Chapter 17

The second Hogsmeade trip was upon her, yet Atlas stood in the middle of the Quidditch field, adjusting Ginny’s broom positioning, pointing out different movements and nodding at her when she did something right. On countless occasions, the girl had reassured her she would be fine and that she should get going but each time Atlas knocked her down, determined to help her friend’s sister in something she seemed incredibly passionate about. Even if she had tormented her a few weeks prior.

It was easy enough to do, Ginny was naturally good on a broom and picked up all of the basics quite quickly. Mainly because she knew the basics but Atlas insisted on going through them anyway, she didn’t want the girl injured under her care. “Ginny, seriously? A loop-de-loop? You’ve barely practised on a Firebolt, it’s impossible.”

“Come on, where’s your Gryffindor mentality,” Ginny grinned, her hands on her hips as she hovered in the air. “Besides, anythings possible if you’ve got enough nerve.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t try it,” Atlas grinned but then remembered Hermione’s warnings from earlier, “I’m saying…Hermione would say you shouldn’t try it.”

“Hermione would be too busy star-gazing,” Ginny quipped and Atlas made a face, looking to the bright sky.

“It’s the middle of the day,” she voiced, pointing upwards. Ginny sighed and rolled her eyes, to which Atlas bristled. “You know, you have a lot of nerve for an actual child.”

“Told you, if you’ve got enough nerve, anythings possible. S’why I have a lot of nerve,” Ginny shrugged and Atlas sighed. She had her there. “Now please can I do a loop-de-loop?”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” Atlas waved off, “but if you don’t do it first try you owe me a chocolate frog.”

“Deal!”

In a second the girl was off, basically a blur of red in the sky, Atlas watched her a second and ignored the mini-Hermione at the back of her mind scolding her for letting Ginny do something so dangerous when it was only her second time riding a broom as fast a Firebolt.

“Oh hello,” A whispy voice Atlas vaguely remembered said, so she turned her gaze away from the sky for a second, looking down at the girl she remembered as Luna Lovegood.

“Hello, Luna,” Atlas said curiously, eyebrow cocked, “What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for my shoes,” Luna told and Atlas looked down, seeing that the girl, indeed, had no shoes on and was instead barefoot. She went wide-eyed.

“What are you doing out here with no shoes on!? It’s snowing!”

“Silly girl, I don’t have my shoes so I can’t wear shoes,” Luna smiled and Atlas sighed, furrowing her brows as she bent down and started unbuckling her own.

“Was it the Nargles?” she asked absentmindedly as she pushed her boots toward the girl, “Or was it the other Ravenclaws?”

“Of course it was the Nargles, the others wouldn’t do that,” Luna said and Atlas smiled, small like.

“Here, wear these if you insist on trudging through the snow barefoot,” Atlas offered, pushing them forward. Luna smiled gratefully and put them on, only to stop and furrow her brows down at Atlas’s broomstick patterned socks.

“Oh, Professor Dumbledore got them for me–“

“Aren’t your feet going to get cold?” Luna asked.

“Ah…” Atlas looked down at her steadily soaking socks and shook her head, “No,” she assured, feeling fur encompass her feet to keep them warm.

“Hmm,” Luna studied her curiously before smiling again, “Alright, if you insist, you don’t seem to be lying!”

“I assure you, I’m not,” Atlas grinned.

“Ok! Well…” Luna looked around as if searching for something, “I should get back to finding my shoes…”

“Of course,” Atlas nodded, “I’ll keep an eye out for them.”

“Try negotiating with the Nargles, they get quite violent if you just take things back,” Luna informed and Atlas laughed, not nastily but genuinely.

“I’ll keep that in mind, happy hunting Luna.”

“Yes, thank you for the foot coverings,” Luna smiled airily and skipped away, impressive really considering Atlas’s shoes were definitely several sizes too big and it was probably hard to even walk let alone skip.

A thud sounded beside her and she turned to see a red and excited looking Ginny grinning up at her as she dismounted her borrowed broom, “Did you see!? I know it wasn’t first-try but I still did it!”

“Sorry Ginny, I was talking to Luna,” Atlas smiled apologetically and Ginny puffed up, her brows drawing together.

“You git,” She muttered, “You better watch me this time or I’ll stomp on your — where are your shoes?”

