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Marietta winced as the doctor examined her face. The boils still hadn’t gone away and at this point they probably never would.
“Someone definitely cursed her,” the doctor said more to her mother than to her, like that wasn’t obvious, “What were you doing before it happened.”
Marietta rolled her eyes, she had told this story so many times and it never brought them any closer to fixing it, “I don’t remember! I was talking to someone, minding my own business, and all of a sudden this just happened!”
Pain erupting all over her face, skin boiling, blistering, terror surging, freezing her in place.
“Who were you talking to?” Her mother asked.
“I don’t know, mom. I was at school, I think I was talking to a professor, but I have no idea who.”
Blackness, a void in time, blacked out no matter how hard she tried.
“Probably from the shock,” the doctor shrugged, “It must have been at least a little scary.”
A bathroom, a mirror, breath catching in her throat, tears filling her eyes.
“Can you do anything about it?” she asked quietly.
The word SNEAK spelled out across her face in boils. No idea why or who did it. A feeling of hurt and betrayal and… acceptance?
He shook his head, “Afraid not. You might be able to have it broken eventually, but it won’t heal before the school year ends.”
Tears stung in her eyes as she tried to force them back.
“Are you sure we can’t do anything about it for now?” Her mother tried, “Kids can be cruel and I just worry about sending her back like this.”
She knew people were talking about her behind her back. None of her friends would even speak to her ever since it happened, no one would tell her why.
“Well, she can always try to cover it up in the meantime.”
Like she hadn’t tried that already.
Makeup could hide it a little bit, but not fully and it always hurt to put on. By the end of the day it would burn her skin until she couldn’t bear it anymore and the boils came back even worse than before.
“Maybe a balaclava or something similar?”
She had tried that too. Her professors barely tolerated it and her classmates had made a game of stealing it.
She was starting to regret how she treated Loony Lovegood for all these years.
Cho wouldn’t speak to her at all anymore, taking every opportunity to avoid being in the same room as her.
“Thanks anyway.”
She pulled her sweater over her face as they walked outside. Anything touching the boils hurt, but it was better than showing them off.
She barely registered her mother’s hug as she dropped her off at school. She wished she could understand the strange feeling of relief when her mother went to work. Maybe it was relief that she wouldn’t have to see her like this anymore, but that didn’t seem right.
These halls so recently were so full of life. Sure it was school, but all of her friends were here, her future was here, every day was fun and magical and bright.
Now as she slowly made her way to the common room most people wouldn’t even look at her. Once she got there the other Ravenclaws whispered as she passed by. She silently walked into the bedroom and watched her former friends leave.
SNEAK was written in big red letters on everything she owned. All of her clothes, books, everything ruined. She knew how to undo it, but couldn’t force the words out as sobs finally broke through.
She didn’t know how long she spent crying on the floor. She didn’t care. If the people who were supposed to be her friends were willing to do this to her they should be willing to see the result.
Did one of them do this to her? Did it even matter? None of them cared enough to help her once it happened. What had she even done to deserve it? Why didn’t they just come talk to her about it? Did she even care?
People who would do this clearly weren’t her friends. If they could just throw everything away like that were they really her friends at all?
She pulled herself to her feet and walked back out to the common room. She must have looked terrible, but was that really a change anymore? The whispers started again, all eyes on her. All eyes, except for Cho, who stared at the floor, the ceiling, the wall, anywhere but at her.
Fine.
Marietta held her head high, boils on full display as she made her way to Flitwick’s office. She took a deep breath before opening the door, slowly, deliberately.
If they were also set on watching her she might as well give them a show.
Professor Flitwick met her eyes and she felt her resolve slip for just a moment before looking back at the common room. All of those people were supposed to be her friends, they were supposed to be her second family, they were supposed to care.
It was all a lie. It had to have been. How else could they throw it away so easily? She turned back to Flitwick, squared her shoulders, and spoke the words she knew in her heart were true.
“I want to switch to a different house.”