THE SEVEN SINS
CHAPTER 4: GREED: AVARITIA
The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure. BC Forbes.
Something is wrong.
Harry hadn't even realized that he'd said this out loud, until Hermione's voice had startled him out of his thought train.
"Yes, there is."
Harry brooded. The Ginny incident (or so they called it), had occurred a week ago, but she hadn't stopped snapping at her friends; some of her remarks causing even the closest of her friends to angry tears.
Professor Binns hadn't improved either; he'd been locked, charmed and shielded into a room, but he'd escaped right through the door, ghost-style. He'd stayed silent, though, after that, holding his head high as he floated through the corridors. A few days later, he'd resigned from his lessons.
No one had protested.
Even Draco Malfoy had thought it strange –of course, he'd expressed this thought with a bundle of insults and snide remarks, but Harry had learned to ignore these. For what was the point in the end? The blonde would not stop; fists did not shut his mouth, so in actual conclusion, there was no point.
Malfoy had sneered, and smirked, saying that at least one of the Weasels had sense. But his eyebrows had that slightly scrunched-up look; an irregularity that told Harry that no matter what he said out of that rather vile mouth, Draco Malfoy was stumped.
"Both Ginny and Binns," he muttered. "And both on Tuesdays." Hermione looked at him with a rather strange expression on her face.
"You know, you're right."
Harry and Ron looked questioningly at her.
"Well, all of it starts on Tuesdays. Ginny yelled at you on Tuesday, didn't she?" she looked towards Ron, albeit apologetically for bringing the subject up.
"Yeah, it was," Ron said slowly. "You're saying that that wasn't my sister?" A touch of fury, yet hope filled his eyes.
Harry spoke up, a little ruefully. "There's a chance, but it's only a chance. That actually might be just Ginny herself," he warned.
Ron nodded, but his shoulders raised a little, seemingly a little lighter. "But it's Tuesday, today, isn't it?"
Harry nodded. They walked down the stairs.
They were walking the rest of the way to the Potions classroom when blonde hair asserted itself into their view.
It wasn't Malfoy.
It was Parkinson.
She brushed past them, at first. They'd felt the atmosphere; colder than before, but they'd attributed it to the temperature.
Then she'd turned around, and her eyes glowed golden; not with the radiance of the sun, but with the reflections of money.
"Harry…darlin', could you spare me some money? You have so much in your account…the Witch Weekly told us how much your parents left you…do you mind giving some of that to poor little me?"
Harry looked at her in shock. She came up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I want so much; surely you could give some to me?" she whispered into his ear.
He shook her off, an abrupt 'no' escaping from his lips. She pouted, an endearing, yet chilling expression of the lips. "I won't give up so easily, you know."
She turned around, climbing gracefully up the stairs.
They stood there, their normal morning already disrupted, when they heard the sound, quiet, yet disruptive as water dropelts at midnight. Clear footsteps were echoing towards them.
Faster and faster, the droplets becoming a torrent, a river, a waterfall, then a voice, angry and destructive.
"What did you do to her!"
Draco Malfoy stood in front of them, his robes moving with his erratic breathing. His hair was tousled, hands curled into fists. Harry looked at him, his mind impulsively giving him both the answer to Malfoy's question, and the answer to who the said boy was talking about.
"Nothing."
"She's been acting like that all morning! Bullying the first-years out of their coins, snatching stuff off the table, threatening the Slytherin girls! Cold to me, pretending things to get the gold out of my pocket! You don't think I can't see when someone's lying to me? People have lied to me all my life!" He snarled, a terrible energy rippling throughout his body.
"Don't tell me you had nothing to do with it! You know something; I can see it! " He hissed, stature straight and tense.
"I know nothing!" Harry protested again.
He didn't see the blow coming at his jaw, but felt it a few seconds after contact. Gingerly touching the now-injured area, he spoke again, but this time, softly.
"Hermione, take Ron, away from here."
"But…"
He looked at her, with a silent communication born of years together in a stable friendship.
She retreated, with Ron at her side, and Harry turned back to those sharp, dangerous eyes.
It wasn't just a duel, between rival and rival, proving who was better than the other. This was serious. This was business.
"What did you do to her." Malfoy advanced against him, a shark in murky waters. Harry backed off a little, his body running on pure instinct for survival.
"Nothing."
Even to his ears, it seemed weak.
He was pushed forcibly against the cold stone wall, the ridges digging into his back. He winced.
"Change her back." Grey eyes bored into his own, glaring, fierce with fire. One fist was in his tie, wound around it like a master with a whip, except this one wasn't hitting Harry, it was strangling him.
"Change her back!" The blonde Slytherin took hold of his collar, yanking him slightly off the floor. The veins of his hands stood out, a little map of his blood system, the road of his life.
The shouts echoed across the corridor, across the hallway.
"I can't." Harry managed to choke out the two words, his eyelids starting to sweep down. Harry was close to fainting by now…although his vision wasn't fading at the edges like the romance books the girls read said they would, the colors were going a little bizarre, and they were swirling like a psychedelic hippie design.
"You can!" And Harry was abruptly let go, where he fell, hands and knees in front of Draco. Automatically, his hands went around his throat, around the places where he still felt the bruises from Malfoy's fingers.
"You have to."
It was a whisper.
And slowly, like a receding spirit, he drifted away, a small distance.
Then Draco Malfoy turned around and ran.
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Harry hadn't exactly expected to see Draco Malfoy sitting on a stone when he'd gone outside after dinner. He himself had built up a habit of taking a walk in the evenings. Although he never wandered out of school grounds, the little stroll helped him clear his mind, improving his blockage of Voldemort's messages.
But there he was, his rival, sitting on a stone, and seemingly using the pond as his mirror.
