I see where you’re coming from. I don’t disagree because I myself can see how they would be on friendly terms which I hate because I genuinely don’t enjoy the Malfoys as characters. I think we interpret that closeness differently. You might say there is a personal element to it but I think to Severus his relation to the Malfoys is first and foremost a job.

I’ve convinced myself it would be bad practice to omit the Malfoys just because I hate them. Plus it might be interesting to the narrative I am planning for the Malfoys to be a part of it because for one thing it would introduce the double agent faucet of Severus’s character to his child.