Chapter 40

Atlas skipped breakfast, sneaking to the owlery in the early hours of the morning to check for signs of her dad’s letter. She’d specifically told the man to send her letters to the owlery and not to the main hall where it would raise suspicions. Atlas never got mail, after all, so to suddenly have packages and morning news delivered to her would be strange, which is why she had suggested a different drop-off location. Sirius had ultimately agreed, deciding it was a lot safer to do so.

Now, she stood, leaning up against one of the pillars holding the place together, her arms crossed and her eyes closed, listening for the soft fluttering of wings she knew to belong to Kalo. What she heard though, did not belong to her beloved owl, nor did it belong to any creature of the magical realm. Well, unless you count a witch. Atlas peeled a lid back, eyeing the newcomer of the owlery. It was Cho.

“Atlas!”

“Oh, Cho,” Atlas smiled, pushing herself from her position. “How are you?”

“Oh! Me? I’m great, ah! Cedric has been looking for you, said something about the World Cup.”

“Hasn’t been looking very hard has he? I’m pretty hard to miss,” Atlas motioned to her height and Cho giggled, crossing her arms over her chest and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear in a manner that seemed both nervous and contemplative. “Something on your mind?”

“Just thinking…”

“Such a Ravenclaw.”

“And you’re such a Gryffindor.”

“Thanks,” Atlas grinned and Cho rolled her eyes, chuckling again as Atlas simmered to an amused smile. “So what is it? What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing and everything,” Cho shrugged and Atlas sent her a stupid glare, half-hearted and not entirely meant but still with a hint of exasperation. She liked knowing things but at the end of the day, she wouldn’t push. So, with a light playful roll to her eyes, she resigned, sensing Cho didn’t exactly want to talk about it. “What are you doing up here? Expecting mail?”

“No,” Atlas lied and leant through one of the open windows, Cho moving to stand beside her to do the same, “I just like the view, the Threstrals are looking mighty active this afternoon,” she told, eyeing a winged beast cruising over the horizon, a much smaller version of itself following behind haphazardly. Must be a new flyer.

“Are they? What do they look like, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“I don’t. They’re beautiful creatures really, majestic and sort of comforting once you look past the requirements to seeing them. They pull the carriages don’t you know?”

“Always thought they drove themselves,” Cho admitted and straightened once she noticed an approaching owl. She held out her arm to receive the bird, carefully and dutifully removing the letter from its talons before feeding it some magical owl feed. Atlas had not got the chance to learn the name of. “Well, I’ve got my letter. You wanting the company or…?”

“Nah, you can go,” Atlas waved off and Cho nodded, slowly backing away to the exit, “Oh, Cho…”

“Yeah?”

“If you see Ced, tell him I’m alright and that I’ll see him around,” Atlas said and Cho nodded, albeit hesitantly, that thought from earlier still apparently plaguing her mind. “You can talk to me, you know? We might have been friends of friends but not anymore.”

“Right…you’re right. Ok, here goes,” She bit her lip, chewed silently a moment before hooking her hands behind her back and looking up at Atlas through her bangs, shyly, uncertainly and nervously. “Are you and Cedric…together?”

“Me and…Ced?” Atlas asked with a curious tilt to her words. When Cho nodded, her grin steadily grew wider before she let out a full-bellied laugh, clutching at the wall desperately to hold herself upright. Cho shuffled uncomfortably, clearly disgruntled and embarrassed by Atlas’s reaction. “Sorry! Sorry!” Atlas waved around, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “No! Merlin, no…Ced is my friend, he thinks of me as his little sister. Plus, I’m more into witches.”

“Oh…Oh! Oh! Witches!” Cho exclaimed as Atlas smirked amusedly, watching as the girl’s cheeks tinted from further embarrassment. “Right! Ok! Yes! Er — I’ll see you then!”

“Bye Cho,” Atlas waved, wiggling her fingers as she did, Cho nodded and rushed out of sight, leaving Atlas to quietly laugh to herself, shaking her head as she caught the approaching shadowy form of her beloved owl-thing. Fortunate timing. She held out her arm, pulling the note free from the owl’s beak. “Hello, bird.” 

He seemed to roll his eyes, not literally of course but Kalo had a very expressive aura, he was no ordinary bird after all. Atlas peeled back the envelope, pulling out the parchment within to read it. It was short, its contents near non-existent but that’s the way they had always been, Sirius would always send short letters, each with their own simple sentences. Snappy and quick to the point. This time he had simply expressed his interest in her well being, seemingly ignoring the subject of her mother – even though she had asked a few things about her in her letter previous – and talking as any father would. He ended it with a feather from Buckbeak and a few X’s to symbolise lost kisses. His next letter to her would come with Harry’s.

