Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Afterlife and Times of Myrtle Potter
We see the first few days of Myrtle's afterlife, and a battle looms at Hogwart's
5Insightful
Chapter 2: The Haunting and the Defenders
Ghosts in the halls of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were common, you could hardly find a room anywhere that didn't get the occasional visit from one of the ectoplasmic echoes of the 'previously breathing.'
It's an entirely different matter to see one's classmate, one who was being eulogized at that very moment, suddenly appear at your elbow.
The two screaming Hufflepuffs startled Myrtle, who recoiled in surprise and found to her horror the she was suddenly floating just above her classmate's heads. Two of the Slytherin boys sniggered as they could see clearly up Myrtle's skirt. The Fat Friar of Hufflepuff House put a comforting arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the ground.
"I know you are confused child, come with me and I will explain it to you."
"Why would I go anywhere with a ghost, begging your pardon Brother, why not stay in the hall with my classmates?"
"Please humor an old ghost?"
Just then she realized that the ectoplasm that was the Friar's arm felt solid against her shoulders, she glanced down at her own hand and saw that she could see through it, she was translucent.
As the realization hit her she let out a moan, long and mournful and someone said, quietly to a nearby friend, "Myrtle's Moaning," and the friend who hadn't heard clearly asked "did y'say Moaning Myrtle?"
Unfortunately, that statement, meant only as a request for clarification, caught on like wildfire. In the weeks to come the moniker 'Moaning Myrtle' would stick. Eventually everyone would simply forget that she ever had a last name.
The Friar, Brother Antonio Domingo, led Myrtle into the dungeons, not bothering to open doors as they went, sometimes not bothering with doors at all, just passing through walls as they descended.
"We only pass through walls when we need to be somewhere in a hurry child," the friar explained as they descended, "normally we like to at least pretend we are walking down corridors or sitting at tables, reading or writing."
Finally they passed into a large hall, obviously meant to be a feasting hall, but long forgotten as it was in the bowels of the castle. Inside the hall she saw just over two dozen ghosts, some of whom she recognized, Nearly Headless Nick for one, The Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady as well.
A very somber Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington extended both his hands and very respectfully said, "Welcome to Hogwarts dear spirit of the recently departed, I wish I could say that I'm happy to see you but truth is, I'm not. None of us are. We are so sorry for your loss."
"I am dead, aren't I?" Myrtle asked.
"I'm afraid so child" the Grey Lady said, placing a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, "do you remember anything about the circumstances of your passing?"
Myrtle thought for a moment, "I'm not sure milady, I remember I was upset, crying and then there was this voice, a boy's voice saying something in gibberish, and I got angry at the boy and wanted to tell him to go away and, and, and . . . I woke up in the same place where I think I died."
"Child," the Friar offered, "is there some unfinished business you need to take care of, some task that must be performed that can only be done by you? Is there someone you have to say goodbye to?"
"I don't know, I don't think so, why?"
"It's unusual for one so young to remain grounded, Earth bound if you will. Most of us were required to stay on Earth because of some obligation, family to look after, loved ones to say goodbye to, that sort of thing."
"And some" began the Bloody Baron, "are just not yet ready to go over to the other side!"
"Child," the Grey Lady began, "has someone captured your heart?"
"Well, there is this boy I like, sorta, I was thinking of him just now . . ."
"Perhaps you need to tell him goodbye before moving on?"
"No" she admitted dejectedly, "he doesn't know I exist."
"Perhaps you need to solve your own murder?" Sir Nicholas offered.
"Was I murdered? I don't know. All I remember is standing just outside a cubicle and seeing a pair of great big, yellow eyes."
"Where was this?"
"Second floor, loo."
"Anything else?"
"There was a boy's voice . . . but he was just talking nonsense, not even words . . ."
"You had a boy in the bathroom?"
"No, no, nothing like that" she looked down, "never anything like that, I've never even been kissed . . ."
"No boyfriends?" the Grey Lady asked, sympathetically.
Myrtle shook her head no.
"Family?"
The girl sniffed and stammered out "orph, orphan."
"Any friends at all?"
Myrtle sobbed, and the Grey Lady gathered her into a hug, "poor lonely spirit, we are your family now; you don't have to be alone ever again, unless that is your choice."
The little ghost girl sobbed into the lady's hair, silver tears tracking down her face.
After what seemed like an age - ghosts, it seems are very patient, they have after all, all the time in the world - Myrtle had cried herself out.
