Hermione traced the photo's edges as she replaced it between pages, her fingers pausing on the words Potion Making for Beginners, written in Lucius's elegant scrawl. Her eyes narrowed.

She closed the journal and turned to Lucius's bookshelves, skimming the titles.

There, on the bottom shelf, was a tattered copy. Potion Making for Beginners.

Hermione reached for it, tilting the book off the shelf — and the bookcase cracked, wrenching free of the wall.

She jumped back, watching the bookcase rearrange itself, the shelves shifting and books vanishing until it swung back, revealing a hidden door. Hermione stepped as close as she could and discovered a room no larger than a closet, rich with the scent of centuries-old books.

Her veins buzzed, her fingers itching to read each of them. She cast a few spells checking for wards against Muggle-borns, crossed the threshold, and looked around.

The shelves to her left held volumes dated from the 1100s. She followed them to 1999. She pulled the 1999 book with a frown, flipping to the last page. There, in a grand looping scrawl, was Lucius Malfoy III, died 24 May.

She gasped, snapping it closed and spinning around. These were the Malfoy family archives. Draco knew about this room. He'd come here to research on the Romania property. When he told her about the "archives," she'd imagined a dusty or box or two. Not a small library.

Sliding the 1999 book back on the shelf, she cleared her throat. "Show me 'death of the owner.' Cross-reference with 'Manor defenses.'"

The walls shivered. Several texts pulled from the shelves, their pages flipping open to the exact pages for her.

Beaming, she summoned them to stack neatly on top of the small desk at the room's center.

The first was a book entitled Wards and Protections. She scanned the flagged page until she found the passage she needed.

Untimely death of the Lord of the Manor from poison, curse, or premeditated physical injury triggers the Familial/Blood Protection Procedures (p. 289). Only upon the proper acceptance of the heir will the Manor release its Protection Wards. The below counter-spells, when performed by the heir of Malfoy Manor, will counteract the Protection Wards.

Hermione conjured a scroll of parchment and tapped her wand to it to transcribe the necessary counter-spells. She flipped to page 289, and read on to find familiar predicaments — forceful ejection of non-blood and non-familial persons, the sealing of Floo networks, anti-Apparition charms (with exceptions for familial elves), fortified wards, and external defenses.

Draco had given Dolohov rights to the Manor, but Dolohov was dead, circumventing his claim. So it stood to reason that the Manor would only become fully operational once Draco returned and performed the counter-spells. And none of this explained why the Manor let her run past its barriers. The other two passages were mere journal entries, noting the untimely deaths of Malfoys past and when the property was restored.

Hermione rubbed her forehead as she pored over the passage for the fifth time. It was possible that she'd been inadvertently tied to the Manor through her tattoo. Or perhaps Draco's blood had lingered in her system somehow after he'd given it to her in Romania.