"Might I ask what sort of meat we are dining on this evening?"
"Basilisk," the elderly wizard replied calmly.
"Basilisk?" Lucius choked and froze, his fork hovering stock still inches above his plate.
That meant...
"Indeed, Lucius," the old man confirmed pleasantly. "You see, recently, a hideously evil artifact was smuggled into the school by some foul reprobate," Dumbledore's gimlet gaze momentarily pinned the younger wizard in place before he went on in a positively genial tone, "where it forced one of my students into releasing an ancient monster from its ages-long slumber."
The bearded wizard sighed dramatically, "Fortunately, the beast ran afoul of one of our younger students who dispatched it handily before it could cause any lasting harm. Mr. Potter was kind enough to gift me with a portion of the meat, and it now graces our table."
"I see," the blond Malfoy croaked, swallowing reflexively as he attempted to moisten his suddenly dry mouth. "And have you managed to capture the culprit?"
"Alas, we have not," the greatest wizard in Britain sighed. "I have my suspicions... nothing that would hold up in court, you understand, but I do feel quite close to a solution."
"I wish you a speedy and fruitful investigation, of course," Lucius managed to bite out. "Anything to ensure the safety of the students."
"Indeed, while it has not turned up the name of the one responsible for this incident, the investigation has borne all sorts of interesting fruit." The elder wizard paused for a moment, timing his words carefully to coincide with his guest's next bite. "For example, did you know that your old acquaintance, Voldemort, had a bit of a history with that particular basilisk?"
Lucius froze again in mid-bite.
"Yes, yes… it seems he considered the beast as a beloved friend, if you can fathom it! I had no idea the man was even capable of such!"
As the Malfoy Head paled, the old man twisted the knife.
"Just imagine how much it would gall him to see you eating that steak. Why, it was probably his only true friend in the whole world!" He paused for a moment to allow the implications to sink in, "A fitting revenge for all that 'mind control' he saddled you with in the last war, I suppose. Wouldn't you agree, Lucius?"
The old man smirked behind his glass as he sipped at his drink, "A good thing for you that he is dead, I'd imagine. Why, if he were to ever return, he would undoubtedly read this incident from your mind, and I suspect you'd not be long for this life! Dreadfully limited sense of humor on that boy."
Face now paper white and stomach twisting itself in knots, Lucius finally regained enough of his senses to reach for his napkin, but before he could spit out his most recent bite of the Dark Lord's pet basilisk, he froze as his host spoke once more.
"Are you absolutely certain you want to do that, Lucius?" Albus Dumbledore, the defeater of Grindlewald and the strongest wizard west of the Urals spoke in a dangerously calm voice. "Refusing the meal would mean refusing my hospitality, something that could be taken as a personal insult, were I so inclined. That is just the sort of insult that might precipitate a duel, I would imagine."
Lucius Malfoy slowly finished chewing and forced himself to swallow. The tone left no doubt whether he would be so inclined.
"Excellent choice, old boy," Dumbledore congratulated him in a deceptively friendly tone. His presence swelled leaving the younger wizard barely able to breathe. "Though, I must admit, my life would have been much simpler had you given me the excuse. Alas, it seems I must do this the long way. Now, listen closely."
"You have put me in something of an uncomfortable position with this latest stunt, Lucius," Dumbledore stated in a conversational tone. "You planted that artifact on Miss Weasley, and I am now torn between two conflicting imperatives."
"You have no proof…" Lucius croaked out before a surge in his host's already oppressive magic silenced him.
"I have no proof that would be acceptable in court," he clarified. "I have more than enough proof to know what you did, Lucius. Unfortunately, I am bound by the law; without properly court-admissible evidence, I cannot legally punish you, frustrating as that is. You have taken advantage of that distinction many times over the years."
Lucius managed to muster the will for a smirk, if a rather anemic one.
"I know all too well that you and your peers see that unwillingness to circumvent the law as a weakness, a sign that I am too soft to make difficult decisions," Dumbledore declared. "You and your peers are wrong. You have no vision, no understanding! Those laws are my laws: I wrote them; I promoted them; and in the end, I personally forced them onto your ilk and the rest of magical society."
"I did that because they are good laws, laws that will help shape a good society and guide us into a better future," the elder wizard continued passionately, leaning forward in his chair. "But if those laws are to have any weight beyond that inherent in the whims of a powerful wizard, then they must be applied fairly and equally!"
He slapped a hand down next to his plate to emphasize the point.
"A nation can only be a nation of laws if those laws apply to everyone, especially to those who might otherwise have enough power to ignore them with impunity! If I do not follow those laws, no one will. Who would follow a rule that even the rule's creator flouted?"
