A/N Here is the second last chapter to Forced Love. It's much longer than the other ones, I wanted it to be really, really good. I really hope it is. ::nervous smile:: Could you really review this one please? 'Cause then I know how to write the sequel, even though I have a really simple plot line right now. Chapters 28 and 29 were originally one chapter, but it got really long, so I split it into 2 chapters. More reading for you!

Dedicated to: Professor's Cortex and Hullabub for sticking with me throughout this, and still being here after so long. And of course, to all my readers and reviewers, because without you all, then there would be nobody to please when I was writing this fic!

Disclaimer: Plot's mine, people aren't.

Chapter 28: Congrats

Draco received another Gringotts letter from Ethel Balestrom the following day. Enclosed was an official certificate of Malfoy Wizarding Fortune Ownership. Soon after the arrival of the letter, Draco was strutting pompously around the castle. It was hard to tell the difference between this Draco and the 12-year old one that strutted around when the Chamber of Secrets was open. Somehow, or rather from their parents, the Slytherins began to grovel on bent knee for shunting Draco away from Slytherin society. He merely laughed at them saying, "Forgiveness eh? Not bloody likely." Then continued to strut off.

However, no matter how many times he would tell off the Slytherins, there would be another lurking around some other corner. He lost his cool demeanour when Pansy followed him for the whole morning. Normally he would be unfazed by this, but she didn't only follow him. She clung on the back of his robes, pleading for redemption. He turned on her before the start of Care of Magical Creatures, and in front of everyone, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike, transfigured her into a skinny, bright pink bulldog. "Now go beg for money off some other wizard you bitch!" he hissed at her and she scampered behind Hagrid's hut towards the paddocks.

"What's the commotion out 'ere?" Hagrid yelled as he walked out of the forest with Fang following close behind. Fang stopped when they got closer to the group of students and sniffed the air. He let out a loud booming bark and ran behind Hagrid' hut. Seconds later a pink thing was seen running into the mass of students, obviously scared of Fang running closer to it. "What is that?" Hagrid asked and picked up Pansy from behind his foot. As he looked around the class, realisation dawned on his features when he noticed Pansy missing, and he yelled out, "Who did this?"

Draco snickered, but it was loud enough for Hagrid to hear him. "Malfoy! Change Pansy back, now!"

Draco scowled and he took out his wand and with a 'CRACK' Pansy appeared being held by Hagrid by the back of her robes. She screeched for him to let her down and he did so. Once her feet touched the ground, she ran crying back into the school. "And Malfoy, 10 points from Slytherin." He, Draco, simply shrugged it off, 'Who cares if Slytherin loses points? Certainly not me.' He thought bitterly.

~*~

That night after dinner, Dumbledore rose from the High Table. "One quick announcement before we head for head, to all of our seventh year students, as you final year is coming to an end this upcoming Monday, we shall be holding a Graduating Dinner and Dance on that Sunday prior to the last day of term. It shall begin promptly at 7, until around midnight.

On Friday and Saturday there will be Hogsmeade trips for you to purchase whatever you need. It's up to you whether you'd like to wear muggle formal attire or wizards robes. This dinner and dance is strictly for seventh years, but you many invite a younger student if you want. That is all, now off to bed."

As students began to file out of the hall, they, as in the seventh years could only talk of the Graduation night. Once Draco got to the door, a hand was put on his shoulder. He turned around and came face to face to Professor Snape. "Draco, the headmaster would like a few words with you. Please stay back, he'll talk to you at the head table." And then he left towards the dungeons.

Draco walked by the side of the doorway, allowing students to pass, and slowly made his way to the head table. Professor Dumbledore was still seated in his gold chair, and once Draco stood nervously in front of him, he magicked a chair for him to sit in. "Mr Malfoy, there is a matter that I need to speak to you about…"

"Sir, if it's about me turning Pansy into a dog, I'm really sorry. I lost control of myself…" he rambled quickly.

Dumbledore raised a hand in silence and chuckled. "My boy, this has nothing to do with Miss Parkinson. It's regarding the Graduation Night." Draco nodded. "I would like you to prepare a Valedictorian, going away speech for the night. It should cover your feelings over the last seven years, and basically, about the future. Are you OK with that?"