“Luna didn’t have hers,” Atlas explained, “She was trudging through the snow in socks.”

“Those Ravenclaws tossers,” Ginny scowled, gripping tight around the Firebolts broom handle, “I’m gonna hex ’em,” she declared, thrusting the broom at Atlas and trudging off in the direction Luna went, only to turn back around and grin at Atlas as if she hadn’t had a look of murder on her face a second ago, “Thanks for letting me fly!”

“Uh…sure thing, Ginny…” Atlas waved in startled bewilderment. When the girl was out of sight Atlas let out a sigh, deciding to first visit her dorm to get a new pair of shoes before joining Ron and Hermione at Hogsmeade.

Which actually sounded a lot more appealing than it had that morning. It was the reason Atlas had scheduled the flying lesson with Ginny the day of the Hogsmeade trip, she’d been pushing off the idea of going since Neville had told her about it those two weeks ago because of what had happened with the Dementor and because, simply put, Atlas couldn’t be bothered to deal with the locals and their blatant staring. 

She had thought about it now though, the first time had been nice and she did need to buy more materials so there really wasn’t any reason for her not to go. It wasn’t like the first time where she had thought it’d just be like a regular old visit home because she knew she’d be there with friends. Be there with Hermione who – she’d found out after a Quidditch match – had been gushing about Lyra’s puppies to Lavender and Parvati across from them for many weeks after the first visit and no doubt wanted to see them again.

With that in mind, Atlas quickly pulled on a new pair of shoes and socks, grabbed her scarf and gloves and quickly left the Common Room’s again, the fur she had sprouted on her feet, shrinking back to regular skin as she walked. It was a handy trick for situations that called for it and if anyone noticed, she could wave it off as advanced Transfiguration Minerva had taught her.

It was also good for when she was cold because she could cover her entire unseen body with fur if she wanted to and nobody would know. A perk of being an Animagus at such a young age, the ritual had affected her more so than it would a teenager or adult as she had still been growing, though at one point she had accidentally sprouted ears when she came down with the Flu. That was a downside.

Her case as an Animagus was curious like that, as if amplified.

She finally made it to the path leading to Hogsmeade and picked up her pace, settling into a light jog as she went, it was snowing heavily today. Thick layers of crisp snow decorating every possible inch it could, Atlas swore she saw a few animated snowmen rolling about on the grounds as she walked by but didn’t go near them, deciding to instead admire the decorations of Hogsmeade village.

They were all certainly getting into the Christmas spirit, with spruce trees decorated in magical lights and a product called tinsel she knew Muggles to use as well. The Wizarding world had adopted a few muggle traditions and products over the years but Christmas was the one Atlas enjoyed the most, mainly because it did have pagan roots so it wasn’t so different from what old wizards and witches used to celebrate and, well, it was Muggle.

The Muggle world fascinated her after all, how they did things without magic she would never know.

“So we meet each other this time do we?” Atlas turned at the voice and saw Cedric trudging over to her, his friends behind him engaging in some sort of snowball fight across the streets.

“Hello Ced,” Atlas greeted with a grin and then motioned over to his friends. “They look like they’re having fun.”

The boy nodded and then brightened. “Do you want to join us?”

She pondered on it for a moment, eyeing the boy’s hopeful face. It had been a while since they hung out at Hogsmeade together and they did always use to do so, so it couldn’t exactly hurt, Ron and Hermione would just have to suffer in each others company for a bit longer. “I’m sorry,” his face dropped and Atlas quickly scooped up a ball of snow, throwing directly at his face, “for that!”

“You git!” Cedric laughed, making his own ball and lobbing it at her as she ran, she quickly swerved and ducked behind a mound of snow. Quick to make her own pile of ammunition, she waited a second before peeking over her cover and closed her eyes to concentrate, muttering a spell under her breath which sent the boy on his behind. “Hey!”

A hail of snowballs rained down on him, burying him further in the snow. “I win!”

“That’s unfair! Not all of us got lessons in wandless magic from Professor Dumbledore when we were children!”

“Even if you had I doubt you could pull it off, Diggory!” Atlas smirked, sniffing at the cold. “Besides I’m no expert, that was a simple jinx and it still took me a majority of my childhood to master.”

