| “ | Your parents were meddlesome fools too. Mark my words, Potter. One day soon, you are going to meet the same, sticky end. | „ |
| ~ Lucius Malfoy vowing revenge on Harry Potter. |
| “ | I assure you, my Lord, I have never renounced the old ways. The face I have been obliged to present since your... absence... that is my true mask. | „ |
| ~ Lucius Malfoy to Lord Voldemort. |
Lucius Malfoy is a major antagonist in the Harry Potter franchise.
He is a Death Eater who served Lord Voldemort during the First Wizarding War. Years later, when Voldemort returns, Lucius quickly rejoins his master again, though he eventually loses the Dark Lord's favor due to some misgivings and failures. He is the son of Abraxas Malfoy, the husband of Narcissa Malfoy, the brother-in-law of Bellatrix Lestrange and Andromeda Tonks, the father of Draco Malfoy, the father-in-law of Astoria Malfoy and the grandfather of Scorpius Malfoy. He is the former rival of the good-natured Arthur Weasley, patriarch of the poor Weasley family.
He was portrayed by Jason Isaacs, who also played the Basilisk in the same franchise, Colonel Mekum in Soldier, William Tavington in The Patriot, Captain James Hook in the 2003 Peter Pan film, Zhao in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Satan in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, The Grand Inquisitor in Star Wars Rebels, Dr. Heinreich Volmer in A Cure for Wellness, Dracula in Monster Family, Gabriel Lorca in Star Trek: Discovery, SkekSo in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Dick Dastardly in Scoob!, Billy Butcher in The Boys Presents: Diabolical, Enver Gortash in Baldur's Gate 3 and Brainiac in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Personality[]
In the face of the public, most notably esteemed wizards of the Ministry of Magic, Lucius Malfoy presented himself as a humble, polite and sophisticated man, who used his wealth to make many charitable donations which earned him a lot of favor with others. However, this is was nothing more than a façade which hid a bigoted, arrogant, ill-tempered and duplicitous person.
Lucius used his guile and wealth to escape many situations, such as claiming that he only served Lord Voldemort under the influence of the Imperius Curse. He also had a seemingly affable relationship with the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, something that allowed him oversee private matters, bend rules, and bypass laws. In truth, Lucius only saw Fudge as worthy for the leverage the Minister could give him. He was perfectly capable of abusing his position and use threats to get others to abide by him, as noted when he threatened to curse the board of Hogwarts ministers into having Dumbledore resign, and used the same mixture of guile and power to sanction the execution of Hagrid's Hippogriff, Buckbeak. Another display of Lucius's high temper was when he attempted to curse (and possibly kill) Harry after the latter had tricked him into freeing his family's House Elf, Dobby.
A stern advocate of Pure-Blood supremacy, Lucius prided himself with his family's blood status and was highly condescending towards Muggle-Borns, Half-Bloods, and Blood Traitors, but in less of an open and derisive way like his son, though he still showed flagrant disrespect towards his rival, Arthur Weasley. Upon becoming a governor of Hogwarts, Lucius requested that The Fountain of Fair Fortune, a Beedle the Bard story that depicted marriage between a witch and a muggle be banned from Hogwarts shelves, not wanting his son Draco to be influenced by this fictitious display of muggle-wizarding marriage. Lucius's bigoted nature clearly affected his son Draco as well, as he would come to be an arrogant, spiteful, and racist bully at school himself. Despite his superficial good nature, many people, including the Weasleys and Harry Potter were able to see Lucius for how scheming he really was. He alliance with Lord Voldemort did not die out upon years of being declared innocent, as he was willing to use his master's diary to brainwash Ginny Weasley, Arthur's daughter, into releasing the Basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets, as it would go after and kill Muggle-Borns, making Ginny look like the perpetrator and therefore bring shame to her father and family. Thankfully, no one was killed, and the victims of the Basilisk were all merely petrified, though this displayed Lucius's ruthlessness in having an eleven year old girl be framed as responsible for attempted ethnic murder.
Despite his loyalty towards Voldemort, Lucius did not make any attempts to find his master upon being freed, something the Dark Lord would later berate him for (though it could be argued that he had to lie low to avoid any suspicion), nor was he willing to brave Azkaban in Voldemort's name as the Lestranges were willing to do. This can depict that he was more self-serving than truly loyal to his master's welfare, even though he pleaded that this wasn't the case. He still showed up alongside Crabbe, Goyle and Macnair when summoned by Voldemort and almost watched his master kill Harry Potter; a year later he had the audacity to address Harry after the latter had been cleared during an unfair criminal trial.
