Disclaimer: All I own is this fanfic, J.K. Rowling owns the rest. No copyright intended!

Chapter 31: Marietta Gets Confronted

Back in the abandoned classroom, Marietta, Romilda, Zacharias and Theo continued to brew up the necessary potions. Every five minutes or so they'd check the door to be on the lookout for the moment when and if Ginny returned (unaware that she was just arrested for her crimes). The so-called Forever After potion was starting to fail because of the potion turning purple instead of blue, but none of the conspirators took any notice (assuming they were making a breakthrough). Marietta added another ingredient to try and get the purple colour to turn blue, but resulted in purple goo bubbling.

"I think I can save that," Romilda claimed, once she spotted the bubbling purple goo in the cauldron. "This will do the trick."

"No, no, no, no!" said Marietta in a desperate voice, holding her hands up in a 'stop right there' gesture.

Romilda ignored the warning and dropped a few porcupine quills in. In doing so, the bubbling of the goo exacerbated, forcing Marietta and Romilda into back away from the cauldron as it began shaking. Then the goo exploded and sent huge globs of the sizzling goo flying in all directions. Some of the sizzling goo hit landed inside the cauldrons of the other brewing potions, causing their contents to explode as well. Romilda got splattered due to being the closest one to the explosions. She began flailing her arms like crazy as she screamed like a banshee.

Theo stayed to get rid of the burning globs off of the still-screaming Romilda, while Marietta and Zacharias left their classroom to look for Harry to confront him (blaming him for their misfortune), unaware that Dobby and Oreo spotted them leaving the classroom and apparated away to alert Harry and his friends. Not long after splitting up from Zacharias to find Harry with ease, Marietta tripped over a rope that was charmed to lift up should the specified victims stroll by. The fall stunned the arrogant Ravenclaw enough to give two hooded students the time to drag her into an abandoned classroom.

Upon coming to after ten minutes, Marietta looked around and saw the hooded students. The hoods were still up so Marietta had no idea who the students were. When the hoods were lifted up and pushed back to reveal the students' identities, Marietta widened her eyes in horror to see that they were Cho and Luna, and they were furious with the arrogant Ravenclaw before them (due to them glaring at Marietta, their crossed arms and feet tapping the ground repeatedly). Marietta tried to speak, but her mouth didn't seem to want to work.

"Hiiiiiii, Ch-Ch-Chooooooo!" Marietta managed to speak, but in a gurgled voice.

"Don't you 'hi' me, Marietta!" Cho growled at her supposed best friend. "Did you really think I wasn't going to find out that you had been drugging me and Cedric with love and hate potions? If Luna and Fleur hadn't escorted me and Cedric to the hospital wing when they did, we could've been sent to St. Mungo's to be treated for potion overdose."

"You should be ashamed of antagonizing me, Edgecombe!" Luna growled, frightening Marietta even more so (since seeing Luna in such a state was so rare that if it occurred, her tormentors went too far). "Your cynical behaviour was despicable and inexcusable. You even manipulated Cho because you didn't want her to find out about your cynical attitude and your desire to just use that friendship just to be seen as the popular bestie's best friend. We even found out that you drugged Cedric just to keep him to yourself while trying to break him and Cho up. What have you got to say for yourself?"

"I can change, anybody c-c-can!" Marietta replied in a distraught voice.

"Don't suck up to us!" Cho growled just as she smacked Marietta, hard, across the face. "I can't believe you'd just manipulate me like that. Luna is a much better person and friend than you could ever be!"

"Now's the time to get your just rewards… from us!" Luna told Marietta in a delightful voice.

Cho brought out a couple belts and gave one of them to Luna. Then they put Marietta over a stool while making sure she was on her stomach and cast the necessary charms to ensure that she couldn't escape. Once that was done, Cho and Luna began whacking Marietta's rear with their respective belts, much to her dismay. Marietta even begged for mercy, but Cho and Luna ignored it and kept giving the arrogant Ravenclaw spankings. After both girls whacked Marietta's rear ten times, Cho knocked on a nearby desk four times. That was evidently a signal because at that moment, Cedric cancelled the disillusionment charm placed on himself. He appeared in front of Marietta with a nasty glare, frightening Marietta more than ever (since Cedric rarely glared at anybody).

