WHAT IF?

J K Rowling owns all the rights to the books and the amazing characters she created. I write only to satisfy my imagination and use my creativity and make no money from my writings.

Chapter 1 – Not According to Plan

Lucius Malfoy was a wily, unscrupulous, manipulative and, if the truth be told, a truly evil wizard. He was also a coward and kept minions to do his dirty work for him so he liked to think of himself as untouchable. It helped that he had tons of money, was the Lord of an important family and had friends in high places. He prided himself on being able to escape being caught for the many unethical things he did and so far he had – until the Dark Lord fell.

He had joined the ranks of Death Eaters because he saw it as a way to acquire further power. Lord Voldemort had charisma, was probably the most powerful wizard ever to be born in Britain (Dumbledore be damned) and was an old school friend of his father, the mighty Abraxas Malfoy, who had conveniently died of dragon pox leaving his son Lord Malfoy and in full control of their vast wealth and power.

Much like Lucifer, the Angel who dared to defy God, pride was Lucius Malfoy's greatest fault. In the back of his mind plans were forming to betray Lord Voldemort once he conquered Britain and killed Albus Dumbledore. He would use his father's friend as a stepping stone by luring him into making him his second-in-command and then, when he least expected it, kill him and take over. He would become Lord King Lucius I and rule with an iron hand.

He had everything figured out and nothing could go wrong – except when it did. Lucius took the Dark Mark and that changed everything. Voldemort never fully explained what the mark consisted of, other than initiating people into his crusade and to use as a quick way to summon his followers. It was only after one was marked that one found out the extent of power Voldemort held over his followers.

First, one was forbidden to explain the mark to others before their initiation. Second, one suffered unimaginable pain when summoned and the longer you delayed answering Voldemort's call, the worse the pain until you responded. There were several other incidentals concerning the mark but the gravest was (in Lucius' opinion) was that those marked could not personally harm or kill Voldemort without suffering death.

Early on in the "war" (which Dumbledore called it) and the "crusade" which was what the Death Eaters considered it, a young Death Eater had been "convinced" by Dumbledore to capture "Tom" and bring him to justice and trial. Actually Dumbledore's plan was to have an innocent do the dangerous dirty work of bringing "Tom" to Dumbledore who would then ambush Tom, kill him and become a hero once again. However, the magic used in the mark recognized that harm was to be done to Voldemort and the innocent died in the attempt.

After Voldemort explained why the boy had died, he causally added "Even if one of you 'accidentally' harmed me, say in a battle a spell or curse you aimed at someone else 'unintentionally' struck me, the mark's magic would repay you three-fold. It would bounce off of me, hit you and…well you get the picture."

So Lucius had to develop a "Plan B" to get around the magic of the mark. But that was in the future. Lucius couldn't directly hurt Voldemort BUT he could influence others to get them in trouble and hopefully someone would do him the favor so that he could take over. His dream was to have Dumbledore kill Voldemort and then a vengeful Death Eater (hopefully his sister-in-law or her husband/brother-in-law so he could claim their wealth, power and estate for his son Draco) get rid of Dumbledore. While the world was in ruins and panic, Lucius would step in and – VOILA – King Lucius I would arise in a few years.

Lucius did his dirty deals without directly harming Voldemort and had not been caught. Then the unimaginable happened: Baby Harry Potter had supposedly not only defeated but had actually killed the Dark Lord.

Lucius saw his chance and took it. First, he Imperiused Bellatrix to disobey Voldemort's last order and attack the Longbottoms. Meanwhile, he arranged to plead being under the Imperious as well as some of his most faithful minions. He had already paid bribes to the proper people and gave the acting performance of his life in expressing his sorrow and shame at having been under that dark spell and being forced to do things he never would have done otherwise.

He hadn't been given Veritaserum, due to the bribes and thought he had gotten away with it. He had paid for his faithful, such as Crabbe and Goyle, to be exonerated and then concentrated on getting his enemies denied the same escape. Thus, the Lestranges, Carrows and others went to Azkaban.

The Potters had been killed and Sirius Black was being blamed for betraying them and was now a wanted man. Apparently the fool had gone after Peter Pettigrew who had really been the one to betray his best friends and Black had left his godson and heir with the half-breed Hagrid to be taken to Dumbledore. Lucius decided to sue for custody of the child and heir of two wealthy and powerful Houses. Narcissa was the closest relative in blood due to her Great Aunt Dorea being the mother of James Potter. The boy was also the acknowledged heir of Sirius Black due to Sirius being his godfather and since Sirius had no issue if he died or was sent to Azkaban, the boy would inherit. Narcissa was cousin to both Black and James Potter and thus had the best claim for custody.

However, Dumbledore had worked fast and immediately taken custody of the boy and already hid him from the danger of rouge Death Eaters and others who would seek to harm or use him. No, that jewel was Dumbledore's alone.

But then two unexpected things happened that made all of Lucius' carefully made plans become dust in the wind. Sirius Black had found Peter Pettigrew. He attacked immediately without giving Pettigrew a chance to respond. He did it at a Muggle shopping center and used magic in front of several dozen Muggles. As they scattered in panic, Black stood over the mortally wounded Pettigrew and further violated the Magical World's International Statute of Secrecy by castigating his former friend with his many sins but most importantly, causing the death of James.

