Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they are all part of JK Rowling's universe. This will remain true for the following chapters as well.
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CHAPTER 01
„Who is she?"
His vision was suddenly blocked by a bright whirl of color caused by a magazine dangling just centimeters in front of his eyes. In a high pitched quality, the voice kept on rambling and tapping fingers on the front pictures. Folding the newspaper and putting it aside on the coffee table, Draco grabbed her wrist and moved with a cool movement the magazine out of his face
"Pug – calm down. Your hormones got the best of you again and I won't be able to tell you who the mysterious *she* is as long as I have the magazine right in my face. So calm down and sit."
However, Pansy was too enraged to sit down in one of the fluffy elegant couches and, instead, kept on stomping back and forth in the room while loudly proclaiming what a selfish prick of a husband she had.
"You are so ignorant! I am suffering from cravings, heavy legs and back pain. But I never complain – I am the perfect super star in 9 inch heels and super sexy. I am out there dealing with the paparazzi and the press, going on all these dull parties and events. I am leaving the house every day to give these people something to talk about: I spend money like a bottomless pit; I say stupid things so they can gossip about it and start fake fights in public with my frienemies. I go get my nails done, my hair and my wardrobe checked. I have appointments with my spa and personal trainer… And when I just ask you once to distract the mob from me so that I can go to the medical routine checkup, you do not have anything better to do than to hit on this filthy cheap blonde… I cannot believe you – you cheat on me while I am having our baby and your stupid heir of the Malfoy dynasty!"
Her face had taken on the color of sheer madness and the fact that Draco would not even lose his cool composure drove her crazy. Her last remark was intended to make him jump. Instead, he simply sat there and observed her tantrum with a smirk on his face as if someone had told him a really funny joke about her silliness. It just nurtured her anger as well as it began to dawn on her that he was probably right – she indeed acted irrational, but she was too proud to admit that. Now, she had to go through with the scene, she had caused.
"Pug," he started another attempt to solve the situation. "I really do not get your point. You wanted distraction and I got it done."
"When I said distraction, I did not want you to go to some club with your buddy-buddy Blaise and hook up with some floozy!"
"Well, when Malfoys have the duty to cause diversion, they do their job right. We went to a club. And to do her justice - this blonde is actually not only a floozy as you would call her. She is a filthy rich, famous, no-talent-at-all floozy and heiress of some Hotel chain… I am sure, that will get the press off your back for a while with their annoying questions about your slight weight gain and the baby speculations."
"I hate you!"
"I know, Pansy… that is the basic foundation of our relationship here: strong emotions and huge obligations as well as expectations and of course, no attraction at all." With this, he took back his newspaper and just caught a hushed *Selfish egomaniac* when Pansy left the room with a dramatic air around her.
Draco leant back in the sofa and returned to reading the politics section in the Daily Prophet. Slowly, faces from the past made it into the articles again. Former moderate death-eaters were finishing their prison sentences in Azkaban and others were applying for probation due to good conduct. After the defeat of Voldemort, his parents had gotten away with a relatively mild prison sentence of ten years. Other death-eaters with similar high ranks in the fellowship of Voldemort had been sentenced to life-long imprisonment in isolation. His father had managed, however, to downplay his role in the events. He succeeded to make the judges believe, that he and his wife had acted under duress and were threatened to be subject of vicious torture, to lose their one and only heir as well as their lives. Also, Lucius had managed to convince the jury that he had been under the Imperius Curse for long periods of time and when he had become subject of Leglemency-examinations, he hid and modified his memory to perfection and no proof could be found that he might have had the truth twisted to his advantage. Occlumency ran in the family since generations, the Malfoy dynasty had achieved mastery in it. Now, his parents had started the proceedings to shorten their sentences and due to many bribes, that story had not made any headlines so far. The Malfoy reputation could not be tarnished with bad press and the memory of their role during the past anymore.
It had taken too much effort and time to rebuild their social status again and to modernize and renew it. Back then, Malfoy was associated with rigid traditions, morals and pure-blood politics. They had been known for their wealth and aristocratic pride. Now, the name alone still was a trademark; it still represented prosperity, richness and an unbearable pride which bordered on arrogance and narcissism. However, the pure bloodline had become a subject which one did not talk about in public anymore.
