The Art of Betrayal by katehathaway

Level Number Nine

- 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

A child born to a golden pacifier was, as to be expected, awarded a gifted childhood and given the best circumstances to make a name for himself. It is no surprise to the British public that Mr. Draco Malfoy was a successful and affluent young man with an entire company – an entire empire –

You can say that again.

-under his thumb by his late twenties. The British public was, however, enormously shocked to learn that, unlike most people with insurmountable wealth, Mr. Malfoy was extremely humble and exceedingly amicable. It is to his parents, Mr. Lucius Malfoy and Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, that this unusual but refreshing demeanor is attributed. Mr. Lucius Malfoy, the former head of Malfoy Company Limited, was a decorated war veteran as well, however due to the most unfortunate circumstance of losing Mr. Lucius Malfoy during the battle of Somme, not much else is known about Mr. Draco Malfoy's father.

Conversely, ever since Mr. Draco Malfoy has been a welcomed figure in the British press, there is an abundance of information on Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy, especially after the summer that her son took a step back from the spotlight. She was famously captured by the press for nearly four uninterrupted months while her son was suspected to be working on a new project.

Mrs. Narcissa Malfoy is as radiant and cherished as her son and it is no wonder as to where he learned his benevolent behavior from (if not from both of his parents!). The Black family has had a long standing, albeit rocky as of lately, reputation among the English aristocratic families as the most ancient and noble. Both of Mrs. Malfoy's sisters – she herself being the youngest – though, are not nearly as poised or popular as she is. She is a woman of great stature and grace, and it cannot be understated that the public is eager to see who Mr. Draco Malfoy chooses to be his intended wife and to follow in his mother's footsteps.

Ah, yes.

Who is going to be the unfortunate broad that fills Narcissa's blood-stained designer heels? Personally, my money – should I actually have any outside of the stipend provided by Draco under some ill-form of employment – would have been on Astoria, but since she seems keener to follow after Narcissa without marrying her son, well...

That's not important.

What is important is what Rita so casually glossed over amidst her supposedly thorough rendition of Draco's life and legacy. Fucking rubbish, the whole thing. As you may have guessed, there is not a lot of vital information provided that would possibly clue the British public into the kind of life and legacy Draco actually left behind. As the leader of a notoriously violent and well-connected gang, there isn't much that he was involved in that was even remotely legal.

What Rita failed to investigate, or even bother to elaborate on, was the summer that Draco retreated from the public eye. It was decidedly not to take an ostentatious holiday in the sun. But, of course, that is probably a story best saved for another time.

After all, I'm getting ahead of myself.

In order to explain how I survived that summer – and what it did to my resolve – then I need to go back to the previous winter and how I survived (yet another) threat on my life.

25 December 1921

"What on earth are you doing out here all by yourself, love?" Sirius drawled, his yellow teeth glinting in the moonlight. "Don't you know it's dangerous for a woman to... Well," he shrugged. "To be a woman, I suppose."