Drarry One Shots

Diamonds are Forever

A/N Apologies for the bad language that is forthcoming 😊

***

It was a universally known fact that the Malfoys were inordinately rich. That is, it was known they were inordinately rich before the two wizarding wars.

It was well publicised in all the Wizen news outlets immediately after the second war that the family were nearly bankrupted by Abraxas and Lucius Malfoy's pandering to Lord Voldemort. The newspapers had a field day reporting that Lucius' son and heir was left standing in the wreck of his family's fortune with nothing but a ruined reputation. There were, apparently, no more galleons in the vaults.

As it was, 'bankrupted' or 'no more galleons' wasn't actually a reality, but very few people knew the truth. Indeed, only a handful of people knew the full facts behind the family and how they made their money in the first place. Not even Lord Voldemort was privy to that information. It was just assumed the family had inherited their wealth, generation after generation, with no actual concern or interest in who was the first wealthy Malfoy or how they made their money.

Draco only found out the truth at seventeen years old when his father was released from Azkaban and realised he was unlikely to survive the war. Draco was sworn to secrecy. It didn't pay to let people know the truth in such volatile times. It would be his choice to disclose such information if or when the time was right. And yes, Draco had matured incredibly over those few years of the war and knew it paid to hold his tongue and not boast about certain matters. It meant that after the war, Draco mostly stayed out of the limelight and just got on with life.

Despite having a quiet purpose, a reasonable income and a comfortable lifestyle, it didn't equate to happiness, unfortunately.

***

Astoria Greengrass was an entitled bitch. Well, that's what her husband thought. Being a bitch was, regrettably, not culpable enough for him to demand a divorce, given the terms of the contracted marriage agreement between the Malfoys and Greengrasses. It didn't help that Draco recognised his own past behaviour in the way that she took no small amount of pleasure in demeaning her husband, believing herself to be far superior to him. It made him wince as he tried to let his past slide into oblivion.

That proved a mountainous task. Whenever she got home from her jewellery business, she immediately started complaining:

'Why haven't you cooked dinner?'

'Why haven't you tidied this shithole up?'

'You look like you're sucking lemons again!'

'The garden needs overhauling?'

'Why do you have to be so boring all the time?'

'Why don't you ever smile?'

She would tell him to get the Dark Mark on his arm covered. 'We all know it stops you from getting a job. Who would employ a Death Eater? Not covering it makes it look like you're proud of your past.'

Which invariably led to her favourite snipe: 'Why can't you get a job, you useless tosser?'

As it was, Draco spent his days... well, she didn't need to know; that detail was irrelevant, for now. She thought he just lounged around in the cold, empty manor like a depressed and spoilt ex-millionaire, occasionally doing the odd bit of paperwork for her and dealing with contracts.

If they went out anywhere together, the belittling behaviour continued.

Draco found it astonishing how she never questioned how he was able to maintain their very reasonable lifestyle, such was the entitlement bred from the privileged background that she came from. She didn't comprehend that her income barely covered her weekly food, drink, and shopping bill. There certainly was no chance of it maintaining Malfoy Manor and making the changes she demanded. Admittedly, Draco didn't particularly like his family home these days but felt it preferable to stay there for the time being. Partly because he felt beholden to make sure his tenants and workers were properly looked after. Mainly because it meant he could live in a separate wing from his wife. Meanwhile, Astoria remained blissfully ignorant. She just assumed there would always be money for her to spend, and she didn't worry about where it came from. She did not even question how Draco could loan her 20,000 galleons to set up her new business just after they married. Right from the beginning of their arranged marriage, Draco wondered about Astoria's intelligence, especially as it was also very clear that she was rather lackadaisical about reading paperwork before signing it. He suspected that she would learn her lesson in the near future.