Ron was in a grumpy mood for the rest of the tour as Professor Flitwick guided them down each floor showing them their old classrooms and dorm rooms. Luna had the genius idea to take a camera with her meaning that everyone got some real great memories to take home with them. She was happily clicking away and gushing over Draco and Hermione who were standing with their arms around each other as they walked through the halls. With every click Ron's mood turned more and more foul.
"Now," Professor Flitwick smiled turning to the group. "The next stop is on our little tour is the library," Hermione gave a squeak of excitement as Flitwick chuckled. "I would have been disappointed if you didn't react Mrs Malfoy." She blushed and buried her head in Draco's chest, but he thought her reaction was adorable.
"You did want to see this place more than anything else," Draco shrugged taking her hand as they walked into this little slice of Heaven (in Hermione's eyes anyway). Draco turned to Blaise and Luna. "She wanted to come here yesterday, right after we left our bags off in our room."
Ron scoffed. "And what? You wouldn't let her come to visit?" He crossed his arms.
"Ron," Harry warned pinching his nose, knowing he was about to make an idiot of himself.
"What?" He snapped. "Does Malfoy always control you Mione? Do you have to do whatever he says? He wouldn't even take you to your favourite place in the castle in your first night. This would have been the first place I would have taken you, knowing how much you love books." He smirked. He expected Draco to snap, shout, lunge for him even, but Draco stood there smiling simply pressing his lips together and not saying anything, just looking at Hermione. "That doesn't sound like much of a relationship if you ask me and -"
"It's not that he didn't take her," Daphne defended.
"Actually he did offer to escort me last night," Hermione blushed.
"But what? He found something better to do?" Ron laughed.
"Em," Hermione was mortified and looked down at her hands which wee interlinked with Draco's. "Yes, pretty much."
The Slytherin's all realised what had happened and were grinning and trying to hide their laugh. Even Ginny had clocked on to what Hermione meant. Ron however was clueless. "Putting his needs before your own? Not allowing you to have a good time as well? He -"
"I assure you I always make sure my wife has a good time," Draco smirked, answering quite calmly. "We simply found a better use of our time alone yesterday afternoon Weasley." He leaned in towards him. "She had the choice to go to the library or stay in our room and she chose to stay." He winked just to empathise his point.
"You are even making me hot," Theo said pulling at his collar smirking.
"What are you on about?" Ron asked completely clueless.
Luna slapped her hand to her forehead. "Merlin Ron but you are dim sometimes. They were having sex, obviously. Hermione obviously decided that she wanted to have some fun while alone with her husband."
Ron paled once again and looked like he wanted to gag. Professor Flitwick was pretending not to hear and continuing on with his backstory of the library, and its origin's. Blaise and Theo were high fiving each other as Pansy, Daphne, and Luna were chuckling. Harry was trying to hide his laughter as well as he didn't want to start a row over whose side he was on. (In all honesty it was Hermione's in this instance, but he wanted to keep the peace so he kept his mouth shut).
"Alright," Draco said as everyone laughed. "Can we get on with the tour now? Hermione did actually want to see this place," he put his arm around her as she too was trying not to laugh.
"Why do you want to see the library, when you have one at your house?" Leo asked standing next to them with Pansy on his arm. "Yours is probably better than this one," he looked towards the librarian who scoffed. "No offence meant."
"It's more the memory that I just to come here every day during school. Before and after school," she smiled. She pointed to a table to the left of where they were standing. "I used to sit at this table every day doing my homework."
"Every day," Harry rolled his eyes. "And most of the time, she made me go with her."
Ron looked over at her. "You did?" he asked and Harry and Hermione nodded. "You never asked me to go?" That actually hurt him.
"Well most of the time you and I were bickering. Or else you would come, and you would spend your time complaining out loud and moaning about how bored you were. At least Harry moaned internally," Hermione answered not even looking at him. Instead, she was walking down the rows, her fingers scanning the books spines carefully.
She had to admit that Leo was right. Her library at home was better. Not that it was bigger (actually it may have been she wasn't sure) but because she stocked it herself so it was full of books that she loved with topics and genres that she had a passion for. And a few for Draco but his collection only took up one section, with five shelves while her collection spanned the entire room. So much so that they had to hire a designer to create an island that ran the length of the room and placed in the centre so that Hermione had a desk to work at, but it also offered even more storage.
Books were Hermione's passion, which was why owning a Publishing House was the perfect career for her. She adored her job and she was damn good at it. Her speciality was finding new authors. She always got a feel for a story after a few simply chapters and worked with muggles and the wizarding community giving both a chance. And she never failed. She knew full well that a lot of people assumed she used a spell, charm, or potion to ensure her success but in all honesty she didn't use anything. She worked hard, working with authors, giving good, detailed notes for them and always had their best interests at heart.
