Lucius was growing tired - had grown quite tired already - of serving as a glorified innkeeper. Quite aside from the ceaseless personal inconveniences that came of playing host to such an ungracious pack of snakes (there were a couple bright spots, of course, but - the effect was, on the whole, disagreeable), it made his skin crawl to think of them sleeping under the same roof as his family. If he was going to be left to rot on the sidelines without so much as his own wand, he thought he might prefer to be allowed to do so as a hermit. But the Dark Lord could always be relied upon for malevolence.
Thankfully, his followers could usually be relied upon just as certainly for their sense of self-preservation, and seemed to be keeping away from this portion of the gardens. It was shameful, to be reduced to digging through brambles on one's own property just for a quiet moment; but if that was what it took, he would make do for now. He had already pushed his way nearly to the tree-line when he saw his son. Looking more or less unstrangled, happily. One day at a time.
"I'm sure I told everyone to stay away from here," he said mildly as he stepped carefully over a dormant-looking pile of vines to stand in front of the bench, looking down at him with the requisite disapproval. "What are you doing? It's dangerous. You ought to go inside." Not that a house full of his friends would be any better, of course, for someone who'd proven himself less than useful to the cause - as he knew from personal experience. It was almost enough to make him glad the boy was leaving him to go back to school.