Narcissa side-along apparated them just in front of the Black Manor gates. She turned to Hermione and smiled shyly at the alpha. "I must confess something about the wards."
Hermione looked at her tilting her head to the side in curiosity. "What is it?"
The blonde rubbed her arm a little in anxiety as she looked down at the ground. "The wards are made with blood magic. Unfortunately, we'll have to complete a blood pact between us so that you can have full access to the house and everything in it, so you won't be expelled from the premises or worse…"
Hermione gently lifted the omega's chin with two fingers, looking into her cerulean eyes and smirking. "Cissa, is this your way of asking me to marry you?"
Narcissa snapped her head completely and away from Hermione's touch in shock and opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it when she noticed the look of mirth on Hermione's face. "And what if I were asking you to marry me, Ms. Granger?" She asked with a perfectly sculpted raised eyebrow and an icy stare.
Hermione let out the laugh that she was trying to hold back and shook her head before controlling herself once more. "I would say that I feel it's a bit early for marriage proposals, but since you can keep up with me on an intellectual level—not to mention that you haven't fallen to your knees in submission from my pheromones thus far—I would not object to such a proposal. So I'll leave that up to you."
Narcissa sighed. "No, this is not a marriage proposal," Narcissa deadpanned.
Hermione chuckled, but nodded in understanding as she calmed down and cupped Narcissa's cheek. "It's okay. I understand. I'm not worried about you slicing my hand open when it's just as easy to heal the wound, so do what you have to do for this, Cissa," she said, taking her hand away from the omega's face and holding it out to her, palm up.
Narcissa took out a small surgical steel knife that she used for potions, cleaned it with Scourgify, and sliced open Hermione's hand. She then repeated the same process with her own palm, putting the two wounded hands together as she began to chant softly. Halfway through the chant, she placed the two hands against the gates, which caused them to glow briefly, then settle once again.
Narcissa released Hermione's hand, revealing that both were healed completely. Hermione hummed in appreciation of the flawless magic. She inspected her hand then caught sight of Narcissa, who looked a little breathless. "Are you alright Cissa?" She stepped closer to the omega and held her loosely by the waist so that she wouldn't fall over.
"I'm fine, thank you. The spell was a little more draining than I had anticipated, but I'll be alright. I just need to get my bearings," she smiled and composed herself effortlessly before Hermione's eyes. She took the alpha's hand and pulled her through the gates without incident.
The landscape was immaculate. They walked up the drive to the front door. Hermione took in the enormous manor that was decorated in gothic style architecture. Upon entering through the large double doors, Hermione marveled at the equally gothic decor with its dark wood paneling and marble floors. "No surprise, this place would be like walking into Notre Dame itself with its grandeur, minus the Christian art and stone work. Sweet baby Thor, I can only imagine what the library will look like if this is just the entrance of this mansion," Hermione thought as they continued to walk down a hallway until they came to another set of double doors, which opened automatically upon their approach.
As they entered, Narcissa turned toward Hermione so that she could take in the reaction of the notorious bookworm. She was not disappointed when Hermione's mouth fell open with shock at the vastness of the library. Her eyes grew wide as she beamed a smile; she looked at Narcissa like a child at a sweets shop.
"This place is amazing. I could live here and never be bored while having no other reason to leave, either. I could die happy here," Hermione said as she walked further in.
Narcissa watched her as she took in the vast room of wall to wall books. "You're certainly welcome to come here anytime you wish now that you are accepted by the wards. I certainly have no objections," Narcissa smiled. "Now, before you lose yourself in here, there are a few rules that you must adhere to. You cannot read anything in here aloud, nor can you remove anything, either. The wards won't allow any of the books to leave the grounds, and some books won't even leave the library, itself," Narcissa said with conviction.
Hermione nodded in understanding. "Now that the ground rules have been laid out, I'm anxious to get started. Although, I don't have a clue of where to start, honestly. Is there a codex that I can use to narrow down my search? Otherwise, that statement of never leaving will become a real issue instead of a joke," Narcissa nodded and stood in front of Hermione, taking out her wand. With a flourish, she slowly showed the alpha the incantation and motions for the spell, while also explaining that she needed to think about what she was looking for. The codex will then know what books to look for to help find material on the subject matter.