Draco was in shock. He never would have thought that he, Draco Malfoy, of all people would be the Valedictorian this year or any year actually. It was known to everyone that Hermione would be the most likely candidate; not himself. He cleared his throat, "Pardon my questioning your decision, but, why me? Wouldn't Hermione be a better Valedictorian?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Academically, yes she is, but in terms of the most change, no. Over the course of mainly this year, you, Mr Malfoy have progressed the most regarding personality, knowledge and as a person. You learned to love when you thought it was not possible and to extend that love to a woman you previously despised. So you are much better suited to be Hogwarts Valedictorian."

"I understand sir. Would you like you read over my speech once I've written it?"

"No. I'm sure it'll be wonderful anyway. Now go off to bed. Ms Granger will be wondering where you've been."

Draco nodded. "Thank you for honouring me with the position."

"The pleasure is all mine Mr Malfoy."

And Draco left the Great Hall.

~*~

Once he got back to the common room he sat himself down at his work desk and positioned a quill in his hand with the tip of the feather in his mouth. 'So I have less than 5 days to make some long speech. I can't write a speech. What's it supposed to be about again? Oh yeah, feelings of the 7 years, futures, that sort of thing.' He thought to himself. He scribbled a few lines of introduction and then continued to twirl the feather tip in-between his lips.

"Hey, where were you?" Draco jumped at the sound of a voice behind him. He turned around and saw Hermione going to lean on the edge of his desk. She was already set for bed, wearing a pale yellow tank top and pale blue cotton pyjama pants.

"Dumbledore wanted to speak to me." Draco said. 'Should I tell her that I'm Valedictorian? How will she react?'

"What about?" she asked and reached over to take the parchment he was writing on. "All of our NEWTs are done, you can't be doing homework. Hell, not even I'm am!" she laughed.

"Um…Dumbledore told me that I'm to…be Valedictorian for the Graduation dinner." He was nervous for her response.

"I see." She said slowly, her face looked crest fallen. But then she smiled, "Congratulations though."

"You're not upset?"

"Of course I'm not! Why should I be?" she was still smiling.

"I thought you wanted to be valedictorian."

"Well, I wanted to be, but if it wasn't me, then I'm glad it's you. You deserve it." She put the parchment back and put her hand on his shoulder.

"No I don't," he shook his head, "You deserve it more than me. You are the smartest witch ever to grace Hogwarts' halls. You're Head Girl, best friend to The-Boy-Who-Lived! What am I? Son of a convict and murderer; that's what I am. Former initiate to Voldemorts' inner circle. You're much well suited for this role Hermione, not me.

"Although all that you've said is true, on one level or another, it's not a matter of what you are, but who you are, Draco. You've gone from a snivelling spoiled brat, to a charming, loving, caring man. If that isn't a good enough change in the wizarding world, then I don't know what is. So stop protesting and get to work with that speech! I'm going to bed. Good night." She pecked him on the cheek and went back to her room.

~*~

By Friday afternoon, Draco still didn't have a speech written. But with each passing moment, Mount Parchment got higher and higher. His dustbin was literally overflowing with crumpled parchment scrolls and quill shavings. He even requested that his meals be delivered to him directly through a house-elf, so he wouldn't have to sit in the dining hall.

Hermione was more of a nuisance than a help to him. Whenever she wasn't in Gryffindor Tower, or eating, or in the library doing God knows what as there was no homework, she was sitting with him. Apart from continuously stuffing the stray papers back into the dustbin, she was rambling on about good speech writing techniques.

As she was explaining (on deaf ear) the importance of a good speaking voice, he snapped. "Hermione, you don't need to stay here. There's a Hogsmeade trip today. You can find a dress and buy it tomorrow. Get some fresh air." He said kindly yet pointedly.

She waved it off. "I don't need a dress robe or anything. I'm creating my own. I've spent too much this year on robes and the like. And I've wanted to do some sewing on my own. It'll be a good change from just buying my clothes myself. And it'll get my creativity flowing."

"Money isn't a factor. I'll give you a hundred galleons…change…a good change…Hermione you're a genius!" she crumpled yet another roll of parchment and flung it over his shoulder. He reached over and kissed her quickly before grabbing a fresh scroll and began to write.

She smiled, "Not that your creative juices are being squeezed, I'll have to do my robe." She patted his shoulder and left to her room sanctuary from the speech writing impeded.

~*~

The time always seems to fly by once you've got a grasp of your mental kite. In Draco's case, his quill and mind seemed to be in sync with each other, as he hastily scribbled the last few sentences of his Graduation speech. There was a mere hour left before the start of the Graduation ceremony and for the past hour, Hermione was badgering him to get ready already.

