Nine

Don't you know that books have ears my dear?

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance

– Terry Pratchett.

Draco's 'adventure' turned out to be a lot more favourable than she had anticipated. She had to pat the back of the arrogant boy, not that she would do it physically and not that Draco would actually know she had.

He took her to a library.

The library was a growing, evolving organism. Without change, the library would cease to be relevant. But with magic it was so much more than ordinary and relevant.

"It's called the Great Library. One of the first establishments of the street; it served as a host for the many archives of the Wizarding community." Draco murmured as he led her towards it.

Just watching the miniscule movements of Hermione's face as it shifted from being bored and slightly curious to being awed and so, so alive was worth it. The movements of her face reflected how she felt; the way her eyes lit up, the way her chin subtly pitched forward a little, the way her lips quirked upwards and the way her face almost glowed with happiness.

It was like a star finally coming into view; however, Draco knew that stars wouldn't shine if there wasn't just a bit of darkness. He sighed inwardly and knew that more dark times were sure to follow these little moments of happiness. But he quickly shrugged it off in favour of enjoying the moment as it was.

The outside of the library was something like an elaborate Muggle Manor. Two sets of sandy stoned steps let up to a pillared canopy, the pillars slightly blackened with age, where six windows guarded the door, which was framed by neat details including carved owls and the sign which simply read; The Great Library and Archive.

Draco led Hermione inside the building to where columns among columns of books stood with a model train winding its way over the shelves, and arches decorated the walk ways detailing poetry. The stern book keeper eyed them from his front desk near the front of the building and Draco made Hermione walk and unfreeze from her position. After all, they didn't need a lot of attention here, they needed to find things out here not dabble in attention.

"How are we going to find anything in this…?" Hermione tried to find an apt enough word to fit the description of the place "Treasure?" She decided on.

"Didn't you know that books have ears my dear? They will listen and they will answer accordingly,"

"When did you become a poet?"

"I didn't, that particular statement is carved in wood on the bookkeeper's desk, and I just borrowed it for the occasion." Draco replied dramatically wincing when Hermione slapped his arm in indignation.

Hermione allowed Draco to lead her to the back of the gigantic place, looking for something or someone she didn't know. She left him to it and justlooked. Libraries were houses of knowledge and learning, the library was a sort of place where all sorts of learning, scholarly and recreational, could and would take place. The people that visited were empowered to connect with information and each other, and it served as a gateway to knowledge and the future. That was why she loved Hogwarts Library and it was why she loved this one too. Back into the right, realistic, frame of mind she saw that Draco was gesturing to a lady, and Hermione had pretty much just missed everything he had just said.

When he repeated it, it turned out that Ardan's sister Meredith was going to help them with their search for information. For a minute the woman left them as they debated on what they needed to learn.

"Don't say that we need to know everything," Draco sighed as they sat down and got comfortable.

Hermione didn't know where to start. The library was so big it could have held every text known to man for all she knew. She had exhausted Hogwarts library and she was itching to get her fingers on any text.

Then she slowed herself down and thought about it. "Horcruxes," she murmured because the library at Hogwarts had barely any books on the things. Admittedly they were quite dark objects so it was only logical that they would have been kept far away from students reach but she had to know more.

"Okay," Draco muttered and his eyebrows scrunched together as he lifted a finger, pointing it at the dark wood of the table they were at.

"What are you doing?" Hermione whispered and Draco used his other hand to cover her mouth. He did not need her distracting him, not now. Hermione pulled a disgusted face but let Draco say the spell he was going to cast.

"Flagrate," and flames flickered from his fingertip to the wood, etching a letter H into the wood as Draco moved his finger. Soon the word Horcruxes had been etched into the wood and as soon as Draco put his finger down the word had disappeared.

"What…?" Hermione said from behind Draco's hand, causing her tongue to peak out and accidently brush against Draco's palm. He retracted his hand quickly and threw her a look. His grey eyes narrowed at her in frustration.

