How To Win a Bet—

How to Make a Stupid Bet That You Will Surely Lose But Yet Somehow Manage to Win Anyway: First, make an incredibly stupid bet with Alice that you know you will regret.

Then, refuse to admit defeat even though you know it is highly unlikely that you will manage to catch the attention of the four most eligible Hogwarts bachelors (your initial bet with Alice).

Instead, devise a foolproof plan to capture each of their attentions—and hold it. Make another bet with Alice and this time get the rewards down in writing. Ignore her laugh as she skeptically signs the contract stating that if (when) you get their attention she will follow you around and inflate your ego for a week (as if you need it) by complimenting you and doing your bidding. Choose to disregard the fact that Alice has her own compensations for winning as you are certain this will never happen away.

Also ignore the fact that she already has a boyfriend and therefore has the attention of he who used to be Hogwarts' fifth most eligible bachelor, Albus Potter and might possibly know more about this than you. Just be grateful that you don't have to nab the attention of your own cousin.

Then commence step one.

Step one: Insert yourself into their lives.

Option A: Hunter Kilting. Tall, dark and handsome, he is the reason that you will be spending most of your time on the Quidditch pitch or in the stands. Say that you are there for moral family support and thank James ten times over for letting you stay and watch the practices, even when what you are really doing is your homework hurriedly beneath the bright maroon and gold jumper you are pretending to knit.

Since most males also respond to food, an additional option would be to provide the team with after-practice snacks. However, carrying the basket filled with snacks may become hazardous—be certain to either have a good grip or keep full concentration on said basket when ascending the stairs of the Quidditch pitch; tumbling and landing headfirst on the bottom step with food stuck in your hair is not a pleasant experience.

Be sure to wave and clap whenever Hunter flies superbly or actually scores. You can occasionally applaud other team members (be sure to give James an ego boost every once in a while) but mainly focus on Hunter—he's the person who's attention you want. Eventually he will become trained to expect your applause and if you—just one time—forget to praise him he will look around for your presence, wondering whether you saw him accomplish the amazing feat of throwing a ball through a hoop.

Once this has been accomplished, you may move on to the next step.

Option B: Wyatt Ward. Option B means that you will be spending most of your time where you usually spend most of your time: the Library. Spend time right after last class and in the double free period you both share on Wednesdays with Wyatt. Smile to yourself at the amusing alliteration: Wednesdays with Wyatt Ward but then move on—try to refrain from making alliteration jokes at his expense as they are not funny in the slightest. Wish wistfully that Wyatt would show the whites of his pretty hazel eyes more often instead of burying his nose in a book.

Remain quiet and impassive throughout the study session, make occasional glances in his direction and ignore the fact that your attempts of not making alliterations seem not to be working. Decide that his glasses need strengthening when, after a week and half, he has said nothing to you whatsoever about your sudden appearance at his library table. Keep with it and hope that maybe, just maybe, he's a shy one.

Swallow back a squeal of delight when you show up to your Wednesday study session after you missed the last one due to being "sick" and he finally makes a sly remark about not seeing you last week. Smile your split faced smile and then ask him to explain to you the theory of nonverbal spells and incantations even though you've already read all there is to know about it and could recite it back to him with a blindfold on.

Smile dumbly and admire Wyatt's long, lean fingers that wrap around your wrist as he's showing you the correct hand motions to go along with your nonverbal disillusionment spell and applaud yourself that you have come this far.

Option C: Flynn Emerson. Be grateful that Option C allows you almost no deviation from your regular schedule, save hanging around Albus more often. Commend Al on making such wonderful best friend choices and enlist his help in bringing you up in conversation more often. If he refuses, as Alice has already gotten to him, threaten him with blackmail until he either turns red or really pale; and then congratulate yourself on a job well done.

Subject yourself to the possibility of playing endless games of Exploding Snap and Chess as apparently that's all that Albus and his friends are good for. Contemplate sending a thank you letter to your father for teaching you how to kick arse in chess, but decide against it when you finally realise that playing chess to get the opposite sex's attention probably wasn't what he had in mind when he said that it would come in handy some day.

Laugh at all of Flynn's corny, punny jokes that really make you want to cry on the inside. Wonder vaguely if he got his jokes off the back of a cereal box—or even worse: from your grandfather. Ignore Al's meaningful looks as he tries to inform you from just a glance that your laughter grates on his ears it's so fake and instead focus on the way Flynn's eyes crinkle when you laugh and on his pouty, beautiful mouth. Begin to wonder what it would be like to snog someone with such full lips.

Skip a wild, night of playing chess in favour of Option D and beam with pride as Flynn tells you he missed you and that he hopes you turn up again next Friday night.

