Chapter 5

Arriving early, Atlas climbed into the North Tower of the seventh floor, first poking her head inside to see if the ever eccentric Professor Trelawney was in before fully settling herself inside and getting her books out for the lesson. She stood hunched over one of the floor tables and placed her materials down, startling when she heard a bang from behind her. She spun around, only to find Professor Trelawney staring at her, eyes glazed over and arm outstretched.

Atlas made to back away but the woman kept advancing until her hand was pressed firmly into her face, fingertips tracing the scars delicately. It was awkward, silence encompassing them for a long few minutes until Trewlaney drew in a sharp breath, her body seeming to convulse. Atlas held her steady despite the awkward position, looking over the teacher worriedly.

“Trust in the brightest star, the opening of new scars will be repeated, chances will be given to those who don’t deserve them and a dying light of green will signify the beginning of the end…only then will your story begin and for only then will your heritage rise and join the side of The Dark Lord…” Trelawney whispered, voice breathy and body spasming, her mouth open as if gasping for air, her thick glasses blowing her already wide eyes wider. This startled the air from Atlas’s lungs, who promptly pulled away, staring at the woman.

“What?”

In a blink, Trelawney was back, looking around the room quizzically for a second, rubbing her temple and then settling her eyes on the scared looking Atlas. “Yes, my child?”

“…nothing,” Atlas swallowed, turning and dropping down into her seat, wondering what the hell had just happened. She could feel her professor’s eyes still trained on her but didn’t say anything, didn’t even move, her body frozen stiff. Could it have been a prophecy?

Glancing up at her teacher, Atlas watched her a moment, finding the woman muttering to herself as she teetered around the class, setting up cushions and occasionally bumping into tables. No, though claimed to be, Trelawney was no Seer, there was no way. The Dark Lord? He was gone. Her Heritage? Locked up in Azkaban. A dying light? There were too many things that could be. Chances? She wasn’t sure about that one. The brightest star? What could that mean? How would she trust a star? Perhaps it had something to do with the Centaurs.

Just like that, students began pouring into the classroom, avoiding Atlas at her lone table at all costs, she didn’t mind though and instead opened her book, tapping the pages with the end of her quill absentmindedly. That was until two figures plopped down beside her.

It was Harry and Ron. She blinked in surprise, looking at them curiously only to get large grins in return that edged a smile of her own on her lips. She let it go after a moment and turned back to her page, scratching behind her ear and yawning. Sleep had not treated her kindly last night, ended up tossing and turning for most of it, she wondered if Hermione’s sleep had been disturbed by it at all and suddenly felt quite bad.

“Hey, you,”  Atlas looked up, rubbing at her tired eyes. “Didn’t sleep well?”

“Hermione,” she grumbled tiredly and Hermione smiled, setting a cup of tea in front of her, “I don’t like tea.”

“It’s for the lesson,” Hermione sighed, sitting down next to her and glancing over at both Harry and Ron who were still pouring their own. “At least it’ll be good for waking you up. About the only good, this class will do mind you.”

“Mhmm, I didn’t see you come in,” Atlas said, taking the cup in her hands and blowing on it cautiously. She’d been burned before, by Hagrid’s baby dragon, in fact, before it mysteriously disappeared and Hagrid wouldn’t tell her where it went. In short, she didn’t fancy getting burnt again.

“What? Don’t be silly, I’ve been here all this time.”

“I would have noticed,” Atlas refuted and took a cautious sip, staring down into the cup and already finding the dregs floating around. A grimace came to her face, “I was spaced out, if you were here the whole time, tell me what I missed?”

“Well, Professor Trelawney essentially told Neville his grandmother wasn’t well, that Parvati should be wary of a red-haired man, there would be a nasty bout of flu in February, something Lavender is dreading would happen on Friday the sixteenth of October and that Neville will break a–” The sound of smashing china interrupted her and she sighed, putting a small amused smile on Atlas’s face, “–teacup…Neville will break a teacup.”

“You don’t seem too fond of this subject,” Atlas observed with a small smile, swirling the dregs around in her cup as the book had instructed her to, already seeing a few omens forming – not really, they just looked like blobs to her but she liked Trelawney so maybe she would entertain her subject. It’d give her a good mark at least.

“It’s farfetched.”