"Let's see where you were, um, made the dear departed" Sir Nicholas offered as a suggestion.
"Can someone help me up to the second floor please; I'm not sure how to move through closed doors and such."
"Of course child, more than happy to assist a young lady!" the ghost knight struck a gallant leg and bowed - causing his head to become unhinged, and flop off to one side.
"Drat" he groused, pushing his head back into place, "sorry."
If a ghost could be said to look green, Myrtle would have, but she plowed on "not at all Sir Nicholas."
A small knot of ghosts guided Myrtle all over the castle, giving 'ghosting' lessons along the way.
"Once you know your way around you'll be able to just imagine yourself in a place and will simply appear there. A sort of spectral apparation if you will" the friar was explaining. "And walls and doors are purely advisory in nature!" he exclaimed popping into and out of the stone walls as he did so.
After a long time, maybe night had fallen, maybe it was already the next day, time had little meaning in her new existence, they found themselves floating in the corridor just outside the girls' bathroom on the second floor.
Myrtle started to go in when Sir Nicholas placed a hand on her arm, "wait" he suggested.
The Grey Lady looked back to Nicholas, "you feel it too?"
"I certainly do" the friar interjected.
"What?" Myrtle asked.
"Very dark magic, something unspeakably evil is in there!"
"Why don't I feel it?"
"Perhaps because you have been touched by it you are immune, who knows? But I honestly believe that even ones such as ourselves would be right to fear whatever is or was in that room!"
"I'll just pop in and have a look around then shall I?" the girl asked.
"Hurry back if you see anything child, some magics can hurt us even if we're not, um, of the breathing persuasion" the friar warned.
She stepped quickly through the wall, ready to retreat at any sign of danger, but saw nothing.
She stuck her head through the door and said "all clear."
The other spirits followed her into the room and investigated all the corners, upper and lower for any signs of lurking evil, but couldn't find it. The feeling was there nonetheless.
"Perhaps you'd like to lodge with me?" the Grey Lady offered, "I have a lovely corner in the Ravenclaw common room and you'd be most welcome.
Myrtle's eyes went suddenly dark, "another time perhaps, milady, right now I don't want to be anywhere near a Ravenclaw!"
"Oh dear, have I offended?"
Myrtle shook herself trying to rid herself of her anger, "no, oh no milady, not you, but some of the students in your house have been very mean to me!"
"Do tell."
"It was Olive Hornby who drove me away from the great hall when I ran, distraught into this bathroom. In a way, it's her fault that I died!"
The other ghosts cringed at this, the Fat Friar took it upon himself to explain to the new ghost that it was very bad manners to use the words 'death' or 'died' and it was never done in polite ghost company.
"Is that why I'm still here, brother? Am I supposed to haunt those who taunted me in life?"
"It's not likely child," the friar responded, "some spirits are vengeful, but those are usually exorcised, perhaps if you find your quiet place" he tapped his own chest in the vicinity of his ghostly heart, "your place of peace, then you may find why you're still here on this plane."
The other ghosts turned to leave but Myrtle said "I think I'll just stay here for a bit, it feels like, I dunno, my place somehow."
The other spirits nodded in understanding and made their farewells.
Myrtle floated around the bathroom, not a bad place, really. Lots of room, lots of places to perch - she especially liked the high stained glass window up near the rafters.
She also found she could flow into the pipes and just rest there in the 'u' bend. She also discovered to her discomfiture that if anyone drained water out of a sink that she was attached to then she would be washed out of the castle into the lake. The first time that happened she found herself eye-to-eye with the giant squid. That was also the first time she apparated, naturally she found herself back in 'her' bathroom.
Myrtle found herself more often than not in her bathroom, not that she was antisocial, she got on well with all the other ghosts, even Peeves the Poltergeist was nicer to her than he had ever been when she was alive.
"Moaning Myrtle is one of us now, so I say she has Peeves' protection!"
Winter gave way to spring and life, or rather afterlife settled into something of a comfortable pattern. Even some of the students were at least waving to her when they saw her. And Nicholas Farkas, the boy she had been making 'goo-goo eyes' at during the previous fall placed a lovely lily in the knave beside her bathroom door.
"Do you really want to be in here?" a girl's voice asked, "isn't this where Frisbee snuffed it?"
"This is as good a place as any" came another girl's reply, "and she's dead and gone."
