THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
CHAPTER 12: SLOTH ACEDIA I
Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is corrupted unless it moves.
Ovid
Harry sighed, as he stared into incredibly familiar pale, pale white. It didn't take a genius to know where he was, and although he didn't exactly absorb knowledge like Hermione seemed to do, he did know where he was.
He was in the infirmary.
He'd broken his left arm and left leg when he'd fallen out of a tree. It had been so fragmented that Pomfrey had to do what Lockhart had done accidentally: dissappear the bone and grow it back again. Normally Harry wasn't careless –and this, though it wasn't normal, was not a freak accident of Harry's clumsiness. Harry and Draco's relationship had gone public for a while now; and the Slytherins had finally found out that the relationship was actually going to last. That it was not one of Draco's tricks to get a lay and then to get more information about Pansy. It wasn't even about getting his revenge on Potter at last. It was about a pure relationship –and once the Slytherins got hold of that piece of information, the house had been divided.
The majority still supported Draco. However, there was still a minority that did not, and this was the group that had attacked Draco that afternoon.
Yes, Draco. Not Harry.
Harry and Draco had been sitting on a tree the minute that they had heard the hex flying their way. The Incendio had been aimed at Draco, but thankfully, Harry had pushed him out of the way, towards the trunk, and the hex had flown clear, burning a small patch of rather dry grass.
Harry however, had not been so fortunate. He had knocked himself clear off the tree in his (successful) attempt to save Draco, and had landed on his left side.
Draco, who had been completely furious, had wasted no time in binding the three fifth-years and calling Snape. The Potions Master, upon seeing Harry, had summoned a bed, placed Harry onto it, and levitated it to the infirmary –where he was now.
While Harry had been there, he'd thought about many things –as he had been commanded by Madame Pomfrey to stay in the ward until he had regrown his bones back.
And the few things he had covered had centered themselves around the incidents in the past seven weeks, including the rather uncomfortable feeling he had had the week before they had started. For some reason he had not got rid of the feeling that something important had happened that night…
And it had been strange that the day before that, everyone had apparently had the same dream…
And he wondered about the effects that the victims actually were in. They had only seemed changed in one aspect, one aspect that they were each completely obsessed on –it was almost as if they were still the same person –yet not; and this made everything all the more scary.
Today was Tuesday and today's victim hadn't appeared yet…Harry and the others were in so much suspense that they were shaking –they all agreed that it was better just to know.
Then the bone in his arm started growing back, and he stopped thinking, gritting his teeth in pain. Madame Pomfrey had told him to get her as soon as he'd started growing the arm back, but he realized that she'd probably forgotten he couldn't get out of the bed to wake her. She had been working all day, and the previous night had not warded her any sleep. Casting a Sonorous on himself with his right arm, he started calling for help.
Nobody came.
He tried again.
Still, nobody came.
In fact, nobody came until the whole thing had ended and he was sitting on the bed with a perfectly fine set of limbs.
Just as he was contemplating the speed of Skele-grow, the door to the infirmary slammed open, and something pale pummeled into his uninjured side. He did not lose his nerve. He knew very well what, or rather, who the human cannonball had been.
"Are you crazy?" Draco shrieked at him loudly. Harry winced –he'd never in his life heard Draco so high-pitched before, and his ears were certainly not used to it.
"What did you think you were doing, jumping in front of a curse like that? You were lucky you just broke a few bones! You could have been long gone, a leftover piece of charcoal!"
Draco pulled Harry's red and gold tie towards him, eyes glinting rather dangerously.
"Or maybe you consider yourself lucky? Maybe you actually have a fetish to being barbequed hmm? Maybe next time I'll just roast you over the fire instead of getting it on with a make-out session!" Draco yelled, his voice getting louder and louder, to the point where it was almost screaming.
"I wouldn't like that," said Harry, matter-of-factly.
"Then why did you do it, you blundering brainless squib!" yelled Draco.
"I had to do it," said Harry tenderly. "They were going to burn you alive, and I couldn't just let that happen."
