Chapter 7
"Why are you so jumpy?" Malfoy asks as he holds the main entrance door open for her on Saturday morning.
"Seriously, Malfoy?" Hermione walks rapidly toward the gates without looking at him, until he catches up to her and grabs her arm.
When she flinches, he drops it. "What's wrong, Granger?"
She stops walking and turns to face him. "What happened the last time I was at your house, Malfoy? The first, last, and only time I was there?" she snaps. Could he really be this thick? When his gray eyes widen and he draws in a breath, she knows that he is.
"Fuck." He drags a hand through his fair hair, which falls right back into place afterward. "I didn't think."
She shrugs. "I guess I see why. I mean, to you, it's just your house, right? No big deal having someone over." She frowns. "Except when that someone's a Mudblood."
"How long are you going to throw that in my face?"
Hermione sighs. "I'm sorry. It's just, well, it's a hard thing to get past, you know?"
"I know." They resume walking toward the gates in silence, until he says, "My aunt tortured you in our house, while my parents and I stood by and watched." He stops and faces her. "She carved that word into your arm. I guess that gives you the right to throw it in my face whenever you want."
"You didn't carve it there, Malfoy, and I'm not going to throw it in your face anymore. I guess, well, maybe I just needed to hear you say that in order to stop wanting to."
"Fair enough." He starts walking again.
"Malfoy?"
"Yeah?"
"Why are you being nice to me?"
He grins. "Because I'm a nice person, Granger."
"Really?"
"No. Hoping for a shag, remember?"
She rolls her eyes. "God."
When they reach the gates, he offers his arm. "Ready, Granger?" She nods and takes his arm, waiting for the disorientating pull of side-along Apparition.
Hermione vividly remembers her first visit to the library at Hogwarts. There was so much undiscovered knowledge her head swam with it. It was almost more than she could process. The library at Malfoy Manor isn't quite as large, but she has the same feeling. A hundred Saturdays wouldn't be enough for her to explore it to her heart's content. And yet she's not here to explore, she keeps reminding herself, passing up one tempting volume after another because they don't contain anything on memory charms.
She closes another book and looks up to see Malfoy smiling at her with what she would, on any other face, call an expression of fond amusement. But this is Malfoy, so she must be mistaken. "What?"
"You're like a kid on her first trip to Honeyduke's."
"I thought you were going to help."
He opens a book. "I'm helping."
"I've already looked at that one. What would really help is if you knew which books I should look at. It's your library. I can't believe you don't."
"My father would know, if he were here. He knows the collection better than I do."
Hermione bites her lip. She wants the assistance, but isn't sure she's ready to face Lucius Malfoy, even a wandless, magic-deprived one. But Malfoy said he didn't know if or when his father would be back, so she may not have to. She's about to open the next book when a sound outside the window catches her attention. It sounds like a car. At Malfoy Manor?
She stands and walks to the window. On the gravel below, a blond man is getting out of a silver Mercedes Benz. He's dressed in gray trousers and a light blue button-down shirt. His pale blond hair is longer than his shirt collar but doesn't quite graze his broad shoulders. As though feeling Hermione's eyes on him, he looks up at the library window. She draws in a breath when she realizes it is Lucius Malfoy, minus the long hair and sumptuous robes and pretentious walking stick. Her surprise turns to shock when he smiles at her before turning and walking toward the front door, allowing her to appreciate just how well those trousers show off his arse.
A few minutes later, the incongruously Muggle-looking owner of the library joins them. "Good afternoon, Miss Granger," he says with another of those disconcerting smiles. "I hope you're enjoying the library."
"Very much so," she replies. "You have a remarkable collection."
"For which I am grateful. It's taken my family generations to acquire."
"I can imagine." What she can't imagine is why Narcissa Malfoy would leave this man for Harry. How is it that Hermione never noticed before that behind all the sneering and superciliousness, Lucius Malfoy is bloody gorgeous?
"Draco tells me you're quite the bibliophile, Miss Granger."
She nods.
"Is there anything in particular you'd like to see that you haven't found yet?"
"Yes, actually. I'm looking for books on memory charms, and one spell in particular, the Memoriam Perditam Revoco."
His pleasant expression gives way to what she would almost take for sadness, but only for a moment, and then he turns and walks to a spiral staircase that leads to an upper-level gallery. Hermione drags her eyes away so Malfoy won't catch her watching his father climb the stairs. Apparently, she isn't quick enough, because Malfoy is smirking at her.
"I could help you with your dating profile," he says. "How about Bookworm69 for your user name?"
"Shut up, Malfoy," she hisses, hoping she isn't blushing.
Lucius Malfoy returns to the main level with the books in his arms and places them on a table. "Perhaps you will find what you're looking for in one of these, Miss Granger? I'll look through our collection more thoroughly during the coming week. You're welcome to return next weekend to look through the results of my search."
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy."
"Think nothing of it, my dear. Our library is at your disposal whenever you'd like. It's the least we can do, I believe, under the circumstances."
Understanding that he is apologizing without mentioning the painful incident in question, she nods.
"If you'd like to borrow any of those, please take them for as long as you need."
"That's very kind of you."
He waves his hand as if to say it's nothing. "I'll leave you two to your reading. Draco, if Miss Granger should require anything else, I trust you'll let me know?"
"Of course, Father."
And then he's gone, and Hermione finds herself staring after him. She shakes her head and looks at Malfoy. "He drives a car?"
"He can't Apparate or use the Floo while his magic is suppressed."
"He seems in pretty good spirits, considering."
Malfoy shrugs. "He's trying to make the best of a bad situation."
"He looks different without the long hair."
"He cut it after a sarcastic remark from one of the Muggle women he met online."
"What did she say?"
"She told him his dating profile user name should be Fabio."
Hermione starts laughing. "Oh, my God. Just please tell me he didn't have a shirtless picture on his profile." She laughs harder. "But seriously, he got the joke?"
"He had to Giggle it."
"Google."
"Whatever. But after he did, he made an appointment for a haircut the next day."
It suits him. The clothes, too. She doesn't share this opinion with Malfoy, of course, just opens one of the books and starts reading.