She sighed and rubbed her hands down her face, tucking the parchment safely in her inner pocket, deep, deep, deep down into her cloak, so there was no chance it would fall out and land in unfortunate hands. When she pulled her hand out, she snatched her pocket watch as well, glancing down at the time and immediately turning to hurry out of the tower, Kalo fluttering right after her. She was late to Herbology, had practically missed it, she’d forgotten her and Cho’s schedules didn’t align so no wonder she had forgotten.

She’d thought herself safe seeing as though Cho hadn’t gone to lesson yet either, just how long had she been waiting in the Owlery that morning? It must have been hours, yet she hadn’t realised. Kalo landed at her shoulder just as she made it inside and she silently shooed him away, nudging him into flight with a few quiet words of thanks and affection.

Herbology was one of the things she was poor at, so to lose precious time in the class was not ideal. Why couldn’t she have missed Transfiguration or Potions? The classes she excelled in. She was pretty sure they were extracting puss from Bubotubers this term too and though disgusting, she’d always liked handling incredibly valuable things. 

A bell, signifying the end of class, echoed across the grounds and Atlas stopped her movements, groaning into her hands and throwing her head to the sky, sighing as she turned and instead made her way to Care For Magical Creatures. Another subject she excelled at. She excelled in a lot of things because, yes, she had an unnaturally high affinity to magic just like her mother but contrary to her, she had always had to work for her prowess in subjects, she wasn’t naturally gifted in Potion Making, nor was she in History of Magic. She had spent the majority of her childhood working towards the level she was.

However, with things like Defence Against the Dark Arts and Care For Magical Creatures, she was like her mother. It was an innate talent, being so able to bond with creatures and being so prone to grasping horrendously difficult hexes, counter curses, charms, e.t.c. That was certainly in her blood.

Atlas came to a stop in front of Hagrid, the man with Fang at his side and his back turned to her, too busy opening up half a dozen crates containing beasts Atlas couldn’t quite see from where she stood. So she jogged forward, dumping her bag and cloak by Hagrid’s stairs to help him with whatever he was doing. “Morning Hagrid!”

“Ah! Atlas, yeh early!”

“Missed Herbology,” She told sheepishly and Hagrid raised a brow at her as she shrugged. “Got lost in thought up in the owlery, been really tired lately.”

“Well, yer still healin’ from that attack. It’s no wonder, werewolves are no joke, yeh see.”

“I’m fully healed, Hagrid,” Atlas told, moving forward and prying at one of the closed crates, Hagrid seemed to be thankful but didn’t voice his thanks, not wanting to derail the subject of Atlas’s wellbeing. “Luckily they weren’t too deep, they’ll definitely scar but that’s that.”

“Yeh’ve still got the toxins in yeh, though,” Hagrid said and Atlas nodded at that, not wanting to refute him, “Which is why yer so sluggish!”

“Yeah, probably, but what can I do? Poppy’s already got me on so many different medications, it’ll just be like Buckbeak’s slash and since there’s no Quidditch this year, I won’t have to worry about catching anyone from the sky. It’s really fine,” Atlas reassured, finally getting the lid off of the box. She startled at its contents, a flourish of flame bursting from within, sending her stumbling backwards. She tripped onto her behind and winced. “Hagrid! Have you gone mad!?”

“Oh come on! They on’y jus’ hatched, Blast-Ended Screwts I call ’em!” Hagrid puffed up proudly, “so yeh’ll be able ter raise ’em yerselves! Thought we’d make a bit of a project of it!”

“Hagrid, I…” Atlas sighed and shook her head with clear fatigue, pulling herself to her feet and brushing herself down to finish her sentence. “You’ve got some great ideas and this, in theory, sounds like a great idea–“

“Excellent then!” Hagrid beamed, clapping his hands together and turning to see the rest of the class filing in. Atlas went to try and carry on but she noticed her trio rushing over to her, each of them looking either, excited, smug or livid.

“There you are, mate,” Ron greeted with a grin as he sidestepped to allow Hermione the floor, he looked eager to see how it would play out, as did Harry who had his arms crossed and mouth pulled into a smirk.

“You skipped Herbology!? A subject I have worked tirelessly – you have worked tirelessly – to catch up in to play hooky with Cho Chang in the owlery!?” Hermione exploded, she looked equal parts hurt and equal parts angry while Atlas looked at her in oblivious wonder, her eyes wide and hands out in front of her ready to fend off the fuming bookworm.

