Vexed- A Dramione Fanfic

6. Two sides of a coin

Draco was walking at a pace that matched Hermione's yet managed to lead his way through the Manor. The young Master of the Manor had a certain aristocratic aura around him, and sometimes, when he was in his element, you could see the alpha male take over. He really did live up to the name of the Slytherin Prince. Hermione had often taken notice of these details but had never openly admitted to paying attention to any of this. He was her childhood bully after all.

They moved in and out of long corridors, that either exhibited some great pieces of art and Malfoy ancestry or sky-scraping French windows that opened up to the lush gardens that were spread around the massive structure.

Hermione noted that not all the paintings were magical ones; there were a few muggle ones amongst them. She was sure she had seen a Rembrandt or two among the paintings that graced the wall of the Malfoy Manor.

Malfoy took a right turn as they walked towards a set of massive gilded doors! Gilded doors! Who had gilded doors in today's time! Malfoys, of course. Hermione thought as she was reminded of just how rich and powerful the family was for more than ten centuries.

Draco knew the doors would be something that would stir Hermione's mind. People were known to gawk at the doors quite openly in the past and knowing her, she would have a fair set of questions buzzing in her mind already.

"They have been here for centuries. They are magical. No one except Malfoys or their permitted guests can enter the library."

"Oh." Hermione flushed. She was half amazed at how Malfoy seemed to know what was on her mind. "What about the muggle paintings? I think I saw a few Rembrandts and a few Da Vinci's up there."

Draco held the doors, but turned and smiled at Hermione. A full on genuine smile. "One can only expect the great Hermione Granger to not only notice that but also know the artists. Well, even my ancestors could not deny the mastery the artists had. Plus, it is not that well known perhaps, but Rembrandt was a squib from a rather prestigious pureblood family. He did not want to join the ancestral business and wanted to pursue the finer arts, which he did, and now the world remembers. In fact, the seascape painting that you saw in the last corridor was a Rembrandt too."

"But I don't know of any seascapes that he made!" Hermione said sceptically.

"Oh, he did. It was rumoured to be stolen in 1990 from the United States. The truth is that he made the original as a magical piece of work, the one you saw right now. He made a muggle copy, the one that got stolen. The original stands proudly in the halls of Malfoy Manor."

It had been a long time that Draco had felt pride in being a Malfoy. The weird thing about it all was that telling Hermione all this was bringing out his pride of all things.

Hermione was impressed would be an understatement. She was beginning to understand the Malfoys' haughtiness and snobbery. It was not entirely baseless is something she had gathered over the years. Anybody with such a family background was bound to be proud of it; the Malfoys just took it a bit too far.

As he finally opened the doors and walked in, Hermione audibly gasped in astonishment. For the first time in her life, she was bewitched and entranced by something other than books in a library. The library was larger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts and was chock full of books that lined the walls and shelves. What amazed her most was the fact that it looked rather modern and muggle in taste! A huge glass wall overlooked verdant bushes and trees that almost seemed to cover the entire wall. It almost felt as if one was sitting in the heart of nature with so many books.

"I thought the Manor could do with some of the muggle inventions and ideas. Especially the library. It was rather overflowing with all the reading material. Also, the Manor could do away with all the darkness. Both metaphorically and literally, I guess."