For his manipulative and unpleasant personality however, one of Lucius's redeeming qualities was that he genuinely loved his family and wanted to keep them safe from his master. After being forced to use Malfoy Manor as a hideout for the Death Eaters and, more importantly, when Draco was tasked with the impossible mission of killing Dumbledore, Lucius's priorities slowly pivoted from serving Lord Voldemort to protecting his family however he could. Even after being spared upon Voldemort's defeat however, Lucius's racist nature remained intact for the most part, as he was disappointed with his son for not being able to marry a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Though it should be noted he was still happier having finally broken free from the Death Eaters alongside his family, even if this was out of self-preservation rather than a genuine change of heart, it still proved that Lucius wasn’t a completely evil and selfish person underneath, and that he was capable of genuine love - something that was alien to Lord Voldemort and many who followed him.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Lucius Malfoy was born in late 1953 or 1954 in Wiltshire County, England, to a family of Wizards with substantial wealth that lived in luxury within a magnificent mansion for many generations. From a very young age, he was taught that how special he was, firstly as a Wizard, secondly as a Pure-Blood, and thirdly as a Malfoy, whose family name alone commanded respect because of the considerable influence they had on the British Ministry of Magic due to their social standing in the magical community in general.
As such, his father Abraxas Malfoy, who was known to possess many of the qualities that have distinguished so many of his ancestors taught his son about the prudence of maintaining an appearance of respectability to preserve their status of prominence among their kind, as well as the importance of retaining the goodwill of the ruling class from which the family could benefit. Taught to take great pride in his heritage, Malfoy was encouraged to mainly associate himself with the pure-blood children of other wealthy families who shared their cast-iron belief in the inherent superiority of blood-purity.
At the start of his first year the major wizarding school in Scotland, called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1965, Malfoy was sorted (like the majority of his family who went there) to Slytherin due to his resourcefulness with the Dark Arts and ambition for blood purity, eventually becoming a member of Hogwarts Potions professor Horace Slughorn's "Slug Club". At some point in his third year, his father became suspected to have had a hand in the mysterious illness which had befallen Nobby Leach, the first Muggle (non-magical)-Born Minister for Magic to ever hold office.
Regardless of whether there was some truth to this claim, Abraxas and his son both enjoyed seeing Leach removed from power, as they regarded him unworthy to lead the wizarding community. In his fifth year, Malfoy was made prefect due to the hard work he put into appearing a model student in the eyes of his teachers, including Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. During this position, he began having contact with younger Slytherins like Severus Snape, who he warmly welcomed into the fold after the latter's sorting, and the two had good rapport and grew to share their extremist ideals.
Following his graduation from Hogwarts in 1972, Malfoy quickly began establishing his own network of connections in high places in the Ministry from which he would later be able to gain benefits and favours. But his plans went deeper still as he carried with him high hopes that life had more important things in store for him than the privileged life of a high-born bachelor.
Because he liked it when things worked out for him, it was ultimately the desire to further his own ambition, as well as a sense of purpose and self-fulfillment, that eventually had him join fellow Slytherins like Snape within the inner circle of the Death Eaters, an army of supremacist Witches and Wizards led by the psychopathic Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort, who aimed take over the Wizarding World with a large conflict against its social order and shape it in his supremacist views through his tyrannical rise to power.
Voldemort was a difficult taskmaster of limited patience and did not take kindly to failure from his followers, but Malfoy had little difficulty in gaining the Dark Lord’s favor. Due to the high standing of his family, he was ideally positioned to gain insight into the Ministry’s resources and yet-to-be initiated plans aimed to crush the Dark Rebellion, all of which were valuable information he relayed to the Death Eaters. Rewarded by his usefulness and reliability, the noble Wizard squire found himself rising rapidly through the ranks, until Voldemort at last bestowed upon him a position of leadership. At some point during this position, he married Narcissa Black, with whom he had a son named Draco in 1980.
Counted among one of the Voldemort’s most trusted servants, Malfoy went above average intelligence and ability, both of which he turned to crimes like coercion, torture and murder. He fought at his master's side in many battles during the war, some of which he took lead in and was presumably involved in the deaths and disappearances of several members of the Order of the Phoenix, around whom opposition to Voldemort had always rallied. When he came to earn the Dark Wizard's full trust, Malfoy was thus entrusted with a Diary Voldemort kept while attending Hogwarts under his true identity (a former Slytherin prefect and heir to Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin named Tom Marvolo Riddle) that was said to be among his Horcruxes (artifacts of dark magic that makes their owner immortal), capable of reopening Slytherin's legendary Chamber of Secrets and unleash the monster inside, the Basilisk, to cleanse the school of all Muggle-Borns.
