Chapter 20

On Christmas morning, Atlas was shaken awake by a very excited Hermione Granger who was hanging over her with a beaming grin on her face. “Atty, wake up it’s Christmas!”

“Alright, Mione, alright, I’m up…” Atlas yawned, lightly pushing Crookshanks off of her, he still remained soundly asleep when she did, apparently not at all fussed by the arrangement. The girl sat up, Hermione leaning back with her as she rubbed at her eyes and spotted the neat stack of presents at the bottom of her bed. “Oh…”

“What is it?” Hermione asked, looking up from her own pile of presents.

“I’ve just…I’ve never had so many presents…” She mused, pulling the blankets of her bed back and moving closer to them. There were some from people Atlas wouldn’t have expected. Neville, Katie, Angelina, Oliver and even Luna Lovegood, though by the looks of it, the girl had just gifted her shoes back to her. It did make her smile though. Then there was one labelled Mrs Weasley. “Why did Ron’s mum get me something?”

“Oh, you got a Weasley sweater!” Hermione smiled, moving over to her and sitting right beside her as Atlas opened the present finding a black knitted sweater with a golden ‘A’ knitted into its front. She just stared at it, shocked speechless, “I got one this year too…she never sent me one in the first and second year, but I suspect it was because Ron and I were never really close like he was to Harry — Atlas?”

“It’s…it’s brilliant…I’ve tried knitting but I’m horrible at it,” Atlas grinned, immediately taking off her shirt – which Hermione promptly turned away from – and pulling her new sweater on instead. “And it fits perfectly…how did she get my measurements?”

“I — I wouldn’t know,” Hermione stuttered and then cleared her throat, going over to her own bed to put on her own Weasley sweater. Atlas looked away, her face also burning a bright red. “They’re quite comfortable aren’t they?”

“They are…” Atlas agreed. Hermione turned to her and flushed, the fit was certainly snug, something she hadn’t seen much of in Atlas’s outfits considering she always wore quite baggy clothing, even her uniform – which she looked good in nonetheless – hung loosely on her frame. So seeing her in something that hugged nicely at her arms really put into perspective how attractive and well built Atlas was. “Ten Galleons says Oliver got me something Quidditch related.”

“Is it even something you have to guess?” Hermione grinned, the flush in her cheeks dying down to a warm glow and Atlas smiled, picking up the present. As she had predicted it was a Quidditch themed gift, though it was a book she’d actually never read before and one glance over the cover from Hermione had the girl pale. “There’s no way Oliver expects you to learn these…”

“I think they’re just stunts, not things you should use in a game,” Atlas reassured, though she mentally noted to try a few out on her own, maybe she’d even invite Ginny to watch – not to participate, she wasn’t crazy and she quite liked the idea of getting another sweater next Christmas. “So, what have you got?”

Hermione brightened and then bound over to her own bed, rushing back to her with a book on a few old charms and a Muggle book series called The Chronicles of Narnia. “I’ve already read them at the library in my town but I wanted my own copies so I could read them whenever I wanted.”

“They’re that good?”

“Yes, definitely!” Hermione beamed and Atlas smiled fondly at her a moment before looking down at the present from Luna to see the girl had just wrapped and returned her shoes. “Are those…your shoes?”

“Oh yeah, I gave them to Luna Lovegood when the Nargles took hers,” Atlas grinned crookedly.

“I’ve heard about her, she’s quite…eccentric,” Hermione mused.

“She’s really nice, I feel like you two are polar opposites though because she’s very loose and your…” Atlas motioned to Hermione as a whole, the girl tensing up at the gesture. “Uptight.”

“I’m not uptight!”

“Sure thing, Granger,” Atlas smirked, ruffling the girl’s hair. She moved on to Angelina, Katie and Neville’s presents, huffing when she saw the moving picture Katie had gotten her of a sloth hanging upside-down on a branch and rolling her eyes at the Bludger decorated socks Angelina had gifted her. Johnson had definitely gotten the idea from the Weasley Twins.

A book on Muggle-flowers was what Neville had gotten her. It depicted what they symbolised and how they might smell, even where they were found most commonly. The boy loved his flowers and she remembered when she had taken an interest in one of his ramblings, his smile increased ten-fold and he continued on into the night. “Neville’s quite good at Herbology.”