He shook his head as he leaned back, white beard swaying with the movement.
"I have trusted that the rule of law would win out in the end on its own merits... that eventually you and those like you would be caught out and punished, lending weight to those laws by proving that they have teeth." He sighed, "No political transition has ever been bloodless, and I have been resigned to accepting delay as the lesser evil in the process of building a better future."
Despite the intimidating aura, Lucius' smirk broadened ever so slightly. It seemed the old man was working himself up to let him go again. He opened his mouth to taunt the old man only for the words to freeze on his lips.
"I am, however, also bound by my oaths as the Headmaster of Hogwarts," the old man's eyes narrowed dangerously, his hard gaze pinning Lucius to his chair. "And in your blind idiocy you have managed to put those two oaths into conflict! You have threatened one of my students while she was at my school, a child that I am oathbound to protect."
Lucius' smirk vanished, and the younger man's expression blanked in shock as everything he thought he knew of the man before him was turned on its ear.
"I have brought you here to remind you that actions have consequences," the great wizard enunciated slowly and clearly. "No lasting damage was inflicted by your recent bout of stupidity, Lucius, so I am within bounds of proper behavior to leave you alive. Nevertheless, I have brought you here to give you this warning: should I learn that another of my students has come to harm in a way that I can trace back to you, in school or out, whether the evidence is court-admissible or not, I will bury you."
Lucius' brow furrowed in confusion.
"You wonder why I brought up the conflicting objectives if I am just going to threaten you anyway?" Dumbledore asked, correctly interpreting his guest's expression... or perhaps reading his mind, both were distinctly possible. "You see, there is one possible way to reconcile that conflict, a course of action that will satisfy both oaths."
The elderly wizard, still calmly seated on the other side of the table, seemed to swell to giant proportions, looming menacingly over his guest despite not having moved at all. Lucius froze, stock still and unable to muster even the will to speak, much less move.
An idle gesture levitated the helpless man's wand from where it had been concealed in his sleeve, casually ignoring the elaborate enchantments on the sheath intended to prevent such things. The wand settled gently on the table in front of its owner, pointed directly at Lucius' chest, and as the frozen man watched, horrified, the tip began glowing a menacing and all too familiar green.
Unspoken message of dominance and threat clearly conveyed, the elder wizard continued, "You see, Lucius," he said conversationally, "I am willing to betray neither the law nor my oaths, yet there is more than one way to be law-abiding."
Dumbledore's stifling aura, already enough to prevent Lucius from even attempting to speak, swelled steadily higher with each word he spoke. Lucius' breath caught in his throat.
"One can obey the law by avoiding those things proscribed by the law," the monstrous figure seated across from the Head of House Malfoy continued "This is the preferred method; it is the meaning that most imagine when they hear the term 'law-abiding'. Technically, however, there is another."
"One can also obey the law by willingly accepting the punishment it prescribes. You see, Lucius, I could refrain from killing you where you sit, or I could accept the punishment for killing you where you sit."
Lucius' breath petered out with a faint wheeze.
"The law cares not which."
Unable to breathe, Lucius' heart pounded in his ears, its rhythm faltering under the ever-increasing strain of simply existing near the thing sitting across the table.
"However, the latter option is one I find rather unappealing," the terrifying wizard admitted, "mostly, I am ashamed to say, due to the fact that following it to its necessary conclusion means that I would not live to see the new world I have worked so long to build."
Lucius' vision began to blur as his eyes teared up from being open for so long, yet he could not blink.
"Make no mistake, however, reluctant or not it is a path down which I am well prepared to walk. Plans have been made; contingencies arranged."
Lucius' world had contracted until there was nothing but the voice in his ears and the irregular heartbeat in his chest.
"Know, Lucius, that if you are the one to force me down that path, the one to force me to give up on seeing my life's work through to its conclusion, I will be quite wroth with you."
The monstrous presence swelled to a crescendo, and Lucius' heart stopped entirely.
"Should that event come to pass, Lucius, I will ensure that you will have ample opportunity to regret your actions before your end." There was a pause. "And rest assured you would be but the first. I would not sell my life so cheaply as to trade it for yours alone."
The presence held for a few moments longer before it faded, and Lucius' lungs suddenly filled as he took a painful, shuddering breath. His heart quickly hammered back into operation, and he collapsed face-first onto the table, narrowly missing his plate.
"Do clean your plate, Lucius, lest you give me an excuse to do something you will not live long enough to regret," the monster across the table reminded him.
