Draco's house seemed to be almost full to the Brim with magic and mysteries. The biggest one, so far as Hermione was concerned, at least, was Dobby. He perplexed her. He seemed happy enough to work all day every day, but the idea that he was a slave seemed utterly bizarre to him.
Not that he didn't understand the concept of slavery, he more than grokked that. He just didn't see himself as a slave, which frustrated Hermione to no end.
"How can you be something and not be something? Everything has to be something, that's just how it works," Hermione grumbled to Rosalina and Draco.
"He doesn't seem happy, I'll say that," said Rosalina, although she didn't share her sister's frustration. Hermione needed to know what things were; it was how she sorted out the world. So far as Rosalina was concerned, though, all that mattered was that Dobby knew what he was. Everything else was just icing on the cake.
"I'd never thought to ask him if he was happy," Draco added, shifting uncomfortably as he sat. Rosalina got the distinct impression that he'd never thought to sit down and really Talk with Dobby, or even think of him outside of his own needs. She'd already started to see changes in how Draco treated him. She'd even started to see little changes in how Mrs Malfoy treated Dobby.
But that was all Heremione. The thing that really got Rosalina's attention were the abundant magical tomes and artifacts in the house, particularly the ones in their library.
There were old magical books from what felt like every era, stretching back as far as the medieval ages. Those were in special glass cases, so she left them alone, but they weren't the ones that stuck out to her in any case.
No, the ones that stuck out were books like 'Vile Magicks and Fell Beasts' and 'Wicked Enchantments of the Hidden Weorld.' The kind of thing that was full of horrible and nasty magic that, for some reason, she couldn't stop looking over.
Hermione tut tutted at her about it ("Think of what Dumbledore would say if you tried to read those at school!") but that only served to fuel her curiosity.
There were all sorts of interesting spells in them in any case, from all periods of magic. Some of the earliest, most basic magic dated from before what 'The Hidden Weorld' called 'The Great Veil,' but supposedly they were all still useful. She didn't dare Try them, but she made sure to keep notes, especially of the bits about how to breed creatures.
It was only at times like that that she was able to really talk with Mr Malfoy, and he was more than excited to go over them than Hermione was when she got a new textbook. There were a few times when he had to catch himself before talking about some bit of familial lore or some piece of what he just called 'old magic,' but she was still able to get stuff out of him.
He knows so much about weird magic, Minnie! hissed Rosalina to Hermione in Parseltongue one evening about a week into their stay. Like, all sorts of really odd things that they don't talk about at Hogwarts.
Hermione huffed. If they're not teaching it at Hogwarts then I'm sure there's a reason for it. Besides, even if it Was legal, who'd Want to know how to, I don't know, breed a Basilisk?
Rosalina stared at her for a moment, then Hermione went red and pouted.
Alright, who besides Hagrid, then? They're monsters!
Basilisks are only monsters if their creator is a monster! Look, the book I read said that they take on the personality of their creator. Or that their personality is influenced by their creator's personality, I'm not sure which. But they're not naturally monsters! hissed Rosalina, passing her notes over to Hermione.
Hermione read them, then frowned again. Maybe, but they're deadly regardless. I just don't see who'd want to make one if they didn't intend it to be some kind of threat.
Maybe they'd just make one because they thought they were neat, countered Rosalina, sticking her tongue out at Hermione.
Until near the end of last school year, Rosalina'd had a snake named Finley who'd been her constant companion. However, Hagrid had managed to get his hands on a dragon egg and she, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco had eventually been forced to convince Hagrid that his young dragon, Norbert, would be safer in the Forbidden Forest. When they discovered that Norbert spoke Parseltongue, she'd passed Finley along as a new friend to keep Norbert from getting too lonely. She still missed Finley.
Rosa, please promise me you won't breed a basilisk, hissed Hermione.
Rosalina had sighed, but promised anyway.
There was one book that Rosalina kept going back to that she didn't tell Hermione about. It was an odd little thing. It was in the same section as all the other 'theoretical' dark magic books, but it was completely blank. She'd tried to make words appear with every little spell she knew, but still nothing appeared. She was half-tempted to write in it to see if it responded, but it wasn't her book to write in. It vexed her.
She didn't know why she was keeping it a secret. It just … it just didn't feel like the kind of thing that Hermione should know about. It felt intimate, and violating, and it twisted her up inside, but each day she'd go back to the library and gander at it before moving on to something else.
Sometimes Dobby would pop in and see that she was looking at it, but he never seemed to want to stay around longer whenever she was looking over the blank book. It was like he was scared of it or something. Well, he seemed nervous about any of the books she was looking over, but this one seemed to give him the wiggles real bad.
She began to spend more and more time just trying to figure it out until one day it simply vanished. She panicked a bit, but didn't mention it; she didn't want to seem like some crazy person who'd gotten overly attached to a blank book. She didn't want Hermione fawning over her about it, she didn't want Draco being nervous toward her about it, and she knew that his parents would be … very kind towards her.
Well, his father would be. His mother might understand, but still.
IN ANY CASE, while those were their big focuses, they weren't their ONLY focuses.
For one, Rosalina had brought her gamemaster book with her and Draco found it fascinating. He thought the spells, although complex because of the multiple layers of simple magics it took to cast them, were delightful, and he reveled in creating NPCs with her.
Rosalina tried to get him far enough to create a character for himself, but he got bashful.
("I feel like if I made the kind of character I wanted to make you'd just laugh at me").
Still, it was good to bring him in. Hermione thought it was interesting, but it was never really up her alley, while Draco loved creative magics like this.
She wasn't able to run a game, but her players understood.
AUTHOR NOTE: I had big plans for this chapter, then I spent eight months writing my fantasy novel and by the time I got back to it the plot had moved on from where I'd been. I'm hoping that the next chapter will come sooner than this one did!