Hi! Long time, no post (again, sorry!) I've been mulling over this chapter for a while and I really couldn't be bothered to do an in depth check so I'm sorry for any mistakes. Little more action here, and some more book talk- enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: stuff and things belong to JK not me!

His car was very fancy and expensive, of course. I wasn't even driving yet as my parents and my job didn't cover the lesson fees. I looked over to him as he pulled away and smirked a little. He glanced over and saw me smiling.

"What?"

"Well you do look funny, you know with tea all down your shirt." He looked at me witheringly and replied,

"Well whose fault was that?" I laughed a little and Malfoy fiddled with the music. The soothing sounds of Chopin's prelude in D flat major filled the quiet car.

"I didn't know you were into this sort of thing," I said.

"Well I think there are quite a lot of things you don't know about me. For instance, did you know I can actually play this?" I looked at him in admiration,

"What, really? Whoa, that's pretty advanced isn't it?" At this he just shrugged his shoulders and grinned a little.

We spent the rest of the journey in a comfortable silence but I was getting more and more anxious as we drew nearer to his house. What if his parents really didn't like me, like he'd said they wouldn't? Thinking about it, why would they want their son spending time with someone like me? Panic was manifesting in my chest and I was beginning to breathe faster and faster. Malfoy shot me a few concerned looks before asking if I was alright. I wasn't, but I nodded and he carried on driving.

I tried to tell myself to calm down, that I wasn't thinking or behaving rationally but my mind was refusing to listen to reason. We had reached a set of ornamental gates and Draco stopped the car and got out to open them. My breathing seemed to increase even more and I went into a state of blind panic. They weren't going to like me. They'd hate me. Oh God, of course I'm not good enough for their son! What was I thinking deciding to come here? I'm intruding. I need to leave.

With that thought I scrabbled for the door handle and staggered out of the car. Draco turned around in surprise and then rushed to my side. I could vaguely hear him talking to me, trying to calm me down but I couldn't take anything in.

"Hermione! You need to slow your breathing down. Hermione look at me. Listen. You need to stop breathing." I was trying to listen but I couldn't. I needed to get away from him, from his house. I needed to-

My thoughts went completely blank and he desperately grabbed my face and kissed me hard. My mind cleared. The panic subsided. I relaxed into him. He pulled back and pulled me into his arms, as if he could protect me.

"It's ok, it's ok." I could hear him murmuring into my hair. I closed my eyes as he rubbed my back, and we stood there for a while, not moving, not talking.

When I was ready I disengaged myself from his arms and looked up at him. His eyes were full of concern and all traces of the usual, cocky Malfoy had been stripped away. I took a deep breath and nodded.

"I'm alright. I'm sorry, I just-" he shook his head violently and cut me off,

"Don't you dare apologise!" he warned me. I offered him a weak smile which he returned. "What's up?" I shook my head,

"It's nothing; just me being silly."

"It wasn't nothing, what is it?" I decided to ignore the question this time and instead asked,

"How did you know what to do? To kiss me, I mean"

"I read about it somewhere, but that's beside the point-" I Interrupted him,

"Look I don't want to talk about it." He looked at me steadily for a moment and then accepted it.

"As long as you promise that you're ok now?" I promised him and then asked, as he was about to re-enter the car,

"Umm, are your parents home?" he hesitated for what I thought was a second to long before replying,

"No they're out for the day." I nodded and climbed back into the car, my piece of mind restored.

I looked up at Malfoy manor. It was almost exactly how I'd imagined it; dark, imposing, extravagant, but somehow it was even bigger than I'd thought it would be. Even the front door was unnecessarily fancy and I wondered why there was such a need for all the luxurious details. Malfoy saw me staring and explained,

"The house is quite old, it's not exactly to my parents' taste either but the house has been in my family for generations." Hermione nodded and then followed him up the steps and into the manor.

I stared around the entrance hall and a whole host of people stared back at me, with the same blonde hair and grey eyes that Draco had. I stared back at them uneasily, there was something about them that seemed really lifelike and their eyes seemed to follow me everyone.

"Creepy, aren't they," said Draco who had crept up behind me, making me jump when he spoke. He sniggered at me and then pulled me after him out of the room into another part of the house. "There's one particular room that I want you to see." He said but wasn't very forthcoming when I asked him what it was. "Just wait and see!" I didn't much like surprises, but I was intrigued by his secrecy.

After a few minutes of threading through a maze of rooms and passageways, Draco stopped in front of another large door. Beaming at me, he said,

"Ok you need to close your eyes now, and no peeking!" I looked at him in slight bewilderment at his sudden change of character; but I humoured him and closed my eyes.