"Dead, yeah, but not exactly gone; don'cha know she haunts this bathroom?"
"Yeah, well," Olive said as she stuck a fag in her mouth and touched the end of her wand to it, lighting it, "what's she gonna do, moan me to death?"
"Don'cha know you're not s'posed to talk bad about the dead?"
"Yeah, well that little bint will be about as scary as a ghost as she was in life!"
Myrtle learned that day that she could be a truly terrifying sight, rising from the stone floor, a look of righteous fury on her translucent face.
Olive learned that she could urinate while standing, with her pants still on.
"Hornby!" Myrtle screamed, and all the blood drained from the live girl's face as she wet herself, her legs feeling like rubber. Her friend was out the door like a shot, leaving Olive to face the angry ghost alone.
"It's not enough that you tormented me while I was alive, you have the gall to come into my bathroom stinking it up with your fags and then insult my memory?"
"Frisby? Y'know I din't mean anything, right? You're not goin' to do anything to me now or anything are you?" The once haughty Ravenclaw was now kneeling in a puddle of her own making.
"You mean like, oh I dunno, haunt you?" Myrtle grinned an inhumanly wide grin, "what a wonderful idea!"
For the remaining two months of school Olive Hornby lived in her own little self imposed hell, if she looked in a mirror she saw Myrtle's face leering back at her. When she tried to sleep the ghost would hum an annoying little song just loud enough to steal her sleep, what the hell were "mare's - e - dotes" anyway? When she did finally get to sleep, and what ever sleep she got was never enough, she dreaded waking up because she knew she would be nose-to-nose with the ghost when she opened her eyes in the morning. The first time that happened she scrambled out of bed so quickly that she fell and bruised her bum.
The worst part was, she couldn't convince anyone that she was being haunted, every time she tried to get anyone else to see the ghost, Myrtle wasn't there. People started avoiding the paranoid Hornby girl. What was obvious was that she wasn't sleeping, evidenced by the dark circles under her eyes and she was losing weight, rapidly. Her clothes hung off her frame.
She barely got four O.W.L.s having fallen asleep during the written portions of her tests, for once Myrtle let her sleep. And she was the first one packed, sitting on her trunk before the sun rose on the day of the leaving feast. She was chuckling maniacally to herself, and in an eerie voice was singing in a whisper, "I'll be gone and she'll be here, she can't follow me home."
"My dear Olive, whatever gave you the idea that I can't follow you anywhere?"
"You! You have to stay here, them's the rules ain't they? You gotta stay where you died!"
"Oh Olive, don't you know I can go wherever water flows? So unless you live somewhere where there's no water for drinking or bathing . . ." she let the concept sink in.
"What do you want from me?" she screeched, waking her roommates in the process. They all scrambled out of the room as if they'd seen a ghost, which they hadn't, Myrtle was very good at not being seen when she wanted to.
"What I want is simple, I want justice. You were my personal tormentor for five years, ever since we first got to Hogwart's and you pushed me out of the bloody boat! What was that about anyway? I want five years from you in return or. . ."
Olive looked at her tormentor, daring to hope for an out.
". . .or I want an apology for the way you've treated me all these years."
"Okay, I'm sorry, I was a prat, I was a git, I was a bitch! I'll be whatever you say I was but leave me alone!"
"Sorry, not good enough. My humiliations were public, more often than not in the great hall. You want to be shot of me? I need an apology, in the great hall. When I get it I'll be done with you. Today would be good, because you're not going to see the great hall for the better part of three months after today and you'll be seeing a lot of me in the meantime!"
_____ooo000ooo_____
"Neville!" Harry shouted to the courtyard, "take two medics and look at all of the faces, once you've seen them all banish them!"
Neville Longbottom was pale but determined, he had chosen to become one of the first combat medics in Dumbledore's Army and he had already seen more than his share of bloodied corpses, now he led a squad of medics and he knew what he had to do.
He saw many faces that he recognized; too bloody many. Men, women, children, Voldemort didn't care; you were either with him or against him, you and all your family. Neville swore to himself, once he was finished with this business, if he survived, he was going to spend the rest of his life in or near a greenhouse making as much beauty as he could to purge his memories.
