MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Incredibly Single And So Lonely

It was the dawn of the Third Trial and Atlas was already off to a rough start. She had fallen asleep in the library, deep, deep, deep in the restricted section, large pillars of books surrounding her and shielding her entirety from view. Nobody had come to find her and if they had, well, Atlas doubted they were able to get into the restricted section in the first place, unless they got Madam Pince to come and get her. She shot upright, toppling a tall tower of tomes as she did, sending it sprawling across the floor, the thud resounded throughout the library and by Merlin, Atlas swore then and there if the past two trials weren't the things to kill her, Madam Pince would be.

She dropped to her knees, frantically piling the books into her arms and uttering charms to send them back to their shelves, a look of desperation on her face as she heard heavy high-heeled footsteps advancing on her location. They stopped and Atlas looked up, her final book flying from her hand to the shelf next to her as she came face to face with Hogwarts's fiercest guardian. The Keeper of Books, Madam Pince.

The lady squinted at her menacingly and if it were anyone else, it would be far from it but this was Pince, the librarian infamous for her ruthlessness and though she liked Atlas - she always brought her books back better than she took them out - if she knew she had just let a full column her precious tomes crumple to the floor like she had, the lady would surely have a few choice words to berate her with.

"Madam Pince -- !"

"Breakfast is almost finished, I suggest you leave quickly if you want to have a full stomach for tonight," she said simply and Atlas nodded hurriedly, grabbing her bag and sprinting out of the narrow hall of books, muttering a thank you and a quick goodbye as she ran past Pince and out of the library. She continued to the Great Hall where the promise of breakfast had her mouth watering and her stomach almost digesting itself, she had missed lunch and dinner yesterday so she was about ready to devour one of the Beauxbaton horses.

The Great Hall was buzzing with excitement when she arrived, chattering excitedly and animatedly and when she made her presence known, they all whooped and cheered, whistling through their fingers and shouting her good lucks. She smiled back, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully as she sank into her seat beside a very frazzled looking Hermione. In fact, her entire trio looked a little dazed, all staring at a news article in front of them, reading so intently they had yet to notice Atlas's presence. She shrugged and read along with them.

Only, she wished she hadn't.

It was Rita Skeeter again but her topic of discussion was for once not Atlas, instead, it was a page on Harry, a whole page with no other branching topics. It was about his scar, about how he clutched it and fainted, about how apparently he was 'disturbed and dangerous', about how he could speak parseltongue - that information had been given to her courtesy of one platinum blonde brat. Draco Malfoy.

Again, Skeeters elusiveness bothered Atlas greatly and she frowned. How could she have known about Harry fainting in Divination? She hadn't been there and she certainly wasn't allowed on school grounds let alone within the castle itself. So how? And Harry Potter of all people, resorting to the Dark Arts to win the Tournament? Rita must have been positively mad to think that.

"Gone off me a bit, hasn't she?" Harry said lightly, folding up the paper. "Oh, Atlas."

"Hey, Harry. Don't worry about Skeeter, she's off her rocker, that one," Atlas grinned, reaching over the table for the tower of toast she would devour soon enough. She felt Hermione shift beside her, not even glancing down when she felt her warm fingers hook around her undone tie. "Question is...well, how did she know your scar hurt in Divination?"

"Exactly," Ron agreed, also giving Atlas a curt hello. "There's no way she was there, there's no way she could've heard --"

"The window was open," Harry shrugged. "I opened it to breathe."