A/N: Well... here we are! My main A/N is at the end :)

So... enjoy the fluff!

Two Months Later

"What time do you call this?" Hermione demanded as Draco sloped into the Entrance Hall from the dungeons. "We need to get down to the Lake."

"It's a bloody hour before the task starts," he muttered irritably, rubbing his eyes. Upon seeing Hermione's slightly hurt expression, he sighed. "Sorry, I know you're worried about Potter but he'll be fine. He's got Weasley with him and more importantly, he seems to have an infuriating knack of staying alive."

"I'll ignore the implications behind what you just said because I really need a hug," Hermione laughed humourlessly before stepping close and wrapping her arms around Draco's waist, who embraced her with no hesitation.

"And because you love me, right?" Hermione could practically hear the smirk in his voice.

"That too," she nodded against his chest with a contented sigh as she breathed in his familiar scent. It really did feel nice to finally do this out in the open without having to hide from anyone. When they parted Hermione threaded her fingers between his, blushing as he brought their hands up to kiss her knuckles.

"Come on," she said. The two of them headed for the main doors when someone behind them called to Draco.

"Oi Malfoy!"

Draco rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Blaise?" he asked before he turned around.

Blaise's eyes immediately feel on their linked hands and he shuddered slightly.

"No offence, but I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing you two like this."

Draco shrugged, "That's just as well considering it isn't really any of your business."

The other Slytherin chuckled.

"What did you want?" Draco asked.

"Oh, right. You haven't seen Pansy around, have you?"

"Not since last night. She's probably already at the Lake fawning over Krum."

Blaise frowned. "I thought she was never that interested in him."

"Yes but it's the task today, and I highly doubt she would pass up the opportunity to share his limelight."

"Fair point. I'll head up there now then, see you later," Blaise walked around Draco and Hermione and towards the doors.

"Aw, are you not going to walk with us? Are you too embarrassed?" Draco mocked, laughing when Blaise chose to ignore him.

"You Slytherins have a unique sort of friendship, don't you?" commented Hermione as they started walking again.

"Well there's certainly none of that sissy 'best friends forever' crap that certain other houses seem to promote," he replied with a wry sideways glance down at her, though she didn't notice.

They walked in silence across the grounds, lost in their own thoughts as swarms of chattering students surrounded them. Draco smiled secretly to himself upon spotting several 'Potter Stinks' badges dotted around the crowds, knowing very well that if he said anything out loud then Hermione would hex him without hesitation.

Hermione glanced upwards at Draco and saw that he was biting the inside of his cheek – a tell tale sign that he was in deep thought about something. The constant whispers that had been following them around for the last ten days were becoming too noticeable now, so she decided a little small talk couldn't hurt.

"What's up?"

"I was just thinking about what Blaise was saying," he drawled. "I haven't seen Greengrass around since yesterday either."

"Is that so strange? I thought they'd patched things up with each other weeks ago."

"They did, but they fell out again a few days after. They just haven't been the same since… well, you know. For all we know they are together and we're all missing out on a good catfight."

"Now you just sound like Blaise," Hermione rolled her eyes. "I know what an awful piece of work Parkinson is, but that is quite sad that she's lost the closeness with Daphne over something so trivial."

"They're both hot headed; neither were willing to make much of a compromise when it came to apologising. Anyway I'd like to think that it's better this way; they're twice as annoying when they're a combined unit," Draco said.

"Merlin, you're so selfish," Hermione joked, nudging him with her elbow.

"Oh really?" Draco arched an eyebrow and flashed her one of his lop-sided cocky grins. "Well in that case I won't give you your Valentine's present," he pulled out a small gift-bag from his cloak and dangled it in front of her.

"Valentines? Draco we were with each other on that day, or do you not remember? You know, something big happened-."

"I know, I know, keep your hair on," Draco smirked. "I did have it with me at the time, but I decided it could be 'improved' at the last minute so I had to hold off for a while."

Hermione narrowed her eyes as they reached the boats. Draco stepped in first to help her get in steadily. They sat on the back seat and continued their conversation as the boat sailed itself to the centre of the Lake where the task would start.

"An improvement?" Hermione questioned. "This isn't like your other 'improved' gift is it?"

"No spell was used on it, if that's what you mean," Draco laughed. "If you don't get it then I'll explain," he said, handing her the bag.

