Thursday morning the Prophet ran a story about Harry and Draco attending Vincent Crabbe's funeral. Someone had taken pictures of the couple at the funeral and there was one of the two of them surrounded by Draco's friends that made the front page. The story didn't surprise Draco one bit, after all, Harry, Andy, and Teddy at Fred Weasley's funeral had made the front page and their entire family before Remus and Tonks' funeral had also made the front page. Harry Malfoy was big news these days and it seemed anytime he went out in public was a front page story.
The story did surprise Ron and Hermione, however, because they hadn't been aware Harry was planning on going to Crabbe's funeral. They didn't even know that it had been scheduled for Wednesday. Instead they had been at the funeral of Colin Creevey, comforting Colin's brother Dennis and offering their condolences to Mr. and Mrs. Creevey. Colin's funeral hadn't made the front page. Ron looked through the entire paper and there wasn't one mention of Colin. The front page story was the Crabbe funeral. There were a dozen other stories about Harry and Draco and a few of the reprints of Draco holding a screaming Scorpius, while Harry stood by next to Severus and Teddy at Remus and Tonks' funeral. It was probably taken by someone in the first two groups of guests to arrive, when they were being kicked out. The shots weren't very good, but it seemed as if all people wanted to see of the funeral was those first few minutes when Draco and the three babies were there; that and Harry's speech.
It irked Ron that Draco was getting so much publicity. Here Draco was, a Death Eater who had hidden away in France for the duration of the war, and he was getting all of the attention. People thought Draco was a hero for deceiving Voldemort and for giving Harry his wand; it had been Draco's wand Harry was using when Harry defeated Voldemort after all. But Ron, who had stuck by Harry's side, destroyed actual horcruxes, and risked his life in battle; well people barely even knew he'd played a part in the war at all.
It was Draco's fault people didn't know more about Ron's efforts during the war; it was Draco who gave the interviews for Harry that never once mentioned Ron. Ron had given an interview straight away after the war and he'd certainly mentioned himself. Hermione, Neville, Luna, Dean, and Professor McGonagall had all mentioned him too and said he was right by Harry's side through it all, which he was, except for when he wasn't. But Harry never said anything and Draco, who spoke for Harry, never confirmed the accounts of Ron by Harry's side. The world followed Draco's lead and ignored Ron too.
By now Ron was getting rather sick of the Slytherin prat. He had barely seen Draco at Remus and Tonks' funeral, but they didn't need to see each other to get on each other's nerves. Draco had sent word with Harry that he wasn't to hold Teddy at Fred's funeral. Draco wouldn't even let Harry bring Harry's two children to the Burrow when his mum and his little sister were always on about how they wanted to meet Harry's babies and how cute the babies were. And well, it was Draco who had sent the pictures that emphasized how awful the little black haired baby's leg looked and made him look like a right arse for hitting Draco way back then, even though he hadn't known Draco was pregnant.
And so on Thursday, Ron gave an interview with the Daily Prophet and did something about all of those things that were bothering him. He mentioned his role in defeating Voldemort. He made sure to mention the fact that he and everyone else in his family were in the Order and had supported Harry all along. He mentioned the months on end he'd spent off with Harry hunting horcruxes. How he'd stabbed the locket with the sword and gone into the Chamber of Secrets to retrieve the basilisk fangs that had been used to destroy the cup. And he even mentioned what a prat Draco was, that Draco ran away from Harry, and that Harry didn't even know where Draco and the babies were during the war. And he made sure to clear up the confusion about Lucius, Ginny, and the diary that Draco had started in Draco's first interview when Draco claimed Lucius had been a spy meaning to destroy the diary; he knew better and he told the Prophet Lucius had done it to force muggleborns out of Hogwarts. He mentioned Colin and how he and Hermione had attended a real hero's funeral Wednesday, not the Death Eater funeral Harry and Draco had gone to. And after all of that, he felt really good with himself for getting the truth out there.
Ron's interview made the front page of the Prophet Friday morning. There was a picture of Harry with Draco at Vince's funeral next to the picture Ron had supplied of Ron and Hermione at Colin's funeral. The title was Feuding Friends. The article painted the picture of best friends and partners in the war against Voldemort having a falling out and emphasized the point that Harry had chosen to go to the funeral of a Death Eater Wednesday, while Ron and Hermione had gone to the funeral of a muggleborn. Then it went on to list all of the other things Ron had said about Draco and the Malfoy family during his interview.
Draco read Ron's interview in the paper at breakfast Friday before Harry even woke up. When Harry did make it down to breakfast, everyone else was gone and it was just Draco left in the dining room feeding the twins, with Teddy in the cradle. "Do you know what your friend Weasley said about me in his latest interview?" Draco asked before Harry could even sit down, inclining his head in the direction of the paper.
