Some notes about this fic:
I love Dramione. And while fanfiction gives authors an outlet to explore different interpretations of the Harry Potter characters, over the years I've seen some tropes appear in fanfics that are completely out of character. As such, I tried to upend a lot of them in this story.
1) Ron-bashing: yeah I get it. Hermione is seriously lowering her standards in the books by mooning after him and the epilogue is cringe inducing. However, although Ron makes plenty of mistakes, he has plenty of redeeming qualities. Writing him as an idiot or terrible person in order to leave room for Draco to swoop in is just lazy writing.
2) Hermione is the embodiment of naivety and good: Alright I know where this comes from. Draco's the big bad and she's the yin to his yang and that means she is pure and good and naive, always trying to do the right thing, looking for the best in everyone and oh so trusting. Except she is not. She's vindictive, emotionally intelligent, suspicious and careful, and downright Machiavellian. Every time I hear "for someone so intelligent you sure are stupid" I want to pull my hair out. No. She was on to you for weeks and that's why you're trapped in a jar and being blackmailed.
3) Draco is an asshole and Hermione puts up with it: Except that no, she wouldn't. She didn't take shit from anyone. When Ron was a jerk she made him suffer for it emotionally and physically until he apologized and/or learned his lesson (epilogue notwithstanding, but I don't think the epilogue aligns with either Ron or Hermione's characters).
4) Lavender-bashing: usually comes in the form of slut-shaming which I hate or air head shaming. And of course if Ron is interested in her then that means he's an idiot as well. See point number 1. I prefer complex characters.
5) Hermione as a shy virgin/prude/passive: She might be a virgin, she might not. But after going through a war I highly doubt it. Shy? Doubtful. Passive? No way. At what point in any of the 7 books do we get the impression that Hermione is shy or passive about anything? See point 2 for clarification.
6) Mary Sue/Marty Stu: Hermione and Draco aren't perfect, they're flawed and make mistakes. It's okay for Hermione to do something wrong and unethical, and it's okay for Draco to be vulnerable and unsure. She doesn't always have to make the right choices and he doesn't always have to be the all-knowing, always sure of himself Slytherin.
7) Draco as a good guy: In order for Hermione to fall in love with him and, at the same time, not be stupid for knowingly entering into a relationship with someone that will eventually treat her poorly, he would actually have to be a good person. But to align with what makes Dramione so much fun, he's given a superficial veneer of bad-boy/insufferable prat instead of him actually being a jerk. Except Draco is not a good guy. So what does that mean in terms of her accepting him and how does that relationship work? Which leads to point 8.
8) Draco vs the #metoo movement: I'm a fan of Dub-con. It's hot. Ravishment fantasies are erotic and that's a major reason that I read Dramione in the first place. That being said, I've seen that in order to align with the lessons in the #metoo movement, recent fics are overly focused on obtaining consent which although can be done well, sometimes defeats the purpose of Dramione in the first place. Authors usually deal with dub-con in two ways: either Hermione ignores the dub-con, much like society did/does, and falls in love/admits to enjoying the sex anyway; or Draco turns out to be a perfect intersectional feminist always seeking enthusiastic consent. Which doesn't align with his character. I rewrote the Epilogue to reflect my take on this. It certainly makes for a more complicated story when issues aren't glossed over.
That being said, if a story is well written I'm willing to forgive just about anything! However, I think when these tropes are addressed, the quality of the story dramatically improves. Thank you all for reading, I hope you all enjoyed it. Please leave comments below I enjoy hearing people's thoughts.