An Alternate Punishment

The following morning, it appeared news had spread about her adventure in the library, so the ghost must have told on her. Under normal circumstances, most people would dismiss the story out of hand, since none of them would bother to learn spells just to have relations with the dead, but people already believed nasty, completely incredible things about her, like the idea that she enjoyed having people look at her naked, which implied she enjoyed having people look at her at all, which was false. It simply offended her sensibilities when Creevey decided to do the impossible and look at another wizard instead of her.

She nearly collided with Susan Bones in a corridor as she made a sharp turn and hastily apologized out of habit as she gathered her things. It escaped her at the moment whether she had ever been involved with the Defense Association, but she was definitely one of their friends. Strangely, she seemed a little sympathetic.

"Are you alright? I hear people have been spreading some... rumors about you." They were going to lunch, so Marietta decided she might as well make a conversation out of it. There was no one else with whom she particularly wanted to sit.

"Well, they're all completely false. I can't believe someone would just go making up things like that." She looked around. "You're in Hufflepuff. Did the first year boy tell you anything directly, or did you hear it from someone else?" The other witch shook her head.

"Rumors are like cursed fire. I don't even know whether I heard the original version or not." It was her turn to look around. "What was this about the Gryffindor ghost?"

"Oh, that's complete nonsense. Anyone could tell you it's impossible to have any kind of sexual contact with a lingering spirit. I honestly have no idea why I would go through the trouble. I cannot imagine what about that I would enjoy."

"I see, well, apparently Hermione Granger told people that you offered to... do something nice for him and some of the younger boys in her House have been asking Sir Nicholas about it ever since. He might have started to worry that they would think she had been lying..."

"Honestly," she said, rolling her eyes. "What could I possibly see in him? He's dead! To make matters worse, he's a wizard, and that means he's gross and always thinking about gross things." Susan pursed her lips.

"Does your dad think about gross things all the time?"

"He's a bit more mature than that," she deflected. "He and my mother have assured me that he's done a lot of work on himself."

"Does my dad think about gross things all the time?"

"I couldn't possibly-"

"Never mind." She exhaled. Marietta's cloak disappeared. "Why is that always happening?"

"It's just a charm I have had to test on myself. It should make things quicker, you know, dressing and all that. I've been trying to get it to go automatically, but..."

"Oh, that sounds useful. I've only noticed it a few times, but some people say that they've noticed it more."

"They could definitely be lying as well. Even though I'm still working it out, it doesn't normally go off in public."

"Is everyone a liar except for you?"

"Sometimes it seems that way, yes." She was closing her eyes as she nodded, keeping herself from rolling them. Cho had moved down a couple spaces on her short list of the thickest witches in Hogwarts. She had a much longer list of the thickest wizards, which was all of them, and they were all tied for the top spot, but that was another matter.

"Oh, well, is it okay if we study together?" Some nugget of information floating around in her head recalled for her that the Hufflepuffs were known for studying the most. They often had large study groups, though she guessed the witch across from her could have done something to put herself out of one. Then, she remembered that Headmistress Umbridge did ban groups of three or more students.

"I would be delighted. I think you and I could be close friends." She was not getting too hopeful with that, but at least Susan would be useful for the time being, going out into public on her behalf. It would be a moot point once she could create a nearly living illusory copy of herself which would remain clothed perpetually, but it would help for the time being. She had already been caught out half-prepared one too many times. From now on, she would have to see everything coming.

"That's great. Do you still have detention? We could study together in there."

"I do, as a matter of fact. If you get a chance, could you bring any material you may know about creating illusions? The section of the library where I've been looking has produced little in the way of results."

"Of course. I'll ask Madam Pince if she knows where I might find something like that. She's always helpful for me."

"That's a relief. She's unfortunately part of the rumor brigade as far as I am concerned." Susan's hand went to her mouth.

"Oh no!" she whispered. "What did she say about you?"

"Let's just say it was something disgusting and lewd that I would never actually say, and that might have contributed to a lot of the other rumors." It appeared the other witch was still curious. "According to her... and I'm only repeating it because you might have heard it... I said I wanted to get my quim stuffed- which is gross, and I would never want that."

"I totally agree. That sounds really gross, and like something I would never want." She was nodding a little too much.

"Truly? I heard you get along well with wizards."

"Platonically, yes, but I would never want to become... involved with one."

"I mean, if you would not get married, which is my intention, then why interact with them at all? What is the point beyond being able to have children?"

No words were spoken for a moment.

