There was so much more Marietta wanted to explore with Hermione, but she didn't have a lot of time. When she'd asked about Viktor, she'd been expecting something like 'He tried to kiss me but I stopped him', or something to that effect, and not the detailed account she'd received. So she was going to have to hurry - there wasn't a lot of time left. "We got a bit distracted there, Hermione. I was asking you about my breasts, you said you wished you had ones like them to help you attract Ron, and then we started talking about Viktor. So tell me, are there any girls at Hogwarts you find attractive, and if so, who?" "I like you a lot. The Patil twins are very fetching. Angelina Johnson. Lavender Brown. Cho too. Pansy Parkinson". Marietta shuddered with revulsion at this last name. Not that Pansy was ugly, but she was such an awful human being. The list continued, covering at least a few of the girls in each of the houses. It seemed to Marietta that Hermione liked any decent- looking girl with a nice set of breasts, regardless of race. "If you could have sex with a boy or a girl right now, who would you pick?" "A boy" "And if none were available, would you pick a girl?" "Never. My conscious mind would never allow it. It makes me find lesbianism revolting. I can't stand the thought. I only think about other women during dreams, or more rarely, if I find myself day dreaming, or if I'm suddenly taken by surprise, like I was when your bra cam off." "Hermione, if a girl tried to kiss you, what would you do?" "I'd slap her face," answered Hermione. "Even though you'd actually like to make love to a girl." "Yes," answered Hermione. It was too bad Hermione had lived so much among Muggles. She shared many of their prejudices. The potion was wearing off, and Marietta stopped asking questions, giving time to Hermione to recover from the effects of the potion. "So, Marietta, did you learn anything? Did I really forgive you?" "You'll find out soon enough after I've taken the serum, but I'll end the suspense and tell you right now that yes, your forgiveness of me was absolute and unequivocal," said Marietta. "Thank God," she added as an afterthought. She could put aside forever her fear of Hermione. Marietta reached for the bottle of truth potion and took a measured dose. Now it was Hermione's turn to ask questions. Marietta took a much larger dose than Hermione, not just to take into account her much greater weight, but also because Hermione would be questioning her for a longer time, for Hermione in addition to questioning Marietta would also be finding out from her what she had said to Marietta while under the potion's influence. Hermione spent the first while learning exactly what she herself had said when questioned about the forgiveness issue. Like Marietta, she was fascinated that when under the effects of the serum, she would give more than one answer to the same question, and state whether she was speaking on behalf of her conscious or unconscious mind. She resolved that she would make more frequent use of this potion - it was a wonderful tool for learning about herself. As Hermione continued to ask questions, she was having trouble figuring out why Marietta's expression had been a bit mischievous when Hermione had woken up from the effects of the potion. She must have said something of interest, but was having trouble figuring out what it was. Direct questions were producing nothing, so she tried something more general. "Did I say anything of a sexual nature?" "Yes." "What?" Of course, this was a very broad question, and the result was a very, very long answer - a word for word repeat of the very account Hermione had given Marietta about making love to Viktor. Hermione tried to interrupt, but it was no good. Marietta when on and on, her narrative punctuated by a voice filled with passionate ecstasy when quoting words spoken by Hermione during her lovemaking with Viktor. Hermione's face was as red as Marietta's derriere had been during the whipping. But she knew Marietta would tell no one. In fact, once Hermione got over her shock, she was glad she'd told someone. She'd been bursting to share her secret but had no one she felt she could talk to. Finally the account came to an end. Or so Hermione had though, when suddenly Marietta continued. 