«You dumb idiot, do you think that going against my plan would somehow make you feel superior? Is that it? You jealous piece of shit, do you think that screwing me over would finally give you validation about your fake existence.»
Quinn(Envy) chuckled with the voice in his head and walked towards the Astronomy Tower while keeping an eye on the destination through the windows in the way that would show him the view of the Dark Mark.
«Pathetic. Ugh, I never thought that something so pathetic would rise from me. I was fine with the Sins that came before you, but you're the worst, most disgusting part of me amplified.»
Quinn injected the magic and activated Recon with the voice password. Under his command, the map came to life and interfaced what Hogwarts fed to it.
«What, no words? You were spouting all that nonsense just before, what happened... oh, wait a minute, do you not know to speak because it's your first time having a body? How piti—.»
Quinn smirked when the voice went silent as if the plug on a spinning record player had been pulled, making it come to a screeching halt. He glanced at Recon and began listing out names:
"Albus Dumbledore.... Minerva McGonagall.... Filius Flitwick.... Pomona Sprout.... Severus Snape.... Lily Potter.... Septima Vector...."
He was still on time. The professors were all in their rooms, and from the looks of it, they weren't shuffling around, which meant that they hadn't woken up yet, except for Snape, who was already on his way to the Astronomy tower. Dumbledore was also out of his room, moving towards the Astronomy Tower.
'Did he not send the message to them?' Quinn thought, scoffing. 'Overconfident old fool—.'
«You dare use my own magic against me.»
Quinn's steps halted, squeaking against the marble, with Recon momentarily staggering in the air.
«If you don't remember, let me rem—.... remind you, I was the one who found how to block all your voices, so of course, I know how to get around it.»
His hand tightened into a fist. He clicked his tongue and started walking again.
«Do you think not talking to me will help you keep control? Come on, don't fool yourself. You will have to confront me, just as I was forced to confront you. You hurried over to meet, so don't go avoiding me now.»
Quinn tapped his feet on the floor and cracked his knuckles as the voice continued to blare in his head, berating him, insulting him in every word and sentence. The voice was so loud and constant that it occupied his mind and grew to the point that it got difficult to even keep a line of thought.
He stomped his foot on the floor with a snarl on his face. He descended into the soulscape and found himself in the dull space. Green-Quinn's pupils narrowed when he saw that the walls were no longer completely black, and parts of the walls were now getting diffused into four colors.
When he turned his eyes to the center of the room, his apprehension grew when he saw that the black Soul now had a golden glow.
"Where... ?" Green-Quinn frowned when he couldn't see Quinn by the Soul's side.
It was then a voice whispered into his ear, "Like what you see? I guess someone upgraded my jail cell."
Green-Quinn jumped away and turned started to see Quinn, who had just been standing behind him. "What do you want?" Green-Quin asked.
"You know what I want," said Quinn, walking towards the Soul, "the correct question here is how to go on about what I want."
"What do you mean?"
"Today's an important day for us— yes, us— and I can't allow your petty behavior to ruin it, so I'll give you two choices. One is that you follow my plan and don't intervene; in return, I give you some time to play around before the time inevitably comes that you vanish," Quinn continued despite the sneer from his green counterpart. "The second option is that you relinquish control over to me, and we bid goodbye here on amicable terms."
"... What kind of fool do you think I am," Green-Quinn spat, "there's no plus for me in either of those options— if I'm going to disappear—"
"Not if, when."
"— Shut up! As I was saying, if I'm going to disappear, which I'm not, I would make rather make your life difficult than before I leave."
"What is your problem with Dumbledore?" Quinn asked suddenly.
"Err... what?" Green-Quinn blinked in surprise, losing the snide remark he was about to throw out.
"You're my personification of envy; that much is clear from your behavior. So the next question that rises up here is where you stem from. Pride stemmed from the arrogant view that I was better than others; Sloth was a poor amplification physical laziness; Wrath came from the characteristics of my anger.... so where do you come from."
Green-Quinn's eyes turned somber, and his mouth stayed silent.
"Envy is the sin of jealousy over the benefits and achievements of others. It's interesting because I thought my pride would be enough to stifle out envy because of its origin, but here you're, standing in front of me... so it makes me wonder where did you come from? There are only a few people I have ever felt genuine envy towards.
There's Mr. Alan for his sheer natural talent for mind magic; I could only imagine what that'd feel like, but after getting so much of his help, yeah, I only have respect for him now. Architect is a short petty man, but what about the other Cursed Vault creators— I've thought for hours on hours on how the Icy Vault's creator managed to create and store Absolute Zero, or how the Aquatic Vault's creator managed to record those memories in the water along with the healing factor, but that sort of... eh, they're dead, so there's no need to envy them.
