"Thank you," Lucius replied, with just a touch of sarcasm. It was always so pleasant to discover that one was considered a bit of a chore. It wasn't like he was asking him to clean his room. Of course he recognized the difficulty - he wasn't sure what he was going to talk about, and considering Draco's reticence, he imagined he was similarly at a loss. All the same, he wasn't going to have him sit there brooding over a book.
When in doubt, lecturing was a steady fallback. "I realize things are hardly ideal," he said (and saw no need to elaborate, having already said his piece about the elephant in the room), "But I'm sure you know it's especially important to keep your grades up, this year." He started off not towards the house but along the path skirting the blighted section of the garden, expecting he would follow.