A/N: Hello! This is me fulfilling a long lived dream of mine which is to – write a Draco/Hermione romance epic. This storyline has been done over many a time before – Draco falls in love with Hermione, yada yada yada – I know I'm not offering anything original here – this is purely here for my own pleasure and any of those people out there who enjoy fluffy romances that make you all gooey inside – I know I'm one of those people. So get comfortable and enjoy!

A/N2: This is in the kids's 7th year and for my own purposes, people who are DEAD or EVIL (ahem, Snape) in the books (R.I.P. Dumbledore sniff) are ALIVE or NOT EVIL in this one, because it's MY story and I can do whatever I want.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all of Harry Potter and his good chums. I'm not making any money out of this.

Disclaimer 2: I was very much inspired by aleximoon's fic "Their Room" that I actually stole a lot of her ideas and re-warped them, somewhat, into my own fic. I hope this does not count as plagiarism, as I truly loved aleximoon's story and will now tell everyone to go and read her fic now!!! Because it's a hundred times better than anything I will ever write.

Hermione took her luscious surroundings in with sheer delight.

"Oh this is wonderful" she said breathlessly.

The room in front of her was all old world elegance. Wood panelled walls reflected the flickering flames of the roaring fireplace, ornately framed, to her right. Bookshelves made of, what Hermione could only guess was a very expensive material, lined the walls, stacked with gilt inlaid books. The room was occupied by a rich, dark red couch, two armchairs and a worktable at the corner for two. But what was facing her directly was the main thing that took her breath away. It was a giant set of glass doors that lead to a stone balcony, bathed in moonlight, overlooking the Lake beyond. A gorgeous sight, she tentatively stepped into the room, feeling horribly self-conscious at the sheer wealth of the surroundings.

"Move it Granger, or am I going to have to wait until next month before you stop gawping?"

Startled out of her awe, she turned sharply around at the contemptuous voice behind her.

"So sorry Malfoy, didn't realise you were oh-so-patiently waiting there" she snapped back before moving away and giving him enough room to enter. Draco Malfoy strode in without even taking a second glance at the surroundings that had so awed Hermione. He looked perfectly at home there, Hermione thought, as he sauntered lazily to the nearest couch and collapsed onto it. Heaving a large sigh as if this small activity in itself cost him a huge effort, he looked pointedly at Hermione and waited for her to speak. He was baiting her, she knew it. Hermione didn't rise to it and instead turned away, barely containing the urge to roll her eyes. She missed his amused smirk as she turned.

"So this is it isn't it?" Hermione thought to herself as she walked towards the pile of trunks stacked neatly at one corner of the room. These trunks contained ancient scrolls recently found on the Hogwarts grounds, discovered by none other than Hagrid, while he was digging at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Hermione's mind wandered back to earlier that day at Dumbledore's office…

Hermione stood politely puzzled in front of the smiling Dumbledore, seated serenely, as always, behind his desk.

"Miss Granger and Mr Malfoy, I am sure that you are both curious as to why I have asked you to come into my office. I assure you" he laughed at Malfoy's narrowed glance "that neither of you are in any trouble. I have actually asked you two here for a favour."

This was definitely not what Hermione was expecting. "Sir?" she asked, confused.

"You see, only this morning, eight large trunks were discovered by Professor Hagrid, buried on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Now after making sure that these trunks weren't affected by any, ah, nasty curses that would come into effect upon the opener of the trunks, we managed to open them to find a collection of scrolls. Ancient by the look of them. I have no knowledge of these scrolls or what they pertain to. And this is where you two come in."

Excitement started to bubble up inside of Hermione, as she was starting to get an idea of what she and Malfoy would have to do. She looked over at Malfoy across from her to find his expression slack as he watched Dumbledore, as if this was intruding upon his precious time. Hermione turned back as Dumbledore began to speak again.

"You two are the top Study of Ancient Runes students and Professor Lanselius is much too busy to undertake this project all by herself and will need a lot of help. And while I know that this is your Seventh Year and no doubt you two will have a lot of work to do besides this, I would not have asked if I didn't know that you were more than capable of the task."

Hermione breathed in "Sir, in what form are these Runes in?" Dumbledore smiled. "You should probably ask Professor Lanselius this as I am not too sure of the details myself. But I want to impress this upon you, both of you, that you will not be required to do this at all. Although if you do undertake this project, you will no doubt be rewarded at the end of the year, at the Graduation Ceremony with "Special Services to the School Awards."

At this, Malfoy's bored face lit up as he paid more interest to Dumbledore, a fact that Dumbledore was not blind to.

"So I ask you, will you two do this?"

Hermione came back from her reverie and reached into the open trunks to touch delicately at the fragile vellum. There was no hard decision to be made that morning at Dumbledore's office. The chance to find out first hand about an ancient, unknown text? It was too good to refuse. And while it was sheer curiosity and the love of discovery that motivated Hermione to accept Dumbledore's offer, she had no idea what drove Malfoy.

"Careful there Granger, we wouldn't want your filthy Mudblood hands damaging the precious texts" his voice sounded from across the room maliciously.

Hermione stood up and whirled around to face him angrily.

"How dare you" she said in a low, deadly whisper. Malfoy's back was towards her as he lounged on the couch. Wanting to face him, she strode towards him. His bored and smug face looked at the sight before him of a Hermione in a towering rage. He didn't flinch as Hermione said "We have to work together for the next – goodness knows how long – and you begin by treating me like that? Who the hell do you think you are, thinking yourself so superior to everybody else? Grow up Malfoy. Grow up or get away from me" she stormed.

Malfoy gave her a moment to settle down after this. "Get away from you? How can I? We're stuck with each other for the next 'goodness knows how long' so get used to it Granger" he said calmly.

There was no way that Hermione was going to put up with this.

"I am not going to have you verbally abusing me each time we meet" she nearly shrieked, but suddenly stopped, tired at the emotion coursing through her.

"Look, we can't do this. We can't be at each other's throats all the time. If we're both going to get through this with our sanity intact, we have to at least try to be somewhat civil towards one another" At the offering of this proverbial olive branch, Malfoy stood up without ever breaking his eye contact with Hermione and walked past her towards the door.

"Suit yourself" he threw back at her over his shoulder as he left.

So what do you think for an opener? Flames, constructive criticisms, praises for my awesome-ness (yeah right) are all welcome. Please review!