Option D: Scorpius Malfoy. Admit to yourself that Scorpius Malfoy will be the most difficult of the four guys from the start. False expectations leave you unhappy and unsatisfied. Instead, resign yourself to the fact that you will stand near him at the next prefect meeting in order to be paired with him for rounds, thus forfeiting your sweet partnership with your Ravenclaw friend, Anne, whom you barely ever get to see anyway.

Practice your "shocked and outraged" face in the mirror to be prepared for the prefect meeting and be proud with yourself for seemingly being able to pull it off until you realise that Scorpius Malfoy accepted the new assignments with a shrug and then adjust your own face accordingly.

After one set of rounds filled with an awkward silence and him catching you every time you sneak a glance at his platinum blond hair (could the colour really be natural?) accept the fact that you have inserted yourself successfully into his little antisocial bubble and decide that the risk of "forgetting" about prefect duties is much to high of a risk to take. Then, move on to step two.

Step Two: Initiate a Friendly Conversation.

Option A: After practice one day, walk up to Hunter Kilting and congratulate him on his Formation Looping and gasp in delight as he goes into full detail about how he and Hastings had perfected the mood. After letting him go on about that whilst you walk to the castle (secretly you may admire the scenery if you get too lost in the explanation of things) and begin step two.

"Do you want to eat lunch with me? I have really been wanting to talk to you about what you think the Chudley Cannon's chances at the Cup are."

Ignore his surprised (possible happy?) look and continue walking with the nonchalance of a girl who had just commented on the weather (which is lovely; you could write a dissertation on it now that you had such time to observe it whilst he was speaking).

"Yeah, sure."

Grant him the permission to lead you through the crowds towards the Great Hall and admire his tight rear from behind and all bask in the glow of all of the jealous glares you are receiving from the girls surrounding you.

"So you're a Cannon's fan eh? I would have pegged you for a Harpy's girl myself."

Explain to him that your father taught you all about Quidditch and passed down to you his favourite team and then rattle off all the stats that Hugo told you at breakfast and you had memorized for precisely this moment. Feel them leaving your memory as soon as you say them.

Allow him to continue on that vein of conversation while you insert the appropriate "hm"s "uh-huh"s and "wow"s at certain times throughout the conversation.

Manage to remember your after-lunch Arithmancy lesson at the last minute and find joy in the disappointed expression Hunter is giving you. Promise to catch up with him again sometime soon, wave goodbye, and saunter out of the Great Hall with the same nonchalance you entered with…until you make it out of the doors and run for your life to your Arithmancy class before you're officially late.

Ignore the smirk on Scorpius Malfoy's face as you run past him.

Option B: Wait after your Wednesday working session with Wyatt. Again try your best to ignore the amazing alliterations you're coming up with as They. Are. Not. Funny. Pretend to be reading as you wait for Wyatt to finish up with his studying already and ignore the fact that you are so exhausted you wish you could just fall asleep on top of this table. Thank the gods, or whoever it was, that finally urge him to pack up his books and leave.

Scurry after him and pretend it is a coincidence that you both ended your studying at the same time.

"Wow, you have such an amazing work ethic, Wyatt. I should study with you more often—I get loads more studying done with you than with my mates!"

Resist the urge to smile victoriously as he grabs you by the elbow and steers you toward your common room, walking you back to your common room like the gentleman that he is.

"I could commend you on your work ethic as well, Rose. I was beginning to wonder if you would be there longer than I was tonight."

"Well, you know, trying to get ahead."

Allow him to go on about how important getting ahead in your lessons can be and focus on trying not to fall asleep while walking. Really do smile victoriously when you hear him call "See you next Wednesday!" to your retreating back as you climb through the portrait.

Option C: Acknowledge the fact that your conversations with Flynn are already friendly enough, but then realise with great surprise that you have yet to have a conversation solely with him. Groan to yourself as you realise you'll have to put more effort into this step than you originally thought.

Enlist Lily's help (another good reason to use your impressive blackmail techniques) and encourage her to lead the whole group away from you and Flynn for a little bit during the next Friday game night. Decide that you will lower yourself to playing checkers instead of chess because then he might have a fighting chance at beating you—thus inflating his male ego. Give yourself a pat on the back for considering this and commence the next step.

"I challenge you to a game of checkers!"

Decide that you will pretend you don't see the cogs whirring in his brain, trying to find a punny response to your challenge and thank the Merlin above that you had managed to find a corny joke resistant conversation starter.

Allow him to be black as you make the first move and casually bring up his seven year his junior younger sister whom he loves to dote upon (you can tell just from the way he talks about her).

"How's Kayla?"