In her speech Cedric had created a monster of a snowball and lugged it behind his head, losing balance for only a second before he tossed it straight at Atlas. She ducked last minute and grinned only for it to fade once she heard the familiar cry of Old-man Dockten behind her.

“Merlin save me…” She muttered and didn’t even turn, instead, opting to sprint over to Cedric who had gone pale as a sheet of paper, “Run, Diggory!”

“You! You rabble-rousing delinquents! I’ll get you this time!” 

Sparks went flying down the street, disturbing and sending the participants of the snow fight scattering. All the while Atlas was laughing her head off, Cedric doing the same but with a twinge of fear in his voice.

“My dad’s going to send me a Howler!” he shouted and Atlas laughed even louder. “Stop it! Stop it! You’re such a git!”

“Oh shut it Diggory, you should have seen your face!” Atlas’s own was alight with amusement and she looked the most alive she had been since the Quidditch match. “You went as white as snow!”

“Yeah because I knew Dockten would hex me!”

Just then, a spark flew between them and sunk into the snow, earning an exchange of nervous glances between Atlas and Cedric who slid down an alley and hopped on top of the rooftops of the thatched cottages. They watched from the higher ground as Old-man Dockten spun around in search of them, the image almost sent Atlas howling with laughter but she refrained and waited silently as he walked by.

Only then did she let them out, the noise disturbing the snow and sending it sliding off of the rooftop. “You never change, do you Black?”

“Never,” She grinned wolfishly, “Old-man Dockten deserves it anyway.”

“Tell that to my dad,” Cedric groaned and then slid off of the roof, landing with a soft thud. “Are you coming?”

“Sorry, Diggory, I’m going to find Hermione–” he grinned and Atlas stopped, regarding him curiously, “Cedric?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have a crush on Hermione?”

“What!?” Several heads turned in their direction, only seeing Cedric talking up at the sky as Atlas quickly ducked out of sight. “Of course not! I should be asking you that!”

“What? Why?”

“Because you talk about her! A lot!”

“You talk about Cho Chang a lot, doesn’t mean you have a crush on her,” Atlas huffed and Cedric flushed lightly, only to look at her with a smirk.

“Atlas, I do have a crush on Cho Chang.”

“Wait…what!?” Atlas startled and slipped off of the roof, landing with a louder thud than Cedric had, the snow kicking up around her and clearing, revealing a heap of clothing. Atlas jolted up and glared at Cedric who was laughing maniacally “Since when?”

“Since I told you about her!”

“I thought you had a crush on Bella!”

“Yeah, when I was in third year!” Cedric shouted back, his face flushing again. Atlas huffed and stood up, brushing herself down from the snow. “But she only saw me as a little brother and I don’t blame her, she’s like, way older than me.”

“Sounds like someones still hung up about it,” Atlas grinned and Cedric rolled his eyes.

“No, I’m not. Anyway, no subject changing!” He rushed, “Why did you think I had a crush on Granger? And why do you think you don’t!?”

“I know I don’t! She’s just fun to mess around with!”

“That sounds wrong…” Cedric said, looking at Atlas with a hint of disappointment, Atlas rolled her eyes.

“Not like that, idiot. It’s playful, mutual, no strings attached.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive!”

“Atlas!” The two of them turned to see Hermione running over to them, Ron and – to Atlas’s apparent surprise – Harry. Cedric smirked at Atlas amusedly as she smiled and looked down at Hermione as the girl brushed off clumps of snow in her hair.

“Ok yeah, sure. No strings attached, huh?” Cedric voiced loudly and Atlas punched him in the stomach without even looking at him, still smiling down at Hermione. “That hurt…that hurt a lot…” he wheezed.

No one paid the Hufflepuff any mind, well, Hermione did glance at him sympathetically, lightly scolding Atlas before going onto what she had wanted to say. “Where were you?”

“I was helping Ginny and Luna and then had a snowball fight in the street with Cedric,” Atlas shrugged as Hermione fixed her scarf, “what have you guys been doing…and why is Harry here?”

“We were at Honeydukes and Harry uh…” Ron glanced at Cedric and then back to Atlas, “got last-minute permission.”

“Really?” Atlas said sceptically but didn’t push, “So where are you going now?”

