Catching a Glimpse
The following morning, she woke up naked, but she was well-covered. The sheets felt weird on her bare skin, which was clean of course, but the mere concept of wearing nothing at all felt unsanitary. Marietta resolved to scourgify her sheets once out of her current predicament.
Ordinarily, she woke up before everyone else in the dorm to get a head start, but she could not very well get out of bed and just stand around naked, even if she could stand someone other than Cho seeing her in such a state. Even that was barely tolerable, and only because of the circumstances. Secondly, if she were to put on her uniform, there was no telling what would happen when her night gown reappeared. It went down much further than the skirt on her uniform, which was much higher than what she and her parents would have liked- her mother had written multiple letters to the Headmaster about lengthening the skirts to below the knee rather than just above, but each time her request was denied.
Aware that under the best of circumstances her night gown would be visible if she put on her uniform, she had no choice but to wait for it to appear so she could take it off. She truly had no idea what kind of time interval was in use, but there had to be some kind of upper bound to it, since Granger apparently did not just want her naked forever, and the approach of having her naked for three years would start running into the same problems.
"I'm heading to breakfast, Marietta," Cho said as she walked past.
"I'll meet you there, most likely. I'm... not feeling well at the moment." Her friend looked at the shape of her body through the sheets and nodded. She pulled them taut in response, wondering if anyone else noticed. She could not have anyone thinking that she slept naked. The other witches were mostly done getting ready, though some of them looked over in her direction.
"Should I take you to the Hospital Wing?"
"That will not be necessary." It was better than saying she could not make it there, because the next thing to suggest was bringing the school's Healer to the dormitory. She supposed there were worse ways of proving she was cursed, since Madam Pomfrey had almost certainly seen hundreds of nude bodies before. Though it was not always necessary to strip the patient, since things like broken bones could be diagnosed without being seen and fixed magically, they still had to study anatomy when they were going through training, which she understood to be rather extensive.
She agonized over it a moment before reaching into her bag and getting a book out, hoping people would pay less attention to her if she were doing something other than just sitting there waiting for them to leave. Unfortunately, she revealed in the process that her arms were bare, which was probably an unexpected sight. Putting her nose in the book and waiting as her face went red, she decided that it would have been the same had she gone for her wand and levitated the book on top of her.
Keeping up the effort of reading until everyone was gone, she was definitely going to have to skip breakfast if she wanted to be on time, but that was tolerable. She found she did not at all like the feeling of the sheets against her nipples, which had become more sensitive with the window open. Still in bed as time ticked away, she felt trapped and helpless, looking around for anything that might get her out of her predicament. The only way, of course, was to have the curse removed, but she had no idea what kind of curse it was in the first place.
Throwing off the sheets as soon as her nightgown reappeared, she took it off and immediately put her uniform on. Fortunately, she had most of her books in order, so going to her first class required no further delay. Keeping her cloak in her school bag, she hoped she could throw it on at a moment's notice, but it was a longshot anyway. All through Charms she could concentrate on nothing other than the possibility of her clothes disappearing, her hand over her bag so she could grab her cloak all the more quickly.
Unable to do more than absently take notes with her remaining hand in her first class, she resolved to do better in her next few, though her stomach was starting to growl. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, she hoped she would at least have a modicum of sympathy from the professor because she turned in the Defense Association, though the teacher did no more than acknowledge her presence as she might have any other student. Marietta concluded that it was because her help was limited to discovering the location of the practices, and she had been of little assistance in terms of getting Potter convicted.
"That's what really should have happened anyway. Of course he was going up against the chance of going to Azkaban- he was breaking the law, and getting everyone else to join in. It was only a matter of time before the situation progressed."
Her next few classes before lunch were a blur, since she found herself enjoying the food more than normal, though of course she did not make a show of it. She would not want anyone asking her why she deemed it necessary to miss breakfast. On her way to Arithmancy, she suffered some rude looks from other former members of the criminal organization, but they did nothing to her.
"Granger must have told them that I was already being punished," she said to no one in particular. "Well, I am, and it's too much already."
