The dilemma
The defeat of the tyrant Tom Riddle was celebrated for weeks. The man himself had appeared in the Great Hall of Hogwarts during the Welcoming Feast by use of a PortKey, duelled with Harry Potter and was soundly defeated. The victory was aided by Severus Snape having alerted the Order of the Phoenix of the Dark Wizards machinations, allowing the entire Order and many seventh and sixth years to be present, with the younger years being kept away by the Hogwarts Express being delayed a few hours. The Death Eaters, who had attempted to PortKey in along with their leader, had been magically diverted into ministry holding cells, ensuring that the evil wizard was alone in the confrontation.
It was not the glorious battle that Dumbledore had envisioned for Harry, what with 50 or so witches and wizards firing spells at the megalomaniac, but Harry had got in the parting shot that finished him.
Nevertheless, Dumbledore was fretting. Riddle had cast an unknown spell just prior to his downfall, and no matter how many times he reviewed the memory in his Pensieve, Dumbledore could not hear what was said when it was cast. He was worried. There was no way that the spell cast was harmless; it was common sense to realise that a cornered animal will fight to the death, and Tom Riddle had been the proverbial cornered animal. The discharge from the spell had been a poisonous coloured green that had seeped into the very foundations of the school. He resigned himself to seeking others memories of the event to see if theirs were clearer than his own.
A week of studying the memories of those who had been present at the final battle had unearthed a result. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger had both heard the same casting words; omnis mortilus sin super illud intus, or in English 'all mortal sins upon those within'.The other memories had heard hissing, but due to their being further away from the caster, the words had not imprinted upon their memories.
It was grim indeed. A senior staff meeting had been called, and Dumbledore was awaiting the arrival of his teachers.
Minerva entered first, as always hoping to get an inkling of what was to be discussed, Filius and Pomona followed, and Severus arrived the moment the clock struck the hour.
"Can we get on with this Headmaster? I have potions to make and papers to grade." Severus said impatiently.
"Very well Severus, be seated and I will explain. You all know that Tom Riddle cast an unknown spell before his defeat, yes?" Filius and Pomona nodded, but Minerva frowned and Severus scowled.
"You have yet to return our memories." Severus intoned testily.
"Ah! I apologise. Here, I have them in my Pensieve." He said, reaching into a drawer for the large stone basin. The memories were returned, and when everyone was seated again, he continued.
"I have gathered other memories besides yours, and now know the spell that was cast. Riddle said 'omnis mortilus sin super illud intus'."
There were looks of understanding and then confusion upon the faces of his staff, and Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, roughly translated it is 'all mortal sins upon those within'. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem. The seven cardinal sins of Catholicism have been inflicted on Hogwarts." He continued.
There were further looks of confusion from three of the teachers, only Severus, who was raised in the Muggle world, seemed to understand. He explained it to them impatiently.
"In Catholicism, it is said that there are a number of sins that when committed, damage the soul and guarantee Eternal Damnation in Hell. Only by actively practicing the opposing virtues and purification by a priest will cleanse the soul and allow passage into heaven."
Dumbledore nodded in agreement, but was pleased by the extra information Severus had given. He had found little reference to ridding people of the sins, so Severus had just offered him an alley to explore to save their damned souls.
"Severus is correct, but I am unsure of how to lift this curse for the moment. I will research more into this, but that does not help us now. It is possible that the personifications of these 'deadly sins' are corrupting the students. For their safety, we must find out who they are; their very souls are in danger."
"But, what are we looking for Albus?" Minerva asked.
"The seven sins are known as; Greed, Envy, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Lust and Gluttony." He replied.
"But Albus," Pomona intervened, "I could point out that everyone I know shows at least two of those. How on earth are we supposed to find them?" Filius nodded in agreement.
"For the unfortunate seven that are affected, they will most likely have already had a high level of one of the traits before the casting. But now, after a month of festering, I predict that the traits will have taken over, and should be relatively easy to spot. If you think you have identified one of the affected, we must act and possibly isolate them."
"I bet Potter is Pride." Severus said nastily.
Minerva looked over at him with a glare. "Have you not seen the poor boy recently Severus? He's so cut up about what he had to do, he's barely functioning. Even Poppy doesn't know what to do."
"Well if I'd defeated the Dark Lord, I'd be dancing for bloody joy." Severus sneered.
"Not all of us are like you Severus. Now that is everything for now, I'll let you know what I find." Dumbledore concluded.
Hermione Granger sat at the Gryffindor table at breakfast revising for the N.E.W.T's. Although they were 10 months away, she wanted the best grades she could. She was reading up on the necessary wand movements when transfiguring a small object into something much larger, when a greasy piece of fried egg-white flopped onto the text before her. Outraged, she looked up at Ron Weasley who sat opposite her, and was inwardly disgusted at the manners he obviously lacked. He was practically inhaling everything within his reach, and showed no sign of stopping. This wasn't a recent occurrence as Ron had always lacked table manners, despite Mrs Weasley's attempts to drill them into him; but the vigour he showed towards anything ingestible had shown a marked increase over the past month.
"Hungry Ron?" she commented with a sneer, vanishing the grease on her previously pristine textbook.
He nodded, mouth bulging with half-chewed food and attempted to speak, but it came out as "arbim. A cub eeb a hibborbiff." He practically sprayed her with food, so she cast a mild shielding charm to protect herself from the assault.
Hermione looked towards Harry for support, but he just looked at her depressively. Madam Pomfrey had said he had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that he hadn't come to terms with killing Voldemort. Recently it seemed he had a raincloud following him around everywhere, and had even tried to quit the Quidditch Team, despite being its Captain for only a month. Luckily, McGonagall had stepped in with the belief that keeping active was better for him than mouldering in Gryffindor Tower, and so Harry was forced to keep participating.
Hermione did empathise with him, remembering the depression that she had suffered with after the Department of Mysteries fiasco, but she couldn't help but feel that Harry was overdoing it a bit. He had defeated the most evil man in modern times and had avenged the death of his parents; and yet they had to drag him out of bed every morning, set clean robes out for him, and put the food on his plate. Ron had even had to help him shower this morning, annoyed as he had been that Harry had delayed him getting to breakfast.
Ginny arrived, and despite the ample space next to Hermione, she slipped into the tiny gap between Ron and Harry, practically plastering herself against the melancholy 'Boy Who Conquered'. She looked on with distaste when Ginny began hand-feeding Harry, giving him small nibbling kisses between bites.
War affects everyone in different ways, she told herself whilst looking sadly at her friends.
Dumbledore looked out sombrely at the dining students. Logic told him that he couldn't have prevented the spell being cast; nevertheless he felt an immense guilt at endangering his students further. Severus' comment of Harry most likely channelling Pride had struck a nerve within him. If anyone deserved peace, it was Harry Potter, and the fact that his soul could be bound for Eternal Damnation filled him with fear.
He looked over at the boy and sighed when he saw him slumped over the table.
Thinking of the problem of actually identifying the affected students, common sense told him that the easiest of the sins to spot should be Gluttony, which made it ideal to view the students at breakfast. But no one student stood out at being particularly more gluttonous than another. In fact he could see a number of students whom seemed to be abnormally ravenous today. He made a note of them, and then settled to eat his breakfast.