“Is this you subtly telling me I should study with him instead of you, Mione?”

“What!?” Hermione looked aghast, her face dropping as she quickly shook her head, “No! Not at all!”

“I’m kidding,” Atlas teased, “I wouldn’t replace you for the world. Even if my grades suffer.”

“I’m an excellent teacher.”

“Yes but you’re also an attractive teacher and I quite like sightseeing,” Atlas smirked and Hermione flushed, immediately smacking Atlas’s arm with her ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ book. “Hey, can I not compliment you without getting assaulted?”

“Why are you so indecent now?!”

“Calling someone attractive is indecent?” Atlas prodded and Hermione let out a frustrated groan, moving over to her own bed as Atlas laughed and stroked down Crookshanks’s spine. She continued on to the presents she would normally get. Minerva had gotten her a broom cleaning set, Cedric had gotten her a portrait of himself – a gag gift they would exchange, meaning he also got one of her on Christmas morning – Madam Pomfrey had gotten her a box of chocolate frogs and Bella – whom Atlas wasn’t expecting a gift from this year – had sent her a dragon scale. “Merlin’s beard! Hermione look at this!”

“What is it?”

“It’s an Albanian Agoniser’s scale!” Atlas gushed, cheeks pink from excitement, Hermione watched her fondly, her own enthusiasm rising because of Atlas’s. “They’re one of the most dangerous dragons in the world, the Hungarian Horntail being a close second!”

“I take it the name Albanian Agoniser isn’t for show?” Hermione said nervously but also slightly in awe at the fact that Atlas’s friend had sent her a scale of such a dangerous beast.

“No way, it’s probably even worse,” Atlas breathed, she seemed grossly fascinated by how dangerous the dragon was, “it can shoot fire up to 60 feet, their scales a deep garnet red with black specks across them and they have pure white eyes,” She turned back to Hermione, buzzing energetically.

“It’s a good present then?”

“More than good! I haven’t been this excited since Minerva allowed me to buy my own Firebolt!” Atlas grinned, looking back down at the scale, “my question is how Bella got it! Albanian Agoniser scales are super expensive!”

“Because of the dragon they come from?”

“Not just that! Look!” Atlas stood up and held the scale to her stomach, looking at Hermione expectantly, “Hit me with a stunner spell!”

“What? I’m not going to–“

“Trust me!” Atlas interjected and Hermione grimaced, tentatively standing and grabbing her wand. She raised it and upon seeing Atlas’s completely nonchalant face, let out a breath.

“Stupefy!” It bounced off and hit Atlas’s bedpost, “Wow…”

“I know! To most dragons, stunner spells affect them a little bit but to an Albanian Agoniser it doesn’t even tickle!” Atlas beamed, “Even if seven wizards at once shot at it they’d still be up for the count!”

“That’s…terrifying…” Hermione blanched and Atlas nodded enthusiastically.

“They’re in high demand because they have such amazing protective properties!” She finished and then stopped to stare at it a moment, a beaming grin on her face, “wow…this is just too cool…” and then she snapped out of her trance, blinking a few times before looking over to Hermione again and sheepishly tucking the scale away, “Sorry…”

“No…it’s nice to see you so happy,” Hermione shrugged, Atlas rubbed the back of her neck and then moved over to her own desk, grabbing Ron, Harry and Professor Lupin’s presents.

“I’ll give you yours later,” Atlas smirked and Hermione pushed her shoulder, grabbing Crookshanks as the two of them left the room and ventured up to the boy’s dormitories. Not before Atlas had nabbed a line of tinsel from the Common Room tree and wound it around the cat’s neck. He didn’t look at all pleased with the arrangement.

Laughter sounded from the boy’s room as they drew nearer and Hermione was the first to enter, Atlas noticing Harry and Ron were both wearing their own Weasley sweaters.

“What’re you two laughing about?” Hermione asked as she handed Crookshanks to Atlas who held him in one arm, the other too occupied holding a stack of presents. The cat was being very grumpy with her, probably because she had decorated him like a Christmas tree.

“Don’t bring him in here!” Ron cried, glaring at Crookshanks as he hurriedly snatched Scabbers up and shoved him in his pyjama pocket.

“Merlin, Harry! Who sent you that!?” Atlas asked as Hermione scowled at Ron. She was pointing at the Firebolt, identical to her own, at the end of Harry’s bed.