“The Three Broomsticks, you’ll join us won’t you?” Hermione asked and Atlas nodded quickly, watching as Hermione peered over at a still recovering Cedric, “you can join us if you want?”

“Uh…” Cedric looked at Atlas who had her brows furrowed and then back to Hermione who was looking at him indifferently, he deduced she’d only asked because of Atlas and smiled, “No thanks, I should get back to my other group.”

“If you say so,” Hermione shrugged turning back to Atlas. “Come on then, it’s freezing out here,” she shivered, pushing Atlas along and motioning for the boys to follow.

“Bye bear! I love you!” Cedric called out and Atlas cast him a wave and a smile.

“Bye Ced!”

Ron scrunched up his face when they got far enough, “I love you? What’s that all about, Atlas?”

“He likes to think he’s my brother,” Atlas shrugged, “He’s just like that, doesn’t mean more than familial.”

“How come you don’t say it back?” Harry asked curiously.

“I uh…can’t,” Atlas told. That rose a few brows, but the trio didn’t say anything and turned into the Three Broomsticks after her. It was extremely crowded, noisy, warm and slight smoky but Atlas paid that no mind and scoured the room for any free tables, taking off her scarf, coat and gloves to save herself from getting stuffy.

“That’s Madam Rosmerta,” Ron said and Atlas looked up, seeing the curvy woman with a pretty face serving a bunch of rowdy warlocks at the bar. Ron was obviously quite taken by the woman but Atlas refrained from mentioning she was not into wizards, or little boys for that matter, “I’ll get the drinks, shall I?”

“We’ll find a table,” Atlas nodded and made her way to the back of the room, where there was a small, vacant table in the very corner by the fire and Christmas tree. Hermione took the seat beside her with Harry following just behind, engaging in idle chatter until Ron came back, four foaming tankards of hot butterbeer in hand.

“Merry Christmas!” he chanted happily and they clanked their mugs together, Atlas bringing the rim to her mouth and gulping the entirety of its contents down, Ron and Harry chanted her name as she did. She grinned when she finished, sliding it to the table and wiping her mouth on her sleeve.

“Unbelievable,” Hermione huffed though there was a smile on her lips as she did, a telling sign that she had been amused by the display.

“You like it,” Atlas waved off, “I have to go get some materials after this, will we be staying long?”

“No, we just wanted to warm up a bit,” Harry told.

“Alright…say Harry how did you even get here? I know you didn’t get permission,” She asked, leaning on her elbows.

“Well…” Harry proceeded to tell her all about the Weasley twins, about the map and all the secret entrances – all of which Atlas already knew – about the past generation of troublemakers it had belonged to and finally, about how Hermione had wanted her to hand it in – which, of course, Atlas teased her for.

“Who did it belong to again, Harry?” Atlas asked, finding a few of the names familiar.

“Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Maneface,” Harry recited, thinking off of the top of his head, Atlas furrowed her brows, she swore she’d heard that last one before. It was at the front of her brain but the more she thought about it, the less it made sense.

“They sound familiar,” She mused and then turned back to Hermione, “So you wanted him to give it in, huh?”

“Shove off it, you,” Hermione blushed, pushing at her shoulder. “It only makes sense, the map is quite dangerous you know?”

“I do know, but what’s Harry going to do with it? All he did was sneak out to have a bit of fun with his mates,” Atlas shrugged and Harry grinned at her, Ron nodding in approval. Hermione only huffed and rolled her eyes, pouting into her butterbeer.

“Without permission, he could get in trouble if he’s caught.”

“If, my dear Granger, if he gets caught,” Atlas smiled slyly. “But you won’t will you Harry?”

“All he needs to do is hide behind your massive head,” Hermione grumbled and both of the boys laughed, Atlas only reeling at the joke.

“You wound me, after everything I’ve done for you…” Atlas sighed and Hermione grinned, quite liking the playfulness Atlas had been displaying recently.

“And what exactly is that?”

“I took you to see the owls at the post office,” Atlas smirked.

“I could have gone myself.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I could have.”

“But you didn’t!”

“Alright, you two!” Ron exclaimed with a laugh. Atlas stuck out her tongue and Hermione giggled softly, a sound so odd to Harry and Ron their brows rose up in sync. “Never heard that before…”

Hermione stomped on Ron’s foot beneath the table earning a sharp hiss of pain.

“Hey!”