“You are behaving strangely… did you hit your head too?” Hermione said still flushed from the kiss and the compliment he gave her. "Anyway, we are here.”
Atlas was a bit frustrated that she didn’t answer his question, but his relief that it probably wasn’t her still overshadowed that.
“You two again. What is it this time?” asked an annoyed Madam Pomfrey.
"Hello, Madam Pormfrey. It’s his hand this time.” She answered a bit apologetically.
“Do I even want to ask how it happened?” she asked herself out loud, not really expecting an answer, as most of the students she treated recently were sent there directly from Quirrell’s classroom. Apparently, Professor McGonagall couldn’t convince Dumbledore to stop Quirrell’s lessons. Even then, Atlas and Hermione were probably the two people who visited Madam Pomfrey the most. Mostly for Atlas' injuries, but even Hermione had to go here once before after receiving a stray spell from another student in Defence against the Dark Arts.
Atlas felt that their visits in the infirmary were getting more and more embarrassing, and Hermione acted more and more like his mother did when he was injured. He couldn’t say that he disliked that she cared so much, but he still sometimes thought that she was a bit overprotective, as in most cases the injuries weren’t that bad.
Madam Pomfrey fixed his hands so fast that Atlas thought that all the practice she got from all the accidents that happened lately caused her impressive skills to advance even further. At least he thought she was becoming faster and more efficient.
They left after Hermione promised Madam Pomfrey that she would keep an eye on him from now on, causing Atlas to be embarrassed so much that even Madam Pomfrey chuckled a bit.
“Did you have fun in there? You know that I don’t like it when you patronize me so much.” asked Atlas soon after they left.
“Yes, I had. It was a little punishment for causing me to worry so much.” Answered Hermione and suddenly kissed him.
“If you are allowed to kiss me by surprise, then I should be allowed to kiss my handsome but always injured boyfriend too,” she said, obviously in a good mood. “So where should we talk?” she asked, reminding Atlas that he wanted to come clean with her.
Atlas cringed a bit at her choice of words and realized that he had done the same just a few minutes before. That didn’t hinder him from enjoying the compliment while still thinking about whether his choice was really the correct one or if he was acting too emotionally.
Atlas led her to the room of requirements, causing her to act surprised.
“I guess we shared a little secret without knowing it,” he smiled at Hermione, who looked quite surprised. “I would still like to know who told you about the room.”
Hermione just nodded as she watched Atlas slowly walk back and forth, signaling her to not answer until after a few minutes the door finally appeared.
“Why did it take you so long? What did you want the room to be?” asked Hermione but Atlas just opened the door and winked her to move in.
When she entered the door, she was in a large circular room with two dozen doors with bookshelves in between, a big red carpet with a large half-curved red sofa, and a small fireplace in the middle, which would cause any sane person to question the safety of the sofa so near it.
“That is the room I alway create to train in. Not this room but the one behind the door for spelltraining.” explained Atlas.
“You mean there are rooms behind every door? I didn’t know the room could do something like that. I always used it for training purposes. You even have a bathroom in here. That’s so practical. Why do you have a cementry in here? I didn’t know you were into chess. Why do you have a room for chess?” asked Hermione, realizing the vastness of the room with every new inscription she read in the stone above the doors.
“I don’t need most of the rooms, but they have another purpose. But I guess I told you I will answer you everything. Let’s start with the injuries. I assume you just ask for a room for spelltraining when you create the room? My version is a bit different. Maybe I should just show you. “
He led the way towards the right room and soon they stood in front of the combat puppet.
“It’s the strong one again,” he murmured, a bit depressed as he had never managed to beat the puppet so far.
“So the version of this room changes every time and so do the properties of the puppet or in some cases puppets.” He explained “Do you want to give it a try to see the difference?”
“What’s so different from the puppet I have been fighting all the time?” Hermione asked a bit apprehensively.
