A Memorable Tale

69 | SNEAK

The common room door opened and Marietta was led in by Professor McGonagall. Michael looked like he was about to get up and yell at her, but I put my arm in front of him. "Marietta?"

I stared at her - a hazy expression took over her features, like she was sleep walking with her eyes open. Cho stood, running up to her friend and muttering something before letting out a scream stifled by slapping her hand over her mouth.

She turned to me and I furrowed my brow, standing and stepping towards Marietta. "Marietta? Is something the matter?"

I gently took her by the wrists and Cho said quietly, "You can show Y/N... She's really smart, and she helps Madam Pomfrey sometimes, if anyone can help, she can!"

My brow furrowed even more as Marietta nodded hesitantly and lowered her collar. I recoiled, a breath getting caught in my throat as a collecting of boils on Marietta's face was revealed, spelling out the word SNEAK.

I cleared my throat. "It's okay... It's okay, I've got this. Boys, go to your dorms first. Marietta, you can come to mine for a bit. Is that okay?"

My roommates exchanged unsure looks before Mandy said, "Whatever you say, Y/N."

I led Marietta by the shoulder to our dorm, while Cho retreated to her own dorm.

Marietta sat on my bed and I breathed deeply. "Okay... Girls, you guys need to promise not to say anything, alright?"

When I nodded to her, Marietta lowered her collar and Mandy slapped her hand over her mouth, Sue took in a dramatic gasp, and Morag's eyes went wide. Only Padma and Lisa managed to conceal their horror.

"Alright, so most of these seem... fixable. How did this happen, exactly?"

"I... It just did, when I was telling Umbridge-"

"Right, got it," I interrupted when I noticed anger take over my roommates' features. "So, Hermione jinxed that paper, did she?"

It was brilliant, but Merlin, was it cruel. I thought Gryffindors were all about justice or something like that?

"Okay, I can figure out some sort of... counterjinx." I watched Marietta's eyes well with tears and I let out a heavy sigh. Maybe she just shouldn't have snitched.

I moved her rust coloured hair from her face, clipping it back with bobby pins that I had used the year before in my hair for the Yule Ball.

The rest of the night was spent trying to find something to fix Marietta's face, without ruining it even more. Morag stood to help, and, at some point, even Sue couldn't stand the unusual blemishes on Marietta's face and helped.

"All this is doing is taking away the pimples she already had," Sue exclaimed, throwing her bubotuber pus-covered hands in the air, then holding them out to Padma for her to clean.

I clicked my tongue. Hermione was much better at spells and jinxes than I was, let alone creating jinxes.

"I could try a spell I used on my owl when he knocked over a boiling pot of stew, but... Well, he's an owl."

Marietta pursed her lips, as if scared to say anything; scared to complain.

While I, admittedly, was partly glad that there was something to remind her of the betrayal, maybe nothing like this.

Justice was always relative. I'm sure that Harry, Hermione, Ron, and whoever else in the D.A. were convinced that Marietta deserved the boils on her face, but to Marietta and maybe Cho, I'm sure they believed that this kind of punishment was sinister.

I had spent a lot of my first, second, and third years in the hospital wing, watching Madam Pomfrey work her magic on those who entered, but no one had ever come in with such disfigurations.