No more Moaning Myrtle
She had watched it all happen from where she floated high above the chaos. The Grey Lady had silently floated next to her not making a sound, she gave the appearance of a marble statue that had become transparent. They watched as the one who called himself, Lord Voldemort, withered into a black shapeless heap on the stone floor. Myrtle's eyes behind her thick rimmed glasses never left him as he crumbled to the floor and suddenly realization hit her. It was as if someone had turned on a switch in her memory and she suddenly recognized who he was.
"He….his name was Tom Riddle. …he was a Prefect when I was at school."
"Yes." The Grey Lady answered her with a voice that was laced with utter loathing.
The tears that continuously pricked at the corners of her eyes dried at once as she felt memories rush through her mind's eye like a rush of water flowing through a dried up riverbed. Flashes of thought and memory that had laid dormant for years were finally set free.
"It was him!" Myrtle cried in shock. "He was the one in the bathroom when I died! He released that…that monster!"
"He is responsible for many lost lives." The Grey Lady spoke bitterly as they glided high above the Great Hall surveying the countless injured and deceased. Teachers and students. Aurors and Deatheaters.
"I suppose it is a small blessing, I do not believe he had enough soul left to return as a ghost. IF that were to happen, I tell you, I would find a way to exorcise him myself!"
Myrtle did not bother to ask the Grey Lady what he had done to her to cause such hatred, she was too busy contemplating to new feelings stirring up within her belly. For so many years her thoughts had been blanketed in sorrow and self-pity. Revealing over and over again the pangs of humiliation and self-loathing that had haunted her in her living days.
Moaning Myrtle. Miserable Myrtle. Stupid, ugly, pathetic Myrtle.
It had been the constant playing chant since her first weeks at Hogwarts. She had thought that perhaps in death she would have found some sort of peace but she had been wrong. Now, however, for the first time she felt….different. Almost as if a cork had been pulled out and all the built up feelings that had weighed her down were floating away. For the first time, she felt oddly empty and at peace. But there was something else tugging at the back of her mind. Was it a feeling? An urge? She wasn't sure what it was but it was slowly beginning to tug more strongly on the outskirts of her brain.
"Psssttttt!"
Myrtle turned her head at the sound. Professor Dippet, the old Headmaster, had just pushed himself into the portrait of a young bride who had been primping herself in front of a large gilded mirror. She ruffled her skirts in irritation at the unwanted intruder. Myrtle looked around to see if he could be trying to attract the Grey Lady but she had floated over to console a group of Ravenclaws. Confused, Myrtle glided over towards to portrait.
"Were you waving to me, Professor?" she said quietly.
"Yes, I was." Dippet answered in a squeaky voice. "Professor Dumbledore would like a word with you."
"Why would Dumbledore want to talk to poor, old, moaning Myrtle?" she sighed, slipping back a little into the old temperament that she knew so well.
Professor Dippet blinked at her for a moment before letting out a frustrated sigh and fixed a determined look at Myrtle.
"Miss Warren, a former Headmaster of this school has just requested to speak to you and in case you haven't noticed, you have just witnessed a miracle. This school has survived one of the most powerful dark wizards of all time and you still feel the need to sulk? Since I am no longer your headmaster and as a fellow Ravenclaw I am going to give you a piece of wisdom….buck up missy!"
Myrtle had been stunned speechless, not only had she just been addressed by her surname for the first time in decades, but at Dippet's completely out of character straightforwardness. Before she could come up with a reply the young bride had forcefully thrown Dippet out of her portrait. Curiously, Myrtle began to float upward through the ceiling and into corridor above. Up, up, up she went until she reached the corridor with the large stone gargoyle that guarded the Headmaster's office. She quietly glided through the gargoyle and up the winding staircase till appeared right into the office. Sitting in a gilded gold frame behind the enormous desk was a smiling Albus Dumbledore. Professor Dumbledore had been the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts when she had been alive, he had always been kind to her.
"Hello Myrtle." Dumbledore said kindly, his eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles.
"You wanted to speak to me, Professor?" Myrtle asked softly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Professor Dippet reappear in his own frame looking very disgruntled.
"Yes I did, my dear girl. I was just wondering….how you were feeling?"
Myrtle could not have been more surprised if Peeves had suddenly popped out of a desk drawer and kissed her. What a completely bizarre thing to ask her.
"What I mean to say is, Lord Voldemort is now gone forever. His control over countless lives has now been broken. The evil that he had plagued upon this school in so many ways has now been cleansed."
"Is that why I feel different?" Myrtle had blurted it out before realizing that words came flying out of her mouth.
"Oh, so you did feel something when Voldemort perished!" Dumbledore looked very pleased.
"I can remember things. Things I had forgotten….I remembered Tom Riddle…and his snake…and how I died."
"Anything else?" Dumbledore inquired.
"When I saw him die, it felt as though something inside me broke free. All the bad feelings inside of me just floated away. I feel…lighter and…and there's something else….."
"You feel as though you no longer belong here?" Dumbledore asked quietly.
That was it. That was what had been tugging at her thoughts. She had always left like she didn't belong at Hogwarts because she couldn't fit in. She had only felt Hogwarts once before but had been forced to return. Now, however, it was different. She felt as if there was somewhere else for her to go, that had been waiting all this time for her to come.
"What is happening to me?" Myrtle whispered.
"Only guesses, my dear. But I believe that because you were Lord Voldemort's first victim that a dark bond connected the pair of you. As long as he was alive, the evil that had brought about your death was able to keep you chained in this despair and pain you had felt at the moment of your death. Once he was gone, the bond broke and your soul was free of the bond."
Dumbledore again smiled kindly at Myrtle again. "My dear Myrtle, you have suffered alone for too long. It is time that you found the happiness and peace that has been denied you for over fifty years, and I do not believe that you will find it within these walls."
Myrtle understood what Dumbledore was telling her. She floated over to the window and looked out over the Hogwarts grounds that were painted in shades of yellow and orange from the morning sun.
"I'm a little frightened." She admitted softly.
"Everyone knows fear from time to time," Dumbledore answered, "But it is when we continue down the path despite fear that we find life's greatest treasures. I once read that on the bottom of a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans."
Myrtle could not help herself, she let out a burst of laughter. Her laughter echoed throughout the office and though she could not see it, that laughter had caused her to change. Her lanky dull hair had begun to grow shiny and lush. Her pimple scarred face started to grow clear and clean. Her eyes behind her glasses changed from grey to the color of warm hazel. Dumbledore chuckled in delight.
Once Myrtle had stopped laughing she nodded politely to Dumbledore and floated out of the window. She floated across the green lawns and all the way down to the iron gates guarded by the pillars of winged boars. The gates had been blasted open and were barely held up by their hinges. Myrtle took one last look at the castle before she allowed her feet to touch the ground and she walked out of the Hogwarts. Once she had left the perimeter of the school it was as if a rush of hot butterbeer had filled her stomach. She was no longer grey and transparent but she was whole and glowing with a light that resembled sunshine. Looking up from her newly transformed body, Myrtle saw a two people standing a few meters away from her. One was a plump little woman with curly brown hair and the other was a rather tall man with a short beard and rather thick glasses. They were both beaming at her as if they had been waiting for her to arrive.
"Mm….Mama! Papa!"
Myrtle through herself into their arms as they embraced her and kissed her. Tears of joys ran down her shining face.
"Oh my dear Myrtle," cried her mother. "We have been waiting for you for so long. No more crying, sweetheart. We've got you and we are never letting you go."