She rummaged through the abundance of tissue paper that had been stuffed in there until her fingers grazed what felt like a velvet box. She pulled it out; the box was fairly large and flat, and supposedly contained a piece of jewellery. Hermione clicked her tongue as a doubtful pang twisted in her stomach. She really wasn't a jewellery person, but she didn't want to hurt Draco's feelings when he'd obviously put a lot of thought into it.

She didn't even realise that she had been absently stroking the lid of the box as the thoughts whirled around her head until Draco's voice brought her attention back to reality.

"What are you doing?"

Hermione blushed and automatically lifted the lid without hesitation, as if trying to cover up the fact that she had spaced out. At first the item within the box looked like a gold necklace, with an oval charm with an engraved cat in the centre that reminded her of Crookshanks. She smiled when she noticed that the cat moved around like wizard photographs, and it had a tiny ruby gem on its collar.

"Thank you Draco -," she began, but he cut her off.

"What do you mean 'thank you', you don't even know what it is yet."

"It's a necklace," she frowned.

"No, you think it's a necklace," Draco smirked. "Take it out of the bloody box and actually look at it properly, will you?"

So she did. She picked the not-a-necklace up and turned the charm around in her fingers, half expecting to find some kind of engraved message on the back, but there wasn't one. Instead her fingers found a small latch on the side of it, and suddenly his words made sense.

"It's a locket," she said.

Draco nodded, "Come on Hermione, give me some credit. I know you well enough to know you'd pick a whopping great textbook over jewellery any day, but I hope this would be an exception because it has some sentimental value to it," he said, reaching across her and unclasping it for her.

Hermione prized the locket open with her fingers with a rising sense of curiosity and anticipation. Her eyes fell onto the left side first. She smiled when she saw a shrunken-down version of one of her favourite photographs. It was of her, Harry, Ron on Platform 9 ¾ after arriving home after their first year. Mr Weasley had been eager to try out his new Muggle camera, and judging by the forced, stiff smile on Harry's face, Ron's amused eye roll and a younger version of herself trying to hold in a fit of the giggles, many failed attempts had preceded the photo in the locket.

She was about to ask Draco how he ever got a hold of the picture in the first place when her eye caught the other picture on the right side.

It was one she had seen too many times to count as of late, but seeing it in the locket now made Hermione feel uncontrollably misty-eyed and happy. It was a moving photograph of her and Draco dancing, looking completely content and lost in each other until there was a flash, and they instinctively jumped closer together instead of further apart and looked towards the camera, sneering at the photographer until it replayed itself.

Said invasive photographer had of course been Rita Skeeter, and the image she had taken was predictably plastered all over The Prophet the next day, not that Skeeter received any outrage from Draco or herself, for her 'outing' of them was too little, too late. Draco could only be thankful that his parents had refused to read or even look at a copy of the paper this year since it was very Potter-centric due to the Tournament.

The more Hermione thought about this, she realised that maybe this was why she looked at this picture differently now. It was clearly cut straight from The Prophet, but it being encased in the locket made it more private and special, as opposed to when it was printed in the paper for the whole bloody school to gawp over.

"What do you think?" Draco whispered next to her ear, making her shiver.

"Draco this is really sweet. I absolutely love it. Thank you," she quickly kissed his cheek and looked back down at the open locket. "I'm assuming the 'improvement' was the photo of the two of us," she added.

Draco nodded with a satisfied smirk, "I never thought I'd see the day where Skeeter's snooping would actually benefit us. I really ought to thank her for taking this picture; it couldn't have been taken at a better time."

Hermione laughed. "Please let me be there if you do; I'd love to see the look on her face."

"Of course," Draco replied. "Here," he said, taking the locket from her and closing it.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to throw it in the Lake for the Squid to have," he rolled his eyes. "I'm putting it on for you, what the hell do you think?"

"No need to be so sarcastic," Hermione said, turning away from him and lifting her hair so he could clasp it around her neck.

"It's what I do, get used to it," he said as he fastened the chain.

"I suppose I'm going to have to." Hermione toyed with the locket in her hands, laughing when the cat on the front started rolling around on its back to look up at her when she held it upside-down. "But I won't be able to get used to you buying me such expensive presents, no matter how lovely they are."

"Well start practising. As your boyfriend, I'm entitled to treat you," Draco said as the boat docked next to the tiered viewing platforms.

"Yes, remind me how that came about, again," Hermione smiled as he helped her out of the boat.

