Atlas was sneaking through the corridors of the school after dinner in the Great Hall. He'd finished eating especially early, wanting to get into the Gryffindor common room before any other students would be there to notice him. The twins promised that they'd finish early as well, but both of them seemed to have gotten distracted by a particularly seductive tart, and neither were anywhere in sight. Atlas waited for them, staring up at the Fat Lady (who appeared to be in a deep post-feast slumber, complete with snoring and a tiny bit of drool dribbling down her cheek) for a good ten minutes before deciding to go in on his own.
"Um…h-hello?" he said, with a tiny cough. The woman in the portrait may have heard him, as she sputtered a bit before twisting and turning over onto her other side, but was soon back to snoring as loudly as she had been before.
Atlas sighed, not wanting to wake the Fat Lady up too forcefully. After all, it was her decision whether or not he got to enter the common room, so he wanted to stay on her good side. He looked around, wondering if there was any way to wake up the woman without upsetting her. He spied a few feathers on the windowsill, probably left behind by one of the students' owls.
"Wingardium Leviosa," he whispered, levitating the small heap of feathers into the air towards the painting. With sharp, sweeping motions, he brushed the feathers gently across the Fat Lady's waist. She began to fidget, her twitching getting more violent by the moment, finally waking in a burst of both laughter and surprise. She looked around, panting, before spotting Atlas, his wand still poised in the air.
"Who-What-Who are you?" She sputtered.
"I'm sorry to disturb you, ma'am," Atlas said, quickly trying to sedate her anger, "But I need to get into the common room, p-please."
She leaned forward, scrutinizing him. "You…you're not a Gryffindor! What do you think you're doing! I can't-!"
"Iknowiknowiknow!" he said, his levels of worry beginning to rise well beyond his own comfort. "But-but I was entrusted with the password by Gryffindors- two of them- and-"
"Well, then, what is it? Maybe I'll let you in…" The woman leaned back with a huff, still not looking overly pleased with the situation at hand.
The twins' riddle hadn't been all that complicated, despite their pride in it: 'From the ultimate decider I appear, offering my services only to the brave of heart.' He didn't want to tell them how simple it was right away, for fear of them changing it to something so convoluted and nonsensical that Merlin himself couldn't have solved it.
From the ultimate decider: The Sorting Hat, of course. And, as far as Atlas knew, only one artifact had ever been pulled from the hat.
"The Sword of Gryffindor," said Atlas, before holding his breath, waiting for the Fat Lady's jurisdiction. She looked surprised at first, and then furrowed her brow.
"W-well, I…Hmph! I suppose I can let you in…" Atlas breathed a sigh of relief at her words, "But if I hear you've been up to anything in there, I'll have your head! You hear me?"
"Y-yes, ma'am! Thank you so much!" The painting swung out on its hinges, revealing the entrance to the common room. Atlas quickly stepped inside, before the Fat Lady could change her mind…
And stopped dead in his tracks.
On one of the overstuffed scarlet sofas, leafing through a Runes textbook, sat the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Atlas had seen beautiful women before, sure, but this was a whole new plane of beauty, something he couldn't have even dreamed, despite his expansive imagination. Her green eyes flicked back and forth, browsing over the pages of her book. Her hair hung in soft brown waves, framing her pale, freckled face, one of the cheeks of which was propped up against a tiny, delicate hand. It was as if light from heaven itself had been manifested on earth in a human form, the radiance from just being in her presence piercing every corner of his soul. Atlas felt an odd mixture of emotions welling up inside of him; jubilance and terror, shock and awe.
And to think, all in the space of a single moment!
Quickly sensing his presence, the girl's head snapped up and turned sharply to peer at Atlas. Her eyes dug into his skin, threatening to cut him to pieces and leave him to bleed out on the common room floor. He wasn't even sure if he would have minded if it meant that someone so inexplicably gorgeous could possibly take notice of someone so un-extraordinary.
As much as he tried, Atlas couldn't speak for the life of him. Where there should have been a 'Hello, I promise I'm not up to anything!' there was a string of unintelligible sputtering that couldn't even begin to resemble words. The girl, unsurprisingly, was not amused.
"Oi!" she shouted, getting up from the sofa, "What are you doing in here?"
"I-I, well, I, you see, I, um-"
"And who are you, anyway? I've never seen you before…"
"A-A-Atlas…m-my name is Atlas Argall."
She walked over, leaving only a few inches between them, and scanned over him. She looked confused, but whether it was caused by her trying to remember if she'd ever seen him or deciding whether or not to annihilate him was impossible to tell.
She took a step back and stuck out her hand, "Devvy McCabe," she said, a smirk growing on her face, "Pleasure to meet you."
Atlas cautiously shook her hand, encasing it in his own. He could barely breathe, but managed to squeak out a feeble "Likewise."