Atlas Malfoy and how history repeats itself

Part 38

"You actually made eye contact with me before going into the shop?" Harry snaps. I retort, "I don't do things like that for fun! I would have been murdered."
"Like you let Sirius die!" Harry yells. My jaw drops and he says, "Please, Atlas... I didn't mean that."
"You've already accused me of being a death eater." I scoff, "I'm not doing this right now. I am not a death eater-"
"I need some air."

Harry gets up and walks off, leaving Hermione, Ron and I alone. Ron looks out the window, and Hermione says, "Leave him, Atlas."
"Hermione," I snap, "If I tell you what I know, I'm going to be murdered. I will be killed. Bellatrix used crucio on me as soon as I left the ministry, and now my leg is awful again, simply for saying sorry to Harry. I am not safe."
The train pulls to a stop at the station, and I'm stopped at security. A new security stop, forcing me to get off the carriage while everyone else goes ahead.
"What is this?" He says, holding up my spare walking stick. I stare at him in disbelief and say, "What do you think?"
Severus walks up behind me and says, "It is a walking stick for Miss Black. I don't imagine there will be an issue with that?"
The security officer opens my second bag with all of Regulus's stuff in.
"What is this?"
I look at what he is holding and groan. It's all the letters that have been written to me. But some of them contain things about death eater plans. Severus knows and says, "Letters."
"We'll have to read them," he says, starting to open the bag. I pull it away from him and say, "I know you wont."
Severus groans quietly, before saying, "That is true. I have checked, and you don't need to read letters that students have from home. Come on Atlas."

I refuse to go into the great hall, and so I get the information from Hermione, the next morning in potions. She says, "Professor Slughorn has come back, and is the new potions master, which means Snape has finally upgraded to Defence Against the Dark Arts. We were searched because of He Who Must Not Be Named. Ummm.... oh yeah, Dumbledore just did a really good job of terrifying everyone, probably not by accident. The security people are all miserable. Draco was looking for you, and he said to his friend that he was going to absolutely kill you when he found you."
"Cheery." I say, grabbing a book. Slughorn gasps, "Bellatrix?"
"Sorry?" I ask. He nods as I turn round and says, "Of course not. But you are of relation, I must say?"
"She is my aunt, sir. You know sir, I'm not actually taking potions-"
"That is probably for the best. You may leave."

I nod, but Hermione looks confused. I know why he doesn't want me in his classroom. I remind him too much of my aunt. I sit in the great hall, and pull out enough parchment to write a basic letter.
Dear Aunt Bella,
I need advice. Nobody is giving me answers. I was going to potions with Slughorn, when I got called your name. I don't know what to do. I want help.

-Atlas

It's tiny, but it'll make her think I actually want to maintain a relationship with her. I can't wait till she gets caught and thrown back in Azkaban. I get a first year to take my letter to the owlery and I offer to pay them a galleon. They refuse, terrified. Of me. Hermione sits down next to me and scoffs, "Harry cheated! Actually cheated. And yet he still gets to get the reward. Who is that book's old owner?"
"Hermione," Ron says with his mouth full of food, "Chill out."
"Do you still have that truth serum?" Hermione demands. I nod and she begs, "Use it on your aunt."
"Wha- my aunt? My aunt is terrifying. I don't want to disobey her." I bow my head and Hermione says, "She attacked you."
I nod and Hermione continues, "That isn't normal."
"She said she was doing it for me." I whisper. Hermione tilts my face to look at her and says, "But you know it isn't. You know that she is wrong."
"Hermione," I say, "You don't understand. If I upset her, she will kill me. I'm not being figurative. I am being fully honest. I don't want to die. I don't want to. Draco- he has been tasked with something. Even if I did know what it was, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I have been put in this situation and I need to do everything I can to survive."
Ron cuts me off, saying, "Did you know everyone was out of Azkaban well before the prophet announced?"
"Yes." I nod as I say it. He glares and goes back to his food. Hermione says, "Atlas, you aren't safe."
"I noticed."

A few days later are quidditch try outs. I go along to watch, but I don't pay much attention. Hermione on the other hand, is on the edge of her seat. At one point, she has her face buried in her hands. Ron isn't bad.... he just isn't very good. Eventually, Hermione pulls her wand out, and whispers something. I gawp at her and she says, "You're telling me you wouldn't have done the same thing."
"Right..."

Later in the common room, Hermione is at Harry's throat over Harry's potion book. He is about to show me something and Hermione makes a grab at it. She chases him round, but Ginny gives him the book. The half blood prince, apparently. Hermione mutters to me as we walk up the stairs, "And he has the audacity to tell me the binding is fragile. I will find out who the half blood prince is. Nobody can tell me otherwise."
I wish she would give it a rest. The half blood prince clearly used a fake name for a reason. And that was probably a really good reason too. I don't want to know; I have to much to be thinking about.