Protection: The Sword and the Shield

Nott

...Nott Manor, Flintshire

Marietta Edgecombe and her friends were oddities in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It wasn't due to their year and a half long social exile, though that was probably the cause of their strange case. The oddity was that the young women were all still virgins and were the only girls above second year that could still claim that fact to be true. If they lived in the muggle world, that would probably have added to their value as perspective wives and consorts, but in the wizarding world virginities carried very little value.

Except one.

Virgin girls could be very useful in certain dark blood magic rituals. Fortunately for most young witches (all girls, actually), rituals that used a "virgin sacrifice" as an "ingredient" required that the virginity be freely given, without ill intent. No one new why the ritual did work with rape and no dark practitioner had ever been able to overcome the limitation. Because of that, virgin rituals had little appeal to dark magic users and was generally not used by the light sided magicals because of its dark nature.

However, Theodore Nott was on a mission to elevate the strength and power of the House of Nott to match the prestige of its name. And he was willing and eager to attempt anything to achieve that. He also refused to be limited by notions of light and dark. So when Marietta had told him that she was a virgin in hopes that he be gentle with her, she was surprised to see a fire light behind his eyes. It had frightened her a little but she had become so convinced of her love for him and his for her that she had also found herself aroused by his intensity.

...Flashback

Marietta Edgecombe was a member of the Noble House of Edgecombe. Her grandfather, Magnus, was the current Lord and her mother's older brother, Uncle Maxwell, was next in line for the title. In addition to her marriage contract, he knew that her family was in talks with the House of Nott to become a Vassal House. The wonderful changes that come to her life since the Yule break had made the entire previous year completely worth it in her mind.

"It is worth it" she said to herself for the umpteenth time. The fiasco with Luna had been humiliating and she was trying to convince herself that the current situation was not any worse. The night after the final contract had been signed she had gone to Theo expecting him to finally take her. Sex had become common place at Hogwarts and she desperately wanted to experience it.

But she had been a social outcast and wasn't common enough to throw herself at any boy. So when she found herself straddling Theo's lap and his hands sending tingles through her whole body, she had found the wherewithal to tell him that she was a virgin. She had just wanted him to be gentle with her. Instead she now found herself meeting his mother for the first time and the discussion was about how to gain the most from the first time he fucked her. And her grandfather was there too.

They were in a reserved room at the Leaky Cauldron. The meeting of Theo's circle of advisors included his mother, Brittany Nott, his uncle Simon, Magnus and Maxwell Edgecombe, his best friends, Blaise and Millicent and the group of girls that they had recently claimed as their own. All of her friends were virgins as well which helped but she was sitting next to Theo who kept his hand high on her thigh and under her school uniform skirt. She tried to stay focused on the conversation but every time she noticed Theo's mum eyes look at his hand she would blush.

Even so, Marietta loved the attention. She had grown up believing that she was beautiful but after being ignored for so long she had started to become insecure. She was average height at 5'2" with average B cup breasts. She had long, straight black hair and her face was delicate and slightly pale. Theo's open and public admiration of her had been a balm for her self-esteem. She knew that he was the same with Mandy and Sarah and she could see the stress lines leaving them as well.