Once he had seen the last of the heads he looked at his two partners, who nodded, then performed the 'evanesco' charm that vanished the horrors that he had been forced by his duties to memorize. If only he could rid his mind of the images as easily. Two other medics arrived on scene carrying a stone penseive between them, Neville and his assistants gladly pulled the memories of what they had seen from their minds and placed them into the stone bowl. At least now the memories were not fresh and in the front of their minds. The memories would be available for the bereaved to look through later.
He pulled a miniature broom from his pocket and sub-vocalized 'finite,' cancelling the shrinking charm and restoring it to its full size. Neville nimbly hopped astride the broom and chuckled as he realized how far he had come since that first disastrous flying lesson so many years ago. He flew up to the wall to give Harry a report.
Without preamble he said "from the DA, the Browns, Finnegans, and Spinnets, and the Thomases."
"Any Order members?"
"No, but lots of DA members have lost their families. Merlin Harry, is that maniacal fuck just going to kill everybody?"
"Seems like, Neville, I have to wonder what's he going to do once everyone's dead?"
"No redheads?"
By 'redheads' Neville knew that Harry meant any of the Weasley clan.
"Nope, the fidelius is holding."
"Thank whatever gods there are for small favors."
A deceptively calm voice from behind Harry asked, "Is it true?"
'Whatever gods there are are petty and delight in human suffering' Harry thought as he turned to face Dean Thomas.
"Is it true?" Dean repeated.
"Yes Dean, it's true, I'm so sorry."
Dean could see how the deaths of all the innocents were weighing down on his soul, he could see in Harry's eyes the pain and loss that he felt himself, multiplied a thousand times.
"Tell me that I will see him suffer, him and anyone who wears that fuckin mark!"
"The lucky ones will die quickly, after that; they belong to the survivors of those families. Do with them whatever you will, but remember Dean, your family didn't ever want to see you become one of them!" Harry pointed to the forest, where Voldemort's troops were assembled. "Everyone who bears the mark will be judged, everyone! Whether on that battlefield or in the Wizengamot, they will be judged!"
Dean stood at the ramparts and prayed for the enemy to come, he had a lot of killing to do today.
_____ooo000ooo_____
Myrtle and the Bloody Baron, whose actual name she still hadn't learned, moved through the tunnels beneath the castle, they knew at least two of them came out in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, their entrances had been caved in centuries ago, but solid rock did not deter the spirit folk. They passed through the rock easily and poked their heads out of the ground.
"Baron" she hissed, "your hat!"
The baron removed his extravagant hat with its large silver buckle and white plume and affixed it to his belt "sorry" he mumbled.
Get a good count here and then we can report back to the defenders.
_____ooo000ooo_____
The Auror in Charge on Site was Auror Captain Emery, his troops called him Captain or ACOS. The DMLE officer was on detached duty reporting to the head of the Order of the Pheonix, one Harry James Potter, all his troops called him Harry. Captain Emery was skeptical at first, but he had seen what the Boy Who Lived could do and was on board one hundred percent. When the excited ghost girl asked to be taken to whoever was in charge that was actually Harry.
"Harry, a moment please?"
"Yes Captain?"
"This young lady says she has some information for us."
"Myrtle?"
Myrtle was hesitant at first, remembering how she had lashed out at Harry, unjustly, over his duel with Draco and she still felt the sting of his rebuke when he finally had it out with her, telling her in no uncertain terms that she was as guilty as Draco had been for the first invasion of Hogwarts in a thousand years and the subsequent death of Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry, some of the ghosts have agreed to work with you, all of you defending the castle."
"Go on" he said, encouragingly.
"The Bloody Baron and I have scouted the enemy and I have a full report."
Harry smiled and said "brilliant, Myrtle if I could I would hug you right now, this could be just what we need right now! Captain bring your lieutenants up here, Ron, get your brothers, Neville and Dean and Padma up here right away - use your patronus, quickly!"
In ten minutes all the leaders were diagramming the enemy's strength and position.
Three giants, each with a tree trunk to use as battering rams.
One hundred and fifty inferi in a corral being herded by a necromancer.
Two dozen mountain trolls, each about half the size of a giant, carrying clubs with ugly spikes protruding from them.
Fifty death eaters mounted on brooms practicing strafing runs.
An additional two hundred death eaters carrying crossbows as well as wands.
Half a dozen goblin ward breakers
No sign of dementors.
"Ron, no one has beaten you in a game of chess in the past seven years that I know of, can we contain these guys?"
Ron's brow was knit in concentration, "yep, but we're gonna bleed, no way around it."