Hermione did it herself, which caused several small balls of light to sprout up around her head and then slowly start to float off in different directions, depending on where the books were located. Hermione followed one light to the nearest location and disappeared into the vast abyss of Black Manor library.
Narcissa cast the spell as well and began to follow her own indicators. On the matter of what was happening to them, she wasn't exactly positive where to start, since she wasn't even sure of what it was that was going on in the first place. Regardless, she had to start somewhere. She decided to start with their biology and to go from there.
Hours flew by as the women worked on their respective tasks. Hermione found that the Black family's collection of rare magical books outmatched any other that she had come across. In her readings, she had found that there was a legend about Merlin involving Stonehenge, but to find more answers, she would have to travel there. All the books that she had come across said roughly the same. There was a vague mention of some unsolvable mystery at Stonehenge that no one had the knowledge to solve. Other than that, there wasn't anything else that was overly helpful in her research.
Narcissa, for her part, wasn't faring much better with finding answers to her questions, either. As vague as her subject matter was, she did manage to narrow down her search to a few books that didn't hold a lot of answers in regards to what was happening between her and Hermione. Most of the material that she had found was based around something that pertained to a "Prime" species of alphas and omegas, but what that meant was not clear in her findings, which frustrated the omega to no end. "With how many ancient magical books this library has, one would think it would hold more answers on the matter at hand than this measly selection of one sentence references."
After finding nothing that would help her reach a better understanding, she closed the book she was reading in frustration and put it back where she found it. Breathing deeply to cool down her annoyance, she began her search for the alpha to see if her findings held better results on her subject matter. She started to call out her name to no avail. She decided to use a sonorous spell on her throat to amplify her voice so that she could get the attention of the alluring bookworm.
The alpha poked her head out from between some bookshelves on the third floor of the library and looked down at Narcissa from a railing. "Hey, one second let me make some notes and I'll be down in just a minute." Narcissa nodded and headed to the front of the library to wait. Soon enough the alpha joined her, "So I'm starving. Do you want to go somewhere to eat or would you rather make food? Honestly I don't have a preference."
Narcissa thought for a moment. "I would prefer not to go out to eat tonight. That way, we can go back to our research quickly when we finish."
Hermione grinned. "That sounds amazing love," Narcissa blushed slightly at the term of endearment. She smiled before calling for Dolly, the Black family house elf, who appeared in front of the women with a soft pop and low bow. She was wearing a clean, well-tailored yellow sundress that suited her perfectly.
"How can Dolly assist Mistress Cissy?" The elf said in a high, squeaky voice. Hermione's expression briefly showed surprise but then went neutral.
"Would you mind making some shepherd's pie for us, please?" The little elf nodded, bowed once more, and disapparated away with a soft pop. Narcissa looked at Hermione and sighed. "To ease your mind, she is paid, has days off, and wants to serve. I offered her freedom and she said no, insisting that she wanted to continue to work for me."
Hermione let out a breath she hadn't been aware that she was holding and nodded. "I'm sorry. It's a sore spot for me with what happened to Dobby. I'm sure you can understand my reasons for being weary about such things."
Narcissa hummed her understanding and walked over to an alcove with a black leather couch and a table. "I understand how strongly you feel about the civil rights of all creatures. I find it commendable, not to mention necessary, but I want to make it perfectly clear that Lucius was the one that mistreated Dobby. I never had much contact with the little elf because I have had Dolly since my mother passed."
Hermione nodded and sighed. Narcissa sat down and patted the seat beside her for Hermione to join her, which Hermione did happily. Soon enough, the little elf popped back into the room in front of the two witches with food and tea. She placed them on the coffee table then disapparated away with a soft pop.
After food, they began to sip their tea while conversing about inconsequential subject matter. Hermione sighed once more as she began to think about what else she could do to find more information on the assignment. "There you go again, sighing in frustration. Are you able to talk to me about this assignment, or is it top secret?"
Hermione hummed in thought. "At the state of things, I don't see there being a problem talking about it with you. Unless you plan to use this information to take over the world?" Hermione asked Narcissa with a smirk.
"Honestly, if I wanted to take over the world, I would have done so years ago. Between being tied to the Malfoys and Blacks, I had access to all of their dark magical relics before I turned them over to the Ministry. So, it would have been easy enough to accomplish," Narcissa said with indifference while inspecting her nails.
