"Mr. Malfoy, Tom has returned to life." Dumbledore opened his conversation with Lucius Malfoy in the simplest, most direct way possible.
In an instant, cold sweat soaked Lucius Malfoy's back.
Oh, shit!
How did Dumbledore know about this??
There were plenty of Toms in good old Britain, but there was only one Dumbledore would single out for mention.
Besides, Dumbledore had added a very specific qualifier.
Returned to life.
What did that mean?
Someone had to have died once before they could return to life.
Which raised the question: which Tom, important enough to warrant Dumbledore's attention, had died and come back to life, prompting Dumbledore to visit his home specifically to discuss him?
What a difficult mystery to solve!
Lucius Malfoy had never cared about being a Death Eater.
Why shouldn't he own up to what he had done?
He had never denied joining the Death Eaters. In private, he was even rather proud of it.
At least he had tried to place a bet on the future.
As for defending himself at his trial, that was called preserving the dignity of a pure-blood wizarding family.
A loss was a loss. There was no shame in admitting defeat. Freaks like the Lestrange family had never existed in the old circles of pure-blood families.
They were all gamblers at the same table. Putting down a few chips now and then was enough. Winning was good, of course, but they had to accept their losses too.
But those idiots in the Lestrange family hadn't been content with placing bets as gamblers. They had climbed onto the table themselves to serve as someone else's gambling pieces.
What was that if not sheer insanity?
Lucius Malfoy truly despised those idiots from the bottom of his heart.
Wasn't it enough to place a few