Despite being a valued Death Eater in the days before Voldemort fell following his attack on baby Harry, Lucius stumbled out of favor with the Dark Lord when he squandered Riddle's diary (secretly a horcrux) in Chamber of Secrets and failed to obtain the prophecy in Order of the Phoenix.
In the end, the man of wealth and status was left with neither. Ultimately, his need to survive and protect his family would lead Lucius to betray Voldemort.
Draco was torn between loyalty to his family, fear of Voldemort and worry for his former classmates.
Because he and his family defected from the Death Eaters they were pardoned for their crimes after Voldemort's final defeat and did not serve a stint in Azkaban. He and Narcissa later had a grandson, Scorpius Malfoy, after Draco married Astoria Greengrass.
While Lucius was in Azkaban, Voldemort ordered his son Draco to kill Albus Dumbledore, a seemingly impossible task, as a way to punish Lucius. After Dumbledore's death at the hands of Severus Snape and the Death Eaters' escape from Azkaban in 1997, the Malfoys had fallen out of favour with the Dark Lord.
Narcissa Malfoy's Very Dangerous Lie
But she was also a mother, which meant she was willing to risk everything to make sure her son was safe. When Harry survived Voldemort's Killing Curse for the second time, Narcissa pretended he was dead so she could get to Draco.
In addition, Lucius Malfoy and Arthur Weasley have a well-established feud despite being second cousins once removed by marriage.
Lucius and Draco's crimes were forgiven due to their abandonment of Voldemort and his cause and Narcissa's lie to the Dark Lord that saved Harry Potter's life in the Forbidden Forest in the Battle of Hogwarts. None of them served time in Azkaban.
Rowling is adamant that Malfoy didn't deserve a redemption arc because there was never a “heart of gold” underneath his pompous act. Yet, she gave that redemption to a character she said was morally grey; a man who bullied children and killed because of a girl who rejected him years before.
Not knowing whether Draco was alive or dead, Narcissa chose to lie to the Dark Lord rather than risk losing her son. When Voldemort asked her to check if Harry was dead and she realised he was, in fact, still breathing, Narcissa seized her opportunity.
The theory stems from a small moment in the movie that didn't happen in the book: When Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys went to Flourish and Blotts to buy their textbooks and ran into the Malfoys, Draco can be spotted glancing around the shop to see if anyone is looking before ripping a page out of a book.
Besides Dumbledore, he is also the only wizard ever known to be able to apparate silently. Voldemort was also said to fear one wizard alone, Dumbledore.
Rowling commented that "The moment Draco got what he thought he wanted, to become a Death Eater, and given a mission by Lord Voldemort, as he did in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, reality finally hit him" because his dream was "so very different".
In a whisper, she asked if Draco was alive. When Harry replied quietly that he was, Narcissa betrayed the Dark Lord and asserted that Harry was dead. She knew the only way her family would be reunited was as part of Voldemort's conquering army, thus proving she loved her family more than she supported Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
For using the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse to torture the Longbottoms until they went insane, Bellatrix and her three associates were sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban. At her trial, Bellatrix proudly and defiantly proclaimed that Voldemort would rise again.
She asked him because if Draco was still alive, she had something to fight for. She had a reason to lie to Voldemort. If Draco is alive, she needs to get into the school to see him and protect him, and helping Harry feign death was the easiest way to do that. But if Draco was already dead, she wouldn't have bothered.
Malfoy spots Harry and casts a Cruciatus curse; Harry, defending himself, using the Half-Blood Prince's Sectumsempra spell without knowing its effects. To his horror, it gashes Draco's face and chest, spilling his blood everywhere. Moaning Myrtle flies off, screaming.
It turns out that instead of rejoining the Death Eaters, Draco was supposed to help Harry at the very last second by throwing him his wand to help him defeat Lord Voldemort.
If any character in the Harry Potter series deserved redemption, it was 100% going to be Snape. In the last movie, Snape shows Dumbledore that his Patronus is the same as Lily's and that what he does will always be for her — always (via Wizarding World).
He was on the point of collapse when it happened,” Rowling said. “Dumbledore didn't want to lose his wand at that point and Draco disarmed him. So that meant that the wand gave Draco its allegiance, even though Draco never knew it, even though Draco never touched it.
The Slytherin family, like many of the pure-blood families, had some relation to many other families in the wizarding world. The Peverells, Gaunts, Blacks, Malfoys, Potters, Weasleys, Prewetts, and other families are all linked to one another through bloodlines and intermarriage.
Lucius knew he had failed to obtain the Prophecy at the Department of Secrets. He was aware of how Voldemort treated those who failed him. I'm quite sure that Lucius was stressed and wondering how he had fallen so far. His entitlement had blinded him to how others were treated.
Having rendered unknown, shady (and almost certainly magical) services to King William I, Malfoy was given a prime piece of land in Wiltshire, seized from local landowners, upon which his descendants have lived for ten consecutive centuries.
Bellatrix Lestrange's sisters are Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother, and Andromeda Tonks, mother to Nymphadora Tonks. The three women's father is Cygnus Black, who is Sirius Black's uncle.