Disclaimer: I wish upon a falling star that I could stop these disclaimers…
Just Another Employee
Joel sat there, looking intently over his potion with his eyes inches over the spew behind him. He was creating a particularly hard version of the depression draught, but decided that'd he add a selection of peppermint to counteract the occasional after effects of the subject being unable to stop talking. He had decided to take the risk on three reasons, the first being that he had been in the job for nearly a fortnight now and was more confident in his abilities, but also the fact that he knew he would soon have to prove himself to his bosses if he was ever to work his way up the corporation. He had visions of working his way up to a supervisor of sorts, surely he might be able to do a better job than Mr. Pettigrew who even Joel could see was a bit of a liability, and that just by doing what was needed wouldn't earn him any praise. And finally he had been visited by his father, who said he had been in Diagon Alley for some business with Mundungus, and he had seemed most disappointed that he hadn't been promoted yet. Obviously Joel hadn't pointed out that he'd been their just over a week and would have to work for it as his father would of just dismissed it and told him about the `value of hard work'. Joel heard this line so often that he usually entertained the idea of a hard work stock market, just in business to measure its value.
So here Joel was now, adding an assortment of peppermint and an ether, where at best he might get a pat on the back, or at worst he had wasted a whole morning and would struggle to make his target for the day, a prospect that slightly worried him. This fear was the reason he was so intent on the potion, his eyes about an inch from the surface, only glancing up quickly at a clock in fear that something might happen if it relized he wasn't watching.
A knock on the door barely got his attention, and when he glanced up to see who it was, he got a quick eyeful of blonde hair and went back to his staring match with the depression draught.
`Hey Sophie' Joel called distractedly, eyes not moving from the new swirls that had appeared in his potion, this was the time to add his final piece, and then all he had to do was wait and hope for a positive outcome.
`Don't call me Sophie!' he heard a sneer from a mans' voice come from what he had wrongly expected to be Sophie. As he looked up properly, all thoughts now entirely with this stranger and away from his potion, he saw the blonde haired man standing before him, a sneer attached to his face that quickly changed to a smile `As I hope you can tell, I'm not this Sophie'
`I'm…um…sorry' Joel stuttered as he watched the man walk casually across his office and confidently dropping himself into the chair opposite him at his desk `Uh, who are you?'
`'You don't know?' the man replied with a confident chuckle `I'm Draco Malfoy' he added with pride, and with the name Joel remembered who the man, or boy as he should be called, was. The Slytherin Seeker.
`Oh, you're on the Slytherin team at Hogwarts, aren't you?' he asked, quite happy that he might know someone else at his new job.
`I was' he added darkly `But I guess I can't be anymore' this puzzled Joel slightly, if he remembered right, which he knew wasn't all the time, he was a year below and thus should be going into his NEWTS.
`You left?' Joel asked curiously, trying to bring up some sort of conversation.
`I guess that's one way to put it!' Draco said chuckling to himself before returning to composure `So am I going to have to guess your name? Because if I do I'm pumping for Sophie'
`Oh, no, I'm Joel Fielding' he said non-surprised that he wasn't remembered and tried to add something more to the conversation `I've only been here a fortnight, how about you?'
`I guess I've done this my whole life…' Draco said, Joel could tell he was slightly agitated by this statement but shrugged it off almost instantly and resumed his confidence stance `My father was in it before I was born, so I guess I've been raised for it'
`So you're working with your father?' Joel asked interestedly, thinking of working with his own father he added `That must be pretty rough?'
`At times…' Draco said shaking his head `But it's an honour really… you're a strange guy Joel Fielding…' he said sharpening his eyes at him like he was trying to read the small print in a contract. Thinking for a moment he hoped that he was strange in a kooky way which was nice, not in a weird way that would ruin any chance for friendship, luckily he added `I mean that in a good way'
`Cheers' Joel said with his best attempt at a friendly smile even though this Draco was slightly freaking him out. A moment lingered where Joel couldn't think of anything to say while Draco seemed to be examining him even closer, Joel looked around the room trying to look casual and thus avoid any awkwardness with the silence. The silence they shared was very different compared to the many he had shared in this office with Sophie, and not in a positive way. Joel was trying to think of anything to say when he was fortunately spared the humiliation of saying something stupid as he watched the door opened and Sophie walking through the door. She stopped at the same instance as Draco turned around to see who it was, a slight panic in his face as his hand went towards his wand. As he saw who it was he relaxed and turned on his chair.