Unfortunately, when Snape discovered a prediction concerning Voldemort's destruction at the hands of a child born at the end of July in 1980 to those who defied him three times and lived, Voldemort came to learn of two boys who matched the description, the most probable of which were believed to be Harry Potter, the then-unborn child of James Potter I and Lily Potter, both distinguished members of the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore eventually learned of the Dark Wizard marking the Potters for death through Snape, who loved Lily Potter since they were children, and had the family go into hiding and keep their heads low enough for Voldemort, Malfoy and other Death Eaters to fail in locating their whereabouts until their friend and Secret-Keeper Peter Pettigrew betrayed their whereabouts.
Thus, with their Fidelius Charm broken, Voldemort on Halloween 1981, went out to rectify the odds that had so unexpectedly been stacked against him, but the eradication of the Potters had not went as smoothly as they had anticipated. Having murdered and simply stepped over the bodies of James and Lily, the psychopathic Wizard prepared to kill their son as vowed only for his Killing Curse to rebound back at himself and obliterate his body, leaving Malfoy and the rest of his army shocked and distraught as well as making Harry famous for being the first to ever survive one of the Unforgivable Curses.
From having been the important and impressive second-in-command of Lord Voldemort's army, Malfoy, though a talented leader and a very proficient Wizard in his own right, suddenly found himself trying very hard to regain control of the situation and quickly found himself greatly overwhelmed by the combined strength of the Ministry and the surviving members of the Order as they began rounding up all the Death Eaters scattering into hiding. He was eventually caught himself and put on trial before a full Wizengamot for his involvement in Death Eater activities and support of the Voldemort's reign of terror.
However, it was first when his belief in the Dark Lord’s uprising became a threat to him that it became clear to him that the purpose of his allegiance to the Death Eaters had run its course. While a fierce supporter of the cause for which Voldemort stood, Malfoy held little loyalty for the Dark Wizard himself. He came to the conclusion that he joined the ranks in hopes of some shared glory, and with his master’s disappearance, he saw there was no glory to be found, and as such, no longer any benefits to remaining loyal to the Death Eaters as a group. When he at last stood before the court, Malfoy pleaded his innocence and claimed he had been acting under the influence of the Imperius Curse, although his main course of action were to rely on his good family name, his excellent reputation in the Wizarding World and calling in favors from high-placed Ministry officials to win his freedom.
While he was formally found not guilty of all the charges against him and thus slipped his way out from the crowds with some of his former peers, most of which was sentenced to a lifelong confinement in the Wizard prison Azkaban, some, such as Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office Arthur Weasley, whose family had been anathema to the Malfoys for generations, believed it was a lie. With his name cleared, he took up residence in Malfoy Manor with his wife and son shortly after his father died from the worst case of Dragon Pox and passed both the property and a treasured heirloom to him, and from that point on he became the new patriarch of the Malfoy family.
Independently wealthy and therefore without any need to work, Malfoy was more than content with a settled life, preoccupying himself with upholding his influence in the Ministry of Magic and maintaining a waste collection of dark artifacts harking back to family history. He eventually went on to raise his son in an atmosphere of regret that Voldemort had not succeeded in taking command of the wizarding community, yet it was first when he was gone that Malfoy’s lack of devotion to his fallen master became most evident. Despite his high standing in the ranks of the dark forces, his loyalties were primarily towards the cause rather than to the man representing it, as shown by how he still associated with those of his former Death Eater comrades who, like him, avoided Azkaban, many of which became close friends of the family.
He even remained in touch even with Igor Karkaroff, who won his freedom after capture by cowardly putting numerous of Malfoy's old comrades into Azkaban in his place. The most prominent evidence for his initial disinterest in revisiting his past and lack of faithfulness to the Voldemort himself was how Malfoy disregarded rumors of the Dark Lord’s survival as wishful thinking, and instead took interest in potentially allying himself with the very person who had brought about his former master's downfall. Many different theories regarding how Harry Potter survived the Voldemort's attack were made, the most persistent of them being that the boy himself was a great Dark Wizard.
This assumption was one Lucius prescribed to most eagerly, even taking comfort in the thought that he one day might get a second chance of world domination if Harry grew up to become another, and greater, Pure-Blood champion. To prepare for Draco’s magical education, Malfoy informed his wife that it was his wish for their son to attend the major wizarding school in Scandinavia, called Durmstrang Institute of Dark Magic, where Karkaroff was now headmaster.
