Summet: I hope you like this chapter mostly from Marietta's point of view. Thanks for staying interested.
xHx: Thanks so much for your support, I hope you get yahoo instant messenger soon. I would love to ask you some questions about the United Kingdom from time to time.
Black's Phoenix: My longest reader, I thank you as well. Yes, after reading "The Order of the Phoenix" again. I realized that they really didn't talk enough. So I had Cho think that Harry was always about following the rules, and that she believed that he would look down on her for breaking them. But she did kind of enjoy the adventure.
Tiyuri: Thanks for the review, what was your favorite chapter so far? You asked for the next chapter, and your wish is my command.
Well now Marietta has her final preparations underway in this chapter, I hope everyone likes it, I'm losing my mind doing this… and I didn't have much to lose. But I hope I didn't leave any plot holes. Take care, and enjoy.
Chapter 20: Final Preparations
The unseen figure walked quietly down the torch lit halls of the great castle, past shiny suits of armor, and empty classrooms. Marietta Edgencombe was hidden under the invisibility cloak that she had received from the society by way of her uncle. The cloak had come with a note warning her that it was only a loan to be used for society business only, and not her own personal entertainment. The note had further instructed that Marietta should tell no other student in the society about it as well. "Humph…well. I know I can trust Danielle at least to keep a secrete." Marietta thought to herself. Marietta walked down the hall at a quick pace, but stopped suddenly when she saw the image of the Fat Fryer floating passing through the wall on her left. She held her breath as he passed by close enough for her to reach out and touch him. Marietta finally let out a sigh after the ghost had passed through the wall on the opposite side of her. She made her way through several twisting mazes of dungeons, and entered in to a narrow corridor lit with torches, and lined with more suits of amour along it. She almost let out a shriek when she saw eight house elves marching two abreast in two columns of four toward her from the opposite end of the corridor. The corridor was so narrow that she had to squeeze against the wall by one of the suits of amour to get out of their way. As the column passed her one of the house elves at the end glanced her way, and came to a slow stop, letting the rest of the column continue down the hall without him. He seemed to be peering right in Marietta's direction. She began to sweat from fear and anticipation of being caught. Marietta wanted to reach for her wand and give the stupid thing the aver Kedavra curse, but she dared not move a centimeter. The house elf walked closer but appeared to be looking slightly to her left, at the suite of amour. Marietta turned her head to look at it as well, and she could not see why she why it was drawing the house elves attention. It was just an ordinary suit of amour, holding a double edged axe in its hands. She heard a snap, and the suit of amour began to glow pink. The glow vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and when it did the suit seemed cleaner, as if it had been freshly polished. The house elf turned back toward the direction that Marietta had come from and hurried to rejoin its mates, already out of sight.
Marietta breathed another sight of relief and headed back down the corridor. She continued through several passage ways and empty rooms until she had reached an empty room lit by a single torch. Under the torch was a single gray round rock, midway up the wall, with a black drop painted on it. Under the wall was a deep depression in the floor about one meter across. Marietta looked around to be sure she was alone, and then physically pushed the stone in. The wall melted down as if it were made of wax, but it did not cover the floor, but instead, was collected in the depression in the floor, underneath it. Finally the door had melted away entirely, except for the stone with the drop on it that was suspended in midair by magic. Marietta stepped across the depression into the smallest corridor she had yet encountered. She turned back around and pushed the stone in the other direction, and the wall melted back upward from the depression, and blocked out all light into the corridor. "Luminous!" Marietta said, and her wand light showed a very narrow and long passage ahead of her. She made quick speed to arrive at the other end, where the passage ended in a solid black wall of rock. This time she pushed against the wall, and it opened as a door.
"Who is it? Who's there?" The nervous voice of Filch came from inside.
"Booo! I'm the ghost know as the Gray Lady of Ravenclaw! And I've found your hiding place!" Came a deep spoken voice as the wall closed, and no one appeared in sight.
"Damn! It' can't be!" Cried Filch. Marietta gave out a sinister laugh as she pulled off her invisibility cloak. She gave him a sensual smile.
