The Fourth Step In Seduction

"So it went well?" Blaise asked.

"Yeah, but she still doesn't know that its a Slytherin sending her all these flowers and arranging clandestine meetings with her." And damn near pinning her to the wall and kissing her senseless. But he didn't tell Blaise about that.

"So now we're ready to move on to the next step, step four."

"Hang on, that was only three so far?"

"One, gathering support. Two, sending flowers. Three, first encounter."

"Damn. If I'd known that seducing her was going to be this much work . . . "

" . . . you would have done it anyway. But tell me, Draco. How is your conscience feeling? Here you are, recruiting half the school as support to seduce an innocent girl whom, through no fault of her own, you have developed an alarming passion?"

"What conscience, Dr. Blaise? Glad as I am that you're concerned for my well being, I've never had trouble with a 'moral in the conscience,' or even displayed symptoms of that most deadly of all illnesses, compunction."

Blaise laughed. "Well then, step four. What'll it be?"

Draco considered. "Getting rid of those who stand in the way."

"Potter and Parkinson?"

Draco nodded. "I think we'll be needing Snape on this one."

Gryffindor Blushes

All through breakfast, Ginny blushed. Every time a boy looked at her, she thought, could it be him? and blushed. At dinner she was still blushing, and her adorers were starting to notice.

"Some damn bastard's gone and kissed her, I'll bet you anything," said Ernie McMillan of Hufflepuff House.

Blaise, who happened to be passing the Hufflepuff table on his way out of the Great Hall, grinned at the words. You are only too right, he thought, though 'damn bastard' wasn't the first description that came to mind when he thought of Draco.

In a corridor that led down to the dungeons, he stopped. Some one had called his name softly. He turned to see Lizzie Jaster, cheeks pink with embarrassment.

"I just wanted to say . . ." she trailed off and smiled uncertainly.

"You don't need to say anything," Blaise told her, and touched his lips to hers.

Damned if I care that she's a Gryffindor!

Back in the Great Hall, Ginny was still blushing though this time for a different reason.

"Hello Ginny," Harry said as he slid onto the bench beside her. Was it really necessary for him to sit quite that close?

"Hi Harry," she mumbled.

"I was wondering. This Saturday, you know its a Hogsmeade trip, Ron and Hermione and I were planning to make a day of it. Would you like to come too?"

Red up to her ears, Ginny wondered what to do. She'd already told Ron that she would be going with him part of the way to Hogsmeade, as they both needed to get birthday presents for Bill. She didn't want Harry to think of this as a date. After all, she wasn't a silly first year with a crush on him.

"Um, I'd love to come with you guys for a bit," she said, "But I have some things that I need to get done on my own too."

Harry beamed at her. "That'll be great." He was always so nice about every thing. Too nice. He would never do anything wicked, like arrange an anonymous meeting at midnight and kiss her till she could hardly breathe.

I wish I knew who it was . . . she thought dreamily, not really listening as Harry told her about his plans for the next Quidditch practice.

Across the room, Draco Malfoy whispered into Snape's ear, "You wanted to help, sir, here's what you can do. Make sure that Potter has detention on Saturday."

"A pleasure, Mister Malfoy," Snape said.

Sabotage By S. Snape

As he prepared his heinous concoction, Snape cackled to himself. The sound was reminiscent of sand paper running over a black board. He even hummed tunelessly to himself for a while. It was seldom that Severus Snape was happy, like he was now, and people tended to prefer things that way. Once he had smiled at a student. She was later sent to the hospital wing gibbering.

The volume of his humming increased as he poured the foul liquid into a small vial made not of glass but of a similar substance that dissolved in sufficient heat. He tried a few skips after putting in the stopper, but that disturbed even him.

Wiping his face clear of all emotion, Snape drifted like a malignant, black-robed bat into his class room. Advanced Potions was a small class, with only twelve students. The lesson that day was tricky, very tricky. Snape himself had taken more then a month to master it. It was a simple matter to slip the vile into Potter's potion towards the end of class.

Boom! thought Snape happily. He counted out the seconds. Three, two, one --

A boiling hot geyser of sickly yellow potion burst forth from Potter's cauldron. It quickly began to congeal on walls, floors and all over Potter's rode. When the deluge abated, Snape drifted over to the stunned boy.

"Detention, I think," he said icily. "You have not only failed this lesson, but marred my classroom and spoiled some of the potion supplies. Twenty points from Gryffindor. Meet me down here on Saturday, nine o'clock. Sharp."

"Y-yes Proff-ffesor Snape. I-- really don't know w-what went wr-rong."

Why don't I do this more often? Snape wondered to himself later. Because I'd get sacked. He sighed. What a pity there aren't more seductions here. They make the place almost -- enjoyable.

Telling Lies To Pansy

"WHAT?" Pansy shrieked.

Draco let out a fake sigh. "I'm really sorry, Pansy. Things have gotten really out of control, and I apologize for that. Do you want me to go over it again?"

She nodded.

"Well, in our third year --"

"When we started going out."

"I was getting to that. In our third year, Goyle told me about this huge crush he's always had on you. "

"Poppycock!"

"Just listen. He was too much in awe of you to ask you out himself, so he asked me to do it for him."

"But you asked me to go out with you-hoo-hoo," Pansy wailed. "Not Goyle. Sure, he's hot, but you, your just, just -- just soooooo gorgeous. "

Draco frowned, and tried to remember why exactly he'd put of with this girl for three whole years.

"You misunderstood, and I didn't want to hurt your feelings."

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! I-- gasp-- HATE -- gasp-- you-hoo-hoo!"

Then why are you making this big fuss about me breaking up with you? Draco wondered.

"Look, Parkinson, just get over it and go out with Goyle, alright?"

Then he walked away.

Ginny's Thoughts On Draco Malfoy

"Do you know what that git Malfoy did to me today?" Ginny asked Hermione, cheeks flushed with anger.

Hermione looked up, both startled and concerned. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm alright, damn it all!"

"What did he do to you?"

"He -- he was -- nice to me!"

"Nice to you?"

"The bastard!" Ginny seethed.

"What did he do?"

Ginny made a visible effort to calm herself down. "My book bag burst, all over the hall to transfiguration."

"Did he cast a severing charm on the seams or something?"

"No! He helped me clean the ink off my books. What was I supposed to do? Throw a bottle of ink at him?"

"If I were Ron, I would say yes. But I'm not. He's been nicer this year. Don't you think its possible that he's changed for the better?"

"No, I don't. What wouldn't I give to know what his ulterior motive is."

Though she said nothing, Hermione thought she knew. In the long run, it was better that Ginny not know quite how attractive she was. She was too kind hearted to play games with love, Hermione knew, but right now she thought that all the boys had just suddenly become a whole lot nicer. Who wouldn't be irritated once she knew that had a pack of ravening males hell bent on winning her heart?

Well, not Lavender Brown. Or Padma and Parvati Patil. Or Pansy Parkinson, or Millicent Bullstrode or-- well, I guess a lot of them. But Ginny certainly would be!