THE SEVEN SINS
CHAPTER 2: GLUTTONY: GULA II
I am not a glutton -- I am an explorer of food. - Erma Bombeck
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Footsteps echoed down the empty hallway. The person turned the corner, running, running. His eyes large and wide, dilated with fear.
"You can't run away forever." The voice seemed to come from nowhere and the person looked around him, his running getting faster, more desperate.
No. No, no, no, no, no.
Then the steps merged into one and the person fell, screaming, screaming…
Harry woke up. He was sweating lightly, and fumbling for his wand, he did a quick swish-and-flick.
"Lumos!" A sudden flash emitted from his wand, and hastily he calmed his magic a little. His power often fluctuated whenever he was frightened, and right now he wasn't feeling at all at peace.
Knowing that he wouldn't fall asleep again –and knowing that if he appeared at the kitchens then the elves would wake up and rush around cooking things for him even if it was –he looked at the muggle watch on his wrist -4 a.m. in the morning.
Well, I might as well go out for a bit. He sighed, then headed to the bathroom to dress, an expert at silence.
He was walking out of the dorm when he decided to go out towards the outside, and watch the sun rise. It was already five a.m. but he knew that the school woke up at seven, so there was no hurry.
He was halfway to the lake when he saw Draco walk out from the Slytherin dungeons. Smiling, he crept up to the Slytherin, silent as a cat, before pouncing, hands on his shoulders.
"YEEK!" Draco yelped, snatching off Harry's arms and spinning around, eyes wide. HE breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that it was Harry. "Do not scare me like that, Potter!" he said, placing a hand on his chest and unconsciously using Harry's last name again.
"Aww…was little Draco scared?" teased Harry gently. He smiled at his companion. "Why'd you call me Potter for? I thought we had a deal, Malfoy," he said with a childish mock-sniff. He turned away pointing his nose in the air.
Two arms wrapped around his waist, and his own ones fell from their crossed position as his eyes widened in slight disbelief. A head propped itself on his shoulder, and instantly he was glad that Draco was facing his back, for he was suddenly blushing.
"I'm sorry, forgive me?" Draco said softly, sweetly. His grey eyes were just that little bit worried, and Harry quickly turned around, hugging Draco back.
"Hey, I was only joking," he said, pulling back. He hadn't let his arms go though, but funnily enough Draco hadn't protested, so Harry figured it'd be okay.
Draco cocked his head to the side, letting his blonde hair obscure his eyes a little. Harry would have found the expression adorable, but he liked seeing Draco's eyes, so he tucked the hair behind Draco's ear. "Just in case," Draco said shyly.
Harry smiled, then remembered the time. "Why are you up so early?" he asked.
"I had a nightmare," answered Draco. "You?" he asked.
"Same," said Harry, surprised. "Was it bad?" he asked, with concern. Draco seemed a little jittery, although he'd only noticed it now, and he smacked himself on the head inside for not noticing sooner.
"A little," said Draco reluctantly. Harry gave him a long look, then hugged him once more –hard– before he let go.
"Come on, I'll show you the place where I train." Draco smiled, almost like a little child, and Harry was glad that he had said what he had. He tugged on the blonde's smaller hand, already walking –fast –to his little place.
Although occasionally he trained near the Whomping Willow, it was mostly because when he needed some defence practice all he needed to do was get closer. But his favourite training place was a little garden South of the castle, and it was here that he was taking Draco.
When they arrived, and Harry looked expectantly at his companion –still holding his hand, Draco gasped.
The entire thing was really, gorgeously simple, and everything was randomly placed –yet seemed to fit together. Three little rock pools were in the area; one with white, white roses curling up a cherry blossom tree as green grass swept the surroundings; one with three maple trees in full autumn splendour at the left hand corner, and one with striking, stunning flowers of all kinds blooming everywhere.
It was almost like the four seasons…except…
Draco looked at Harry, speaking before thinking about what he was saying. "Where's the winter one?" Then, he blushed. Winter one! He didn't even know if the pools represented the seasons.
But Harry only smiled.
"It's in the other field. The season that's currently in is always reflected in the bigger area…to show it's precedence over the others at the particular time," he explained gently. "Let's go!" he said, eyes lighting up. For the moment, just for the moment, the details of the five victims was gone out of his mind, and they ran, giggling, towards the fourth pool.
"Wow," Draco gaped in wonder at the brilliant sight that greeted them.
The pond was completely frozen over, and it was surrounded by white. Snow was falling out of the sky softly, and Harry grinned suddenly as he noticed two pairs of ice skates sitting patiently at the edge of the petite lake. Draco followed his eyes, and gaped even more. "How did it know?"
Harry turned to look at him, both still not noticing that they were holding hands. "It's sort of like the Room of Requirement…" he explained. "In fact, they're kind of like relatives –the same family made them."
Draco looked at him, bewildered. "Family?"