This school did not allow Muggle-Borns to attend, and it was also argued that Durmstrang took a 'far more sensible line' about the Dark Arts than Hogwarts, which was still headed by Dumbledore, whom Malfoy held in no higher regard after the war than he had during it for the old Wizard's advocacy for Muggle rights and other values that went against their own. Narcissa, on the other hand, didn't like the idea of Draco going to school so far away, thus they decided that he would go to Hogwarts after all.
With the hopes of influencing the day-to-day running of Hogwarts as much as possible, Malfoy sought to undermine Dumbledore’s authority and influence, which led him to claw his way onto the Hogwarts Board of Governors until reaching the title of Chairman, a position on the board once held by his late grandfather Enceladus. As a governor, he submitted a demand to the Headmaster to have the Beedle the Bard tale The Fountain of Fair Fortune banned from the Hogwarts library as it depicted a love between a Witch and a Muggle, for he didn't want want Draco to be influenced into sullying his Pure-Blood by reading a story that promoted marriage between Wizards and Muggles.
But Dumbledore considered it illogical and immoral to remove works dealing with the mixture of Wizard blood and Muggle blood for the knowledge of the students, thus his refusal to allow the tale to be removed was backed by a majority of the other governors. As a result, he wrote back to Malfoy saying that Pure-Blood families maintained their so-called purity by disowning, banishing, or lying about Muggles and Muggle-Borns in their family trees, and then ask for works that dealt with these truths to be banned. The response prompted several further letters from Malfoy, consisting of "opprobrious remarks" on Dumbledore's sanity, parentage, and hygiene, which marked the beginning of his long campaign to have the old Wizard removed from the post of Hogwarts headmaster.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets[]
Eleven years later, when his son first returned from his first year at Hogwarts, Malfoy learned of Harry Potter’s refusal of Draco’s offer for friendship due to his allegiance to the Weasleys through his already-made best friendship with their youngest son Ron, forcing him to realize that the wild hopes of the ex-Death Eaters (that Harry was another, and better, Voldemort) were completely not found. Despite the disappointment, he nevertheless discouraged Draco from seeming ‘less than thrilled’ about the young Potter, since open hostility towards the boy who ended the Dark Wizard to he was "forced" to serve could prove potentially disadvantageous to their social standing.
Over the summer, Arthur Weasley began raids on several wizarding households to confiscate dark or illegally enchanted objects. Before Malfoy Manor could be raided, however, Malfoy sold several of his more incriminating possessions at Borgin and Burkes and set in motion the same plan Voldemort had assigned him prior to his downfall that involved sneaking the Dark Wizard's old school Diary into Hogwarts so it could reopen the Chamber of Secrets. Although Voldemort fell before the plan came to fruition, Malfoy still had the Diary in his possession and could still make excellent use of it to further his own agenda: to kill three birds with one stone by not only purging the school of Muggle-Born students, but also discrediting Weasley for his Muggle Protection Act and hopefully even exploiting enough further chaos to have Dumbledore removed from his position at Hogwarts. The plan was to be initially successful, despite Malfoy's house elf Dobby's attempt to warn Harry.
While he and Draco mocked Harry and the Weasleys at the book-signing for celebrity author Gilderoy Lockhart, who was recently appointed the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, in the Flourish and Blotts book store, Malfoy himself was able to slip the Diary into the belongings of Weasley's daughter, Ginny in the hopes that Voldemort would come back to power by draining her life force and taking back his rightful place as leader of the Death Eaters. The foolish girl thus unknowingly brought the Diary into Hogwarts castle at the start of Draco's second year with Harry without having her father inspect it, and once the book's hidden sentient memory started gaining command over her during the Halloween celebrations at the school, it led to the second release of the Basilisk from inside the legendary chamber and the petrification of multiple Muggle-Born students, a cat, and a ghost at the school when they made indirect eye contact the creature (although the ghost, Nearly Headless Nick, made direct eye contact and got the "full blast", but could not die again being a ghost).
With the safety of Hogwarts' student body destabilizing, Malfoy influenced the other 11 school governors into voting for Dumbledore's dismissal from his headmaster post for the poor running of the school, using both the ensuing terror and his threat to attack their families if they did not cooperate. As a result, he went with Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge to sack the old Wizard and arrest the school gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid, whom Voldemort framed for the Chamber of Secrets' first opening fifty years prior. By the end of the year, with Dumbledore out the way, the Diary's sentient memory seized the opportunity to not only complete the drainage of Ginny's life but also bring her down into the Chamber in order to lure Harry into Voldemort's clutches, which would thus fulfill Malfoy's plan to use both children to return the his master to full power.
