Lucius sighed. "If you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it. Draco needs to look good in the eyes of the rest of the wizarding world, and Potter is his best chance. But if you have some other plan then by all means, share."
He suddenly felt much older, and much more tired, than he had just moments before. He thought of his own marriage, which was more an alliance and eventual friendship than a love-match. He had long given up on finding that sort of relationship in his lifetime. Maybe the peaceful afterlife Severus had talked of would be, for Lucius, full of the things he'd secretly longed for in the past. He shook off the maudlin thoughts and tried to focus on his friend's answer.