So… This was going to be another random and silly chapter, but I just had to listen to angsty music before and while I wrote it. Hence, it is not a cracktastic chapter. Oh well. The next one will be, though, so rest assured.

Disclaimer: Hp is not mine, FMA is not mine, sanity is not mine, and I still can't find my left sock. Shoot.

Chapter 3: Sloth

Ed found himself in the DADA classroom, once again facing a rattling closet. He'd been taking classes with Remus Lupin separately, so that the others would not be frightened again.

"Are you ready, Ed?" Lupin asked.

"What the hell do you think? If I was ever completely ready I wouldn't be here with you again."

"Good point," Lupin admitted. "I'll give you to the count of three and then I'll let it out. I have to admit though, Edward, your courage is admirable, although I am surprised that there are so many different things you fear so much that it would be reflected in a boggart."

Ed didn't say anything. Because I push back my one true fear… and before he could pull himself back to reality he heard Lupin say "Three."

And there it was again. The sight that haunted his mind, waking and asleep.

"No…" he whispered before sinking down to his knees. "No, it can't be her… it. No. Not again…" he said, eyes transfixed on the face of one who shared the face of his mother, but would never be her.

Sloth. His sin.

"Edward? Is that you? My son…"

"No, no, it's not you! You're not my mom!"

"Silly boy, if I were not your mother, who else would I be? Are you okay? Do you have a fever? And where is Alphonse? You two didn't fight again, did you?"

"Stop it! You're not her! She's dead! And so are you! You're nothing more than an animated corpse. You will never be my mother! Never!" Ed exclaimed, once again getting to his feet, and once again completely forgetting that the creature before him was a boggart.

"Why are you saying that? I'm right here, Edward!"

"No you're not!" Ed exclaimed one last time, transmuting his arm into a blade and cutting straight down the body of his mothers look-alike. But rather than the water his mind told him would appear and then reform again, the body crumbled and changed into a limply hanging, four-armed, gray creature with three eyes that dilated into small dots. The body sat there for a few moments, and then disintegrated into dust which blew away out the open window and into the rain that was pouring outside the stone castle.

Ed breathed heavily, simply standing with his eyes closed as he tried to compose himself once again.

"What was that, Ed? Who was she?"

"Not my mother, that's for certain. She was no more than a soulless shadow of what my mother used to be, and I never want to think of her again. Now if you will excuse me, I think I've had enough practice for today."

Ed transmuted his arm back to its original form and walked out of the room, leaving behind a troubled professor, whose only coherent thought at the moment was, "So that's the true form of a boggart…"