Judge Not

Not Quite Himself

The air around the Potions dungeon was full of tension that seemed to mix with the pale gray smoke lazily rising into the air. There were frantic whispers between the various pairs of partners and a certain greasy-haired professor was prowling among the aisles, occasionally pausing to make a snide remark and maybe take off a point or two from Gryffindor.

"This is bloody unfair!" Ron grumbled under his breath as he poured the fish scales into the cauldron he and Hermione were currently sharing, "I just don´t get why we hafta take a bloody exam to determine whether we let our bloody brains rot over the summer."

"Oh, hush," Hermione sneaked a glance up to see if Snape was close enough to hear Ron´s remark. Thankfully, he was across the room yelling at Neville and Dean for letting their cauldron boil over again. "It´s not so bad. I think it´s pretty easy."

Ron snorted, "You would. I bet you didn´t even go outside all summer--all you did was read."

"I did not. There were plenty of other things for me to do. All the reading I did was spent thirty minutes before going to bed. I don´t want to fall behind like I did my second year."

"Hermione--you were petrified your second year."

"Exactly."

Draco leaned back in his chair, smirking. His potion was done perfectly and he had finished before everyone else. Pansy was passing time by writing a note to one of her friends, so she wouldn´t be bothering him anytime soon. He glanced around the room with a bored look on his face, and decided to have some fun with the pair directly in front of him. He smirked as Harry grunted in frustration.

"Trouble, Potter? Maybe you shouldn´t have chosen Finnigan for a partner. I hear he barely passed last year."

Harry ignored the voice, but Seamus turned around and glared at Draco. Harry grabbed his arm before he said anything and whispered something to him. Whatever it was, it worked, because Seamus shrugged and turned back to mixing the broth while Harry added a jar of snake eyes.

Draco would have made another comment, but he was interrupted as a scowling Snape stood in front of him to examine his potion.

"Finished, already? It is the right color," Snape picked up a spoon and stirred the mixture slowly. "Right thickness. Which of you will attempt to try it?"

"Pansy, I guess," Draco drawled.

Snape looked over at the girl besides Draco. Unfortunately, she was oblivious that the professor had come over to check their potion and was still writing her note. It looked to be three pages long by now, and Draco was betting it was front and back.

Snape scowled deeper than usual and snatched Pansy´s quill out of her hand. "As you seem to be confident enough in your work, Parkinson, you will be the one to test your potion."

Pansy jumped as Snape jerked her quill away and glared at Draco for not warning her when the professor was coming over. He smirked at her and watched as Snape nicked her finger with a pin. She yelped slightly, paling as the professor dipped a spoon into the potion and held it over her finger. He carefully poured the mixture over the cut, catching the drops on a towel he´d found nearby. The potion faded away and Pansy´s finger emerged, as flawless as it had been before.

"Perfect. However, I cannot expect anything less from Mr. Malfoy, here. You, Parkinson, had better pay more attention, especially for when you will be without a partner for your next assignment."

Pansy blushed and scowled down at the table where Snape had tossed her quill before stalking off to insult a Gryffindor. She picked it up and began to write again, plainly ignoring Draco. He smirked.

It was times like now that he really hated being trapped in his own body. If only the double would look around more. Right now it was just staring, eyes half-open, at Potter´s back. Every once in a while it would make a remark, and Potter would either tense, or not respond at all. The boy was doing a good job at brushing off the insults today.

He would guess nobody was paying any attention now. He could hear the clattering and banging as the students prepared their potions. Once or twice he heard a groan of pain and Snape´s barks to get that student to the infirmary, as well as a list of things they´d done wrong. It was a good chance to practice. If he could build his strength up to be able to control his body long enough, he´d be able to go talk with Dumbledore about the situation. He hadn´t had any hope before, until he had gotten on the Hogwarts Express the other day. For one reason or another, he´d gotten so mad as his double taunted the Weasley girl--Ginny, was it? Somehow that had been enough to overpower the double for a few minutes. He´d been so weak, though. All he was able to do was slump to the floor and work his mouth a couple of times.

Mentally, he shook his head, and began to concentrate on his right hand. He put all his effort into it, but he felt as though he wasn´t trying at all, only thinking of it. He couldn´t look at the hand, so he wasn´t sure how he was doing. Suddenly, his head turned downwards and his eyes focused on his hand. Now. He had to do it now. He strained everything he had and nearly lost his concentration as the hand lifted slowly and flexed in and out twice. He was doing it! The hand came down slowly and he strained as he forced the hand to pick up the quill nearby. He could feel the double´s confusion as it watched the hand act on its own. It was beginning to resist. He gripped the quill and held it, raising it over his parchment. He managed to write an H before the double pushed him out of the way.

A wave of exhaustion hit him. His double felt it and leaned back against the chair, breathing heavily as if it had just run five miles without rest. The double looked at the hand and raised it, experimentally shaking it. He wouldn´t be able to attempt anything else for a while, but it was worth it.

"Ron," Hermione hissed. "Look at Draco."

"What for?" Ron lazily looked up at Draco´s direction.

The slytherin was staring at his hand and flexing it slowly. As they watched, he brought it down and slowly picked up a pencil, clumsily bringing it down to write something. His hand fell and he slumped back, pale and breathing heavily.

Ron raised an eyebrow and looked over at Hermione, "Eh, that´s weird, but he´s probably just bored and doing it for attention."

Hermione watched as Draco wearily lifted his hand and shook it, "I don´t know Ron. It looked like there was something going on there."

Ron checked their simmering potion, gingerly poking it with a mixing spoon, "´Mione, even if something is going on with him, I say the bloke deserves whatever it is. Why are you worrying about it, anyway?"

"Oh, I don´t know," Hermione sighed. They went back to focusing on their potion, but Hermione kept puzzling on what was going on with Draco for the rest of the day.