Chapter 20: With Love
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They paid for their breakfast and left the small cafe, meandering the cobblestone streets of Montmartre through the slowly increasing groups of shoppers until they reached a large, old stone building that Draco directed her into. The entranceway was grand, brown marble stretching across the floors, and pillars leading up to the reception desk.
"Private tour for Malfoy," Draco said as he approached and Hermione shot him a weary look that he ignored.
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy," the tall, beautiful French witch in front of them drawled, "Welcome into Musée Fantaisiste. We've set your tour to begin in the east wing of the museum and you can follow the prompts at each exit to direct you to your next stop."
"Wonderful," Draco nodded, handing over a satchel of galleons that she took, placing it under the desk, before handing him over three small coins.
"Enjoy your visit, Mr. Malfoy."
They walked back towards the main entrance to the exhibits and he grabbed Hermione's hand, smiling over at her, "The private tour is self-guided, they just direct you to rooms that they've cleared out so you can enjoy them privately; Thirty minutes in each room. I thought about just renting the place out for the day, but I had a feeling you'd scoff at that."
"I certainly would have," she agreed, "But this sounds like a romantic afternoon you have planned, so I won't object to the private tour."
They walked into the first exhibit in the east wing and Hermione stopped in her tracks, mouth parting slightly in awe. Draco looked around the room before his eyes landed on her reaction, "This is a wizarding museum," he said simply.
"It's… spectacular," she breathed. There were sculptures lining the room, intricate, carved sculptures, some in full color and painted clothing. They each seemed to have a certain personality of their original subject and each one was alluring in its own way.
She moved to inspect the one closest to her: a centaur carved from white stone, tail wagging valiantly behind him as he stomped his hooves against the base of the sculpture. His eyes blinked and its neck craned as if looking around the room, but it was clear nothing lay behind the eyes.
"This piece is called Gideon. He was a mythical centaur in wizard folklore that usually represented wrath or pride."
"The movements are so realistic," she said, walking to the side to watch the tail move back and forth."
"Yes, there are some really impressive charms that sculptors use," he said, looking at her with amusement, "If this has caught your attention so thoroughly, we may be at this museum all day."
"Sorry, I know there's a lot to see," she smiled apologetically at him, "This is just really interesting magic. We don't learn much about art-related magic at school, and I mean I've read about it, of course, but seeing it in person is enthralling. The level of detail…" she moved on to the next sculpture, a mermaid, hair floating crazily in the air as if it were under water, eyes burning in the direction of whoever looked at it, "It's just uncanny."
His lip curled up as he watched her take it all in. He'd always loved art and history, not that he'd have ever told his friends that, but sharing this with her felt meaningful. He walked behind her, his arm wrapping around her waist as he told her a bit about the piece.
They moved through the sculpture hall discussing the pieces and guessing which charms they thought may have been used, (which they planned to research later to see who was right), before Draco inserted the coin into a hole at the exit, which flashed North Wing, and they apparated to their next room.
They wandered the impressionist paintings in the North Wing as a blur of colors swirled in front of them, sometimes pausing to discuss what a certain painting was trying to convey. Hermione found this section to be the most like a muggle art museum. Yes, the pictures moved, but the art felt very similar, otherwise.
They moved on to the West Wing where they meandered the portraits of famous witches and wizards, Hermione trying her hardest not to give Draco a full dissertation on some of the historic figures she'd read about in books, though when she did start to go into detail about some of their lesser known accomplishments, she was pleased to find him engaged in the conversation as opposed to bored or lost. She did sometimes forget that he spent a good amount of his time reading, as she did.
After the West Wing, they came upon the last exhibition of the museum in the South Wing: ancient tapestries from around the world.
"Ah, here it is," Draco gestured her to one on the right side of the room, "My great great grandfather acquired this a long time ago from the original descendants," Hermione's eyes skimmed the heading on the tapestry The Span of Slytherin, "The family was very poor and he purchased it off of them for however many galleons he was carrying at the time. I think the man would have taken anything. But anyway, it's a mapping of how the descendants of Slytherin evolved through history, tracking from Salazar to the Gaunts, who we purchased it from. Obviously we acquired it before the Dark Lord's name had ever been added to it, but this version ends at Marvolo, his grandfather. You can see how the descendants spread through the world, which I always thought was interesting."