"I can't believe you've been drugging me and Cho the whole time!" Cedric growled at Marietta (who was sweating profusely). "You must be one jealous so-called best friend to do that, just to keep me for yourself. Besides, you're dating Theo Nott. Luna even told me and Cho about that when you and Theo 'demonstrated' true love for her and Blaise by snogging out in the open where others could see it. I have zero intentions to date, much less marry someone who is a potential swinger. Now's the time for the same punishment from me."

"You can't do that!" Marietta protested. "You won't do it anyway, since you'd never hit a lady in any way, even for punishments."

"You deserve spankings, Edgecombe!" snapped Cedric. "For you, I'll make an exception, since you intended to break me and Cho up for selfish intentions."

Cho gave the belt she used to Cedric, then he walked around Marietta and proceeded to give her ten whacks to her rear (resulting in Marietta getting a total of thirty spankings). The pain was too much and Marietta began wailing, but neither Cho, Luna, or Cedric cared, especially with the many other crimes Marietta committed.

Meanwhile, Zacharias somehow made it outside and began searching the woods for Harry and his friends. Five minutes or so into the search, Zacharias spotted Tracey (supposedly the real Tracey) twenty-feet away and she was dressed in a green long-sleeve leotard. Zacharias eyed 'Tracey' and developed a lustful expression on his face with his tongue hanging out, resulting in him drooling to see 'her' nice-looking legs.

"Hey, Davis," Zacharias managed to speak, in a high-pitched voice. "I can show you some stuff if you follow me."

"Only if you follow me first," the figure who appeared to be Tracey told him. "It's more important than your idea."

Overcome with lust, Zacharias jogged after the figure resembling Tracey (who was also jogging). The arrogant Hufflepuff had no idea what surprises awaited him, since he couldn't keep his lust under control. The figure resembling Tracey ran faster until she was no longer in sight, leaving Zacharias to search for her on his own without any assistance. Moments later, he fell through a hole that was disguised as solid ground. Zacharias was stunned from the fall and after he came to, he got back onto his feet and looked up.

"Damn!" growled Zacharias, raising a fist in a ranting manner. "That was a booby trap!"

Harry and Tracey quickly appeared at the north end of the hole and looked down, much to a frightened Zacharias' shock. Neville and Tori appeared at the south end of the hole, with Daphne and Adrian appearing at the east end while Susan and Terence appeared at the west end. Not long after, Fred, George, Lee and Demelza showed up to help keep an eye on Zacharias. Then Cedric and Blaise showed up, with Luna and Cho following while dragging a still-frightened Marietta behind them.

"Did you really think I'd be dumb enough to wear a leotard, especially when the winter days are still here?!" Tracey snapped at Zacharias.

"That wasn't even the real Tracey," Harry informed Zacharias. "We knew you liked to go for outer beauty, so we knew that a decoy version of Tracey would throw you off guard."

"We're all here to ensure you can't escape," Neville told the arrogant Hufflepuff. "Ginevra has already been arrested for her crimes, now's the time for you to get arrested."

"We already informed a teacher of you and Edgecombe having been spotted out in the open." said Cedric to Zacharias.

It was a few minutes later when the teachers, head governor, Amelia and the aurors arrived. The aurors got Zacharias out of the hole and placed him in magic suppression handcuffs just as his wand was taken and handed to the head governor to have the wand snapped and declared the disloyal Hufflepuff expelled. Marietta was also placed in magic suppression handcuffs just as her wand was also snapped and declared to be expelled. Some of the aurors led Zacharias and Marietta away to take them into ministry custody to await trial. Oreo and Dobby informed Amelia and the remaining aurors, teachers and head governor the room where the conspirator students base of operation was and showed them the way. By then, Theo somehow managed to get the sizzling globs of exploded goo off of Romilda (who was lucky to receive only minor burns). Only when the sound of someone clearing their throat was heard did Theo and Romilda stop what they were doing and look over at the adults before them while smiling nervously.

"Well well, Mr. Nott," said Professor Tonks in a no-nonsense voice. "What do you and Miss Vane have to say for yourselves?"

