Disclaimer: Nothing's changed from the previous chapter...I still don't own anything.
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Hermione's POV:
Something weird is going on with Malfoy. It's difficult to explain, because mostly I've been noticing little things that, if taken on their own, wouldn't mean much at all. However, I'm absolutely certain that he's not acting normally, even though I have to admit that he is doing an fairly exemplary job of hiding it, as nobody else seems to have noticed. Still, something about him as changed.
For example, two days ago we had Double Potions and Professor Snape took ten points away from Gryffindor due to my habit of acting like an "insufferable know-it-all," as he so kindly put it. As much as I respect the man, I do wish that he would at least attempt to be a bit more diplomatic. I digress. Anyone would agree with me that a loss for Gryffindor would subsequently result in a snide remark from Malfoy. However, after this particular occurance, it surprised me to observe that it did not seem to warrant even a smirk from the blond Slytherin.
After that, I started to wonder what else was different about him. Once I began to pay closer attention to Malfoy, I noticed that quite a few things seemed to be off about him.
He has stopped insulting me. Well, not entirely. If I defend Harry or Ron, he retaliates, of course, but I no longer seem to be one of his main targets. I hear "mudblood" much less frequently now.
Also, just yesterday Ron was telling Harry and I a joke (It was marvelously funny, by the way; I believe that Fred and George came up with it first. It was right down their alley, as the joke centered around a toilet seat.) when I happened to glance over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was staring right at us. He wasn't glaring or sneering or anything of the sort. He was just staring. It was unnerving.
I am at a loss to explain his behavior. At first I thought that he had experienced a paradigm shift and changed his views towards muggleborns, thus making him feel guilty about how he had treated me previously, but no such luck. He still calls me a Mudblood, after all.
Harry and Ron wouldn't be able to assist me, so I'm all alone in this. I can only imagine what would happen if I told them. Ron would probably sputter violently before insisting that I stay away from "The Ferret", conveniently ignoring the fact that the only time I'm in close contact with him is during class or when one of the boys decides to start a fight. Harry is more likely to jump to conclusions involving conspiracies and You-Know-Who.
I do love my boys, but they really can be obtuse sometimes. Malfoy, if anything, seems to acting like less of a twat now. It's doubtful that he's trying to harm me by acting more passive.
Ginny, despite being a fellow female and thus more sensitive to the subtleties of people, wouldn't be much help either. She'd likely spout some nonsense about Malfoy fancying me or something equally ridiculous and untrue.
Likewise for Parvati and Lavender. Those girls really can't think about much beyond romance and anything that relates to it, which rules out basically anything that requires intelligence.
Not even Neville can help me. He's absolutely terrified of Malfoy, the poor boy. I don't blame him, although I do think that he has nothing to worry about if it came down to a fistfight. Neville's got a couple of inches and a few pounds on the Slytherin, at the least. There I go, digressing again. The point is, I don't want to cause Neville undue stress by bringing up a topic involving Malfoy, let alone one that centers around him.
Maybe I should ask Professor Snape to teach me Legillimency. Then all I'd have to do would be to look in Malfoy's eyes, and I'd know the answer.
That does seem rather drastic, though. Not to mention there is no way I could get the Professor to agree, especially if I was unable to supply a reason, because Heaven knows that if I told him I wanted to learn Legillimency so that I could look into Draco Malfoy's mind he'd probably throw me out of his office physically. Not before taking hundreds of points from Gryffindor and giving me detention for the rest of my time at Hogwarts, of course.
I'm not certain why this is worrying me so much, but I do know that I have to figure it out. It will drive me crazy otherwise.
I give up. Just thinking about it certainly isn't solving the problem. I'm going to the library; perhaps I'll find an explanation there. Books have never failed me before.
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AN: I bet you didn't expect another chapter, did you? To be honest, neither did I. It's been over six months since I wrote the first part, and I really don't like it much anymore, so I was just going to leave it alone and kind of ignore it. However, as I was reading it over I thought that I really had done Hermione a disservice by not writing her thoughts on the subject. After all, if she has the "brightest mind of her age", then she really should be allowed to express her opinion. Um. Even if it's technically mine since I'm writing it...Anyway. I apologise for the length (or lack there of), as well as the lack of romance. Hermione really is oblivious, isn't she? Forgive me enough to leave a review?