Instead, one talked about the pompous lifestyle of the Malfoy couple. Draco and Pansy had created an image of being modern, fashionable, and exciting. Paparazzi followed them around like puppies taking pictures of whatever the Malfoys were doing. Their life was an open book and the whole wizarding world took part in it. Pansy had started out with her friend Daphne as a page six party-animal and evolved into a fashionista, whose style experiments became trends the next day. When she did not fake fights with Daphne for media-attention, Pansy spent her days going shopping, exposing herself on beaches, charity events and beauty salons. Draco had commenced as a just-for-fun seeker for the West Gate Winged Horses with moderate success, but a huge career ahead of him. This had made him subject of positive media interest and soon the image of an ostrazised pureblood had faded. After a little while, he was inquired to do commercials and adverts due to his athletic physique and good looks. Since the family fortune enabled him to do just as he pleased, he ditched the position as a seeker when the team was on a losing streak. In the whirl of events, he and Pansy had become an item: working hard to restore their reputation, they were seen more frequently together on parties, events and the media interest boomed; they became the number one wizarding couple. Their faces on the cover were a guarantor of high print runs.
Since then, he and Pansy made a living on travelling, setting trends, and earning money for showing up on events and advertising high end products. The public was invited to take part in the wedding ceremony via live media coverage and the young Malfoy achieved mastery in keeping the tabloids full of action without actually sharing their real private behind the curtains life. They lived the dream of thousands of wizards. It was all about cars, clothes, looks and appearances. Their life was perfect. Released and repentant death-eaters did not fit the picture anymore.
After Draco had stared at the newspaper for several minutes without actually looking at it, he got up and decided to look for Pansy. Pregnancy had made her moody, but he had to admit that the pictures in the magazine had been indeed misleading... the brief report was rich in detail and various moving pictures created the impression of a night with benefits. On every picture, the Muggle girl was all over him. The pictures showed how they had worked the dance floor, got close and cozy on a corner sofa in the club. The last photos depicted how they had left the club together in the early morning hours and he had driven her home in his Bugatti Veyron. The paparazzi had done a great job following their every step: the flirting moves, the light touching on arms and legs, the smiles and intimate whispering. They had kept track of the amount of high-end champagne served and their flash lights had gone crazy when he and the girl had left the club arm in arm, giggling and vanished in his car looking drunk and adventurous. Rumors flew high.
With a modification charm, Draco had made sure that his party girl would keep the media busy speculating about a night that was not nearly as exciting as the gossip-hungry minds were fantasizing. He definitely knew how to enjoy himself and frequently indulged in moments like these, but this girl was not his type. He would never get physical with a Muggle; after all, he was a Malfoy and one of the most pure blooded families of the contemporary wizarding world. It had all been about appearance and he had something like a silent agreement with this girl: we want attention, let's make it happen. It was nobody's business that nothing happened in the end.
Well, maybe it was at least in his interest to get his wife out of her hiding place and to appease her mood by telling her what the tabloids did not know. Hence, he left the parlor and the newspaper behind and steered towards her hiding place number one. He left the room, walked past the lounge and the light-flooded entrance hall, climbed the wide quarter turned stairs until he reached the third floor, walked through the master bedroom, the lady parlor and came to an abrupt halt when he turned the doorknob of Pansy's dressing room just to find out, that she had cast a lock-down charm upon it. He could hear her walking up and down the aisles of her enormous wardrobe stuffed with shoes, all kinds of clothes, purses and accessories.
With a gasp of resignation, he knocked on the double door and asked with a strained voice, "Pansy, I know you are in there. I can hear you. Would you mind to open the door so that we can get over this hilarious cover story of mine?" Of course, the doors did not unlock, but the angry stomping of her steps became less severe. 'Damn drama queen!' Draco mumbled and could really envision her, how she stood there in her walk-in closet empire waiting for him to cry his heart out behind closed doors. `This is not about to happen', Draco thought sternly and started knocking again.
"Pansy-Pug, I know that you know that I am aware of the fact that you are in there and locked yourself in this ridiculous fashion vault. That is definitely not a decent and mature reaction. I do not do the door-talk, you know? So, I guess you will not mind much, when I just leave you in there, while I run off to nurture my secret love affair with this blonde bombshell and further the media coverage."
"How dare you!"
With a loud bang the doors flew open and a pink crocodile Birkin bag came shooting at him with full speed. With an effortless movement, he side-stepped it and remarked with a suppressed smile, "Hey, I was a top-notch seeker; I definitely know how to dodge a purse." His eyes were sparkling with amusement when he handed Pansy her purse back with an elegant gesture and slight mocked bow.
Meanwhile, Pansy felt rather silly. Somehow, Draco would turn every situation to his advantage and she did not like to admit defeat. With an annoyed wave of her hand, she took the bag and sat down in a pink plushy armchair next to her summer high heels shoe rack of last season. "Well, I am listening and you better be telling the truth. I am in a really bad mood right now and the fact that I do not fit into a quarter of this stuff anymore does not really work to your advantage."
Draco arched an eye brow when he saw her motioning towards one of her twenty giant wardrobes within the room. "Well," he started, "You do not wear most of it. You wear stuff only once, remember?"
