Marietta Edgecombe

Marietta Edgecombe was a witch who was a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1990 to 1997. She was Sorted into Ravenclaw House and was the best friend of Cho Chang. In her sixth year, Marietta joined Dumbledore's Army at Cho's urging, despite being reluctant to get on Dolores Umbridge's bad side. When she became afraid that her mother's job at the Ministry of Magic might be threatened by her membership in the organisation, Marietta betrayed the D.A. to Umbridge. This activated a jinx that caused boils to erupt on Marietta's face, and a Memory Charm was later placed on her in order to prevent her from fully incriminating her fellow D.A. members.

Early Life
It is likely that Marietta obtained her wand from Ollivander's Wand Shop before she went to Hogwarts at the age of eleven. She was born in a wizarding family so she got her Hogwarts Acceptance Letter by owl.

Early years
Marietta began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1990 and was sorted into Ravenclaw house. At some point, she met the popular Cho Chang, and became a member of her group of giggling friends. When Cho fell into a somewhat emotional wreck due to Cedric Diggory's demise, Marietta was the only one of her many friends who stayed with her, while the others left. As such, Cho considered Marietta a true friend.

Sixth year
In her sixth year, Marietta was made to attend the first meeting of what would become Dumbledore's Army in Hog's Head by her friend Cho Chang from peer pressure, despite her obvious suspicion of Harry Potter's intentions as well as his claims that Lord Voldemort had returned. She gave Harry a thoroughly distrustful look that tells him that, given her way, she would not be there. She also gave Cho a disapproving look for signing the piece of parchment drawn up by Hermione Granger for all members to sign, and only added her name reluctantly.

Despite Harry's extremely effective teaching methods, Marietta did not enjoy the lessons at the very least, and continued to resent Harry's words, thinking of him and Albus Dumbledore as liars and nutters, and acted in a disrespectful way to Harry, which Cho told him to ignore. Her membership in the D.A. became particularly difficult as it increasingly came into conflict with Hogwarts High Inquisitor Dolores Umbridge, who was at Hogwarts as the representative of the Ministry of Magic, where Marietta's mother worked. Even after the Death Eaters' mass breakout of Azkaban and Harry's interview was published in The Quibbler, Marietta continued to distrust Harry greatly.

After six months of the meetings, and from the pressure her mother gave, Marietta finally betrayed Dumbledore's Army to the Ministry. After dinner, while the rest of Dumbledore's Army was learning to cast the Patronus, of which everyone was very eager to learn, Marietta instead went to Umbridge's office, giving her an advantageous hint about the Room of Requirement. With a little further questioning from Umbridge, Marietta confessed that a meeting was taking place there. Right after that, Marietta would come to regret her decision, as the parchment she and the other members of the D.A. had signed at the first meeting was jinxed, making anyone who betrayed the organisation break out in pimples that spelled the word "SNEAK" across her face. Upon catching her face in Umbridge's mirror, it prevented Marietta from showing her face in shame.

As this jinx caused Marietta to cover up her face in shame and muffling her voice, she was unable to verbally confess everything to Cornelius Fudge. As such, Umbridge simply asked her and told her to nod. However, just before she was to confess all to Umbridge, Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Auror and a secret member of the Order of the Phoenix, took advantage of Marietta's silent shame to perform a Memory Charm on her so that she could not implicate Albus Dumbledore and Harry. Her sudden change in her testimony angered Umbridge so much that the twisted professor began shaking her very hard, and only stopped when Dumbledore pointed his wand at her in anger.

After Dumbledore took blame of the organisation's formation, Marietta was one of the few people who witnessed the fierce battle between Fudge's brigade and Dumbledore in the office. However, as she went to the hospital wing to clear up the blemishes, she was unable to give anyone a full account. Throughout her stay there, Madam Pomfrey was unable to make the slightest changes in the jinx. Cho was upset for her friend and defended her to Harry Potter, saying Marietta merely made a mistake, and calling Hermione's jinx a "horrible trick" while trying to persuade Harry to forgive Marietta. Harry, however, considered the uninnocent Marietta a traitor and her confession to not only ruin D.A., but also personally insulted Harry's sanity for his claims about Voldemort's return, and he ruthlessly commented on how Hermione's jinx was brilliant. After this row, their relationship fell apart. When Cho stomped away in fury, Harry's only regret was not being able to badmouth Marietta further.

While Marietta was not an enthusiastic member of D.A., she did learn many spells from it. However, when her memories were erased by Kingsley, it may be possible that she forgot every one of them, thus wasting six months worth of weekly meetings of her life.

At the end of the year, Marietta was seen wearing a balaclava to cover her disfigured face, accompanying Cho on the train, evading Harry.

Seventh year
Marietta still had blemishes on her face from the jinx the following school year, and took to wearing thick make-up to try to cover them up, with limited success. She sat with Cho on the train to Hogwarts for their final year; they saw Harry Potter on the way, but did not speak to him and looked away when he walked pass them on the train.

The formation of the pimples eventually faded, but left a few scars.

Later life
It is unknown if Marietta returned to Hogwarts and participated in the Battle of Hogwarts alongside Cho, nor if she survived the reign of Lord Voldemort, but given her loyalty issues and considered a traitor by all other members, she was at least not accepted back into Dumbledore's Army. She is also one of the few who did not keep her special coin as a badge of honour.