However, thanks to his everlasting faith in Dumbledore, Harry saved both himself and Ginny by killing the Basilisk with the sword of Hogwarts founder Godric Gryffindor and destroying the Diary with one of the monster's teeth (eliminating its dark powers), then rode with her, Ron and the amnesic Lockhart on Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes back up to the school, where everyone celebrated them for making it out safely. From there, he was able to prove Ginny's innocence and expose Malfoy as the real culprit. The furious Hogwarts governor, with Dobby cowering at his side, challenged the boy to prove his claims, but Dumbledore, who had returned to Hogwarts at the request of the other governors, stated that would be impossible with the Diary beyond repair.
Warned by the reinstated Hogwarts headmaster not to sell any more of Voldemort's school things, as Arthur Weasley would likely trace them back to him, Malfoy was given back the Diary by Harry, who just wrapped it with his own sock before handing it to him. Dobby caught the sock after his master carelessly tossed it aside, thus meaning that the surprised house elf was presented with clothes that would make him no longer in servitude of the Malfoy family. Upon realizing that he was tricked by Harry into freeing his own servant, Malfoy furiously tried to attack the boy only to be repelled at by Dobby's own magic. He vowed to Harry that he would one day meet the same fate of his parents and left angrily, ready to plot a way to get back at him. While his role in the opening of the Chamber of Secrets could still not be successfully proven, he was shortly afterwards dismissed from his position as Hogwarts Board of Governors chairman for the threats against his eleven colleagues, but still maintained strong ties with the Ministry of Magic.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban[]
After Draco was attacked by the new Hogwarts hippogriff Buckbeak at the start of his third year, Malfoy saw that this animal was easy to anger. He took the case to court and insisted that the creature should be put to death, while Hagrid, who was Buckbeak's owner, desperately tried to explain that Draco had been insulting the hippogriff and was attacked for it. But Malfoy was able convince the Ministry of Magic's Committee forthe Disposal of Dangerous Creatures to execute Buckbeak at sundown so he didn't endanger anyone else. However, through the use of a Time-Turner (a time-traveling device), Harry and Hermione Granger saved Buckbeak before the executioner Walden Macnair could carry out the death penalty, and in turn used the creature to help Harry's godfather, Azkaban escapee Sirius Black, escape from his recapture after being wrongly accused of Pettigrew's Death Eater activities.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire[]
Before the beginning of Draco's fourth year, Malfoy attended the four-hundred-twenty-second Quidditch World Cup with him, where Cornelius Fudge offered them a seat in his luxury box. Although disgusted that the Weasley family got to be at the top of the stadium to watch due to their poorness, it made him angry even more so when he found out that Harry and Hermione were accompanying them. He rubbed the fact that the red-headed family sit in the worse seats ever in their faces, but he and Arthur Weasley had to restrain themselves due to being in Fudge's presence.
Later when the game was over, Malfoy came under his old ways when the Dark Mark (the sign Voldemort adopted as the Death Eaters' insignia) reappeared in tattoo form on his forearm, so he got some Death Eater friends with the same problem (Macnair, Avery, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle) together to torture the Muggle site manager of the World Cup stadium. They then attacked the stadium's surrounding campsite, but his involvement couldn't become known to the public, because he fled with his companions when Barty Crouch Jr., who was lurking nearby, cast the Dark Mark into the sky.
Near the end of the year, when Voldemort was resurrected with help of a bone from his deceased Muggle father, flesh from Pettigrew (who found him in Albania via rumors from animals the timid Death Eater telepathically communicated with) and blood from Harry (who was brought to him by Crouch Jr via a Portkey made from the Triwizard Cup), Malfoy returned to him on his summons. However, the mutated Dark Wizard was angry at his minions for failing to find him during the World Cup campsite attack, but Malfoy claimed that he had done everything he could all along.
