How To Lose A Jerk In Ten Days

The Plan

On the day before winter vacation, with only the knowledge that you are stuck in the castle along with your arch nemesis and his friends, getting your test back in potions can be quite depressing. Especially if your enemy is Malfoy. And that's where Hermione Granger was, along with Harry and Ron, who wasn't looking so...happy.

Snape dropped a piece of parchment on Ron's desk with a sneer, then walked over to Malfoy's desk to compliment him on his score. Ron closed his eyes tight, turned the paper over then opened one eye open for just a millisecond. The redhead let out a long moan, letting his head fall to his desk. He had failed, again.

Hermione received her paper from Professor Snape, letting out of sigh of relief when she saw she had passed. Okay, so she had done more then passed, she had gotten as high a grade as possible. Eyes a-glow, she turned to run, asking excitedly, "What did you-" She paused when she saw him hit his head on the desk for the seventh time. "Oh."

Malfoy, came strutting over just then, eyeing the grade Ron had gotten. Snatching it up, he cried out to the Slytherins, "Oh look at Mudblood lover's grade! It looks like Weasel is not only poor, but he's dumb too." Making a face, he walked back to the Slytherins to sit down.

Ron leapt out of his seat, "Come back here Malfoy! You-" Harry then covered his mouth with one hand, pushing him back in the seat with his other. Still making sure he didn't try to kill Malfoy, he let Hermione take over.

"Alright Ron," Hermione said, "Deep breath. In. Out. In. Out." Motioning with her hand, she waited for him to follow her instructions. It always worked for her before a big test, she did it every time. You could almost call it her test ritual. But this only resulted in a glare from Ron.

"I do not need your therapy!" He said loudly through clenched teeth. Across the room a certain blonde burst out laughing, making Ron blush a red redder then any red any Weasly had every encountered.

"For once I'll say that the mudblood might be right, but I wouldn't stop at therapy, call St. Mungo's!" Malfoy called from across the room. His idiot minions, Crabbe and Goyle burst out laughing, making the effort to raise their overly large arms to high-five him.

"Class is dismissed!" Snape sneered as Ron stormed out of the classroom before anyone else. Hermione, who happened to be wearing flats at the time, shuffled as quick as she could after him.

As soon as she caught up, Ron said, jaw locked, "Malfoy is going to pay for that."

Eyebrows raised, Hermione asked, "Ron, what do you have in mind?"

"Oh nothing," Ron said, a mischievous grin now on his face, "What spell would you recommend to send someone blasting off into space?"

"Ron!" Hermione shrieked, "I am horrified at you," though, truth be told, she had expected it, after all that Malfoy had done to him....and her. "But I have a much better plan." Ron's previously drooping head perked up at this.

~~~

"Pansy, come here will you?" Draco said, summoning Pansy Parkinson, who he had been dating on and off for the past year. She came bouncing over, flicking her hair over her head as she asked how he was. She was obsessed with him, like every other girl in Hogwarts and frankly, she bored him. "Pansy, I don't think we should go out anymore."

Pansy stared at him, then tears started to tumble down her face, "but Drraaccoo!" she wined. He looked around, trying to find Blaise to save him from Pansy. Then she surprised him (something that rarely happened) and glared at him, "and don't even think of saying it."

"What? Saying what?" he asked, truthfully confused. Now he was frantically searching for Blaise, Merlin, he would be thankful if Crabbe or Goyle came by.

"Don't say, 'I hope that we can still be friends'," she said, mockingly, tears still streaming down her face, leaving visible tracks.

"Actually I was hoping that we didn't have to be friends. To be truthful, I was kinda hoping never to see your face again," he said meanly. With one last glare directed to him, she ran off, now graduating to sobbing loudly. Crabbe and Goyle chose now to come to his help, confused looks on their faces-but what else is new?

"Wait, did you just dump her?" Crabbe asked, and when Draco nodded sarcastically, he asked him stupidly, "But why? I mean, she adored you!"

"Crabbe, Goyle, if you don't all ready know, all girls love me," Draco informed them, confidently holding his head, a smug look on his face.

"I know a girl who doesn't 'love' you," Goyle said, in a futile attempt to sound smart, "Hermione Granger, she loath- um er...she hates you," Draco laughed at him, he couldn't even pronounce as easy a word as 'loathe' in his sixth year. But still, what he was suggesting was quite disgusting.

"I," he paused for added suspense, "Can get any woman to fall in love with me."

Crabbe and Goyle laughed at that, "I bet you twenty galleons that you couldn't make Hermione Granger fall in love with you before the Christmas Eve Party." They looked at Draco to see his reaction.

It was now Draco's turn to laugh, "I bet you one hundred galleons that I could make Granger fall in love with me!" I hope I can, he thought, oh well, if I don't-but I will-one hundred galleons is barely anything!