"Are we gonna win, Ron?"
He nodded, a grim expression on his face, "yeah, we're gonna win."
Ghosts in the halls of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were common, you could hardly find a room anywhere that didn't get the occasional visit from one of the ectoplasmic echoes of the 'previously breathing.'
It's an entirely different matter to see one's classmate, one who was being eulogized at that very moment, suddenly appear at your elbow.
The two screaming Hufflepuffs startled Myrtle, who recoiled in surprise and found to her horror the she was suddenly floating just above her classmate's heads. Two of the Slytherin boys sniggered as they could see clearly up Myrtle's skirt. The Fat Friar of Hufflepuff House put a comforting arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the ground.
"I know you are confused child, come with me and I will explain it to you."
"Why would I go anywhere with a ghost, begging your pardon Brother, why not stay in the hall with my classmates?"
"Please humor an old ghost?"
Just then she realized that the ectoplasm that was the Friar's arm felt solid against her shoulders, she glanced down at her own hand and saw that she could see through it, she was translucent.
As the realization hit her she let out a moan, long and mournful and someone said, quietly to a nearby friend, "Myrtle's Moaning," and the friend who hadn't heard clearly asked "did y'say Moaning Myrtle?"
Unfortunately, that statement, meant only as a request for clarification, caught on like wildfire. In the weeks to come the moniker 'Moaning Myrtle' would stick. Eventually everyone would simply forget that she ever had a last name.
The Friar, Brother Antonio Domingo, led Myrtle into the dungeons, not bothering to open doors as they went, sometimes not bothering with doors at all, just passing through walls as they descended.
"We only pass through walls when we need to be somewhere in a hurry child," the friar explained as they descended, "normally we like to at least pretend we are walking down corridors or sitting at tables, reading or writing."
Finally they passed into a large hall, obviously meant to be a feasting hall, but long forgotten as it was in the bowels of the castle. Inside the hall she saw just over two dozen ghosts, some of whom she recognized, Nearly Headless Nick for one, The Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady as well.
A very somber Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington extended both his hands and very respectfully said, "Welcome to Hogwarts dear spirit of the recently departed, I wish I could say that I'm happy to see you but truth is, I'm not. None of us are. We are so sorry for your loss."
"I am dead, aren't I?" Myrtle asked.
"I'm afraid so child" the Grey Lady said, placing a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder, "do you remember anything about the circumstances of your passing?"
Myrtle thought for a moment, "I'm not sure milady, I remember I was upset, crying and then there was this voice, a boy's voice saying something in gibberish, and I got angry at the boy and wanted to tell him to go away and, and, and . . . I woke up in the same place where I think I died."
"Child," the Friar offered, "is there some unfinished business you need to take care of, some task that must be performed that can only be done by you? Is there someone you have to say goodbye to?"
"I don't know, I don't think so, why?"
"It's unusual for one so young to remain grounded, Earth bound if you will. Most of us were required to stay on Earth because of some obligation, family to look after, loved ones to say goodbye to, that sort of thing."
"And some" began the Bloody Baron, "are just not yet ready to go over to the other side!"
"Child," the Grey Lady began, "has someone captured your heart?"
"Well, there is this boy I like, sorta, I was thinking of him just now . . ."
"Perhaps you need to tell him goodbye before moving on?"
"No" she admitted dejectedly, "he doesn't know I exist."
"Perhaps you need to solve your own murder?" Sir Nicholas offered.
"Was I murdered? I don't know. All I remember is standing just outside a cubicle and seeing a pair of great big, yellow eyes."
"Where was this?"
"Second floor, loo."
"Anything else?"
"There was a boy's voice . . . but he was just talking nonsense, not even words . . ."
"You had a boy in the bathroom?"
"No, no, nothing like that" she looked down, "never anything like that, I've never even been kissed . . ."
"No boyfriends?" the Grey Lady asked, sympathetically.
Myrtle shook her head no.
"Family?"
The girl sniffed and stammered out "orph, orphan."
"Any friends at all?"
Myrtle sobbed, and the Grey Lady gathered her into a hug, "poor lonely spirit, we are your family now; you don't have to be alone ever again, unless that is your choice."
The little ghost girl sobbed into the lady's hair, silver tears tracking down her face.
After what seemed like an age - ghosts, it seems are very patient, they have after all, all the time in the world - Myrtle had cried herself out.
