen-Shugar were REALLY tempting. They would basically make me a demigod that was able to physically overpower anyone I came across, especially in the Harry Potter Universe. I would wager the armor would make me essentially invulnerable to spells considering it was designed by an advanced race familiar with magic.

The only downside was the mental toll; I remember that Ashen-Shugar originally possessed Tomas for a while, and was always trying to take control even as the years went on. I could probably pull it off using some artifacts, but it still struck me as a risky option.

The master chief armor would be fun, and having an insanely advanced AI would mean I would always be three steps ahead of my opponents. On the other hand though, the spartan armor had no magic protection. Plus, I had chosen intelligence as my quirk so it would be rather redundant to have increased intelligence when I had Cortana there to do all the thinking for me.

Which left the final option. As much as I hated the direction the book's story took, the swords, dragons and magic concepts were some of the best I had ever seen put on paper.

Dragons were incredibly intelligent beings that were utterly loyal to their riders through the use of soul binding magic. This same magic allowed them to share thoughts, even at great distances. If that wasn't enough, being a rider gave you access to some pretty sweet magic that was frankly much better fleshed out than JK's offering. To be fair, Harry Potter was much more about "regular" magical schoolkids than it was about swords and sorcery, so I forgave how often magic was used as caulk for a plot point or fireworks to reel in the audience.

As the coup de grace on the Alagaesia cake, the swords were simply awesome. Virtually indestructible, each sword was forged to match the color of the rider's dragon and could be used to channel spells.

Yep, easy choice here.

"You have selected the Alagaesia Starter Pack! Know this: Your Dragon Egg will remain soul bound to you until you choose to hatch it. The dragon inside is in magical suspended animation, and will remain so until the time of its hatching. Simply think of the Dragon egg appearing and it will be transported to you through space and time. Please note: the summoning is a onetime feature and cannot be reused to store your egg. Further prompts and notifications will appear when you have bonded your dragon, including a portal to receive your rider blade."

"All of your options have been made! As a final warning, please be aware that your choices have set the difficulty rating to max level: Expect to have quite the interesting new life!"

Everything went dark as I was suddenly surrounded on all sides by a fleshy material. Ah; well this was endearing. It's one thing to intellectually know the process upon which you entered the world with no memory of it; I had a feeling that enduring it with an adults' self-awareness would be a whole new level of torture.

I won't bore (or disgust) you with a play by play of my birth into the world of Harry Potter. If you are aware of the process, feel free to cringe with me on the inside and be glad that you were not fully aware when it happened to you.

After hours of feeling like I was being steamrolled, I arrived in the world of Harry Potter as Lucius Malfoy. As I stared at the horrified faces (including what I believed was my first house elf), I realized that not crying was probably alarming them as to my condition.

Internally rolling my eyes, I let out a loud wail as the room's occupants relaxed and I was promptly shoved a bottle of milk by a cooing house elf. Thank goodness; one less indignity I would have to suffer. I suppose it is not really surprising that a high-born noble would refuse to feed her own child.

"Oho! This one's a Malfoy alright; you've done quite well Winter." A tall, fair haired man loudly exclaimed; doubtless this was my new "father" Abraxus Malfoy.

A tired woman with Platinum blonde hair sighed and tiredly forced her eyes awake even as a mediwitch was slathering her with spells to ease pain and promote sleep.

"He has my hair but your eyes Abraxus; the girls at Hogwarts won't stand a chance."

Abraxus chuckled in good humor, a rare thing for the typically reserved man.

"Fine fine, you rest now my dear. A fine job you have done today to bring young master Lucius into the world."

"Oh? You decided to go with one of the old family names then?"

A solemn look took over his face as Abraxus straightened and proclaimed clearly to his newborn son.

"Welcome to our family Lucius Septimus Malfoy, my first-born son and heir. May the magic of this house accept you as its own even as we have accepted you."

There was a rushing sound as the room seemed to briefly flicker and sigh before reverting back to normal.

"Excellent; a squib or mudblood in our line is rare but unfortunately not unheard of. I would have hated to put him down and start over."

A cold snake slithered down my spine as I heard his words. While it was different than my first life, given I had fully peeked behind the curtain to the next life, the sensations felt exactly the same. Everything here felt real, including the casual way Abraxus had mentioned snuffing me out like a small candle.

Immediately, my mind was drawn back to one of my favorite movies of all time.

"What is real Neo? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can taste, feel and see then that is merely electrical signals interacting with your brain."

I had always assumed that the pure bloods were all talk and not much action. Obviously though I was mistaken; Abraxus would have calmly ordered the house elf to dispose of me if I had born without magic, no different than he would tell them to take out the trash.

This may have not have been the best idea.