“Sometimes,” Atlas agreed, finally finishing her tea, it left a bad after taste but she didn’t voice her disgust, the emotion already clear on her face. Hermione laughed quietly and shook her head, handing her cup over to Atlas who, in turn, did the same, peering down into it curiously. “But Seers are real and the Centaurs have predicted many things using the stars.”

“Yes well…”

“I think you just don’t like it because it’s unstable,” Atlas smirked, “you can’t control it and I know you like stability. You’re uptight…like Minerva.”

“Thank you,” Hermione smiled and then furrowed her brows. “Hey wait–“

“So, are you going first?”

“Now hold on, did you just call me uptight?”

“No, I just said you were like Minerva,” Atlas remarked, shrugging with a slight smile.

“…alright,” Hermione nodded, narrowing her eyes a second before turning to her cup. She squinted, trying to see any shapes she could, “Hang on a second…I see…nothing, I see nothing,” she stated plainly and Atlas rolled her eyes, taking the cup back from Hermione, resolving to read her own omens.

“Well, there’s a cross for starters…great ‘trials and suffering’…” she mumbled and Hermione gazed at her curiously, her eyes not joining her in staring into the cup. “Oh and a skull, ‘danger in my path’…here’s a happy one, the sun, ‘great happiness’…and a…heart? Which is…’love’,” Atlas coughed awkwardly, glancing up to catch Hermione’s eye, “Hermione?”

“What?” She snapped out of her daze, leaning backwards and sitting up straighter, a light red dusting her cheeks, “Sorry, I’ve just never noticed you have freckles.”

“Oh yeah? Got them from my mum,” Atlas smiled, looking back into her omen reading cup, “Hey look there’s an ‘H’,” she pointed out, holding the cup to Hermione who actually did look into it, eyebrows furrowing, “or well…” she took it back, peering at it again, “the more I look at it…it sort of looks like a ladder.”

A laugh sounded from Hermione who shook her head lightly, a disbelieving smile on her face as she bit her lip to hold back any more that may erupt, “I’m glad to see you’re not as awkward as you were yesterday.”

“I wasn’t awkward…” Atlas argued furrowing her brows, “I was just warming up to you, is all.” like the night before Hermione raised her hand, this time actually placing it atop Atlas’s head, “What are you doing?”

“Permit me to say…but you remind me of a puppy…” Hermione mused and Atlas cocked her brow. Hermione wasn’t wrong, for the most part anyway.

“I’m more of a bear, no?” Atlas instead decided to say, a grin on her lips as Hermione finally pulled back her hand, shaking her head amusedly. “Anyway,” she considered her words a second, setting her omens down and, instead, fiddling with the cup Hermione’s predictions lay, “Crookshanks trusts you…seems incredibly fond of you actually so…I guess it translates.”

“How so?”

Atlas toyed with the handle of the cup, looking down into it, “I grew up around a lot of animals, magical and not, their abilities in passing judgement sort of rubbed off on me I guess…Crookshanks seems to be an untamable character but still, he lets you cuddle and fawn over him. I’d like to think that’s his way of showing you he’s grateful you saved him from that awful pet store.”

“How did you know I saved him from a pet store?”

“Uh…Minerva…Animagus have like…an ability to talk to animals while in their shifted forms,” Atlas told, her voice unwavering as she tried to sell her lie. Hermione regarded her a second but didn’t push it further, instead, glancing down at the cup Atlas was holding, expectantly. “Oh right so…” Atlas went back to omen reading, “You got a sun too, ‘great happiness’, that’s good…uh, you also got a heart, ‘love’ and then there’s a letter…can’t really make it out, could be an ‘A’…a ‘V’ or a pointy ‘C’, depending on the way you look at it…” Hermione smiled and shuffled closer, looking into the cup over Atlas’s shoulder, “hmm…that’s not great, you got the cross too…’trials and suffering’.”

“This class is ludicrous anyway,” Hermione muttered and Atlas laughed lightly, setting the cup down and writing a few notes in her book. Hermione did the same, though with a slight grimace as if her taking the class seriously was a serious pain.

“Let me see that, my dear,” Trelawney called out, going over to Ron and Harry who seemed to have been laughing at something. Ron obliged and Trelawney went to it, rotating the cup every now and again before giving her conclusion, “The falcon…my dear, you have a deadly enemy.”

“But everyone knows that,” Hermione whispered loudly and when Professor Trelawney looked at her, she seemed to puff up in defence, “well, they do. Everybody knows about Harry and You-Know-Who.”

