Atlas sank to the ground, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Nooo! Not her, why, just why?" he cried, slamming his fist against the wall. The pain brought some of his senses back, as his knuckles cracked open and his wrist cracked.

"Someone must have shown her the room. The hero must have done it, or maybe she just followed me to the room when I wasn’t careful.” he thought, but his thoughts rapidly overflowed. “No, I would have noticed. After I got the map, I always checked if someone had followed me. Could she have followed me beforehand? Unlikely, but not impossible. She wouldn’t have had a reason to do it. She was also so similar to the movies when I initially met her. She can’t be the hero!?! She is only different now, because everything in this damned school went differently than in the movies and because I spent so much time with her. She is not the hero!”

It took Atlas a while to collect himself. He thought of 101 reasons why it was unlikely she was the hero, but he couldn't extinguish the whisper in the back of his mind that she was far too talented. Her accomplishments were greater than they could reasonably be if she didn't have a boon that accelerated her learning. Even the better atmosphere for learning didn't explain her speed. It hadn't even been half a year, and Atlas would bet all his money that she had more magical knowledge than most purebloods in their third year.

Atlas had failed to notice her progress until now. He had always studied with her, and her progress felt natural. Maybe he was blinded by their friendship and lately even more so by their relationship.

For a while, Atlas sat in the empty corridor next to the bloody fist marks he left on the wall, still trying to find an explanation for her progress that was more reasonable than the fact that she had invested more effort. The original Hermione invested much effort, and she wasn’t even half the witch that his Hermione was.

He knew he wasn't rational at the moment and should ask her about the room when she came out, but he needed to be subtle about it. He stared at the map for half an hour, not wincing or changing focus when he used Episkey to heal his broken wrist. He just hoped she would come out of the room with someone else. Even if it was Voldemort, he would feel relief, but reality betrayed his hopes as she came out alone again.

His eyes followed her name on the map as she went back to the commonroom, but he glimpsed back at the seventh floor in the hope that another person would somehow show up. After more than an hour, he realized that he was still following Hermione's name like he was in a trance, completely forgetting that he had promised her to meet up with her. He only noticed when she stopped moving for five minutes that she was probably waiting for him at the entrance to the great hall.

He didn't know how to confront her now. Should he ask her directly or play it safe? As he arrived, he realized his fist was still covered in coagulated blood. He tried to use Evanesco to vanish the blood, but the crust remained, and even fresh blood seeped from the wound. Covering it wouldn't help; Hermione recently became very observant regarding his injuries.

He stood a corner away from Hermione, and his heart raced as he didn’t know what to do. He took a deep breath before going to her. Nothing he would do now would change the situation, besides not showing up, but that would only delay the problem and could lead to more problems in their relationship if, and that was what he hoped, Hermione was not the hero.

Hermione ran happily to him, not knowing his distress. "You're late, did something happen?" she asked, not giving him a hug in public.

“Sorry, I ran into a little trouble, but nothing serious.” He told her because he forgot to make up an excuse, as he only had a loose plan on how he would get her to talk about the room. He intentionally showed his hurt hand a bit but pretended to want to hide the wounds.

Hermione took his arm without permission, observing the wounds. "How did this happen?" she asked, pulling him away from the Great Hall to Madam Pomfrey, as she always did when she saw his injuries. This time it was what he wanted, as he could talk to her without unwanted attention. He feared that if Hermione wasn't the hero, then the hero could be warned that he knew that Hermione knew about the Room of Requirements.

"So, will you tell me this time, or do you insist on telling me it happened during Defence against the Dark Arts four days ago?" asked Hermione. Atlas wasn't sure how to interpret her tone. He wasn't sure if she was angry, disappointed, worried, or all three together. It surprised him a bit that she asked him so openly about it, indicating she already knew that he lied to her.

Just an hour ago, it would have been a headache, but now he may be able to use it. He just wasn’t sure if he should spill the beans entirely or if he should mask lies with truth. He decided to give in to get her to tell him how she got to know about the room.

“I’m sorry, Mione. My day was really really bad. Maybe the worst day I had since coming to Hogwarts. I know that you are worried, and I promise that I will tell you what I have been doing after we get my hand fixed. No more secrets, no more excuses; I will tell you everything you want to know. But it’s easier if I show you instead of simply telling you. If it's fine with you, could you just tell me about your day for now?” He told her with the best puppy eyes he could make.

Hermione scrutinizes Atlas, and after a long pause, she agrees not to ask him any more questions. “Okey… but you have to promise me that you will tell me everything. And you are in danger; we will go to Professor McGonagall or Dumbledore to get help.” She said with a tone that told Atlas that if he messed this up, she would really be angry, and he didn’t know what she would do in that case.

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“I promise. I will tell you everything, and I’m not in any immediate danger. At least as far as I know.” He shouldn’t have said the last part, as he saw her characteristic frown, which told him she was worried. “I mean, I’m in as much danger as any other student at Hogwarts, so I should be pretty safe.”

