For @mia-moriarty-art, who I felt personally attacked by for drawing dramione kissing in a library, AND Draco wearing glasses. I hope you like it :)
“Draco, did you label the boxes correctly for your potions texts?” Hermione called out from the living room.
Draco popped his head out from the kitchen, his face…even paler than usual. He seemed to notice her bewildering stare before placing his hand on his neck and chuckling. “I didn’t have my glasses on and I might have knocked the flour over my head.” As he said this, he stepped fully into the living room, his entire body covered in a fine sheen of flour.
“Ah.” She smiled as she lifted her hand to wandlessly banish the flour. “This is what happens when you don’t wear your glasses, old man.”
He scowled. “I’m only 26,” he said, crossing his arms and lifting a brow, his mouth pursed like…
Hermione laughed. “Did you just…pout at me?”
“Maybe so. But this would mark me as only one to your at least twelve instances of pouting today.”
“Excuse me,” she said, indignation rising with her hair. “I haven’t needed to move for over five years until someone decided to transfer to my department and started shamelessly flirting with me instead of doing his job, which then precipitated in me having to get a bigger place when said shameless flirter squirmed his way into my life for the long-term.”
“Pity that the pot is calling the kettle black,” he responded coolly and started walking towards her. His expression was intent, predatory even, as he levelled his grey eyes on her. “I’d say you were pretty shameless yourself, Granger.”
She hummed but felt her cheeks heat as he came closer.
“No, no, no,” she said, moving behind the armchair to put space between them as he got closer, glaring at the smirk on his face. “We are not having sex until I find my books. It is impossible that I have only been able to find one box with books and they are yours!” She huffed at the end of her tirade, glaring at Draco’s aggravatingly snoggeable face as he picked up his glasses from the side table and put them on. “I also need to stop teaching you Muggle idioms if you’re just going to use them against me.”
“Knowledge is power, love. And about the books…” he trailed off, averting his eyes from hers.
Hermione felt horror crawl up inside her, and lifted her fingers to her mouth. “Did—did something happen to my books?”
“Draco Malfoy, if you don’t tell me what happened to my books this instant, I will flay you alive and I promise you that no one will trace it back to me.”
“Merlin, Granger, you should be called the scariest witch of your age. Calm down. I have something to show you.”
Hermione eyed him suspiciously, taking in his nervous posture as he fidgeted. He never fidgeted. She gulped tightly. “Will it make me want to break up with you?”
He rolled his eyes. “And you say I’m dramatic. Let’s go, swot, and I will show you what I’ve done to your village of children.”
He reached for her, taking her hand in his and walking down the hall. It was a rather modest size flat compared to what Draco was used to, but he’d given up his inheritance and titles to be with her. Hermione still hadn’t been able to ignore the clawing guilt she felt whenever she thought of him turning back on the only family he’d ever known, but the gnawing feeling eased somewhat when she remembered how happy he looked when he was finally approved to work full-time in the potions research wing at St Mungo’s. It meant that he had to leave the part-time job he had in Hermione’s department at the Ministry, but she was fine with it after a rather tense-argument-turned-shag in her office that concluded with Draco finally asking Hermione to dinner.
He was always doing that. Always contradicting the neat little boxes of her planned-out life.
They stopped in front of a wall in the middle, and Hermione eyed it. “The colour of the wall is fascinating,” she commented dryly.
“Patience,” he said, pulling out his wand and whispering what she realised was a spell to cancel an illusion charm, and suddenly there were two double doors in front of her.
She looked up at him. “Draco, what is—”
“I’ll show you,” he whispered, and then he opened the doors to what was one of the most beautiful rooms she had ever seen. Books. Her books, all neatly tucked in a library’s worth of shelves. There was a fireplace near the back, and to its side, there were two comfy-looking armchairs, shaped by an enchanted window. She had read about them in a charms book; they were enchanted by the caster to shift into whatever scenery they preferred. Currently, there was a glowing sunset overlooking a mass of tall trees.
Hermione turned to him, eyes wide. “You—” her breath hitched, a flurry of emotions building up inside her at his thoughtfulness. “You built me an entire library?”
He nodded. “You have hundreds of books, and the bookcase you had at your old flat was, at best, pitiable. So, I thought I would gift you something bigger.” He pointed to an empty shelf. “There is extra space for new books that you’ll undoubtedly buy.” She was about to give him her most piercing glare, arms poised to rest on her hips in a way designed to intimidate, but the lop-sided teasing smile he gave her just made her flush and turn away.
“I’m—Draco, you shouldn’t have,” but she was already moving towards the shelves, drawn in by the smell of parchment and leather, and the awareness of stories upon stories that somehow felt more special to her now. Because she could see by the way they were organised, in a way that spoke to how chaotic he knew she could be with her books, that Draco must have spent hours looking through them all and choosing where each one would go.
“Do I really have this many books?” Hermione asked, climbing onto one of the sliding ladders.
He cleared his throat behind her. “I may have bought you some more, as a housewarming gift.”
Hermione turned, grinning as she reached for him, encircling her arms around his shoulders and touching the soft hair at the back of his neck. His large hands settled on her hips, and she felt her heart rate rise, shivering at his touch. The heat of his body against made her face and neck flush, and when one of his hands reached up and he caressed her cheekbones with his knuckles, she was sure that she was liable to fall off the ladder if not for his body pressing into hers.
It awed Hermione still, the extent to which Draco could make her feel like her nerves were poised to burn like scattered starlight when he touched her.
“Well,” she said, eyeing him intently, “I guess I have to think of my own house-warming gift for you, just to be fair.”
His grip tightened, thumbs pressing into her ribs and making Hermione gasp, and she met his darkening grey eyes that displayed his desire to map her out the same way she would for a new book display. “I think that is a rather fair assessment.”
She hummed and then looked between the two of them, raising an eyebrow. “How is it that I am standing a few steps up a ladder and am still barely your height?”
Draco laughed. “Well, I’m afraid you couldn’t grow anymore after your hair took up residence.”
She gawked at him. “Draco Malfoy, I will kill—”
He leaned in and kissed her hungrily, and all thoughts of murder, she decided, would have to wait until she ravished him properly. She nipped at his lower lip, kissing him fiercely, and Draco wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.
“There are so many things one can do in a library,” he whispered wickedly against her lips after several minutes.
She was unbuttoning his shirt at the same time he found the zipper to her skirt. “Is that so?” she replied breathily.
“So many things, Granger, and we should endeavour to learn them all.”