“We guessed you might have gotten it for him,” Ron grinned.

“No way, Minerva only just agreed to let me use some of my mum’s money to buy my own Firebolt!” Atlas beamed, going over and examining the broom, “Now we have two Firebolt users on the team, Oliver will be ecstatic. Remember how they reacted when they saw mine?”

“Drooling,” Harry smirked and then looked to Ron who was steadily going scarlet, “I’m pretty sure you reacted the same, Ron.”

“Shove of it would you! It’s an international standard broom! Course I’d be drooling!” Ron shouted and then turned to Atlas, “you still haven’t let me have a go yet.”

“Sorry, but hey, now you can have a go on Harry’s while Ginny goes on mine,” Atlas said, looking to Harry who nodded along. “After Harry’s had his fun, of course.”

“So you don’t know who bought you it?” Hermione suddenly asked and Atlas glanced over at her, seeing a less than happy look on her face. Harry shook his head, “that’s a bit odd, isn’t it? I mean, this is supposed to be quite a good broom, isn’t it?”

“It’s the best broom there is, Hermione,” Ron sighed exasperatedly.

“So it must’ve been really expensive…”

“Probably cost more than all the Slytherins’ brooms put together,” Ron said happily.

“Well…who’d send Harry something as expensive as that, and not even tell him they’d sent it?” Hermione asked and Atlas pondered on it. Who would send something that expensive?

“Who cares?” Ron said impatiently.

“Well…I don’t think anyone should ride that broom just yet,” Hermione declared and Atlas looked down at the broom. She’d raised a valid point, with everything going on, a random Firebolt popping up did seem a bit too good to be true.

“What d’you think Harry’s going to do with it — sweep the floor?” Ron asked but before Hermione could respond, Atlas interrupted the two, shoving her presents over to Harry and Ron to save the argument from growing.

“Merry Christmas!” She exclaimed and both Ron and Harry approached her excitedly, taking the gifts that had their names on them from her eagerly, “They’re not as extravagant as a Firebolt,” she said with a shrug, adjusting Crookshanks in her arm, “But I hope you like ’em, took me a while to get the materials and it was by pure luck I found some ripe cores.”

“So this is what you were making?” Harry asked excitedly as Atlas took Hermione’s hand and guided her to sit down on Neville’s vacant bed.

“Yeah,” Atlas grinned, “I do a bit of arts and crafts in my free time.”

“Bloody hell!” Ron exclaimed, pulling out his chessboard, “You made this!?”

“Who else?” Atlas smirked, “the pieces are magically enforced, I doubt they’ll ever really ware down, so you don’t have to use the beat-up chessboard you keep grumbling about,” she noticed Harry staring at his mini Quaffle curiously and grinned, “It’s a Pocket-Quaffle Harry and look–” she leant over to him and took the small red ball in her palm, twisting it to reveal a Snitch inside only to connect the pieces back together and press at a button on its bottom, the Quaffle growing instantaneously. “A Snitch and a Quaffle, I was going to make you some Bludgers too but it would have taken too long.”

“This is…” Harry beamed and pulled her into a hug, “these are amazing, I can’t believe you made them!”

“Me either…” Hermione breathed, staring at the gifts in fascination, “You told me you made things but I didn’t think of this.”

“I told you I studied my mum’s old notebooks, she had all sorts of ideas,” Atlas grinned and then faltered slightly, clearing her throat awkwardly, “she uh…just never go to expand on them,” she finished and Hermione reached out and took her hand, “anyway, Ron, your mum didn’t need to make me a sweater.”

“I didn’t know she was,” Ron shrugged and then looked her over, “How’d she get your measurements?”

“That’s what I said,” Atlas laughed.

“Well!” Hermione clapped, cheeks slightly red, “we all know Mrs Weasley is a woman of many talents.”

“Yeah but, Hermione, she’s never met Atlas,” Harry mused, “It’s a bit odd, at least she knows what we look like.”

“Even if it didn’t fit I’m still grateful,” Atlas waved off and stood, “anyway, I need to–” just before she could finish her sentence, Crookshanks leapt from her arms and dived for Ron’s chest. “Crookshanks!”