"I have to get to class," Susan decided out of nowhere. It was perfectly fair, of course, since they both really did have class, but they had been having a discussion she had not thought she would have with anyone. It was annoying, actually, even with Cho, who had a whole future ahead of her in athletics or academics, preferably the latter, there was still some hint of an inclination to spend the rest of her life with a wizard. She could argue that it would be less to clean up and less by which to be bothered if she took care of an iguana instead, but there was no point.

Marietta went to her next few classes before detention, disillusioning herself in one of them for lack of a skirt, though it was restored later. She was already longing for the ability to remain permanently disillusioned, with a copy of herself to mark her attendance, but that would come in good time; it only gave her more opportunities to think of ways of getting revenge. Potter specifically would have to suffer immensely, to the point where he would wish Voldemort really had come back, but the specific nature of it was unimportant. Vexingly, wizards seemed less sensitive about being naked in public. People would laugh, to be sure, but only if he acted embarrassed. It was another way society was simply fundamentally unfair.

In her last class, someone told her that Professor Sprout wanted to see her, and she said that it was indeed about time, but she would have to wait until after detention unless she wanted to override the detention of another teacher. She was not stupid, after all, and she would not be caught in some easy trap like that. There was no way Professor McGonagall would understand and forgo the opportunity to subtract points; she was one of Dumbledore's people. She heard some of the students in the rows ahead of her whispering about her as they looked back periodically.

"I shall have to do something about that, but what? I could cast the same curse on another student, but I have not improved it since the last time I practiced it, since that was a trial run." She remembered that the first-year boy had told his entire House the opposite of what she had intended. It gave her an idea.

Going through the hallways before detention, she found a younger witch on her own and cast the curse on her. The girl could have been in first or second year, but she was definitely in Slytherin. She hoped that the entire school would take it as more reliable, since it came from a witch.

"What is your wish?"

"Hmm... I suppose it would be quite pointless to have you tell everyone the rumors are false, since they will wonder how you know... I know, what you must do is tell everyone that all the rumors about Daphne Greengrass are not true of her, and are instead true of Marietta Edgecombe. Be sure not to swap the names." Satisfied with her way of reversing it, she went on to detention. This time, she found that Colin Creevey had been appointed to watch her. Apparently, the young wizard was a notorious tattle-tale, always running around with his little camera and taking pictures of everything. She rolled her eyes again. It was the mere thought of tattle tales, this time.

Deciding against asking if he intended to watch her the entire time, she waited for some article of clothing to disappear, but oddly, it was taking a while. She figured she could at least get him to leave the room if her clothes disappeared, but she was willing to go further than that if necessary. He had, after all, already seen her naked.

"Just so you know, I did not come in here naked because I was trying to get in on what you were doing," she obviated. It was truly a wonder why anyone would think that in the first place, but she could guess the younger wizard was pretty thick by default. "I happened to be followed by some unsavory characters who divested me of my clothes with a charm."

"Oh, that sounds terrible," he commented. "Well, not for you, but I would definitely feel awful if people caught me out like that." Marietta resisted the urge to fume. "Did you report them to the authorities?"

"Of course. Now, since this is not working, I shall remove my clothes and see if you find the experience unpleasant enough to leave me unsupervised." She took off her cloak. "I am two years older than you, you know."

"Professor McGonagall asked me to watch you because she thinks Hermione had something to do with setting you up with Nearly-Headless Nick. She decided it was better not to cause any more disturbances or rule-breaking on your part, so she asked me because she figured I would be less susceptible to your charms than most other wizards and less likely to hate you than most witches."

"Granger does not hate me, she is merely jealous of me- secondly, most witches in the castle-"

"I don't know if they all hate you it just seems like a lot of them do. A good amount of my friends are witches, for some reason. They say you're putting on a show for the wizards, well, not me, and they don't like it. It's a cheap way of diverting attention to yourself, and you're kind of bringing them down a bit because you're giving something they have away for free. They've said that no decent wizard will associate with you, which means they won't be associating with any who do, and-"

"I get the point," Marietta interrupted, annoyed that she could not simply explain her situation. She sighed, removing both of her shirts at once. Her revenge would come soon enough, and before that the little witch she cursed should spread around the idea that it was all Greengrass, since she actually deserved to have that spread around about her. If that did not work, she could curse anyone else.

As Colin left the room, she decided she could have used the curse on him, but Professor McGonagall would know the two of them had been alone together. Realistically, she should limit her use, since there were supposed to be recognizable symptoms. A little cough interrupted her thinking.

"Oh..." Susan started. "I didn't know you felt that way, Marietta..."