“Dear me, what’s the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don’t even pay you well for it?” - Lucius Malfoy to Arthur Weasley, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Born to Abraxas Malfoy and a (currently) unnamed woman of pureblood descent, Lucius Malfoy grew into a man of power. Lucius was an advisor to the Minister for Magic as well as a Governor on the Board of Governors for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was also the right hand of Lord Voldemort during the First War and to the time of Voldemort’s downfall at the hands of an infant. He then continues to sabotage Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter for seven years, up into the height of the War and all the way to the very end where he suddenly defected. That’s a classy Slytherin move. Just wait until the battle shows who the winner truly will be to decide who you will be loyal to. Neither the books or movies say what happens to Lucius after The Deathly Hallows, but I assume he some how managed to weasel (or ‘ferret’) his way out of Azkaban by claiming his defection was honest done with true regret for his actions. Despite Lucius’ shortcomings, like lack of morals, he is surprisingly clever and well-spoken (except that slip-up when he almost casts the Killing Curse at a twelve-year-old in the middle of a school, that was majorly stupid and completely out of character. Darn you movies!).
For the most part, Lucius seems like a completely typical bad guy. He’s rich, handsome and suave, pompous, greedy, powerful, and is a political adversary. He has all the traits of a bad guy, but is he really a bad man? He has a wife, of whom I suspect he carts more like a trophy than out of love, and a son from whom he is idolized and respected like any controlling and sadistic patriarch could want.
While he was loyal to Voldemort in the start, likely due to the grandiose promises that the charismatic Dark Lord made, specifically targeting the ideals of purebloods to lure them to his side. Voldemort purposefully and logically attracted the people with the most wealth, influence and political prowess to carry out his bidding. Lucius made a perfect candidate and once he was initiated at a young age, just like the SLytherins before him (like Avery, Mulciber and Nott Sr) he fell into the Dark LOrd’s clutches and dragged through hell and back for a man who slowly lost his slip on sanity and then reappeared in a melodramatic production at the cost of Harry Potter, a boy Lucius long thought to be his enemy.
As Lucius stood alongside the Death Eaters, he never had much competition as the most trusted and loyal to the Dark Lord since he likely funded most of Voldemort’s projects and he had many connections from his long line of descendents who had worked hard for their posterity [Lucius]. However, Bellatrix Black Lestrange rivalled his power and in the end, she died alongside her Lord where Lucius defected and lived to tell the horrors of the Battle of Hogwarts. Bellatrix Black Lestrange was not only the heiress of the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black, but she was considered the fiercest and most dangerous Death Eater in the Dark Lord’s ranks. Not only was she more vicious but she was far more loyal to her Lord, going so far as to being imprisoned all on the hope that he [the Dark Lord] would return after his downfall to return and rescue her from Azkaban. She had no proof of his slight immortality, but she trusted him, therefore his most loyal. She took Lucius’ play beside their Lord once Lucius fell from Voldemort’s graces due to a miscalculation (and a group of ragtag teenagers).
Another Death Eater that Lucius knew, or seemed to be acquainted with was Severus Snape, double agent to the Order of The Phoenix and the Death Eaters. Lucius didn’t know, or we are led to believe that he didn’t know, of Severus’ traitorous involvement. Knowing Lucius, he could have easily used the knowledge over Severus and the threat of death to Lord over his ‘friend’s’ head or to rat him to the Dark Lord to get back in his good graces and out of the social exile and rough treatment of both his son and his wife, who despite not outwardly appearing to care about, seemed to truly love.
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