I was watching Sorcerer's Stone and then I just thought of Moaning Myrtle being Sorted, and I thought it would be fun to do a quick story on her time at Hogwarts. Hope you like it!
Back When: The Story of Moaning Myrtle
Olive Hornby
"Ravenclaw!" The Sorting Hat had finally made its decision. For almost five minutes, the whole Great Hall had heard it debating between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw for a dark-haired girl with round glasses; apparently the girl's Ravenclaw qualities outweighed those which could've put her in Hufflepuff.
The girl jumped off the stool and ran towards the cheering Ravenclaws, the feeling of pride apparent on her face as she sat next to me.
"Congratulations on making Ravenclaw!" I said. "My name's Olive. What's yours?"
"Myrtle," she answered. "What do you think of Hogwarts so far?"
"I think it's great! I expected to be put in Ravenclaw; that's where most of my family has been."
"Oh," Myrtle said. "None of my family's gone here."
"Oh?" I asked, interested. "Did your parents go to Beauxbatons, or some other school? Hogwarts is the best, you know."
"No," Myrtle answered. "My parents are Muggles. I've only just learned about magic."
"Oh! Well that's…interesting," I said. "Do you suspect any of your siblings might be witches or wizards?"
"Maybe," Myrtle said, pushing her glasses higher up her nose. "My two brothers are seven, and I haven't noticed anything unusual, like the kinds of things that were happening to me around their age."
"Oh, well, if they are wizards, the signs will be showing up sooner or later," I said, turning towards the front table where Headmaster Dippet had begun speaking.
"Welcome to another year at our magical school!" the elderly man said. He twirled a piece of his beard around his fingers while he spoke. "I'd like to wish you all a happy school year. Good luck to all, especially First Years! Now, let's start off the new school year….with a feast!" Dippet raised his hands and the platters and goblets on the tables began overflowing with food. I smiled to myself when I saw Myrtle's eyes widen in disbelief; my brothers and sisters had told me about this. Myrtle still had so much to learn.
"So how many brothers and sisters do you have?" Myrtle asked me as I bit into a chicken leg.
"Five," I said, ticking them off on my fingers. "There's Braedon, he's a fourth year, in Ravenclaw as well, Isabella's in her fifth year in Slytherin, and then Zachary's in his sixth year in Ravenclaw. Levin's my other sister, she's in her seventh year in Ravenclaw. She and Zachary were both chosen as prefects in their fifth years. My oldest brother Alexander graduated a few years ago from Ravenclaw; he works for a wizard newspaper in Paris."
"Wow," Myrtle sighed, staring into her mashed potatoes. "Your family sounds amazing."
I shrugged. "I guess it's just the norm around here. You're either rich with a small family, poor with a large family, or well-off with a large family."
"I didn't know," Myrtle said quietly. "Have you seen your schedule yet?"
"Yes," I said, taking it out. "My first class tomorrow is Transfiguration, nine o' clock. What about you?"
"Potions. Do you think we'll actually make like, love potions and stuff?"
I nodded. "Not for a couple years, of course, but sure, love potions will be a snap. Braedon made them all the time at home whenever one of Levin's friends would visit. It was quite repulsing, really. Seeing all her friends chase after him like they were a bunch of Azkaban prisoners and Braedon had the keys." I gave a half-smile, to show that I also thought it was funny, and Myrtle smiled too.
The Next Day
Myrtle
"Welcome to Potions," said the witch at the front of the dungeon. She was of medium build, with long black hair and an intimidating but pretty face. "I am Professor Kauldrons. This year we will be learning about and making several different kinds of potions and remedies. The person sitting next to you will be your partner for the semester, and you will be graded together, based on how well your potion turns out. Now it is a Hogwarts tradition that First Years always make a potion to cure boils on their first day, so please open your books to page 10 and start gathering the necessary ingredients."
"Hello, I'm Myrtle," I said, introducing myself to the boy who sat next to me.
"Tom Riddle, Slytherin," the boy said, shaking my hand. "So I guess we're partners then. Looks like we need snake fangs, horned slugs, and porcupine quills. I'll go get them if you set up your cauldron."
"Okay," Myrtle said as Tom walked towards the inventory cabinets. Snake fangs? She thought in disgust. What are we supposed to do with that, eat it?
"So," she asked casually when Tom came back. "Are we supposed to drink this when we're done?"
"Maybe," Tom said. "Kauldrons might just look at it, though. I don't really know how stuff works around here; no one I know has gone here before."
"Me either," I said. "Are you Muggle-born, too?"
"No, I'm a half-blood," Tom said. "My mother was a witch, but I've been living in an orphanage for most of my life."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said.
Just then, Professor Kauldrons flitted over to us. "Focus!" she chirped, scooting my cauldron from where I never moved it to between Tom and me.
Tom bent over to light the fire while I began crushing up the snake fangs with my mortar. He then squirted the slime from the horned slugs into the cauldron before chopping the slugs themselves up and throwing them in there as well.
"Isn't the art of potion making beautiful?" Kauldrons said from the front of the room.
"Well it sure is disgusting," I muttered, releasing powdered snake fangs into our bubbling mixture.
Tom gave me a small smile while he put some other weird ingredients into the cauldron.
Within about ten minutes Tom checked the picture in the textbook and said that our potion matched the exact color and consistency it should. He called Professor Kauldrons over, who took one look at our potion and praised us for being the first students ever to successfully brew this potion under twenty minutes.
Tom grinned and offered his hand for a high five, which I shyly answered. My first day at Hogwarts was turning out pretty well.
Olive Hornby
Myrtle and I had third period together, which was Charms. I found her sitting at one of the empty tables, her jacket strewn over the seat beside her.
"This for me?" I asked, pointing to the seat.
She nodded. "How was Transfiguration?"
"Really great," I said. "Professor Dumbledore is amazing. What about Potions? Anything interesting happen?"
"Nothing much," Myrtle admitted. "We made a potion to cure boils, and my partner was this guy named Tom Riddle from Slytherin. He was really nice."
"Oh, well that's good," I said, turning around in my seat to where tiny Professor Flitwick was standing with his hands clasped behind his back and a big smile on his face.
"Welcome to Charms class!" he said perkily. "Shall we begin with role call?"
Mrytle
"Finally!" Olive sighed as we made our way to the Great Hall for lunch. "I thought Flitwick would never stop talking!"
"I know," I groaned. "I'm starving."
We took our seats near some other first years from Ravenclaw, and a laugh came from the Slytherin table.
"Oh, that's Tom Riddle, my Potions partner."
"Where? Oh! That fellow drinking out of the goblet?"
"Yes!"
Suddenly there was a boy with brushed back brown hair and a huge grin on his face next to us.
"Who's that, Olli?" he asked Olive, craning his neck towards Tom. "Got yourself a boyfriend already?"
"No, Braedon!" She pushed the boy away, who was still grinning. "Myrtle, this is my older brother Braedon. He's in his fourth year."
"Hello," I said politely.
Braedon tilted his head up and looked me up and down. "Ah, so this is the girl you've been telling us all about, eh, Olli?"
"I've only known her for one day, Braedon," Olive said irritably. "Now go away."
Braedon smirked as we walked off.
"Sorry about that," Olive said, rolling her eyes. "He's really obnoxious."
"That's okay!" I said excitedly. "I think he's great!"
"Yeah, right," Olive said, smirking. "Just wait till you get to know him."
Okay sorry that wasn't that great…I promise it'll get better! I didn't really know what to write after that….so review please?