MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Magic Of The Guards

They weren't at Hogwarts anymore.

Atlas felt her feet slam into cool wet grass, her knees buckling under the sudden weight of her body. She wasn't in the best of states still and her entire being ached, she couldn't go on, it didn't matter if she didn't win anymore, they never said anything about the cup being a portkey, nor did they mention another arena, another secret task. Atlas was done, so done.

Where were they anyway? It looked like an old graveyard, overgrown and forgotten, what Atlas assumed was a church stood far in the back and though she'd never seen one, she didn't think its dilapidated state was intentional. She pushed herself to her feet going over to Harry and offering the boy her hand so she could haul him to his heels. They staggard, the both of them, when they stood, sharing a small and nervous laugh as they studied the situation they were in.

Just what were they doing there?

There was a hill that rose above them to their left and Atlas could just make out the outline of an old house, a few lights on inside, flickering, sure, but it was a sign of life. Maybe they should go over there. It beat standing around in an old cemetery, with plentiful dead beneath their feet. Honestly, the more Atlas thought about it, the more it disturbed her.

"Did anyone tell you the cup was a Portkey?" Harry asked.

"Nope," Atlas shrugged. Harry was looking around the graveyard. It was completely silent and slightly eerie. "Do you think this is supposed to be part of the task?"

"I dunno," Harry muttered. He sounded slightly nervous. "Wands out, d'you reckon?"

"Yeah," Atlas agreed. They pulled out their wands and Atlas found that hers seemed to hum excitedly in her palm, as if it knew something she didn't and though Atlas didn't understand it, didn't know what it was saying, she knew one thing. Felt one thing. And it was wrong. They were being watched. She hated that feeling most of all.

"Someone's coming," Harry said suddenly.

Peering through the darkness, her eyes golden, Atlas watched as the figure drew near, walking steadily toward them with a sort of smallness that Atlas remembered from somewhere, a sense of familiarity like she'd seen that silhouette a million times before. It was holding something, a bundle of robes with a small withered form inside. And - when the figure got closer - Atlas could see it looked a little bit like a baby, though one that was sickly and frail. She noticed Harry lower his wand with hesitance in her peripheral but couldn't bring herself to do the same.

Then, without warning, Harry buckled over and fell to the floor, his wand forgotten, his hands over his face with a look that screamed agony, it was similar to how he had looked in Divination and this revelation had Atlas's eyes wide, her focus immediately darting back over to the approaching figures as she dropped to her knees beside Harry. 

"Subdue the Guard!"

A sudden force was wrapped around Atlas, pulling her up and away from Harry so she was forced to watch the scene, trapped by a cold cloud of darkness that left her entire body feeling numb. She realised far too late just what had pulled her into its grasp and tilted her head upward, feeling a trickle of fresh blood cascade down her face as she saw those pearly white balls of mist within its darker form boring down on her.

This time, however, Atlas was angry, rage coursing through her veins, contrasting the melancholy she had felt those months ago upon seeing it in the Forbidden Forest. She dug her hands into the smoke, surprised to feel warm and human flesh, the further she dug her fingers. And this time, because she could, she put up a fight, throwing her head back, elbowing the Monsters sides and kicking, even biting if she could, all to struggle out of the Monsters grasp.