Atlas stared at the side of her new friends face with a surprised grin, she had always heard of Hermione being a straight-laced student, never chatting back, never speaking out in class unless it was an answer. An ideal pupil. But now, for some reason, Hermione seemed incredibly defensive in Trelawney’s presence. This brought a smirk to Atlas’s face as she regarded her new friend with greater intrigue.

“The club…” Trelawney continued, apparently choosing to ignore Hermione, “an attack. Dear, dear, this is not a happy cup…” It sounded even worse than Atlas’s but maybe she just wasn’t able to see what Trelawney could. Perhaps if Trelawney were to look in her cup she’d faint from the shock of it. Everyone continued staring, Atlas leaning against her palm, Hermione at her side also watching, though not as intently as she kept on glancing at her new friend.

A gasp disrupted the calm and Atlas jolted upwards, eyes going wide. In honesty, she had just been about to fall asleep. Another smash sounded and Atlas glanced over to see Neville had broken another cup, seemingly cowering further in on himself when he realised Atlas Black was staring at him. A frown wormed its way onto Atlas’s face. Longbottom, right, she’d heard that name somewhere, his parents were driven insane by her own dear old cousin – 1st removed – Bellatrix Lestrange.

“My dear boy…my poor dear boy…no, it’s kinder not to say…no, don’t ask me…” Trelawney stuttered over her words fiercely as everyone got up and started crowding around Harry and Ron’s table, not caring that this would put them all metres closer to Atlas.

“What is it, Professor?” Atlas asked, standing up from her seat and walking through the path that was made, Trelawney handed her the cup as if it’d explain it but still, the Black was confused.

“My dear,” Trelawney clutched at Atlas’s arm, looking to and from her and Harry, frantically, as if Atlas could actually do something about the omen that had presented itself, “He has the Grim…” she spoke in a stage whisper, nodding and shaking her head as if this final push would lead Atlas to clock on.

“The what?” Harry asked and Atlas looked down at him, first placing a hand on Trelawney’s head to calm her down slightly before then grabbing up her book, searching through the pages. She didn’t have to though, because, instead, a boy Atlas recognised as Bem, read from his own copy of Unfogging the Future.

“The Grim, taking the form of the giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards. The Grim is among the darkest omens of our world,” he glanced upwards and at Atlas, her subconsciously hardened stare putting him off as he stuttered over his next few words, “I-it’s an omen of d-death.”

Hermione moved around so she was by Atlas’s shoulder and lightly tilted her head so she could see into the cup, her nose scrunching up in discontent. With her teeth and the way her nose twitched, Atlas thought she looked like a little bunny. “I don’t think it looks like a Grim,” she then said flatly, in a way no cute little bunny would sound. Atlas laughed.

“You’ll forgive me for saying so, my dear, but I perceive very little aura around you. Very little receptivity to the resonances of the future,” Trewlaney murmured, she seemed to not like Hermione very much, Atlas really couldn’t see why and that’s when the woman turned to her, her face lighting up a little more, “You, on the other hand, my dear, have a very strong, pulsing aura around you, yes, very warm.”

“I am rather hot, yes,” Atlas grinned stupidly, pulling at her collar. A few students laughed around her, not out of nastiness more out of amusement, seeming to think what Atlas had said was a joke. In truth though, though she knew the double meaning and took full advantage of it, the girl was genuinely hot, the incense in the stuffy classroom making her both drowsy and clammy.

“Oh hey,” Seamus Finnigan – Atlas recognised him – moved around so he was on Atlas’s other side and peered into the cup, tilting his head slightly and then turning to look up at Atlas with a grin, “It looks like a Grim if you squint and tilt your head, but–” he turned back to the cup, leaning left, “it looks more like a donkey from here.”

“Oh yeah…I can see that,” Atlas agreed, turning and showing the discovery – she hadn’t made – to Hermione, “hey look what Seamus showed me.”

“You know my name?” Atlas glanced over at him as Hermione cupped her hands in hers and held the cup gently in their conjoined palms.

“Yeah, I make it a thing to remember everyone’s names…” She shrugged, turning back to Hermione who was still cupping her hands but no longer staring at the tea leaves, instead, staring up at Atlas who smiled at her curiously. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Hermione replied before coughing and turning just in time for Harry’s outburst to go into fruition.