Who remains? Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore... I'm not envious of his name, that's for sure. But I remember feeling part-appreciation part-envy about the influence that he has built over the people of this country, or that he was trained by THE Alchemist Nicholas Flamel himself, or the knowledge he must've crammed in that head of his, or how he can move around freely, whereas I have to carefully step about— yes, it was because I made it so— but still, there have been times I have been seen him as a target of my envy.... tell me, do you hate Dumbledore that much?"
Quinn stared at Green-Quinn, measuring his expressions. The personification of envy had been aggressively hostile towards, much more than the ones before him, and given the current situation, it wasn't optimal to have such a hindrance.
"I'm not envious of Dumbledore," said Green-Quinn, his sharp eyes glaring at Quinn. He raised his hand and pointed at Quinn, "All of this is because of you!"
"Me?" Quinn asked in confusion and surprise.
"Us Sins are based on you, birthed from your personality qualities, and because of the curse, those qualities were amplified and twisted, making us inherently flawed entities. Even if we are able to seal you away, we will not be able to live full lives. Pride wouldn't have been able to show vulnerability or be humble; Sloth would've at some point stopped growing; Wrath's life would've derailed at some point, sooner rather than later," Green-Quinn glared as if trying to burn holes into Quinn.
"And I'd never be able to happy in the happiness of my loved ones— my flawed existence would never be able to see others doing good, and I would have no way to fix it... do you think that's an enjoyable way to live? I hate you because you're the reason I'm like this. If you just had left the Sin Vault alone, I would've never been created and would've never had to experience the sheer bleakness that's ahead of me.
But you know what? I will stay true to my nature. If I can't have a good time, I will not allow you to have one either. As long as I'm here, I will make your life miserab—"
Green-Quinn's eyes widened as his words died in his throat. He looked down and saw a golden blade striking out from his abdomen. He shakily turned back his head and saw that the blade had come out of the Soul, and he could see the flimsy blade crumble away as the darkness of the Sin curse immediately re-covered the golden part that had been able to break free.
"I am sorry," said Quinn, all the previous hostility gone. "Yes, it was my fault that you were born, and if only I stayed away, none of this would've happened. I realize that stabbing you in the back isn't the best way to deal with you, and I could've done much better, but I'm sorry, the current situation has me on a time crunch, and this is the only way I could think off."
Green-Quinn saw the area around 'wound' turn into a fluorescent green with small petal-sized chunks flying away as the green spread. He looked up at Quinn and tightly shook his head with complex emotions, mostly anger and rage.
"Fuck you, I hope Greed completely takes over, and you never see the light of the day." With that, he disappeared like those before him.
Quinn stared at the spot where Green-Quinn had stood for a moment before he looked up at his Soul.
'How did I do that?' he thought about the sudden blade.
He had been training his Soul ever since he had laid his hand on the Resurrection Stone. He was able to conjure a shield around his Soul, which had protected him from getting instantly being controlled by the curse, and that was before he had shortly trained under Alan, which had allowed him to better utilize what power he had built. And if he could conjure a shield, he could also conjure a sword.
But soul offense was different from soul defense as one could mostly only practically use it if the attack could be transmitted out to the targets, who were usually not in the soulscape, and Quinn hadn't grown his Soul to the point where he could transmit outside... so he hadn't gone into offense.
He hadn't learned how to conjure a sword, even if it could only stay within the soulscape.
He had just done it, and it had unnaturally natural.
Quinn shook his head and decided to move on. There was work to do. He closed his eyes and invoked the magic he had his control on. After getting rid of Pride, Sloth, and Wrath, he regained some control over his magic, which had again increased now that Envy was also defeated, and was sure it would continue to grow as he continued to beat the remaining Sins.
He breathed out, and when he opened his eyes, he was back in control of his body.
'I should have some time,' Quinn thought. He had gotten rid of more than half of the seven, which did give him more control, or at least he thought/felt so.
He glanced at Astronomy Tower before looking at Recon, and he could already see that Dumbledore and Snape were closing in on the Astronomy Tower, and the other professors were also shuffling in their rooms. He was also sure that the Aurors were already notified by someone in Hogsmeade, and one of the professors, most probably McGonagall, would let them in on their arrival.
"I need to hurry," he said and started to run through the hallways.
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Quinn West - MC - Four of seven.
FictionOnlyReader - Author - I am happy with my version of Envy. It could've worked with Wrath as well, but I think I liked it on Envy.
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