"Let's see where you were, um, made the dear departed" Sir Nicholas offered as a suggestion.
"Can someone help me up to the second floor please; I'm not sure how to move through closed doors and such."
"Of course child, more than happy to assist a young lady!" the ghost knight struck a gallant leg and bowed - causing his head to become unhinged, and flop off to one side.
"Drat" he groused, pushing his head back into place, "sorry."
If a ghost could be said to look green, Myrtle would have, but she plowed on "not at all Sir Nicholas."
A small knot of ghosts guided Myrtle all over the castle, giving 'ghosting' lessons along the way.
"Once you know your way around you'll be able to just imagine yourself in a place and will simply appear there. A sort of spectral apparation if you will" the friar was explaining. "And walls and doors are purely advisory in nature!" he exclaimed popping into and out of the stone walls as he did so.
After a long time, maybe night had fallen, maybe it was already the next day, time had little meaning in her new existence, they found themselves floating in the corridor just outside the girls' bathroom on the second floor.
Myrtle started to go in when Sir Nicholas placed a hand on her arm, "wait" he suggested.
The Grey Lady looked back to Nicholas, "you feel it too?"
"I certainly do" the friar interjected.
"What?" Myrtle asked.
"Very dark magic, something unspeakably evil is in there!"
"Why don't I feel it?"
"Perhaps because you have been touched by it you are immune, who knows? But I honestly believe that even ones such as ourselves would be right to fear whatever is or was in that room!"
"I'll just pop in and have a look around then shall I?" the girl asked.
"Hurry back if you see anything child, some magics can hurt us even if we're not, um, of the breathing persuasion" the friar warned.
She stepped quickly through the wall, ready to retreat at any sign of danger, but saw nothing.
She stuck her head through the door and said "all clear."
The other spirits followed her into the room and investigated all the corners, upper and lower for any signs of lurking evil, but couldn't find it. The feeling was there nonetheless.
"Perhaps you'd like to lodge with me?" the Grey Lady offered, "I have a lovely corner in the Ravenclaw common room and you'd be most welcome.
Myrtle's eyes went suddenly dark, "another time perhaps, milady, right now I don't want to be anywhere near a Ravenclaw!"
"Oh dear, have I offended?"
Myrtle shook herself trying to rid herself of her anger, "no, oh no milady, not you, but some of the students in your house have been very mean to me!"
"Do tell."
"It was Olive Hornby who drove me away from the great hall when I ran, distraught into this bathroom. In a way, it's her fault that I died!"
The other ghosts cringed at this, the Fat Friar took it upon himself to explain to the new ghost that it was very bad manners to use the words 'death' or 'died' and it was never done in polite ghost company.
"Is that why I'm still here, brother? Am I supposed to haunt those who taunted me in life?"
"It's not likely child," the friar responded, "some spirits are vengeful, but those are usually exorcised, perhaps if you find your quiet place" he tapped his own chest in the vicinity of his ghostly heart, "your place of peace, then you may find why you're still here on this plane."
The other ghosts turned to leave but Myrtle said "I think I'll just stay here for a bit, it feels like, I dunno, my place somehow."
The other spirits nodded in understanding and made their farewells.
Myrtle floated around the bathroom, not a bad place, really. Lots of room, lots of places to perch - she especially liked the high stained glass window up near the rafters.
She also found she could flow into the pipes and just rest there in the 'u' bend. She also discovered to her discomfiture that if anyone drained water out of a sink that she was attached to then she would be washed out of the castle into the lake. The first time that happened she found herself eye-to-eye with the giant squid. That was also the first time she apparated, naturally she found herself back in 'her' bathroom.
Myrtle found herself more often than not in her bathroom, not that she was antisocial, she got on well with all the other ghosts, even Peeves the Poltergeist was nicer to her than he had ever been when she was alive.
"Moaning Myrtle is one of us now, so I say she has Peeves' protection!"
Winter gave way to spring and life, or rather afterlife settled into something of a comfortable pattern. Even some of the students were at least waving to her when they saw her. And Nicholas Farkas, the boy she had been making 'goo-goo eyes' at during the previous fall placed a lovely lily in the knave beside her bathroom door.
"Do you really want to be in here?" a girl's voice asked, "isn't this where Frisbee snuffed it?"
"This is as good a place as any" came another girl's reply, "and she's dead and gone."
"Dead, yeah, but not exactly gone; don'cha know she haunts this bathroom?"
