MAGIANIMA // Hermione Granger

Cursed

Atlas had not managed to go to a single one of Slughorn's dinner parties thanks to Harry scheduling every Quidditch practice over each invite - she'd been somewhat thankful at first, but Hermione was growing more and more disappointed each time Atlas had to explain she'd have to be going alone and that she was genuinely sorry she couldn't attend. The little grumble of dissent and the ensuing mumbles that would follow always made Atlas wince and grimace, she hated to let her down -- she'd even gone to Harry and asked him to schedule at least one practice around a dinner party but the boy was determined to avoid Slughorn and his eager hands. Even when Atlas reminded the boy that was the whole point and was what Dumbledore wanted he was reluctant.

So, naturally, because of this Atlas needed to make it up to Hermione somehow, and with the Hogsmeade trip hours away despite such high security measures, she vowed to treat Hermione to anything she wanted or so much as glanced at. She kept it to herself, of course, she intended to surprise Hermione with a hamper of gifts by the end of it. 

This meant she needed money, which she had, however, not on hand, maybe a few Galleons but surely she'd need more so she'd paid Minerva a visit that morning before breakfast, waking early to catch the woman before she left for her bi-weekly daybreak trip into Diagon Alley. The amount she had requested from her vault was so ludicrous Minerva's glasses had almost cracked from the sudden onslaught of emotions that had attacked the aged lady, she declined and promised to bring her a pouch or two but no more.

She'd retrieved three but had Atlas promise not to spend more than a pouch.

Atlas sighed as she entered the Great Hall and sat beside Hermione, the trio looked to be in deep conversation, Hermione looking annoyed, frustrated and exasperated all rolled into one whilst Ron and Harry looked naturally defensive. She tried to catch bits of conversation but most of it sounded ludicrous, she knew Harry had been following some spells from that dreaded cheat book but surely he seriously wouldn't be so stupid as to perform a spell with no description, at least Muffliato had an explanation of what it entailed, this Levicorpus sounded so obscure nobody in their right mind would perform it.

Nobody apart from her godbrother apparently.

"Are you stupid?" Atlas asked after getting the basic gist of the argument, "Harry you shouldn't perform unknown spells."

"It was a laugh," Ron said, rolling his eyes as he repeated what he had been preaching in Hermione's face for the past ten minutes. "That's all."

"Our dads used it," Harry said and Atlas looked at him, frowning.

"What?"

"Lupin told me, he described what it was like and..." Harry continued quickly and then shrugged, "I thought you might've read something about it in one of your mum's journals."

"Are you forgetting that I don't have all of them?" Atlas snapped, defensive. Hermione placed a hand on her thigh and Atlas looked at her briefly, letting out a shaky breath as she settled herself, "Regardless, you didn't know that was the spell Lupin talked about until you did it. What if you chopped up his legs? Creating spells is advanced magic, it's -- it requires an understanding of what magic is in its purest forms and a further understanding of what you're trying to accomplish."

"It was for a laugh, it's just an innocent --"

"Nobody would put that much effort and that much time into creating a spell for a prank," Atlas refuted, shaking her head, "there are too many risks, experimenting with spell creation can get you killed," Atlas thought of Luna's mother and sighed.

"And besides, maybe your parents did use it," Hermione said, "but they're not the only ones. We've seen a whole bunch of people use it, in case you've forgotten. Dangling people in the air. Making them float along, asleep, helpless. This prince figure doesn't seem as though he was a very nice person to me!"