Happy Valentine's Day, Lovelies!

Tricks

Chapter 2

"Did you dump Matthews yet?" Draco asked Hermione uncaringly the next day.

"Excuse you." She said. "I talked to him and I politely thanked him for helping me out, but told him he was no longer needed." She said as she headed for the library with Draco tailing her.

"Good. Now we can move on to step 2." He said.

"And what's step 2?" she asked looking at him.

Draco got closer and whispered in her ear, so no outsiders could hear him.

"Meet me in the Room of Requirement in an hour." He said before walking away grandiosely.

Hermione watched him leave and couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement at the thought of secretly meeting someone in a private room. She just wished it was Ron asking her to meet him.

Sighing, she entered the library and began to study. It didn't take her long to realize she couldn't concentrate on her schoolwork. She just kept thinking about what it was Draco had planned. He was a very mischievous one, so the idea of meeting him privately with unknown intentions freaked her out a little bit.

What if he was planning on luring her there, so he could have his way with her?

Nah…

Packing up her things, she knew it was finally time to meet him. She spent the past hour in the library, not studying. She knew she would kick herself later for wasting so much valuable time.

As she made her way up to the meeting place, her body was shaking and she was unnerved. Walking into the room, she looked around the space and saw it was empty.

"Draco?" Hermione asked. "Draco?"

Suddenly, Hermione was swooped off her feet, metaphorically. Draco appeared out of nowhere and surprised her by stealing a kiss, out of the blue. The sudden action caused Hermione's head to spin as she got a full dose of everything that was Draco. The scent of his cologne, the radiation of his body heat, the feeling of his strong hands keeping her in place.

The kiss was deep, powerful and showed that Draco knew exactly what he was doing.

He pulled away just seconds later and looked down at her, unfazed.

"That's how you kiss someone." He said. "Did you kiss Matthews like that?" he asked.

Hermione slowly shook her head. She was already dizzy to begin with.

"That's why Weasel wasn't jealous." He said before backing away from her.

"Why did you do that?" she asked trying to catch her breath.

"I just wanted to see how you were." He replied. "You need improvement." His tone was distant as he walked across the room. Hermione felt self-conscious now, thanks to his comment. Draco then conjured up a sofa, some candles and music.

"What are you doing?" she asked unsurely. "What exactly did I sign up for?"

"I'm setting the mood." He said turning to look at her. "A moment with me is never dull, Granger."

"What exactly are we even doing in here?"

"I'm teaching you the art of seduction."

Lovely…

"Is that necessary?" she asked.

"Sit." He said pointing to the sofa. Hermione was hesitant, but did as he demanded.

"You know, I still don't understand why you're willing to help me." She said getting comfortable.

"I scratch your back, you scratch mine." He replied back with authority.

After Draco had gotten the room the way he wanted it, he took a breath and admired his work. Rolling up his sleeves, he looked over at her and gave her taunting eyes and a smartass smirk.

"What?" she asked curiously.

"And, now we begin."

"Listen, just so you know, I'm not some puppet you can just control, Malfoy. I have no problem cursing you and walking out if you try anything sketchy." She said.

"Granger, you're going to be begging me not to stop." He said. "Now, relax."

Not as easy as it seems.

Draco went over and sat on the sofa, right next to Hermione. He looked down at her and made no effort to try and hide his initial run over of her assets. As he scanned his way down and then back up her body, she glared at him.

He leaned in until his face was just inches away from hers.

"Do I make you nervous?" he asked.

"N-no." she said looking away.

"I don't believe you." He said provokingly. He leaned in a little closer and whispered in her ear. The heat of his mouth tickled her ear. "How about now?"

Hermione suddenly jumped off the couch. She wasn't comfortable being that close to Draco. Truth be told, he did make her nervous. She would soon rather be impaled by a unicorn horn, than give Draco the benefit of the doubt.

"I told you." Draco said to her.

"Listen, I don't exactly understand why we're wasting time up here." Hermione said looking at him. "Ron isn't here and the only reason I even need your help is for the sake of Ron. There's no point for us to spend any alone time together." She said exasperated.

"You're here because you need my help with everything." He said standing up. "You have absolutely no idea what you're doing, Granger, because if you knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be here right now."

She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

"Now, you can either relax and let me do my job, or you can walk out of here, say goodbye to Weasley and live your boring life the way you've been living it since birth."

Hermione thought about it for a minute and chose to stay, against her better judgment.

"Good, now let's get back to work." He told her.

Thus the montage began.

"Never seem too interested…" he told her. "Show just enough skin." Draco unbuttoned the first button on her white blouse and Hermione covered her chest before buttoning it back up. "And, never…never make him feel like you're not a challenge. Guys like a challenge." He said with a smirk. "When you see him, make deep eye contact; for a total of three seconds, before turning away." She hung on to every word.

