Weaving a Web
Reading the books she had picked up in the library the following day, she was glad that it was the weekend and there were no classes for her to skip. It was harder than one might have thought to learn advanced magic with the self-study approach, but that was all that was available to her at the moment. She resolved to go to her Apparition lessons whenever the Ministry instructor came, but while at Hogwarts the skill would be of limited use. She doubled down on the Disillusionment Charm.
She found Roger Davies, or rather, he found her in the common room, about when her cloak disappeared.
"Whoa, where did your cloak go?"
"I'm still perfecting the spell," she whispered. "Can we talk about this in private?"
"Sure." They walked out to a broom closet in the corridor. A younger witch passed them by as they stepped out, sparing her from having to answer the riddle. She felt all her underthings disappear, which was upsetting, but not the worst of circumstances. Getting in the broom closet, it seemed the Quidditch player had a few questions.
"It's not really a spell you're perfecting, is it?" he asked. "I mean, whatever it is, you can tell me about it."
"Oh, no, it is, I just have to test it on myself."
"That makes sense. I can see why other people wouldn't want you to test it on them. Why would you do it in class, though?"
"Well, people rarely look over in my direction in class. Besides, sometimes I'm so far ahead that I get bored. It's better than consuming free time." From his expression it seemed like he believed her. "Anyway, there was a question I wanted to ask you."
"Yes?" he asked, looking a little uncertain.
"How much did you see that time?"
"Well... it was only for a moment. It was enough to know you were naked. Don't worry too much about that."
"No, I need to know... for the spell," she lied. "Did you, by any chance, see my breasts?"
"Not really. I really didn't have the angle, I confess. I'm sure it would have rightly embarrassed you either way. Mum used to say that witches who let me see them like that just weren't worth my time. Not worth anyone's time, really. I think I'd have enjoyed a look, though, so it's a shame."
"Yes, but, well, there are some people who don't believe my spell works."
"Might just be best to use it on them."
"They wouldn't agree to that. I mean, you wouldn't agree to be hit with an unknown spell, would you?" He shrugged, making her wonder how much more difficult he could possibly make it. "Anyway, I said that you saw me naked one time, and now they're not sure I'm telling the truth."
"I mean, why do you even have to prove it to them?"
"They're... rivals of mine," she lied. It was a wonder Granger's curse allowed her to lie about her circumstances. In the worst case, if she were suddenly naked in front of everyone, she could just blame her for removing her clothes on the spot, not by using some complicated curse. It was not as if she wanted to exploit that particular loophole, but convincing Davies that she had a spell that could do just that would lend credit to her accusation.
"Oh, I see. Have they been working on a spell that does the same thing?" he asked. Marietta knew she was going to get caught if she spun enough of a web.
"I presume so, though they may deny it. I had no intention to reveal it myself until..."
"Right. Well, what do you want me to do about it?" he asked.
"Well, you know Cho, right? She's on the Quidditch team?" He was nodding slowly. "Well, she and I got caught up in the rebel student group before I eventually extricated us from the situation. The trouble is, they're the ones who are my rivals on this little project."
"Weird. I wouldn't have thought you'd want anything to do with them."
"I didn't want to, not really, I just have to prove a point. I'm... someone who has to prove things. I'm someone who wants to win."
"Oh, that explains it. So I need to tell them that I've seen you naked and that's it?"
"Well, they may not believe you if you just said it. They may require... a description. Nothing too extensive, since they would expect you to only have a glimpse..."
"No, I get it. They might have thought we were in on it. Foolish of them, really, I never participate in any student organizations."
"Of course, they're quite foolish, to be sure..." She wondered why her clothes had not disappeared yet. She was without her underthings, again, which was becoming a common occurrence, but if she ever wanted her shirt to disappear, it was at the present, and then never again. "Could you, um, turn around a moment?" she asked. He did so and she started unbuttoning her shirt, figuring he had already guessed what was coming next. She had to be sure he would pass their little test, after all. "Okay, now you can look."
Marietta closed her eyes as she presumed she was being ogled. It felt awful, of course, but there was nothing at all to be done about it. Like searchlights she could feel his hungry eyes go over her bare skin.
"Shall I turn 'round now?" she opened her eyes to see he was still looking the other way.
"Yes, please," she said quietly, trying not to sound annoyed.
"Merlin, those are some nice tits, you know." She swelled with what was most certainly not pride as he stared, and it was even worse than she imagined it. She nearly died just thinking about his gross eyes darting around in their sockets as they beheld what should always be kept hidden, under no circumstances shown to anyone, least of all a wizard. She found her feet moving closer and closer together as he stared.