Physical appearance
Marietta is described as having curly, reddish-blonde hair. After she was struck with the Dumbledore's Army parchment jinx for betraying the D.A., she bore pimples spelling "SNEAK" across her face. During the time she bore those boils, Mareitta covered them up with a balaclava and then thick makeup, the latter of which did not completely hide them. They faded with time, but Marietta was left with a few scars.

Personality and traits
"She's a lovely person really. She just made a mistake..."

- Cho Chang describing Marietta.

As described by her best friend Cho, Marietta is a lovely person. When Cho became depressed over Cedric's death and turned into an emotional wreck, but Marietta stayed. This proves Marietta's level of loyalty to her friends, although it is unknown if she stayed due to friendship or pity.

However, Marietta is one of the many people who are loyal to the Ministry of Magic, and was distrustful to Harry Potter's statement of Lord Voldemort returning, thinking him and Albus Dumbledore as liars and nutters, and acting cynical towards them. Cho told Harry to not mind this attitude, a mistake which cost Dumbledore's Army future meetings for the rest of that year.

Marietta's loyalty is due to her mother being a Ministry employee. As such, Marietta receives much pressure to maintain a good impression to the Ministry. This pressure made her easily willing to betray Dumbledore's Army and have all its members expelled from school, even though her best friend was in it, and she was fully willing to pass up a chance to learn the Patronus charm, of which everyone was so eager to learn, although it took Marietta six months to make her choose what she did. Marietta values her family and the Ministry over her best friend and the truth. Harry Potter stated that Marietta is a traitor, while Hermione commented that she was "stupid".

However, for all her loyalty to her mother and the Ministry, Marietta cares more about her appearance, and refused to show her disfigured face in front of the prosecutors in shame, thus muffling her own voice, and giving Kingsley Shaklebolt the time to modify her memories.

Magical skills and abilities

 * Nonverbal Magic: During the first D.A. meeting, when her sleeve catches on fire from an incorrectly done Expelliarmus spell by Cho Chang, Marietta puts out the flame without seeming to say any incantation.
 * Defence Against the Dark Arts: Although an unenthusiastic member of D.A., Marietta has learned many spells against the Dark Arts from Harry. However, during the Patronus lesson, she instead went for Umbridge, thus missing a chance to learn how to produce one. When Kingsley modified Marietta's memories to forget about D.A., it is possible that she forgot about all the spells that Harry taught her, thus wasting six months worth of weekly meetings.

Family
Marietta's mother works for the Ministry, and therefore, Marietta herself is loyal to it. She feared that any bad impressions left on Dolores Umbridge, a Ministry representative at Hogwarts, would injure her mother's reputation at office, and therefore refused to get on Umbridge's bad side. Overall, Marietta is very loyal to her family.

Cho Chang
Marietta is one of Cho Chang's gang of giggling friends, and accompanies with her to almost everywhere. However, after the rest of the friends left Cho due to her emotional breakdown from her late boyfriend Cedric Diggory's demise, Marietta is the only one who remained with her. This means that while the others only followed Cho for her popularity, Marietta is indeed loyal and true. However, when Cho brought Marietta to Dumbledore's Army against her will, Marietta eventually betrayed it, and was willing to have even her best friend expelled for being part of an illegal organisation. In short, Marietta's loyalty to Cho is lower than that to her family and the Ministry. Despite this, Cho still stood up for Marietta, refusing to let Harry Potter badmouth her, and ultimately broke up with him due to this.

Harry Potter
When Harry Potter first asked Cho to the Yule Ball, Marietta was one of the many girls that giggled at him. The following year, when the Ministry had the Daily Prophet printing about how Harry is a lunatic for claiming Lord Voldemort returned, Marietta believed it due to her family's connections with the Ministry. As such, when she was forced to join Dumbledore's Army, which Harry was the leader, she became very distrustful and disrespectful to his words and actions. Despite Harry's extremely effective methods of teaching and The Quibbler printing out Harry's version of the story, Marietta continued to find Harry an unstable nutter, and continued to distrust him. After Marietta betrayed the organisation, Harry fully saw how much Marietta resented him, and saw it as an insult that she not only betrayed them, but also refused to believe in him. As a result, he insulted her and broke up with Cho.

Dumbledore's Army
Cho forced Marietta to attend the illegal organisation, Dumbledore's Army, against her will, despite it being a great potential of ruining Mrs. Edgecombe's reputation at the Ministry, especially when it was ran by one of the Ministry's most hated person at the time: Harry Potter. None of the members seemed to care too much about Marietta's cynical behaviour against their formation, until she betrayed them to Umbridge, nearly expelling them all. Once that happened, they considered her a traitor and refused to accept her ever again. As such, she was not allowed to return when the group reformed two years later.

Etymology

 * Marietta is a female given name, an Italian diminutive of Maria. It means "little bitter".
 * Edgecombe is a misspelling of Edgcumbe, an English surname. The name Edgecombe was also used for a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina, named after Richard Edgcumbe, a Member of Parliament from 1701 to 1742 and a Lord of the Treasury, who became 1st Baron Edgcumbe in 1742.

Behind the scenes

 * In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the character of Marietta was cut, and Cho Chang was the one who betrayed the D.A. whilst under the effects of Veritaserum though she was mentioned in the game when Harry asked Cho to bring her to the DA meeting when trying to ask her for a date.
 * In the books, Marietta has never had any dialogue of her own, though other characters have discussed about her.
 * J. K. Rowling confirmed that Marietta's pimples faded but left a few scars, commenting "I loathe a traitor!"

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Notes and references
Мариэтта Эджком Marietta Edgecombe