“M-Mione–“

“Don’t you ‘Mione’ me! Are you serious Atlas?!”

“Hey! Hold on!” Atlas urged, glancing up to see a few fellow Gryffindors snickering and whispering, smirking over at her as Harry and Ron seemed to fuel their rampant gossip. She was so going to hex them later. The Gryffindors were all at least on first-name basis’s and as all of them there were in the same year – Gryffindor didn’t house too many students – they were all pretty much friends who knew it wasn’t often you’d see Hermione and Atlas feuding, so that was extra points to the interesting meter. “You’re drawing a crowd, idiot.”

That was the wrong thing to say. The very wrong thing to say. “Idiot!?”

“Oh, dear…” Atlas murmured.

“Did you just–!?”

“Will you shut up?” Atlas whispered harshly, pushing her hand to Hermione’s mouth. In hindsight that was another bad idea, silencing Hermione was always a no go but the girl seemed too preoccupied with something else to retort or fight back. “I wasn’t playing hooky with Cho, I lost track of time sightseeing, you of all people know I can zone out when I do that. You really shouldn’t jump to conclusions, sweetheart.”

Hermione made a muffled sound at the back of her throat and pushed Atlas’s hand away, still glaring at her furiously but the tint to her cheeks lessened the threat behind her eyes, setting a steady smirk on Atlas’s face. “You’re insufferable.”

“You wound me, Granger, now, please. Am I free from your inspection?”

“Whatever…” She grumbled storming back over to Harry and Ron who were laughing maniacally. She hit them both upside the head, muttering something inaudible as Atlas watched her with a small smile. She noticed her hand felt slightly waxy a moment later and looked at it, seeing a smudge of pink in her palm.

“Lipstick…?” She glanced back up, seeing Harry pointing at Hermione’s mouth with a sly grin as she flushed and hurried to rid herself of the smudged makeup. Atlas raised her brows in surprise, Hermione never wore makeup, she didn’t even know Hermione could do makeup. Not like Atlas could either, makeup had always been a foreign thing to her until she’d sat down with Lavender, Parvati and her twin Padma to talk all things ‘girl’ the year prior when Hermione had been gone too long one night. “That’s new…”

The lesson on their new Blast-Ended Skrewts flew by with Atlas having the time of her life wrestling with the little fiends, despite her initial uncertainty. She’d found the females were the hardest to deal with because with the males she could at least ward off the pincers that lunged for her but one miscalculated move on her part could lose her quite a bit of blood with the female ones. Nevertheless, she left the lesson grinning from ear to ear, only a few tears in her clothes. Easily fixed, really. She’d been in her own little world throughout the lesson, noticing a little feud between her trio and a select three Slytherins but nothing more.

Now it was the end. Atlas pulled on her cloak and grabbed her bag from Hagrid’s stairs, jogging her way back to the castle, eager for lunch, it was a few seconds of climbing later when her trio joined her, Harry and Ron talking animatedly to one another while Hermione kept her eyes on her footing.

“Well, at least the skrewts are small,” Ron supplied just as they walked inside, Atlas snorted when Hermione sighed in exasperation.

“They are now, but once Hagrid’s found out what they eat, I expect they’ll be six feet long,” she told and Atlas chuckled, actually excited for the day they become a real challenge. She was perhaps the only one to think that though. Maybe Ginny when she eventually has to work with them next year but that would just be another thing for the two to bond over. See, Ron would always hold a special place in her heart for being the first Weasley she ever befriended, but Ginny was steadily becoming her favourite Weasley. Not like she’d ever tell him that.

“Well, that won’t matter if they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?” Ron said, smirking slyly.

“You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up,” Hermione said and Atlas looked between them in confusion, maybe she should have paid attention to what was going on around her that lesson. “As a matter of fact, I think he’s right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all.”

“Hermione!” Atlas yelled, genuinely disturbed as a disgruntled noise sounded at the back of her throat, her face pulled into one of a seemingly painful grimace. “That’s so messed up.”

“It’s better than one of us losing a limb!” Hermione argued.

“You never know! Blast-Ended Skrewts could…I don’t know, produce milk for magical injury!” Atlas shouted indignantly.

“You sure about it being milk?” Harry asked with a grin and Atlas looked at him quizzically, Hermione grimacing as Ron laughed heartily behind the two.