"Just watch Granger," Draco nearly snapped, wiping his hand on his trousers. Within a couple of minutes a stack of books had appeared on their tables. "This library is magic, all you've got to do is tell it what you want to read and it'll give the books to you if it can."

Hermione looked amazed and Draco smiled a brief smile at her. The stack on their table was admirable, not too large but enough to get their teeth stuck into them for the next couple of hours.

She could see Draco sighing at the thought of reading through all of the books, his grimace noticeable to anyone walking past.

She meanwhile could not have looked gladder.

Draco hadn't lasted long when it came to maintaining his concentration. He had looked through maybe three or four books and then placed them down, getting up to stretch his legs. He came back with Meredith in tow, who had more books for them. It turns out that the workers did help search for the books which had been in the sections where the library wasn't allow to take from immediately. Draco appeared more interested in chatting with her then reading through the new books however.

The books that Hermione had looked at said the same information that she was used to. It seemed that Horcruxes were so sensitive that most of the information had either been left out or redacted from books entirely.

Then there was one book. One book that looked promising. There was one problem however.

If someone had ever asked her if she would be even thinking burning a book, Hermione would have gasped then promptly slapped the speaker, then given them a lecture on how heinous and ridiculous burning knowledge was and how stupid they were. And if she had her prefect's badge, she would have given them a detention.

Now, she was actually contemplating it. Now, she was only wondering how big the flames could have gotten if she conjured them.

Nine hundred and twenty three pages, admittedly a fairly large book but not the largest Hermione had seen or read. There was only one slight problem though. The problem with this beautiful leather bound book was that all the pages – all nine hundred and twenty three of them – were blank.

It was terribly frustrating and it was painful.

Never to say the least Hermione's nerves were nearly frayed to the end.

She had even tried Aparecium, the spell to reveal invisible handwriting and she got nothing.

What was most heartbreaking however, was that it was the most beautiful and knowledgeably prosperous book that she had ever laid her eyes and fingers on. Bound in black leather, it was adorned in golden etchings that framed the border and spine, meandering curls and depictions of warriors and battles among the detailing. Even worse, it had the symbol of the four founders – a sword and a wand surrounded by a circle of four stars – which she had only seen once in Hogwarts; A History, on the spine. The elusive emblem had only been once seen on the very documents that specified the very opening of Hogwarts back in the day and it was very important.

She had to read this book.

But it was blank.

Fate sure had a sick sense of humour.

Draco couldn't help her; chatting up the girl that was meant to be helping them was much more important.

All of the other books were practically useless and Hermione needed this book – it couldn't just be empty, the Founder's weren't like that.

So Hermione spent the next half hour trying every spell she knew, and every spell in every book around her that could help. Eventually, she was drawn to the worst conclusion; she was going to have to burn it. In muggle films some invisible writing was revealed when lifted to an open flame.

Lighting one of the candles, sitting on the corner of the desk, was easy. It was the actual burning that was the hard part. Opening the book to its first page she hovered it over the flame, doubting her actions as profusely as she could. If this didn't work only a corner would be burned. It still hurt that that corner would be burned but it would be better than the whole book.

What shocked her, however, was when loopy script started to appear. "Draco," she whispered and when he made no move of actually hearing her she shouted. He appeared roughly by her side with a twisted face, "Look, look," Hermione was astonished as she showed him the book.

"The pages are blank Hermione." Draco sighed,

"No they're not, look here," she pointed at the first page, "Index: Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin… it's all there." Hermione couldn't hide her disbelief.

"Oh my god," Draco muttered and pulled the book from her hands.

"Hey," Hermione affronted and went to grab it back. Draco just pulled it over his head so that she couldn't grab it off of him, "It's rude to snatch," Hermione uttered and frowned as Draco mimicked her tone.

