MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Apple Wine

December came faster than anyone could have anticipated, with the first trial out of the way everyone already couldn't wait to move on to the next. Everyone that were not the champions themselves anyway.

Now, it was a couple of weeks after the first trial and Atlas was sat on a stump in her yard, fiddling with the edge of her axe idly with a piece of parchment and an untouched inkwell in her lap, a little dragon on her shoulder. She hadn't gone back to Hogwarts for quite some time, giving her ears a chance to heal. And they had, she could hear better than ever now with Poppy's constant check-ups in Minerva's stead and the lack of noise that assaulted her on every corner. The question now was, when was she going to return? She may have been healed but Poppy still hadn't given her the clear, so for the past few days, she'd been sat in her pathetic puddle, pouring over a blank piece of parchment, fishing for words to write upon it.

But nothing.

Atlas pushed the axe away with a frustrated sigh, crumpling the paper into a ball so violently she startled Little Robin and Kalo from where they sat on her garden fence. The Agoniser simply belched out a flame of black fire before returning to its slumber, leaving Atlas to stare silently over at the two approaching figures. Bella and Cedric, she wasn't surprised to see the former considering she had been coming down with Poppy the last few weeks but Cedric was a strange sight to see.

"What is it now?"

"You're free," Atlas perked up, sitting up straight and standing quickly, inkwell and parchment forgotten.

"Madam Pomfrey says you can come back, Las," Cedric grinned.

"Really?" Atlas muttered and when they nodded she let out a sigh of relief.

"Come on, let's go to the kitchens, I bet you're starving!" Cedric cheered. 

"Right, yeah, let me just tell Kalo and Little Robin to fly home!" Atlas smiled, moving over to where her two little birds were. Bella and Cedric watched her crouch down and talk, in hushed voices, to her small friends, smiling as Kalo hooted and pruned against her face before grabbing Little Robin gently in his talons and taking off into the sky. Atlas stood and gazed after them before turning back to her human friends. "Let's go then."

They set off toward the castle, Atlas with her hands in her pockets as Bella played with the little Agoniser, cooing and tickling the replicas belly as they advanced. Cedric was simply watching their sister figure with a beaming grin. It had been a while since he'd seen her in length and when Bella had come and interrupted his lesson so they could retrieve Atlas, he'd been more than happy to accept.

"I notice you were pouring yourself over that parchment again. Never did send that letter, did you?" Bella asked.

"Don't."

"Oh come on, how can I not? It's sort of adorable really, you, no-strings-attached Atlas Black, writing a love letter," She continued to tease.

"It wasn't a love letter!"

"Well duh, you didn't write anything for it to be a love letter. But we both know it was going to be," Bella winked and Atlas punched her in the stomach. Bella barely flinched thanks to her Dragon Keepers uniform, however, after a moment of silence, she stumbled and clutched her stomach, wheezing dramatically. 

"Fuck you," Atlas sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, have some respect!" Bella scolded, though she tried to hide her smile. "I'm older than you."

"I'm hotter," Atlas smirked to herself and Bella scoffed. "Can't you just buzz off back to your job in Romania? You're a pest you know?"

"Fine, but when I'm gone tomorrow you'll be sorry," Bella warned in a way that was entirely too fake to actually take seriously.