It spanned half the wall and depicted an outline of the continents with names and connecting lines that could be made out from the fading text. It reminded her a bit of the Black family tapestry from Grimmauld place, though instead of a family tree, it was an interconnected world map. The tapestry had an air of haunting intrigue to it; The captivating depth of wizarding history emulating from every inch of the sprawling piece, matched by the haughty undertone of the importance of their blood purity.
"You owned this in your home?" She asked.
"Yes, it was hanging over the fireplace in the main dining room. It's where we hosted the most people and father liked for it to be in eye sight of our guests whenever possible."
"Why did you sell it to the museum?"
"The Ministry seemed to think it held some kind of curse of dark magic," he shrugged, "I'm not sure if it's true or if they just wanted to rid our house of as much of our prized possessions as they could, but it did always give me an eerie feeling. They told us we could either sell it as a historic artifact to a museum that would keep it behind enchanted glass, or we would have to destroy it. Father liked the idea of telling people we'd sold an artifact to a museum so he took that route."
"It's a piece of history," Hermione said, almost entranced by it, the odd urge to reach out and touch it making her fingers tingle. It looked ancient, as though the first name had been added to it and it had been passed down through the generations, adding names and connecting lines as it went until it was apprehended by the Malfoys.
"I wouldn't look at it too long," Draco said, "Whether it's dark magic or not, there's definitely an unsettling aura around it. I wasn't sad to see it leave the manor."
She felt chills up her spine at the mention of the manor but batted the feelings down as she tore her eyes from the tapestry.
Draco led her on to some of the other historic tapestries on the walls until they came to the exit and returned to the entrance hall where the receptionist wished them a good day.
From the museum Draco walked her through the streets of shops, pointing out some of his favorites, before they ate lunch and moved on to a small bookshop on the edge of town. The books were antiques, ranging from children's stories to biographies to novels. They had settled into some small armchairs at the back of the store and flipped through the different books, pausing every once in a while to discuss something they'd read.
"Did you know they think they've found a thirteenth use for Dragon's blood?" Draco quipped as he lowered a book titled Twelve and Counting.
"I did not. Are you reading about potions on your off time?" she asked slyly.
"You've no idea the amount of time I've spent reading potions books. I find it all quite enthralling," he responded airily, lifting the book back to keep reading.
"So what's the thirteenth use they're working on? Are you going to leave me on a cliffhanger?"
"In about a hundred and fifty pages, I'll let you know," he winked over the top of the book and she laughed.
"Looking forward to hearing about it over dinner, then."
Eventually the store owner had to politely let them know he'd be closing up shop soon and they picked out a few books to purchase as they thanked him.
They'd checked into their overly priced hotel overlooking the streets of Montmartre and changed for a beautiful dinner Draco had made reservations for at a swanky restaurant next door. They'd returned to the hotel that night, exhausted from their explorations.
They collapsed on the bed, Hermione sighing contentedly, "What a whirlwind day."
"A good one, I hope," he turned his head towards her with a grin.
"A wonderful whirlwind day," she specified.
Draco rolled onto his side, pulling her close as their bodies pressed together, "I've learned that I quite enjoy sharing new experiences with you," he said with a smug sincerity in his voice.
"I quite enjoy you being my personal tour guide," she leaned up and kissed him softly, "There's still a lot in wizarding culture I haven't been exposed to, spending the majority of my life as a witch inside the walls of Hogwarts."
"Well then lucky for you, I've got plenty more of these kinds of trips up my sleeve," he kissed her again and their lips locked on each other for a moment before he pulled back to look at her, hair sprawled across the pillow and her lips still slightly parted. He grinned, closing his eyes and leaning back down to her, their lips brushing against each other a few times as they embraced the comfortable silence around them. He felt her relaxing into him and had a feeling he may have planned too many activities to take full advantage of their penthouse suite, "Are you tired?" He asked quietly after a few minutes.
"Mmmhmm," she murmured back against his lips, "But it's your fault."
He gave a faux-huff, "I know it is."
"Thank you for everything today, Draco," her eyes met his with an endearing look, "I can tell you put a lot of effort into planning it out."