"If you have it you'll go through it all day, we need to know more about Horcruxes," he said as he pulled himself onto his tiptoes to avoid Hermione's eager hands. If he knew that all it would take to get her interested in his body was to hold a book away from her he would have done it sooner. He muttered a word location spell and watched as the pages flipped to the section that belonged to Godric Gryffindor.

Now that was shocking.

"What is it saying?" Hermione almost whined as she tried to jump to get the book. Why was Draco so freaking tall compared to her when he was on his tip toes? It just wasn't fair.

Draco's eyebrows scrunched together as he read the page. "The subject of Horcruxes was the one that re-defined Godric's and Salazar's friendship. Once best friends, the creation of Horcruxes by Salazar himself drove the pair apart, and this subject was one that only widened the resentment between them." Draco said as he looked down at Hermione. "There has to be more than that…" he muttered and said the word location spell again.

"Ahah," he indicated as the pages flipped to the Slytherin section.

"What?!" Hermione gasped, trying one last time to get the book out of Draco's hands. That didn't work either.

"Hold your horses," Draco said as he took his eyes off of the pages for just a moment. Then he dredged his eyes back up, "Salazar Slytherin was always interested in finding the fabled fountain of youth and had heard that some wizards had gained immortality. He and Godric, who was also interested in the topic, ventured across Britain to seek out an individual named Atwood who had attained it. When Godric realised what measures would have to be taken to create a Horcrux – an object imbued with half of the soul – he begged Salazar not to embark on the horrific task. Salazar promised him he wouldn't yet a year later he had broken Atwood's two Horcruxes and made a Horcrux of his own, his own daggers. Godric and Salazar did not speak without arguing until Godric died many years later. The Founders of Hogwarts had noticed a clear difference in Salazar as he became more withdrawn from the three. Salazar himself noticed the effects the Horcrux had when three years later he attacked Godric to the point of near death. After the incident Salazar expressed extreme remorse and the Horcrux was broken, letting out a piercing scream. Salazar swore that Horcruxes were Extreme Dark Magic and ordered for all books and knowledge of them to be burned. He then soaked the daggers in Basilisk venom, the only known destroyer of Horcruxes besides physical remorse for the actions that forged the Horcrux."

It was at that point, when Draco was finished with the paragraph, that he lowered himself and the book to Hermione's eye level. She did not take the book straight away but when Draco's grip slackened she saw her opportunity and took it.

"That's why we can't find much on them at all," Hermione gasped, "Because a Founder ordered it to be burned and so it was." She whispered the word location spell once more but the pages did not turn anymore. She frowned then straightened out as she realised that even in a book about the founders the information would have been redacted.

She sat down as she flicked through the book. Draco still stood there a bit aghast. Horcruxes were enough to not only disgust Salazar but to turn him into the fabled horror that had been foretold for years, but it was enough to break friendships and burn books. It was only when he heard the excited chatter of Hermione that he sat back down. His head was spinning too much to fully register what she was saying.

"I have to take this book out, I don't have any words for how amazing it is." Hermione was muttering as her eyes focussed on different paragraphs.

When finished with the building of Hogwarts each Founder decided to create one more room each. These were rooms that represented them as the individuals they were. Rowena Ravenclaw loved the library so much that she extended it, including private study areas and an archive, rooms full of texts from across time and the globe. Helga Hufflepuff had created the kitchen when she was first involved with the castle's structure. She felt like students needed a safe place to rely on when wanted and so she forged the Room of Requirement. Salazar Slytherin, under the throes of the Horcrux he had created, created the fabled Chamber of Secrets, housing the great Basilisk. The full extent of the Chamber of Secrets is not known due to the closed off nature of said creator at the time. Godric Gryffindor made the Room of Rewards, a room in one of Hogwarts Towers, which documents every reward that every student has made. He said that every student should be rewarded for their bravery, no matter how small that bravery was.

Her eyes devoured the page as they travelled down.

