As the song began, Hermione took Atlas's hand and led him back to the dancefloor again. They had already danced several times that night, but he had also danced with Harry, Fred, and George (wearing a Snape-mask). He had even briefly danced with Leona and Amy, who had only been there for a short time. But this particular song held a special significance and unspoken meaning, and he was a bit hesitant.
Atlas didn’t want to end the party with trouble or tears and decided to take her hand, but he swore to himself that he would think about what he wanted and what was really reasonable to do.
All the couples, and even a few friends, or in Fred and George's case, brothers, were dancing together. Even the flying jack-o-lanterns were dimmed, and their light turned red.
Atlas held Hermione close in his arms as they danced a slow and somewhat clumsy waltz. As Hermione took off the large witch hat long ago, and her bushy hair tickled his cheeks as she leaned over his shoulder, but he didn’t say anything. He felt her soft, warm breath on his neck, and the sweet scent of her honey shampoo mixed with a bit of sweat filled his nostrils. He just enjoyed the moment like she did. He realized at that moment that he would actually be happy if he could just stay in this universe and be a normal teenager. The thought made him sad, but he didn’t dwell on it for too long.
“I like you, Atlas,” whispered Hermione softly in his ear.
“I like you too, Hermione.” At that moment, his brain shortcircuited, and he whispered back what was on his mind without really realizing that he actually said it out loud. His face flushed completely red as he came to his senses.
Hermione blushed just as much and lifted her head to look into his eyes.
Atlas regretted answering that way instantly, before he had a chance to organize his thoughts on the topic. He tried to defuse the situation. “Ähm, what I wanted to say was...”
Hermione’s soft lips pressed on his before he could even finish his sentence. He could feel her shaking a bit, and their teeth touched a bit uncomfortably as this was probably Hermione’s first kiss. The worst of it was that he actually enjoyed it. He hated himself for it for so many reasons, but that was all overshadowed by the feeling of Hermione’s kiss. His heartbeat was so fast, and a thousand thoughts raced through his head. From his old parents to his dead wife Lily, to his new parents, and last but not least to Hermione herself. What would they think of him if they knew everything about his current situation? Would they support him? Would they blame him? What would Hermione think if she really knew his story? Would she still kiss him like that? It all didn’t matter at that moment as he held her tightly and returned her kiss, easing her nervous shaking instantly.
After what felt like an eternity, the kiss ended, and Hermione looked at him like the happiest witch of all time, before she hugged him tightly again and continued the slow dance, hiding her red face on his shoulder again, as the height difference wasn’t great enough to bury her head in his chest.
When Atlas looked around, he saw that the twins were staring at him and giving him thumbs up, but to his great relief, he didn’t notice anyone else staring at him and Hermione.
When the song ended, the Jack-o-Lanterns got brighter again, and even the lights in the great hall were reignited. Myron Wagtail then announced the end of the party and that the professors had told him that they all needed to go to their common rooms within the next hour.
Slowly the hall emptied, and Hermione and Atlas went back too. They didn’t talk on their way back and just held hands again, but this time it felt much more intimate than before.
Hermione and Atlas stood alone before the fat lady. They could hear that an afterparty in the commonroom was still ongoing, but they looked at each other with the tacit understanding that the night would end for them now.
“Good night. Sleep well.” Said Hermione who gave him another peck on the lips.
“You too, Mione.” Answered atlas and said the password to the fat lady who was talking about young love, and how she wished she was at their age again. Atlas and Hermione ignored her, even thought it itched him to ask how a person in a painting could age.
The next day no lesson took place to the great relief for everyone that wanted to avoid a double potion lesson. Most people slept a bit longer and skipped breakfast. Everyone except Harry and the Quidditch team that had to train for the game against Slytherin on Saturday.
When Atlas woke up he stared straight into Seamus and Deans eyes that hovered over him. He was shocked but wasn’t in any position to move away as he still lied in bed.
“So, you and Hermione, hmmm.” Said Seamus with an evil grin.
“Now do you want to tell us how it was?” asked Dean more curious than anything else.
“Fine, fine but get your faces away. No one wants to see your ugly faces as the first thing in the morning. Have you even brushed your teeth? You two stink.” Said Atlas displeased with his start in the day.
“No need to get rude.” Said Dean.
“Sorry, it just wasn’t how I expected to wake up” answered Atlas.
