Percy had withstood the barbs and humiliations of his own family for the last few months - years - and he wasn't about to let Lucius Malfoy ruffle his feathers now.
He returned to his seat behind the desk, clearing his throat primly. Malfoy wanted to be snide and smug? Fine, Percy would fire back the way he did best - with the droning dullness of petty bureaucracy:
"It's a bit of a catch-22 I find myself in, Mr. Malfoy, to borrow a phrase from Muggle literature. You see, the aurors who...inspected your home weeks ago were instructed to look for very particular items, and to disturb nothing else. Your jewelry box was obviously not on the list of items. But before its presence was discovered, it had been inspected by several of our aurors and found to contain some elements of dark magic."
He slipped into the drone easily. Mindless, almost fun by now, really, being the perfect irritating peon everyone dismissed him as. Fun because Malfoy had no choice but to hear him out to the dull and dry end if he wanted to reclaim his possessions.
"Of course Ministry guidelines forbid the release of any items containing dark magic. And there's the catch - we should never have inspected the item, yet now we should not be releasing it. The compromise, then, lies in making sure you are fully informed of the item's dangers and have signed several forms absolving the Ministry of any liability for any accidents you may have involving said item."