Voldemort believed that his "slippery friend" had not truly renounced his old ways, but mildly doubted his loyalty because Malfoy had fled the Dark Mark at the World Cup. Even though Harry was the only known witness of Malfoy's declaration of loyalty to Voldemort, almost nobody in the Ministry of Magic believed him after the boy escaped using the Triwizard Cup Portkey during his duel with the Dark Lord himself. Thus, Malfoy continued maintaining strong ties to very high places when he made it back to the Ministry and encouraged Fudge to discredit Harry and Dumbledore for their claims about Voldemort's return, which the paranoid minister and a majority of the Ministry found ludicrous.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[]
While contributing to the Ministry of Magic's smear campaign of discretion throughout the summer of Draco's fifth year, Malfoy made shady dealings with Fudge from which he provided the entire Ministry hierarchy with a mountain of gold. Among which was when Harry arrived for his own disciplinary hearing (for performing the Patronus Charm in a Muggle suburb to save his own life and the life of his Muggle cousin Dudley Dursley from two attacking Dementors) and saw the prominent Wizard talking with the minister outside the Ministry's Department of Mysteries, possibly convincing Fudge not to clear the boy's name. Many members of the reinstated Order of the Phoenix were shaken by the thought that the reason of Fudge's denial that Voldemort could have returned was due to a possible Imperius Curse put upon him by Malfoy himself, but Dumbledore convinced them otherwise that the stubborn minister was acting on his own free will despite it giving them little comfort.
Malfoy's frequent excursions to meet with Fudge were also used as excuses to put the Imperius Curse on others such as Unspeakable (another name for a Department of Mysteries employee) Broderick Bode and Order member Stugis Podmore in a bid to obtain the Prophecy concerning Voldemort and Harry from the department's Hall of Prophecy. These attempts were short-lived, however, as Bode's attempt to obtain the Prophecy landed him in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies, therefore forcing Voldemort to have Macnair murder him by mailing a Devil's Snare into the hospital disguised as a Christmas present for the Unspeakable to be strangled by, whereas Podmore was arrested and spent six months in Azkaban for supposedly attempting to break through the Department of Mysteries door leading into the Hall itself.
Malfoy continued to play along with Ministry regime, giving his support of the formation of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Three, which established the post of Hogwarts High Inquisitor for Fudge's senior undersecretary Dolores Umbridge to inspect the teachers' performance. During an interview about this post, he used this to discredit Dumbledore, under the pretense of caring for the future of the school and fearing Dumbledore's "eccentric decisions". The failure of his previous attempts to obtain the prophecy was most likely due to the fact that all prophecies could only be used by those actually in them (which meant that Malfoy couldn't use it), so when Voldemort learned of Harry's relationship with his godfather through Narcissa (who, being Black's cousin, was informed of the bond by her the Black family's old house elf Kreacher), he successfully attempted to lure the boy to the Hall of Prophecy by planting a vision of Black being tortured in his mind, then asked Malfoy to meet him there.
Malfoy led a group of Death Eaters which included those who his Master recently broke out of Azkaban (such as Narcissa's sister Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, the latter's brother Rabastan, early follower Antonin Dolohov, Travers and Muliciber, and former Unspeakable Augustus Rookwood) to ambush Harry and his friends in the legendary Hall and take the Prophecy from his hands once it was removed. However, the boy and his six friends refused to yield, and managed to hold off the political figure's Death Eater accomplices until several members of the Order of the Phoenix arrived to finish the fight. Ultimately, Sirius is killed moments later by Bellatrix. Lucius is sent to Azkaban at the aftermath of the battle.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[]
He escapes from Azkaban in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in which he lends his house, Malfoy Manor to the Dark Lord as his headquarters and is regarded as a disgraced Death Eater. At the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Harry, Ron and Hermione were captured by Bellatrix and taken to Malfoy Manor, but they escape and battle the Death Eaters. Dobby, looking to repay Harry for freeing him from the Malfoy's control five years ago, Apparates the heroes and the captured Luna Lovegood away, but only after getting wounded by Bellatrix's knife throw, which ends up killing him.
When Voldemort and the Death-Eaters came to Hogwarts for the Final Battle, Lucius came along too along with his wife. However, he no longer cared which side won, all he cared about was if his son and wife were alive. Because Lucius' wife, Narcissa, lied to Lord Voldemort about Harry Potter being dead and it helped Harry to defeat him, the Malfoy family could use this to get a pardon.