The two questioned him about everything about Hermione and him, and Atlas gave them a short, undetailed summary, but it seemed to be enough to satisfy these two. They left with the words “As long as you are happy.” and for some reason it annoyed him to no end. What were they implying with that?
Even after the two of them left him alone, he didn’t leave his bed. He wanted to think about himself and Hermione before they met again. The day before showed him that he wanted to be with Hermione, even though he would wait years before they would take the next real step in their relationship, which led him to his main problem. How much time would they have? Was there a way to prolong that time without risking giving the hero more time to grow? He thought about all the possibilities he knew about how to take Hermione with him, but nothing really seemed to be the solution. Sure, he could save her genetic code and clone her in another universe if the technology was advanced enough, but experiments in his old world had shown that a clone was an entirely different person than the original. Tools like the philosopher's stone would also be unable to help him, as they only prolonged the life of a person but wouldn’t save their souls when the universe collapsed. Letting Hermione create a Horcrux and reviving her later wouldn’t help as well. Horcruxes were essentially soul shards that would naturally also be absorbed. No matter how much he thought about it, without Adams' intervention, Hermione would die with the universe. But he was unable to contact Adam, so that too wasn’t an option.
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Atlas became frustrated at that realization, but he now asked himself if it was any different than his time with Lily. At that time, they too knew that their time would be limited, but they still decided to be together for as long as possible, and he never regretted that decision. As much as he knew that it would probably destroy him emotionally, he also knew that he wouldn’t break up with Hermione for a reason that neither of them could affect.
The only option he saw for himself was to not think about it too much and enjoy his time with Hermione while trying to search for a solution to get her with him. He was sure that besides magic that affected the soul, nothing else had a chance to achieve that goal, and the only three wizards he knew that at least knew something about soul magic were Albus Dumbledore, Tom Riddle, and Horace Slughorn. The latter was knowledgeable enough to talk with Tom about horcruxes, but he wasn’t sure about the depth of his knowledge. Voldemort also couldn’t really be considered an expert, as he didn’t realize he split his soul accidentally, but he was probably the one with the most practical experience. Atlas wasn’t sure what Dumbledore really knew about the topic, but he was sure that his research was at least greater than Slughorn's.
The problem with all three of them was that they were far more powerful than Atlas had any hope of getting in the near future, so he wouldn’t be able to force them to talk. Even Veritaserum wasn’t an option, as it could be resisted with occlumency. Legilimency didn’t work for the same reason, so the only way was to get them to willingly reveal their secrets.
As surprising as it was, Atlas thought that Voldemort was actually the easiest target of them all, as he had something he could blackmail him with. The only thing he didn’t know for sure was if Quirrell was actually Voldemort. The only way he saw Dumbledore talk was if he captured Harry or maybe Grindelwald. But he wasn’t sure about that, as Dumbledore was even willing to sacrifice himself for “the greater good,” so there was a possibility that Dumbledore wouldn’t even accept such a trade. Atlas saw no way to get something out of Slughorn as long as he wasn’t a teacher at Hogwarts.
So Atlas' new plan was to first try his luck in the library, then find out if Quirrell was Voldemort, and only then could he even attempt to blackmail him. He also had to identify the hero, as that could severely affect his plans if Quirrell was somehow involved with him.
Atlas finally decided to leave the bed, but to his surprise, Hermione wasn’t waiting for him in the common room. When he asked around, he was told that she hadn’t been seen in the common room yet.
It turned out that the girls in the girls' dormitory were quite a lot more curious than Seamus and Dean, even if their approach was probably less invasive. It was quite clear that their kiss was a new topic of the school, but luckily most people were still gossiping about the love potion prank.
When Hermione finally showed up her hair was still a mess and she quickly fled to the bathroom when she saw Atlas. It caused him to chuckle a bit, how conscious she was about her appearance.
After taking a shower she came back still combing her wet hair. And when she wanted to flee again Atlas intercepted her. Atlas saw that she was nervous and embarrassed. Where did her bravado form last night go? He also became nervous and thought for a moment she regretted her actions, and all his inner troubles were in vain. “Are you okey? Are you running away from me?” he asked with voice that might have sounded more depressed than he wanted to.
"No, no, no, I just wanted to wash up first and comb my hair. I, I- I just didn’t want you to see me so … so unkempt.“ She explained in a shaky voice, obviously as unexperienced as he was in such a situation.
