Summary: Through a sudden twist of fate, Myrtle is spared the deadly gaze of the Basilisk, unfortunately Tom wasn't so lucky.
An: Welcome to the Ghost in the Bathroom! My (goes to count) third Harry Potter story! I hope you enjoy and review.
Chapter 1 Yellow Eyes
Tom Riddle always had a plan, for everything and tonight was no different. Nothing was left to chance, no scenario was unaccounted for, and every thing was in place for the creation of his first horcrux. He took his diary out of his pocket and flipped through it, reminiscing over the entries written in his neat, precise, script. It was the one place he had dared to put anything about himself, his thoughts, his plans, his desires. It was his most closely guarded secret, the most heavily warded thing he owned, and he worried over it more than he had anything else before in his life. He had poured himself into it, therefore it made perfect sense for it to be the thing that hid his soul.
'And once it is done I will write no more.' he silently vowed. His plans had grown since he had started his diary, and the information he had learned couldn't afford to be written down anymore, in fact the things that he had already written down could be considered too risky to put to parchment.
'I will not have to worry about it soon.' he thought contentedly as he shut the diary with a snap, soon, if he was correct, the information would be protected forever. Tom kept the diary in hand as he slowly opened the door to the girl's bathroom, he glanced around quickly, no one was around, perfect. He went inside and quietly shut the door behind him, straining his ears for any sound. When he heard nothing he went over to the sink and ordered it open and then called for the basilisk.
"W-whose th-ere?" there was a blubbery sounding hiccup after the statement and Tom tensed and fear coursed through him. Someone was in the bathroom, someone who could ruin what he had planned. He whipped around and saw a girl stumble out of one of the stalls. Her eyes were red rimmed and narrowed, he wondered about this for a split second before he saw the glasses in her hand, her eyes were bad, there was a chance she couldn't recognize him. He quickly concealed himself on the other side of the sinks, keeping a sharp ear of the distant muttering of the giant snake approaching.
"Hello? What's going on?" the girl whispered fearfully and he heard her shuffling closer. An idea struck him suddenly as the snake's voice got louder and louder under him, why not use this girl as the sacrifice for his horcrux? His heart started to pound in his chest, his mind spinning wildly. It could work, it wasn't how he had planned but Tom could be flexible, his right hand tightened around his diary while his left reached for his wand. He cast a swift spell that made one of the bathroom stalls rattle loudly making the girl squeak in surprise. Her attention away from him he took the time to move away from his current position and caught another glance of the girl. To his surprise he recognized her, Myrtle Henderson, a Ravenclaw who was always crying about something.
No one would miss her, she wasn't very popular. It seemed he had some higher entity on his side, if he believed in higher entities that is. His smirk widened as he watched, from his new vantage point, the girl start back toward the gaping hole in the middle of the bathroom and look down into it, her tear smeared glasses still clenched in her hand.
"What…?" she muttered, and the basilisk appeared. Tom shut his eyes placidly and waited as he heard Myrtle scream.
'Any time now.' there was a warning hiss from the great serpent and another shriek from the girl and a loud thump. Then silence, Tom was about to open his eyes when he heard a muffled shout and felt something small and warm collide into his chest. He let out a gasp of pain, his wand and diary fell from his hands and skittered off somewhere and in his shock his eyes opened.
He saw the eyes, the large yellow eyes laced through red veins and a dilated black slit that suddenly contracted at the sight of him, and Tom Riddle collapsed, the weight of the unconscious girl covering him her head lulling to the side on his chest. He was having an out of body experience, he had to be, why else would he be able to watch himself like this a shiver went down his spine as he edged closer to his body, what if he was wrong what if he was…
Master! Master…. The giant snake groaned and leaned down to inspect his body, its giant mouth opening and its tongue flickering in and out rapidly.
"Stop!" he suddenly shouted and was startled when the beast stopped and turned to look at him, reflex took over and he shut his eyes before the great beast could look at him 'Again' some dark part of his mind whispered but he stoically ignored the thought.
Master? the creature hissed and he felt the strangest sensation, like someone had decided to reach inside him and caress his organs. It tickled slightly and he wondered how he could still feel ticklish as a…. He shook his head in denial but the truth loomed over his head like a great ugly vulture, forcing him to contemplate a possibility he had ignored and dismissed as being foolish.
"Go back into the chamber." he ordered, he could feel the snakes hesitation, and rage bubbled up inside him. "Now!" he snapped and the great beast obeyed, when the sounds of the serpent faded away he opened his eyes again and with a word the chamber closed. As the chamber shut he was forced to look into one of the mirrors above the sinks and he saw- himself. He was a ghostly white, his hair, his skin, his eyes, his clothing.
'I'm dead.' he thought and horror started to build inside him as he was forced to deal with what he had been dreading, he started to tremble and clenched his fists tightly to force himself to stop. 'I'm dead- I'm a ghost.' the shivers that came with this mental declaration couldn't be held back and he stood- floated- there, trembling like a small child cowering in the face of his end. He wanted to scream his grief to the universe, he wanted to curl up into a ball and simply lay there until all was well again, although he knew it never would be.
