Malfoy slid open the door of their compartment to continue the tradition of starting the year out right, with a healthy dose of insults.
The exchange was going nicely, Weasley was turning that horrid shade of red, Potter looked like he was about to have a fit, and Granger looked disgusted with the whole thing. Yup, this was how life was supposed to be. Malfoy smirked, pleased with himself and his ability to get them so riled up so easily.
The smirk was easily wiped off his face, however, with the Weaslette spoke.
"Oh, sod of Malfoy."
It wasn't so much her words, it was how she said them. In the past couple of years she had grown a great deal stronger than she had been as a little girl and, quite frankly, she was the only one who presented a challenge. Today, however, her words held no venom, no bite, not disdainful boredom, they were simply...hollow.
He caught her eye and held it for a moment. She made no effort to turn away and met his gaze squarely. The emptiness and pain in her eyes unnerved him. Those eyes were supposed to full of life and fight. They hadn't looked this dim and dead since her first year.
He shook himself out of it, managed to say, "Original," and left.
He watched for the first few weeks of school. She talked and laughed, seemingly just like always, but there was something different, something wrong. He couldn't understand why no one else picked up on it. Her smile and laughter never reached her eyes. Her voice always sounded strained and tired. She consistently flicked her eyes toward the exit every few minutes as though she would like nothing better than to leave. Worst of all, however, she never rose to his bait.
When he would insult her or her friends in the halls, she would either ignore him completely, say "It's only Malfoy" and keep walking, or look him in the eye and ask "Then why waist your breath speaking to us?"
It wasn't that he was worried about her, that would imply that he cared. He had simply grown accustomed to her wit and found that it left a gaping hole in his daily entertainment. Not to mention the complete and sudden reversal in her demeanor just seemed wrong somehow.
Determined to provoke a fight with the Weaslette and restore order to his universe, he concentrated his efforts on her during the first term. She didn't seem to notice or care. Her brother and his friends did, however, and apparently didn't approve. He didn't care. It wasn't like they were doing anything to snap the girl out of her...well, whatever it was.
By the time the Christmas holidays were approaching, he was beginning to get extremely frustrated. If anything, she was paying less attention to him, not more. Somewhere along the line it had become more personal, in multiple ways. First of all, the more he watched her the more difficult it became not to worry about her and what was wrong with her. On the other hand, she was ignoring him. She didn't ignore anyone else; sure, she may not be as interested in them as she used to be, but she at least tried. Granted, they weren't trying to make her angry and constantly insulting her, but the least she could do was insult him back, even if she didn't mean it.
Yes, he did know he was reacting like an eight year old, but it was his only option. He couldn't do anything else but insult her. It wasn't like he could just walk up to her and ask her what was wrong. The universe would just stop if he did that, wouldn't it? Besides, she would probably think it was just a set up of some kind. No one, especially her, would ever believe he was concerned.