Draco was walking at a pace that matched Hermione's but yet managed to lead his way through the Manor. The young Master of the Manor had a certain aristocratic aura around him, and sometimes, when he was in his element, you could see the alpha male take over. He really did live up to the name of the Slytherin Prince. Hermione had often taken noticed of these details, but had never openly admitted to paying attention to any of this. He was her childhood bully after all.

They moved in and out of long corridors, that either exhibited some great pieces of art and Malfoy ancestry or sky scraping French windows that showed the lush gardens that were spread around the massive structure.

Hermione noticed that not all the paintings were magical ones; there were a few muggle ones amongst them. She was sure she had seen a Rembrandt or two among the paintings that graced the wall of the Malfoy Manor.

Malfoy took a right turn as they walked towards a set of massive gilded doors! Gilded doors! Who had gilded doors in today's time! Malfoys, of course. Hermione thought as she was reminded of just how rich and powerful the family was since more than ten centuries.

Draco knew the doors would be something that would stir Hermione's mind.

"They have been here for centuries. They are magical. No one except Malfoys or their permitted guests can enter the library."

"Oh." Hermione flushed. She was half amazed at how Malfoy seemed to know what was on her mind. "What about the muggle paintings? I think I saw a few Rembrandts and a few Da Vinci's up there."

Draco held the doors, but turned and smiled at Hermione. A full on genuine smile. "One can only expect the great Hermione Granger to not only notice that, but also know the artists. Well, even my ancestors could not deny the mastery the artists had. Plus, it is not that well known perhaps, but Rembrandt was a squib from a rather prestigious pureblood family. He did not want to join the ancestral business and wanted to pursue the finer arts, which he did, and now the world remembers. In fact, the seascape painting that you saw in the last corridor was a Rembrandt too."

"But I don't know of any seascapes that he made!" Hermione said skeptically.

"Oh he did. It was rumored to be stolen in 1990 from the United States. The truth is that he made the original as a magical piece of work, the one you saw right now. He made a muggle copy, the one that got stolen. The original stands proudly in the halls of Malfoy Manor."

It had been a long time that Draco had felt pride in being a Malfoy. The weird thing about it all was that telling Hermione all this was bringing out his pride of all things.

Hermione was impressed would be an understatement. She was beginning to understand the Malfoys' haughtiness and snobbery. It was not entirely baseless is something she had gathered over the years. Anybody with such a family background was bound to be proud of it; the Malfoys just took it a bit too far.

As he finally opened the doors and walked in, Hermione audibly gasped in astonishment. For the first time in her life she was bewitched and entranced by something other than books in a library. The library was larger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts and was chock full of books that lined the walls and shelves. What amazed her most was the fact that it looked rather modern and muggle in taste! A huge glass wall overlooked verdant bushes and trees that almost seemed to cover the entire wall. It almost felt as if one was sitting in the heart of nature with so many books.

"I thought the Manor could do with some of the muggle inventions and ideas. Especially the library. It was rather overflowing with all the reading material. Also, the Manor could do away with all the darkness. Both metaphorically and literally, I guess."

Draco said in a manner of explaining. He did not understand the sudden need to explain everything to Granger. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't trying to make her feel impressed and empathize with the Malfoys by talking about his heritage previously.

The look of sheer amazement was written all across Hermione's face.

"It's beautiful Draco. The entire Manor is. I almost forgot how it was the place of my nightmares. It's beautiful, really. I can't even think of any other words, am that astounded!" He could see the glimmer in her eyes.

"Well then, you can compliment my Mother for that. She has always loved French Chateaus over brooding English Manors, so she redid the entire Manor that way. She let me do the Library and Study as I wished since I would be the one using the two more than her."

Hermione could not look away from the books and the glass wall. Draco could not look away from the brilliance that shone on Hermione's face.

He led her forward towards the wall, where a comfortable modern looking grey couch was kept near a rather cosy looking fireplace. One of the elves must have lit the fire for them.

"So I remember reading something about the Marshlands as a teenager. But I don't remember where it was. So we would have to skim through any and every relevant book." Draco said pointing to a shelf.

Hermione seemed to finally be out of her bubble as she piped in, "So where should we start? You have an awful lot of books in here! Should we start with books about Scotland and its landscapes?"

"Yeah. And uh…I remember reading it as first person's account. As if someone was narrating what happened to them while they were there. So that might help? I will look through a few other books and scrolls, meanwhile. Some of my ancestors might have ventured in there and written about it in their journals."

A few hours had passed. They had lunch in the library itself, much to the horror of the elves. Hermione sat on the plush Persian carpet on the ground, surrounded by books everywhere. She had found a few references here and there, but nothing substantial that might have helped them.

They were both taking notes on a magical parchment, which ensured that a copy of what one wrote was automatically present in the others. This way, they would be up-to-date without a need to constantly cross-reference. Draco had said it was his way of taking 'combined' notes in class with his fellow Slytherins , back in the day. Hermione really doubted the fact that he used it to just take notes.

Draco was looking through the diaries that he could find and was walking as he read them. While Hermione seemed to be at peace, nestled amongst books, Malfoy seemed to find a sense of purpose in them. Two people who loved books, yet so differently.

"Draco! Come! Look here!" Hermione's voice broke the silence of the library. Draco almost immediately was next to her on the floor. He had his sleeves rolled up and he looked overworked, yet something out of those muggle romance novels that Hermione occasionally indulged in.

Hermione on the other hand almost had a permanent frown from scowling too hard at the books. The case was definitely taking a toll on the two.