"I don't need to when you have that picture in the locket," he winked as they entered the growing throng of students in search of their friends before the task began.

Ten days earlier…

'Happy Valentine's Day! (It's typical that it so happened to fall on a school day this year).

Meet me in our usual place at seven tonight? I'll put up the disillusionment charms before then but I'll shoot a yellow spark into the air so you know where I am.

H.'

Draco smiled to himself and put the note into his pocket before any nosy people could read it over his shoulder. No sooner had he done that did another piece of parchment float over and land on his desk.

'P.S – I may be your secret unofficial girlfriend but that doesn't mean Parkinson has the right to drool all over you – quite literally by the looks of it.'

Draco turned and sure enough Pansy was sat staring at him longingly with big dewy eyes. He hadn't even noticed her until now. She blew a kiss his way when their eyes met and fluttered her fingers. Daphne muttered something under her breath beside her and rolled her eyes.

Ever since Pansy noticed that he hadn't had anything to do with Hermione – to her knowledge, at least - since the bet ended, she had become deluded that he had been using her all along and pretty soon she had fallen back into the same old routine of vying for his attention whenever she could.

Draco curled a lip at Pansy and sneered slightly for good measure. Her mouth fell open and she scowled at him.

He smirked and sent a message back to Hermione.

'All sorted. See you later.

D.'

...

'Later' couldn't come fast enough. After the events of that morning Pansy had followed Draco around all day demanding to know what she had done wrong. Draco managed to keep his cool for a surprisingly long time. He only ended up snapping halfway through dinner.

"For Merlin's sake, Pansy, just stop! The fact that it's Valentine's Day doesn't automatically mean I've suddenly developed feelings for you."

Pansy narrowed her eyes. "Why are you being like this? Is there someone else?"

Draco sighed. "I've never had feelings for you. Flirting with you in third year was just for my own amusement and ego, really. I should have made that more clear to you, in hindsight, but that's the truth of it."

He saw Daphne's eyes widen behind her glasses in his peripheral vision. He refused to look at the inevitable triumph that would appear on her face. Her point, the one that had spurred her on to propose the bet in the first place, had evidently sunk into Draco's skull judging by how he handled that situation just now.

Draco glanced at the Gryffindor table, where Hermione was chatting to Harry and Ron about something – presumably the upcoming second task judging by her furrowed brow and stern expression – so that meant it was still quite early. Nevertheless, he didn't think he could cope any more of Parkinson's presence today, so he quickly excused himself and left the Great Hall.

After wandering around aimlessly for a while, Draco was hit with an idea. He headed for the kitchens, and was bombarded with chattering elves as he entered.

"Dobby is so happy to have a visitor, sir!" his former-elf squeaked happily.

"Er, actually I was wondering if you can do something for me," Draco replied a little awkwardly as he basically confirmed to the elf that he hadn't just dropped by for idle chitchat.

Dobby wasn't put-off though. "Of course, sir. Dobby is happy to be helping a friend of friend of Harry Potter."

Bloody Potter… Draco thought irritably.

…

Draco and Hermione spent a pleasant hour just chatting and laughing together at the Lake before Dobby apparated next to them.

"You took your time," Draco said dryly as he averted his eyes from Hermione's indignant ones.

"Draco, what's he doing here?" she demanded, pointing at Dobby.

"Here is what you is asking for, sir," the elf said, handing Draco a small object. "Find Dobby when you is wanting to return it." Dobby bowed and disapparated.

"Do my ears deceive me or are you now dabbling in theft as well as exploiting poor, defenceless house-elves?" Hermione folded her arms.

"Did you not hear him? I am planning on returning it," Draco smirked. "And frankly I'm not in the mood for another long debate about house-elves tonight. My reason for getting him to help me will make up for the fact I 'exploited him' anyway."

"And what is your reason?" Hermione asked.

"This," Draco said, holding up the object; something that even in the diminishing light, Hermione recognised.

She dropped her arms and shuffled closer to him on the bank so she could see easier. He handed the item to her. Once it was in her hands, Hermione knew immediately what it was, and she felt her annoyance towards him slip away (though it would undoubtedly make an appearance at a later date; he wasn't getting away with this house-elf business do easily.)

"Madam Rosmerta's Walkie-Talkie," Draco confirmed in case she was still unsure.

"Walkman," Hermione immediately corrected. She looked up at him and they smiled at each other.