The challenge came in Transfiguration. Taking no chances, she took a seat in the back and placed her schoolbag on the desk in front of her, as if to block what she was writing. Professor McGonagall was having them write advanced properties of materials that could not be transfigured, an appropriate topic for the sixth year. That was about when her clothes vanished.
Containing her panic, she fumbled with her schoolbag, getting her cloak out and putting it on right away, hoping that her clothes would appear as soon as possible, and under the cloak rather than on top of it. Marietta actually impressed herself with how quickly she moved all things considered, and looking around the front of the room, it seemed nobody noticed, least of all the instructor. She was still mortified at the thought that she was sitting there with only a cloak on, but it could have been infinitely worse.
Looking to her left, it appeared she had been noticed by none other that Roger Davies, who had a habit of leaning back in his chair. He stared at her slack-jawed, and she instantly went red, hanging her head. She found herself wishing he would fall out of his chair.
"I can't say it's the curse. I can't say it's the curse. I can't say it's the curse," she muttered under her breath, returning to taking notes with a free hand. She could not very well leave the classroom without her clothes; it was inevitable that someone would notice at that point. Steeling herself, she would just have to explain it to him the following day, but she would probably refrain unless he went around telling people. The very thought of that horrified her. There would be no way of proving she had not been naked in class, so all she would have is her excuse of having been cursed.
To make matters worse, if Davies told people, Granger might not remove the curse at all.
"Roger," she whispered. "Roger-"
"What?" he whispered back.
"Stay after class a moment."
"Sure, anything."
She nearly made herself dizzy rolling her eyes. It was not as if she wanted to see him for any reason other than convincing him not to say anything. It was doubtful that he had seen much in the first place, but he was a young wizard, so a mere glimpse of her side would probably send him to a fervor. Judged proportionately, she should probably be commending his restraint, but she could not bring herself to do it. She still wished it had been another witch who would have seen her; at least then she could expect little in the way of a reaction.
When class let out, her clothes mercifully restored themselves and she took off her cloak, putting it back in her bag. The wizard of her same House came over to her desk as she packed her things.
"Hi," he said. "That was a bit of a neat trick."
"How much did you see?"
"Enough to know what was going on. What spell did you use? I must say, it looks useful." Her eye stems threatened to twist themselves in knots.
"Of course it would," she responded, deciding to pass it off as an accident, since he seemed to think she knew a denuding charm and used it on herself. "I don't intend to tell you... unless you can keep it secret long enough for me to perfect it and promise not to use it on me."
"Deal."
Marietta hoped her conditions for the agreement would make the idea of it seem more believable, and it appeared to work. Shrugging her shoulders at the simple-minded, easily manipulated wizard as he left class, she went to her last class of the day, Ancient Runes, where she did not expect to have to worry about her clothes disappearing. Surprisingly, they vanished as soon as she turned a corner, seeing only a red-haired witch at the other end as she jumped into a broom closet.
She had never used the school's facilities as a hiding place before, but she was grateful for them at the present moment, allaying her mortification at being seen naked. Even if the witch's vision were obstructed by her schoolbag, it was unmistakable that she was wearing nothing at all, even from that sort of distance. She hung her head with the greatest possible embarrassment. Not only was she trapped in a closet, where she could be discovered at any point by the school's beloved caretaker, she was probably going to be late for class. To be sure, she could get her cloak out of her bag, but then she would be walking through the castle wearing only a cloak- anyone would be able to see her feet, and deduce why she was holding it closed around her.
"I should have put my muggle clothes in my bag. It would not be the same as my proper uniform, but at least- no, skipping class is preferable. At least I can give an excuse for skipping class. I can say I was feeling under the weather." Telling the teachers about the curse after the fact would probably be a bad idea, since it would only prompt further revenge from former Defense Association members.
She waited and waited, but her clothes did not return. It seemed profoundly unfair that they were gone the moment after she regained them, but that was consistent with the design of the curse. Randomness was supposed to have surprises, after all. She could kick herself for not packing her muggle clothes, but Cho had already promised to try to speak with Granger about lifting the curse, and if she were absent from that meeting, both of them would be able to deduce a possible reason why. She did not pretend she had an absolute monopoly on being smart, after all.
There was a knock on the door.