I heard him open the door and he led me into the middle of the room. Without being told I opened my eyes and my jaw dropped. There were books everywhere. Huge great shelves of beautiful books, right up to the ceiling, books on tables, books on chairs, books everywhere I looked.

I moved off around the room and took in everything in awed silence, running my index finger over the worn spines of the obviously well-loved books. There were large ones with leather covers and illuminated in gold lettering, heavy old books with beautifully yellowed pages, new books, illustrated books, information books of every possible type you could imagine was in that library.

I turned around to see Draco watching me with an amused little smile playing about his lips. He didn't need to ask to know the exquisite delight this room caused me. When I caught him watching me, he looked away and immediately moved to sit down in one of the comfortable looking armchairs, picking up the book which had been lying on it and beginning to read it. I appreciated his letting me explore the room and look at the books for myself without the need for unnecessary conversation.

The silence was broken by the door being opened and a rather stout man with big, sticking out ears entered the room carrying a tray of food.

"Now Draco, I've brought your dinner here but-" he broke off when he saw Hermione standing on the far side of the room.

"Ah, Dobby this is Hermione, Hermione Granger- from school.."

"Ah it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Granger," said the man (Dobby?), setting the tray down on a table and coming over to shake my hand. "Draco has told me all about you! If he'd only told me you were coming over for dinner-" we both looked over at Draco who was giving Dobby a very clear please-stop-talking look. "I'll just go and get some more food…" Dobby said quickly and left the room.

Draco started to apologise but I waved it away,

"Don't worry, but one question," He raised his eyebrows as if to say 'go on', "Dobby?" At that he burst out laughing.

"Oh it's what I called him when I was little! I couldn't say his proper name and it stuck. Anyway, did you see anything you liked?" he asked gesturing around the room.

"Anything? More like everything! I couldn't read all of these books if I lived a hundred years…" I said looking around longingly. He laughed quietly,

"You can borrow whatever you like."

"What? Seriously? Your parents wouldn't mind?"

"I doubt they'd notice in all honesty." He said nonchalantly. I squealed in childish delight, ran over and hugged him, all thoughts of modesty out the window.

"Thank you so much!" I felt him stroke the top of my head hesitantly and then he hugged me back. I then realised exactly what I was doing and my stomach did a somersault and nerves started to close up my throat again. I pulled away and turned my back on him but he pulled me back around to face him.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, nothing I'm fine." I said, forcing the words out trying not to let my voice shake. He looked at me closely and stepped forward,

"Are you sure, you look like a deer caught in headlights." I laughed weakly,

"You do know how to make a girl feel special," he grinned at this and I turned back to the bookshelves to select those books which I wanted to borrow. However, before I'd even found any of the ones I had been looking for Draco called my name.

"Have you seen this one?" He asked, holding up a tattered looking leather bound book. I shook my head and walked over to inspect it. He watched me with a small smile as he watched me open the book and examine the title page. My eyes widened with amazement when I saw the date it was published.

"1859? But that must mean that this is a first edition copy! How on earth did you get this?"

"Well I assumed that it must have been bought by a Malfoy when it was originally published. Seems quite extraordinary, doesn't it?"

"I can't actually believe it! This is one of my favourite books…"

"You know what, keep it?" I looked up at him in shock. Surely this was a joke!

"Sorry, what? I can't have heard you right."

"You did."

"I couldn't possibly! Do you know how much this is worth?" He shrugged,

"Like that matters." I looked at him. His face was so open, so honest and caring in that moment that I couldn't stop myself. I reached up and pulled him towards me and kissed him, slowly. He put his arms around me and pulled me in closer, as if he wanted to pull me right inside of him. A Tale of Two Cities was sandwiched in-between us but it was all but forgotten about in that one blissful moment.

That moment was shattered in an instant as the door opened again, revealing Dobby with another tray of food. We sprang apart at the sound of the door and the book dropped to the floor. I gasped and snatched it up, looking for non-existent blemishes. Draco snorted,

"Calm down, it's only the cover!"

"Only the cover?! Are you nuts? This is a first edition; does that not matter to you?"

"Well it's the story inside that really matters, isn't it? I'd quite happily rip the cover off and not care."

"That's barbaric." I muttered darkly as I hugged the book to my chest lovingly. "Don't worry, I won't let him rip your cover off." I whispered to the book confidentially. Draco rolled his eyes at me.

"Come on, let's eat something."

Aww yes I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope that you enjoyed reading it as well! It would be fantastic if anyone could write me a review and thanks for reading! xx