"Draco Malfoy I'm not going to tell you again! Haul your arse to you room and get ready! We have to be there early!" she screamed from her room, through the door, over the sound of a magical hair dryer.

"Fine! I'm going! Jeez, don't get your knickers in a twist!" he yelled back, opening his room door.

~*~

'I really don't see why women get so worked up on events such as these! It's not as if men take a long time to get ready, unlike them!' he thought, getting into the shower.

~*~

Hermione was scrambling around her room getting herself ready. Her dress was lying on her bed nice and prettily, while its owner was prancing around wearing her knickers and bra. Hermione's wand was floating around her head, magically doing her hair while her hands were full, both clasping and unclasping necklaces and doing makeup.

Realizing that with the way her dress was styled, she cast aside the need for a necklace. She angrily muttering to herself, "Total waste of time, blasted accessories." while leaning over her bathroom counter applying eyeliner. To her side was a floating copy of 'British Vogue' opened to a page for simple, yet glamorous hair and makeup styles.

Currently, her wand was recreating the modern, yet still stylish, twisted and braided bun at the back of her head. She herself worked on her easy-to-do makeup, which consisted of light gold eyeshadow, reddish pink lipgloss, gold-dusted blush, and black eyeliner. By the time she was finished, so was her wand. The bun wasn't the plain old boring Prof. McGonagall style. Oh no, it was far from it! Parts of her hair that led towards the bun were twirled and braided and the bun itself was simple. It was cleanly groomed, yet still held a sultry just-got-out-of-bed look. It was tied with a long white ribbon that hung down the sides of the bun. Although the sultry-ness was still there, it looked like five different parts of her hair were twisted elegantly and individually them combined to make a sort-of, star pattern. It was pretty unique.

There was a knock at the Gryffindor door. She hid behind it so nobody would see her in her half-naked state. Ginny was standing there wearing the same powder blue dress she wore at Christmas, but she altered the high neck to a normal one. "Aren't you ready yet? You're supposed to be there early right? It's already 6:30!"

Hermione looked at her clock and shrieked. Ginny was right! "Yeah I'm almost ready. You guys will see us there. Bye!" and she hastily closed the door.

She turned to her bed and carefully unclasped the clasps and unzipped the sippers of the lying dress. Quickly putting to on, she fumbled with the top clasp at the back. "Blast." She muttered and tried to see it on the mirror.

She was very proud of her dress masterpiece: a classic Hermione Original! It was muggle style, which combined both of her old dresses. It was a halter-top dress style, with the upper torso being red and gold, and the skirt section a sheer with. The waist was a V-waist and was tied with a thick write ribbon with the ends hanging off her hips. The halter neck was embroidered with gold thread, as was the lower section of the torso. Her chest area was simply scarlet.

The skirt was made of satin, and the shiny-ness came from the over-layer of white silk with sewed on silver rhinestones. At the back of the halter-neck was a long gold chain that ended at mid-back. "Gotcha." She said triumphantly once she clasped the neck clasp.

"Hermione, we're going to be late!" came Draco's voice at the door, accompanied by his quick rapping. She was busy slipping on her strappy white heels to acknowledge him.

She didn't give him a reply because she simply opened the door while he was still standing there. She smiled at him and he grinned back. "My darling, I believe I've died an hone to heaven because you surely are an angel." He kissed her hand.

She laughed. "Draco, that was really stupid, not to mention old. Because the last time I heard that, I fell off my dinosaur *.

He shrugged and hooked his arm in hers, and the left for the Great Hall. By the time they got there, it was already 6:45. They opened the doors slightly and entered the beautiful hall. To replace the floating candles were floating chandeliers, holding what looked like stars, but were really multi-coloured fairies. Several tables (each for four people) were surrounding a large section of dance floor in the front of the Head Table. There seemed to be an additional smaller table to the left of the Head Table seated for two, but it was difficult to see, as the chandelier lights were fairly dim.

"Good evening Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger. You've arrived at last! I was wondering when you would make your appearance. And what a stunning pair you make!" Professor Dumbledore greeted them.

They walked around the small tables towards the high table. "Mr Malfoy, I shall introduce you before we start dinner and you can just walk in front of the table where a magical microphone will be." He guided them along the length of the table towards the smaller, circular one. "These are your seats. The method of ordering will be the same as it always has: you tell the plate what you want and it will serve it to you.