"Yeah, well," Olive said as she stuck a fag in her mouth and touched the end of her wand to it, lighting it, "what's she gonna do, moan me to death?"
"Don'cha know you're not s'posed to talk bad about the dead?"
"Yeah, well that little bint will be about as scary as a ghost as she was in life!"
Myrtle learned that day that she could be a truly terrifying sight, rising from the stone floor, a look of righteous fury on her translucent face.
Olive learned that she could urinate while standing, with her pants still on.
"Hornby!" Myrtle screamed, and all the blood drained from the live girl's face as she wet herself, her legs feeling like rubber. Her friend was out the door like a shot, leaving Olive to face the angry ghost alone.
"It's not enough that you tormented me while I was alive, you have the gall to come into my bathroom stinking it up with your fags and then insult my memory?"
"Frisby? Y'know I din't mean anything, right? You're not goin' to do anything to me now or anything are you?" The once haughty Ravenclaw was now kneeling in a puddle of her own making.
"You mean like, oh I dunno, haunt you?" Myrtle grinned an inhumanly wide grin, "what a wonderful idea!"
For the remaining two months of school Olive Hornby lived in her own little self imposed hell, if she looked in a mirror she saw Myrtle's face leering back at her. When she tried to sleep the ghost would hum an annoying little song just loud enough to steal her sleep, what the hell were "mare's - e - dotes" anyway? When she did finally get to sleep, and what ever sleep she got was never enough, she dreaded waking up because she knew she would be nose-to-nose with the ghost when she opened her eyes in the morning. The first time that happened she scrambled out of bed so quickly that she fell and bruised her bum.
The worst part was, she couldn't convince anyone that she was being haunted, every time she tried to get anyone else to see the ghost, Myrtle wasn't there. People started avoiding the paranoid Hornby girl. What was obvious was that she wasn't sleeping, evidenced by the dark circles under her eyes and she was losing weight, rapidly. Her clothes hung off her frame.
She barely got four O.W.L.s having fallen asleep during the written portions of her tests, for once Myrtle let her sleep. And she was the first one packed, sitting on her trunk before the sun rose on the day of the leaving feast. She was chuckling maniacally to herself, and in an eerie voice was singing in a whisper, "I'll be gone and she'll be here, she can't follow me home."
"My dear Olive, whatever gave you the idea that I can't follow you anywhere?"
"You! You have to stay here, them's the rules ain't they? You gotta stay where you died!"
"Oh Olive, don't you know I can go wherever water flows? So unless you live somewhere where there's no water for drinking or bathing . . ." she let the concept sink in.
"What do you want from me?" she screeched, waking her roommates in the process. They all scrambled out of the room as if they'd seen a ghost, which they hadn't, Myrtle was very good at not being seen when she wanted to.
"What I want is simple, I want justice. You were my personal tormentor for five years, ever since we first got to Hogwart's and you pushed me out of the bloody boat! What was that about anyway? I want five years from you in return or. . ."
Olive looked at her tormentor, daring to hope for an out.
". . .or I want an apology for the way you've treated me all these years."
"Okay, I'm sorry, I was a prat, I was a git, I was a bitch! I'll be whatever you say I was but leave me alone!"
"Sorry, not good enough. My humiliations were public, more often than not in the great hall. You want to be shot of me? I need an apology, in the great hall. When I get it I'll be done with you. Today would be good, because you're not going to see the great hall for the better part of three months after today and you'll be seeing a lot of me in the meantime!"
_____ooo000ooo_____
"Neville!" Harry shouted to the courtyard, "take two medics and look at all of the faces, once you've seen them all banish them!"
Neville Longbottom was pale but determined, he had chosen to become one of the first combat medics in Dumbledore's Army and he had already seen more than his share of bloodied corpses, now he led a squad of medics and he knew what he had to do.
He saw many faces that he recognized; too bloody many. Men, women, children, Voldemort didn't care; you were either with him or against him, you and all your family. Neville swore to himself, once he was finished with this business, if he survived, he was going to spend the rest of his life in or near a greenhouse making as much beauty as he could to purge his memories.
Once he had seen the last of the heads he looked at his two partners, who nodded, then performed the 'evanesco' charm that vanished the horrors that he had been forced by his duties to memorize. If only he could rid his mind of the images as easily. Two other medics arrived on scene carrying a stone penseive between them, Neville and his assistants gladly pulled the memories of what they had seen from their minds and placed them into the stone bowl. At least now the memories were not fresh and in the front of their minds. The memories would be available for the bereaved to look through later.