“So we don’t kill them,” Hermione sighed, turning away and ignoring Harry’s comment to save a slither of her sanity, instead she looked at Atlas who looked genuinely serious and disturbed by her comment. Maybe she shouldn’t have framed it the way she did, she’d admit that at least. “Instead we give them to an experienced keeper! Otherwise, we might have another Buckbeak situation on our hands!”

Atlas made a face but resigned and ultimately agreed. “Yeah but no, that was just an idea we’ll never put into action. Dumbledore allowed Hagrid the screwts, that man knows everything, so, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Triwizard Tournament has some sort of challenge that could need them.”

“How’d you come to that conclusion?” Ron asked as they finally made it to the Great Hall and sat down in their usual places.

“Well, every year Dumbledore has had some teacher or some person in the school, teach or hold something that could come in handy, almost like he knows and has certain…feelings? Like me and the feeling, I had about my dad being innocent,” Atlas explained her theory, Hermione genuinely intrigued while Ron looked at her funnily. Harry was just a mix of both, not quite understanding but listening anyway. “I mean, as one example, in second year, Professor Sprout had you look after Mandrakes, something important when making an antidote to paralysis…”

“How do you know about that?” Harry asked.

“Professor McGonagall remember? She’s my godmother, she tells me everything and as Dumbledore tells her most things, I learn of all he says. Plus, I helped make the antidote,” Atlas shrugged, pulling a lamb chop to her plate. Hermione seemed to gaze at her in contemplation, head tilting from side to side before her eyes widened in realisation.

“You were there when I woke up!”

“What?” Atlas asked with an amused smile, her gaze still on her food.

“You gave me my antidote! You’re the girl who helped me recover!” Hermione continued and Atlas almost choked on a cube of meat, turning to Hermione with flushed cheeks as the girl looked upon her in wonder. “How have I never noticed…?”

“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, leaning forward as Atlas and Hermione continued to stare at each other.

“Remember I told you about Madam Pomfrey’s helper? The one who gave me my antidote for the Basilisks paralysis and helped me to the Great Hall? That was Atlas! I just never realised because she wore a mask that covered her lower face.”

“Seriously?” Ron asked, chowing down on a sausage.

“Why did you never tell me, idiot?” Hermione grinned, playfully pushing at Atlas’s arm.

Seeking to change the subject, Atlas moved her eyes to stare blatantly at Hermione’s lips. “You’re wearing lipstick.”

“I — yeah…” Hermione flushed. The topic was successfully averted. 

“She had really chapped lips this morning,” Harry told, shooting Hermione a grin that Atlas just missed as she was now just staring at Hermione’s lips. She used pink, a natural colour that didn’t draw too much attention, yet somehow looked softer and plumper. It was really…attractive. Not to say Atlas had never found Hermione attractive before because either way Hermione was attractive, gorgeous really. It was just new and it accentuated assets Hermione already had.

“It’s pretty,” Atlas said simply, returning to her food. There was a moment of silence between the four before Hermione suddenly started to gulp down her food in massive bites. Atlas stopped her fork in midair, watching the scene in startled bewilderment, Harry and Ron beside her with similar looks on their face. “Mi…what are you…doing?”

“Want to get to the library.”

“That’s so like you…” Atlas sighed as Ron went wide-eyed. Hermione gulped and smiled, pushing her empty plate forward and leaping to her feet, not sparing a glance their way as she all but sprinted out of the Great Hall.

“See you at dinner!”

“See…you,” Atlas muttered and then glanced at the boys, watching as they just shrugged and went back to their food. “She’s going to be occupied with the library for a while.”

“Why is that?”

“Probably doing research on Elves and their rights,” Atlas sighed and Harry and Ron exchanged a look.

“We thought you said the Elves here get treated nicely?” Harry asked this time.

“They do but elsewhere they’re treated horribly, Hermione knows that and probably wants to try and help them and it’s not like everything is sunshine and rainbows here. The Elves still consider themselves lesser beings, always looking to please,” Atlas murmured. “Anyway, let’s just hope she doesn’t burn herself out again, I’ll help her later but first…we should really be getting to Divination.”

“Oh god,” Harry groaned, “she’s going to ‘foretell’ my death again, isn’t she?”

“She’ll definitely bring up something tragic,” Atlas grinned, gathering her things.

“What’s the bet she brings up Atlas’s love life?”

“Oh shove it, Ron. I swear she gets paid to say some of these things.”

“She does,” Harry laughed and Atlas rolled her eyes, punching his shoulder lightly.

“You know what I mean, twat.”