"Shortly after dinner will be the award ceremony then the dance for the remainder of the evening. There are refreshments to the far right if you feel peckish. Finally, you may leave when you want, but I'm sure you'd like to spend the last night here at Hogwarts with all your classmates. Now, I think I'll let the rest of the students in and tell the teachers to sit down." Dumbledore left towards the main doors and opened them to allow the stream of seventh years into the hall.

As Draco and Hermione took their velvet-cushioned seats, they saw Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville sit at one of the tables closest to the dance floor and their private table. They waved to each other and then faced Dumbledore. "The school year will be over by the end of this night. So before we start the festivities a going away speech will be given by this years' Hogwarts valedictorian." He didn't say who the valedictorian was, but instead just nodded towards Hermione's table.

People all looked at them, expecting Hermione to get up, but she just smiled and looked at Draco, who got instead. Once at the floating microphone, he cleared his throat and straightened his black satin robes. Taking out a wad of parchment out of his breast pocket, he once again cleared his throat. "I suppose you were all expecting Hermione to be up here instead of me; probably because you think, no, you know, she deserves it better than I do. Truth be told, I think so too.

"But that's not what I'm supposed to talk about. I'm supposed to say stuff along the lines of 'Don't worry, nothing will hurt you outside these walls'. But you'll all be damned if that's true. I'm supposed to tell you to shoot for the stars, but you already know that. I'm also supposed to say things along the straight and narrow lines of how I've felt about the last seven years at Hogwarts. My last six years were full of crap." There was an audible gasp amongst the Great Hall. "You can all admit it, even I can. Since I was 11, I was nothing short of an egotistical little bastard who took pleasure from hurting people. Including the person I love now." Several eyes glanced at Hermione. "So what can I say that you already don't know, or haven't realized?

"One word: change. We entered this castle as innocent, or slightly innocent depending on who you are, boys and girls. Now we're leaving as educated wizards and witches; men and women. Hopefully, you've learned something during our seven years that will help us in life. Whether it's learning how to narrowly avoid getting killed at least 5 times in your life," flickering eyes towards Harry.

"Or how to stand a cauldron upright without being drenched from head to tow with foul liquid…no wait. Some of us still have to learn that." He smirked as Neville's ears went pink. "Or even that an 11-year old Slytherin bastard can love the blasted Gryffindors, not by what how they're in, but by who they are, and how they make you feel. Who cares if some are easier to hurt or make fun of than others are, as long as they're your friends in the end. And that even someone can make the earth stop spinning when they smile at you in a certain way?" he glanced at a blushing Hermione.

"What I'm trying to say is that we've changed in one way or another. And maybe, when at least three of us are the best bloody Aurors ever, we can change our world to a better place; a place where fluffy pink bunnies are roaming the Hogsmeade streets…or maybe not the latter. We can at least try. So congrats everyone for getting this far. Seven years was a long time, but we've made it." Draco tucked the parchment back into his pocket and bowed.

~ End of Chapter 28 ~

A/N: That was a long chapter if I must say so myself. I have about one or two more to write 'cause they were all going to be one chapter, but it would be REALLY long, so I'm splitting them all up. I'll have 29 up in a day or two, I have to finish writing it J .

Thanks to: christine, aartee, Quimberly, Mione G, Colibi, Evenstar Princess. Peachey, kelly, Chibifuu Malfoy, .

Also to…

Hyper_shark: ::says in Percy voice:: No story spoliers shall be given out unless the author wishes to disclose it. Lol. Sorry though. J

Calypso in Love: What a shocking thing that would be if someone was crazier than you…other than me of course. Don't worry, I'll answer the question soon enough. But in a more…um…formal way than just now. ::grin:: Waaaa 2 more chapters and FL is over!!! ::sniff::

silverstreak: Thanks for pointing that out to me. And thanks for the offer but I already have 2 ½ betas. Lol!

Lady Alanna Salmalin: 3 ½ hours! Well that's not hard to believe as there were 28 chapters. Thanks for the review!

Prof Cortex: It seems to me that you just can't stay away from these reviews eh Cortex? Oh well, you have special beta-ing privileges don't you? And what on earth do you mean 'One step ahead of you'? No way in heck are you ahead of me. :P!

Star Magic: I don't know if they're going to get married…yet. Maybe, I'm still tweaking my final plot ideas.

::sigh:: 2 more chapters left. But I suppose you're all happy that there's more to read, right? Hehe. And I can't leave you all without a final cliffhanging twist. And a twist that will probably be…hanging…or is it twisting…anyway, a twist that'll last in the sequel as well. Now you've read, now review! J