it all ends with us: ruins

054

Chapter Fifty-Four:

"A force of nature."

Atlas with dark magic was different. Noticeably different. It was clear as day that she wasn't normal. It was quick-tempered responses and evil glares in the hallways. It was the less smiley and snarkier comments. The gentle and soft spoken Atlas had disappeared and she had transformed into her new self. It wasn't just her friendship group that had realised the change, others such as Harry and his two friends had also seen the dramatic change.

"Atlas." Harry shouts while trying to catch up with her fast strides.

"Harry." Atlas responds with a nod.

As well as the outsiders, Atlas herself had known that she was not the same. She had tried her hardest to control the darkness. It came in flashes, it was painful and antagonising. Like a hand squeezing her beating heart until it was nothing but dust. While she had never voiced any of her issues it meant that all of her effort went into hiding her suffering. So less time went into the consideration of others and their feelings.

"I know what you've done." Harry murmurs.

The sentence makes Atlas abruptly stop where she was standing. She looks at the boy before grabbing his upper arm and dragging him into Rowena Ravenclaw's study. She hadn't been there in a while and it was starting to get a little bit dusty. Harry looks surprised as he didn't know the existence of the room, and instead of paying attention to the ticking time bomb of a girl in front of him he diverts his attention to the thousands of books displayed on the shelves.

"What is this place?" He asks in awe, his eyes still on the shelves of books.

"Hey pay attention to me." Atlas snaps her fingers in his face, making his eyes look towards her.

"You said you know what I've done, who told you?" She questions, sternly. Her arms were crossed across her chest and she meant business.

"I heard Kiera and Eli arguing about it in the astronomy tower." He admits guiltily.

"So you were spying?" She interrogates him.

"They were shouting so loud I wouldn't be surprised if the whole of Hogwarts had heard them." Harry defends himself.

"You shouldn't do this Atlas." Harry starts. "Putting yourself at risk isn't great. Take it from me, all these years I've been fighting You Know Who. This won't work out and in the end the only person who's going to get hurt is you."

"You don't think I know that Harry?" She smiles sadly.

"It's going to kill you isn't it?" He questions. "This is the sacrifice play. I should know I am a sacrifice play." He's borderline yelling at this point.

"Harry." Atlas scolds.

"You don't have to do this." He steps up towards her, shaking his head.

"Yes I do." She scoffs in response. "I've consumed so much dark magic that if He doesn't kill me, I'm pretty much dead anyway. If I'm not going to survive, I'm sure as hell going to put up a fight so I can take Him down with me."

Atlas made a move to leave but she stopped and turned around to face the Potter legacy.

"Oh and Harry?" She starts. "If you tell anyone about this, if you ruin it. I won't hesitate in killing you too." She threatens before sassily turning around and heading out of the door.

----

It was the first time she had admitted that she was going to die. It wasn't news to her. She had always known in the back of her head that no one would survive something like this. She was a lamb to the slaughter. Her mere existence was catastrophic. A danger to society. She was never in control, not of herself and not of her mind. Her episodes were masked as an illness and a part of her identity was a secret for most of her life. It was no wonder that she had come to hate herself.