He'd begun to walk away, but then, hesitantly, he walked back, sitting down next to the blonde.
A few seconds, but then a string of words lifted themselves from the Slytherin's mouth.
"She was a friend to me. There aren't many people who are, but she was one to me."
He stared across the lake, confusion clouding the irises of his eyes.
"My father told me a lot of things when I was little. He'd go past this corridor of portraits, and both he and my ancestors would tell me a whole load about the privileges I'd get when I was older. When you're a Malfoy, there're a lot of people that give way to you in the street. You get a lot of favors, and you basically get to order people around. People are scared of you, so they try not to get you mad."
He smiled, this sad, remorseful smile.
"But nobody said that you wouldn't have friends."
Harry didn't know how to respond. He had had no experience with people; years of running, and doing endless slave-like chores had made him a scrawny, skinny little kid. Years of escaping from bullies and family had made him a shy, people-avoiding reclusive. He had had no experience with people, and the only experience of friends had been squeezed into the past five years.
He still wasn't used to it.
Instead, he reached out and squeezed the arm of his adversary, the wind sweeping his hair out of his eyes. Grey eyes met his, then a soft flopping sound, as Ma- no, Draco, laid back. A few moments, then Harry did the same, their bodies at right angles, their hands loosely clasped together, as Draco had refused to let go.
They watched the stars together...
Author's Note: This is important…although technically I'm still within deadline (I'm updating in 2 weeks) this is just to tell you I will definitely not be updating next Thursday as I am in the middle of the Philippines! Cebu to be exact. So don't bother to check until two weeks later! And I don't update on any other day apart from Thursday unless I suddenly realize I can't update in the next two weeks or something…in which case I'll probably post early.
Satan is associated with anger, and Mammon with Greed. I believe, myself, that both Lust and Greed are the ones that affect today's society the most –although Gluttony may also be, since there's been an increase of obesity.
Responses to Reviewers: Persephone-Butterfly: Well, here's the thing. For me, Ron is one of those people that just love on first sight. And I'm not just talking about romantic love here! There's a fic that describes Ron's character very well, and I'll post the name of it in my next chapter. It was HPDM, but what really struck me was one of the paragraphs where Hermione got an 'unexpectedly mature response from Ron'. Hermione had told Ron about Harry's relationship with Draco. Ron had told her a whole load of stuff about how the wizarding society was a little different from the muggle one, but had ended up with 'And anyway, 'Mione, it's Harry.'
I totally agree with the authoress in this respect. Although there are a lot of fics that I read that depict Ron as a person who suddenly turns on Harry because of his relationship with Draco, in my mind he's not actually that kind of person. Whenever he makes a person his friend, that person will always remain his friend, and to put a cliché into this context, he would go to hell and back for that person! That's basically why I imagined he would cry about Ginny. Imagine if one of the most important people in your life, that you would die for, that you have lived with for the better part of your years, told you that you had no relationship at all! It would be complete pain on your behalf, not to mention the emotional shock! The tears that Ron goes through is mostly grief, but also partially shock as well.
As for the Ginny not getting mad usually…well, let's just say there's something going on with the people of Hogwarts (as you no doubt pieced together with the Trio in this chapter) that you'll have to find out about later.
Sapphrine: Yes, BRING ON THE HPDM! Lol….hey, there's some action in this chapter (yeah…FINALLY) so I hope you're happy! And the concept you brought up was perfectly correct…there IS something going on with Hogwarts. P.S. This is AU.
Amber: I'm sorry you don't think Harry should be gay. Actually, if you asked me about the book, I would tell you that Harry wouldn't be gay…but a girl can dream, can't she? And if you moved it to a slightly far-fetched idea (the slash authoresses nod like crzy), then you can say that there could be a chacne that they are...Anyway, I'm glad you liked it anyway, and was honest enough to tell me!
Evil Farie Queen: I could hug you for that simple review. I had such a complicated day, that when I came home and saw that I felt like kissing the computer!
Meg Finn: Hey girl! No emails recently? I agree very much with the Ron thing…I promise to give you that fic, as I know for a fact you'll love it!
Joeylluver-dragonofra: I love Fullmetal Alchemist too…RoyEd is my favorite…I'm rather afraid I support slash everywhere!
ArcherofDarkness and Callie: I got much amusement from reading your reviews: don't take that as an insult, it gave me a marvelous day, and I loved reading them. I don't take offense at people calling me gay; I joke around with my friends that it seems that I'm straight, but maybe I'll meet a nice girl one day and fall straight in love –but for now, I'm perfectly straight. And a girl. I find it intriguing that you thought I was a girl at first, and even more intriguing that then you thought I was a boy! Just wondering what made you think that (that's not an insult, I really do want to know). A response to the rainstorm thing…I love it when I'm soaked, but not when I'm slightly wet…it's annoying, I usually go all out for things, unless it gets someone hurt.
Aseret Kitsune: I could tell that you guys were dying for Lust…but I'm afraid that it won't be up till a chapter or two later. All will be revealed in time!
Morena Evensong: I'm not quite sure about the greed/pride thing, as I'm sure I labeled Pride as 'superbia'…Greed is also one of the 7 sins. If you want to check, the source I used the most was Wikipedia. You seem extremely knowledgeable about the Lucifer passage, are you taking Bible Studies? I'm meaning to take Theology as a minor at least, when I get to university, but I'm not quite sure which course to take yet! I took RS as a GCSE you see, and my teacher was lovely! I still carry fond memories of that class…not entirely excluding the fact that my crush was there…but then again, I say it again: a girl can dream!
Xanthie: I'm so glad you reviewed, I thought you disapproved of the fic or something! It's in a different style, but the plot idea just wouldn't leave my head…although I promise there's another few ideas that won't leave my head for a time yet!
