"To their credit," because for all that Lucius has a special resentment for them being what they are and his own being what he is, they are Malfoys, "I suspect it is simply an adaptation. There was a time when I had to pander to a government full of officials besotted with the very agendas I opposed, but one retains their status or one hears nothing, acts on nothing."

He is careful, mid-sentence, not to speak specifically of Muggles. Severus' agency was a point of contention, in the end, with some saying one thing and others saying quite differently, but as far as Lucius was concerned, the other man was simply dead and he delved no further. Now, one wonders.

But there is time to figure it out. "However. That is simply one way." And he's very tired.