"Um, no, let me read it," Harry said, grabbing a slice of toast while he read. He was pretty much appalled by most of the stuff Ron said, even if it was mostly true…well except for the part about Draco being a prat. It was more the spin the article put on the facts that Harry didn't like than the actual facts. That and Ron shouldn't have told personal information about Harry's and Draco's relationship. Telling the paper that Harry hadn't known where Draco was, but leaving out the part where it was all Harry's idea in the first place particularly aggravated him. "Alright, I'll have a talk with him; he can't be calling you names like that and he's no right to be giving out our personal information."
"That's not necessary: I need to give another interview to the Prophet to go over all of the times Professor Snape saved me and the boys, to make sure he gets his Order of Merlin. Plus, I need to build up the hype or we'll never fill the stadium for his funeral and Mother'll be disappointed." Draco fought Sev for control of the blue spoon, so that he could give the baby another bite of mush.
"And you can't mention how Snape saved you without mentioning what a prick Ron is, I know. I knew it was gonna have to come out eventually," Harry said, pausing with a fork full of eggs in mid-air. "But do try to be somewhat civil when you mention him."
"Alright. I'll look like a saint in comparison with how little I bash him. I'll just stick to the facts and let the facts bash him," Draco replied, pushing a spoon full of squash into Scorp's opened mouth.
Harry finished his breakfast and Draco finished feeding the twins. Then they went into the drawing room and Draco wrote a letter to the Prophet informing them of his desire to give another interview. He sent the owl off and received a reply back less than an hour later informing him that his request had been granted and asking if he could stop by that afternoon. Draco sent a return owl agreeing to the time and then went back to spending the morning with his boys.
When the time came, Draco left Harry and his mother with the boys and apparated to the offices of the Daily Prophet. He gave a very lengthy interview detailing all of the wrong Ronald Weasley had done to him and just how Severus Snape had saved his life and the lives of the twins on multiple occasions. Of course the story he was putting out was that the twins were born extremely premature and that he hadn't gotten pregnant until his wedding night last June, so some of the details of Weasley's misconduct had to be fudged.
Draco told the reporter that he had still been in contact with Harry after Dumbledore's death; it was true, but he played it up to seem like more than it was. He said that it was during the summer about a month after Dumbledore's death when Weasley hit him in the stomach, causing two near miscarriages, which Professor Snape was able to stop. He also mentioned that Weasley had hit him in the stomach back in Hogwarts and broken open the sectumsempra wounds, so that people would think these were two different events and Weasley would come off looking even worse, if such a thing was possible.
Then Draco had blamed the third and final time he went into labor on Weasley's punching him in the stomach as well. In reality he was already near the end, but the reporter was led to believe he was still three months pre-term and it had been the same old pre-term labor popping up again, only this time Professor Snape couldn't stop it. He also mentioned Scorpius' birth defects, resulting from Weasley's blow. He even handed over a picture emphasizing his son's malformed leg; up until now, all of the pictures he'd given out of Scorpius had the leg covered or out of the frame. Finally he finished by going over Scorp's recent visit to St. Mungo's and the lingering problems the baby still had and how it was questionable if his youngest son would ever be able to walk.
While he was at it, Draco mentioned the date, time, and location of Professor Severus Snape's funeral and that it would be at the Bodmin Moor Millenium Stadium, which was a Quidditch stadium in Bodmin Moor, Cornwall. And in an effort to be more organized about this funeral than the last one, they were giving out tickets in advance to anyone who cared to owl the event coordinator, Hestia Witte, asking for them. He gave Hestia' name and office address too.
Draco's interview made the front page of the Sunday morning addition, complete with the picture of Scorpius and his leg. Draco was rather proud of himself for this one, because he managed to come off sounding classy and sophisticated, while Ronald Weasley came off as a brainless brute. And according to the elves, the sympathy letters were already pouring in, not that he read any of that rubbish himself; they had their mail filtered and anything from someone they didn't know went in the ever growing fan mail pile. But still, it was nice to know that it was there.
Author's Note: Up next Harry will finally confront Ron regarding his feud with Draco.
In other news, I finished one of my other fanfictions this week. I'm one of those authors who don't like to start new stories until I finish the ones I'm already working on. Now that I've finally finished one, I can start another. I had an idea a while ago for a story similar to my other story Blood of the Enemy, with Voldemort getting Draco pregnant, but with a major change: there is no spell to easily determine paternity. Then no one would know who the father really was and Harry wouldn't be involved initially. Draco gets left in jail and eventually Harry comes into the picture and decides to get involved, still not knowing who the father is. And because I don't like writing the same story twice, I've changed all of the other details of the story to be completely different, including the fact that most of the story isn't told until 7 years later. So if you're looking for a new story to read, I highly recommend it. It's called Harry Potter and the Malfoy Male Pregnancy Curse.