“Get him out of here!” Ron bellowed as Crookshanks clawed at his pyjama pockets, Scabbers making a wild attempt at escaping from the cat’s claws. Atlas blanched as Ron seized Scabbers by his tail and went to kick Crookshanks, only to let out a howl of pain when his foot sailed past the ginger ball of fur and, instead, hit the trunk at the end of Harry’s bed.

A shrill whistling filled the room and Atlas winced, crying out and immediately pressing her hands to her ears at the sound. It was a Sneakoscope, hidden in a pair of Harry’s socks, a dark magic detector that screamed like a banshee when activated. Basically a nightmare for Atlas who had overly sensitive hearing.

“I forgot about that!” Harry said, bending down and picking up the Sneakoscope. “I never wear those socks if I can help it…”

“Turn it off!” Atlas yelled.

“Get that cat out of here, Hermione!” Ron said furiously as he nursed his toe. Quite suddenly a hand pulled at Atlas’s wrist and she was soon being dragged out of the boy’s dorms, ears ringing and face pulled into a painful grimace. She didn’t fight off Hermione, who was wearing a face of absolute murder and let the girl pull her up to their shared dorm room.

Crookshanks landed softly on the floor and almost immediately went flying over to the door, scratching at the wooden frame fiercely. Atlas watched him curiously as she nursed her throbbing ear and then turned to look at Hermione who was pacing trails in the floor.

“Are you–?”

“He tried to kick Crookshanks!”

“Well…the little bugger did try to lunge for Scabbers…” Atlas offered meekly and Hermione spun around on her, rather furiously in fact, but it seemed to dwindle when she saw the nervous look on Atlas’s face.

“I suppose so but still…”

“Still, it’s an awful thing to do and if he had hit Crookshanks I would have burnt his Wizard Chessboard in front of him,” Atlas grinned and Hermione cracked a smile, looking over at her thankfully as she picked up Crookshanks. “Do you want to talk about why you looked like you’d eaten a particularly sour every-flavour jellybean earlier?”

“It’s about Harry’s Firebolt…” Hermione sighed, plopping onto her bed with a thoughtful look in her eye. Atlas took the spot next to her and scratched behind Crookshanks’s ear, quietly waiting for her to continue. “I think we should tell Professor McGonagall.”

“Hermione,” Atlas said in a drawn-out and scolding sort of way. Hermione flushed and immediately went to defend herself but Atlas stopped her, “I get why, don’t get me wrong,” she said and Hermione deflated, a sigh leaving her, “But…don’t you think it’ll hurt the trust you have?”

“Well…” Hermione scrunched up her face indignantly, “I’d rather break our trust than have him break his leg because of a jinxed broom from some anonymous sender.”

“Sure–” Atlas nodded with a laugh, “but what if it isn’t jinxed? What if it’s a perfectly normal broom and you’ve broken his trust for no reason?”

“It’s hardly no reason!” Hermione scoffed, “I’m worried for his safety!”

“Then tell him that, tell him instead of doing it behind his back, I’m sure he’ll appreciate it,” Atlas urged, butting her shoulder against Hermione’s. The girl chewed at her bottom lip, a telltale sign Atlas knew she did when she was thinking particularly hard on something.

“What if he doesn’t listen?”

“Then…well…” Atlas furrowed her brows now, “he’ll listen…I’m sure of it,” she looked on the edge of convincing so Atlas pushed it a bit more, “remember what I said about you doing things without considering emotional consequences…?”

“Alright fine,” Hermione huffed, standing up and placing Crookshanks on her bed frustratedly, she held her hand out to Atlas who took it and stood up, “but if he doesn’t agree I’m doing it anyway.”

“Think of the consequences,” Atlas chided and Hermione rolled her eyes, pulling her out of the dorm room and back to the Common Rooms where Ron and Harry had migrated to, the problematic Firebolt at the centre of it all. “Hermione has something she’d like to say.”

“Come to apologise have you?” Ron glared and Atlas looked at him like he was a Goblin going against a Giant, in short, she looked at him like he was stupid and sort of pitiful. Did he really expect an apology from the girl whose cat he’d tried to assault?

“No,” Hermione said simply and Atlas stifled a laugh, “Harry,” she began and regarded the broom with obvious distaste. “I think we should report the Firebolt to Professor McGonagall.”

