𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚 // 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺

Chapter Six

Draco and Harry met her in her living room, already dressed for their day out, both in sharp but casual robes.

During her time getting dressed, she had done her best to stiffen her spine in anticipation of a day of interacting with them, but as both of their gazes snapped to her, she could tell that her work had been for naught.

Harry gave her a glance that was unmistakably appreciative as he walked to her side and took up her hand in both of his. She tried to swallow around whatever had just gotten caught in her throat and fought down the urge to blush.

“You look lovely ‘Mione. Shall we?” He tucked her hand in the crook of his elbow, a move she was sure he had learned from Draco.

“What a gentleman,” she teased, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

“I’ve had to beat it into him,” Draco said sardonically.

She let out a light laugh as Draco caught her other hand in his, lacing their fingers together. This was—this was so much, she thought frantically, pressed tight between them.  

They side-along apparated her to the corner of Diagon Alley closest to Flourish and Blotts. She tried to attribute the feeling in her stomach to the apparition, but she didn’t quite believe it.

The bookstore was mercifully empty, the crowds she had been used to during the rush of back to school shopping noticeably absent. She had discovered after graduation, that off-season,  Flourish and Blotts was downright relaxing. It was a far cry from the frantic rush that she remembered from her school days.

The man minding the till greeted the trio with a deep nod that was almost a bow. As always, the momentary flash of discomfort about being The Hermione Granger, Golden Girl, in public washed over her, but she shook it off. Draco squeezed her hand gently and she gave him a soft smile in return.

Once they were a few steps into the store Harry took a step back and Draco let go of her hand. For a second she felt cold, almost bereft at the loss of their closeness, but she did her best to ruthlessly suppress the feeling.

“Go wild Hermione,” said Harry, grinning at her, “we’ll be wandering around, but once you start gathering books to buy just come and leave them with us. Like Draco said, we’re your pack mules for the day.”

“You don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into,” said Hermione mischievously. She turned on her heel, set on her task of acquiring what was sure to be too many new books.

Despite her unstated promise to go on a shopping spree, she was relatively picky about what new books she acquired. She had spent the past ten years buying books, so her already impressive personal library was robust. So on this trip she was mostly looking for recently published books in her favorite topics. She spent fifteen minutes wandering around and lost sight of both men.

Flourish and Blotts was so much bigger than she had known it was when she had only been able to go during breaks at Hogwarts. Her summer trips had been so limited in time and space that she had never been given the opportunity to explore. In addition to the main room and the second floor, where the textbooks had been kept, there were basement levels, attic levels and side rooms. There was so much space in the store that Hermione had the sneaking suspicion that there were several illegal expansion charms at work.

She made her way to one of the basement levels that was entirely unoccupied. It was the section dedicated to ancient arithmancy, a topic that was not popular, but a particular favorite of Hermione’s. It had proved useful in developing the algorithms she used to select which Muggle stocks to buy, so she was always looking for new books on the subject. It was a hard section of Flourish and Blotts to find, not only was it in the basement, but it was also around a series of hidden corners, tucked behind some larger shelves. She hadn't seen anyone for several minutes by the time she arrived there.