He'd accused Malfoy Jr. of being reticent of these details, but really, Lucius hadn't asked, not wishing to seem overly interested or really give much ground at all to the younger man where he did not need to. But that interest is here, in a sharp stare across the table and only blunting when the conversation circulates back to the two men at this here table, studying the empty glass in front of him.

"We're strangers," he says-- decides-- after a reasonably lengthy pause bordering on socially awkward. "And this is an acceptable compromise."

As in, there is no way he can really pin his feelings of ill-will against Harry Potter to a man who has lived a different life, in the important ways, and barely resembles the child and the schoolyard rival of his son he'd menaced on occasion. The chair scrapes beneath him as he rises -- would that he could go and get a second drink, but as with all things Baedal, Lucius never quite feels welcome to, no matter kind words and invitations.