“What!? No way!” Ron interjected, looking as if Hermione had personally killed his pet rat. “You’re mental you are!”

“I’m just worried it could have been tampered with!” Hermione urged and then looked back at Ron with apparent annoyance, “and Ronald, shouldn’t you be on my side with this!? You’re the one who thinks Harry should be playing it safe this year because of all that Grim nonsense.”

A choked laugh came from the back of Atlas’s throat as Ron went red and grumbled angrily under his breath. Hermione’s quick wits had always been a charming trait of hers. Atlas had noticed it as soon as they’d met and it was one of the reasons she’d been so taken by the girl.

“Anyway, Harry–” Hermione turned back to him and fixed him with a stare that dared him to deny her words, “the fact that we don’t know who sent it to you makes it even worse! What if…” she shuffled awkwardly and glanced back at Atlas, a certain look in her eye. It was saying something Atlas had already expected so she simply nodded with a small smile and gave Hermione’s hand a reassuring squeeze, “What if the one who sent it to you was — was Sirius Black?”

“Oh yeah because Sirius Black is walking around with a pocket full of Galleons,” Ron scoffed.

“He could have gotten it from Gringotts,” Atlas offered, tucking her free hand in her pocket and looking across the Common Room. Hermione glanced at her and shifted so their hands intertwined, quickly looking back to the boys when Atlas startled and snapped her gaze towards them.

“The workers wouldn’t have allowed that though, would they?” Harry asked, he didn’t seem as defensive as Atlas had imagined and apparently Hermione was just as surprised, her mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Clearly, she’d never expected Harry to be cooperative.

“The Goblins don’t care about anything other than the gold,” Atlas said instead, nudging Hermione who discretely composed herself. “Sirius Black himself could probably walk in there and pull out a few thousand Galleons.”

“Harry, please…if — if Black wanted you dead, this–” she motioned to the broom, “–would be a perfect way to do so, he wouldn’t even have to come into the grounds! All it needs is a simple jinx to null the brooms magical qualities when you get high enough in the air.”

Harry looked down at the broom thoughtfully, even Ron had gone quiet at the logic in Hermione’s words. Now, they just had to wait for Harry’s conclusion and by the looks of things, Atlas could tell he was leaning towards reporting it, much to Hermione’s glee as she was steadily breaking out into a hopeful smile.

“Alright…” Harry eventually sighed and Hermione grinned, turning and practically jumping into Atlas’s alarmed arms. She hugged tight and fiercely, her touch warming Atlas to the bone as she went bug-eyed and stared over at Harry and Ron who – though with hints of defeat – smiled at her smugly.

“Thank you…” Hermione whispered and then let go, turning to Harry with a bright blush as she pulled him into a hug as well, “thank you for listening to me!”

“Thanks for asking me first,” Harry smirked, looking over at Atlas who promptly looked away, busying herself with a cushion but to her wonder, Hermione refuted him and went back to stand beside her.

“Atlas convinced me…” she said sheepishly, “I was going to tell Professor McGonagall…without really thinking how it might hurt you. I’m sorry Harry, I was just worried.”

“It’s fine,” Harry waved off, he’d already had an inkling when Hermione first proposed the idea. His face suddenly grew nervous as he smiled and looked down at his Firebolt, “So…what’ll they do with it?”

“I’m no expert, but I think Hooch and Flitwick’ll have to strip it down–“

“Strip it down!?” Ron repeated as if Atlas had gone mad.

“It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks,” Atlas eased, “and besides, I’ll let you use mine Harry,” she added and all three of them turned to her in surprise, to which she just shrugged, “I have my old Nimbus 2001, I was going to give it to Ginny because she wanted–“

“Hold on! Ginny!?” Ron shouted, looking quite offended, “W-why Ginny?”

“Oh…well, Ginny said she wanted to try for the Quidditch team when she could and didn’t have a good broom…” Atlas told with a shrug, turning away from a slightly butt-hurt Ron and back to Harry, “so yeah, you can use my Firebolt and I’ll go back to my Nimbus.”

“Wow, Atlas — uh — thanks…” Harry murmured but then grinned, “I’ll settle for your Nimbus though.”

“Oh…uh yeah sure,” Atlas smiled and then looked to the time, “We should go down soon, for Christmas Lunch.”

“Oh definitely, I’m starved.”