"Why should I believe any of what you tell me?" Ginny demanded through squinted eyes as she stared down Draco, who simply wore a smile on his pale, pointed face.

"Come on Weasley, what incentive do I have to lie to you?" he retorted, raising his eyebrows.

"I dunno, you're Draco Malfoy…you don't need incentive to lie," she shot back. Draco shrugged and merely continued to smirk at her. She rolled her eyes.

"So you're saying that the brunette slut –"

"Esther," Draco filled in for her.

"Okay fine, you're saying that Esther is Harry's attempt to make me jealous?"

"Why else would he choose to spend his time with some random Slytherin girl he barely knows?" Draco asked pointedly.

"True…" Ginny admitted as she continued to ponder the situation, "So…what do I do?"

Draco sighed and slapped his hand against his face in annoyance. It looked like he was going to have to explain it slowly to the girl.

"Do I have to draw you a bloody diagram?" he snapped, "Here's the deal ginger, Potter's trying to make you jealous. Therefore, in retaliation, you also have to make him jealous. You see where I'm going with this?"

"Well, how am I supposed to make him jealous?" she inquired, "It's not like I'm ready to start dating again…and besides I'm not a user. Who am I gonna find that would be willing to let me fake date them to piss him off?"

Draco lifted one eyebrow and smirked while shooting her a look. Suddenly, her jaw dropped in realization and she smiled.

"You'd do that for me?"

"No…I'd do that so I can see the look on Potter's face when he sees us together," Draco corrected smugly.

"Works for me," Ginny said with a shrug. Draco smiled deviously.

The next few days were days of planning. Draco and Ginny had come up with a perfect scheme to bring the golden boy to his knees. Beyond that, Draco was quite certain that it would only be a matter of a week or two before he would get Ginny in bed, meaning Esther would be all his. Yes, he had everything lined up flawlessly. Nothing could go wrong. Meanwhile, Esther and Harry continued to spend more time together. Whether it be walking together after class, or sharing a table in the library. Esther could tell that Harry was finally starting to fall for some of her charms, but she wasn't all the way there yet. However, the more time she spent with him, the easier it became for her to forget about the bet. She found that she actually, legitimately enjoyed spending time with him. It was a scary thought to her, and one that she often put to the side.

One day after class, she and Harry were walking in the hallway together, joking and laughing as they always did. It was a good talk, and they found themselves wandering around the castle rather than traveling to their next destinations. Esther was having a moment of panic as she realized how happy she felt when she was with this kid. She tried really hard to put out of her mind, but it just wasn't working this time. This was made even worse when she saw the warmth in Harry's eyes as he looked at her. Damn. This was definitely not a part of the plan. However, Esther's fearful musings were completely pushed to the wayside as Harry suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Esther furrowed her brow and turned back to face him, and noticed that he was as still as a statue and his expression just looked simply…hurt. She whipped back around to face forward before her jaw dropped in realization.

Ginny and Draco were pressed against the wall a little ways down from them, trapped in an intense make-out session. Of course, Esther knew this was all a part of Draco's scheme to win the bet, but Harry didn't. Then she turned to look at the dark haired boy's face once again and her heart broke. He just looked so…destroyed. It was hard for her to watch. Obviously, a part of him would always care for Ginny, and seeing her in the arms of his sworn enemy was definitely far from easy. Esther folded her lips solemnly before walking back towards Harry and grabbing his hand.

"Let's go, okay?"

Harry merely nodded, and the two headed down the hallway and out of sight of the PDA nightmare behind them. Once they were safely in another corridor, he pulled his hand out of Esther's and stayed completely silent.

"Hey, do you need—"

"I'm gonna go to my dormitory," Harry told her quietly, "See ya later."

With that, he was gone, leaving her upset and confused behind him.

"Oh my gosh, did you see Harry's face?" Ginny laughed excitedly as she and Draco headed down to the courtyard to talk about their success, "I thought he was gonna start crying right there on the spot!"

"Yes, well done Weasley," Draco complimented, "I didn't think you had it in you."

"Neither did I," she admitted, "I feel so great, you have no idea."

