"You don't say," Lucius replied, looking distinctly unsurprised. If anything, he was disappointed. The errant house-elf who'd taken it upon himself to organize everything on the ground floor had tried to open his veins with a kitchen knife - so much more amusing - but then, he hadn't had a wand. "I do hope she's alright. I must say, your people are very conscientious. It wasn't so long ago something so unimportant might have slipped through the cracks, never to be seen again." They had been better days, when a piece of gold would get him what half an hour in a grim office wouldn't get him now. He thought that finding an auror stretched out under a sheet in his drawing room might have been worth the insult of having them pouring through the front door in the first place. Well - perhaps next time. "I'll be sure to address it the moment I get home."
He'd set it right back in its proper place beside the lamp, at any rate. And then, back to business as usual ... And suddenly, he was tempted to stay out for as much of the afternoon as he could get away with. Home hardly seemed like much of a refuge. - He should pick up something for Narcissa while he was out, naturally.