Platinum Dragon Wizard - 621/622 |
In the adult world, neither gratitude nor fear can keep a person loyal forever. There is always a limit, and always a possible breaking point.
But interests can.
Voldemort was a perfect example of that. Fear was not nearly as useful as it seemed...
Compared with Voldemort, Lucius used the prestige of the Sacred Twenty-Eight and the deep roots of the Malfoy family to overawe most of the wizards and followers gathered here.
With that as the foundation, and with a little extra benefit on top, it was enough to make those wizards who had come for the name genuinely submit. When it truly mattered, they would be far less likely to make mistakes or betray him.
But what kind of benefit could gather so many wizards?
Advanced magic?
Or a mountain of Galleons?
Draco found himself curious.
It was a witch.
Her robe could not hide her stunning figure in the slightest.
The moment she saw Draco, the bright corners of her lips lifted despite her obvious attempt to hold them back, making her look vividly alive.
Together with that waterfall of silver hair, she seemed to glow in the candlelight.
It was also because of this witch that Pansy, who had been halfway through her meal and wondering why the restaurant had suddenly gone quiet, instantly raised her head in alarm and glared at her.
Like Draco, Pansy knew her too.
Because this witch was...
"Fleur... Delacour, why are you here too?!"
"Oh my~ Isn't this Miss Parkinson?"
She covered her mouth with one hand in mock surprise. If her eyes had not been wandering so obviously, Pansy might actually have believed Fleur had only just noticed them.
In the next second, Pansy caught Fleur's gaze drifting toward Draco, whether on purpose or not. She shot to her feet like an angry cat and stepped in front of her line of sight.
"I knew it. There was no way you'd give up that easily!"
Now that she thought about it, Fleur seemed even more enchanting after graduating.
It was hard to tell whether her growing magic had strengthened her Veela blood, or whether maturity alone had made her more attractive.
"...I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You don't even believe that yourself."
No wonder Pansy was reacting so strongly.
Leaving aside just how lethal Fleur looked as she swayed her way over...
The matter with Ginny had not even been cleared up yet. And only a few days later, an even more threatening Fleur Delacour had appeared...
A year had passed.
The Fleur Delacour who had once still carried a trace of girlishness now possessed a womanly charm that Pansy and the others did not.
Every gesture seemed to draw men's eyes without effort.
It was also worth noting that the old Fleur, who had always disliked her Veela gift a little and deliberately suppressed both her magic and charm, now had no intention of holding any of it back. If anything, she seemed to be actively releasing her own allure.
Such unusual behavior...
Perhaps that was exactly why Pansy had become so tense and guarded.
Still, compared with the changes in Fleur Delacour herself, Draco was more curious about why she had appeared here in the first place. Pansy ended up asking that question before he did...
Staring closely at Fleur, who sat down at their table as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Pansy returned to her earlier question.
"So, you're one of us now?"
"If you want to put it that way, that wouldn't be wrong. But don't misunderstand. I didn't come here because I wanted to."
"......"
"...Another tsundere."
"Who are you calling that?!"
Faced with Fleur's annoyed glare, Pansy only pursed her lips.
As for Draco, he gathered from Fleur's words that her appearance here was not entirely her own decision, but the result of some special reason.
Noticing the curiosity in Draco's eyes, Fleur seemed to understand what he meant. She curved her lips slightly and brushed back her silver hair with one hand.
"You should know how little status people like us... half-bloods, or even Veela, have in the wizarding world."
Compared with when they had first met, Fleur now seemed much more open about her bloodline. That change made even the silent Astoria glance at her a few more times.
The insecurity was gone.
In its place was a new confidence.
As for what had changed her...
Astoria suddenly shot Draco, who remained completely unaware, a rather exasperated look.
...
After a few seconds of thought, Draco finally understood what Fleur was implying.
"I see. Is it because my father can influence the French wizarding world?"
"Huh? Is that why? But Draco, your father isn't..."
Lucius Malfoy hated people like them the most.
Pansy did not say those words aloud, especially not in front of Fleur herself.
Even so, everyone there knew what she had meant to say. Realizing her slip, Pansy looked toward Fleur with visible regret.
She had not meant it that way.
But Fleur showed no sign of discomfort at Pansy's slip. If anything, she even had the leisure to comfort her.
"Why are you all looking at me like that? If it were the old me, maybe I really would have been angry, but now..."
Even Pansy had to admit that Fleur, looking this confident, was incredibly captivating.
The only thing that gave Pansy some relief was that Draco did not seem drawn in by that kind of beauty.
Draco tapped the table lightly and looked at Fleur.
"Why us?"
"Oh, you're asking why I chose you?"
As she spoke, Fleur pulled out what looked like a newspaper report from inside her robes. It seemed she had already expected Draco to ask this and had prepared it in advance.
"It seems you still don't know about this."
"What is it?"
"If you had seen it, you definitely wouldn't be asking that. You should know by now that everything you've done has already spread across our country... no, across the entire wizarding world."
Draco took it and looked.
Only then did he realize it contained a detailed account of everything that had happened that day.
In that report, Draco's figure was printed on the page in striking prominence.
Flying broomsticks.
Flashes of magic.
And most of all, Draco's feat of defeating numerous Death Eaters on his own had been given special emphasis...
...
Every spell he cast.
That shining figure in the air.
