MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

A Weight Lifted Remains Heavy

Classes had begun again, their workload tripled with the new year. OWLs were getting closer, the professors had declared while everyone stewed in indignation, it was their apparent reason for the assignments. First day back and their bags were already weighed down by weeks of homework meant for a single night. Atlas shouldered her pack, her final lesson of the day finally over and done with, honestly, she had stopped listening halfway through Binns's monologue on geese. Muggle geese. Sometimes Atlas thought the man's true calling was Muggle Studies, she didn't even think the man enjoyed teaching History of Magic. He was probably only the teacher because he was there for most of what he taught. Atlas shook her head at the thought and left.

Though she paused when she noticed she was not being followed and turned, finding Harry, Hermione and Ron surrounded by DA members, chatting quietly. She watched them a moment, thinking back to her conversation with Sirius briefly before resuming her exit, hand in her pocket while the other held at the strap atop her shoulder, white-knuckled, tight. She wanted to take a nap but decided against it, the weight of her work tugging her down and in the direction of the library. It wouldn't hurt to get started, then maybe she could have a go at carving a few things later, just to take distract her a bit. Maybe something nice for Hermione. Just to say thank you, of course.

Other students were there when she arrived, nearly all of them fifth-years, sat at lamp-lit tables with their noses so close to the pages they read Atlas thought it a wonder they could even comprehend the sentences upon them. She found a nice empty table, secluded but not so hidden Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't find her. 

The Defense Against the Dark Arts homework was the one she started first, hoping to complete it in one sitting so that she could perhaps appease Umbridge as if she were some mighty beast. After all, the woman's passive-aggressive remarks that morning clearly conveyed she was not happy about their disappearances. Many times she had reapplied her horrid perfume right beside Atlas's desk and remained there for many long insufferable minutes just to watch Atlas squirm, then she'd stress the fact they were not to use any sort of defensive magic to get a rise out of Harry but much to her dismay, he didn't budge. The knowledge of the DA's existence seemed to actually bring a smug satisfied smile to the boy's face when the woman turned her back.

It was simple enough, the homework, one written with quantity in mind rather than quality as though the questions were many, they weren't hard, perhaps repetitive to the point of frustration but Atlas knuckled down and answered them to completion. Then, moments later, two figures joined her at the table, Ron across from her and Hermione at her side, tucking her bloated bag beneath the table with a frazzled look.

"Everything all right?" Atlas asked absentmindedly.

"Yeah, sorry about that, we were...wanted," Hermione said carefully, setting out her equipment.

"They all won't shut up about when the next meeting'll be," Ron huffed, sprawling his arms across the table as Hermione shot him a warning look. She followed it up with a cautious glance at their surroundings.

"Oh yeah?" Atlas muttered idly, busily scratching at her notebook but she wasn't writing, instead, she had drawn several circles across her page. They'd gone and brought up the DA again and with it, thoughts of the day prior, the conversation with Sirius. She couldn't shake away the thought this time.

"Are you ok, Atty?" Hermione asked quietly and Atlas looked at her, startled a moment before nodding with a small smile.

"Yeah, just thinking thoughts," she shrugged and ripped out the sheet. She went quiet and started on her work again, blind to the concerned look Hermione threw at Ron and the shrug she got in return.