Gellert was back. He had left the hall at breakfast almost as soon as she had arrived, sweeping past her in the doorway and heading off to his Divination lesson. Hermione wondered all the way through breakfast, picking at the crumbs of her toast with no appetite.
She hoped that he was just busy but when he sat with a Ravenclaw girl during Ancient Runes it became obvious that he was purposely avoiding her. He made no effort to hold back during the lesson, blowing all her revision efforts out of the water as he translated the passage as though it were English.
She questioned Harry and Ron about it during their Care of Magical Creature class, discovering that he had also sat apart from them during Divination. Apparently he had spent the entire lesson without a single ribbing of Trelawney's predictions, which was apparently very out of character for him as he usually took every opportunity to show that she was a fraud.
She went to the library before dinner, knowing that it was unlikely Gellert would be there but still hoping that he was. She slipped through the doorway, immediately relaxing as she passed into the warm room. It was quiet, whispers and rustling pages from every direction, punctuated by the scratch of a quill.
Hermione slipped between the shelves, passing the ancient runes section without even a passing glance for the first time since term began. Beating Gellert was a lost cause but she could still work on Defence.
The Defence aisle was emptier than she'd ever seen it, books missing from every sub-section as students struggled to compensate for the substandard teaching being offered by Umbridge. She ran her fingers down the spines, reading the obscure titles that remained and wondering at what should have been in the many spaces. She pulled Defeating the Dead and Foes with Fears from adjacent shelves. Both were written by authors she knew, and although his style was almost lockhart-esque in its waffling, there was good information hidden inside.
Then through the gap she saw two familiar heads of blond. She froze, wondering what Gellert was doing talking to Malfoy of all people. She couldn't hear them, so there must have been a privacy charm in place but she could read Malfoy's expression from across the table.
The student was pale but seemed to be listening intently to Grindelwald as he spoke. The dark wizard was leaning forward intently, making small gestures with his hands as he spoke. Malfoy nodded slowly as if he were considering a proposal. They spoke for a moment more, then both stood suddenly, shaking hands formally. She'd never seen Malfoy looking so adult as he straightened his robes and strode from her vision. She hurriedly drew back and looked at the opposite shelf, pretending to be fascinated by the titles when the Slytherin passed her aisle.
She forced herself to wait for a few minutes, picking out three more books before casually wandering to the desk to check them out. She then forced herself to go her usual pace on the way back to the commonroom relieved to bump into Harry and Ron on the grand staircase.
'Back from the Library already? Harry and I were just going to go play chess.' Ron informed her with his usual grin. Harry looked slightly less happy but she really had more important things to worry about.
'I need to talk with you, somewhere private.' She hissed, pulling them sideways into an abandoned classroom on the sixth floor. She then proceeded to cast as many privacy charms as she knew, which caused both boys to raise their eyebrows.
'What's up?' Ron asked, sobriety taking over his expression. She sighed heavily, pondering how to present what she had seen.
'I saw Malfoy and Gellert talking in the library.' Hermione finally said, 'they were making a deal of some kind.'
'What about?' Harry asked, confusion and concern colouring his features.
'I don't know, Gellert had a privacy charm up.' She replied and both boys looked troubled.
'He isn't... y'know, working with You-Know-Who is he?' asked Ron
'I don't think so, but he has been a bit odd these past few days.' Pointed out Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.
'We had an argument.' Hermione finally admitted, a cold feeling trickling down her spine like someone had cracked an egg over her head.
'You don't think that's turned him to the dark side?' Ron asked ominously and Hermione shrugged uncertainly. The redhead uttered an oath that would have had his mother washing his mouth with dish soap.
For the next few minutes they discussed the merits of telling a teacher. Dumbledore would have to know and Harry wanted to speak to Sirius. All the while, failure coiled in Hermione's gut. Had she really turned Gellert away so quickly and thoroughly. Should she had chased him down over breakfast; offered her apology? The thought of doing that was almost physically repulsive, apologising to him meant that she was accepting torture, accepting his dark and twisted methods. That was something she could not do.
But was it worse to have him fighting for Voldemort? Was it worth the sacrifice of her morals to keep such a powerful and remorseless dark wizard from Voldemort's clutches.
Suddenly it occurred to her that they were seeing the world as very black and white – divided into two obvious factions. The Order of the Phoenix and The Death Eaters, what if Grindelwald was planning to restart his own movement and become a third faction? It was certainly a more probable theory than joining the wizard he'd expressed nothing but disdain for.
She told the two boys that and Ron agreed almost immediately, his strategic mind immediately agreeing with her insight. Harry seemed less amenable to the idea but he always had been one to ignore details in exchange for a vaguer definition of good and evil.
'One thing is for certain. We need to watch him.' The Boy Who Lived concluded and the trio nodded along. 'He's too smart to not notice someone following him, but Malfoy's not. I'll speak to Dobby.'