Disclaimer: How many of you think I'm J.K. Rowling? Let see, one…no I don't know where the restroom is. None of you. Gee, big surprise there.
Author's Notes: This is just a bit of a chapter concerning Draco and Judy, the next chapter will be more interesting. (I do believe I wrote this chapter because I was feeling particularly cynical at the moment.) Sorry it is just a bit short.
Chapter 21: Ploy
"I seriously doubt that Madam Pomfrey can supply you with anything more fit to wear than what you have on now."
Judy looked up from her seated position after hearing the familiar drawl and batted her eyes in a most sarcastic way.
"And I suppose you're here to offer your coat?" Judy asked and faked a swoon as she stood up to get just a bit closer to eye level with Draco Malfoy. It was quite unnerving to have him towering too far above. Judy looked him up and down for a moment and cocked an eyebrow. He'd managed to procure new robes (or at least the over cloak that they wore on top of their uniforms) but hadn't found anything to help with his hair. "You're lucky that your hair naturally stays like that," Judy commented and pointed to his hair that still held its rather slicked back appearance. "I'd hate to see you with a cow-lick. I'd need some serious psychiatric help after that."
"More so than you need now?" Draco stared down at her with a blank expression and she smirked.
"Touché." Judy stretched her left arm up but stopped rather abruptly as fresh dull pain shot through her shoulders and she remembered her right arm. She immediately grabbed it and leaned over to look through the window into the infirmary—Snape and Pomfrey were still working on the boy. "Damn."
"What's the matter?" Draco asked and sneered. "Paper cut? Maybe a splinter?" He mocked and Judy cocked an eyebrow at him.
"Here." She grabbed his hand and set it on her right shoulder. He looked at her like she'd grown a second head. "Look, Snape and Madam Pomfrey are in there so you're the only person who dislikes me enough to do this." Judy eyed him and he didn't say anything in response.
"Feel that?" Judy ran his hand over her shoulder in a way that was about as gentle as a snakebite. "That would be my dislocated shoulder. Pull my arm up and back and it should snap back into place." She stared at him for a minute and blinked. "What, I'm not asking you to perform C-P-R on me or something." Draco cocked an eyebrow and Judy laughed.
"You don't know what C-P-R is!" She laughed and Draco's eyes narrowed. He put his other hand on her arm and pulled it up and back roughly (none to gently because she'd laughed at him just moments before) and removed his hands almost immediately after hearing the sickening sort of pop.
"Trying to rip my arm off were you?" Judy rubbed her right shoulder and moved her arm in a small circle to make sure he hadn't fractured anything.
"The irony of beating you with it might have been worth the gore," He answered simply and stood his ground.
"Funny boy." Judy eyed him and smiled. "Though I'm not sure if that's funny—ha ha, funny—weird, or funny—what's in the water." He simply stared at her with the same blank, morose expression he always tended to wear. "Well, if not to bask in the warm glow of my wit and cynicism, why are you here?"
"Strangest thing," He drawled sounding more bored by the minute, "I couldn't find a single first year to torment to the point of tears." He said matter-of-factly and Judy scoffed.
"Right then," Judy eyed him and he leaned over towards her.
"I'm not sure just how you conduct illegal exchanges of potion's material but I'd rather not be standing in front of a faculty institution." He stared into her eyes for one eerie moment and Judy nodded.
"Why surely you deal with the Mafia more than you let on!" Judy laughed and hooked her right arm through his left just for the purposes of irritating him as she led him off to a secluded hallway. When they'd finally reached a significantly empty portion of the school Draco stopped and pulled his arm back from hers in a swift motion.
"Why I put up with this, Merlin knows," He growled and checked his arm to make sure she'd not planted something on him.
"Such a charmer. How have you slipped through my fingers this long?" Judy asked in monotone and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"Careful avoidance and a good deal of hair-gel," Draco answered wryly and finished examining his arm.
"Right, at the risk of sounding impatient or unskilled—where's the stuff?" Judy eyed him and Draco smirked.
"On it's way." His smirk was still there and Judy stared at him with a strange bit of curiosity.
"Correct me if I'm wrong here," Judy paused and took a deep breath that made her seem more infuriating than before, "But we did come out here—up three flights of stairs and nearly to the most backwater spot in the school—to complete an illegal exchange didn't we?"
"Well, that was the ploy." Draco leaned against the wall in his standard sort of half slouch and looked very smug.
"Right." Judy was not amused. "Well then what exactly are we here for?" Judy stared at him and he still smirked.
"I'm afraid I overheard you earlier," Draco drawled a jovial tone to his voice that he normally only took on when mocking someone. Judy frowned and cocked an eyebrow. "Not that I have a prerogative to eavesdrop, it just happens." His smirk grew and Judy eyed him.
"Well, out with it." Judy prepared for the accusations.
"I recall asking you what all those ingredients made before," Draco spoke slowly and Judy was really getting annoyed. "Now I'll ask you what you're trying to make with them? Perhaps more pills?" Draco looked damn smug, even for him. Judy examined his expression for a moment and realized just what he was insinuating. It took all her physical restraint not to break out laughing.
"You think I'm a drug addict?" Judy asked him and, apparently, her entertained tone slipped out because his smug exterior began to fade.
"I warn you," Draco suddenly seemed very dark as he spoke, "You've laughed at me once today—don't do it again."
"But Malfoy, darling Malfoy, you're just so entertaining!" Judy pleaded and her smile spread from ear to ear. "Alright, you really want to know what I'm making?" She forced her smile down and looked reasonably smug herself. Draco said nothing and she took that as a yes.
"It's just an anti-psychotic, rather experimental with large doses of sedatives and a series of drugs that effectively lobotomizes the lower levels of cerebral function." Judy said all of this very quickly, and simply as if asked about the weather, sure that Malfoy would have no concept of what she was speaking. Unfortunately, he had a very vague concept not that he let on. "In short, muggle medicine."
"Don't patronize me." Draco commanded flatly and Judy smirked. "I'd wondered about your mental health before, but now it seems to make some sense." He said quietly and walked away at a brisk pace leaving Judy to wonder just how much of what she'd said he understood. She had no idea that the only one of the scientific terms he understood (or could make out through the swift pace at which she spoke) was cerebral and therefore figured she was doing something to her brain.
"Today is not going well," Judy grumbled and wandered off towards her Divinations class. She hated having it first period—the fumes always made her a bit unstable and nauseous but it was so, she couldn't really change it.
"Maybe things will get better?" Judy groaned as she walked onward—she shouldn't have said that aloud.
Reviewer Thanking Time:
Duckchick- Oh Dear, no the poor boy didn't die. Sorry if that bit was just a tad confusing. I'm glad you enjoyed the forging of the alliance, and the Indiana Weasley idea came to me after I saw a popup add depicting a lady with long red hair in a safari get up.
Tis good to know the boss remains ignorant—and I will have to read this D/G story…
Special Note: After any of you (assuming there is more than one) have reached the latest chapter that FF.net will display do fiddle with the url and insert the next chapter in place of the current number. I update on an almost daily basis so you might get lucky and see a chapter early.