Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. I'm not an Heron shipper, thank you very much.
A/N: My response to the "My sin, My virtue" challenge from cosmopolitan, here's the link to it: http://talk.portkey.org/index.php?showtopic=26784 Hope you will enjoy, and as usual if you read, please review, ok? Thanks! Oh, by the way, I think this could be considered a collection of one shots, everyone focusing on a different sin/virtue. Just so you know and aren't disappointed by the lack of continuity between the chapters, lol. Also, the chapters will feature a virtue, and then the opposing sin in the following chapter.
Thanks to my beta Gingercat!
The Seven Virtues And The Seven Sins
Chapter Six: Sloth
Harry Potter woke up, as usual for him by now, well past the sun was up in the sky. Yawning, he trudged to the bathroom, took a long shower, then lazily walked down the stairs of Grimmauld Place to the kitchen to prepare himself breakfast.
Imagine his surprise when he found his best friend of many years, Hermione Granger, already there and preparing coffee for him.
"Hermione! What a pleasure to see you here! I thought you had to work at this time of the morning" he greeted her, walking near the stove to help her.
She scoffed, and then finally turned to look at him, her brown eyes not warm as they used to be when she looked at him, but cold and angry.
"You don't even know what day is it, do you?" she hissed, and he ran a hand through his hair, thinking hard. It couldn't be her birthday because they were currently in May and her birthday was in September. Nor could it be his birthday, because he was born in July. They weren't a couple so it couldn't be their anniversary…
After a few minutes, he finally gave up. "Nope, I don't know what day today is. Care to enlighten me?" he said, snagging a cup of coffee from her hands.
Her outraged look almost made him laugh, but he was smart enough not to do that.
"It's Sunday, Harry, that is why I'm not at work!" she finally exclaimed, pouring another cup of coffee for herself. "For Merlin's sake, you don't even keep track of the week days, they are all the same for you, because you are always on holiday, no matter if it's a Monday, a Wednesday, or the weekend!" she screeched, slamming her cup on the table, and turning again to face him.
"What has happened to the Harry I knew?" she asked, almost sadly now. "It's been more than one year since the end of the war, Harry, and all of us are doing something. Ron is playing Quidditch for the Cannons, not the best profession out there if you ask me, but at least he's doing something, and he's happy with it. Ginny works at the Quibbler with Luna now that it has become a respectable publication. Neville is doing an internship with Professor Sprout to be able to take over her post next year, and I'm working at St. Mungo's as an healer. What about you?"
Harry rolled his eyes. It wasn't the first time she lectured him about his lack of a job. More than anything, the fact he didn't even try to find a job.
"I did what I had to do. Now it's time for me to have fun and do what I want, like I couldn't in my childhood and school years" he replied, taking a biscuit from the jar and then biting it.
Hermione sighed. He was almost as stubborn as her and to push something through that thick skull of his it would take a miracle.
"Look, Harry, I know that you never had a childhood to have fun and be carefree. But must I remind you that since we started school, none of us had that? Me and Ron were with you on everyone of your adventures, by choice, and still, we are working now. Ginny, Luna, everyone involved in the war, they all have a job. You don't have any looming danger over you, and that doesn't mean you should waste yourself like this" she said, before finishing her coffee and heading for the door.
Before leaving, she looked at him sadly, shook her head sighing. "I miss my best friend, Harry. I admired him, but this is not the Harry Potter I knew" she said, before Apparating away, defeated.
As he finished his breakfast, Harry pondered over the exchange he just had with her. Deep down, he knew she was right. She always was, he thought with a smile. So what was stopping him from following her advice and finding a job?
He had to admit more than one year without doing anything was starting to get boring. Sure, he could go out at night and not worry about waking up early the next morning, he could spend his time buying whatever he wanted and enjoying it, but was he really happy?
He didn't know. But there was something in Hermione's expression that morning that he had never seen. When she had gone, her eyes looked dull, like their flame had gone out. It was like she had given up and no longer had any faith in him and wasn't willing to fight to convince him anymore.
It scared him shitless, because Hermione's nagging, while a bit annoying at times, had been a constant in his life for so long now that he didn't know how to live without it. He didn't know how to live his life without her in it, but if she was so disappointed in him, she probably wouldn't want to spend time with him anymore.
He needed an objective point of view.
Hastily dressing, he Apparated to the Cannons training field. Ron was up there, flying and defending the goals. Harry couldn't help but smile. His friend was truly in his element. They were training on a Sunday because for the first time in a century the Cannons had reached the semi-finals of the Queen's Cup and they had the next match in a week against the Holy Harpies and they needed to be at their best.
He waited for the team to stop the practice to go have lunch, and when his redheaded friend landed, he went to clap his hand on his back.
"Good job up there, Ron" he said. His best mate beamed. "Harry, it's so good to see you, mate. We're going to crush them, I just know it"
"Don't be overconfident, Weasley" he teased his best friend as they went to grab lunch together.
As they ate, Harry told Ron about Hermione's visit that morning, and the effect it had on him.
"Tell me the truth, mate. Do you think I'm wasting my life?" Harry asked, serious.
Ron sighed. "Honestly, Harry, yes, you are. You could do anything, anything really, Quidditch, Auror, healer, whatever you want to do, you can. You've always been a bit lazy, don't get offended but it's the truth, but I've always thought you had the brains to give Hermione a run for her money, if you really wanted to study. It's just, you never did" Ron said. "Mostly because I distracted you, I admit" he joked then, "but seriously, Harry, don't just let time pass and consume you in that old house. Having a job is part of living, and if you don't do it…well, you're not really living, just existing"
--
It was Thursday morning, and like all week days, Hermione had set her alarm at half past six so that she could be at the hospital at half past seven. So when she heard pounding on her door, she wondered if maybe her alarm had gone off without her noticing. Checking her watch, she groaned. Who in the world was pounding on her door at six o'clock in the morning?
"Coming!" she sleepily shouted, as she groggily walked toward the main door of her flat.
When she opened it, she was surprised to find herself staring into the green eyes of no one else than Harry Potter, grinning madly at her.
"Harry, what are you doing here at this hour?" she asked, letting him in.
"I did it, Hermione! I found a job. Took me some days to get it finalized, but I've been accepted into the Law Enforcement Department at the Ministry. Not really the Auror ranks as I think I've had enough catching bad guys to last me a lifetime, but I'll be in the section of the Ministry working on applying the laws and proposing new ones" he explained.
She squealed, hugging him tight. She even felt a couple tears of joy escape her eyes. When she finally pulled back, Harry noticed them, and gently brushed them away.
"You were right, I was wasting my life in that house, but what really got me was seeing your expression as you left the other day. It really pulled at my heart how you seemed to have lost your will to fight to convince me, like you seemed to have lost your faith in me, and I wanted to show you I'm still someone you can be best friends with and be proud of"
"Oh, Harry" she said, shaking her head, but still smiling. "It's not for me, it's for you that you need to do this"
Grinning mischievously, Harry bent down and kissed her, surprising her. She didn't protest though, her arms moving to circle his neck as she responded to his kiss, their tongues meeting each other for the first time, exploring, as sensations flooded through them, powerful and new, better than anything they had ever experienced before.
"Let's say I'm doing this for us" he whispered against her lips once they parted, before claiming her lips again.
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