rarepair_shorts | Fic: Nine Crimes (Draco/Rose, 1/13)

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Title: Nine Crimes
Pairing: Draco Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Prompt: announcement to the world
Rating: PG-13 for this part, R overall
Word Count: 1,203
Summary: Draco and Rose are trapped in someone else's plan for revenge.
Link to Prompt Table: Here
Warnings: Abuse of power, dub-con, infidelity, invasion of privacy, language, some sexual content and (highlight for spoiler)minor character death in later chapters.
Notes: Thanks to

queenb23more for the beta! Also, I spell it Asteria because that's how JKR spelled it on the Weasley Family Tree.

so many times betrayed

Eyes lingering on a faded newspaper photo of the smiling black-haired woman, he remembered how his wife joked that if you cut open his veins, you'd find potion ingredients instead of blood.

Megaerr Bobbin knew everything there was to know about making potions. At Hogwarts, Slughorn had chosen him for the Slug Club based on his skill. Him! A poor half-blood with no money and no reputation. Later, Slughorn took him on as an apprentice and he would go on to be one of the best Potions Masters in all of wizarding Britain. With the little money Slughorn had loaned him, he opened one apothecary and turned it into an entire chain, with businesses not just in the British Isles but France and Holland as well. Slughorn had been proud of his protégé and out of gratitude to his mentor, he'd taken on two apprentices at his suggestion. The first had been Severus Snape - a surly wretch of a boy but undoubtedly talented. Perhaps more so than himself or even Slughorn, had he lived.

The second - Draco Malfoy - had been a mistake Bobbin would regret for the rest of his life. Every bit as malcontent as Snape, he'd had half the talent, and what he lacked there he made up for with ambition and treachery. He had a natural business acumen, Megaerr would grant him that. Malfoy had an instinct for marketing and sales, but Malfoy didn't know potions, not like him. He might know about the various contraband lust potions, know how just a few drops would leave anyone moaning at your touch like a Knockturn Alley whore. He would certainly know about the love potions that could turn even your worst enemy into a soppy, moony fool but that was the sort of knowledge any Hogwarts graduate would have. Malfoy wouldn't know about a potion so rare some doubted its existence; its only mentions being in apocryphal tales of wizards running off to monasteries to resist the temptation it created and witches marrying their captors long after the potion's effects had faded. A potion that didn't just fake those feelings but could create them. A potion that removed inhibitions, that could latch onto any attraction - however, mild or fleeting - and nurse it into a full-blown obsession that could only possibly end when both parties had been mutually sated.

A potion far more subtle and dangerous than Amortentia.

Grabbing the two small jars, he eyed the large beetles that skittered inside each. These had cost a small fortune, incredibly rare and so valuable that they could only be transported by the dealer by Portkey. Dropping a beetle into each cauldron, he was greeted by twin pops as they were absorbed into the brew.

His gaze drifted back to the engagement announcement. Yellowed and dusty, it was nearly a year old. One year of planning and waiting. A sense of malicious glee filled him as Megaerr took in the three happy couples. The betrothed couple stood in the middle - the girl tall like her father and with hair as unruly as her mother's. The boy looked the spitting image of his father and - despite his many accolades – shared the same lack of scruples.

Knowing that he would always be a distant second-best, Malfoy had wanted to buy his apothecaries, but Megaerr had naturally refused. It was his business, his dreams and his sweat that had built it and it would remain his till the day he died. When Malfoy realized he couldn't buy him out, he played dirty. With the help of his son and that awful Skeeter woman, he had dug through Megaerr's life looking for anything he could use against him. And Malfoy found it.

There were transgressions in his past, little peccadilloes he had always fought against in vain. Even if the law didn't always agree, it had always been consensual. Megaerr had never hurt anyone, never plied them with liquors and potions, never pushed farther than they wanted. But he knew other people wouldn't see it that way so he'd been discreet, hiding it from everyone, especially his late wife.

Megaerr watched as Malfoy's wife turned to grin at him, holding his arm as she did, her adoration for him clear even in that worn picture.

It hadn't mattered in the end. Malfoy had made certain that his personal affairs were splashed across the pages of the Daily Prophet and Megaerr had lost everything: three years of his life in Azkaban, his business, and his family, including his wife - the shame of it all surely killed her.

Taking out two small vials of Appetite-Increasing Elixirs, he set them down on the table next to the bottle of Polyjuice Potion. The potions in front of him had bubbled and darkened to a brownish-red; they were almost ready.

As far as Megaerr was concerned, the punishment should fit the crime.

***

“They're late,” Draco announced for the third time as he watched the restaurant entrance for any sign of his son and his – Merlin, he'd never get used to this – daughter-in-law.

“They'll be here.” Asteria smiled as she took a sip of her wine. “Don't you remember what it was like when we were newlyweds?”

Despite knowing perfectly well what she meant, he chose to be difficult. “I don't recall losing the ability to tell time.”

Lowering her voice to the breathy whisper he'd always liked, she replied, “No, but I do recall us being twenty minutes late for a dinner with my parents because you just had to pull me into a water closet, bend me over the sink, and take me then and there.”

He smiled at the memory till another image rose unbidden in his mind.

“Oh, there they are! And in what a state.” Rose and Scorpius had entered, both a little flushed, a little tousled, and looking more than a little guilty. Draco rolled his eyes before standing to greet them, embracing his son and then awkwardly doing the same with Rose. With much more grace and ease, Asteria kissed and hugged Rose like an old friend. Little moments like these confirmed his long-held belief that his wife had been angling to bring the Weasley girl into their family from the first day they met.

“Sorry, we're late,” Scorpius said, pulling out Rose's chair for her. Looking down at his wife, he continued, “Problems with the, uh, Floo.”

“I didn't think there was much traffic on the Floo tonight,” Draco said mildly as he sat down. Asteria pressed down on his foot with her own.

“Don't worry, dear, I told your father that was probably it.”

***

Draco frowned down at his empty bowl. He hadn't thought he was that hungry and the bitter taste in his mouth made him wish he hadn't been. “Did that mousse taste odd to anyone else?”

Asteria and Scorpius both shook their heads but Rose nodded in agreement. “Kind of a metallic aftertaste, yeah?”

“Exactly. I think there's still polish on the silverware.” He lifted the fork up to the candlelight to inspect it, ignoring his wife as she tried push his arm down. “I never liked this place. The glasses are always spotty, our waiter looked half-troll, and now I think I've ingested a tablespoon of silver polish.”

“You'll survive, dear.”