The shattered pearl rimmed glasses lay directly across from Olive Hornby's bed in the girl's dormitory. The glasses sat on the nightstand and Olive looked at them with a satisfied gleam in her eyes as if they were some glorified trophy she'd won in a battle.
Except Hermione knew the glasses weren't won during any magically scarred battle, they were stolen from a mangled corpse in the girl's Lavatory and the pair of glasses weren't supposed to be in the girl's sleeping quarters they belonged to Moaning Myrtle.
The half-smile of smugness Olive sent to the prized possession perched on her nightstand made Hermione instinctively clench her fists. She watched as Olive chuckled to herself probably thinking about when she'd spit on Moaning Myrtle's dead body only two days before. Hermione glared at the girl and watched with a half-smile of her own as Moaning Myrtle's ghost popped up directly beside Olive's bed.
Myrtle's expression was of angry vehemence as she shouted at the girl, "You still have my glasses? How dare you keep them?"
Olive's face froze with shock as she scrambled up in her bed and threw her covers off as if a jar of spiders had suddenly been set loose inside the blankets. Olive wore a plane flannel nightgown and had comfortable socks to protect her feet warm from the cold evenings.
She hadn't seen Myrtle since the bathroom incident when Myrtle's ghost drove her from the room screaming, but now here she was…and Olive noted with no small amount of fear that the ghost looked seriously pissed.
"I told you to leave them in the Lavatory when I followed you out into the hall, didn't I?"
Olive knelt on the bed and kept backing up while Moaning Myrtle honed in on her. Myrtle followed her every move as she screamed, "Why didn't you do what I told you to and leave my glasses where they belonged?"
Olive kept scooting backward on the bed and finally knocked over the small glass of water she'd placed on the nightstand beside Myrtle's stolen object. When the glass suddenly tipped over, the water spilled down the front of Olive's flannel nightgown and Moaning Myrtle's expression changed almost instantly.
Her face lit up with delight as she pointed at Olive and trilled, "Look at that, you couldn't make it to the Lavatory on time, could you Olive? You went inside your nightgown instead!"
Olive's face contorted angrily as she burst out, "You saw what happened, and it was an accident! Why won't you just leave me the bloody well alone? You're nothing but a creepy ugly ghost anyway, you filthy Mudblood!"
Myrtle's ghostly features were still glowing with mirth as she said with a smile, "It's not my fault that you can't hold it in Olive, don't blame me for your little accidents."
"I didn't wet my nightgown you no disgusting creature, I spilled the water down the front of my gown! You saw it yourself as plain as day!" Olive fumed angrily while Hermione could hear some of the other girl's stirring in their separate compartments.
When some of the students peeked into Olive's compartment they saw her damp nightgown before they even noticed Moaning Myrtle's hovering figure. Some of them covered their mouths and giggled as they pointed at Olive, and one girl from Ravenclaw spoke up and said with a gasp, "Olive you really should have made a run for the Lavatory if you needed to take a pee so badly!"
When several of the girls around her giggled, Olive reached over to her nightstand and threw Moaning Myrtle's shattered glasses straight at them. When the students heard Myrtle begin to whimper as the glasses lay crumpled on the floor behind them, the girls all gazed from Moaning Myrtle's ghostly form to look at Olive with accusing stares.
Hermione smiled with satisfaction and watched as one of the girls from the second year class said angrily, "You broke the dead girl's glasses without even blinking an eye, how could you Olive?"
"You should be ashamed of yourself!"
Several more girls spoke up in defense of Moaning Myrtle, but Myrtle did not hear them. Hermione looked around the room and heard a far off echo. It sounded like the noise was just outside the door and Hermione realized that Myrtle had already left the scene without looking back.
The next day, Hermione caught Myrtle exploring the Great Hall and saw Olive sitting at one of the tables with the three friends who used to bully her surrounding her on all sides. They were finishing up their mealtime when Olive spotted Moaning Myrtle's figure floating nearby. The girl's beside her sneered at Myrtle's ghost having heard of the accident with the water spilling from the night before and the teasing that Olive had endured afterward. They didn't care for Myrtle when she'd been alive, but now they loathed her with steady determination.
"She was nothing but a disgusting excuse for a Hogwarts student anyway," said one of the three girls speaking loud enough for Myrtle to hear.
"I'm glad she's dead," said another who sat beside Olive and glanced at her friend with a nod. "She was ugly with her face covered with pimples and those awful glasses!"
The girl's laughed and when they stood to leave the table, something happened that made Hermione's eyes widen with surprise. Myrtle came to approach the girl's and Olive frowned at her, "How dare you approach us you dreadful little mudblood! You're more obnoxious dead, than you were alive, if that is even possible!"
The two girls beside Olive chortled in response but Myrtle said nothing. Instead, Hermione watched as one of the bowls filled with chocolate pudding suddenly launched from the table and flew across the empty space.
"Ahhh! You wretched beastly creature!"
Hermione laughed outright when she looked over and saw that Olive's face was covered with messy gooey chocolate. She grinned when one of Olive's friends reached over and ran her finger across Olive's forehead to swipe at some of the dessert. Tasting the chocolate pudding the girl beside Olive nodded and said, "It's really not that bad Olive if you want to taste it." The girl said the last few words rather slowly when she caught sight of Olive's expression of outrage.
"Ugh, I hate you Moaning Myrtle!"
Hermione chuckled along with Moaning Myrtle as Olive Hornby ran from the room screaming down the house with a full blown tantrum of anger in progress. Yes, Hermione thought with a wicked smile, retribution might be awfully sweet in the greater scheme of things but it wasn't lasting.
While Hermione glanced over at Myrtle she heard the ghost whisper fiercely, "And it isn't over yet Olive Hornby…this is only the beginning to remind you of all the times you have been mean to me. Even in death, you have tormented me so now it is my turn."