“Fine, I won't bother you anymore, but you have to promise me one thing in return.” said Hermione, and surprisingly, she began to blush a bit before she blurted out, “My parents wanted to meet you. So if you have time between Christmas and New Year's, you have to come visit me.”

Atlas was surprised at how the topic changed. He expected Hermione to question him more, but it turned out that she had something on her mind too and used this opportunity to talk about it. He sighed a bit in relief. “Sure, I didn’t propose meeting your family too, because you told me that you were skiing with your family. Did something happen?”

“Yes, my dad broke his leg. And somehow that is my fault. My dad was decorating the Christmas tree when my mom read my letter to him, in which I asked them if I could visit you during the holidays. It turned out that my father was so shocked that he fell down the ladder. So, we decided to spend the first week with the family and good friends, and... and mom nagged me to invite you too.” She spoke quickly, and her words merged into an unintelligible murmur at the end.

“Ohh yeah, we always did something like that too, but since my grandparents died a few years ago, we usually stay for ourselves. But if I told my mom about you, I’m sure she would have stormed the castle and hunted me down to get every single little detail out of me, and then kidnapped you for the whole holidays. My mom is a bit crazy.”

“Your parents don’t know about me? About us?! I thought you asked them if I could come after New Year.” asked Hermione, shocked in disbelief.

“Well, yes. Like I said, my mom is a bit crazy, and after her letter to Snape, I kind of didn’t want to tell her anything anymore. I would have told my dad, but even if he managed to read the letter alone, he wouldn’t be able to keep a secret from mom for longer than two days. So I just asked if a friend could come over. But I guess I planned to tell them while I’m home and don’t have to risk getting a howler or something like that.” explained Atlas.

Hermione giggled a bit, her previous shock and anger about him hiding their relationship from his parents blown away.

“What? Did I say something funny?” asked Atlas, confused.

“No, no, I just realized that you are a bit like your father. You are a bad liar as well.” She said giggling.

“Hey, how am I a bad liar.” Protested Atlas.

“Oh, now you don’t even try to hide that you lied to me anymore? But I won’t tell you how I know you are lying.” she asked, giggling even more.

Atlas was a bit confused. Did he fall into a trap? Why was she giggling when she thought or knew that he had lied to her before? He thought about it, and he realized that the only things he lied about were when he got injured inside the room of requirements and about why he did the ranking of the students, so maybe she just thought that the lies he told her were just minor ones?

“I admit defeat. What is so funny? I don’t get it.” He finally resigned.

“It’s just your face. You look cute when you struggle to find an explanation for something trivial, like it’s the most important thing in the world.” She explained before becoming supportive again. “Being a bad liar is good, Atlas. I don’t want you to lie to me. I just knew that something was weighing you down, and I know that it has nothing to do with us. I thought that you would tell me when you thought you were ready. Just know that I’m here for you, and whatever it is, I will support you.”

Atlas didn’t know if he should feel happy or sad. He was happy that Hermione knew him well enough to find out so much without him talking about it and even offering support without knowing the details, and he was sad because he still hadn’t found out if she was the hero. Originally, he wanted to find out if she would lie to him about the room of requirements, and if she did, he wanted to pretend to have recently found it and hope to get the truth out of her then. His plan was made up within minutes, and the conversation was drifting away more and more.

“I also don’t like lying to you. Thanks for trusting me, Mione.” He said that and grabbed her hand with his unhurt one. “So how was your day?”

Hermione accepted his hand and even got a step closer to him, so their shoulders almost touched while walking to the infirmary. “Good. I already packed my things for Christmas and went to the library to give back some books and practice a few spells, and then I went to meet up with you.”

His limited legilimency told Atlas that she was telling the truth, but if she was the hero, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she was far better in occlumency than he was. “Good, I packed most of my things too. How was your practice? If you need someone to practice with, we can do it together.”

“It went well. Maybe next time. Maybe you can help me with my disarming charm. I read that if one truly masters the spell, one would be able to disarm multiple people with a single spell,” she said.

“Sure. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem. But maybe we should search for a place to practice. As far as I know, Ms. Pince would challenge you to a live and death duel if we practiced in the library, and I think the commonroom isn’t well suited to practice spells where we would probably be pushed around.”

“Yeah, Ms. Pince would definitely do that.” She said this, laughing a bit. “Maybe I know a room where we could practice. I mean, I promised not to tell anyone, but I guess it's fine if it's you.”

That was the information Atlas needed. He was almost certain she was talking about the room of requirements, but if she promised not to tell anyone, that means she was told about the room by someone else. Atlas began to smile and was internally celebrating that Hermione probably wasn’t the hero and would probably be able to get a clue to the real hero.

He stopped in his tracks and surprised Hermione with a deep kiss. She protested a bit but ultimately kissed him back.

“What was that for?” asked Hermione, confused but happy. “I thought you made the rule not to do it in public. And the mandrake leaf in your mouth tastes horrible.”

“I don’t know, talking to you just felt good, and I wanted to give a kiss to my beautiful girlfriend that managed to cheer me up. Besides, the corridor is empty, and everyone should be in the great hall. So to whom did you promise not to tell anyone anything about a mysterious place to practice?”