After an hour of listening to Draco's advice, Hermione and Draco left the room. Supper was soon and Hermione was thinking about Ron and Lavender again. She was hoping they wouldn't be all over each other like earlier.

On the way down, Draco came up with a brilliant plan. He lit up in his brain like fireworks.

"One more thing." He said right before shoving her into a broom cupboard with him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. The sudden impact shocked her because she didn't know what was happening.

"Hold on." He said opening the cupboard slightly to look out. When he saw a slightly large group of people coming towards their direction; heading towards the Great Hall, Draco plowed out of the cupboard with Hermione. Holding her tight in his arms as they spun out of the closet.

"Granger." He said with amusement in his voice as he smirked at her, pretending not to notice the people who had stopped and gasped at the two.

Finally "noticing" them standing there, Draco straightened up, ran a hand through his hair quickly and sauntered away. Hermione was mortified and quickly caught up with Draco.

Behind Hermione, she could hear the mob whispering about what they had just seen.

"What are you doing?" Hermione whispered harshly to him.

"Relax, I've got it all taken care of." He said to her. "Trust me, the school will be buzzing by the time we get down to supper."

What did I get myself into? Why on earth did I let him do that? This is going to backfire in my face. I know it.

XOXO

Walking into the Great Hall, all eyes were on Hermione. As she stood in the doorway every person turned around and started whispering. She threw a glance over to Slytherin table and couldn't identify Draco in the masses. He suddenly appeared out of nowhere behind her, winked at her and smirked before walking in and heading to his table. Hermione blushed and tried to blend in with a group of first years, who had just walked into the hall.

Finally making it to where her friends were at, she glanced at Ginny and Harry who were giving her questioning looks.

"Hermione?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah, Gin?" Hermione asked.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning." Harry interrupted. "We heard about you and Malfoy in the broom cupboard." He said angrily.

"Oh…um, don't worry about that." She replied.

"Sorry, Mione. I can't help it." He said with attitude. "My best friend was locked in a cupboard with my enemy. I think worrying about it is the least amount I could do. I should kill him."

"Don't." she said. "Harry please just trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Looking for Ron down the table, she spotted him. How could she not? He was staring right at her. Hermione closed her eyes and turned away when Lavender looked down at her too and started to laugh. Ron then got up and made his way over to her and sat down.

"Hey, guys." He said to the group. "Mione, is it true about you and Malfoy?" he asked. Hermione caught sight of Lavender watching the conversation with a childish smirk on her lips. Hermione felt a balsy move coming on.

"You know what?" she asked turning to him. "It is true."

Her friends looked at her along with other spectators, jaws dropped, eyes huge.

"I was in a broom cupboard with Malfoy. I like Malfoy. Okay? He's the only person who makes me feel good about myself. So, tough luck if you don't like that. It is what it is."

Hermione got up quickly and stormed out of the hall.

Running out, she finally took a breath of air. She felt incredible for saying that right to Ron's face. She didn't know what Malfoy was thinking because she knew for a fact he was paying attention. She just dug a hole. She didn't know if she was going to be buried in it or build a pool and take the dive of her life. She was ready for change. She was ready to be whoever she was meant to be and achieve her goals.

Who would have thought that Draco would actually be useful?

XOXO

The blonde haired Slytherin came walking through the heads dorm in a hurry after dinner.

"That, Granger..." he started. She was worried he was about to take her head off. "Was brilliant! Why didn't I think of it?" he asked. "Announcing our relationship in front of the entire school was…perfect. I'm going to have such a good time dangling this whole thing in front of Weasley's face."

"Sorry. He just made me so mad. It was hard for me to stay calm." She said standing up. "I'm just getting started. I want to see the look on Lavender Brown's face when she realizes Ron is the wrong guy for her." She said excited.

"Whoa, easy there Granger. We're taking it all in strides."

"So, what's next?" she asked.

Draco thought about it for a minute.

"What's next is, we step up our game. All people think about us right now is we might have possibly hooked up in a broom cupboard. My stock won't plummet by helping you. And let's face it, you could use some popularity points. So, we go as far outside the box as possible."

"I do not need some popularity points!" she said offended.

He gave her a doubtful look and answered with a sarcastic "Yeah…"

"Listen, Granger. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. So, just sit back and relax. Try and enjoy yourself. When else in life are you going to be able to say that you hooked up with the most bad ass, good looking wizard at Hogwarts?" He asked before heading to his room.

Hermione was done doubting Draco's potential. He could make this a very interesting game. Hermione was ready to start playing games because it seemed that's all people did with her.

"Listen, Granger. I have a few tricks up my sleeve. So, just sit back and relax. Try and enjoy yourself."

A/N-Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews. You are the very reason why I adore writing so much. Thank you!