MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Intriguing

It was Thursday and Madam Pomfrey had just discharged Atlas from the hospital, her arm scarred over due to how deep the cut had been but healed to the best it could have. She'd been locked up in that hospital for two days, getting visits from Hermione, Harry and Ron who all had things to say about Draco, not minding the boy was still in the room with them. Each time she only smiled and nodded, thanking them for visiting when they left before turning back to her homework.

There was a dull ache left behind, increasing to a sort of burning each time she tried to carry something but she didn't mention it to Pomfrey, only assuring her she was fine when the woman would ask.

So now, Atlas was walking to Potions, Draco in front of her with an arrogant swagger in his step as he turned and opened the dungeon door, slamming it on Atlas's face before she could walk inside. An angered grimace came to her face as she walked in after him. Her arm wasn't bandaged as his was, neither was it in a sling. She didn't need it and if she didn't need it neither did Draco, after all, he'd only been snagged by a singular talon while Atlas got a painful three.

"How are you, Atlas?" Hermione asked as Atlas sat beside her, pulling out her potions books for the lesson, "Are you in any pain?"

"You sound like, Madam Pomfrey," Atlas smirked and then pulled out her arm, showing Hermione the talon marks to reassure her, only, it seemed to only make her worse as she took a sharp intake of breath at the sight. "They're not as bad as my face, Hermione."

"I know but that's not the point..." she looked down at them softly and then over to Draco - who was smirking at both Harry and Ron scornfully as they did his work for him - with a look of absolute disdain, "at least, this time I can put a face to the blame."

A grin formed on Atlas's face and she rolled her sleeves back down, "You're terribly easy to befriend, you know?"

"Hmm?" Hermione hummed, looking back to Atlas quizzically.

"It's just...you're protective and already very...close to me," she worded, looking down at the ingredients splayed before her as she absentmindedly flicked through her potions book, "you don't know me is what I'm trying to say. I know you said Gryffindors are loyal but when I look at you and all of our other housemates you're not nearly as close with them as you are with me and you only met me four days ago."

"Well, I..." Hermione frowned and went back to her cauldron, coming up with a reply as quick as she could, "you're...I don't know..."

"You felt sorry for me," Atlas supplied and Hermione spluttered, almost cutting her finger off when her knife slipped off of her daisy roots, "careful," she scolded, taking up Hermione's hand and surveying the little cut, beads of blood seeping through the crack. She cursed under her breath and rummaged through her bag, coming out with a box of plasters.

"I-I didn't--"

"There's no need to lie," Atlas sighed, grabbing a tissue too and first stopping the bleeding before peeling back a plaster and carefully wrapping it around the tip of Hermione's pointer finger. "Done..." she muttered and tossed the stuff back in her bag.

"Ok..." Hermione nodded, taking back her very hot-feeling hand, "I did feel bad. Everybody was making assumptions of you," she started turning back to her chopping board, "saying things just because of who you're related to...and well, as you so rightly put it when we met, I'm a Muggle-born, people make assumptions of me on the daily so I guess...I wanted to be your friend so you didn't have to go through what I did at the beginning of first year."

"I thought you were always friends with Ron and Harry?" Atlas questioned, looking up from her shrivelfig.

"No...Ron and Harry clicked when they first met, at that point, I was just the bossy know-it-all," Hermione smirked, glancing over at Atlas who met her stare with a soft smile. "Anyway even when we did become friends we were never as close, the two of them only really warmed up to me when I took the blame for going on a troll hunt."