It was a bit of a relief for Atlas, who had doubts for a moment. He smiled and asked her, “Don’t worry about that, Mione; you don’t need to change for me." Just be like you always were. I just wanted to talk to you. If you don’t mind, we could go to my dorm. The others are all watching Harry train for tomorrow’s match against Slytherin. You can comb your hair while we talk, or if you want, I can comb it for you.” He blushed a bit when he said the last sentence. He knew from his father’s many stories that his mother really liked it when he did that for her, and it became some kind of ritual for them every time they went on a romantic date. The people in his old world were far less romantic, so he hadn’t done anything similar with Lily, and he wanted to try it.
If it had been possible for Hermione to blush even more, she would have done so, but now she only nodded. It earned them a few looks when they went up the stairs together, but no one stopped them.
The dorm was a bit untidy, as Ron's and Seamus' stuff was lying all over the place, but it wasn’t total chaos.
They sat together on Atlas' bed, and Hermione was still clenching her hands around her hairbrush. After an awkward minute of silence, Atlas finally started
“So about yesterday, I honestly didn’t expect you to take the initiative so fast. It really surprised me,” he began.
“How long would it have taken for you to take the initiative? Would you have ever taken it?” she asked, knowing him well enough to know that he wouldn’t have.
“No, I probably wouldn’t have.” He answered and slowly took her hand. “So, I am happy you did. It just surprised me yesterday, and I was honestly overwhelmed at that time.”
“You were overwhelmed? I was so nervous, I didn’t realize that.” She said that and pushed the comb into his other hand. “You said you would brush my hair.”
Atlas took the brush, sat cross-legged behind Hermione, and started to brush her hair.
They didn’t talk for another few minutes. He started at the bottom of her hair, slowly working his way up, being careful not to tug too hard or get caught on any knots. As he brushed, he couldn't help but notice how soft and silky her hair was and how it seemed to shimmer in the light.
"Your hair is so beautiful," Atlas said, admiring the way the light caught the different shades of brown and gold in her hair.
Hermione smiled, feeling a warm flush of pleasure at his compliment. “Thank you. I always thought it was terrible. It never stays the way I want it to, but I’m glad you like it.”
As Atlas continued to brush her hair, they fell into a comfortable silence, both enjoying the simple intimacy of the moment.
“So what will we do from now on? Will everything change, or do we behave like we did before?” asked Hermione, leaning a bit back into Atlas, who hugged her from behind, the brush still in his hand.
“That depends. What do you want to change?” He asked, not really knowing what she wanted.
“I mean, are we a couple now? Will we go around everywhere together now, or do we do it like before? Do we kiss in public or only in private? Do we hold hands in public? What do we say to the others?” she blurted out.
“Yes, Hermione. We are a couple now. And I don’t think we can really hide it after half of Gryffindor knows about it. I suspect Fred and George have already made flyers and distributed them in the great hall. But I don’t really mind it, or do you?“ He asked.
“No, I don’t really mind. And what about, you know, kissing?” Hermione was a bit shy but had eagerness in her voice.
“Mione, You can kiss me anytime you want. We can also hold hands whenever you want. Maybe it would be better if we didn’t do it in class, and I heard that Madam Pince also isn’t a big fan of couples in her library, but I could imagine a thousand worse reasons to get detention than kissing you.” He answered while Hermione struggled out of his hug to turn around.
“You idiot. We don’t get punished if we don’t get caught.” She said and gave him a deep kiss. The two of them snuggled a bit longer before their hunger lead them to leave the dorm again.
---
The next day, Harry was a shivering mess at the breakfast table. Today was the day of his first Quidditch match and even Nevilles, Rons and Atlas tries to cheer him up didn’t help.
After some time, Atlas didn’t try to bother anymore. He was sure that Harry would be fine as long as Quirrell didn’t intervene, and Atlas made sure that they would have places as near as possible to Quirrills so that he could set him aflame as soon as possible if something happened. But before that, he had to go to McGonagall, who shifted their schedule to an earlier time so that their lesson wouldn’t collide with the Quidditch match.
The Match itself started quite similar to the original but it ended much faster. The reason for that was simple. Quirrell didn’t hex Harry’s Nimbus 2000 and Harry caught the snitch in half an hour. Atlas thought it was a shame that they weren’t allowed to bet on the games as he would have made some easy money, even if Quirrell intervened.
The problem now was that Atlas needed to find a new way to find out if Quirrell was Voldemort.