After venting his spleen on the now helpless wizard, he saw that he was fading fast and Black wanted to see the light leave his eyes with one final blow. He cast the Avada Kedavra and Pettigrew died with a look of horror and pain on his face.

Then Black began to laugh like a madman. His laughter rang through the halls of the mall and it wasn't until his shoulder was grabbed by Auror Moody who spun him around to face him that the laughter stopped. However a smirk remained on his face as Moody asked "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

"Tying up loose ends" Sirius said beginning to actually giggle. He then took his wand and began to poke Moody in the nose (or what remained of his nose) and giggled "You always told us in Auror training not to leave anything to chance so I helped another friend bite the dust."

He might have said more but one of the younger Aurors accompanying Moody and the Oblivators saw only the wand and heard the last sentence and shouted out "Duck Moody" who did do that as the young Auror sent a silent spell at Black. He was only using a stunning spell but in his maddened condition Sirius wasn't taking any chances and quickly sent a cutting curse at the Auror. If the lad hadn't had good reflexes and thus moved out of the way, he would have been killed. It did wing him, cutting his wand arm and he let out a cry of pain.

Black laughed but at least he went out like one of the ways he wanted – laughing and with a smile. It was then he was hit by the other Aurors before Moody could do or say anything except put up a shield to protect himself. Sirius Black was hit with several curses but it was a cutting curse aimed at his jugular that killed him.

With Black dead and the Potter boy missing, this was now Lucius' chance to once again renew his plea to Lord Arcturus Black that since he was now without legal Pureblood heirs, he had to make Draco his heir. Much to Lucius' shock, after the deaths of his son Orion and his grandson Regulus, Arcturus informed Lucius that any child of Narcissa's body who had been sired by Lucius Malfoy would NEVER be Lord Black, so "Stop trying to foist your miserable brat on me as I still have other and more worthy heirs."

However, before Lucius could officially petition Lord Arcturus to settle the matter of heirs, old Arcturus struck first. He had been furious when he heard Lucius had pleaded the Imperious but denied it to others such as Narcissa's sister Bellatrix. Through his solicitors' extensive (and devious) investigations, he found out about the bribes and then outbid Lucius.

Having blackmail and money solved many a problem, and when Lucius received a summons from Gringotts that Lord Arcturus requested his appearance at the bank for "discussions" Lucius did a little happy dance in the privacy of his library and confidently went off to collect another inheritance for his son.

According to the laws of House Malfoy, Draco could inherit but not make use of any inheritances until his father died. The Malfoys used an old Roman law which gave the Head of House power and complete control over all children and lessor members of the House and that included the money they would earn through work or the dowries of their wives. Draco would inherit but it would be Lucius who would control and use the power and wealth that Draco received.

He was quickly led to a private conference room at the bank and was delighted to see that Ragnok, Head Goblin of Gringotts Britain, was present, his wife's old Head of House, Arcturus (who at the age of 80 should have been dead by now as Blacks didn't make old bones), Narcissa's formidable Aunt Cassiopeia and Darius Hawley, the Senior Partner at the law firm the Malfoys used (which was a very good omen) and Janus Whitby, from the law firm of Whitby, Wickham and Wolsey who Lucius knew was the solicitors for House Black and House Potter.

Millicent Bagnold, the Minister of Magic and recipient of many bribes from Lucius was also present. There were other people present but he ignored them as he sensed and savored victory. He should have noticed those people but he didn't, but he would soon find out that they would be aiding in his downfall.

Ragnok motioned for Lucius to sit on a chair exquisitely carved and covered with gold leaf. It looked and felt like a throne and Lucius smugly sat, knowing that he would eventually have a throne of his own.

He sat and it was then that he began to worry as his arms and legs were suddenly cuffed with magic-suppressing chains. Then Ragnok introduced all that were present starting with Lord Arcturus and ending with Amelia Bones, the new Head of Aurors.

"Information has been received at the Ministry" Millicent Bagnold nervously began "that you and others may have…may have not..." she then stopped as she couldn't bring herself to continue fearing Lucius' revenge if by some means he managed to avoid being convicted.

"What the Minister is trying to say" snapped out Janus Whitby "is that word has come to us that you might not have been truthful regarding you relationship with the late Dark Lord. Therefore, several prominent members of the Wizengamot have requested – no demanded – that you be administered Veritaserum."

Naturally Lucius strenuously objected but it didn't do any good as Amelia Bones simply administered the infallible truth serum to him and the questions were asked.

By the end of the day all of those who had pleaded the Imperious had been arrested by Aurors and brought in to be dosed with Veritaserum. Two days later the trials began and Lucius and the others he had saved joined their fellow Death Eaters in Azkaban.

Lucius was placed in a cell which Sirius Black would have been incarcerated had he lived. It was directly across from his sister-in-law, and as the Aurors left, one of them handed Bellatrix a letter from Lord Arcturus. It contained information about some of the things Lucius had done and intended to do to her and others, including the Dark Lord.

Needless to say, the witch exploded and then re-read the letter out loud so that the others would know of Lucius Malfoy's perfidy. The Dementors took a day off because they were actually intimidated by the yelling, threats, curses and the violence in the voices of those Lucius had betrayed.

His hell on earth had begun but others would soon find themselves in another type of hell as their plans and ambitions would crumble and destroyed.