A/N: The credit of the Harry Potter plot and characters belongs solely to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing of it but my own words.
Tattletale: In Defense of Marietta Edgecombe
Marietta Edgecombe lands pretty solidly in the "villain" category across the board. And justly, right? Traitors are the worst kind of person, and there's no excuse.
Look at Peter Pettigrew. Look at Seamus Finnegan. Look at Severus Snape — oh wait.
Wait a second. Didn't Harry give Pettigrew a chance, back in third year? And didn't he forgive Seamus too, once the bloke came around? And didn't he call Severus Snape "one of the bravest men he ever knew"?
So what makes Marietta Edgecombe so different? Was it that she was outright and honest about her distrust of Harry? Or because she didn't have the courage Ron did? Maybe it was because she had bad timing.
Well, first of all, she had the nerve — the nerve — to not believe Harry! How dare she! How dare she have doubts in his uncorroborated story when the vast majority of the Wizarding world, including her own mother, didn't believe him either! What a monster! And just who did she think she was, with her wrinkled nose and reluctant hand, when Hermione asked her to sign her name to a paper that would condemn her if in the wrong hands? Such a menace. And obviously, if she didn't trust Harry, she oughtn't have let on that she didn't. Honestly, it's not like her House encourages integrity.
Damn. Well, there's gotta be something, we can pin on her, right?
In all fairness, she did betray Dumbledore's Army, a strictly prohibited organization run by a teenager in opposition to the Ministry of Magic. There's no denying that she went blabbing to Umbridge. There's no denying she distinctly and intentionally broke the promise every D.A. member made when they signed that page.
But she betrayed someone far before that. She betrayed her mum and dad, who expressly forbade her from acting against the Ministry in any way, shape, or form. Her mum worked for the Ministry, you know.
And before you compare Marietta to Ron, know that her mum didn't work for the Ministry the way Arthur Weasley worked for the Ministry. Her mum worked for the Ministry because she loved it, every moment. Her place in the world was right behind that desk.
(Marietta had grown up behind that desk, too. She'd grown up counting the number of times she could twirl around in that swivel chair without getting dizzy. She'd grown up exploring every nook and cranny of that desk, every dent and scratch. She'd slept on the floor, sheltered by the desk, made comfy by her mother's charms, when her mother had to work late nights and her father had the night shift at St. Mungo's.)
No, her mother was not like Arthur Weasley. Her mother had worked for the Ministry since she'd graduated. Her mother had climbed the ranks of her department steadily since, and she had a respectable position near the Department Head. Her mother had faith in the Ministry, and she believed The Daily Prophet. You must admit that a fourteen-year old boy who'd been projected as mentally broken and unstable by Rita Skeeter claiming that a long-dead terrorist was back after thirteen years was just a smidge absurd.
So yeah, Marietta believed her mum. Who wouldn't, at that age, when the alternative was as dark and terrifying as it was?
And when her mum and dad sat her down and specifically instructed her not to do anything that might upset anyone at the Ministry, Marietta gave her word and meant it.
Because Marietta was not disloyal.
When Cho Chang, her best friend, suffered a tragedy, and spent the better part of her days in tears, it was Marietta who handed her a tissue. When Cho's other friends scoffed and said to get over it already, it was Marietta who shot back that grief had no time limit and pulled Cho in for a tight hug. When Cho started crying because she liked Harry but felt like she was disrespecting Cedric by liking Harry, it was Marietta who rolled her eyes, said, "Ced's too dead to care," (because she was blunt and honest like that), and patted her back until the tears subsided.
And before you point out the whole, "Well, she was obviously not loyal to Dumbledore's Army," you're right. She wasn't. She never was. You really think she signed up for that blasted club to spite her mum? To fight for a cause she didn't believe in? No, she signed up because she was loyal to Cho.
And every second she spent in that pub or in that room was a second she could have ruined her future, ruined her mum's future, ruined everything. And that ate at her more than anything.
And she kept saying, This is for Cho. Cho doesn't have anyone but me. But then she realized. Cho had Harry. She didn't need anyone else. She got what she wanted.
But here she was, endangering everything her mum had worked so hard for.
And it was that thought that propelled her to Umbridge's office that fateful night. It was that thought that opened her mouth and spilled everything. It was that thought that forever villainized her.
SNEAK. It was written on her forehead for the rest of her life, and that's fair punishment? She forever had those scars for a decision she made at seventeen years old, and that's just? She prioritized her mum over her friend, and this is the price she paid?
Hermione Granger was a spiteful, close-minded, self-righteous girl who took justice into her own hands. But was it really justice? Was it really justice that Marietta had a split-second "mistake" speak for her from that moment onward? That every good deed she'd ever done was negated, and she was defined by one word she could never erase?
Is that the lesson Hermione wanted to teach? Is that the penance Harry so adamantly agreed with?
They are the heroes, and she is a villain, but nothing is ever so black-and-white as Hermione Granger made it seem, is it?
Marietta Edgecombe was a sneak, in that one moment of that one day of that one week in that one month of that one year in time. But she more than paid the price, don't you think?