Bubblegum
Draco Malfoy tries to start up a boyband. DHr, oneshot.

When the war had ended, and the wizarding community had sunk into a monotonous state of mournful gloom, Draco Malfoy decided, quite suddenly, that the world needed some cheering-up. It was tiring walking around town and seeing miserable, frowning faces peering at him with melancholy in their eyes. Honestly – there was a time for weeping, but surely the world needed to move on in order to achieve greater things. This period of mourning had stretched on long enough; the war had ended half a year ago, and he had had enough of it.

Already Draco had a brilliant scheme in mind, one that would instantly propel him into international stardom and subsequently, achieve the greater purpose of bringing the wizarding world out of their grief. He was, quite simply, going to start up a boyband.

Oh, the whole process was not easy work, involving days and weeks of research that continued long into the night. Scouring through Muggle homes, pubs and shops, he found several crumpled posters of old and defunct boybands and carefully stacked them in a corner of his room. Very soon the pile became a messy stack that was nearly half his height, and Draco, quite delighted, exclaimed, "Now is the time!" to no one in particular. He was nearly done.

Now all that was left was the organization of the band – recruiting members, assigning roles, coming up with a band name. Undoubtedly he was going to be the lead singer, what with his sexy tousled platinum hair and undisputed good looks, and he needed bandmates that would not steal his glory. Very quickly, and sucking on his quill, Draco came up with a list. He dug up an old contact list of his, and began the tedious process of tracking down his future bandmates.

Blaise Zabini found himself being suddenly interrupted one Potions lesson when Draco, dressed immaculately in Armani, Apparated into the dungeon, sending several girls into swooning fits.

Rather annoyed at all the attention Draco was getting, he hissed, "Yes?"

"My, channeling Snape, are we?" Draco drawled lazily, grinning.

In reply Zabini scowled at him. Draco took his silence as an opportunity to plough on with his speech about his fabulous plan, smirking as he saw the excitement dancing across Zabini's face. He knew Blaise had never wanted to be a teacher, much less a Potions master at Hogwarts, but had applied on impulse and strangely, had gotten the job. Of course, Draco knew him better – Blaise's true interests lay in the spectrum of women and money, and true enough, a career as a boybander would practically guarantee at least one, and if not two of his favourite subjects.

For Blaise Zabini the choice was painfully obvious. Draco Malfoy had snagged his first boybander.

Next stop – the Burrow.

When Draco Malfoy reached the Weasleys' residence, he had certainly not expected to see Harry and Ginny sitting under a tree, arms entangled, accomplishing the astounding feat of snogging without stopping for breath. Coughing a little, he waited for them to break out of their embrace.

Ginny blushed as red as a Gryffindor scarf while Harry glared at him.

"So," began Draco. "Boy who lived, chosen one. How's life?"

"Malfoy, I'm sure you came here not to find out details about my private life."

"No, no, of course not, Potter." A look of revulsion came onto Draco's face and he hastily wiped it off for fear of offending Scarhead, who appeared to have a wand tucked demurely in his back pocket. "Thing is, I've an exciting prospect for you. Eager to hear it?"

"Uh, no?" Harry's glare, if possible, grew even more murderous.

Remembering the wand, Draco quickly replied, soothingly, "What's up with all that attitude, Potter? You sound almost like an angsty teenager. I may have interrupted your little – ah – kissing session, but more important things are at stake."

To add to the effect he flailed his arms dramatically and launched into his explanation without giving time for Potter to rebut him. During the war Draco had grudgingly become allies with the trio and their Gryffindor buddies, after switching allegiances and joining the Order. They still referred to each other with their surnames and remained at loggerheads, but there was an underlying tone of companionship and solidarity whenever they were speaking nowadays.

Eyebrows raised, Harry politely waited for him to finish speaking and opened his mouth to speak but Ginny cut in. "I think that's an excellent idea, Harry. You should try it."

Harry gaped, the expression on his face resembling that of a bewildered Goyle. Privately Draco smothered his snigger.

"What? But—oh fine, Gin, anything you say," Potter sighed, a pained, long-suffering look on his face. "Say, Malfoy, what about getting Ron to join in as well?"

"The git's too busy, what with the Minister of Magic duties. Plus, he's a tad too sensitive with insults, and all that jazz."

There was a frown on Potter's face, but he nodded in agreement. "So we're settled then?"

This time Draco gave a curt nod. As he turned to Disapparate back to Malfoy Manor, he felt a smile growing across his face – his plan was finally set in motion.

It turned out that the whole boyband idea was not that easy to execute, after all. While the band argued over their name and roles (they finally settled on the name "Draco, Blaise and Harry", in an attempt to rewrite the Muggle phrase of "Tom, Dick, and Harry"), the rest of the wizarding world sank deeper into their moody stupor thanks in part to Ron Weasley's campaign to commemorate war heroes such as Neville, Luna, Lupin, Tonks, McGonagall, Fred and George Weasley, along with the many others who died on the frontlines.