Quotes[]
| “ | Voldemort: Lucius, my slippery friend. I am told that you have not renounced the old ways, though to the world you present a respectable face. You are still ready to take the lead in a spot of Muggle-torture, I believe? Yet you never tried to find me, Lucius. Your exploits at the Quidditch World Cup were fun, I daresay... but might not your energies have been better directed toward finding and aiding your master? Lucius: My Lord, I was constantly on the alert. Had there been any sign from you, any whisper of your whereabouts, I would have been at your side immediately, nothing could have prevented me — Voldemort: And yet you ran from my Mark, when a faithful Death Eater sent it into the sky last summer? Yes, I know all about that, Lucius... You have disappointed me. I expect more faithful service in the future. Lucius: Of course, my Lord, of course... You are merciful, thank you... |
„ |
| ~ The exchange between Lucius and Voldemort during the latter's return to power in the fourth book. |
| “ | Lucius: My Lord... Might it... be less... Might it be more prudent to... call off this attack... Simply seek the boy yourself? Voldemort: I don't not need to seek the boy. Before the night is out, he will come to ME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! Look at me! How can you live with yourself, Lucius? Lucius: I don't know. |
„ |
| ~ Lucius in his attempt to escape Voldemort before getting slapped hard in the face. |
Gallery[]
.jpg "Lucius & Narcissa (Deathly Hallows - Part 2).jpg (143 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Lucius is the true main villain of Chamber of Secrets because he planted an old school Diary, actually a Horcrux, belonging to Lord Voldemort on Ginny Weasley, who unknowingly smuggled it to Hogwarts so that the piece of his soul with the sentient memory within could possess her into re-opening the eponymous Chamber and drain her vitality, all for the purpose of discrediting her father for his proposed Muggle Protection Act, that caused many Wizard houses being raided and before his home could be raided, Lucius sold some of his illegal dark possessions to Borgin & Burkes. As Lucius was getting rid of these incriminating Dark artifacts, he still thought Tom Riddle's Diary could be useful as a tool for revenge against Arthur, with everyone finding out the daughter of the man who protected Muggles was a Muggle killer. At the same time, Lucius was getting rid of his most incriminating object without wasting it and hopefully even exploiting the forthcoming chaos to have Dumbledore removed from the post of Hogwarts Headmaster.
- Still, Lucius had no idea about the true power of the Diary being a Horcrux, that was so powerful that it even directly attacked Ginny and Harry. As Dumbledore explains to Harry in the sixth book, all of the events and the huge risk of deaths of Muggle-Born students was all for the sake of Lucius' whims, who hated how "low" Hogwarts had fallen thanks to Dumbledore and hoped to ruin the Weasley family's reputation for good, if the Wizarding World learned that Arthur's daughter betrayed her family's ideals by killing Muggle-Borns. Lucius did so not caring about killing children and assuming that Voldemort was done anyway and would never return to punish him, especially since the Dark Lord had assigned him this task anyway. When Voldemort returned, Lucius was forced to admit that he had given away the Diary and that it ended up destroyed. Voldemort was extremely furious and since that moment, also because of Lucius' lack of loyalty and the use of his precious Horcrux for personal gain, the Malfoy family had to suffer the consequences.
- Lucius' failure to recover the Prophecy was the last straw for Voldemort, who tried to punish Lucius and Narcissa by killing Draco after expecting failure for killing Dumbledore (and that's why Narcissa went to Snape for help).
- Lucius is rather bigoted (much like Dolores Umbridge) in that he treats Muggle-Borns with contempt. However, he never calls them "Mudbloods" unlike his son. He also shows annoyance of Draco's outright rudeness and vulgarity, expecting him to care about reputation and act more mature, civil, and subtle, with a superior but not openly aggressive attitude towards those who are viewed as inferior by the Pure-Blood ideology.
- Despite being against Muggle-Borns, Muggles, and Half-Bloods who disagree with Pure-Blood Supremacy in general, Lucius nonetheless agrees with his family's marriage policy where they won't conduct inbreeding unlike their associates House of Black or House of Gaunt simply to maintain their blood purity and therefore marry Half-Bloods who agree with their philosophy instead. This in turn, allows him and the rest of Malfoys to fare better than latter two in addition of more mentally stable in comparison despite sharing a common bigotry.
- In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lucius tries to kill Harry with the Killing Curse after he tricked him into freeing Dobby. In the book, it's stated that he only "lunged at Harry". Lucius' attempted incantation of the Killing Curse was ad-libbed by Jason Isaacs, as it was the first spell incantation that he could think of.
- It's implied that Isaacs got the idea from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire novel which recently published at the time of the filming.
- Lucius and the rest of the Malfoys are most untrustworthy characters, as they are ultimately loyal to themselves and neutral to fighting sides. They are focused on their gain and they will switch side if things go wrong for them. Being true Slytherins, the most important thing for them is to survive together and use every opportunity to stay rich and powerful and escape any form of punishment.
