Fard: to apply cosmetics.
April 24, 1997
The mirror had become her enemy. Actually, everywhere in the castle had taken on an unfriendly air for Marietta Edgecombe. Everyone knew. And even if they didn't know exactly what she had done, they were reminded that she had royally ticked someone off every time they looked at her.
She had never been a great beauty. Not like Cho with her sleek waterfall of black hair, her sparkling dark eyes, her sweet, smooth face, and her athletic grace. Standing next to her best friend, Marietta had always looked as plain as a cardboard cutout. Her frizzy ginger ringlets, milky skin, dull, grayish eyes, and smatter of freckles had never been anything to boast about. But she had never wanted to hide her face every time someone glanced her way before.
Grimacing, Marietta sat down at the vanity table in the Ravenclaw seventh year, girls dorm and leaned in to inspect her reflection. A daily sort of punishment. The marks had faded in the last year. They were no longer bulbous purple boils that smarted at the slightest touch. By the end of last year, they had lost their physical discomfort all together, and over the summer they had shrunk and faded considerably. But they were still there.
Now they were a fading line of blue bumps. They still stood out painfully obviously to her each morning as she examined them and hoped they were smaller and lighter than the day before. But now, under a thick layer of makeup, it was barely possible to discern them unless you knew what you were looking for. And everyone did. That was the problem.
Sighing, Marietta reached for her well-worn bag of cosmetics and began applying liberal amounts of cover-up as Cho emerged from the bathroom their dormitory shared.
"How do they look?" she asked as she often did. Marietta knew Cho still harbored some amount of guilt as it had been she who had roped Marietta into the whole Dumbledore's Army business in the first place.
"The same," she told her friend sullenly. "I'd like to write 'bitch' across Hermione Granger's face."
Cho frowned. "It was a nasty trick, but I suppose she isn't so completely horrid."
Marietta rolled her eyes. "Just because it turned out you were wrong about her and Harry Potter last year doesn't mean she isn't still a bitch."
But it never meant she was in the first place, a small part of Marietta thought as Cho shrugged one shoulder and went to pick up her school things with a swish of her long black hair. In fact, as much as most of her hated Granger for the humiliation of the past year, there was a part of her that hated herself just as much for being weak and blind and, no matter how she spun it in her own head, traitorous. And it was being reminded of all this each morning that was the real torture.
But it was easier to hate Hermione Granger, as nearly half of her class mates did at some point or another, for being right.
A/N: A bit distant, but the emotion of the last chapter seemed like enough to hold you over until I find a more interesting word. And really, who else could this word fit so well? I hope you enjoyed it anyway, but reviews are welcome regardless! :)