"Don't worry love, it isn't. I told you the ghost will never find this place, and I also told you that I was going to have the society send me an invisibility cloak remember?" She laughed. Filch, grabbed her and pined her against the wall hard. "Ow!" She cried.
"I don't find anything funny about this! Do you know what it's like to be this stupid git or his flea bitten cat all day? It's torcher!" He yelled. Marietta had a look of fear in her eyes.
"You're…your hurting me love. Please stop." she pleaded. Filch let her go. And turned, and walked away from her.
"You can't imagine the torcher. I can't imagine how Filch does his job without magic! This bladder infection has me going to the pisser every fifteen minutes. You'd think he'd go to Madam Pomfrey for it. And that bloody cat of his. Hasn't he ever heard of flee dip?" Filch asked. Marietta hugged him from behind.
"I told you that you needed to find a replacement that we could keep down here. How is that coming?" she asked. Filch turned to her.
"I think I found someone that will be to your liking. And if so I want him here as soon as possible, than you will not have to worry about zapping your dear uncle with a memory charm every night. But first we have business to discuss, and what to do about the head master, and Potter." He said. Marietta sat down on the corner of the bed, and kicked her shoes off.
"Don't worry about the Head Master for now, he'll have to be allowed to continue his annoyance, for a short time, but Potter has to be dealt with tomorrow! I'm going to zap him with a memory charm at some point. He'll feel the need to go to the Quidditch Pitch early, even if it means skipping a class. I'll hide the body under the invisibility cloak, and you need to remove the cloak when you're done, so that his team can find him. Remember, as we discussed in my dear uncles office today, I want you to work hard to convince Gryffindor to play a violent game, and try to skirt around the rules, but don't encourage them to break them unless their sure that they can get away with it. I found out that Madam Hooch will not be refereeing the game, but someone from my house, Jeremy Stretton. I toyed with the idea of giving him a memory charm, but I need his mind clear so that he can retell the story of what a cheat, and bad sport Potter is, and how he uses his team to bully poor Hufflepuff in the field. Just remember, to turn back into Mrs. Norris, when you're done, and get the hell out of there." Marietta said giving the final details of an already laid out plan. "Anything new to report about Chang?" She asked with curiosity? Filch had a frown on his face.
"She was talking to Potter and the Gray Lady today. I don't know what about. How did the insult go? Did she cry?" Filch asked. Marietta had a pissed off look on her face, and crossed her arms. It didn't have the desired effect I was hoping for, and I'm sure that I said it right. What do you suggest I say now?" Marietta asked. Filch rubbed his chin.
"Actually now I was going to suggest that you target her friends for abuse as well, and then after a while of that, offer her a truce: if she'll go to the society's meeting at Hogsmead in October, you, and the other purebloods will leave her and her friends alone. Once she sees what she has to gain by joining, she's sure to switch sides. Also, since you're so well connected, you might throw in a job offer at the Ministry when she graduates, as an added incentive. Who are some of her best friends that you can pick on?" He asked. Marietta closed her eyes in thought.
"Well there is Beverly Jones, but she's really tough. I don't want to mess with her, than there is Luna Lovegood. She's a pureblood, but really stupid. I don't like her, so I have no problem messing with her. Err…Nancy Cromwell; she's a mudblood, and Bill Forbs a fourth year Hufflepuff, he's a dork and doesn't have many friends. He wouldn't have had any if it hadn't been for Cho, so it will be easy to hurt him." The only problem is if Cho is pushed too far by way of attacking her friends, she can be violent. I learned that the hard way in my fifth year." Marietta finished. Filch raised an eyebrow.
"Really? What did she do?" He asked curiously. Marietta frowned.