- Before the casting of Jason Isaacs, Richard E. Grant and Bill Nighy were considered to portray Lucius. Additionally, Isaacs originally auditioned for the role of Gilderoy Lockhart and ironically, later on Nighy enced up being cast as Rufus Scrimgeour.
- Jason Isaacs came up with several design choices for Lucius, including his long hair (so that he could be better distinguished from his son Draco given that his character didn't give much description during his book debut beside resembling his son), cloke and cane. He was originally depicted as having shorter hair and wearing a pinstriped suit; Isaacs objected to this design, believing that Lucius would want to differentiate himself from Muggles as much as he could.
- He also based the voice of Lucius off that of a teacher at his drama school, whom he described as a bully towards him. Additionally, to get a sense of how nasty his character should be, Jason Isaacs had to go back and watch Tom Felton's performance as Draco in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
- Though uncertain at first, Chris Colombus eventually settled with Isaacs' ideas regarding how he should portray Lucius after the latter received approval from Daniel Radcliffe, citing that the changes were "really cool."
- When portraying Lucius in Chamber of Secrets, Isaacs kept his head tilted back most of the time in order to keep the hair from falling in front of his face. As awkward as it seemed to be, this effectively further reinforcing the snobbishness of his character since it made him appear as if he was "looking down his nose at everyone."
- As every wand in the film series was given distinctive shapes and carvings to reflect the owner's personality, which more evident from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and onwards, Lucius' wand is no exception of this albeit already done in Chamber of Secrets where said wand is concealed within a cane and has silver snake-like handle as per Isaacs' suggestion.
- The snake-like handle's intricate design also include fangs, something Isaacs didn't realize until his and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy's actor)' early attempt in shooting Borgin and Burkes' scene: At the part where his character smacked Draco's hand to stop the latter from touching anything, the fangs ended up puncturing Felton's hand in the process, much to the younger actor's discomfort and Isaac's surprise that he apologized to the former, breaking the character in the process.
- Lucius' and Harry's exchange just before Lucius leaves Dumbledore's office in the Chamber of Secrets movie was not in the script, but completely improvised by the actors on the spot. Isaacs thought his character should say something as it would be out of character for Lucius to allow Dumbledore to have the last word, and Chris Columbus told him to try something, thus he quipped "Let us hope that Mr. Potter will always be around to save the day." To his astonishment, Daniel Radcliffe rolled with it with an immediate reply, "Don't worry, I will be".
- Alongside aforementioned attempt to curse Harry and constantly keeping his face up due to the wig, another part of Chamber of Secrets film Isaacs improvised being kicking Dobby down the stairs because he was amazed with the freedom the special effects gave him.
- He also based the voice of Lucius off that of a teacher at his drama school, whom he described as a bully towards him. Additionally, to get a sense of how nasty his character should be, Jason Isaacs had to go back and watch Tom Felton's performance as Draco in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
- In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Draco mentions to Harry that his son Scorpius is the only family he has since the passing of his wife Astoria Greengrass. Thus, it's unknown if this means that Lucius (and by extension Narcissa) has already passed away by 2020 or has simply cut ties with Draco, as Astoria raised Scorpius to not believe in blood purity.
- Also, in the same installment, despite their aforementioned differences, the father and son at the very least agreed to not bring Voldemort back after witnessed how much their servitude toward the Dark Lord costed them. Indeed, while possessing a time-turner that strong enough to do the job and the events of Second Wizarding War made little changes on his bigoted ways, Lucius chose not to do so regardless.
- Lucius is listed as Number 7 on WatchMojo.com's Top 10 Harry Potter Villains. However, it erroneously says that his defection from the Death Eaters is because he realizes that the war is lost for them, not because of his son's safety.
- The blonde appearance of Lucius Malfoy may be an allusion to Adolf Hitler's master race ideology, known as Aryan supremacy, with the belief of "tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed" Germans to be the supreme and superior race.
- This element may have also helped Rowling to create the character as a snobbish and xenophobic villain, as Rowling herself created the series based on the horrors of the Third Reich.
- Despite Lucius being an Aryan, his actor, Jason Isaacs, is Jewish.
- The scene of Lucius kicking his house elf Dobby down the stairs and beating him with his cane in the film adaptation of Chamber of Secrets (though the former was technically ad-libbed by Isaacs as stated previously) may be inspired by the abuse suffered by Jewish Helen Hirsch during her years of servitude under Nazi commandant Amon Goeth. Ironically enough, Lord Voldemort is played by the same actor as Goeth, Ralph Fiennes.
