Honestly, the best signal for what's genuinely popular in the Dramione world is kudos and bookmarks on Archive of Our Own. A lot of external lists can be outdated or just reflect one person's taste. I'd sort by kudos and maybe filter for complete works, then dive into the comments. Stories like 'The Auction' or 'Manacled' always dominate, but sometimes you'll find a newer one rising fast because of a unique premise. The comment sections are gold for seeing what resonates with people—if a fic has a thousand comments debating the ethics of a certain spell, that tells you something. I found 'The Gloriana Set' that way, and it hooked me harder than some of the more famous ones.
Don't sleep on the reddit community either, r/Dramione. Their sidebar has a curated 'god-tier' list that's a solid starting point. It's less about raw numbers and more about consensus quality, which can be more reliable than just chasing the biggest hit counts.