Chapter 4

Jealousy! What a brilliant idea. While Hermione had discarded her original plan earlier, she now knew what had to be done to accomplish her goal. She needed to make Ron jealous, but she needed to do so by flaunting a relationship in his face. There was only one man to do it. Draco Malfoy.

In an uncharacteristic turn of events, Hermione decided not to go to class that day, and spent it sitting outside on the grounds. She knew that with everything that had occurred in these past few days, she would not pay the proper amount of attention that her professors deserve, and would rather skip their class than not listen to them properly.

Sitting down under a tree just beyond the quidditch pitch, Hermione took out her copy of 'Hogwarts: A History', just in case anyone found her sitting here instead of being in class. She was still hesitating over whether or not Malfoy was the best person for the role. On one hand, he was an egotistical, prejudiced jerk who believed himself to be superior than others but on the other hand, who else could be a better candidate than the Slytherin God himself? Not only does Ron hate him, but he is arguably one of the best looking men in school. He's the complete opposite of Ron and even though she felt a pang of guilt for doing this, she knew he deserved it. After everything that had happened between them, it wasn't even close to what he did to her and the pain he put her through.

Being her naturally organized self, Hermione began listing all that needed to be done. She knew that she needed to fix up her appearance a bit, get some different clothes, act a certain way and most importantly, get Malfoy to agree to this crazy plan. She knew that that chances of Malfoy agreeing to this plan was far-fetched but ever since the fall of Voldemort, he's become a better person.

Putting the book down, Hermione let herself drift off peacefully, laying her head down against her bag on the grass.


Waking up hours later, Hermione momentarily forgot where she was and panicked. As she recalled just how her day had gone, she eased herself off the grass slowly and checked her watch. Cursing herself for sleeping through dinner, she decided to walk around the castle as opposed to going to the library and studying like most would expect.

As she walked around the castle she considered home, she weighed the pros and cons of this idea. In the end, she found no cons worth fretting over and decided to actually go through with it. All she needed now was to ask Malfoy whether he'd help her or not. Forgetting about the crucial other member of this devious plan, Hermione stopped walking abruptly. Mid-step, she spun around and practically ran back to her dorm. She needed to find Malfoy and ask him, and the first place she'd check was the Heads dorm.

Being the Head Girl, she was entitled to many privileges, one of them being her own room, in a dorm she shares with the Head Boy. This year, the Head Boy just so happened to be none other than the devil himself, Draco Malfoy. She smirked as she imagined just how easy this might all be. All she needed to do was wait for the perfect moment, get Malfoy to agree and then hopefully she'll get her revenge.

Just as she was about to enter the dorm, she saw a figure waiting by the portrait. They were leaning haphazardly, as though they'd been waiting for quite some time. At the sound of her footsteps, he looked up and Hermione found herself looking straight at Harry. Smiling at her best friend, she greeted him.

"Harry, not that I'm not happy to see you, but why are you here at this hour?" Harry simply opened his bag, taking out a stack of assignments and a container filled with her favorite foods.
"Well you didn't show up to class, so I collected your homework assignments for you. I figured I'd give them to you at dinner, but you weren't there either so I brought you some food." Feeling guilty for not warning Harry about her whereabouts today, Hermione thanked him repeatedly.

After a few minutes of small talk, the young woman let out a huge yawn so Harry said he'd see her in the morning and advised her to get some much-needed rest. Hermione took her assignments and food from her best friend, bade him goodnight and climbed through the portrait to her common room.

Continuing straight up the stairs to her room, Hermione thought of how much her life had changed since last week. She thought that Ron was the love of her life, and yet here she was, trying to make him jealous. Not one to waste time, she figured that she should get a head start on her plan and begin rifling through her clothes to find the perfect outfit to wear on the first day. Opening her trunk, Hermione tried to find something other than her school robes to wear. Knowing her mother and Ginny, they probably snuck in few articles of clothing that she would have never considered wearing before. Hermione was about to continue her search when she heard the portrait open and the familiar sound of Draco's footsteps filled the room.

Hastily putting her trunk away, Hermione scrambled to get to the common room before Draco retired for the evening. Nearly tripping on the stairs multiple times, Hermione got to the common room just as Draco reached his staircase.

"Draco! Erhm, I mean, Malfoy! Wait!" Draco turned around, surprised to hear Hermione speaking to him.
"Yes, Granger?" She continued to walk through the common room and sat down on the sofa. Patting the seat next to her, she looked at him expectingly.

"I need help with something, and i believe that you're the only one who can truly help me achieve the end result I'm hoping for." Draco cocked an eyebrow and sat in one of the chairs by the sofa. Thinking it was something to do with school work, he wasn't paying much attention to her.

"And just what would that be?"
"I want revenge on Ronald." Draco's head shot up at her words.
"Why on earth do you want revenge on Weasel? Isn't he your boyfriend?"
"We broke up recently and I figured out the perfect way to get revenge, although I'll need your help" Draco motioned for her to continue by waving his hand.
"Well, Rona-Weasley has a temper, and I plan on using that to my advantage. I want to make him jealous by flaunting a relationship in front of his face. I need you to pose as my boyfriend for a short while, just to prove a point."

"You must be joking. You want me to pose as your boyfriend just so that you can get back together with Weasel?" Draco looked nauseated at the thought. Hermione, seeing this, quickly shook her head and corrected herself.
"No, I don't want to get back together with him. He's a foul excuse of a man and he needs to learn that he can't simply treat me like some slave. Nothing would make him angrier than seeing me move on so quickly, especially with his enemy." Draco still wasn't convinced but he'd never seen the Head Girl look so down. He knew that she'd never do such a thing unless the Weasel had really hurt her and for that alone, he made up his mind. The school year has been rather boring and it could turn out to be quite fun, messing with the Weasel.

Draco stood up and held out his hand to the woman sitting across from him. She looked at it confusingly before she grasped it and he helped her up. Looking down at the young woman he towered over, he smirked.

"Count me in Granger."