Neither Theo nor Romilda could say anything due to being rendered speechless because of how scared they were to have finally been caught red-handed. The two were also sweating profusely, knowing that there was no getting out of facing justice. The head governor beckoned Theo and Romilda to hand their wands over, which the two remaining conspirators reluctantly did. After their wands were snapped and they were declared to be expelled, Theo and Romilda were placed in magic suppression handcuffs. Then Amelia and the few remaining aurors led Theo and Romilda away to outside the wards of Hogwarts to apparate them to the ministry and place them in holding cells to await trial.

Meanwhile at the ministry, Ginny was sitting on a chair in the interrogation room. One of the aurors was standing guard to make sure the jealous redhead couldn't escape. Ginny was trembling in fear because her parents were bound to find out about her attempting to strangle Fleur. Ginny also began realizing that her parents likely found out about the brewing of illegal potions. Ginny's fears were confirmed because Amelia came in with not only her parents, but Cho's parents, Chikao and Chuya, came in to personally confront her for helping to potion their daughter in dangerously high doses. To Ginny's further horror, Cedric's parents, Amos and Anna, followed them in after having found out that Ginny and several others drugged Cedric with illegal potions.

"Looks like my confronting you and suspending you for a month wasn't a good enough wake-up call, young lady," Molly angrily told her daughter. "And attempting to strangle a Beauxbatons student who just happens to represent her school champion? Helping to brew up illegal potions while skipping classes to keep at it and have Harry be a puppet is inexcusable."

"I received word from Lord Delacour that he found out about you trying to murder his oldest daughter and that a trial for you at the french ministry will be arranged," Arthur told Ginny, equally angry. "He even told me that you even yelled to Fleur that you would kill her, so that is attempted first degree murder. Even if your sentence here in Great Britain is finished, you'll be serving your sentence in France consecutively. Draco is bound to face trial in France and serve his sentence there and his here consecutively too, since I heard about him groping Fleur a couple months ago."

"I can't believe you helped to drug Cedric with illegal potions, Ginny," Amos informed Ginny, outraged. "It caused him to spend some time in the hospital wing. If you thought Professor Sprout wouldn't alert me and Anna, you were wrong. Drugging someone with mind-altering potions is a form of assault."

"Professor Flitwick also informed me and Chuya that you even helped to drug our daughter with mind-altering potions," Chikao told Ginny. "And since love potions makes the victim a puppet while under the influence of artificial infatuation, that's equivalent to sneaking date-rape drugs into the victims drinks. Date-rape drugs come from the muggle world, and they work exactly like love potions here in our world."

"And Harry would never appreciate anyone who tries to win his heart by sneaking him love potions," Arthur told his daughter. "True love can never be produced through artificial means, you should've known that by now, young lady."

"Don't even bother saying anything, young lady!" Molly snapped at her daughter when she opened her mouth to say something. "Your actions are inexcusable and now, you must suffer the consequences."

Once everybody was finished with their confrontation, Ginny was escorted back to her holding cell to await trial for her crimes. Amelia spotted several more aurors bringing in Draco and his father, Lucius (after they've been found and rearrested). The head of the DMLE was still intending to make sure that Lucius' sentence was still the dementor's kiss. Two more aurors also brought in Antonin Dolohov and another two brought Thames Nott in, so the two could also await trial for their crimes. Now the DMLE needed to capture Umbridge's henchman who ran away before they could witness their boss getting arrested. Those particular henchmen were anywhere out in England and finding them was going to be challenging.

To be continued!

Author's note: I'd like to give a shoutout to the anonymous reviewer 'V' for suggesting that Cho and Luna give Marietta spankings with a belt as punishment for her actions, with Marietta begging for mercy but it falls on deaf ears; Cedric being close by and giving Marietta spankings himself, with Marietta protesting but Cedric says he'll make an exception for her; Zacharias' plan to lure Tracey into a trap backfires; and Arthur and Molly confronting Ginny and giving her an earful for continuing to live in her fantasy even after being told to move on, and conspiring with her allies to brew illegal potions and even skipping classes to continue doing so in an attempt to drug certain students (mainly Harry) with them.