'I have so much to do- I would have had eternity. I was so close.' Was he hated that word, he despised that word, it was like an admission of failure and Tom Riddle was no failure.
'But aren't you?' a voice whispered in the back of his mind 'You are a ghost, the very definition of a failure, for ghosts are only created because they have unfinished business. You left something undone without the ability to do anything about it, although,' the mental voice sounded contemplative, 'You do have eternity now.' A bitter laugh escaped his throat, he couldn't stop himself, the whole situation was all too funny. An eternity, an eternity, all he had ever wanted, all he had ever wished for, and he had it. He laughed even harder, silver tears leaking from his eyes. An eternity as a nothing, a useless nothing, it was as if he had been submerged into one of his nightmares.
"Be careful what you wish for!" he burst out suddenly as he laughed and was shocked out of his humor by the sound of his own human voice. Cool, crisp, as it had always been, and always would be, a high teen voice that would never deepen. Hopelessness cascaded through him once more and to his horror he was almost sure he would cry, he whipped around to his cooling corpse and the girl that was covering it.
"You!" he suddenly howled "This is all your fault!" his words echoed loudly in the bathroom, he didn't know how long he shouted at the unconscious Myrtle, but inevitably someone walked into the bathroom a girl, a haughty girl whose name he didn't know. She was one of Myrtle's tormentors, the one who sought her the most. Her nose was thrust into the air, arrogance and distain colored her eyes, and a sneer graced her lips.
"Are you in here again, sulking Myrtle?" she said, "Because Professor Dippet asked me to look for you-" she saw Myrtle and Tom's body in that moment and she was rendered speechless. Myrtle started to come around, her ugly pimply face contorting into an expression of pain and her hand reached up for her head.
"Ow, what happened?" she shifted and seemed to realize that Tom's body was under her, Tom's cold body. She looked at his stiff white face with his blank eyes and colorless lips and screamed bloody murder and the other girl did as well.
"Myrtle what have you done!" the girl shrieked in alarm as Myrtle stood and crawled away from Tom's body. The girl backed away from the scene, her eyes wild in her terror, and Myrtle whipped around to face her.
"I- I didn't do anything Olive you have to believe me!" Myrtle reached for her imploringly, seeking contact and reassurance from the only source available. But Olive would have none of it, she turned and bolted from the room.
"MURDER! MURDERING MYRTLE IN THE BATHROOM!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs and Myrtle, stupid Myrtle, stood there with a dumbfounded look and didn't move except to look in-between Tom's body and the door. Tom simply stood there and watched. Before long two professors came into the bathroom along with the school nurse. Dumbledore's eyebrows rose is alarm as he took in the sight of Myrtle and rose even higher when he looked in Tom's direction.
"Oh- oh my goodness!" Dippet blubbered in horror and brought out a monogrammed handkerchief to blot at his perspiring forehead. The school nurse had immediately went to Tom's body and carefully looked it over turning to the two men standing by the door and shook her head closing her eyes in grief. Without a word she conjured a white sheet and covered Tom's body.
"Hogwarts hasn't lost a student in almost one hundred years Dumbledore! A hundred years! Oh what will the parents think when this gets out!' he muttered and blotted his forehead again. Dumbledore just looked at the headmaster with a small frown and the nurse outright glared at him.
"A boy just died here headmaster, have you no respect for that?" the headmaster seemed to be startled at the accusation and paused in his blotting, forcing a bit of sweat to run down his chin and drop to the floor with a plop.
"Of course I do Poppy!" he blustered, "Tom is- was a fine boy and an excellent student, he will be sorely missed." The way he said it made Tom think that he had simply moved away, not died.
"We will all miss Mr. Riddle," Dumbledore said, stepping forward slowly, watching the solid white sheet as if the body would jump up at any minute and shout surprise, "But that is not the issue we need to be dealing with." The nurse and Dippet looked at him in askance and he nodded his head in Myrtles direction.
The terrified girl suddenly snapped to attention when she realized that all eyes were on her now.
"I di-didn't!" she started to shake and fat tears rolled down her cheeks. Dumbledore put a hand on her shoulder and Myrtle relaxed slightly at the sympathy expressed in Dumbledore's eyes.
"I don't think you did Miss Henderson, but we do need to know what happened." she opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it again.
"I don't know," she finally squeaked, "I don't know, Olive- she was teasing me about my glasses again and I came in here to be alone and…." she frowned "I heard a voice, a boys voice," she glanced over at Tom's covered body, "his I guess but it sounded strange, and there was something by the sink and it knocked me into someone," she looked over at the body again. "I- I don't know what happened next I hit my head and-" tears were pouring thickly down her cheeks now, "I didn't mean to!" she howled.
Dumbledore held out a handkerchief and let Myrtle cry into it, "I don't think you did Myrtle, now tell me, what did you see by the sink?" she sniffed and looked up at him with red puffy eyes.