"Enjoy my romantic side while you can, because until the next special occasion you shan't be seeing him all that much," Draco smirked. "Happy Valentine's Day."

"Frankly I'm surprised you have a romantic side to begin with," Hermione replied.

Draco stood up and took the Walkman back from her, casting Wingardium Leviosa on it to make it float in the air. He held out a hand to Hermione.

"Shall we?"

She nodded and let him pull her up. As they stood face-to-face and linked hands she grew curious about his reasons for re-creating that day in the Three Broomsticks. It had always seemed significant to her because that was when she had started to feel something for him, and she couldn't help but wonder if it had been the same for him, too.

She put up a silencing charm and hit the play button on the Walkman (since he was still clueless about how it worked) and they danced around the small Disillusioned area to the same song they had done that day.

And I don't want the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand. When everything's made to be broken, I just want to know who I am...

This dance was undoubtedly more fluent than their first had been, and as the chorus played out, Hermione began to really pay attention to the words. They seemed oddly… significant.

"Hey Draco?" she lifted her head from his shoulder so she could look at him.

"Yeah?"

"How are you feeling about us? I mean, um…"

"How am I feeling about stopping hiding from everyone and making this official now?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. Apparently the song had made him think about the same thing Hermione had.

"Yes. Everything's been going surprisingly well-,"

"Ouch," Draco laughed.

"I'm only joking, everything has been great," Hermione giggled. "and my barrette has never gone clear and it's getting to the stage where sneaking around is making it seem…unserious."

Draco blinked in surprise, "You think this is serious?"

"Well isn't it?" Hermione countered. "In less than a month we developed feelings for each other. So after two months of frequent secret meetings I think it's safe to say that said feelings have, well, become stronger…"

She really wasn't used to these kinds of conversations so her voice kept faltering and shaking. A wave of relief washed over her when Draco cut across her.

"I know, I feel the same," Draco nodded. "No more hiding. As soon as this song ends, we're an official couple. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Hermione blinked back happy tears that had formed in her eyes.

Draco leant forwards and whispered, "Remember what I said about you not being able to get away so easily once it happens." They both smiled and he kissed Hermione's lips softly before drawing his back straight again.

After that neither of them could seem to look away from the other, which is why they were oblivious to the fact that somebody had stumbled into their hidden area. They were only brought from their reverie when the click and blinding flash of a camera went off, and they jumped closer together and looked towards the source with wide eyes.

"Well well, isn't this cosy?" Rita Skeeter smirked.

Both Hermione and Draco sneered at her.

"Oh, come now, don't be so rude," Rita said. "I must say this is a delicious scoop; son of Lucius Malfoy falls in love with Harry Potter's Muggleborn crush-"

"For the last time, there is nothing between Harry and me," Hermione growled.

"My articles say otherwise," Rita said wickedly as she peered at them through her horn-rimmed glasses, her quick-quotes quill faithfully scribbling away at her side.

"Enjoy your last moments of privacy," she trilled as she disappeared out of the charmed area again, humming to herself.

"Oh we will you old trout," Hermione muttered before finishing her dance with Draco.

Present day…

"Oh Godric where's Harry?" Hermione asked in a panicked voice when Viktor Krum re-surfaced in the Lake.

Draco was about to offer some kind of supportive comment when he spotted Pansy flailing in the water ungracefully, emerging just after Viktor had done, and he burst out laughing.

"I guess that solves one mystery," he said with a sideways glance at an amused Blaise.

"Why the hell did I ever agree to this?" Pansy shrieked as mascara ran down her face. "My hair is ruined!"

...

With every minute that ticked by, Hermione became more and more worried. By the time Harry eventually re-surfaced she had been clenching Draco's hand in a vice-like grip.

She squealed when she saw the top of her friend's messy black head, and Draco sighed in relief when she released him.

"I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be actually happy to see Potter," he said.

She was too relieved to pay attention to his words and dragged him down to the bottom level of the viewing platform.

"Who's that with Harry?" Neville asked when they got there, his binoculars set on the spot where Harry was helping someone to swim back. Several students around them seemed more interested in making comments about Hermione and Draco as opposed to Harry but neither of them cared.

"Bloody hell," Draco grinned. "It's Greengrass!"

Daphne and Harry finally reached the platform and were met with an eruption of cheers from all of the Hogwarts spectators. Daphne had a wild and frantic look on her face, and immediately began shivering and whimpering when Pansy held out a hand and dragged her out.