Commend him silently for being able to manage a conversation and a game at the same time and marvel at his elder brotherliness as he explains with pride about how Kayla is the brightest in her year (though not as smart as you, he is sure to say) and beam with happiness because you know that flattery never hurts.

Inflate his ego a little more as you purposefully make a stupid move and make sure to challenge him to a rematch some time when he finally wins the game as a result of that one move.

Option D: Attempt to initiate conversation with Scorpius Malfoy whilst on prefect rounds. Try persistently despite the fact that your many conversation starters (complaints about teachers, questions about homework, even discussing the weather) had failed miserably. Consider that possibly Malfoy's language was silence and therefore just the two of you walking in silence is considered enough of step two.

Declare yourself ready to give up when suddenly a spider comes up out of nowhere and scares the willies out of you, causing your to scream and grab hold of Malfoy's arm, which somehow finds its way around your waist, leaving a trail of heat wherever you touch him.

Ignore Malfoy's pretentious "Scared, Weasley?" remark and squeak in a dignified manner as he squishes it under his foot. Breathe a sigh of relief and release Malfoy's arm with a look of disdain, continuing to ignore that his smirk seems to be permanently etched on his face for the remainder of the night.

Decide that this was the closest you (or anyone else, you're sure of it,) will ever be to having a friendly conversation with Scorpius Malfoy and thus check step two off of your list and begin planning for step three.

Step three: Play hard to get.

Option A: Mercifully retract yourself from constantly watching Quidditch practice. Feel relieved that you no longer (well, at least for a little while) have to sit up at the top of the stands whilst the Gryffindor Quidditch team practices in sun, rain, sleet, or snow.

Resist the urge to beam in satisfaction as Hunter approaches you during breakfast on Saturday morning and instead put on your "disinterested and nonchalant" face that you had been practicing all week. Respond to Alice's quick kick under the table with a glare that promises retribution as you casually tell Hunter that you've had a lot of studying to do.

"Well, promise you'll come round sometime soon then? We've missed you down at the pitch!"

Regret what you're going to say next as soon as you see his adorable puppy dog eyes but grit your teeth and make yourself do it anyway.

"We'll see. I've just been really busy lately."

Then shrug disinterestedly and strike up a conversation with Alice about what she and Albus are going to do for their three month anniversary. Try your hardest not to giggle as Alice mouths to you that Hunter is still stealing glances at you even ten minutes later. Congratulate yourself on your accomplishments and begin to think up devious things for Alice to do whilst subjected to your complete control.

Option B: Ditch double free in the library and instead take the well earned time to relax and read enjoyable fiction whilst drinking tea and munching on other lovely nosh. Give yourself a pedicure and treat yourself to a back massage from Louis (who will do it for free, just because he's nice like that). Consider doing this instead, all the time in lieu of actually studying during your double free and then grow a conscience and realise that the only reason you had the opportunity to treat yourself so nicely is because you have studied so far ahead for all of your courses that taking one Wednesday off of Wyatt wouldn't even make the slightest bit of a difference anyway.

Run into Wyatt even as your trying to sneakily make your way over to the historical fiction section of the library and curse your unsneaky abilities that got you caught (i.e.: having your foot catch the bottom rung of the chair you were trying to move around) and instead try not to grimace as Wyatt approaches.

Silently applaud yourself as you get Wyatt to actually talk in the library—even though it was technically a whisper.

"Are you okay?"

"Brilliant"

Pretend not to be in constant pain as he asks you where you were on Wednesday.

Wince as you reply with the first thing you can think of "A sock convention." And then wonder how you will possibly dig yourself out of that one as you see his facial features morph into a mask of confusion.

Explain that you tutor a group of first years in Transfiguration and that they had decided to hold a "sock convention" that enabled each member of the little group to bring a sock and you all had spent the night transfiguring the socks.

Breathe a sigh of relief as you realise he actually bought it and inform him that you might not be able to make these next few study sessions, as things have been getting pretty busy for you. Then run off in the other direction from where you were originally headed without waiting for Wyatt's reply.

Option C: Limit yourself to one Friday game night per month and watch as no one really seems to notice your missing presence. Ignore the fact that Flynn seems more interested in playing checkers with Atticus Wood than he ever did with you. Encourage Alice to give you frequent updates and feel pleased when, finally, she reports that Flynn remarked upon your absence. Sigh in dismay as Alice tells you that she told Flynn you were busy with your sock convention and therefore were unable to make it these past few weeks.

Consider the fact that Flynn finally commented on your absence nothing short of a miracle, and remind yourself that sometimes playing hard to get can be tricky. Up your attendance to two Friday night game nights per month to continue playing hard to get, but not too hard to get. Also, continue to ignore Albus' meaningful looks in your direction. You know that you and Flynn don't have the same sense of humore-he doesn't have to keep reminding you with this pointed looks!

