Beauty and the Beast [Draco Malfoy]

Chapter Twenty-One

Draco's POV:

To say I was nervous for the Christmas ball that mother had been planning would be an understatement. We generally have one each year and the guests are almost always the same. Father's 'colleagues'. Which really means his fellow Death Eaters. This year Lizzie was going to be attending the ball and I didn't know if she would realize the common thread among all of the guests.

I held Lizzie's small hand and we stood at the base of the glossy stairs that led up to the third floor. As I had promised, I was about to show her the library.

"Alright, close your eyes," I told her, grasping both of her warm hands in mine. She smiled and obliged, squeezing her eyes tightly shut. I waved my hand in front of her face to test. She didn't flinch in the slightest. "Now you have to trust me and follow me."

"Are you trying to turn this into Beauty and the Beast?" she asked as I began to lead her up the stairs. Her feet felt their way up each step before she placed any weight on it. Every time one foot found its place, the next would begin to feel out the next spot.

"Beauty and the what?" I questioned with a confused expression on my face. She pursed her lips together in a smile and crinkled her nose the way she usually does when she laughs.

"It's a muggle fairy tale. I'll have to show it to you sometime," she beamed. Despite the fact of the muggle part of the story, I was looking forward to hearing this fairy tale.

When we reached the top of the staircase, I led Liz to the center of the cool room and released her hands. She dropped them to her sides and quirked her head in question.

"Wait here and keep your eyes closed," I commanded as I turned away from her.

"Don't tell me you're going to open the curtains," she giggled. I froze with my hand inches away from the intricate, velvet curtains that hid all sunlight from the room.

"Is that part of your muggle story?" I gripped the soft fabric in my hands and pulled them apart, allowing sunlight to sweep across the room and illuminate the dust in the air. No one uses this room much.

"It is, in fact," she spoke clearly, turning her head to the window but not opening her eyes. The sunlight shined on her face, lighting up her faint freckles and rosy cheeks.

"Okay," I whispered, "open them."

Lizzie bit her bottom lip and lifted her eyelids. The immediate joy on her face was astounding. Her jaw dropped in a smile that showed she was amazed and in shock. Her face lit up so much that the sunbeam on her face became dull in comparison.

Slowly, she rotated in place and looked at the bookshelves that lined the walls. She weaved between the tables and sofas that sat in the center of the room and trailed her fingers along the red fabric.

"I had no idea so many books could be fit into one room," she grinned, obviously happy. How someone can get so much joy from pieces of parchment bound together, I'll never know.

"I take it you like it?" I laughed at her running her fingers down the spines of books and reading their titles.

"I love it, Draco," she whispered. "I might not ever leave." She picked up a random book, leafed through its pages, and placed it back on the shelf.

"Our home is your home. You can borrow any book you'd like to." I sat on one of the sofas as she continued to wander around the room looking at what books were on the shelves.

"Some of these are muggle works. Romeo and Juliet, The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein. I wonder," she trailed off her last sentence and walked to the bookshelf on the opposite wall from where she was and began to search the spines.