The pair of daggers were said to be imbued in basilisk venom with a curved blade after Slytherin destroyed them following a bout of remorse. In some legends it is said that these daggers were handled by Death himself as he searched for the brother who possessed the invisibility cloak in the Three Brothers tale…

"Draco look at this," Hermione urged and pushed the book under his nose. His eyes scanned it quickly. "Harry stabbed the diary with a Basilisk tooth which means that Basilisk venom destroys Horcruxes."

"I know something about them actually."

"Really?" Hermione seemed perplexed and Draco chuckled.

"The Dark Lord was one to brag from time to time, and in one of the meetings that I had to sit in he was discussing with my father on how they wanted to transform Riddle Manor into another headquarters. He was teasing my father how Malfoy Manor had to be headquarters instead of the family home due to my father's mistakes." Draco chuckled humorlessly and placed a hand on his chin. "Anyway, the Dark Lord mentioned how when he was there before his grand return he found a set of daggers which had been passed down from the Gaunt family and had been saved after the Dark Lord had bought them off of someone or another. He expressed how he missed them greatly but how they seemed to belong in the high glass cabinets of the Riddle Manor."

"So they're there?" Hermione gasped.

Draco nodded.

"Then that's our next plan, to break into Riddle Manor."

"You do know that's not going to be as easy as what it seems to be, right?"

Draco's question made Hermione sigh. "We'll stay in Ireland when we hash the plans out then."

"Ireland is such a good place, why would you ever want to leave it?" Draco laughed leaning backwards in his chair.

A moment of silence passed between the pair as their brains ran through possibilities. They knew more about Horcruxes and they knew of something that could destroy it.

"I don't know how you take books out, Severus never showed me that." Draco wondered as he swept his hair out of his face.

It turned out all she had to do was scan it at the desk. Then they were on their way.

"How about we celebrate further…?" Draco proposed and while Hermione wanted to go back to the hotel Draco was insistent.

He took her to a bar. Something named the Lucky Leprechaun. The bar was filled with the essence of Ireland, the fiddle music and the green walls made it all the more evident. "What are we doing here?" Hermione groaned as they found a table near the bar.

"Drinking, obviously," Draco said as he got up to order a round of drinks. He looked happier and Hermione supposed it was because they were finally getting somewhere, and the threat of Death Eaters following them were miniscule right now.

He came back to the table with a tray of drinks, all of them smoking and none of them looking like the regular Firewhiskey. In response to Hermione's puzzled looked Draco shrugged, "It's Ireland they have crazy drinks."

Apparently on the tray was Seaweed gin in a glass shaped like a seashell, Phoenix Tequila and Snow Vodka, which was brewed on some high up, cold mountain and so bitterly cold it froze the back of your throat.

"How are we going to drink all of this?"

"Quite easily."

And then they were drinking.

Hermione preferred the Seaweed Gin out of the three, the tequila burned her throat and the vodka froze it but the gin was just right. She could feel the bar buzzing around the edges as she settled on her second round. Draco looked a lot sturdier but he probably drank more than she did.

Draco looked at her amusedly, when Hermione was tipsy she smiled more for no good reason.

"Do you think things would have went differently if you had a choice?" Draco asked, resting his chin on his hand.

"Hmmm?"

"If the Dark Lord had asked me to kill you, like he did with Dumbledore, do you think things would have went differently?" Draco watched as her eyes sharpened trying to latch onto the question.

She thought for a moment and then gave a small laugh. "I would like to think that I would have been able to get through to you, to rescue me like you did in the real circumstances."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you would have said something like you had to kill me, I would have said that you didn't understand. You could save me, or even worse help save the world." Hermione smiled and swallowed the final gulp of gin leaning back in her chair in contentment as she let the alcohol wash through her. Normally she wouldn't drink but they were finally getting somewhere and Draco would only complain if she stuck her nose up at it.

"That's a pathetic excuse of begging for your life." Draco laughed and Hermione blinked, once, twice, three times.