“Well, I guess it would spoil a part of the training if I told you, and I honestly don’t exactly know the answer. Like I said, the puppet is different every time, even though some things may appear similar. In general, I would say that this puppet is much stronger than the one you fight, as the purpose is a different one. The puppet you usually fight is probably quite inflexible and easily beatable if you cast the spells correctly. This one, on the other hand, fights you like someone who thinks his life depends on it. It will use everything, from physical attacks to normal spells to transfigurations and sneak attacks. Sometimes there are multiple puppets that are even able to coordinate together. While they don’t try to kill you they would not stop even if you break a bone or two. It's what you get when you ask the room to create something to create your adaptability and survivability in combat.” He explained with a smile as he saw Hermione’s eager and fascinated face.
“I assume Quirrell inspired you? I’m surprised the room is even able to create something like that. Everything I read about the room was always quite mundane, but this is beyond everything I could have imagined. But that doesn’t explain why you do it. I mean, I understand that you want to learn magic, and in some ways, I understand that you want to fight, but why are you pushing yourself so much. I mean, in the last few weeks, you have been injured so often that I thought you wanted to make the infirmary your permanent residence. And I assume you didn’t even get injured every time you were here. So what is driving you so much? What is worrying you so much?” she asked, the last part a bit softer than the rest.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Before I answer you this, can you tell me who told you about the room?” he asked not looking into her eyes.
“Amy showed me the room a week after Halloween. Why is it so important to know who told me about it?”
Atlas grinned a bit. Now he had a good lead, and he realized one thing. The only reason he thought that it was unlikely that one of them was the hero was that all of them were great, but if it was really Amy that showed Hermione the room, it was likely that Amy, Leona, or Ethan was the hero and that the hero had an ability that buffed others without them noticing. Or maybe he did notice but just thought it was the difference between a study group that actually studied and a study group with Ron in it. He only needed to figure out who exactly it was. But for now he needed to give Hermione a satisfying answer.
“It is important. But before I tell you, you have to promise me that you shouldn’t tell anyone about it and I want you to tell me immediately if you think someone found out about it.” He said looking Hermione emotionlessly in the eyes.
Hermione, who thought Atlas was overly dramatic nodded and promised him to not tell anyone about it.
“I stumbled into the room in our first week here. You can imagine how amazed I was at the room's abilities, as it was the perfect training tool or the perfect place to hide something. I don’t know if you ever tried to open the room to hide something, but it's like a giant chaotic room with so much stuff that it takes hours just looking over everything. Trust me, I did it out of interest. The problem is what I found. I can't tell you the specifics, but I found proof that he who should not be named is alive. You can imagine how shocked I was. Dumbledore also knows about it, but while the Dark Lord is severely weakened, I assume that Dumbledore hasn’t found a way to kill the Dark Lord yet. And until Dumbledore has confirmed that the Dark Lord is definitely dead, I will assume that he will return one day. So I train every day to be able to defend myself, my family, and you too. I know that it probably won’t be enough, but not trying isn’t an option.” He explained with a seriousness in his voice that showed that he definitely wasn’t joking.
Hermione’s face went from understanding his fascination to pure horror. She may be one of the very few first-year muggleborn students who understood the implications of what Atlas said, as she had read at least three books about him and Harry before even entering Hogwarts. He imagined that after being here for some time, her understanding became even better, so she was scared and horrified.
Atlas thought that maybe telling a first-year student that one of the evilest dark wizards of known history was still alive and would probably be able to return was a bit much, as Hermione just stood there without saying anything. He took her hand and lead her back to the sofa where they sat down and after a few minutes Hermione began to talk again.
“Is there nothing we could do to stop him from returning? How is he still alive and what proof did you find?”
“I don’t know how we could be able to stop him, but I think we should let Dumbledore sort things out. I think he is working with a few other teachers on a way to prevent the Dark Lords return. So I’ve been doing the only thing I could do and trained. To be honest I didn’t want you to know about it because I wanted you to not worry about it and enjoy the school more. But if you think you can’t do that anymore I would be happy to train with you here.”
Hermione snuggled at him deep in thought. It was still quite a lot to process and she didn’t knew how she should react to that information.
“Are you absolutely sure that he is still alive?” asked Hermione with a whisper.