"Shut it, Draco and do not try to avoid the question at hand. I demand the truth, these pictures are intense and… I am turning into a fat pregnant and paranoid pig here!"
"Come on, Pug. We are playing the media game since ages and there is nothing going on there. I did what you wanted me to do and it worked miracles. Nobody is asking annoying baby questions anymore."
He shrugged and Pansy's eyes started to narrow dangerously. "I wanted you to go to the beach topless or to spend horrendous sums of money or walk a street with a coffee stain on your shirt. I did not mean: have a wild night out with the boys and get down with floozies!"
"There was nothing wild about it, to be honest. It is just the typical media business. Seriously, I do not do Muggles."
"She was a Muggle???" Pansy's eyes grew big and her facial expression relaxed. No, she could not imagine Draco to cross such fundamental doctrines of his education. Muggles were untouchable even though she and Draco had started to socialize with them to a minimal extend to keep a tolerant outer appearance.
"Why did the bloody reporter not just say so in the first place?" a relieved smile spread on her face. "Seriously, the whole pregnancy thing is stressing me. I feel constantly like starving, I have gained a whole dress size and all these assumptions about me being pregnant with the Malfoy heir is putting me under too much pressure. If they do not ask me about being pregnant, they put pictures of me on title pages calling me fat and predict my downfall as fashion icon. They even proclaimed Daphne as my successor! Seriously! Nevertheless, I think, with the completion of the first trimester of the pregnancy, we should tell the press. Then, the chances of losing the child have reduced significantly and afterwards, it will be hard to cover up the showing belly anyway."
Draco nodded slightly and stroked a stubborn strand of hair out of his vision. An heir of the Malfoy family had always been subject of public interest and scrutiny. Pureblood offspring had become rare nowadays, even though, the topic of purity was very sensitive and better left untouched.
"What do you think about the charity ball of the Society for Support of Squibs? It is only three weeks away. My night out will keep the press busy another week at least and you can lay back, relax and get ready for the ball. And till then, we just keep on denying the whole thing." Draco recommended.
"The event is a brilliant idea; it would also show off how tolerant and open-minded we are. We would have to donate a small fortune in order to support any of their ludicrous facilities. Do they actually built facilities for these malfunctioning people? Whatever, we have to donate!"
Draco had trouble surpressing a smile, which despeately wanted to escape his controlled features. "I guess they build mixed kindergardens and schools. I think they also offer support groups for affected parents." With a nonchalant gesture, Pansy made clear that she was not interested in further enlighment of the undertakings of the Squib Society.
"Draco, talk to the hand - I do not care. Our lives will become more settled and we will be subjected to a whole lot more public scrutiny. We need a masterplan; we need to hype this as an event and make it superior to any potential criticism or scandal. We need the right media-campaign."
Draco frowned, "Media-campaign? What for? We are not going to sell the child, are we?" with a smirk he added "I bet that would make really bad headlines!"
Pansy felt her anger rise once again, "Quit the joking, you know that the public wants pictures, stories and all that stuff. If we do not deliver it voluntarily, the press will make something up. We could make a lot of money and it could boost our image further as a picture-perfect family that has outgrown the past and the rough times. We could ditch the whole party-animal façade and grow up with this! That is a milestone on our path to create a new image of purebloods and Malfoys!"
"While you are at it, we have to make the media too busy to even think about reporting about the release of my parents!"
A conspiratorial smile spread over Pansy's face and the sly glimmer in her eyes gave away her excitement about the events in front of her, "Hun, I did not become the Queen of Slytherin for nothing - you of all people should know that. I make some calls and I guess I have to induct Daphne in our scheme. But I need to focus on the task at hand – the ball!"
With this, she arose elegantly from the sofa and moved down the aisle dedicated to formal dresses. Her fingertips wandered playfully over the hangers while her mind was obviously regretting the fact that she would not be able to squeeze herself in any of her size zero ball gowns.
"Only three weeks to go and so much to do! And what shall I wear then for the ball? It has to make me look fabulous and make me shine and flaunt my baby curves and since I will not fit in any of these, maybe I should call for a designer to show me next years collection or just get a tailor myself. Maybe we should go in matching colors or…"
Draco realized that the conversation was over. Pansy was lost in her paradise of silk, shoes and shiny things. He turned and left Pansy in her one hundred square meter wonderland of high priced fashion and made a mental note: only twenty one days to go. Afterwards nothing would be like before.
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Author Note: This is my first fanfic. The story is stuck in my head since a while now, so I decided to write it down since it will hunt me anyway. Hence, if you like it or hate it or have any kind of remark about it, show some support and review. I would really appreciate it =)