Disclaimer: Don't own and never will, no matter how hard I beg Santa.

Another response to 'The Battle of Hogwarts' challenge by elibubble. At this rate, I'll have written a whole book series by the time the challenge finishes.

A young man, scared and helpless as a Death Eater advanced on him, slowly tried to back away. He didn't stop walking, even when he hit the wall behind him. The Death Eater grinned and raised his wand.

"Avada ked-"

"Stupefy!" Marietta yelled and a red stunner slammed firmly into the Death Eater's chest. For a moment, he stood there with a look of shock on his face. Then he fell down, face first.

"Thanks." The boy said, before suddenly recognising her. An expression of disgust passed over his face briefly, before he turned away to pick up his wand. Marietta gave a mental sigh. Ever since she'd made that stupid, stupid mistake two years ago, practically most of the DA, no everyone in the DA except her best friend Cho had pretty much turned on her.

Padma Patil told her that she deserved what had happened to her and Terry Boot gave her a contemptuous look when she tried to flirt with him almost a year later, before muttering that he didn't date traitors. What made it hurt so much was that it was true. She HAD betrayed them all, even her best friend. Oh she tried to rationalise it, tried to tell herself that it was for the best, that sooner or later they would have been caught; but it still boiled down to the simple fact that she had betrayed them.

A Ministry wizard threw a curse at her, narrowly missing her face. As her returning stupefy hit him firmly in the chest, she ruefully reflected that if she hadn't been bullied into joining the DA, she probably would have missed him completely. Another reason for her to thank Harry Potter, she thought ruefully.

Diving hard into the fray, she fought with a reckless abandon that would have terrified her parents. But then again, her parents were long gone, killed by Death Eaters in her seventh year. Her little sister, barely five years old at the time, was murdered with them, just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They'd taken a wrong turning off of Diagon Alley and stumbled upon a group of Death Eaters. (What they were doing there was never established.) The results were swift and deadly. And so Marietta had good reason not to care.

Somewhere in the battle, she spotted a familiar redhead girl dancing her way between curses and fighting Death Eaters with wild abandon. The anger on her face was intense and Marietta could see why Harry had fallen in love with her. But behind Ginny Weasley, a Death Eater appeared and pointed his wand at her unprotected back. Before Marietta could do anything, a green killing curse shot towards Ginny. Without thinking, Marietta threw herself in front of the curse. As it hit her firmly in the chest and for a moment, time seemed to freeze for Marietta. Her vision tunnelled and slowly vanished and she hit the ground.

A second later, the Death Eater was hit firmly in the chest by a killing curse fired by Professor Flitwick. Ginny never realised how close she had come to being killed, but after the battle, Marietta's body was found by her friend Cho Chang.

"I forgive you." Cho murmured at Marietta's funeral. "I forgive you."