“When you’ve all finished deciding whether I’m going to die or not!” Harry yelled, taking everybody by surprise. Atlas absentmindedly placed her hand on his shoulder. It was a show of comfort but Atlas wasn’t great at doing that, the only ways she knew how to comfort was while in her Animagus. Professor Sprout always did like her fluffy hugs whenever she was down and recovering from her own supply.

“I think we will leave the lesson here for today,” Professor Trelawney announced just as Harry placed his hand on top of Atlas’s and thanked her quietly, “Yes…please pack away your things…”

Atlas dislodged her hand and went back to her table, flicking her teacup back over to Trelawney and stuffing her books in her bag. She didn’t look back once as she opened the floor hatch of the room and slid down the ladder connected. As soon as her feet touched the floor she adjusted her satchel on her arm and quickly made her descent down the spiral stairs to Transfiguration, not noticing the whispers and stares of awe aimed at her through the hatch.

***

A tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes jumped onto Atlas’s desk and she smiled, scratching behind her god-mothers ear only for the cat to jump from her table and onto the floor, turning back to herself with a faint pop.

“Really what has got into you all today?” she called out, staring them all down, “Not that it matters, but that’s the first time my transformation’s got such little attention. Only Atlas seemed to react and that’s to be expected considering she’s my Goddaughter.”

That was something Professor McGonagall seemed to be flaunting around wherever she went, always reminding people of who Atlas was to her as if to say, ‘if you were to associate her with anyone, associate her with me!’, Atlas didn’t mind it.

Heads turned to Harry put nobody spoke, until of course, someone did, and that someone was Hermione Granger. “Please, Professor, we’ve just had our first Divination class, and we were reading the tea leaves, and–“

“Ah, of course…” Minerva sighed, leaning against Atlas’s desk with a sorry face, “There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?”

There was silence until Atlas sighed and motioned to Harry with her thumb, “Harry.”

“I see…” Professor McGonagall muttered, placing her hand on Atlas’s shoulder as she fixed her eye on Harry. “Then you should know, Potter, that Sibyll Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them have died yet. Seeing death omens is her favourite way of greeting a new class. If it were not for the fact that I never speak ill of my colleagues –” Professor McGonagall broke off, and when Atlas saw her nostrils had gone rather wide in heated frustration she subtly nudged her godmother into a more professional tone. “Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney…”

“You look fine to me, Harry,” Atlas spoke, turning in her chair to smile at him. Professor McGonagall looked down at her goddaughter curiously before, a twitch of a smile came to her face and she turned, walking back to the front of the room.

“As Miss Magianima said, you look in excellent health, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don’t let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in,” Minerva said evenly and somewhere, a seat away from Atlas, Hermione laughed. Atlas glanced over to her and regarded the studious girl, leaning against her cheek silently.

That was until, Minerva stopped in front of her line of sight and smiled down at her knowingly, tapping the end of her wand to the page of Atlas’s book. It was pointless though, Atlas already knew everything the lesson was teaching, after all, the topic of discussion was Animagus. “Atlas, dear, Isabella’s teasings seem to be holding true and while I do not mind, please do not ogle.”

“I wasn’t ogling,” Atlas rolled her eyes, grinning slightly but also thankful Minerva had warned her in a whisper, “and Bella’s teasings aren’t holding anything. Is it a crime to just admire a person?”

“No, however, many do not appreciate the feeling of a burning gaze at their cheek, no matter how charming the admirer,” Minerva reminded before going back to the front. Atlas glanced over in Hermione’s direction once more before going back to her book, tickling her nose with her quill between note-taking.

“Hey, Atlas!” A hushed whisper came.

“Hmm?”

“Do you have a spare quill?” Ron asked, she nodded and dug around in her bag, turning in her seat to hand it to him. He grinned brightly, “Thanks, mate.”

“No problem…hey, what does Hermione like?”

“Uh…why are you asking me?” Ron questioned, glancing over to Hermione who had her head down, quill scratching across paper eagerly.

“You’re one of her best friends.”

“Ok…why are you asking in the first place?”

“I have to repay her for helping me study,” Atlas shrugged.

“Oh well…books?” he guessed and Atlas pondered on it for a moment before nodding in thanks and turning back around. What sort of books though? “I doubt you need to repay her though…” Ron’s whisper came again and Atlas leant back in her chair, tilting her head to listen, “Hermione’s not one to expect things for tutoring…as long as you get a good grade and actually pay attention she won’t care.”

“Noted.”