Lesson 4: The Art of Persuasion

Being back at Hogwarts after the cat incident was quite a relief. But that still didn't stop me from giggling once in a while even after Malfoy had made me swear not to breathe a word of it to anyone.
"Hi Weasley."
I looked up from my utterly ridiculous doodles that I had been previously drawing, but couldn't help myself. I stifled a giggle.
"Ha ha, laugh it up Weasel-bee." Malfoy rolled his eyes placing himself next to me, both of our backs leaning against the tree.
"I'm sorry... I'll try and stop laughing."
Nope. No can do. The image of my cat as a hat was too much funny for even a person with no humour.
Malfoy quickly changed the subject, so no one in a 30 mile radius could know.
"Did you do the muggle studies homework?"
I nodded, predicting his answer.
"You?"
He snorted. "Why would I?"
I shook my head, turning myself to face him. I had to hear how he was going to get out of this one.
"But this is..." I halted, trying to do the math in my head. "...at least the 12th time you haven't done it! I smell detention!"
Malfoy raised his hand and patted me on the head. What did he think I was, a dog? ...Wait, don't answer that.
"My my Weasley. Do you know me at all?"
I raised an eyebrow. Was he serious?
"This is just about time for you to learn the complex art that is called persuasion. That makes it lesson 4."
I groaned. You should groan mentally as well.
After this, he grabbed my hand and dragged me off to muggle studies practically kicking and screaming.
We took our places at the back of the classroom; Malfoy took the usual stunt of placing his feet upon the table while chewing his green chewing gum.
Now, for muggle studies we usually have a new professor who is called Professor Dory, and boy is she a strict woman. I mean, I heard that once, a boy yawned in her class and she went absolutely ballistic, telling him that he should have much more respect for muggle's and what not. I am all for blood status equality, but that was just crazy!

But today, we had another teacher who had rather mouse like qualities. Her hair was placed into a long chocolate brown braid, her robes looked rather tatty-almost second hand (I should know, I have some). But it wasn't as much her appearance that made her mouse-like; it was the way she spoke to the class.

"H-Hello. My name is Professor Cartridge, and I-I will be covering for Professor Dory today." She stuttered, tugging at her collar.

I really didn't understand our school sometimes. This happened to be the subject in which most students took because they wanted a break; therefore they chose to throw paper balls at each other and sing the latest wizard rock song in the loudest voice that they could muster up. So my question reins true, why on earth did they give us the quietest teacher known to mankind?

She continued to speak, trying to talk over the loud humming of talking that had started to erupt.

"Professor Dory informed me that you were all to have..." she trailed off squinting at the paper in her hands, before taking her oval glasses which were placed upon her head and turning the paper the right way around. "Yes, she said you had homework? I-I think it says essay here."

Malfoy nudged me, drawing my attention to face that he had his wand in his hand and was levitating the professor's chalk quite high above the ground.

"Malfoy!" I hissed. "Don't be stupid! She's trying her best to be a good teacher and you're not helping!"

Malfoy shrugged, smirking. "Relax Weasley. I've got this under control."

I crossed my arms, waiting for his plan to come back and hit him in the face.

The chalk that he had been levitating dropped instantly, creating a puff of white dust around the new professor, making her cough and splutter. In the mean time, Malfoy flicked his wand, causing the stack of books that were on the desk to tumble over and slide all over the floor. Pretty much the entire class was sniggering into their hands-the only exception was me.

Malfoy nudged me again, quickly shoving his wand back into his robe pocket. He swung back off of his chair and came much too close to my face, whispering in my ear.

"Watch and learn Weasley. Be sure to take notes on me." He raised his eyebrows in a pretend flirty manor, as he swaggered down the middle of the desks and begun helping clear up the books that Professor Cartridge was trying to clear up, with chalk all over her. She clearly didn't know that it was Malfoy who had done this on purpose. Figures.

"Let me help you with that Professor." Malfoy said with such kindness, that it was clearly an act. I rolled my eyes, not believing what I was seeing, because Professor Cartridge was completely oblivious and looked relieved to have a "helpful student". Notice the use of quotation marks that I would usually emphasize with my fingers.

Once Malfoy had piled up all of the books, he placed them neatly on the desk and conveniently made the class settle down. He was earning the right for a flick in the ear the stupid suck up.

"Th-thank you young man. What did you say your name was a-again?" Cartridge asked, attempting to brush off the chalk.

"Malfoy, Professor. Scorpius Malfoy."

Pfft. I was expecting him to bring out his muggle gun with 007 written on the side. He was really acting the whole hero, wasn't he? Talk about milking the moment.

Cartridge gave Malfoy a timid smile thanking him once more.

"Is there anything else I can do Professor?" Malfoy asked as the rest of the class still buzzed, ignoring Malfoy and Cartridge.

Cartridge shook her head causing Malfoy to nod and begin to walk down the desks. Suddenly, he stopped and turned a full 360 degrees, facing the professor once again.

"Professor, I am sorry but I haven't been able to do my homework. May I be excused?" Malfoy said, in an even more sickly voice. Queue puking.

Professor Cartridge nodded, timidly smiling at Malfoy again, gathering up her papers. "Th-that's alright Mr M-Malfoy. I will explain the situation to P-professor Dory being as you've been so h-helpful." She stuttered.

Malfoy gave her one last acidly thick smile and shoved his hands back into his pockets, sauntering back over before throwing himself into his seat. He sighed, placing his hands behind his head.

"Now, that's how you do that."

I couldn't imagine myself doing anything like what Malfoy had just achieved in my lifetime. I mean, I sometimes forgot my homework but I would always face up to the consequences, not suck up to the teacher!

"What? Sucking up."

Malfoy threw his head back, dispensing a chuckle. "No. It's the art of persuasion Weasley aka getting what I want in life. Its Something I am a master at."

At least he not conceited.

"Please, I could do it in my sleep." What? Brain! Focus, you can't even persuade a banana! What are you saying! "Cartridge wasn't even a challenge."

Stop. Talking. Now.

"Fine then, you pick a suitable challenge for me then Weasley."

I thought for a moment. Anyone would be more difficult to persuade than Cartridge, so what did it matter.

"Let's face it Malfoy, anyone is harder to persuade than Cartridge, so you pick." I found myself saying.

Malfoy chuckled again, darker this time. Uh oh. This cannot be a good sign.

"That's fine with me Weasley, but you're going to have to persuade the man that I've developed my talents of persuasion around. My father. Good luck with that."

No! No way! I hadn't even met Draco Malfoy, and from what dad had said, I didn't want to! And I was going to have to persuade him? I am now wishing that I had just accepted Malfoy's cheesy persuasion skills and moved on.

"You're on."

Author Note: So did you like? This idea stemmed from the suggestion I got from a reviewer called theworldsbestauror. Thanks so much!

I have also had a few suggestions from arrrgghimapiratenow which I plan to use, so stay tuned for those!

Please keep the reviews coming as I truly appreciate them!

P.S Sorry for the loss of updates, fan fiction had a little trouble or so I could tell!

IckleblueeyedWitch