"Oh, I have some idea," he told her as he chuckled darkly, "Making Potter's life miserable is a great pleasure of mine, in case you've forgotten."

"True," Ginny conceded with a shrug, "This was such a great idea…I can't believe I'm saying this, but thanks Malfoy. I couldn't have done it without you."

"My pleasure." He offered her a smirk.

"Well, I'm off to the common room to deal with the aftermath of the damage we've done," Ginny announced as she turned to head in the opposite direction.

"Enjoy," Draco replied, "And find me later to give details."

"Will do," Ginny assured him as she skipped off to the Gryffindor common room.

Once she reached her destination, she wasn't surprised to see Harry sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace. His elbows were resting on his knees and he was leaning forward, staring into the fire. He was obviously deep in thought, so Ginny was surprised that he turned to look at her as she walked past the couch. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. She was actually starting to feel a bit of guilt about what she had done and wondered if she should say something to him about it. However, he didn't give her a chance to start a conversation, for he rose from the couch and turned to face her.

"Don't even look at me," he hissed as he pushed past her and headed for the stairs.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny demanded.

"It means, stay the hell away from me," Harry verified coldly. Ginny stayed silent for a moment as he started up the stairs, but then yelled after him once the rage had built up inside her.

"How dare you! How dare you act like the hurt one, Harry, after everything you've done."

He spun around to face her, the expression on his face one of anger.

"Everything I've done? I wasn't the one snogging my sworn enemy right in front of your face."

"How about you running around with that skinny, Slytherin whore like it's nothing?" Ginny shot back.

"Esther's my friend," Harry returned, "And last time I checked, she didn't spend half of her school career trying to make you miserable."

"That's not even the point, Harry," she yelled as half the population of the common room turned to watch their fight, "You have no room to be angry at me, because newsflash: you broke up with me! You were the one who moved onto some random slut first! So any further commentary you have to make about my love life, you can keep to yourself. Got it?"

"Fine," Harry snapped, "That's just fine, Ginny. And you can just keep away from me…for good!"

"Fine!"

"Fine."

With that, Harry whipped back around and marched up the stairs, unable to deal with any further conflict. Meanwhile, Ginny was frozen behind him. Her body had seized up in rage, but tears fell freely down her face. This was not quite what she expected to happen.

"You son of a bitch," Esther snarled once she had marched up to Draco, who was sprawled out on one of the couches in the Slytherin common room. He was reading a newspaper, and looking very pleased with himself as he placed it in his lap to look at her.

"Nice to see you too, Sinclair," he returned smugly.

"Don't try to be cute, Malfoy," she snapped, "You're a disgusting prick, and you know it."

She spun around to walk away, but he jumped up from his position on the couch and grabbed her arm so that she couldn't leave. He pulled her so that their fronts were touching. He smirked as she merely offered him a look of disgust.

"Now tell me what you really think about me."

"Get off of me," Esther growled. She pushed against his chest to break free, but he just pulled her closer.

"Oh come on, Sinclair…what's got your knickers in a twist? Well, besides me…"

"Don't flatter yourself." She gave him on final shove and was able to release herself from his clutches.

"Why're you so mad?" he asked with legitimate interest.

"You know why," she shot back.

"Oh, because of that thing with Potter and Weasley? That was bloody brilliant and you know it," Draco said amusedly.

"It was cruel," Esther told him, "You're supposed to bed her, not make Harry miserable."

"Oh, so I see you two are on a first name basis now," he teased, "How cute."

"Shut up, Malfoy. You don't know anything about it," she said, "And from now on, do me a favor and leave him alone."

Draco laughed darkly and gave her a look, then suddenly paused as he was hit with a realization.

"Wait a minute…"

Esther tensed up. She had a feeling she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

"…You like him," Draco said as the smirk on his face grew.

"No…"

"Bloody hell, you like him!" He proceeded to break into a fit of laughter as Esther just stood there and rolled her eyes.

"Merlin, that's rich, he continued on.

"Shove it, Draco," Esther said irritably, "Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that I just don't wanna sleep with you?" She raised an eyebrow as her lip quivered in satisfaction at her own retort.