`So you're the Sophie he mentioned?' Draco exclaimed in delight, Sophie however eyed him suspiciously before breaking into her characteristic happy smile. As Joel watched her give that smile he knew it was forced, by doubted anyone who didn't really know her would be able to tell. Ever the cunning Slytherin girl, Joel thought to himself.
`Is there any other Sophie in the world worth mentioning?' she said cheekily, getting a laugh from him before turning her attention to surveying the room and giving Joel a, proper, smile before turning into a frown `Joel, your potions smoking…' Joel initial reaction was to wonder what those words meant as panic stormed though him, laughter from Draco filling the air. After a few moments he finally he realized and looked down at the potion, panic still gripping him, and all he could do was wonder where the smoke came from. Moments passed into seconds as he stared at it, no movement or sound except the gushing of smoke and Dracos' mirthless laugh filling the room entirely.
Eventually it was like a switch had been thrown in his mind as he realized the whole situation. He had gotten himself distracted by Draco and had messed up by not putting in the last ingredient, now his whole mornings work had been wasted. He lifted his wand and emptied the cauldron and slumped back in his chair, brain working furiously to find a way around this. The only one he could find was to start again.
`You ok Joel?' Sophie asked earnestly, Joel realized she had come round the desk and was now standing next to him. He however couldn't yet answer, his throat felt rough `Don't worry bout it. You can prepare some more?'
`And hopefully this time you won't try and burn down your office!' Draco said laughing, still rooted firmly in his seat like none of the events were anything other than some light entertainment put on for his benefit.
`Leave him alone!' Sophie snapped fiercely at Draco, making him pause mid laugh. Obviously not even Draco was brave enough to directly piss off Sophie.
`It was only a joke' he said nonchalantly `you know that, right?' he asked Joel who nodded. Joel paused, thinking of everything and holding onto none of his thoughts. He knew what had to be done, starting from scratch would work and he had just enough time.
`I'm ok' Joel said eventually bringing a smile to his face, as long as he could still do it he wouldn't get in any trouble, and it was obvious Mr. Pettigrew was just waiting for a chance `it's only a potion, I got enough time to make a new one' he looked as Sophie and gave her a smile to tell her that he was being honest, which she returned.
`You got time for lunch now?' she asked, Joel could almost feel Draco staring at them like he was watching a TV show unfold in front of him.
`I'm sorry, I've got to start straight away…' Joel said ruefully. With the extra work and effort he had put in today he could have done with a relaxing hour with Sophie.
`That's ok, I'll wait with you' she said brightly, and for a moment a smile came to Joel's lips before Dracos' voice told them he was still in the room.
`Nonsense!' he declared standing up `It'll be better if Joel can work by himself. I'll accompany you to lunch in his place' he said this in a manner that told them it was already decided. Sophie looked at him and smiled and nodded before walking towards the door.
`That sounds great, I'll just get my bag' she said opening the door before turning back to Joel `I'll see you later, Joel' and with a last smile she left the room as she went to her office. Draco stood up quickly and followed her, calling goodbye to Joel as he left after her.
Joel walked over to his cabinet and pulled out some ingredients, and made his way back to his desk. He was concentrating intently for two reasons as he measured out the ingredients. The first was the fact that he didn't want to mess this up again, he would be in a lot of trouble if he wasn't able to hand it in later, failure wasn't going to look good upon him.
The second reason for his intense concentration though was a lot more worrying than being disciplined or fired. He was trying to cloud his mind from the strange thoughts and feelings he was feeling, picturing Sophie and Draco together in their café, holding hands, kissing, loving each other. And these pictures brought a strange fire in his chest, not the good kind which makes you able to confront your fears and fight. But the bad, cold, jealous kind.
*
Joel had added the last ingredient and now he was nearly done. It was past his usual finishing time, but they were allowed to stay late. But being late on their targets wasn't so good. Mr. Pettigrew was still there, and had seemed in a terrible mood all day, Joel figured that this was because Mr. Snape and Mrs. Bellatrix were due back next week and he only had the last couple days in order to run things. All in all, the potion was good, none of his extra touches could be added but it was a perfect textbook depression draught. He was now just counting down the minutes sitting on his chair, Sophie leafing through the Daily Prophet on the other chair.