"I don't like to talk about it, but it almost got her expelled. So, I want to hurt her, but I don't want to make her so mad that she goes off on me. It's a delicate balance. Anyway Like I said, the great thing is that Potter has already started our work for us, with the attack on poor Draco and his friends, so getting him to go off on other students will be just a continuation of that event. Last year the papers didn't have any instants of him going off on anyone to print, this year Potter is going to Azkaban for murder." Marietta said with an evil grin coming across her face at the thought. Now I want you to carefully select when to go off own another student, whenever you're replacing Harry. If you just go berserker on everyone, the head master will know something's up. Just react to any taunting, and to any slight joke about Harry, no mater how innocent. Also he has a brilliant friend named Ronald Weasley. At least his brothers are brilliant. He's a pureblood, so you need to probe Harry's mind carefully every so often to be able to talk with him." Marietta finished. She gave Filch a filtrations look. "Now, tell me love, who have you got in mind to replace yourself with?" Filch sat beside her.
"His name is Semis Finnegan, and I think you'll find he meets your requirements. He's a pureblood, and shall we say gifted in certain areas. He's also Potter's roommate." Filch said." He stated.
"Yuck!" Marietta said with a sour expression on her face. "The poor boy. They are not friends are they?" She asked. Filch smiled.
"Not for much longer. But there is another problem. I can't sleep in the Gryffindor dorms, and it's going to make someone suspicious."
"Why not love? I'm sure that they will not notice any change in his behavior when he's asleep." Marietta put in.
"I can't keep his form when I'm asleep, and his roommates are sure to notice what's in his bead in the morning if I'm not the first one up. Another thing is that I need to move my things out of here, if were going to keep him in here. I can't sleep in here either, and that leaves only one place." He finished, leaving Marietta to deduce the answer. She thought for a minute, and it came to her.
"Uncle Filches quarters, you poor dear." She said.
"Yes, I'll need him to help me move everything tomorrow night. The good news is that Filch and his stupid cat, are usually out prowling at night. I'm sure that he'll be happy to finally let his cat out of the office. She escaped the other day for a short time, but he quickly recovered her. Anyway it's a good thing that his office is attached to his quarters, so it will be convenient to enter, but I'm worried that I will be spotted by the ghost going into his office every night. They hang around there so often. Still I'll have to wait until he shoos them away. I'm not sure how I'm going to explain to the others in the room why, I'm sneaking out every night." Marietta smiled.
"Well, you'll just have to tell them that your going to meet a hot sexy Ravenclaw girl every night, for an intimate encounter, and make them jealous." She said. "But the question is how I am going to get him down here. I can't stun him; I would have to drag the body all the way down here. And getting Filch to help is out of the question, he would never agree to keep a pureblood boy in captivity. After I give him a memory charm, I can just say that I've been given instructions from the society to have you sleep in his quarters, to be away from Potter, and that we sent the real Semis Finnegan home to take private instruction from a society private tutor. I'll tell him that Finnegan and his family are in the society, and that it was agreed upon by Professor Watson, and they informed me, and told me to tell uncle Filch, and that he was to give you every courtesy. That's the beautie of me being the one in charge of this operation; my dear uncle has to do everything I say in regards to the society's business. Also since the society sends most messages directly to me, I see more classified documents than Uncle Filch. Anyway I'll have him bring enough food, and water down hears for a couple of months, and toiletry items as well. He needs to have access to good hygiene, so that you can be healthy too." Marietta finished. "But still the question remains, how do we get him down here. I don't want to use the imperious curse, I have a felling that somehow the Head master will find out." She said. Filch gave a sensual smile.
"Well if I can become him tonight, and you can have sex with me, he'll dream about it tomorrow night. If you're really wild, he'll remember it well. And you can bring him down here with the promises of the real thing later. But not to much later." He finished. Marietta thought for a moment.
"Be ready to receive him on Saturday, I'll convince him to come down here then." Marietta stood up and began to undress, as Filch malted into a clear bubble, and reformed into Semis Finnegan. When she was done, she pushed him hard onto the bed, and gave a seductive smile. "Hello Semis Finnegan, I'm Marietta Edgencombe, and I'm going to rock your world!" she said intimately, as she climbed up on him.
Cho and Luna, had been waiting behind a suit of armor, for Marietta to get back and activate the painting. They were in the dark, and remained perfectly still, until they jumped at the sound of Filch shouting.