Option D: Walk in constant silence with Scorpius throughout all of prefect rounds. Bite your lip each time you have the urge to start a conversation because you've been so used to attempting to speak with him that now attempting not to speak with him is ridiculously hard. Use the prefect rounds now as a quiet reflection time and consider how much longer you have to keep this up.

Stop walking with a jolt when you realise that neither you nor Alice had defined "a while" when making the bet and therefore the ambiguous definition of "a while" could mean that you would have to string these men along forever. Remain clueless to the fact that Scorpius is now looking at you like you are slightly off your rocker and begin to think of ways you can get out of this bet.

Be pulled from your arduous thoughts by an irritated Malfoy who has probably been trying to get your attention more than once.

"Weasley!"

Squeak in reply at his tone and flush as you realise that he had been stealing glances at you all evening with his grey-blue stormy eyes that were now staring at you so intently.

"You okay?"

Mutter "yes" and turn so quickly that you can't see his worried look as you speed off down the hall, finally grateful that rounds are over for the night.

Interlude

Find Alice immediately and inform her that you have most definitely, without a doubt, caught the attention of all four of Hogwarts' most eligible bachelors and therefore you were going to let them go.

Sigh in delight as Alice agrees with you and fails to remark upon the "a while" dilemma that you were so greatly disturbed about. Allow yourself to breathe a sigh of relief and cackle maniacally at Alice's return request for a slightly different punishment than her indentured servitude. Agree to allow her to instead give you five favours—spread out over all of eternity. Decide that you like this punishment much more than the first one.

Jump up and down ecstatically at the prospect of finally having your free time to yourself again. And thus begin the final stage of winning the bet: Letting them Down Easy.

Letting them Down Easy

Option A: Show up sporadically to Quidditch practice. Don't make a show about being there when you are there and actually show you are doing homework instead of pretending to knit a jumper like you used to do. Bring your dear old cousin Lily along (she liked Hunter all along, after all) when you do attend and encourage her to cheer for Hunter enthusiastically.

Enjoy watching Hunter's attentions being transferred from you onto Lily, who can actually hold a Quidditch conversation, and consider a career in matchmaking. Monitor Hunter for a while in case of spontaneous recovery nut be pleased with the final result of Hunter asking Lily to Hogsmeade and determine that Option A is officially closed.

Option B: Be humbled to find that with Wyatt out of sight really is out of mind as he continues to study relentlessly for being a healer without a regard to whether or not you show up to study. Try not to let it the blow to your ego affect you too much as you slowly revert back to 'acquaintance at the library who knows only about half as much as I do'. Reaffirm yourself by knowing that he will forget everything he learns whilst you will keep it in your memory for life.

Take pleasure in the fact that one time he falls asleep on the table and attempts to have a snog session with the table top before he wakes up. Then declare Option B officially closed.

Option C: Have Flynn pull you aside on night to tell you that his is, in fact, gay. Hide your embarrassment well by telling him that you already had that suspicion and had really only been interested in his friendship. Assure him that his secret is safe with you and then go over all the evidence in your head about how you could possibly be so ignorant.

Al's meaningful looks had nothing to do with the fact that your senses of humor were completely different from each other, you realise now.

Decide that this will never be spoken of again and attempt to rewrite your memory to include the fact that you always knew Flynn had been gay. Finally, declare Option C completely closed with no chance of reopening. Decide not to wonder whether it had ever been opened in the first place.

Option D: Wonder how you can officially close Option D if you were never really a hundred percent positive that it was officially open. Instead, decide that Option D will be officially closed when you pair up with Anne again for your prefect rounds. Test the waters the final night of prefect rounds by striking up conversation one last time after a parade of silent nights.

"Well, this has been—"

Suddenly find yourself pushed against the wall, Scorpius Malfoy's body moulded to yours as he captures his lips with yours heatedly, his arms encasing you against the wall. Kiss him back just as passionately, giving yourself to your inhibitions for once instead of methodically thinking things out.

Blush as he mutters his confession.

"I've wanted to do that for a while."

Stare into his grey-blue eyes as he tells you that he was planning on shutting you up that way for the longest time and he had just racked up the nerve to do it when you suddenly became quiet during rounds. Pull his head back down to yours and kiss him once softly, before asking one last question.

"Want to be partners again?"

Take his kiss as an unspoken agreement.

A/N: Heh heh heh. This one amuses me. Merlin knows where it came from. I just got inspired and spent a good while putting this together. I kind of wish that it was more polished but right now, I couldn't care less. Hope you all enjoy and feel free to check out Guarded my Scorrose multi chapter fic!

~wwccd