Disclaimer: It's all Rowling's.
The-don't-hit-me Disclaimer: I love Harry Potter and everything about it. I also love Harry Potter fanfiction. I'm not criticising anything here, nor do I think I'm funny. I'm just doing this for my own amusement.
50 Reasons to Ship Draco/Hermione
Reason n°20: Because Draco has the hottest friends.
In Dramione, Harry and Ron are there to either provide comic relief, or deep insight, or an obstacle (because they're bastards). They're rarely, if ever, used for anything else, because the author thinks their hotness level is too low for them to feature in a Dramione. So who does the author turn to? Slytherin. Crabbe and Goyle are so unattractive and stupid that it only makes sense that every other Slytherin under the moon must be hot and intelligent to make up for them. Except maybe Flint and Montague.
You know, I'm seriously wondering where Crabbe and Goyle have vanished off to. I mean, I know Crabbe is dead, but not until the end of DH. Yet I don't think I've ever read a Hogwarts-years Dramione in which Crabbe and Goyle were present, not even as Draco's bodyguards.
But enough of that. Point is, Draco actually has friends, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. And his friends are quite clever, which makes one wonder what they're doing hanging around with him, and always hot. Pansy is either a complete bitch as well as a whore who throws herself at Draco, or a clever, steadfast, independent yet loyal friend who's is hot and does not have a pug nose. Nope. You must have read wrong. Theodore Nott is simple because we're hardly given any information about him - so obviously he's hot and Harry just didn't notice. Daphne Greengrass (you know, Astoria's sister. Yeah, the sister of the girl who never existed until she married Draco) is also amazingly beautiful, stunning, whatever - but the author tends not to linger too much on the ladies.
Then there's Blaise. Oh, dear gods. He's Italian, he's dark and handsome, he's sexy and dangerous, he's predator-like... He's completely swoon-worthy and on top of that, either he's a great friend to Draco, or he's a conniving little sneaky bastard. Both of which only increase his hotness factor. And yeah, he's totally blood-prejudiced, but you know, he's hot.
Draco had better watch out. Blaise/Hermione (what's that called, anyway? Hermayonnaise?) is always an option.
Hot, clever friends do not a good romance story make, but they help. They add tension, and people who can give advice while looking good, and a completely new set of friends for Hermione who is unlikely to ever speak to Harry, Ron or Ginny ever again, for obvious reasons. (They're not hot enough, I told you already.)