"I couldn't see it very well, my glasses were off and…" she trailed off started to sob into the cloth again. It was then that Tom, the ghost, decided to make his appearance he needed to do something, anything to distract him from his own demise.
"It was a spider." every eye in the room went to Tom, Myrtle screamed, the nurse blanched, Dippet looked wildly alarmed, and Dumbledore simply widened his eyes and gave a small jerk.
"Tom- spider?" Dippet mumbled and leaned back against the wall, bracing himself. Tom nodded, keeping a stoic mask in place as his mind worked at breakneck speed. He had to keep story believable and somehow keep the Chamber hidden, he needed someone to blame for the entire thing and he had the perfect person in mind. The person he would have blamed if Myrtle had died.
"I believe so, that third year Gryffindor Hagrid,"("Knew that boy was trouble right from day one." Dippet muttered) "Has been keeping a giant spider, I was tracking it and saw it slip into the bathroom, I was worried someone might get hurt and perused it."("Such a brave boy!") Tom gave a very genuine bitter smile.
"I miscalculated my ability to handle it, it bit me before I could do anything more than draw my wand and left me paralyzed by the stalls, its venom acted quickly and I-" he trailed off and looked down at his feet. "Well you can guess what happened, Myrtle only found me after the spider ran into her." Myrtle nodded eagerly.
"Yes! Now that I think about it it did look like a spider!" Dippet nodded sagely while Dumbledore glared at Tom in suspicion. The nurse simply grumbled to herself about irresponsible students and looked like she was trying to hold back tears.
"Sir, I believe that the spider is the creature this so called heir of Slytherin has been threatening to unleash on the school."
"Then we mustn't delay!" Dippet exclaimed, "Dumbledore start a search party for the beast, fear not Tom your sacrifice will not be in vain!"
"What about Miss Henderson?" Dumbledore asked pointedly.
"What about her?" Dippet snapped, "The girl is obviously innocent, she is free to go."
Dumbledore looked like he wanted to say something more but Myrtle bolted from the bathroom as soon as Dippet finished his sentence.
"Well we shall have to go find this menace before any more students are hurt!" and with that Dippet burst from the bathroom, Dumbledore trailing after him, his eyes narrowed in thought. That left the nurse standing by Tom's body, she gave him a sad smile.
"I will make sure you are taken care of Mr. Riddle." she said kindly. Tom nodded but didn't look at her, only flinching mildly when she picked up his wand and carelessly shoved it into her pocket. With a flourish of her own wand she levitated Tom's body to the door and left leaving Tom alone, with nothing more to do. He blinked slowly, even though he didn't need to. This would be his future, nothing more to do, no one to be, nowhere to go.
With a listless movement he edged toward the door and tried to grab the knob, his hand passed right through it. He didn't need doors anymore, he could just move through them and was about to when something caught his eye. His diary, wedged behind one of the toilets, if he could have paled he would have. He would have to find a way to keep that out of the hands of Dumbledore, of everyone.
He reached down to pick it up but his fingers passed through it, although a strange tingling sensation filled his hand at the action. He couldn't move it, frustration and rage filled him and his body shook and a pulse of energy left him, wedging the diary further behind the toilet. Tom blinked in surprise, and tried it again, nothing happened but it didn't discourage him. It was an interesting development, he could still move things. Limitedly it seemed but it didn't matter, it was something, it was influence and the future didn't seem as bleak as it had before.
The days passed like that, Tom practiced his new ability to move things day and night (The lack of a need for sleep helped him tremendously) and he found he could move things further and further (Except for the diary, it was too tightly stuck). He was forced to stop though, once to accidentally scare away a curious group of first years from the bathroom, a second time to decline an invitation to his own funeral, a third moment when his group of Slytherins came to pay their respects, still glancing fearfully in his direction as they muttered something about keeping his dream alive and shuffling out and a final time when the Grey Lady came swooping in.
"Tom Riddle." she murmured and placed a hand on his shoulder, and to his immense surprise he could feel her touch. He was so surprised he forgot to remove her hand from his person and let it linger there until she removed it.
"I know what you are doing," she murmured, and he raised an eyebrow in response, she smiled sadly at him "First you will hide away from them, then you will seek out their company, and finally you will stop caring anymore."
"Them?" she nodded.
"The living. You will grow tired of them and start to forget, and soon enough, when no one is around to remember anymore they will forget you too." With that she left and he sneered at her back. What she had proposed was ridiculous, and so he ignored it and went back to his practice, if he could influence something, anything then his death could mean something.
Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years and soon enough, as they Grey Lady had said, people forgot about Tom Riddle the person and now he was simply regarded as the ghost who haunted the bathroom on the second floor. No one went into the bathroom any more, except once when Dumbledore had told him he could continue to stay in Hogwarts when he became headmaster.
In that time he continued to practice what he could do and found it got easier and easier to manipulate the world around him. Before long he started to make trips to the library at night, searching for a cure, any cure, to his problem but each night he found none. So every night he searched harder and harder for the next fifty years, undisturbed.