Only Draco knew, that Hermione had actually written a few books herself under a pseudo name - Jean Wilkins. She wanted her books to be a success for themselves and not simply because they were written by a member of the trio. She didn't want things to be handed to her in life because of who she was. She wanted to earn everything on her own, without help or interference. She knew exactly what she wanted to write to begin with. She wanted to write historical books on the wizarding world. One's that would be beneficial to muggleborns. Those who, like her had never heard of the wizarding world before receiving their letter.
She had written two textbooks or guides, one about Hogwarts itself revealing all the things she had come to know and love about the castle. Hogwarts, A History was a fascinating book but it only focused on the four founders and general information about the school. It focused on the class topics and reasoning for teaching certain things. Hermione loved this book and had more than one copy in her possession. She memorised in before she even set foot in the wizarding world. But the book was quite outdated now. There were many things that the author didn't even know about the school that Hermione felt were important.
So she decided to write her own Hogwarts guide. She included everything she could think of, the significant stuff and also the fun stuff that in her opinion made Hogwarts the enchanting place she had called home for so many years. She described all the secret passageways, the Room of Requirement, all the creatures/beasts that reside in the Forbidden Forest and even details on the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets as well other castle secrets that others wouldn't know, but she had learnt during her time at school. She gave advice on the best spots to study, how to avoid getting attacked by the Whomping Willow and which pear to tickle on the portrait leading to the kitchens. She talked about the Hogwarts ghosts and Draco even helped her include some helpful tips to stay in Peeve's good graces and what to do to avoid him when needed. This book was her pride and joy.
The second was a book for muggleborns giving the student and parents a brief description of magic and how it works (muggles have stories about magic, but they were not exactly accurate) as well as the careers you could expect to have after Hogwarts in the wizarding world. It also gave a run-down on the school, explaining the houses and the sorting ceremony and what to expect during their years as students as well as giving lists of what they need to bring and ways that the parents can communicate with their children during term.
Both of her books had proved to be quite successful with the first publishings selling out in record speed. It was so well received that the Ministry tried to track down the author, Kingsley himself expressing interest at meeting her. But Hermione wished to remain anonymous and refused to meet. This thankfully had no impact on sales. Her book was a bestseller and was now included in the Hogwarts acceptance letters and given to muggleborns and half-bloods.
Looking around at the library, Hermione could remember specific memories of her time here and the impact it had on her life. Reading about Nicholas Flamel about figuring out about the Philosopher's Stone, hiding out after being released from the hospital after drinking the Polyjuice Potion with cat hair. She had looked like her old self again, but she still coughed up furballs for a few days. She would come here when she had an argument with Ron as she knew he would never come here to loo for her, even though he knew this was exactly where she would be. This is where she realised that the monster in the chamber was a Basilisk. This is where she taught herself the undetectable Extension charm which she still used to this day on her bags. This is where she first spoke to Viktor Krum and where he asked her to the ball. This is where she was when she realised she first liked Ron. The library was always where she felt most at home during her school years.
"What are you thinking?" Draco asked mesmerised by the sparkle in her eyes as she walked around the aisles. Everyone else was looking at the Restricted Section at the new security measures in place but Hermione was still wondering around reminising. She sighed. "It always seemed so much bigger when I was a student."
Draco smiled. "That's because for the first few years you were a lot shorter than you are now. You were barely 11 years old when you first came here. The room looked bigger then beause you were smaller."
"I suppose," she shrugged as she leaned up against one of the desks. "This was my safe haven. My santuary."
"I remember," he chuckled and Hermione turned to look at his curiously making him blush. "Hermione all those years I made fun of you, when I was calling you...that name and sneering at you? Well I was a dick but I was brought up to believe that muggleborns didn't deserve our magic. I was told that they stole it basically - found a way to harness someone elses gifts. I was taught to fear muggles and muggleborns. That they couldn't be trusted." Hermione frowned. They had talked about this many times and she knew the vile things he was led to believe as a child. "But that doesn't mean I didn't notice you."
"Yeah right," she chuckled.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Oh really?" he smirked causing everyone to turn in their direction. Ron was grinning hoping for a fight. "Well how do I know that you always liked to sit in this seat," he pointed to a chair at the table she mentioned earlier. "In the morning because the sun hits your face and then here in the afternoons for the same reason. How do I know that you used to use pens instead of quills when you were studying or taking notes as you thought it was less hassle and less messy than ink? How do I know that you kept a diary during yoru years here and you would sit in that window bay to write your entries? You have the record for the most books loaned out during your years here. That you used to keep sugar quills in your bag along with bottle of pure orange juice to have as your study snack but when reading leisurly you liked an apple and that muggle drink Pepsi?"
Hermione blushed. "How did you -"
"Know all that?" Draco smiled. "I told you, I noticed you. You were the smartest girl in our year. The smartest girl in quite a few years. You were kind, sweet and a friend to all. You were everything I wasn't and I was secretly in awe of you."
She smiled up at Draco as Ron bit his lip in frustration. "I can't believe it. I wished we had become friends sooner. We wasted so much time."
"Well, now we have forever."