Double Trouble || Draco Malfoy x Reader

Researching of the Eileen Prince || chapter one-hundred and twelve

"Dracooo!" My voice dragged out, causing a particular blond to look up, his eyes narrowed in especial interest when he caught sight of me coming towards him with a mountain full of parchment and books gathered in my arms.

"What's all of this?" Draco asked curiously, propping himself up on his elbows to get a better look at me while I plopped myself down against the edge of the bed. Ever since the incident in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, I had been more than keen to figure out what kind of dark magic Harry had been studying, who would have been behind the creation of such a thing, and more importantly, how to reverse its effects, especially after seeing the toll it took on Draco.

Draco had always been a bouncy, confident person, but ever since the incident he had lost interest in most things. Even in some of his favourite things, like attending Quidditch Practice. He often came up with excuses so he could miss practice, solely so he wouldn't have to get changed in the boy lockers room where all of his teammates would be able to see all of his scars.

"Research." I said proudly, sprawling out the scrolls of parchment across the bed in front of me. Draco raised an eyebrow and met my eyes, but before he could open his mouth to speak, I beat him to it. "I've been trying to find out a bit more about the person who was behind the invention of these kinds of dark magic and well—,"

Draco cut me off with a groan and slumped back against the bed, covering his eyes with his arm. "You're not still wasting your time with that bloody Prince, are you? I told you to drop it, Y/N. I'm not interested in who he is unless he's still somehow alive and can revoke the effects of his inventions."

"I'm not going to drop it, Draco!" I said, red patches blazing my cheeks as I stuffed my hand in the pockets of my hoodie, pulling out another sheet of parchment, this time smaller. "First of all, I'm doing this for you, second of all, I'm going to figure out how to revoke the effects whether the inventor is dead or alive, and third of all, when did I ever say it was a he?"

Draco picked his head back up, now staring down at me with squinted eyes. "Prince, Y/N. He's a Prince. Of course it's a he."

"Really? Who said?" I press, shoving the picture I had pulled out of my pocket towards Draco. He reluctantly took it out of my hands with a sigh, his eyes grazing over the crumbling piece of paper. It was a moving photograph, yellow with age, showing a skinny girl of around fifteen. She wasn't exactly the pretty type and had a rather cross but sullen expression with heavy brows and a long, pallid face. Malfoy furrowed his eyebrows at the sight and looked back over at me from the top of the parchment. "Eileen Prince." I explain, gesturing to the caption beneath her picture, reading: Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team.

"Her last name was Prince, Draco. It never meant that the inventor was a prince." Draco finally realised what I was getting at but just dropped the picture with a laugh. I looked at him with a frown, my ears starting to burn into a bright shade of pink. "What?"

"You think this chap was the Half-Blood Prince?" Draco laughed, his eyes crossing down towards the picture that now laid against the ruffled bed duvets. "You're being silly, Y/N, my darling. Just look at her."

"Well then have you got any better ideas?" I ask, tilting my head at him while my arms crossed themselves around my chest, a small huff of air dragging out from my nostrils. "I've been looking through old Hogwarts records for days, especially in students who had exceeded in potions. She was one of them. When I looked into her family name, I managed to date it back to her blood-status which was what? Oh yeah, that's right, she was a half-blood!" I explain, "Her father was a wizard who went by the surname Prince, and her mother was a muggle, so if you put the two and two together, that makes her the "Half-Blood Prince."

"Ingenious, Y/N." Draco drawled in a sarcastic tone, now resting his hands behind his head with his legs casually crossed over each other. "Care to enlighten me with anymore of your brilliant research?"

"Why aren't you taking me seriously?" I scoff, my ears turning slightly pink when Draco just continued to stare at me with an amused expression.

"You're looking too deep into it." Draco said in a calm manner, "You never even put in this much time and effort for your exams. Just forget about it, come lay down."

Annoyed, my mind decided to reach a bit too far into the things he said. "You just don't believe me because you don't think a girl like Eileen Prince could ever be that clever, don't you?" I said angrily.

"Merlin, Y/N. That's not what I meant!" Draco scoffed, dragging his hands down his face. "It has nothing to do with me thinking girls aren't clever, I just think you're analysing something far more than you need to. I swear Granger is starting to rub off on you. Where did you even find all of this out anyways?"

"The library." I admit, also adding a predictable— "With Hermione. She helped me find the right sections to look in after she found me pacing for hours— there was a whole collection of old Prophets that she even showed me. And even if you don't believe me on the whole thing, I will be going back to the library and I will find out more about Eileen Prince."

"Well, enjoy yourself." Said Draco sarcastically.

"I will." I quickly shot back, gathering all of my scrolls of parchment back up into a lazy pile. "I planned on looking at records of old potion awards this evening anyways."

"Have fun, darling." Draco called out, once again, sarcastically as I made my way to our bedroom door. Right as I spun the handle and pulled the mahogany door open, I shot him once last look over my shoulder.

"Laugh all you want. You'll be the one thanking me when I've figured out the solution to your problem." I said coldly before walking out of the room with all of my research, purposely leaving the bedroom door open, Draco now scowling after me because of the petty gesture.

~

Of course, with the sheer size of the library; filled with tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows, it was safe to say my feet had grown incredibly exhausted. I spent the past half-hour with a list of subjects and titles in hand that I decided I would search while striding down a row of books and pulling them off the shelves. At some points I even thought of sneaking into the Restricted Section.

The Restricted Section held the kind of books that contained powerful Dark Magic that had never been taught at Hogwarts, and could only read by some of the older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Finally reaching up to graze my fingers across the leather back spine of: Secrets of the Dark Arts, I stood tall on my tippy-toes in attempt to pull it out of its slot on the shelf when a much larger hand came out from behind me, taking the book for themself.

A warm body quickly pressed me against the bookshelf before I could protest and I felt the warmth of a man's minty breath ghost across the side of my neck. "Looking for this?" Asked the boy, holding the book out in front of me while his lips pressed a warm, hard kiss along the inside of my neck.

"Mhm..." I murmur quietly, carefully accepting the book into my hands while their hands snake around my waist towards the front of my body, now gripping my hips. I tilt my head back against the boys shoulder, allowing me to look up at the Slytherin I had recognised upon hearing his voice. "Thank you, Draco."

Draco laughed a little on the inside of my neck, his lips still only centimetres away from meeting the skin. "I apologise for earlier, darling. I didn't mean to be such a dick." He murmured softly, his lips slowly working their way up along my jaw towards my cheek.

"It's okay... you're here now." I reassure him, smiling a little. When I turned my head to the side to get a look at him, Draco met my gaze and returned my smile.

"Now, where do we start looking for this Eileen Prince?" He asks, making a massive smile ignite across my face. It didn't take a second more for me to grab his hand and pull him down along the library, leaving him no choice but to listen to my excited rambling as he shook his head lightly, smiling after me.