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When Harry Potter survived the killing curse and defeated the Dark Lord, there were people that came to one conclusion. Harry Potter had defeated Voldemort because he was a dark wizard himself. Lucius Malfoy was one of those people. It was the only explanation that made sense. Magic powerful enough to stop a killing curse had to be incredibly dark. Lucius didn’t know what the Potters had been up to until their death, but maybe they weren’t the completely innocent war heroes people thought they were. They had probably used some kind of dark unknown ritual. One Lucius had never heard of, much to his disappointment. But whatever happened that faithful night, Harry Potter had survived and the Dark Lord had lost his power.
Which meant one thing. Harry Potter was stronger than the Dark Lord, and would make a fine replacement. A replacement which Lucius could mould and manipulate and control, instead of being the one controlled. It was just perfect. But first he needed to get the Potter kid away from Dumbledore. Which proved difficult, because Dumbledore had been the one to hide him, and probably had used a lot of protection wards and other powerful magic to make sure the boy was safe. It also hadn’t helped that it took Lucius three years to just find the boy's location, when the boy started at a useless muggle school.
And even after finding the boy, Lucius couldn’t do anything. He didn’t know what spells and wards Dumbledore had used to protect Potter, but that there were spells, Lucius knew for sure. Kidnapping wasn’t an option, that was something Dumbledore had no doubt thought of. A simple talk to the boy wasn’t an option either, Dumbledore would be alerted of his knowledge of Potters location, and probably move him. He could try to bribe a disgusting muggle, but didn’t even know for sure if that would work against the wards. And when it didn’t, Dumbledore would again know that somebody knew where the Potter boy was.
Lucius had kept the information of Potters location to himself, and his allies didn’t care enough to find the information themselves, they decided to wait until Potter went to Hogwarts, and tell their children to befriend and influence him. Lucius was smarter than that. The moment Potter was at Hogwarts, it was too late. The only way for him to interact with the boy would be through his son, Draco, who was the same age. That would be a big risk, and Lucius didn’t like risks.
But the boy was getting closer and closer to Hogwarts age, and he needed to try something. If that didn’t work, he would tell Draco the befriend the Potter boy. The only way to mould Potter in the perfect Dark Lord, would get him out of Dumbledore's claws.
And luckily, Lucius had finally managed to come up with a plan. He happened to know an old death eater who ran another better magical school, where Dumbledore had no power, a school who lacked muggle lovers like that. A school where students started at 10 years old, a year before Hogwarts letters were even send out. If Igor Karkaroff could convince Harry quickly, it didn’t matter that Dumbledore knew that death eaters knew where Potter was. Potter would be quickly and legally away from Britain and into Durmstrang. And if it didn’t work, Karkaroff would be the one taking the big risk of visiting, and not Lucius or any of his allies and followers. An unbreakable vow would make sure the backstabbing coward wouldn’t mention Lucius.
Karkaroff needed a lot of convincing. He did not want to turn Dumbledore into an enemy. But with a bunch of money and maybe some reminders of all the things Igor had done that the Ministry didn't know about but could easily be told about, Lucius managed. Not to mention, there were also some nice benefits for Karkaroff. The idea of stealing the Boy-Who-Lived right under Dumbledores nose was tempting, and even though the boy was mostly well known in Britain, he would still boost Durmstrang's popularity. And of course the fact both of them knew that the Dark Lord wasn’t truly dead, and that Karkaroff had betrayed the Dark Lord, helped too. Having the one stronger than the Dark Lord on his side would help a lot with insuring Karkaroff's safety.
Lucius smiled. The boy would be soon away from Dumbledores protection and on his way to enlightenment. Time for a second chance.