'Another thing you said of a sexual nature was that you'd like to make love to a woman but your conscious mind would not let you. You find many girls at Hogwarts attractive (Marietta named each and every one of them) and you enjoyed seeing my breasts exposed the other night. You are not a lesbian in the strict sense of the word - you would not pick a woman over a man - but you would enjoy having a woman make love to you, if you weren't so repressed." Hermione was rocked by this. Nothing could have prepared her for such news. The very idea made her sick. "You added that your conscious mind would make you feel sick at the thought," added Marietta, as if on cue. No wonder Marietta had had a funny look on her face just before she'd taken the potion. The minx. Hermione laughed to herself. It was her turn now to ask personal questions. "Well what about you, Marietta, would you like to make love to a woman?" "Yes, I would." "If you could make love to a woman right now, who would you choose?" "Luna Lovegood." A peal of laughter erupted from Hermione. "Good god Marietta why on earth would you choose Luna? Why would you want to make love to her?" "I love Luna's body. She's a real blond, and I love her wispy pubic hair. Her nipples aren't pink though, like you'd expect - they're a really dark brown, which makes a nice contrast. And she licks my clitoris so well I have the most amazing orgasms with her." Hermione's jaw dropped almost as wide as when she'd deep-throated Viktor. Marietta continued. "She is also a very willing partner. She has a powerful sex drive and loves to experiment. When she fists me I just about die with pleasure. She's also discrete - we've been lovers for quite a while and the word has never got out, as far as I know. Some of the happiest times I've had at Hogwarts have been after lights out with her in my bed, my head between her thighs, licking her for all I'm worth." "Well," thought Hermione, "I did ask." Hermione felt disgusted at the idea of Luna and Marietta making love to each other. But then she remembered that according to Marietta, Hermione herself was capable of taking pleasure from another woman, if only her conscience mind wouldn't interfere. She also had no idea what "fisting" was all about. Before she could stop herself, she asked, and got the answer from Marietta straightaway. Hermione had thought she was reasonably experienced in sexual matters, but Viktor had been her only lover, and she was beginning to realize that in such things she was only a novice. She listened with great interest to Marietta's detailed technical account of fisting. "How long have you and Luna been lovers?" Hermione asked. She had a feeling it had been for quite a while - she remembered Luna's anguished behavior at Marietta's flogging. "For two years. I think of Luna as my girlfriend." "When did you last make love to Luna?" Hermione was having trouble suppressing her curiosity. "I last took her into my bed three days ago," Marietta replied. "Tell about the circumstances where you first noticed Luna in that way" inquired Hermione. "We were in the common room together, studying. It was in fourth year, a week before Halloween. The school had been in an uproar over the house points - when a student had meddled with the system." Hermione remembered this very well. In fourth year, someone had figured out the magic underlying the system of awarding house points. Whenever a professor awarded points to a house or took them away, a record was automatically made of this, and was displayed in the hallway, where large glass containers were exposed, in the colour appropriate to each house. An unknown prankster had created a parallel tracking system by charming dozens of pieces of parchment, each of which displayed in a new way the points won and lost by each house. But instead of showing which house had gained points and which had lost, the prankster's system instead tracked the professors themselves, showing the houses to which they awarded points and also the houses they penalized. As a result, any bias was clearly exposed. In most cases, it was clear that professors were trying so hard not to be biased that they tended to be a bit harder on students from their own house. McGonigall was a clear example of this, and Gryffindor got no breaks from her. There was a significant exception to this trend, and needless to say it was Snape. Slytherin got more points from Snape than any other professor, and Gryffindor lost more points due to Snape than to any other two professors combined. When Snape heard about the charmed parchments, he was beside himself with rage. He'd always been disliked by the students, but now it was official. He'd dashed about the school trying to seize all copies. Somehow he seemed to know which students had a copy on them, and the detentions he assigned were severe indeed. But he never did find out who was responsible, and every now and again, new parchments were circulated. Marietta continued her story. "We were studying late - everyone else had gone to bed. I'd never really taken much notice of Luna before. Everyone knows what's she's like - keeps herself to herself, seems to be in her own little world. But tonight, I noticed she kept laughing for no apparent reason. I asked her what was so funny, and she told me about how she'd deciphered the house point charms, and figured out how to track the points awarded and deducted by each professor. We laughed