"There you are! What are you doing out of bed?" He shouted. Cho and Luna were horrified, he was coming in their direction, and they were frozen in fear. It looked like this was the end, but Filch walked right past them, she shadow of the suit of armor hiding them from the light of Filche's lamp. Cho and Luna peered around the suit to see who Filch was shouting at. It was Marietta. She looked at Filch defiantly.
"What do you think dear uncle; I'm out on society business, laying out the final plans." Marietta said. Filch gave her a nasty look. Cho and Luna looked at each other and both mouthed the words dear uncle at each other in disbelief.
"Well when do you think that the plans will be finished? Poor Miss Norris needs to be let out of the office; she hasn't been out but for a few minutes since two weeks before school, the poor dear." Filch said. Marietta gave him a sly smile.
"Well if you love the stupid cat so much, than why don't you get her a flee collar, or a flee dip, or something. Why don't you also go to madam Pomfrey for that bladder infection, afraid of a little urinary charm?" Marietta asked sarcastically.
"Don't you be smart with me, dear niece. Why the society put you in charge of everything over me I have no idea. I've been here for over forty years, and you're just a little girl." He said. Marietta gave him a dirty look.
"I'm in charge here, because this whole thing is my grand design. Also you're a squib, and although pure blood runs through your veins, it takes a magic user to handle something this important. And I'm no longer a little girl but a full grown woman now. I'm seventeen. So don't come to me with that little girl stuff. Just do your job, and things are going to get a lot better for you around here. I know how anxious you are to get back to toarchering students, and I'm going to be the one to help you in that. Now, tomorrow we have some things to discuss. They include you finally being able to let Miss Norris out of the office, and coming up with some non perishable foods, enough for a couple of months." She finished. Filch let out a sincere smile.
"You mean I can really let her roam free again?" Filch asked excited. Marietta smiled.
"Of coerce, we only needed her for temporary use, but you have to do everything I say with out question. It is for the good of the wizarding world. Now remember you took the oath, you can never go back on It." she said. Filch nodded his head.
"I know, I understand it's just that… why do you need to have such a large supply of non perishable food? He asked. Marietta rolled her eyes.
"Didn't I just say to do everything I say without question? Don't worry about things that don't concern you. Just follow orders! Goodnight dear uncle." She finished, and gave the charm to reverse the freezing effect on the painting the soldier and the woman moved and asked for the password as if nothing had happened. Marietta gave it, and went through the passage. Filch gave a dirty look toward the area that Marietta had disappeared to.
"Goodnight dear niece!" he said in a sarcastic tone. And left toward the stairs that led to the dungeon. Cho and Luna waited for a few minutes before approaching the painting. When they did it the woman asked them for their password. Cho looked at her watch and then up at them and asked if they remembered anything between the hours of twelve and now which was four thirty. They said that they didn't keep track of time, but that Cho and Luna had better remember the password if they wanted to get inside. Luna gave it, and they walked inside, very tired from being up all night. They agreed to discuss what had happened, but decided not to do it at lunch, but somewhere that they could keep it private. After a while of thought they finally decided to work out the mystery in Cho's dorm room, as she was sure that she could trust everyone there. The two hugged each other, and left to sleep in their separate dorm rooms, they would have plenty to talk about tomorrow. As Cho fell asleep she had horrible dreams again, and was restless, hearing Harry's angry words from last year…
"Don't you start crying again…Don't you start crying again… Don't you start crying again." Then she dreamed of being with Harry at Hogsmead last year. Um hey listen Cho…I've got to meet another girl…another girl…another girl…" and then finally, the worst dream, Harry being tortured by the crucio curse." She had a restless few hours of sleep before Erica woke her up.
"Come on Cho! Your going to be late." She said. Cho felt as if she had only been asleep for a few minutes, and knew her eyes were bloodshot." She dressed quickly and ran down stairs quickly filing out with the rest of the Ravenclaw students. Cho spied Marietta looking equally tired, and also with bloodshot eyes exiting out the door.