By the time they finally lined up the list of songs to be played at their debut concert, the situation was much more dire than it had been the day Draco Malfoy thought of his scheme. People were taken to bawling openly or crying silently every hour, and quite frankly, Draco Malfoy was getting rather pissed off. As a consequence the band pushed forward their concert date so as to rectify the state of depression in the country. The overall mood in the community was one of utter gloom, and it had already begun to affect the band and Harry especially, who took long, pensive strolls alone. Even Draco found it hard to smirk – the horror!

Damn Ron Weasley.

The weeks leading up to the concert, thankfully, managed to take his mind of dismal issues as Draco, Blaise and Harry scuttled around looking for costumes, making final changes to their songs list and arguing constantly. Tempers were running high on a daily basis, and Blaise threatened to quit once or twice, but was scared off the prospect by Draco's wand pointing dangerously in his face. He had come up with the idea, and nothing was going to go wrong with it, whatever else happened. Malfoy pride kept him from calling the whole thing quits.

Into this scene entered Hermione Granger, sunny and well-relaxed after her holiday.

"Hey – oh Merlin, what was that absolutely awful noise?"

The band had been singing the first few verses of their newest love song, Bubblegum. Draco looked up to see the Mudb – no, Granger, in a loose tunic dress that emphasized her new tan, looking glamorous and gorgeous in a pair of huge sunglasses. With her hair straightened, she did not look like the hardworking bookworm from Hogwarts –

Wait, he did not just call her gorgeous. She looked positively horrible, he decided.

"Correction," Draco piped up from center stage. "That was melodious, Granger. It was me, singing."

For a few seconds Hermione stared at him before bursting out laughing. "You … sing?" she choked, nearly tripping over her heels as she roared with hysterical laughter.

Draco was getting highly affronted. What in Merlin's name was wrong with her? Perhaps she should be admitted to St Mungo's. "Of course I do. And much better than you too, I'll add."

That effectively quelled her laughter and she turned to look at him, as though studying him carefully. Raising her arm she motioned for him to sing again and he very gladly obliged. "Now we're talking," he smirked, taking a step back. Following suit, Harry and Blaise took their positions, Harry with one hand on his old Firebolt and Blaise gripping his cutlery set. Slowly they began to beat out a rough rhythm, and Harry gave a high falsetto shriek every eight beats.

There was a short pause before Draco began singing, but he shook back his hair so that it hung loosely in front of his face, like strands of white gold – even if he did say so himself. He'd wager his entire Manor that Hermione Granger found him utterly irresistible in this state. That got a smirk on his face again, and he began singing in a low baritone.

Honey you make me think of bubblegum
You plus me, what's the sum?
You make me want to sing away
But then pop! You're gone and I want you back today.

Hermione groaned. What terribly cheesy lyrics, and such a horrible attempt at rhyming! Placing her hands on her hips she yelled out for them to stop. Her action earned her a pout from Draco Malfoy and an exasperated look from Harry. Blaise just yawned.

"Listen, guys. I was not kidding when I called your rendition terrible."

"What?" Draco spat. "You're just jealous, Mudb - Granger! You're probably wishing you could start up your own girl band now, but the idea's mine alone! Or," he paused here, smirking annoyingly, "you could be so charmed by my ruggedly handsome features but you're refusing to come to terms with your own emotions! So you're criticizing me." He snapped his fingers happily, glad to have figured that out.

Harry gagged in the background.

"Ferret-face!" Hermione yelled in reply.

"Ouch, that hurt."

"Malfoy, I honestly don't think this is going to work—"

"Oh, quit it, Granger. Frankly? I thought that after your whole roaming the world episode, you'd come back much wiser and should I say, much less irritating, but you're still the same bossy know-it-all from sixth-year!"

Her jaw dropped, while a storm gathered in her eyes. "Fine, if you don't want some constructive feedback, I'm just going to leave you guys alone and see how you all flop without me!"

Draco grimaced at her retreating back.

The day before their concert, Draco, Blaise and Harry were so busy they even forgot to squabble with each other. They tried on their costumes one last time, tested the sound system and rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed. Harry polished his Firebolt. Blaise panicked everyone by proclaiming that he lost his knife and fork, but found it stashed behind the stage a few minutes later. Draco applied all sorts of cream onto his hair for it to look soft and sleek. He smirked at his reflection when he was done. By tomorrow night all the girls would be dropping at his feet.

On the actually day itself, however, he was less cocksure and a strange, unidentifiable feeling had settled into his tummy.

"Help," he whined. "I feel like there're butterflies in my tummy!" He narrowed his eyes at everyone, as though asking them who cast such a charm on him.

"Malfoy, you're nervous," Harry smirked uncharacteristically. Never had Draco been on the receiving end of a smirk from Potter himself, so he scowled back.

"No, I'm not."