He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "It took less effort than you'd think, actually," she cocked an eyebrow at his statement and he laughed, "I just mean It was quite easy to think of all the places I wanted to enjoy with you."
"I'm sure this hotel room was on the list of things you wanted to enjoy together," she said suggestively.
"It certainly was, but there's always the morning," his lip curled up knowingly and he ran his fingers softly through her hair, "I can tell you're exhausted."
"Never too tired to enjoy the end of the evening with you," she leaned up and placed a lingering kiss on his lips. She'd been looking forward to this part as much as the rest of it and she would not let a little fatigue end it early.
He let a dark chuckle emit from his throat as she lay her head back again. He looked at her, cheeks flushed, lips pursed in the most taunting way, eyes heavy, either from sleepiness or lust, or some mix of the two, "I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me you're tired and I'll roll right back over and let you have your rest," he offered her, hand gripping her hip lightly, waiting to be given the final word on the matter.
"I'd like to enjoy this hotel room a bit longer," she said with a mischievous grin that he had to admit he truly adored on her.
"Alright, well it's been a long day, so how about you relax and close your eyes," he said in a low voice as he leaned down closer to her, "And I'll… see if I can help you energize a bit."
She did as she was told, letting her eyes close and taking a slow breath in through her nose as she felt him reposition himself over her. She could sense his movements as his breath became warm on her skin and his lips connected with her neck. It was too soft though and her heart rate started to awaken, wanting more. He finally pressed his lips more firmly against her collarbone and she sighed, feeling his soft kisses moving down her arm as goosebumps formed in their wake. No part of her wanted to move a single inch in that moment as the kisses turned course back up towards her shoulder and across to her neck. She couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips as teeth scraped gently over her skin and her breath caught in her throat.
"Are you waking up a bit now?" the vibrations against her made her swallow hard and she couldn't find the words to respond so she just nodded.
His lips trailed up to the bottom of her ear where they paused to pull on her earlobe. Her head tilted slightly into him and she felt the smirk against her neck as his lips returned to it. He continued on to her jaw line, each kiss raising her temperature within another degree. When his lips finally reached hers she didn't hesitate to give them a warm welcome before parting for his tongue to meet hers.
Her hand moved to the side of his face, his skin smooth under hers as she brushed her fingers along it. She sunk deeper into their plush bed as he came back over her and her hand tangled into his hair. His lips left hers as she huffed lightly, and moved down the other side of her neck and south towards her chest. She felt the bed dip as he moved with his kisses, which felt deliberately slow and calculated. She shivered as he grazed softly over her stomach.
"Look at me, Granger," his words teased her in a low voice.
She fluttered her eyes open, noticing her breathing had gotten heavier, before she tilted her head down at him.
His lip curled into a grin, "Just making sure you weren't falling asleep," and he returned to planting kisses down her body as she let her head roll pleasantly back against the soft pillows again, admiring the gold painted molding on the ceiling above as his lips found her inner thigh. Her eyes closed again as she sighed contentedly, quite happy to be in Paris with Draco in a lavish hotel room that they had all to themselves.
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As they lay in bed later that evening, her head resting on his shoulder, she acknowledged how crazy it was to her that even without sex, the intimacy with Draco was everything she could imagine she'd want in her personal idea of romance. She knew he was waiting for the right moment to let things go all the way and she'd thought maybe it would be tonight, in Paris, but she had a feeling he would tell her when the time felt right and she'd feel it too. For now, however, she was more than completely satisfied in her dazed state of happiness. Her arm snaked over his chest lazily as they settled in, even more tired than when they'd arrived back to their hotel that evening.
He kissed the top of her head and covered her hand with his with a very content sigh and a plastered smile on his face, "I have a feeling we'll sleep well tonight," he murmured.
"So very well," she looked up and they shared a grin before he leaned down for one more kiss.
"Sweet dreams, Granger."
"Goodnight, Draco," she whispered back as three more words popped into her subconscious. She may not have registered them fully, but they were starting to make an appearance in the back of her mind more often and it was simply a matter of time before she acknowledged them. With a peaceful hum, her mind blanked into blissful sleep.
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A/N: It's been a crazy few weeks. Hope everyone is staying healthy & safe.