As he watched her as she read intently, or laughed at something or other, in the paper he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. He was very disturbed by this, actually he thought the word incredibly was better than very on this instance, and Joel wasn't the kind of guy to over exaggerate. One problem was that this wasn't in his nature, he just wasn't the jealous kind of guy. He had never even felt the slightest urge of it with any of his past girlfriends, never. True he had respected many, like Cedric or Professor Dumbledore, but he was never jealous of them. He knew they deserved what they had by hard work and talent, and all they gave him was that he had to work hard to gain what they had. And even if he was the jealous kind of guy, he had no right to in this case. Sophie wasn't his girlfriend.
SOPHIE! GIRLFRIEND! He shouted in his thoughts. The volume of it, even though solely in his head was enough to make him feel temporarily deafened. Sophie was his friend, how could he be feeling jealous over a friend, that didn't make sense. He tried to convince himself that he was worried about losing his new friend. But he knew that didn't make sense. Why would she stop being his friend because she had another? And why would he be so preoccupied with her and Draco kissing if it was just over a friend.
His brain was hurting, he was feeling miserable. He was worried that he might have accidentally taken some of the depression draught, in fact he was so sure of it that he had taken some antidote, which didn't have any effect. He was in shock, he was not the kind of guy to be thinking things like this, he was carefree, as Professor McGonagall had said he `sleep walked' through life. Not torturing himself with things like this. He shook his head, trying to rid these thoughts, but only accomplished getting a strange look from Sophie as she peered up from her paper.
`Who's gotten you?' she asked putting down the paper.
`What?' Joel asked confused, trying to make sense of the words she had spoken.
`That's what my Uncle used to say when people were thinking about something deeply' she started to explain `that someone had gotten you. He said things and possessions never made anyone think properly, objects just couldn't affect us enough. Only people could realty get into us…'
`Oh…um, Just Mr. Pettigrew and me handing this in late' Joel lied, patting himself on the back for coming up with something so convincing at the drop of a hat. He felt more like the heroes from his spy novels than ever before.
`That's the first time you've lied to me!' Sophie said softly, a little bit of hurt in her voice as it shook slightly. Joel slammed himself for this, both for not being convincing and also for hurting her. He thought for a moment and decided he had to tell the truth, he wasn't the lying kind of guy
`I'm sorry…' he said honestly, Sophie looked a bit happier as she knew he was telling the truth `I was just thinking about that Draco. I don't know what to make of him, he seemed a bit…you know?' Joel explained badly, Sophie however was now smiling and looking a little excited at this new change in conversation.
`Smarmy? Conceited? Arrogant?' she asked helpfully `All those are good adjectives to describe him!'
Joel was now laughing, his mind had stopped throbbing and he now felt a million times better, she evidently wasn't going to run of with him.
`While we were having lunch he kept on accidentally grazing my leg with his hand!' she stated making a gagging action to accompany this, making Joel laugh even more. However he did feel slightly bad for him, he hadn't been nasty to Joel, and he was here now seeming to be abusing him. These thoughts stopped him laughing altogether and try and turn serious.
`So why did you go?' he asked.
`Well, he's connected' she stated shrugging `Better to have as a pervert friend than a powerful enemy' Joel couldn't help but be impressed by his perfect little Slytherin friend! At this moment a beep stopped him before he said anything, to let him know his potion was finished. He stood up and emptied it into a prepared bottle and labelled it. He stopped for a second to breathe in, happy that this day was finally over.
`You ready to jet, Joely?' she asked putting on her shoes. Watching her do this he had to smile briefly, it was one of the things he loved about her, how she always had to take of her shoes wherever she is, so she can get comfortable.
`Yeah' he said pulling on his jacket and opening the door out if his office, which Sophie squeezed through before him `Gotta drop this of with Mr. Pettigrew now, the store is locked'
She took him by the arm and, as usual, started to lead him through the many corridors confidently, abusing Mr. Pettigrew even more than usual, which Joel thought might be a pre-empt in case he exploded at Joel. Before he knew it he was outside his office, where he paused for a moment, gave Sophie a hopeful smile and pushed open the door and entered.
Mr. Pettigrew was behind the desk, fiddling with his hair, which was all too obviously a hair piece. Joel had to suppress a giggle as he jumped at Joel's arrival and stood up in panic, before sitting back down in a bit of a temper.