Hermione stared at her in shock for a moment, then laughed. "Yes, I suppose it would have been easy for you to overthrow everything if you had timed it right. I'm surprised Lucius didn't try it himself," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"As you stated at the Gala, he is a spineless fish of an alpha. He didn't have the nerve to take over something himself, and I never gave him the chance, either. I started hoarding all of the dark items away for safekeeping at the beginning of the second war," Narcissa said indifferently as she went back to sipping her tea.
Hermione hummed in understanding. "I can't say that I blame you for taking precautions, especially when there was so much chaos going on at that time. Anyway, I received information about some suspicious happenings. Such as strange weather that only occurs over Stonehenge, itself, as well as some sort of force field that spans about five feet from the stones. There are also rumors about there being a relic that might have once belonged to Merlin, himself, which might be the cause of everything. Now, whether those rumors are true or not, still remains to be seen. I have yet to go there and investigate it because I don't want to be out there without all the information on what I might find," she took a sip of her tea and continued. "From what little information that I have found, there is a legend that says there is an unsolvable mystery. Even your library here holds no further information about it, and it is becoming very frustrating," Hermione said with a huff of annoyance.
Narcissa pondered for a moment then hummed in thought. "I'm guessing you've tried all different aspects of this avenue when looking into the subject, even looking into Stonehenge itself?"
Hermione nodded and sighed. "Nothing except what is common knowledge. It's as if all the real information about it has been erased from history. It would not surprise me if the druids just kept going with their tight-lipped, unwritten history beliefs and the information was lost because of it. They're not into sharing information because they're too closed off from outsiders."
Narcissa placed her hand gently on Hermione's knee squeezing it consolingly. "Then there is only one thing to do: go to Stonehenge and figure it out for yourself. You've done all that you can to prepare yourself for what is to come. And since you've exhausted all of your resources, there really is nothing left to do but go out and find the answers yourself," Narcissa patted her knee then removed her hand.
They went back to sipping their tea for a moment before Hemione chimed in once again. "So, did you find any information on what is going on with us?" She smiled nervously.
Narcissa sighed much the same as Hermione. "I was not very successful in my research subject matter, either. It seems the only commonality to the things that have been happening has to do with something pertaining to a particular biological type or species of alphas and omegas called 'Primes'. There wasn't much to go on, even after I had narrowed it down to that particular terminology," she took a sip of her tea before speaking again. "I would appreciate some help with looking into this, since you have hit a wall with your research."
Hermione nodded. "Of course. This affects both of us, and I could use the change in material from all the Merlin lore and pictures of Stonehenge that don't actually give any real insight as to what it looks like. Where would you like to start?" Hermione put down her tea cup and stood up from the couch to which Narcissa followed.
They walked through the library to the section that Narcissa had abandoned earlier. They sat close together as Narcissa showed her all she had found and where she had left off. They fell into a comfortable silence while reading the books that might give them some insight as to what was happening to them.
As night fell while they continued to research, Hermione breathed out in annoyance. "I'm not sure about you, but none of this has really given us any new information about what a Prime Alpha or Omega is. Let alone what it has to do with us, so I say we walk away for the day, have dinner, and pick this up tomorrow. I need to give my eyes a break from reading and I'm sure you do, too. What do you say?"
She looked over at Narcissa who now sported a pair of reading glasses that made her look even more flawless to Hermione, which caused the unsuspecting alpha to rumble softly in approval.
Narcissa was still reading, but when she heard the rumble, she snapped her head up to look at Hermione in surprise. She shivered slightly at the red eyes that were staring at her with lust. She had to blink a few times to clear the fog from her mind before she could answer without having her voice betray how much that rumble affected her.
"That sounds lovely. I agree there hasn't been any new information into this on my end, either. It is very unsettling since this library usually has something for every subject," Narcissa said as she put the book she was reading down, took her glasses off, and placed them into a pocket of her robes. They walked out of the library and headed to the kitchen, where they found Dolly busily cooking something for them that smelled amazing.
They spoke about nothing in particular as they ate. They decided that Hermione should spend the night in one of the guest rooms so that they could wake up and go right back to their research in the morning. Headed upstairs to the bedrooms, they separated for the evening into different rooms and fell asleep rather easily, since they were both exhausted from the day.