"Look. Read here, the second paragraph!" Hermione said, pointing a well manicured finger at the said words.

"In 1806, the lesser known younger Malfoy, then of only twenty years of age, Silvius Malfoy, is known to have ventured into the Marshlands. He was known for his love of adventures, but strangely, this was once when he did not entertain any questions about his expedition. He vanished two years after this expedition. Whether the two events are unrelated, one does not know."

Draco now remembered where he had read about the Marshlands before! In Silvius' journal! He quickly turned towards the tomes and diaries that lined the shelves and started looking through the piles.

"Hermione, help me look for his diary! It must be in here!"

Draco had known that they had a magical family tree. One that had the names of all his blood relatives. Even Teddy Lupin was listed on the tree. He had seen it only after his father had passed away. It was a rather common knowledge that Malfoys always had only one heir, but that family tree had shown him that that wasn't the truth when it came to his Great Grand Father, Septimus Malfoy. He had a younger brother, five years younger to him, to be precise. Silvius was rather different. He liked to take pleasure in life and go on adventures much to the chagrin of his family. It was perhaps his love for adventures that made him vanish off the face of the Earth. Nobody knew what had happened to him. He was the black sheep of the family. One that had to be obliviated. But it was impossible to do so. Thus, over the years, gradually, he was passed on as a distant cousin of theirs to bring down the shame. The family tree still had his name. He was neither declared deceased; neither did he seem to have had a new family. His fate was perhaps more mysterious than the depths of the Forbidden Forest.

After searching for a long time, Draco decided to look for the journal in a different place. Somewhere he wasn't allowed to take Hermione unfortunately. He could not tell this to her obviously. He did not want to hurt the muggle born witch.

"You know what? I think we should call it a day." He declared and as Hermione opened her mouth to protest, Draco shushed her and continued, "If it was here, we would have found it by now Granger. I know you do not want to waste anymore time, but we need to be in stable minds if we want to work on it properly. We cannot be sleep deprived slow-minded people reading through texts. We both need rest. I will ask the elves to look for it and keep it aside by tomorrow morning."

Hermione walked over to him and with a stern face she said, "But we could at least try finding it, right? I can give you my word that we won't start working on it until tomorrow! Promise!" She looked like a disappointed child. After getting such a good lead, she could hardly go to sleep without wondering about the book.

Malfoy took a step closer to her, and she could not help but see the stark contrast that the greenery provided through the glass wall to his soft blonde locks and piercing grey gaze. The Sun was setting and that gave a warm glow to Hermione. Draco almost felt like holding her in his arms just to soak up all her warmth. Her eyes reminded him of brandy and her lips were pink and swollen due to her hours of anxious lip biting.

He put a finger to her lips and looked straight into her eyes. "Shhh…we will rest. I assure you that you shall have the diary with you by eight, tomorrow morning. You can come here early and get a head start if you want."

He did not know why was he whispering the words to her, but it felt like that this moment was a secret between the two of them. Something that he did not wish to show or share with anyone else.

Hermione's eyes widened at the proximity and she gulped. She could hardly think, let alone speak without sounding like a complete moron. She did not know what it was but Malfoy was starting to affect her. And in ways she did not think was possible. She loved reading novels, but she knew the difference between make-believe and reality. What was happening now seemed to belong in those very novels, rather than in the real world.

Hormones. It had to be her wretched hormones. She had not had the chance to encounter any fine young man in a long while and it was her hormones' way of telling her that she needed to put them to use soon.

She nodded a yes at Malfoy, and because of this, her lips brushed against his finger. Both stiffened at that moment. Each not willing to admit that they were embarrassed or affected.

Hermione decided to pick some semblance of her Gryffindor pride as she took a step away and turned towards her purse. If she was being honest, she was actually being a coward and running away from the Draco Malfoy. His schooldays as a playboy may be long gone, but his reputation as a great lover exceeded him. This fact did not make Hermione feel any better about their situation. So, she picked up her purse and asked him to show her the way out.

Draco had not felt this way in a long time. Yes, he did have his occasional trysts; but that simple touch had made him so hard that he had nothing to compare it to from his past. He knew he could not overstep his boundaries with Granger. It was naturally the sensible thing to do. So he said the most obvious thing that showed exactly how actively his brain was functioning, not.

"You don't have to leave, you know."

'Shit. What did I just say.' He thought to himself. Hermione seemed equally perplexed.

"Uh I meant, you could use the fireplace for the Floo. I can connect it to your appartment's for easier commute. Since we will be spending long hours researching about the case in here."

He mentally applauded himself for the last minute presence of mind he just exhibited.

"Oh. Of course. Yes, that should be wonderful." Hermione looked more embarrassed than him and could barely look him in the eye. After a few more minutes of awkward but mandatory conversation regarding the Floo, Hermione was finally off.

As she reached her apartment, she flopped down on her sofa and sighed loudly. That was probably the most embarrassing moment of her life! Aside from when Harry and Ron had both assumed that nobody had asked her to the Yule Ball in their fourth year, but that was them being completely indifferent baboons. Today, she had greatly contributed to the mess. Stupid hormones!

When she finally curled up in bed for the night, all she could think of were the piercing steel grey eyes that seemed to follow her everywhere she went and the word that she had left her lips for the first time in her life, that day, Draco.

(A/N)

Hope you liked this chapter and the sort of cliffhanger along with the chemistry between the two?
Reviews are always welcome!
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Mili