"What the hell were you thinking, agreeing to this?" she yelled. "You're bloody terrified of water!"

"Thanks for bloody alerting the whole school of that, Pansy," Daphne glared, though her voice lacked malice due to her heart beating at what felt like a thousand beats a minute.

"I don't care!" Pansy shouted. "What were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that if I did this then it would help me get over my fear," Daphne said weakly. "My stupid parents…"

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Forget your bloody parents, you're the stupid one."

Daphne didn't respond, and focused on trying not to hyperventilate. That's when Pansy shocked everyone around who knew of the bet by throwing her arms around Daphne and hugging her close.

"It's okay," she said softly as Daphne whimpered into her shoulder.

After she had calmed down, the girls separated and shared a small smile. Pansy nodded once at Daphne before walking off in search for another towel to dry her hair.

Daphne turned back and nodded in acknowledgement of Hermione and Draco before she did something that could have just been from impulse, or the adrenaline that still pulsed through her veins, or even just from the relief from escaping her greatest fear. She pushed her way through the crowd, flung herself at Harry and kissed him firmly on the mouth before breaking away, knowing that he had done his best to help her because he was one of the few people who knew of her fear.

He looked utterly stunned when they parted, his green eyes wide and shocked.

"Thanks for saving me, Potter."

"Bloody hell," Ron muttered. "First Malfoy and now Greengrass? I don't think I can take any more Slytherins."

"Don't worry Weasley, this is a one-off thing," she said before sharing a secret smile with a disorientated Harry and turning back towards an open-mouthed Hermione and a bemused Draco.

"Need I point out the irony in what just happened, Greengrass?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," Daphne said firmly.

"Why did you do that?" Hermione asked.

"I have my reasons," she snapped, though the fight drained from her when she saw the way Draco's arm was flung around Hermione's shoulder and how hers was wrapped comfortably around his waist. "And I figured that if you two have the capacity to not give a damn what anyone thinks about you then I could so the same thing."

...

After everyone had sailed back across to the school grounds again, Harry and Ron invited Hermione up to the Gryffindor common room for a celebratory party. She hesitated before responding and chewed her lip, eyes darting uncertainly between Draco and her friends.

"Go on," Draco said. "Come and find me later. I'll be-,"

"At our usual spot," Hermione finished with a smile. "Are you sure?"

"Well I hope Potter and Weasley know that if I have to compromise sometimes then so do they," Draco said with a pointed look at them. He kissed the top of her head. "Go on."

"Draco-,"

"Dammit Hermione, if you keep protesting then I'll change my mind and demand that you stay with me."

"But-,"

"You have your new locket to look at in case you miss me too much," he smirked. Then he bent his head forwards and gently stroked her cheek with his thumb. "I love you," he said softly.

Hermione blushed as much as she did the day he had first said those words. "I love you too," she replied.

"Good," he laughed.

Hermione smiled as she walked away with Harry and Ron. She fingered her new locket and found herself opening it almost immediately.

She looked at that photograph of the two of them dancing until she had every detail about it memorised. With a sigh she forced herself to admit that Draco had been right; maybe that whole fiasco with the bet had really been a blessing in disguise. It was funny how life worked itself out sometimes.

The End.

A/N: Well, that's it. I can't believe it's over, but I've loved writing this and when I started I had no idea it would end up being over 100K words.. oops! :D

Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's read, reviewed, followed and favourited this story - it really means a lot. I never imagined to have such great response to it. Have a Butterbeer and/ or Firewhiskey on me! I have to give a special shout-out to OuiSexSi, who has reviewed every single chapter, but seriously much love to everyone :')

I do have a couple of new ideas for Dramione multi-chaps brewing, and I know that some of you are requesting a sequel, which I haven't really thought about that much but it's definitely something I'd consider if there's a high demand! Things are quite hectic at college at the moment, so it will be a while before I post a new multi-chap, but I do plan on writing another as soon as my ideas flesh out a bit more!

In the mean time I'd love you to give me an idea as to what kind of story you'd like to see next, be it a sequel to this or just a genre I can work with: would you want fluff, or angst, or fluff & angst like this story was, or even hurt/comfort? (It would help me narrow my options down so I know which idea to take forward).

Thanks guys! You're all awesome.

Amy x

[UPDATED A/N:] I have decided on a plot I'm going to take forward with the help of all of your lovely suggestions. I can't say for sure how long it will be until I start publishing but watch this space!