~~~

"We call it, 'How to Lose a Jerk in 10 Days'," Hermione and Ginny said together, presenting the title to Harry and Ron, who nodded approvingly. They were in the Gryffindor Common Room, all alone. Mrs. And Mr. Granger were on a cruise to Iceland, and the Weaslys were visiting Charlie in Romania.

"I am going to go out with Draco Malfoy," Hermione said, making a gag motion at his name, causing the Gryffindors to laugh, "and then I am going to be the most annoying girlfriend he ever had, so he will just have to dump me!"

"Then, we'll write this article and send it to the Daily Prophet, and embarrass Malfoy so much, who knows what he will do!" Ginny concluded, "Is that good payback or what?"

"This is going to be great Ginny," Harry beamed at Ginny, forcing Hermione to hide back a smile, then he turned to her, "but Hermione, how will you survive being with him for ten days, and who knows you might have to..." Harry shuddered at the very thought, "kiss him, you will be scarred for life!"

"I'll manage," Hermione said, putting on a brave face and holding it high up like the superheroes in movies, "As long as I know deep down inside that this is all just payback,"

"Wait," Ron said, a bit confused, "how are you going to get him to go out with you, I mean, you aren't exactly on his 'to date' list,"

"Oh," Ginny said, she had been prepared for this, and Hermione and her had discussed it earlier, "We'll play it by year, hopefully he'll go on one date with her, and then she'll be all nice, and comforting, making him like her. Then along come their second date, and BOOM! He has a completely different Hermione at hand."

Later that day Hermione was starting to think things over. Did she really want to go out with Draco Malfoy. Or even go on one date with him. He had made her life terrible! Called her foul names, embarrassed her in front of her friends and pupils. How could she go on a date with him! Plus he would never go out with her to begin with, much less give her enough time to ruin his social life.

But what if something happened, Hermione couldn't help but feel that Ginny and her all-too-brilliant-plan had a bug in it (using the muggle term). What if something went wrong? What if he didn't go out with her? What if he got the better hand of it? What if-no. Stop. She had to control herself! No more 'what ifs' it will all go fine, and even if it doesn't, it's all for revenge, right?

Merlin, she thought, I really have to get a hold of my thoughts, they move faster then Harry on a broomstick. And that's saying something. But Hermione was torn from her thoughts, for Malfoy was standing before her, patiently waiting for her attention.

~~~

Stupid mudblood, Draco thought, waiting for Granger to look up. She was daydreaming, about something he'll probably never know, though he doubted it was him, or the bet, how could she know about it? It was most likely about school. Yes, that was the only thing that could ever be on a Mudblood book worm mind like Granger's. It was time to lay it on thick, but would she fall for it? He was about to find out.

"Gran-I mean Hermione, if you didn't already know, I broke up with Pansy," Merlin, what should he say next?! "And I was, um...wondering if you...what I mean to say is that...willyougooutwithmeFridaynight?" he asked combining his words, and closing his eyes, waiting for her to explode and curse him with her gargantuan encyclopedia of spells.

But nothing happened, he opened an eye to see Hermione smiling at him sweetly, something he had never seen her do. She must be sick, was his first reaction. But he almost liked it-wait! Draco! Pull yourself together! This is a bet, he reminded himself, holding back from slapping himself across the face. You must be catching her cold, he told himself, wait how did that happen? EEEEWWW! Now your back to normal, Draco.

Still smiling that scary smile, Hermione replied, "I would love to go out with you Draco, where to?" It took Draco a little while to recover from shock, Granger had just agreed to go out with him, and had called him by his first name, Draco. The apocalypse!

"Um...I was thinking about going to that new place at Hogsmede." Was this really working? He asked himself, Hermione nodded, said something, and then left him standing there. His hand went up to his mouth, to make sure he hadn't been drooling, he had. Argh! He was going to embarrass himself to death on that date, and then die from his rabid poisoning!

But a small part of him thought it wouldn't be that bad. She had gotten 'pretty' over the summer, her bushy hair now under control, and at least half of the book worm appearance gone. But was that going to stop him from calling her book worm? Of course not!

He still couldn't believe it had worked, and so fast. Especially after what he had said to Ron just a couple of hours ago. Maybe somebody had put a Memory Charm on her, and she had forgotten everything, and thought that she liked him, and she'll go out with him, fall in love, then the Memory Charm will be cured, and she'll hate him again, and they will never talk of it again, and he'll be able to call her Granger instead of Hermione and nobody will ever notice, and Crabbe and Goyle won't try to black mail him, and then everything else will return back to normal!