"Really? Well how about this? Remember how you were hurt and tell me that you never want to feel that way again." Draco's memory was pulled into when he was forced to kill Dumbledore, when he took the mark, when he was Crucioed and when Harry used that fatal spell in a bathroom in sixth year.

"Life hurts," Hermione whispered pulling herself closer to him for her words to travel, "But it hurts less when we have love around us."

"What love?" Draco asked, crossing his arms.

"Family, friends," the words were matter of fact and they were both thinking of the people they associated with, Harry and Ron, and Pansy and Blaise. "So let's go save the world together."

"Or get killed trying," Draco said wistfully to mimic her tone, "You make a good case."

"You wouldn't kill me." Hermione urged.

"No but I will," the words were quiet and close to their table. Draco looked quickly round and saw a rather leggy blonde with rage in her eyes. The sleeves of her robes were short enough to catch the bottom of a Dark Mark. A gentleman followed behind her. The blonde was raising her wand.

"Under the table," Draco urged and Hermione was a bit slow when she slipped under the table from her chair. A spell shot towards them and Draco was just quick enough to throw a shield around them.

"Dracy, Dracy, Dracy," the blonde crooned, brushing a hand over the shield as she neared them, "You thought you could escape us didn't you?"

"But you can't, you're not smart enough for that," the male said behind her. Spells were shot at the shield and Draco could feel it crumbling under the weight. He was not strong enough for this.

The other people in the bar was motionless too scared to fight. They were on their own for now.

The shield dissolved and Hermione chucked the trey of empty drinks at the two Death Eaters. The glass raining down on them distracted them for a moment and Hermione shot out from the table, taking Draco's hand and leading them away from the table.

"We can't get away quick enough." Draco said, his mind ticking over to try and think of what they could do.

"That's not the plan." Hermione huffed as she created distance between them. "Stupefy."

Her spell was blocked.

They sent Crucio's over to them but Draco ducked behind tables, moving them to act as shields. He didn't want other people to be hurt too since he of all people knew the hurt that a cruciatus could cause.

Their backs hit a wall and the door was in the direction that the two Death Eaters were. "Why can't we apparate?" Hermione asked.

"And leave these people with them, I don't think so."

"Aww, Draco grew a conscience." Hermione crooned as she fired another spell at them. They were running out of options.

"Now is not the time to be snarky with me Granger."

"Sectumsepra."

The spell from Hermione's lips tumbled Draco into a flashback, into how it felt like a thousand knives were carving lines into him all at once. He cringed as the male Death Eater was subjected to it, remaining upright for a moment before going down on the ground hand.

The female Death Eater froze, looking down at her partner which could have probably been a boyfriend or husband. Her face crumpled and then rearranged into a snarl. She turned around to face Draco and Hermione again, her wand raising and her sleeve raising to reveal the dark mark. She could easily touch it and alert the Dark Lord of their presence. That would be the worst case scenario.

A tray swung itself towards her head like a Frisbee, something wooden and heavy and it connected with the base of her head and neck. Her head bulged and then her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Her wand dropped just before she dropped to the floor as well, not dead but unconscious.

The bars owner, the one who had served Draco the drinks, had his hands raised having just thrown the tray. When he caught the gazes of Hermione and Draco he winked at them. "What? There's no fighting in my bar."

"Fair enough." Draco muttered and picked himself closer to the pair of Death Eaters. The blood pooled from the male, his robes cut to reveal the familiar criss-crossing carvings on his chest, arms and legs. Hermione's spell had been brutal and he was definitely dead. Raising a hand to the woman's neck Draco shook but sighed when he realised that they could question her later.

"I'm sorry for causing all of this commotion." Draco uttered to the owner who shrugged and helped move the two.

Once they were both at the back, Draco slipped some money into the owner's hands and Hermione and Draco were alone again.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Wait for her to wake up." Draco answered, pocketing the woman's wand.

"Oh, excellent."