He gave her a disbelieving look as he grabbed her by the waist and lowered himself into her straight, brown hair. He let himself linger there for a bit as he took in the scent of her beautiful locks, before bringing himself to her jaw line and biting down on her skin roughly. He heard her breath hitch, and smiled before pushing her away from him.

"I think we can safely rule that out, my dear," he taunted. She narrowed her eyes at him, but smirked nonetheless.

"Regardless, leave Potter alone," she pressed on, "He didn't deserve that."

"Nor does he deserve to be lead on and have his heart broken," Draco returned, "but you have no problems doing that, now do you?"

"That's different…"

"Why? Because you actually like him," Draco stated as if it were a fact rather than just a theory.

"Shut up, Malfoy. You've been enough of a bastard today as it is."

Esther gave him one last eyebrow raise before heading towards the girls' dormitories, as always leaving Draco to stare after her retreating frame.

"Get some rest, Sinclair," he called after her, "You're gonna need it for later when you lose the bet…trust me." He smirked.

The following day, Esther was surprised when Harry approached her after class. He was so upset and distant previously, that she didn't think that he'd be willing to talk to her again so soon.

"Hey Esther, I'm sorry about yesterday," he told her quietly, "I just—"

"No need to explain, Harry," Esther assured him, "If I were in your position, I have no idea how I'd act either."

"Thanks for understanding," he said with a smile. For a moment, the two were merely gazing into each other's eyes and smiling, but Harry suddenly shook his head as if to snap himself out of it and continued talking. "Anyway…er…would you wanna go take a walk or something?"

"I'm glad you asked," Esther replied, "Let's go." She grabbed his hand and grinned, surprised that this time he didn't pull it away.

After spending quite a bit of time wandering aimlessly on the grounds of Hogwarts, Harry and Esther decided it was about time to be heading back to the castle. Besides, they could see that storm clouds were gathering above them and they didn't want to be caught in the rain. However, they weren't lucky enough to miss the storm. They were drenched by the time they re-entered the school, but they didn't let this stop them from having fun.

"Look at you, you're soaked," Esther laughed, "Can you even see out of your glasses?"

"Barely," Harry replied with a smile. He took them off and wiped them on his sweater, but found that it wasn't too much of a help. Esther simply laughed harder at this.

"Sorry, we should've come inside sooner," she commented.

"Don't be sorry," he returned, "It was fun."

"Yeah…" she trailed off, "Kind of weird though, right?"

"How so?" Harry inquired with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know…A Gryffindor spending this much time with a Slytherin. It's weird."

"Almost as weird as a Gryffindor falling for a Slytherin?" Esther paused suddenly and snapped her head up to look at him. He looked a bit embarrassed at his last comment, and his cheeks had turned a light shade of red.

"That's not so weird," she told him softly. He just stood there, and silence fell over them. But after a moment, Esther stepped forward and kissed him gently on the lips. It was only for a second, but he seemed to be satisfied with it. He smiled, as did she.

"Bye, Harry." Esther backed away slowly as she always did, and he just gazed at her for a while before awkwardly turning to head to the Gryffindor tower.

Esther was feeling quite content as she traveled to the Slytherin common room. Yes, she was happy that she was so close to winning the bet, but more than that, she was happy that Harry liked her. She supposed she couldn't deny it anymore, Draco was right. She liked Harry, even though that idea was still odd to her. But it didn't matter, she couldn't back out of the bet. Draco would win by default if she did. No, she would have to put her feeling aside in order for her to be able to win. However, all of this flew out of her mind as she turned into the next corridor.

The sight of a disheveled Ginny Weasley greeted Esther as she continued down the hallway. She merely furrowed her brow as the red-head passed by her, but didn't escape without receiving a dirty look. The brunette merely shook her head and kept walking, until she saw something that made her stomach drop. A little ways down the hall, Draco Malfoy was exiting an empty classroom. His hair was slightly out of place, his clothes were a mess and he was holding his tie in his hand. Esther put two and two together and swallowed a lump in her throat as she was hit with realization. Draco smirked when he saw her, and approached her immediately. Smugness was dripping off of him.

"Game over," he said, walking by and leaving Esther stunned behind him.