Draco stared at him. Then, as if by magic himself, he deflated, sitting down on the bed and hugging Harry fiercely, grasping the dark strands on Harry's head. "Don't you ever bloody do that again, because I swear if you do, I will lock you into a cell and proceed to go out on a massacre on anyone who even thinks about insulting you!"
Harry only smiled, kissing Draco on his hair, then his nose, then his cheeks. As he finally placed a kiss on the mouth, he stood, and the remembered.
"Hey, I'm going to go check on old Pomfrey, okay? She didn't answer just now…" Harry said, frowning a little. Draco nodded, still a little dazed at the attention the Gryffindor had bestowed upon him.
Harry smiled fondly, then went towards the healer's office. Seeing the healer lying face down, her body seemingly in sleep, he tried shaking her so as to wake her, to no avail.
Five minutes later, and Harry was starting to get rather anxious.
"Madame Pomfrey! Wake up!" Harry said, starting to get rather worried; the Healer was not usually this tired. And she normally woke up in an instant when Harry called her.
Panicking, as a certain thought struck him, he lifted the sleeve away from the Healer's hand, searching the wrist for a pulse frantically. Finding it, he breathed a little more loosely, then shook his head.
"She's not waking up," said Harry, in terrible realization.
Quickly flooing Dumbledore, he looked at the still body of the healer. Deciding to check her eyes to make sure that she was still alive, he could not stop a sharp gasp as he saw not the usual blue twinkling eyes of the healer.
But sharp dark indigo gaping at him placidly.
Their seventh victim, was Pomfrey.
Somehow, he thought that maybe suspense would have been better this time round.
Author's Note: I'm afraid that Goddess of Chaos is right. In a way, I did lie. I did not update every two weeks for a long time quite recently. However, you must know that I did not intend to do this intentionally. I have been promising you 'every two week's because I believed that I could do so. And I can do so. That is, without everything going wrong for me. Because of my rather wonky computer, my parents bought me a new one, and unfortunately that one didn't go any better. The completed chapter decided to delete itself, as well as a 12 chapter story that I had written for my friend's birthday. In order to re-do everything, including my coursework and homework, I have been unable to update every fortnight and I apologise to the people who believed in me when I said so. I truly did try to do it.
As it is, I shall continue to try doing so, however, if you do not see a chapter up in two weeks, you can be sure that unless I die, it will be up in less than a month. Even I can know that a computer problem cannot last a month.
Please know that I do not do these things on purpose!
Thanks for listening to a rather terrible authoress.
Replies to reviewers: JJCJ: My faithful reviewer, I apologise to you especially! You must have a time of it, reading both my Beyblade and my HP fics. I hope you do find those chapters of yours…I do enjoy reading your stories!
BlackNeonTears: Thank you. I am rather fond of Ron, as I have said before, and thus this is what has happened!
Katsy15: Yes, they finally got together, didn't they!
Persephone-butterfly: No, I hate those stories where everything is a big dream. And it does linger; even now I still feel it in my system, but technically I'm fine. The doctors say I'll never fully get rid of it anyway –at least, as long as I continue to live in Hong Kong of all places! I apologise for making it so late…but you've heard too much of that already.
Dark Angel's Blue Fire: Thank you for the compliment, I truly appreciate it.
JadeLilyMalfoy: And I have to apologise yet again! I feel like such a terrible author…thank you for being so accepting!
Evil Farie Queen: Yes, I am feeling much better –although all my friends have fallen sick! Why on earth are you apologizing to me of all people? I should be apologizing to you!
Julia: Yes, aren't you glad they got together though? It was really anticlimical, but I wanted to keep it sweet.
Goddessofchaos: I'm sorry that you're mad at me. I hope it lessens the blow that I did actually have a reason in doing so: I have slept at 1 every day for the past week just to do everything in time and to get this fic up so that it was only late by one week! If you don't believe me, you may ask Only Secret: she's the friend I did the 12-chapter HrD fic for (I was betraying my favorite couple; it seemed so unfaithful) but thank you for the review.