He pulled a miniature broom from his pocket and sub-vocalized 'finite,' cancelling the shrinking charm and restoring it to its full size. Neville nimbly hopped astride the broom and chuckled as he realized how far he had come since that first disastrous flying lesson so many years ago. He flew up to the wall to give Harry a report.
Without preamble he said "from the DA, the Browns, Finnegans, and Spinnets, and the Thomases."
"Any Order members?"
"No, but lots of DA members have lost their families. Merlin Harry, is that maniacal fuck just going to kill everybody?"
"Seems like, Neville, I have to wonder what's he going to do once everyone's dead?"
"No redheads?"
By 'redheads' Neville knew that Harry meant any of the Weasley clan.
"Nope, the fidelius is holding."
"Thank whatever gods there are for small favors."
A deceptively calm voice from behind Harry asked, "Is it true?"
'Whatever gods there are are petty and delight in human suffering' Harry thought as he turned to face Dean Thomas.
"Is it true?" Dean repeated.
"Yes Dean, it's true, I'm so sorry."
Dean could see how the deaths of all the innocents were weighing down on his soul, he could see in Harry's eyes the pain and loss that he felt himself, multiplied a thousand times.
"Tell me that I will see him suffer, him and anyone who wears that fuckin mark!"
"The lucky ones will die quickly, after that; they belong to the survivors of those families. Do with them whatever you will, but remember Dean, your family didn't ever want to see you become one of them!" Harry pointed to the forest, where Voldemort's troops were assembled. "Everyone who bears the mark will be judged, everyone! Whether on that battlefield or in the Wizengamot, they will be judged!"
Dean stood at the ramparts and prayed for the enemy to come, he had a lot of killing to do today.
_____ooo000ooo_____
Myrtle and the Bloody Baron, whose actual name she still hadn't learned, moved through the tunnels beneath the castle, they knew at least two of them came out in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, their entrances had been caved in centuries ago, but solid rock did not deter the spirit folk. They passed through the rock easily and poked their heads out of the ground.
"Baron" she hissed, "your hat!"
The baron removed his extravagant hat with its large silver buckle and white plume and affixed it to his belt "sorry" he mumbled.
Get a good count here and then we can report back to the defenders.
_____ooo000ooo_____
The Auror in Charge on Site was Auror Captain Emery, his troops called him Captain or ACOS. The DMLE officer was on detached duty reporting to the head of the Order of the Pheonix, one Harry James Potter, all his troops called him Harry. Captain Emery was skeptical at first, but he had seen what the Boy Who Lived could do and was on board one hundred percent. When the excited ghost girl asked to be taken to whoever was in charge that was actually Harry.
"Harry, a moment please?"
"Yes Captain?"
"This young lady says she has some information for us."
"Myrtle?"
Myrtle was hesitant at first, remembering how she had lashed out at Harry, unjustly, over his duel with Draco and she still felt the sting of his rebuke when he finally had it out with her, telling her in no uncertain terms that she was as guilty as Draco had been for the first invasion of Hogwarts in a thousand years and the subsequent death of Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry, some of the ghosts have agreed to work with you, all of you defending the castle."
"Go on" he said, encouragingly.
"The Bloody Baron and I have scouted the enemy and I have a full report."
Harry smiled and said "brilliant, Myrtle if I could I would hug you right now, this could be just what we need right now! Captain bring your lieutenants up here, Ron, get your brothers, Neville and Dean and Padma up here right away - use your patronus, quickly!"
In ten minutes all the leaders were diagramming the enemy's strength and position.
Three giants, each with a tree trunk to use as battering rams.
One hundred and fifty inferi in a corral being herded by a necromancer.
Two dozen mountain trolls, each about half the size of a giant, carrying clubs with ugly spikes protruding from them.
Fifty death eaters mounted on brooms practicing strafing runs.
An additional two hundred death eaters carrying crossbows as well as wands.
Half a dozen goblin ward breakers
No sign of dementors.
"Ron, no one has beaten you in a game of chess in the past seven years that I know of, can we contain these guys?"
Ron's brow was knit in concentration, "yep, but we're gonna bleed, no way around it."
"Are we gonna win, Ron?"
He nodded, a grim expression on his face, "yeah, we're gonna win."
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