Lucius wasn't oblivious to Draco's tension, and he didn't like it. His son had never been tense around him. Draco had always known that Lucius would solve whatever problem he had, and damned the consequences. So much had changed, it seemed, and now there was a distance between them that Lucius didn't know how to overcome.
"I hardly thought my presence would liven things up," he said. The idea of attending a party thrown by a Weird Sister--awful, dirty band if you asked him--was right up there with torture. "As well as to be expected. I miss your mother, of course, and there is hardly enough to occupy the day here." The odd excursion into Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade the exception. Lucius wasn't about to offer his help for farming. "I've been thinking about how to approach the mud--the new students and their families."
He studied Draco again, taking in the faint lines of stress. "You're settling in well, I've seen. You're very close with Potter these days."