The Mark of Accountability

Second, only they could remove the marks. That was something she fully understood now. Only by admitting they'd done wrong and changing their behavior would those marks begin to fade and eventually disappear. No one could take them away for them. And honestly in this society, once people understood how they came to be marked, no one would even try to. People would see the marks as the hard earned fruits of their own labor.

But the children didn't care. Right now they were angry and hurt and they blamed Harry for it. Rightly, of course. Since he did call for the Judgement against them. But there was no way he'd ever get punished for it. Since if they hadn't been guilty, the marks wouldn't be there.

But she was also coming to realize the three weren't the children she'd thought they were. Their inability to own up to their own bad behavior was as enlightening to her as it was disappointing. She was still fond of them.

She just now realized they weren't exactly who she thought they were. As was obvious by the fact they were still trying to convince her Harry had lied to her and they'd done nothing wrong. That he'd just been angry and took his anger out on them for no good reason.

They'd come to her office today to try and convince her to punish Mr. Potter. To make him remove the marks he'd put on them. Just as they had yesterday. She'd refused.

She in turn tried to get them to understand they were being punished by Magic itself. Not by Mr. Potter. She tried to get them to read the booklet. Just as she had yesterday. They'd refused.

She had noticed Albus returning to the Castle and was actively engaged in trying to keep the trio from seeing him as she knew him well enough to know he'd take their side, never noticing whether or not they were lying to him.

He'd then do exactly as they wanted. Oh, he wouldn't set the scene in the Great Hall or anything like that. But he would call Mr. Potter to his office so he could punish him for the offense against them and try to force him to apologize to the children.

Because it'd never occur to Albus that they deserved the marks they wore. Or that it'd been Mr. Potter's right to punish them for their transgressions against him. Especially as no one else would even admit they were transgressing against him to punish them.

That had been another eye-opening realization for her. She'd finally had to admit to herself that even if Mr. Potter had come to her about what the trio were doing to him, she wouldn't have done anything about it. If she'd even have listened to him at all. Which chances were good she wouldn't have. Because at that time, she'd thought he was the bad seed in her tower. Now she knew if he was, he wasn't the only one.

So for now she just wanted to keep the trio away from Albus for as long as she possibly could. To delay that meeting for as long as possible. Because even if he could, she knew Mr. Potter well enough to know he'd do nothing to remove those marks.

Unknown to Minerva she wasn't the only adult at the Castle seeking to keep the trio away from Albus by any means necessary. So were some of the other teachers. All of whom had come to realize the trio hadn't yet come to understand no one could free them of their marks but themselves.

Flitwick, Sprout and Professor Babbling all took to waylaying the trio in the halls and making them assist them in some task or another whenever they saw them headed for Albus' office or saw Albus approaching the same hall the trio were in. Flitwick always had to make up a task for them to aide him with but Sprout never had that problem.

With her in charge of the greenhouses there was always something she could put them to work doing. And Professor Babbling was working a new string of ancient runes she claimed to need translation help with. Ron and Ginny had tried to beg off that but she wouldn't let them and dragged them into her classroom along with Hermione who was the only one actually taking her class.

Even Madam Pomfrey and Professor Vector had misdirected them away from Albus a couple of times. Madam Pomfrey claimed to need them to help her in the infirmary where she supposedly needed some extra hands or strong backs. Though Professor Vector had only done so accidently because she actually did need a helping hand in her classroom at the time.

She was in the process of breaking down cleaning and then reassembling some of the telescopes her students used to study the nighttime sky. In short, everyone was doing what they could to give the trio time to realize demanding punishment for Mr. Potter would get them nowhere and that they deserved the marks. Now all that needed to happen was for the Trio of Misfortune to get the message they, the teachers, were giving them.

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