MEMENTO MORI | DRACO MALFOY

THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Ophelia, Blaise and Theodore all turned their heads and glanced across the room, where Althea Rosier's small hand grasped onto Mr Nott's upper arm delicately. Her dark hair was pulled back into an elegant up-do with several curls falling out, framing her face. She wore a dress that Ophelia didn't recognize, it must have been new. Althea threw her head back in laughter, showing a set of perfect white teeth.

Ophelia knew that laugh anywhere. It was a facade; a ruse she'd used on many occasions to make someone believe she thought they were funny — it worked mostly on men, because men could be so easily deluded when desperate for female attention. If Althea Travers-Rosier was anything, it was manipulative and calculated. She'd been forced to become this way to earn her way back into the high societal ranks after Evan had dragged their name through the mud. She'd toyed with men's emotions with only one outcome in mind: to earn the Rosier name respect once again.

Why she was with Tiberius Nott though, Ophelia didn't know.

"What the fuck." Theodore groaned.

"I'll be right back." Ophelia snarled as she had already taken off in the direction of her mother, with eyes burning in rage. As if the woman would show up into the den of snakes after everything Ophelia had sacrificed to protect her.

As she approached, the couple noticed Ophelia's brazen appearance and her mother's lips broke out into a wild smile that made Ophelia want to shake her head in disapproval. The only time her mother would smile at her this way was in these exact situations, when she'd be manipulating some dense, foolish man into believing she was the victim. That she had been bamboozled and her husband had pulled the wool over her eyes.

Oh, poor, innocent Althea Rosier!

It had worked, though. Their name was reinstated into the Sacred Twenty-Eight, they were once again regarded as one of the most powerful families in Wizarding Europe, and Evan Rosier's crimes were now nothing but a blip in time.

"Ophelia!" Her mother purred, pulling her daughter in for a cold embrace. "I was hoping to run into you tonight! You remember Theodore's father, don't you?"

"Of course." She smiled politely, holding her hand out to Mr Nott as if she hadn't just seen him only days before while he clapped and cheered for her for ruthlessly killing a man. "It's nice to see you again, Mr Nott."

"The pleasure is all mine, my dear!" He exclaimed, grasping her hand with both of his. The way he looked at her was with pure commendation. Sort of the same way that Lucius looked at her tonight.

"Tiberius was just telling me about a job opening up at the Ministry!" Her mother interrupted. Ophelia's eyebrows rose in feigned surprise. The day she'd see her mother work would be the same day that pigs would fly. "I'd be working directly under the Minister, under Cornelius Fudge himself! Wouldn't that be great, Ophelia?! I've been saying lately that I needed something to get me out of the house and keep me busy!"

"Have you?" Ophelia retorted rather scornfully. Althea's facade faltered slightly as she glared at her daughter.

"Do you mind if I steal her away for a moment, Mr Nott?" Ophelia glanced now at Tiberius, whose old eyes crinkled as he smiled and nodded. She wrapped a hand around her mother's wrist and dragged her away like a naughty child.