Moments that even the people involved might not have been able to catch themselves had, somehow, been secretly and completely recorded.
It was fair to say that aside from the opening conversation with Barty Crouch Jr., everything else had truly been made public.
And the vivid writing, the way it described everything so clearly, did not just make readers feel as though they were there in person. It also stirred them up, thrilled them, drove them into a frenzy.
Just look at Pansy and Astoria, their heads practically pressed together.
They gasped every time Draco was thrown into danger, and bristled at Ginny's little movements, the ones she had clearly thought no one would notice.
It even made Draco suspect that if he threw the article away right now, Pansy and the others might protest on the spot and accuse him of feeling guilty.
Still, whoever had managed to record all of this had to be an experienced professional.
Without enough skill and experience, there was no way anyone could have captured things in such painstaking detail.
'It couldn't have been the Weasleys. Xenophilius Lovegood can be ruled out too, since he wasn't even there later on. As for the Death Eaters... it definitely wasn't them.'
Just as Draco was thinking back over who had been present and who fit that description, Fleur Delacour, who had evidently expected this reaction long ago, slowly pulled another article from beneath her robes.
And with that movement, the long legs hidden under her robe were briefly revealed.
"What you're holding is the news from our side. The one in my hand is from the biggest local publisher here. And this one..."
They had thought that was the end of it, but to the strange, stunned looks from Pansy and the others, Fleur pulled out yet another report with the same content but a different headline.
With every sheet of parchment she placed on the table, Draco and the others looked more astonished.
Because just as Fleur had said, these newspapers were all from different countries.
And every single one of them had run it on the front page...
...
"So that means everyone already knows about what happened with you, Draco?!"
Pansy only realized it after a moment. Once it finally sank in, she did not know whether to be delighted or worried that things had become too high-profile, so all she could do was let out a soft cry.
That was right.
The first thing anyone would think, once the story broke, was that Draco's fame would spread through the entire wizarding world in an instant. His name and talent would no longer be limited to the small British wizarding world.
A genius wizard who fought Death Eaters alone.
A monster invincible on a Broomstick.
It probably would not be long before titles like those were attached to Draco.
But at the same time, while Draco's talent and potential were certainly worth celebrating, it also meant he had officially stepped into everyone's sight.
And danger would naturally follow...
"Look at this. The first one to report it was your own Daily Prophet."
"That reporter!"
"Rita Skeeter. So it was her."
"But how... how did she pull it off?"
"I really didn't notice she was there."
The main reason Pansy remembered that reporter was because of all the gossip she had written about Harry Potter during the Triwizard Tournament.
Back then, even Pansy, who knew the truth of the matter, had nearly been taken in by the nonsense in Rita Skeeter's articles.
And now she had somehow managed to record everything from the battlefield, and had even done it without anyone noticing.
Never mind where her information had come from, or how she had shown up at the scene at exactly the right time.
Just the fact that she had been able to hide herself under the noses of people like Barty Crouch Jr., Lucius Malfoy, Remus Lupin, and even Draco was enough to prove that she was no ordinary witch.
The Daily Prophet's star reporter. The most controversial journalist around. The elusive, mysterious witch who always got her hands on confidential information.
Perhaps that was why all those labels had ended up attached to Rita Skeeter alone...
Leaving aside how Rita Skeeter had managed it, Draco, who was leafing through the newspapers spread across the table, suddenly noticed something odd.
"Hm?"
"So you've noticed it too. After all, I wasn't bored enough to buy newspapers from that many countries for no reason."
Whether it was because Draco had so quickly grasped what she was trying to show him, or because she had once again found herself looking at that irresistibly serious side profile of his, Fleur, with her Veela blood, suddenly gave him a bright, radiant smile.
"Fox..."
Pansy muttered the word under her breath, still wary of Fleur.
If not for Draco's serious expression, and the fact that she knew this had to be important, she never would have allowed him to keep sitting here with such a dangerous woman...
...
As if he had sensed Pansy's unease beside him, Draco rested a hand on top of her head while looking seriously at Fleur Delacour across from him, as though he had not even noticed the long legs she had intentionally crossed and swung.
And notably, the moment his hand came down, the irritation in Pansy melted away. After giving his palm an adorable little nuzzle, the girl wore a dazed, satisfied expression...
"You mean the person spreading this news wasn't acting on Rita Skeeter's behalf. That makes sense. She doesn't have enough influence to spread something across the entire wizarding world that quickly."
Seeing how quiet Pansy had become, Fleur felt no sense of victory. Instead, a strange dissatisfaction rose inside her.
"...That's right. I noticed from the start that something about this was off, so I spent a little time looking into it."
A little time?
Astoria glanced at the parchment that nearly covered the whole table. Faced with such an unconvincing line, she rolled her eyes in an adorably exasperated way.
Leaving aside why Fleur would bother investigating something like this in the first place, that action alone was enough to show just how much she cared about Draco. And it was clearly far more than just a little time.
Only...
'Since when?'
While Astoria looked back and forth between Draco and Fleur in suspicion, Fleur bluntly revealed the information she had uncovered.
"That person is your father, Lucius Malfoy."
Fleur had originally thought she would see shock on Draco's face, or at least on the faces of the others. But to her surprise, Draco looked perfectly calm.
As if he had already guessed why Lucius Malfoy would do something like this...