`What you doing, Mr. Fielding?' he said nastily.
`I've got the depression draught' he said walking up toward the desk. He watched as Mr. Pettigrew made a very dramatic attempt at reading his watch, obviously letting Joel realize how late it was, `I'm sorry, but there was an accident…and…well it's done now' Joel finished lamely.
`It's past 6 now, that's over an hour late, what do you have to say about this?' he asked meanly. Joel was confused, seeing as he had just explained it he had no idea what answer he expected to hear this time around, so he chose to put it down on the desk instead and mutter `sorry'.
`Sorry? Sorry?' Mr. Pettigrew repeated overly dramatic making him seem more like a clown than a real person `that's it boy! I'm reporting you to the top! You know what that means?' he added acidly, evidently him walking into him putting on his hair piece had soured him even more than usual.
`Suspension?' Joel guessed, thinking that being fired would sound too dramatic for this offence.
`SUSPENSION!' he bellowed in anger `Who do you think you're dealing with here, boy? Failure isn't an option! He'll murder you for this!' Joel was impressed that Mr. Pettigrew knew this term, obviously he had liked muggle studies as much as Joel had and had tried to incorporate it, but the effect of using such dramatic language for being fired only helped to perfect the image of a clown in Joel's mind.
`No. He wont' came a third voice from behind him surprising Joel. As he turned round he saw that Draco Malfoy had entered the room and gave Joel a knowing look.
`Mr. Malfoy…' Mr. Pettigrew stuttered, he looked nervous in his company, Joel figured because of his connections and his father he held some power over him `But…I'm supposed to report this…
`You should then…' Draco said confidently `But if you decide to put that into action make sure to point out I was responsible. Otherwise you might be accused of passing him wrong information, again!' Draco snarled a little angrily and cockily. At this Mr. Pettigrew almost broke down, Joel could literally see the beads of sweat falling down into his eyes.
`No…' he said with evident fear `don't want that…but…' Draco however interrupted him.
`If I could make a suggestion' he said cutting over him like he hadn't been a bout to speak `How about you forget this. Saves a lot of trouble for you, as well as me'
`Yes…forget this…' Mr. Pettigrew said looking down at his feet.
`Good' Draco said cheerily, turning and walking out of the room. Joel, with one last glance at the broken man in front of him, he turned and followed him out of the room.
As he shut the door behind him he saw Draco and Sophie talking animatedly, Sophie ever the cute actress.
`Thanks, Draco' he said honestly, relieved that he had escaped trouble.
`No worry' he said waving this away `I've got to leave, I shall see you later, Sophie' and with this he walked away out of sight. Joel turned to Sophie and sighed a breathe of relief.
`I though I was gone there!' he said as she took him by the arm and lead him toward the exit.
`Sounded bad!' she said with a little note of left of panic in her voice. Joel could feel her arm shaking slightly as well, obviously she had been very worried that he would be fired, or to use Mr. Pettigrew's term `murdered'! At this Joel let out a little laugh and relaxed, happy to feel Sophie so close to him. They were approaching the exit.
`So what's the plan for tonight?' Joel asked looking at her, but her eyes refused to meet his as she answered.
`I've got something to do, sorry' she said, eyes all the time on her destination. Joel's stomach lurched slightly but he reasoned that they couldn't spend all their time together. Just most of it.
As they left the building, both ready to apparate away Joel turned to her and saw a troubled look in her eyes.
`What's wrong?' he asked, but as soon as he did the look had disappeared and had been replaced by a smile which made him doubt the look had actually existed.
`Nothing!' she said happily `Just a long day is all' and then she did something she had never done before, she leaned up and kissed him, on the cheek, before disapparating, leaving Joel blushing, feeling the spot where her lips had been on his skin.
*
So that's chapter 4, hope you liked it. Plots finally starting to get going (just a little anyway), and by the next chapter (which I promise is a biggie!) you should have a better feel for the plot.
Anyway review and I'll post quickly! And just to wet your appetite a little for the next chapter, Sophie and Joel (I put her name first as she's really the boss of him) catch the Knight Bus for a Saturday afternoon out of London, where Joel will meet someone. That someone should prove interesting for you…
Hope you enjoyed and thanks to everyone who has reviewed and to Diana Black, TheRavenAbraxas, hobasteritch and indie who reviewed on the last chapter.
Jms Granger
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