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In Character Information

character name: Lucius Malfoy
Fandom: Harry Potter
Timeline: Post Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (series end, about a week after the Battle of Hogwarts).
character's age: 44

powers, skills, pets and equipment: Magic in Harry Potter.

Lucius is standard Harry Potter-verse wizard of moderate ability, requiring a wand, an incantation and practical experience with a spell in order to perform most magic. His talents include an emphasis on the Dark Arts and related skills; most notably the three Unforgivable Curses. He is known to have been proficient at Potions while still at school; being a member of the Potion Master's club of select students. He is a skilled duelist as is evidenced by his ability to hold his own in the face of two-against-one odds in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. He is well-practiced in the Imperius Curse, using it on Ministry officials on several occasions. Being a Death Eater, he is unable to produce a corporeal Patronus, but as one of the few Death Eaters capable of genuine love and taking into account his end-of-series changes in priorities, this is something he might be able to achieve in the future in Anatole, if inclined.

However, Lucius is presently without a wand, due to having had his commandeered by Voldemort and then unfortunately destroyed. Wandless magic, while not impossible is certainly more difficult, leaving him without the ability to cast more complicated spells, although simple charms are still within his scope. [Update:] Through the magic of the Door, Lucius is now in possession of his original wand.

canon history: Lucius Malfoy at the Harry Potter Wiki.

personality: In the not-so-distant past, the first impression one had of Lucius Malfoy was that he personified wealth, privilege and entitlement. If there was an aristocracy in the wizarding world, Lucius was at the forefront; taking great pride in his family name and position as he impressed upon all lesser beings the vast extent of his self-perceived superiority, which was readily apparent from his appearance (always impeccable and expensively dressed) and his manner (haughty and contemptuous, with an ever-ready sneer and cutting remark).

In conjunction with advancing his social status, Lucius worked very hard to maintain a wide sphere of influence, using his wealth (ostensibly charitably) as a tool to enable him to have his fingers in many pies (or in other words: subtly control), from the Ministry of Magic to the governing board of Hogwarts, St. Mungo's Hospital and other prominent wizarding institutions. His generous donations would have been withdrawn of course, had those establishments failed to fall in with his views.

While he looked down his arrogant nose at everyone indiscriminately, he reserved a special disdain for those he considered to be of 'impure' (non-magical) blood. In addition to being an elitist snob, Lucius was (and still is, to a smaller, quieter extent) an inexorable racist and proponent of the ideology of pure-blood supremacy, which is the belief that pure-blood wizards should (at the very least) be the ruling class due to the inherent superiority of their blood and on the more extremist end, believe that non-magical people (muggles) and all muggle-born wizards should be persecuted or ideally, annihilated altogether, considering them to 'filthy,' (hence the racial slur of 'mudblood') additionally regarding with contempt any wizards who deigned to associate with them. Half-blood wizards were tolerated, but only just barely. He was one of the premier members of a radical group known as Death Eaters; a select and secret organization of wizards and witches who were supporters of Lord Voldemort (a powerful Dark Wizard and leader of the pure-blood supremacist movement) and dedicated to the systematic harassment and torture of any that stood in the way of their blood-purging goals.

However, being addicted to status, Lucius surreptitiously put his own interests before political or social ideology. Although he was undoubtedly every inch a complete advocate of the pureblood supremacist/Death Eater cause, Lucius was never as unqualifiedly loyal to Voldemort as some (most notably his sister-in-law Bellatrix Lestrange); losing little time in denouncing the Dark Lord after his first defeat (stating he'd been under the influence of the Imperius Curse [mind control]—a claim presumably made more plausible by virtue of his position, influence and possibly a great deal of smooth-talking).

In between wars, Lucius was careful to maintain a façade of lawfulness, for even as influential as he was, being suspected of any further illicit activities would have been very sticky for him. Suffice it to say, not everyone believed his excuse of being under a curse and he needed to stay in the winning side's good graces, at least ostensibly. It wasn't enough for him to simply be powerful, he wanted to appear respectable as well. Appearances are important to Lucius, both figuratively and literally. Politically opportunistic and vain, he was more concerned with how he was portrayed in the press and how he looked in the mirror than he was in the joys of muggle-torture—in which he would participate as long as the chances of getting caught were slim.

