Only after she had taken a good many photographs of the Muggle couple did her heartbeat finally return to something like normal.
However, the grateful female tourist seemed quite determined to keep Hermione's poor heart under strain.
She said brightly, "Let me take a few of you two as well! Couples travelling together always regret it, if they do not take enough photographs together."
"We are not..." Hermione was about to correct the tourist's mistaken impression, when Draco said, "Oh, thank you very much for offering."
Hermione was dumbfounded.
Draco had not corrected the Muggle tourist's assumption at all; in fact, he smiled kindly at her, and even suggested she pick an angle without any backlighting, for the best result!
Hermione's expression was so startled that the tourist had to prompt her, "Relax, smile!"
Even once the photographs were taken, Hermione was still too dazed to notice that "he had kept his hand on her shoulder throughout."
Draco took back the camera, thanked the tourist politely, and then noticed Hermione's strange expression.
"What is wrong?" he asked, in high spirits.
"Er..." She could hardly explain the strange feeling churning inside her.
At that moment, she saw him as nothing more than an ordinary friend from the neighbouring House! Or, rather, an unremarkable comrade in the fight against Voldemort! Nothing more than that!
Stop thinking about what that Muggle tourist had assumed! Think of something else! she told herself.
"Oh, I have noticed something, ever since I first met you. I have always felt you were not quite the sort of young wizard, from a pure-blood family, entirely cut off from the Muggle world. Take the Weasley family, for instance; they think highly enough of Muggles, but they have almost no real understanding of Muggle society. Mr Weasley does not even know what a rubber duck is," Hermione said, tilting her head to study him.
He sat calmly before her, letting her look him over.
A polite waiter arrived, serving drinks and food.
Hermione paused a moment, waiting for him to withdraw before continuing, "But you, you do not seem at all unfamiliar with the Muggle world, and you have shown no surprise at being here, either.
You seem perfectly at ease. I have only just learned that your family owns Muggle items. I rather think you understand the Muggle world better than the Weasleys do; your family seems to have a closer connection to it."
"Very observant of you." Draco raised his glass, giving Hermione a nod across the table.
Hermione smiled back at him, faintly. She did not let go of her curiosity, and waited for him to say more.
"If you were ever to wander about Malfoy Manor, you would find traces of a few Muggle things here and there. Malfoy Manor has electric lighting, and a proper cars. Though we mostly think Muggle things rather absurd, there are still a few that are just about usable... and the Malfoys have no objection to using them."
Draco savoured a mouthful of steak and smiled, well pleased with himself.
"Do you realise how arrogant that sounds?" Hermione said, displeased.
"I rather thought I was being quite sincere, saying that."
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it easy, getting someone from a pure-blood family to admit to another wizard that his own family makes use of Muggle things?"
Hermione shook her head at him dismissively, though privately she was rather taken aback.
The Malfoy family Draco described seemed somewhat different from the Malfoy family she had heard of, the one that "despised all things Muggle."
"Actually, this little trip is part holiday, part business. The Malfoy family is looking to acquire a local perfume factory, and my parents have gone to negotiate the deal."
Seeing that she seemed rather uneasy, Draco chose not to pursue that sensitive topic further, and changed the subject instead.
Besides the investment itself, a large part of the reason for acquiring the perfume factory was to please Narcissa.
Narcissa loved things like perfume... Lucius had been busy encouraging her to take the hobby further.
Besides, the town of Èze was quiet and pleasant to live in, quite unlike the bustle of Paris, making it the perfect place for Narcissa, weary as she was of the wider world, to spend a few restful days away from the noise.
Since her grandfather's death, Lucius had often taken his sorrowful mother out walking to clear her mind, even bringing her along whenever he discussed business.
Not long before, Draco had overheard his mother complaining to his father, as he passed by the manor's drawing room, "Could you not simply handle the business yourself? As you always used to?"
"No," Lucius said bluntly. "You have not had any particular plans lately, have you? I have noticed you have not held a single tea party or book club in ages, nor attended any salon gatherings.
This season you have bought little more than a wardrobe full of new robes; you have not even been to see the new limited-edition Muggle motor cars everyone is talking about; Mrs Zabini asked after you only recently, wondering why you missed last month's magical antiques auction. It is not like you at all."
"I only want a little peace and quiet at home," Narcissa said, her voice tinged with weariness. "It is all right, I am truly fine now. Everyone is born, grows old, falls ill, and dies. My father did not suffer very much before he passed... you need not worry over me."
"Yes, I am not worried about you. But, as it happens, I have come across this investment, and I need your opinion on it, Cissy," Lucius said smoothly, a note of vulnerability in his words that rather surprised Draco.
"You will need to keep an eye on things for me; those Muggles can be terribly cunning. Perfume is your particular interest, is it not? You must help your husband come up with a plan..."
Lucius, ordinarily so haughty and immovable, actually asking someone else for help devising a plan.
And what a coincidence, too, that this particular project should have come along just then? Father, whatever had he written, in such haste, in that letter to the Muggle investment manager not long before?
Draco smiled faintly at the memory. He suspected his father had simply asked that poor Muggle manager to hunt down some promising perfume factory in need of investment, or acquisition.
"That perfume factory is entirely Muggle-owned, and has nothing whatever to do with the wizarding world," he went on to Hermione.
Hermione, who had been picking the olives out of her side dish with her fork, looked up in surprise at this. "Your family invests in the Muggle world?"
Draco shrugged, saying meaningfully, "I did say, Muggles do have some things the Malfoy family finds useful. My father may claim to champion pure-blood wizards, but the Malfoy family's business dealings have never been confined to the wizarding world alone, and neither has our outlook.
Of course, we do not fully understand the Muggle world, but we have some grasp of certain social conventions, and of certain investment opportunities, within it."
He glanced discreetly at the rejected olives, smiled slightly, and added, "Naturally, please keep all this to yourself, as always. I doubt the Ministry of Magic would be terribly pleased to hear such rumours."
Hermione toyed with the food on her plate and nodded thoughtfully at him.