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