Chapter 10

Draco stopped dancing, holding Hermione close in the middle of the dance floor, mid-song. He looked into her deep, brown eyes and said, very seriously, "Hermione, will you be my girlfriend?" There weren't many other ways to ask this question, no matter how awkward it may sound.

"Now that was easy, wasn't it?" she said with a laugh. Draco smiled but raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Yes, I'd love to."

Draco was not the only Minster candidate present at the S.P.E.W. fundraising ball that evening. There was really only one serious contender against Draco; Anthony Goldstein. Despite the Malfoy tendency not to notice anything that didn't concern themselves, Draco vaguely remembered that Goldstein was in Ravenclaw and in his year at Hogwarts. Goldstein, with a strong build and short cropped brown hair, was a obvious choice for Minister for Magic, that is, until Draco entered the running.

It was not a pleasant sensation when he discovered that Anthony Goldstein was also attending the event. However, Draco felt much more smug when he ascertained that he was the only candidate making a speech that night. The speech went swimmingly, everyone applauded loudly to his great words and consequently Draco felt one of his many ego boosts. This boost deflated somewhat, however, when he spotted his newly deemed girlfriend being chatted up by the enemy. The audacity of him!' thought Draco, 'if there wasn't tons of press around, he would pay for this.'

Just as Draco was about to approach Hermione and his disliked adversary, Harry's face popped up next to him.

"Hey, Draco! How you going?" greeted Harry, shaking Draco's hand. After getting over their original disregard for each other, Draco and Harry were on their way to being pretty good friends.

"Harry! Can't complain. What about you? Your wedding is soon approaching…" Draco replied, conversationally recalling Potter's imminent marriage ceremony.

"Yeah, it's getting rather close. Olivia is going crazy with planning, I barely get to see her."

Harry and Ginny, much like Ron and Hermione, had a short relationship before deciding that it wasn't working out for the best. He had a hard time trying to find a woman who wanted to be with him for his personality rather than his heroic past, fame or money. Harry met Olivia in a muggle pub. She had no idea that he was anything other than a good looking young man with disheveled black hair and a charming, boyish smile. Occasionally they had a bit of trouble because Olivia was muggle, but they still loved each other dearly and had a much healthier relationship then most.

"I completely understand, mate. With the election on, I scarcely get to spend time with Hermione outside of meetings." Draco accompanied his words with a sigh. With the mention of Hermione's name, the two strapping young gentlemen glanced over to the woman in question from across the room. She was laughing at something that Mr Goldstein was saying. Draco felt his eyes narrow with contempt as he glared at his rival.

"Anthony's a nice guy. He was in the DA with Hermione and I back in the day. He'll be hard to beat, but you know you've got my vote."

"We'll see. Sorry, Potter but I think I'll take advantage of being in the same room as Hermione. I'll see you later." Draco gave Harry a friendly pat on his arm before striding towards his girlfriend.

"Wait, Dra-" Harry started but Draco had already gone out of earshot. He was going to warn him about Hermione's overprotective and often defensive stance about her relationship with her friends. Sure, her and Anthony weren't that close but she would not appreciate any discourtesy towards Goldstein. 'Oh, whatever. Let him find out the hard way,' Harry resolved to himself.

"Goldstein." Draco greeted the Minister for Magic candidate curtly after giving Hermione a very warm welcome in the form of a heated kiss. 'Suck it, Goldstein,' he thought as he surprised Hermione with his lips. He could feel the man's jealous eyes piercing into him at the public display of affection in front of him. He had interrupted their conversation but Draco honestly assumed that it was probably just annoying babble on Goldstein's part. He couldn't help but hate the guy. Draco withdrew from the kiss with a smirk. They were boyfriend and girlfriend now, why not flaunt it?

"Excuse us, Anthony. It was nice catching up." She smiled at Anthony but it was obvious, even to Draco, that Hermione was not particularly happy with being interrupted so.

Hermione grabbed onto Draco's sleeve and basically pulled him outside to a deserted area. The soft hum of music was heard in the background as she began to speak.

"That was hardly appropriate, Draco." Her words were laced with annoyance.

"Oh, come on. He's the enemy anyway. And we're 'official' now, surely that means that we don't have to hide our partiality to each other?" he retorted.

"When did we ever discuss telling people, not to mention the media, about us? I think I would have remembered such a conversation!"

"We haven't been that discreet, I'm sure the tabloids already know…" Draco commented, thinking that Hermione looked particularly sexy when she was ranting.

"That's not for you to decide! And Anthony isn't the 'enemy', don't you dare demonise such a good person.." She was getting increasingly livid.

"Oh, bullshit. A 'good person' wouldn't ogle a girl who is obviously taken." Draco was meeting her heightened rage.

"He wasn't ogling. You're just jealous!"

"He was! The fucking nerve of him!" In a quieter, seething voice, more to himself, Draco commented, "Bloody bastard, leering at something of mine."

Hermione had drowned the contents of her champagne glass when she heard this last remark. She coughed on her drink and looked at Draco with a revived sense of anger.

"Excuse me? I am not, and will never be, an object that you can own."

And then she slapped him right on his right cheek. Draco brought his hand up to his aching face in hurt surprise. Before leaving she remarked, "have a nice time winning the election without my vote."

The beautiful brunette pushed past Draco towards the ballroom in a outraged rush. He called out after her, but she didn't even flinch in reply.

The cherry on top of the sundae of misery for Draco was, once he returned to the party, spotting Hermione leaving with Goldstein. Harry observed the turn of events with a knowing sympathy. He had firsthand felt the wrath of Hermione and correctly assumed that the downcast Draco had just suffered a whopper of a argument. The night was quickly going downhill for the charming Malfoy, but there were still more horrors to come. A reporter approached the disheartened Draco with many questions that he didn't want to think about, let alone answer.

"I believe I just spotted Miss Granger leaving with Mr Goldstein, one of your fellow candidates, yet she was also pictured being kissed by you only moments ago. Any comments?"

A/N: Much obliged to the reviews of Divess, puppy13337, Pug1998 and alltimelowfreak11.

Also, to all you fellow Dramione writers out there, if you have any suggestions of great stories to read then please inform me. :) I'm always on the lookout. If you tell me your story name, I'll check it out and review to let you know what I think. xx