MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Muzzle

Soaked in Myrtle's toilet water, Atlas walked out of the bathroom, hair hanging over her face as she stood in one of the many busy hallways of Hogwarts. People made to move around her, a few nearby Slytherins snickering behind hands, a handful of passing Hufflepuffs - who'd, no doubt been warned by Cedric to cut her some slack - shooting her pitying and sorry looks, the odd Gryffindors that passed glared and lashed out at those who giggled at her appearance while the Ravenclaws simply walked on by, heads in the clouds or noses in books.

She took in a breath, closed her eyes and dried herself, chucking a roll of toilet paper that had been thrown at her over her shoulder and back into the bathroom. A sharp shriek came from within but Atlas didn't exactly care about Myrtle's feelings at the moment considering the ghost hadn't helped her out by naming the ones who'd pranked her. And Atlas thought they were on generally good terms but apparently not.

The last few weeks had been terrible. Though not many were actually jealous, the ones that were surely made up for it and it seemed a certain group of Slytherins were really just taking the whole scandal as another reason to pick on her and Harry. It had been exasperating, to say the least when Atlas had gotten her first hex of the year in the middle of Potions and Snape, being the ever caring and fair professor, kicked her out of the class for being the cause of the disruption. If it weren't for Harry and Hermione she would have caused a real disruption that would have landed her back in Azkaban. Funny thing is, she would have thought it worth it.

That man had been condoning his houses practices the entire month and, on one particular occasion when Harry came back to the dorms with a split chin, she'd almost gone ballistic. Seriously ballistic. Let's just say she was called to Dumbledore's study and that the elves had a lot of cleaning up to do outside of Snape's office. That was perhaps the only part she felt bad about and had eventually, ended up joining them in the chore of removing the soot and grime from the walls.

What's worse is that she'd tried talking to Ron, just as Hermione had suggested that day at the Black Lake to Harry but the boy just ignored her, didn't even seem up for talking, just stood, glared and walked away after she'd said her bit. That had just added more anger to her pile and it took so many different times of breathing exercises for Ginny to calm her down.

Speaking of, Ginny was perhaps the only one that was completely distracting her at the moment. One night, she'd come running into her dorm room and just screamed into Hermione's abandoned pillow. Crookshanks had immediately vacated the premises and Kalo - who had been visiting - shrieked with her, startled by her sudden appearance. Atlas had set down her book and just listened as Ginny ranted about how dense Zasha was and that none of her moves were working.

Of course, Atlas hadn't been surprised by that as, while Zasha could sniff out the advances of those whose feelings she didn't reciprocate, if the person she did like showed clear signs of liking her back, however, she just wouldn't get it. Ginny had just groaned and left the room, hair frazzled and face a brilliant red.

Atlas was at least glad they were getting along and that she was seeing more of one of her childhood friends. Which is more than she could say for Fleur. Apart from Harry, Atlas hadn't actually seen any of the other champions around and not being able to explain herself to Fleur was getting worrying. She was sure Fleur would believe her, however, she still needed that confirmation again. A reaffirmation.

"Hey, Atlas!" Atlas blinked back to the present, shaking her head as she finally took her gaze from the wall and glanced down at Cho. "How are you, champion?" she grinned, nudging Atlas's shoulder gently.

"Toilet water in my ear aside? Still pretty naff," Atlas sighed, stretching her mouth around to get rid of the bubble in her ear. It popped and she relaxed, running a hand through her hair and grimacing at her smell. "Do you have any perfume or...something nice smelling I can use? I smell like a wet dog."