Harry looked at him, amused. "Never read Hogwarts: A History did you?" At Draco's embarrassed shake of the head, he laughed. "Hermione forced me to. TI basically says that the castle started off somewhat small: there were only going to be a selection of people coming here, and Rowena figured that they'd better try out the school first to see if anybody came. When people came, they made more rooms, but when war came along, they needed still more." Harry paused for breath. "So they told each and every family that they would have shelter in the castle as long as they did not hurt anyone else in the castle, whether outside or inside of it. But that they had to make their own rooms." Harry smiled. "That's why they're more rooms that we need everywhere in the castle. And that's why some teachers feel better in some rooms than others –most likely their ancestors made the room and placed protection charms over it that would protect that certain family and give them more privacy as well."
Draco looked at Harry in awe, and Harry scratched his head. "Eh, small history lesson there! Must have been boring you so badly…" He looked away, flushing a little.
"No," and Harry looked at the blonde in surprise. "Not at all." Harry smiled, the pulled him over to where the skates were.
"Come on!" And they rush over to the skates, tying them on, and then zooming out onto the ready-made ice rink. They laughed, playing a tiny game of tag until they were tired.
"Let's go back," said Harry, looking at his watch. "It's nearly time anyway." They headed towards the edge of the pool and Harry started untying his laces. Draco moved out of the pool, but as he was bending over, tripped over a tiny rock.
"Aaah!" Harry looked up, startled, just in time to see the blonde fall into him, making them both get a mouthful of snow. Spitting the cold mixture out of their mouths, they sat up. Then flushed. Draco was still sitting on Harry's lap. Then both laughed a little, settling a little more comfortably in the snow, while trying to hid their deliberate slowness from the other. Breakfast could wait.
"You've got snow in your hair." Harry smiled, picking pieces of snow out of Draco's hair, and in turn Draco let his blonde strands fall from his ears.
"Yeah, well, so do you. It's been snowing!" Draco said, rolling his eyes good-naturedly and swatting away Harry's hand –even though he liked the feeling of Harry's hand in his hair. He got up, albeit reluctantly, and pulled Harry to his feet.
"Come on! We've got waffles today!" He said, hiding his disappointment as Harry pulled his hand away from his. He had rather hoped that the same thing of holding hands would happen on the way back again. He started walking away, but was stopped by a pressure on his arm.
Harry pulled him towards him, hugging him, then pulled away smiling. Draco caught his breath, then grinned brilliantly. "I had a good time," Harry said softly. "I'd like to come again with you some day."
Draco's grin grew larger. "Then I will. Come again, I mean," he said hastily.
They both smiled, and then headed back towards the castle.
There were waffles that day after all.
Responses to Reviews: Swordmasterk14: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, I feel they fit together too.
California smells funny: I love your name. I know I said that before, but let's say it again! It always makes me laugh, but also makes me smile, because it makes me wonder what kind of person you are and I always imagine you as a very interesting, humorous person with sarcasm.
Megalicious Moony: It's funny that we're reading each other's stories, but then again it helps us both, right? Lol…And I've finished my novel! Now I just need to edit it!
Evil Farie Queen: Thanks for the encouragement I've finished it now! Lol…hope you like this chapter just as much.
JadeLilyMalfoy: Hi! You're another frequent reviewer…I always recognise these names! Thank you for the cheerleading thing…you guys were so supportive that I just had to finish it on time!
Aseret Kitsune: Yes, the cat's gluttony! Did you expect that? If anyone's wondering, I'm trying to get a whole selection of characters… ghost, teacher, female, male, animal, Gryffindor, younger person, Slytherin… so that you guys realise that it's the whole school. However, you will realise that throughout my fics I never really love inventing new characters, so I've used ones that everyone is familiar with… or at least have heard of Thanks for your approval! I wrote extra fast because you guys were supporting me!
Psycho Rooster: your NAME made my day!
ScienceGeek101: Lol, updated. Yes, that was part of the reason for this fic! To warn you about the sins…
TheSecretCharacter: My writing's exquisite? I feel honoured. It's never been described that way before. And as a person I am hardly exquisite. I am clumsy, and I am disorganised, and I fall over things. Enough said.
Julia: Hi, um… I'd like to say thank you for the reviews, but I'll just say thank you for the first few. The thing is, I'm very sorry to say, that I update every 2 weeks and that I don't generally update faster for reviewers. If I can, I will. More reviews are nice, but they don't necessarily make me update since I would still update if there was only one person reviewing my work. Ever heard of the story of a beautiful dancer in a bar? Nobody came to watch her, but as soon as one person came and sat down, she danced as if she was dancing for a hundred people –in other words she was trying her best. I do that too. I never… well, usually never go over this time limit, but I don't update in two days. Or a week, since now I have exams and internal assessments in my school going on. I do author's notes for a reason –so please check them. Even if I usually just put excuses and things in them, sometimes there is just some useful information there. These are usually underlined, in bold, and in Italics to attract your attention to them just in case you don't want to read the rest of the crap I put up there. So yeah. But thank you for reviewing!
