The Malfoy Project

𝟐𝟔 - 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐅𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐈𝐈 (*TW)

*TW: vivid description of violence/domestic abuse
Please do not read this chapter if you're sensitive to such content.  

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You are not alone. 💜

Okay, ready? Let's go.

༻❁༺

     Monty slams the paper down, creating such an ear-splitting sound that for a moment I thought the table had cracked in two.

     "What the fuck were you thinking?"

     My picture is splashed across the front page. Gabriella Ainsley, screaming her head off in the office of the Daily Prophet, tears streaming down her cheeks. She looks positively mental. The headlines gloat back at me.

     "I- um— "

     "Do you know how hard I worked to get this job for you?" Monty roars, his bloodshot eyes bulging from their sockets. "Do you know how many people I've had to convince?"

     "Please, Monty, you'll wake everyone up," I hiss urgently, glancing around the green-tinged room. "I swear upon Merlin it's not what it looks like."

     "Isn't it? Tell me, then! Tell me why you broke into the office of Britain's most respectable newspaper, accused them of misprinting, then proceeded to chuck private property out a fucking window?"

     "I didn't! Rita was the one who threw them out, I was trying to get them back!"

     "Oh, come off it, Ains!"

     "And it wasn't a misprint," I add. "The entire article was completely embellished! Barely half of it is even true!"

     "But it is true! You told me yourself!"

     "Not the bit about Draco."

     He throws his hands up in the air. "Again with Draco! Draco, Draco, Draco. What is it about him that has made you completely lose your mind? Has he got you under a spell? Is that it? Has he hexed you like he did Madam Rosmerta?"

     "Monty— "

     "No, tell me. What has he done to you that compelled you to waltz into the Daily Prophet and assault somebody? Assault, Ains! You could be charged! What would people say- what would my parents say? Do you know how absolutely humiliating this is for me?"

     Storm. Tree. Unmoving.

     I shut my mouth, sink further into the couch.

     Why does everybody keep asking me questions they don't seem to want the answer to?

     Just earlier today, the team of the Hogwarts Digest had ambushed me, demanding that I tell them the truth. So you've been lying to us? asked Hermione when I did. I began to explain but she cut me off, saying she should never have trusted me. None of them should have. I looked to Susan for help, but she could only stare helplessly back at me. Ernie stared at his camera resting on his chest like a great drooping flower stalk and Sue Li was frowning so spitefully one would think I had just shown them the Dark Mark on my own arm.