together as she told me the details. We chatted away for the longest time as she explained the various charms that constituted the point system. I was really surprised to find myself enjoying her company. I'd always thought of her as a weirdo, and I suppose she is. She's extremely introspective, and much more interested in her own thoughts than those of others. She moved over to the couch I was sitting on by the fire, and we continued chatting away. It was very warm by the fire, and after a while, she took off the cloak she was wearing. I was still in my school robes; she had changed into pyjamas before coming down to continue studying. We were seated facing each other, cross-legged. Sometimes when she laughed, she'd lean forward, and I'd be given a good view of her breasts, which are quite ample. At one point I think she caught me looking, but she gave no sign that she had, and afterwards she was even more careless about keeping herself covered. "She told me that Snape could read minds, and that's why he was able to figure out which students had copies of the parchment, but that he couldn't read hers, and it must have been driving Snape crazy. I thought she was making this part up, and I said as much. I'd heard her talking to others about her father's newspaper, making references to various articles and talking nonsense, and I thought this mind reading business was more of the same. She assured me that Snape could read minds, and that she too could, to some extent. 'How can you say such nonsense, Luna!' I told her. 'If you can read minds, what am I thinking right now?' I asked. "Luna leaned forward and kissed me full on the lips. 'That's what your thinking about,' she said, her voice a whisper. And she was right, of course. That's how I first noticed her in that way," said Marietta, finishing the answer to Hermione's question. When prompted, Marietta explained that they'd made love right there on the couch before the fire, Luna showing her the delights of lesbian love, taking her to the heights again and again. Marietta was deeply attached to Luna from that moment on. Thereafter, Marietta had charmed her bed, so that the curtains completely suppressed any sound from within. Thus for two years the girls had been making passionate love on a regular basis, free to experiment in every way they could think of, with no fear of discovery or gossip. Hermione couldn't bring herself to ask for more details. She didn't think she could handle a detailed account of Marietta and Luna making love to each other - the idea made her feel ill. Hermione had just enough time left to explore a question that had been nagging at her. "Marietta, tell me why you betrayed the DA. What was going through your mind?" She was curious to know what could possibly have been going through Marietta's head when she gave away their secret to Umbridge. Marietta explained that Umbridge had summoned her to her office. She'd heard from friends at the Ministry that Marietta was very good at Defence against the Dark Arts. Umbridge was most impressed that Marietta could even produce a Patronus. Marietta had made the mistake of telling her mother about some of the things she was learning, without mentioning how. It seemed that her mother had been bragging to her ministry friends about how clever her daughter was, and word had got back to Umbridge, who didn't take long to figure out where Marietta had acquired her knowledge. When Umbridge confronted her, she'd been shocked. "You must be mistaken, Professor Umbridge! I haven't had any practice for any spells like that!" Marietta had lied. Umbridge had started to scream at her, Marietta began to cry. For a while Marietta tried to keep up the lie, but eventually Umbridge broke her down. "Either you will tell me this instant when the next meeting is, or I will sign the order for your expulsion from Hogwarts!" the toad-like Umbridge had shrieked. She actually showed the unsigned form to Marietta, who broke down completely and began to give away the secrets of the DA. But she had not gotten very far before the curse had descended on her, and after that, nothing could move her to say anything more. There was so much more Hermione wanted to ask Marietta. She knew almost nothing about her life outside school. But Hermione lacked the heart to continue. She felt very low indeed. Marietta was not innocent by any means, but on the other hand she had not voluntarily become a snitch - she had been subjected to great pressure. In any event, there was little time left. She sat silently, watching as the effects of the Veritaserum gradually wore off on Marietta. Once Marietta was fully recovered, Hermione took the potion, this time in a smaller dose. The only purpose in Hermione taking the potion was so that Marietta could find out what she had revealed about herself to Hermione. Marietta was did not mind Hermione