The Art of Betrayal by katehathaway

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- NOT MY STORY!! ALL CREDITS TO @katehathaway ON A03!!

24 December 1924

BELOVED BACHELOR MISSING: A REFLECTION OF HIS LIFE AND LEGACY

By Rita Skeeter

In the many instances in which the Daily Prophet and myself had been privileged enough to sit with Mr. Malfoy for an interview, he was always adamant that his success at such a young age was to be highly attributed to those surrounding him. His moving words, in one of our earliest interviews, must be quoted: "Without my close friends and mother by my side, I wouldn't be where I am today. I would not be the man I am today. Their cleverness, loyalty, and confidence are irreplaceable."

As a wealthy and extraordinary young man, it is no surprise to the public that his closest friends are equally as ambitious and amiable as he is. His best mate, Mr. Theodore Nott Jr., was also a decorated war veteran and entrepreneur – owning nearly half of the pubs in London alone – and is often seen accompanying Mr. Malfoy to society's prominent events with an unremarkable brunette on his arm.

On Mr. Malfoy's arm was either Miss Pansy Parkinson or Miss Daphne Greengrass – or both! – when they were not studying at a prestigious university in Scotland. There has been much speculation among which of the two women held Mr. Malfoy's interest and would be the next heiress to the Malfoy company and fortune. The public is eager to know, naturally, but would be pleased to see either one as his wife-to-be since they are both women of affluent families and extremely adored in society.

Hmm, notice something missing?

Me.

I suppose that I should be grateful that Rita didn't find me very interesting and didn't bother wasting her time trying to identify me, even with how often I accompanied Draco and Theo to various social events (more than how many Pansy or Daphne attended in case you were wondering). If she had done her due diligence and bothered to investigate the 'unremarkable brunette' she probably would have blown my cover as Penelope Clearwater.

Still. I'm a bit miffed that she thought I was just some boring floozy there for Theo's entertainment. Which was definitely not the case. In fact, I'm not even his type.

She spent quite a lot of time highlighting Pansy and Daphne's better qualities which is laughable because the so-called speculation she referred to was her very own commentary on the two women. Her commentary was slanderous at best, which is probably difficult to imagine given how sickly sweet she sounds in this particular article. Again, Rita either didn't bother to do her research or didn't care (I suspect the latter). The papers – and several horrific articles written by Rita – constantly pinned the two women against each other and took any outing they made as some clever cover-up for their hidden animosity at trying to win Draco's heart over one another.

Which was obviously a load of fucking rubbish.

I wasn't bothered by any of the articles since I had enough sense to know that Draco's primary interest when it came to women was only ever in me. Well, minus this one other woman who was interestingly enough not mentioned in this article. But she's not a problem anymore. Although, I do owe a lot to her since without her I probably wouldn't have realized how inevitable my ending up with Draco really was.

17 March 1921

Hermione took Theo's proffered hand as she stepped out of the car and lingered beside him as Draco strolled ahead of them toward the entrance to the Kempton Park racetrack. She started to walk behind him, keeping her hat low to avoid her face being photographed by the hoard of paparazzi outside. Theo kept a hand hovering over the middle of her spine and, unlike Draco, did not broadly smile or wave at the cameras or reporters. Instead, she saw him offer a tight smile – if one could even call it that – as he made his way toward the entrance.