"Do you think you have a good enough idea yet?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know, I mean, if you were ever wondering why we blokes can't seem to get enough of knockers, it's because we can't remember them longer than thirty seconds or so, not unless we get a good look." He moved his whole head closer, sending a jolt up her spine. Marietta had never felt so exposed. She was positive she would never feel this exposed again. The moment the curse was removed... "Should be about enough. Anyway, I'll see you later," he said, walking out of the broom closet before she had a chance to get her shirt buttoned again.
Somehow the experience had been infinitely worse than it would have been had her shirt simply disappeared, since that at least would be totally out of her hands- the very idea of taking it off herself would have been unthinkable a week ago. The only thing that made it even remotely negotiable was the curse.
"That horrid Granger!" she cursed, no one around to hear her. "The moment I discover how she created that curse for me, I shall create an infinitely more complicated curse for her." Going back to the dormitory, where she resumed reading her books, she dedicated herself to the books on dark magic. Ordinarily, she was completely against using such resources, but she was only administering the justice that her targets had escaped by some clever trickery of their former Headmaster.
Steadily improving her understanding on the subject, the goal was to be able to cast the Imperius Curse perfectly, as an imperfect iteration would most likely result in the deed being traced back to her. She still had the books out for the Disillusionment Charm, but when Davies helped her get the curse removed, it would be more or less unnecessary.
Marietta shook her head. It would be necessary, just not in the way she had initially thought. Instead of hiding herself while in class, she could hide her efforts of getting revenge. She was relatively sure that someone under the curse would not remember the sound of her voice if she desired it, though for best results she was going after a solitary victim anyway. Of course, her main enemy always surrounded herself with allies, mostly wizards, so she would need some way of dragging her away from the rest. Cho would not fall for any trick she used and she would prefer not to use the curse on her, since she still liked to think of the two of them as friends, even as horrible as her friend had been to her.
The simplest thing to do would be to use it on a teacher, preferably one who had opposed Headmistress Umbridge, and use him or her to lure Granger out, where she would be cursed as well. Once she had her enemy under her control, she could enact any kind of revenge she wanted. Tossing around various ideas in her head, she decided to be merciful and proportionate and simply strip the witches in front of their 'friends', the wizards of the Defense Association. Once should be plenty, and of course the school would have no way of connecting it back to her. They would know she did it, of course, but enough of them would still be under the Imperius that it would be impossible for them to resist.
"That was a real mistake of the Ministry; they should have authorized the use of Unforgivables on students when they sent her here as the DADA teacher," she muttered to herself, still reading and taking notes on the spells she wanted to research. It was doubtful any of the other witches heard her, but her skirt picked right then to disappear on her, which was unimportant, as she had taken to studying in bed, but still worthy of note. Marietta wondered if the curse could detect that she was trying to take revenge, since it would relieve her of her embarrassment. Fortunately, though, her books had not disappeared.
Keeping track of where she was in her books, she decided against going downstairs to eat, even though she was hungry. Whether she liked it or not, she could undo the pain of not eating, but she could never undo the shame of showing everyone her rear, so that was decided. The moment her shirt vanished, as if to give her more reason, she threw the sheets the rest of the way over herself and kept reading.
"Were you up late again?" Cho asked as she walked in.
"No. You know why I'm under here," she whispered back.
"Oh, that's right. Not coming down, then?"
"Not until after you and Granger ask Davies what he saw. He's a bloke, so you had better act quickly, or else he'll forget."
"He's not that bad," her friend assessed. "I mean, neither are blokes in general. I think Goldstein is close to the top of his year-"
"Well, that was what he said."
"Really? I thought he just saw you from across the room. I didn't have any idea you had a whole conversation with him. I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere near him after he saw me naked."
"Well, I did and that's all there is to it. I said that some people would probably want to know what I looked like, and as impolite as it would normally be, under the circumstances it would be better to be honest."
"Oh, that makes sense," Cho decided. "What are you reading?"
"Curses had me interested, so I'm doing research on them. It should give me some idea of what's going on with mine."
"Oh, are you going to remove it yourself?" her friend asked. "That sounds like it might be a bit easier than asking all our friends about it."
"Well, it's not that simple. I can't ask the librarian for help without embarrassing myself."
"Marietta, everyone has to ask for help sometimes."
"You know what I meant," she said as Cho simply shrugged and walked off. She could swear that sometimes that witch seemed so dense.