learning exactly what had happened in Umbridge's office, nor did she care that Hermione now knew all about Luna - the tale was safe with Hermione; she would tell no one. The sharing of the truth potion had had a wonderful effect on them both. They now felt like they'd been friends for years, and could trust each other completely. Hermione felt nothing but honest affection for Marietta, and regret at the pain she'd caused her. Marietta had completely lost her fear of Hermione, and was looking forward to a wonderful year at Hogwarts. But even as Marietta thought about this, she was suddenly reminded of the curse, for by now it was just past midnight, Marietta realizing the hour because she could feel her face breaking out in evil blisters as the curse made its effects apparent at the usual time. Hermione immediately performed the Purgatio charm, but the "spell" had been broken - the light-hearted feelings generated by the Veritaserum evaporated. Hermione spoke first. "I have no explanation for why the Ritual failed. At least we know the first stage wasn't insufficient. But then why did the Persevero charm show red? It simply makes no sense. There is something fundamentally wrong here. But the answer is quite simple. You and I are going to have to see Madame Pomfrey. We will tell her what happened. She will then be able to lift the curse with my co-operation, but of course she will have to report me. I don't think even Dumbledore will be able to keep me in the school after that. I'll be lucky if they don't send me to Azkaban." Hermione's voice was devoid of feeling, for inside a part of her died as she realized what was in store for her. "Hermione, it doesn't have to be that way -" "- Yes it does- I can't let you walk around forever with my curse on you!" "No, that's not what I mean," replied Marietta. "I think I've figured out how we can get help from Madame Pomfrey, and at the same time, prevent her from telling anyone!" Hermione listened in disbelief as Marietta explained. Healers were bound by oath never to reveal the secrets of their patients. "But what good does that do me? You're the one with the curse that needs healing. She doesn't have to reveal your name to report me to the Ministry." "Yes," replied Marietta. "But your not going to tell her on my behalf. You'll report in on your own behalf, as her patient!" "What?" Hermione was baffled. "It's really very simple. You're feeling very down. You can't sleep, you can't study, the joy of life has left you - you no longer take pleasure in the things you used to enjoy. You spend all your time sleeping. You have suicidal thoughts. The cheering charm brings only fleeting relief, and it's getting less effective with each use." Hermione listened patiently, knowing that Marietta was listing the classic symptoms of depression. "This is very bad, so naturally you have to go to Madam Pomfrey. She will of course want to know why you're so depressed that you need treatment. You'll be most reluctant to tell her, but she'll press - she can't treat you effectively without knowing the source of the trouble. You'll say to her, 'But Madame Pomfrey - I've been living with a terrible secret - I can't bear to even say it - Can you promise me you'll tell no one?' And of course Madam Pomfrey will give you a speech about how the Healer's oath is inviolate and so on." "- and then I tell her everything, and she can't say a word to anyone - that's brilliant!" enthused Hermione. She was safe. She would remain at Hogwarts and keep her wand. As the realization hit her she completely broke down, deep sobs racking her frame. Marietta held her tightly, waiting for the fit to end. Hermione was accustomed to being the clever one, solver of everyone else's problems, the know-it-all. But here Marietta had proven far more knowledgeable, and by thinking clearly and creatively, had in all likelihood prevented Hermione's expulsion from Hogwarts and a possible trip to Azkaban. Hermione had often felt so alone. But now she had someone with whom she could truly share her troubles, and amazingly, who could help her. And she had found this friend in a person whom she'd viciously cursed, and whom she'd caused to be whipped before the entire membership of the DA. "Marietta, I'm so sorry - I don't deserve this. I've treated you so badly, and now you are saving me. I will never, ever forget this." Gradually the sobs died down. The two of them remained in an embrace for a very long time. They tidied themselves up, and then left the Room of Requirement under the safety of Harry's invisibility cloak. They went to Ravenclaw's dormitory first, exchanging a final hug, and after Marietta disappeared into her house's chambers, Hermione slowly made her way back to the Pink Lady's portrait, stunned by the night's events. Readers may send comments to the author by email to suprapubic_cystotomy@yahoo.ca