After watching John Watson and Mrs. Hudson vanish as they turned to a corner at the cemetery, Sherlock Holmes – who was hidden behind a tree – left, too. He needed to pee.
Molly Hooper's medicine had a bit of weird side-effects, like that, feeling he needed to pee every hour or two. There was a subway just a walk from the Eye; he decided he'd find comfort there. He didn't want himself to be seen yet, what with the news about his suicide from shame of being a fake genius. He disguised himself as a cabbie and rode to his destination.
Ten minutes later, he was stepping down the subway staircase. Sherlock went directly to the John, where gentlemen were queuing. He found it weird: there was no one going out. Nah. Maybe there was another door leading to the outside world. To pee was priority.
When he was inside the John to see the cubicles, he found it more baffling. People were just getting inside the cubicles but none was going from it. Nah?
"Where do these gentlemen go? By God," he said. Having heard him, the two gentlemen before him stared at him in surprise. The former inserted a hand into his coat pocket and turned to the latter.
"Shall I?," asked he.
The other said: "No. Let him be."
Sherlock Holmes wasn't at all afraid. He was puzzled more than ever. What was the man trying to pull from his pocket? Was this just a dream? "Molly be damned," he thought.
The man, who was leaving his jacket pocket still occupied with whatever that was, said to his companion, "I will not be responsible for this."
The other in front of him was next to use the toilet. As he pushed the door, he turned to him and Sherlock and said, "Have you forgotten what the the great battle at Hogwarts was for?" Then he vanished behind the door. Sherlock heard the flushing of the toilet.
"By God!" He was too late to peter out for a swarm of gentlemen was already losing all hopes of getting out soon. So he decided: just drain it all, and leave. That's all, Sherlock Holmes. The man in front of him was next. He smirked at the consulting detective and vanished behind the cubicle door. Flush.
What were these people?
When it was his turn, he hesitated. When I die because of this, I wouldn't at the least be ashamed that I survived Moriarty and this I didn't. He opened the door. There was no other portal or anything of the sort which could have made those weird men vanish. Where was his best friend when he needed him?
He finished and waited for something to happen. Nothing. The flush switch was beside a roll of toilet paper. When he pushed it down with an eye shut, waiting for his vanishing, he accidentally hit the toilet paper roll. Flush. The roll fell; he tried to catch it, but failed to, making it bounce from his hands and to the bowl. When it was about to touch the whirlpool in the toilet bowl, he went for it, making one of his hands touch the water.
The whirlpool illuminated blue before his eyes, and he felt the world spin.
