Beautiful girl.
London Dream was successful. She had a lifestyle that other girls her age could only dream about: she travelled the world, was wanted by many, had closets full of designer clothes, and was paid to be seen in them. Her boyfriend was a superstar Quidditch player and he was so good to her, when she saw him.
His job meant he traveled and in the beginning, that was okay because her career meant the same for her. But London feared the day that work would become scarce. She was aware of the fact that her career might end even before her beauty faded, and for a celebrity, less press meant becoming irrelevant.
Her life in the spotlight started in the muggle world when she was ten years old. Her mother was a world-renowned supermodel and her father was an Italian billionaire who was closely associated with the Italian royal family. She never really got to see him, and spent most of her youth watching her mother being dolled up for fashion shoots. She always knew there was something extraordinary about her mother, and when she was accepted into Beauxbatons, her mother confessed that she was a Veela.
As London blossomed into a young woman, she started to understand the meaning of what she was. She had many boyfriends and all of them had a great deal of social clout. There were actors, designers and even young princes who had fallen over their feet for her. She started modeling at age fifteen and was immediately skyrocketed into success.
At seventeen, she was engaged. Her fiancé was a thirty-five year old photographer who had fallen in love with her behind the lens, and was patiently awaiting her eighteenth birthday so that they could exchange "I Do's." But her happiness was cut short when an intimate tape of the couple leaked in the muggle world, where their relationship was frowned upon. He never found work again, and she sought refuge in the wizarding world, where her scandal was unheard of. The people there knew nothing of the internet or videos. She would have a clean start.
When she met Oliver, he was in a relationship, but neither of them seemed to care. It was love at first sight. They kept their relationship private while he sorted out his domestic issues. According to him, he was unhappy and she was clingy and unstable. She went to drastic measures to keep him and often threatened suicide. What a psychopath.
She pitied Katie Bell. She obviously had an extremely low self-esteem and needed some kind of psychological treatment. She spent many nights crumpling letters to this girl telling her to seek help, fearing that she might lose Oliver by being too intrusive. Her friends advised her to write anonymously, but she decided to leave it to Oliver. The girl was his girlfriend and surely she'd take some of his sentiments to heart.
After he finally ditched the bitch, they went public immediately. She was tired of waiting and hearing his promises. Now things would go her way, and he was more than happy to oblige. But there were stories: Katie Bell wasn't this suicidal freak. She was beautiful and blonde. She was a Quidditch player. They'd been in love since they were kids. They'd been dating since high school.
She didn't want to believe that the love of her life was a liar, but her trust was being chipped away at.
He lied about her.
He lied to me.
He lied to her about me.
She confronted him and he confirmed everything. His ex girlfriend was not a crazy person, she just didn't know that he was seeing someone else. She was a homely girl who kept out of the spotlight to ensure that whenever he came home, he was comfortable. She was a brilliant cook. They only ever ate out when it was their anniversary, and even restaurant food fell short of her homemade meals. She loved him unconditionally, but he was in love with someone else and his heart wanted what it wanted.
She couldn't take what she was hearing and she left, temporarily moving to a small apartment in Diagon Alley. It sucked. She was so upset and the closets couldn't fit all her clothes. Furthermore, she never really paid attention in school so she couldn't perform charms so that the room would accommodate her. On the first night of her stay in her new apartment, he spent the night outside her door, telling her that he didn't care about anything but her. He said he'd give up everything for her – except Quidditch – but everything else.
It didn't take long for her to let him in, and the next morning, they went back to their home, but on the way, she had the utter displeasure of meeting the cause of her distress. In that moment, she almost wished she hadn't confronted Oliver about his lies, because if she'd seen the girl in this state, she would have bought everything he'd said.
She looked like an old beggar. Her clothes were ill-fitted and she was so skinny that her legs were as thin as London's arms. She grew ill just looking at this walking disaster, and wanted to leave, but Oliver was obviously concerned.
Didn't he say he was going to give up everything for me?
"She was a big part of my life. I don't like seeing her like that." He'd say, when London threw a tantrum upon their homecoming.
"Girls like her do things like that to get attention, and she's succeeded. You can't think of anything else, can you?" She was sick and upset, and nothing he said could comfort her.
She was a big part of my life.
Oliver was left to his own thoughts in his kitchen. To be honest, he wasn't sure of what he wanted in life. He loved Quidditch first, second, and third, and anything else would just complement his hectic lifestyle. When he met London, he thought she was the answer. She was well-received, well-known, and drop dead gorgeous.
In the beginning of their relationship, he saw the good and the bad, and he decided that it was worth letting go of his wallflower girlfriend. Then, things got ugly. He learnt that she was half-Veela the hard way, when during their confrontation, she threw plates and precious porcelain vases at his head. She didn't transform, but her face grew redder and redder as she became more and more infuriated.
It wasn't like this with Katie.
Of course it wasn't. London Dream was a phony. She used her looks and magical charm to lure him into her manic depressive world. She was constantly bored and really couldn't stand his company – she only did it for the press. Muggle-born players shared jokes about her in the locker room, but fell silent when they became aware of his presence.
They'd gotten engaged.
He did it to keep her entertained. She needed something to do – her career had temporarily cooled off and she was at home more often than she needed to be. Whenever he got back from practice, she was lounging at the pool or sleeping. The place was constantly a mess because she fired his staff as soon as they got there. By proposing to her, she'd have a wedding to plan and a chance to put on beautiful dressing gowns. He'd just keep using Quidditch as an excuse as to why he wasn't getting ready to skip down the aisle.
His grandmother had designed her ring.
It was a lie which London had sold to the press when she showed off her 15-carat diamond ring. His grandmother still believed that he was dating Katie, even though he'd introduced London to her three times now. She was old and forgetful, his embarrassed mother explained to the angry supermodel, who announced that she wanted to leave his parents' house that night. Before he put her out of her misery, his grandmother pulled him aside to tell him that he'd made a mistake.
In future meetings with his family, London refused to attend, stating plainly that they were disrespectful to her. She treated him like a villain every time he'd return from his parents' house.
Things were up and down for them all the time. When they were in the public eye, she was who he wanted her to be: this loving girlfriend who attended all his games and gave him all the support he needed. At home, she was cold and belittling, and did crazy things to get under his skin. They broke up and made up every single day. She was always the one to leave, and he'd always have to be the one to beg her to come back.
He couldn't be alone. Not in this enormous house.
But he couldn't go through this anymore.
He grabbed a piece of parchment and started writing.
Dear Katie.