There was no time to argue any further, Blaise dashed into the room they were in and whispered urgently, "Now's the time! We're starting!"

Hurriedly they got up and moved backstage. Draco resisted the urge to peek through the curtains but failed miserably. As he looked out at the crowd gathered, he spotted Weasel, all flaming red hair and looking rather presentable in a fancy cloak. Hermione stood beside him, looking radia – disgusting and sending jolts through his tummy. Draco groaned and turned around to look at his bandmates, smoothening his cloak as he did so.

"Ready?" Harry was murmuring.

"Yes," Draco and Blaise hissed in reply. His stomach churned again.

Slowly and dramatically they whipped around at the same time so that they faced the curtains, and began their practiced swagger as the curtains were raised. The crowd started laughing and screaming, a first in months. Immediately Draco felt better. Their concert was a sell-out, probably because of the huge posters that they had plastered around town and sent to mailboxes. The posters featured the silhouettes of the three of them as they posed in various poses mimicking those of the boyband posters Draco had found.

They gathered in their positions, and with a shriek from Harry, began playing. Swaying slightly to the beat, Draco opened his mouth and began singing. He was met with uproarious laughter from the audience, and Ron Weasley had turned as red as his hair trying not to laugh. At first Draco took their obvious delight as proof of the success of their band, but when they had finished the crowd had a unanimous outcry, "That was awful but hilarious!"

Draco Malfoy felt his mouth pop open, as undignified as that was. When he looked at Harry and Blaise he saw that they all wore similar expressions.

On impulse the three of them turned around and dashed backstage, feeling rather humiliated. Draco was the worst off out of the three of them – he had the biggest ego of all, and this was, admittedly, his idea after all. And it had flopped. From far behind he heard the crowd still laughing and the sounds of scraping chairs as they got up to leave, satisfied by the entertainment they had enjoyed in the past few minutes.

Meanwhile Draco sank into his chair.

He heard footsteps as someone—presumably Scarhead—approached him. Draco snapped, "What?"

"Touchy, aren't we?"

It was Hermione. Harry and Blaise had vanished, mysteriously.

He looked up at her; she was smiling slightly. "Granger, if you came here just to laugh at me, I'd rather you clear off, thank you very much."

Granger took a chair and set it down beside him before proceeding to sit down herself. "Presumptuous prick. I came here to say hi and to uh, commend you on that little performance just now."

Draco smiled in spite of himself. "Oh, really? I thought you deemed it as horrible."

"Well, the singing was," Hermione laughed, watching as he struggled to comprehend what she was saying. Just as he opened his mouth to say something else, Hermione added, "But you did achieve your purpose, didn't you? You wanted to cheer the wizarding world up, and well, you certainly did."

"I know, but—"

"They shouldn't have laughed at you?"

"Well, yes," he whined. "I was only trying to help, and look what I got – seven hundred people positively laughing their heads off at my singing."

Draco watched as she laughed again. Oddly enough he felt his stomach start to jolt once more, and it was a rather unpleasant feeling. She answered, "So was I, remember? Trying to help! And look what I got – one Draco Malfoy yelling his head off at me, calling me a know-it-all."

"Ah, that. You were annoying, Granger, don't deny it."

"Your singing was awful, Malfoy, don't deny it."

For a while they lapsed into silence, and Draco thought about what she had said. One Draco Malfoy yelling his head off at me … One Draco Malfoy … Draco. His name had actually sounded pretty good in her voice and he was dying to hear it again.

"Oi, Granger?"

"Yes?"

"Say that bit again. The one with my name in it."

"Huh, what? Okay," she stared at him, looking as though she thought he was mad. "One Draco Malfoy—"

Instantly he raised up his hand to stop her, listening to the "Draco Malfoy" playing inside his head. Actually, thinking about it, "Mrs Hermione Malfoy" didn't sound too bad—

Merlin, he was having the weirdest thoughts. Hermione Granger was a Mudblood, for crying out loud! Admittedly he was no longer so dreadfully prudish about blood issues anymore, what with Lucius Malfoy's death, but still. He could not believe that he was thinking so much about her, when it should have been the other way round – she should be thinking about him. And yet here he was, her image like bubblegum in his head, sticky and soft and clinging tightly on.

"What was that about?" Hermione raised an eyebrow at him.

In response he just grinned, and started humming the first few lines of Bubblegum. Draco saw her smile a little.

They both closed their eyes. From outside there were strains of unidentifiable music as Harry slammed on his broomstick and Blaise pounded on his cutlery set. Sure, Draco didn't get the get the shrieking girl fans that he had expected, but he had Hermione Granger sitting here with him, looking absolutely divine. Well, she did come rather close.

And that was enough, at least for now.

Disclaimer: I wish Draco was mine, but nope, he + all other characters are JKR's.
A/N: Wow, my longest fic so far. :D Cheesy ending, I know. I promise to update Mastermind, but I'm having my midyears now and I'm terribly busy.