Marked by Self-Interest

The trio smirked to each other thinking how easy she was to fool. They knew what Harry had told them about their marks but they wanted him to pay for his actions. Nor did they care if the marks were justified or not. All they cared about was themselves. And these marks so prominently displayed on their faces weren't in their best interests. So they wanted them gone and the person who caused them to be there, punished for his audacity. Besides, they all felt it had been dark magic also and they knew the Professors would be upset with Potter for using it on them.

Hermione believed she was better than Harry because she was smarter. Everyone said so. All of her life people had been telling her how smart she was.

Professor Dumbledore even told her he was hiring her because she was smarter than Harry was and could provide him with the information he'd otherwise be unable to find. What he hadn't said was that he was hiring her because he knew she was an information whore and would look up anything he told her to and then force Harry to learn what he thought the boy needed to know for whatever scheme he'd cooked up that year while keeping Harry from learning information on his own that Dumbledore didn't want him to learn.

Just because she was greedy when it came to books and the knowledge contained within them. Any books she saw in his hands, if she hadn't placed it there personally, she'd take away from him claiming she needed to read it as she hadn't yet. Even if she had.

Ginny believed she was better than Harry because she had been told by her mother and by Professor Dumbledore she was his saving grace. Because she came from a purely light orientated family. So did he actually but Ginny ignored that because Professor Dumbledore told her he had been cursed by a Dark Lord and that would exert an influence over him tainting his light with the shadows of the dark. It'd be her place to help him remain true to his light orientation.

That Harry's innate magic was actually lighter in orientation than her own wasn't something she was aware of or would believe if she was told. Nor was Harry in any danger of falling into the darkness so easily as she had when she'd been writing in a curse diary for a good year. But she didn't believe that either because Professor Dumbledore told her, her light magic was so strong, it had naturally fought and defeated the dark influence of the book. Never mind that she damn near died because she couldn't fight it's influence at all.

And Ronald believed he was Harry's superior by right of birth. He was a pureblood. Plain and simple. That meant he outranked Harry no matter how rich or famous the prat was. And having been raised in the magical world, of course he was superior to Harry James Potter. Harry was only a half blood. Rich yes. Entitled to a seat on the Wizengamot when he came of age as well. But that didn't mean he out ranked Ron. Ron was a pureblood.

It disgusted them last evening when they had found they couldn't openly lie as they usually did. They'd skipped dinner as none of them wanted to face a hall full of people staring at them and asking questions before they got their stories down pat.

By working together, they found they could imply things that weren't true if they were careful enough not to set off the runes. It'd taken them some time to work out exactly what would trigger the runes from what wouldn't and they'd been shocked by how the runes reacted to their thoughts and words. But eventually they'd worked out a story they could safely tell people without too much difficulty.

The Professor was such an easy mark for them, it had worked like a breeze when they went to her office that morning. Especially where Hermione was concerned because Minerva fancied she saw herself in Hermione. And Hermione had had a lot of practice lying by inference and omission these last four years. After all, it wasn't like she could or even would tell her parents the truth about attending school at Hogwarts.

They might decide the school was too dangerous for their little girl and pull her out regardless of her wishes in the matter. She was the spoilt only child of two distinct generations. Not to mention she had a feeling none of her adults would approve of her school job. But what they didn't know, they couldn't disapprove or stop. So she'd gotten very good at lying.

So when they had gone to the Professor sobbing, angry and clearly upset, which hadn't been hard since the girls had just found they really couldn't disguise their new adornments in any manner, to tell their broken tale of how Harry had hurt them again, it hadn't surprised them when she'd filled in the blanks of their tale herself. She always believed them.

No matter what they told her Harry had done. Even when common sense and a little bit of thought should've told her he couldn't possibly have done what they were claiming. For that reason, Hermione never felt guilty about lying to her. She was a teacher. If she couldn't use her brain enough to catch them in an obvious lie than she deserved to be lied to.

Even so, by the time they had left her office, their faces, where the runes sat, were swollen and red. They'd needed to wait out the swelling before they dared show their faces in such a public place as the Great Hall. Which was why they'd missed Professor Snape telling her off and leaving right before they'd entered.

None of them noticed their cheeks were beginning to swell yet again as the marks began to react to their thoughts. In just a single evening, they'd gotten so used to feeling their faces swelling the feeling had already been relegated to the back of their minds.

Harry had warned them the degree of punishment would increase as time went on and they continued to behave badly towards himself. But as usual they discounted that as just wishful thinking on his part. He'd warned them they'd no longer be able to act against him in word, deed or thought.

That meant the marks would react even when they were only thinking of lying. They were just so used to having everything go their way when matters involved Harry, they hadn't yet stopped to think what his words to them might mean or realize he'd told them the truth about what he'd done to them. No longer would they be allowed to get away with betraying him. Period.

They rose from their seats and quietly walked behind their Head of House carefully concealing their smirks behind falsely upset faces. Well, they weren't false really.

They were upset over having been marked like this and told they were basically nothing more than slaves to that brat's will. It was embarrassing but if Harry ended up taking most the scorn, how did they lose by that? He had, after all, cut them off from their funding and, from his speech yesterday, he had made it clear both Ron and Ginny's educations hung by his whim. He could have both of them expelled simply by refusing to make their next tuition payment and there was nothing they could do about it.

Molly and Arthur couldn't afford to pay their tuition which is why they'd considered not sending either one to Hogwarts at all. Molly's Aunt had offered to cover the tuition for Ginny but she wanted to send her to some foreign finishing school for ladies of quality. Muriel had sworn Ginny had a better chance of landing an affluent husband if she learned to be more ladylike and refined. Learned what a lady of quality was supposed to know and be good at doing.

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