“As sure as I am that Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts.” He answered, petting her shoulder a bit and drawing her closer.
“And what are you still hiding from me?” she asked in the same whisper without changing posture.
“Seriously, how do you know?” asked Atlas, perplexed. While the whole story wasn’t completely made up, it wasn't the secret that was weighing him down, and it honestly meant almost nothing to him, but it was the perfect explanation for everything he had been doing. But now it seemed that Hermione still saw through that.
“You always overexplain things while leaving out all details when you want to hide something. Now spit it out.” She demanded.
This perplexed Atlas even more. Was it true? He thought his explanation was perfectly reasonable and for the severity of the situation just barely enough.
“I can basically see what you are thinking. So yes, your explanation was reasonable, but you change your way of speaking, and try to work off a checklist when trying to hide something. So, are you going to talk now?” asked Hermione while pinning him down on the sofa.
“It seems like I can’t hide anything from you. But can I ask you to let me keep a few secrets? It’s not like knowing about it would change anything, and I think it’s better if fewer people knew about it. It’s not like I don’t trust you, but while the things I know are important, it is also important that Voldemort doesn’t find out that someone knows about them, and there are many ways to get information out of someone.”
“I thought you said no more secrets.” She said pouting a bit, but Atlas knew that she wouldn’t question him about these things anymore.
That didn’t hinder her from asking him a lot of other questions about the topic, like what he would do if the dark lord returned, when he thought it would happen, etc.For Atlas, it was just as important that Hermione didn’t know about the Horcrux, as he knew from first-hand experience that Quirrell at least tried to read his mind once, and he couldn’t rule out the possibility that he would do it to other students too. While it was still dangerous that she knew that he was alive, he thought that Voldemort didn’t try to kill Ron and Hermione in the original, even though they knew about it. To make sure not to give Quirrell a reason to hunt them down, he even hid the fact that he suspected that Quirrell hosted Voldemort.
Instead of going on a date the next day, Hermione also demanded to join him in his training. He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry about that, as Hermione’s eagerness was certainly refreshing, but he couldn’t say he was a huge fan of her getting beat up by the puppets. He also realized that his Wiggenweld reserves were dwindling rapidly. While he didn’t want to waste it when he only got minor injuries, he never let Hermione leave the room with even a scratch. While it put a dent in his reserves, Hermione was really enthusiastic about expanding his little garden for materials. He sure was happy that he let himself get bribed by a few students, as that covered a part of the costs, but Hermione had no problems spending her own money on it. Her parents gave her quite a lot of pocket money, but she barely had any expenses besides ordering a few books. But even then, her expenses had been small, as most books were available in the library.
He also used the time to confirm a few things. First of all, Hermione was not as good in combat as he would expect a hero to be, and after focusing on it, he realized that while training and studying with her alone was effective and her inputs were certainly helpful, it couldn’t compare to the progress they made when studying with Amy, Ethan, and Leona.
The problem was that he was unable to find a reasonable excuse to split up the group to confirm the identity of the hero, but after focusing on the difference, he was absolutely certain that his own learning speed was magically enhanced. It felt natural, and he wouldn’t notice it if he wasn’t watching out for it. What they were experiencing there could not be explained by a group simply working well together.
The whole experience made him realize one important thing. No matter who of the three it was, they were in Hogwarts for one year longer than he was and profited from this boon the whole time, and maybe the hero even profited even more from it himself. Even from the things they had shown, they were better than he was, and a frontal fight would probably not end in his favor, so he needed to prepare for the fight accordingly and maybe use a surprise attack. The whole situation also gave him a bit of relief. As the hero buffed the people around him, he could also profit from it, and the gap between them wouldn’t widen too much even if he delayed a bit, so he had time to go through with his animagus transformation and even find a way to save Hermione.
He was sure she wouldn’t be so supportive if she knew that his activities would lead to the universe's destruction, but he would do his best to find a way to save her and even his and her family if possible. Maybe a few others, like Neville, too, but he didn’t want to get too optimistic.