But beneath that veneer of respectability, Lucius was a cruel, callous man. He wielded sarcasm like a sword; maliciously insulting his contemporaries (and their children as well) to their faces and he wasn't above vindictively using an eleven-year-old girl to further his own ends; creating a situation that would have disgraced her father (Lucius's enemy) and would have likely caused her death and the deaths of several other innocent children as well, had it not been thwarted.

Lurking beneath all the verbal bravado there's a strong streak of cowardice, as is characteristic of many bullies who are more bark than bite. Voldemort referred to Lucius as 'slippery'—a multi-purpose insult that all at once accused him of gutlessness as well as disloyalty (when Lucius failed to look for Voldemort after his first defeat), fleeing from evidence of his master's imminent return (and subsequent wrath) and lying about it all (in the past, present and potentially the future), proving that he knew his underling quite well indeed.

Emotionally, Lucius exhibits classic English reserve. Understated and prim, he hid behind a mask of cool propriety, arrogant nonchalance and unimpressed disdain, with the mask only slipping when provoked—which is actually quite easy to accomplish. Lucius might be a master of pushing the right buttons to get under people's skin, but he is equally susceptible in that respect, going so far as to physically attack a twelve-year-old Harry Potter in a public Hogwarts corridor after being tricked into freeing his house-elf (servant/slave).

But that is not to say that Lucius Malfoy is a completely reprehensible human being. Gradually, it becomes apparent that beneath all the posturing, politicking and general assholery, Lucius, unlike many Death Eaters, is capable of genuine love, as eventually he turns his back on Voldemort and puts his family first, although it does take him a long time to get there and one wonders if he ever would have—no matter how detrimental the situation—had he not fallen out of the Dark Lord's favor. It is obvious though, that he loves his wife Narcissa, who has a great deal of influence on him and wasn't quite as committed to the war and to Voldemort's service as her husband; agreeing with the ideology, but not being an Death Eater herself, so possibly she would have steered him in that direction regardless. As a couple, they give the impression of having a good amount of mutual affection and compatibility.

While Lucius loves his son as well, he's a better husband than he was a father. He held Draco to high, exacting standards and showered him with a steady stream of demeaning criticism as he grew up; ruthlessly targeting his self-esteem and pride, implying that his son wasn't worthy of being a Malfoy and belittling him for 'allowing' a mud-blood to out-perform him in school. In spite of this apparent disapproval, Lucius spoiled Draco at length, indulging every material whim even if affection and praises were withheld. It's very possible that in withholding such, Lucius believed he was teaching his son strength and toughness and that showing love was a sign of weakness. This changed however, when the Dark Lord punished Lucius's failures by assigning Draco the near-impossible task of killing Voldemort's nemesis—the powerful wizard Albus Dumbledore; threatening Draco with his own and also his parents' deaths if he failed (a likelihood) and subsequently, Lucius began to display genuine concern for his son.

By the last book of the series, Lucius is a defeated, broken man; barely a shell of his former self. Aside from whatever effect being incarcerated in Azkaban for a year may have had on his delicate aristocratic sensibilities, he had lost his respectable public image as a result of his prison sentence, only to return home to find that his estate, his refuge, had become a prison of sorts as well; commandeered by Voldemort for his headquarters. Lucius's failures in Voldemort's service had not earned him the more merciful penalty of death, but instead, prolonged humiliation and emasculation from his master on a constant basis, as the Dark Lord was fully aware that stripping Lucius of his pride and credibility with his fellow Death Eaters was a far more sadistic punishment. It also had the advantage of degrading his family as well and in the process, conveying a warning to others as to the misery that incompetence would bring. It's entirely possible that a messy death ultimately awaited him as well, after his face had been ground into the dirt sufficiently enough for Voldemort's satisfaction.

He ends up being spurned by everyone; having no place next to either Voldemort or Harry Potter and it's at that point that he finally put his family first; losing interest in the outcome of the conflict and abandoning the fight in favor of searching for his son so as to ensure Draco's safety. Lucius is spared a prison sentence by virtue of his last minute defection and subsequent informant role, even though his switching sides wasn't prompted by any change in beliefs.