Out of the darkness between memories, the low-lighting of the great hall licked slowly upwards into Harry's vision, much like the wax candles it was lit with. The dark, gold-hued lighting revealed many students eating their supper. Joints of pork, turkey and beef took pride of place on each table with silver platters of rosemary roast potatoes, roasted vegetables, golden Yorkshire puddings and thick jugs of gravy filling the spaces in between the meat. In the low-lighting it took quite a while for Harry to locate Lelly and her friends on the Ravenclaw table, but eventually he noticed them sat somewhere in the centre, their backs to the Slytherin table.

Myrtle, Abigale and Lelly were all sat in a line, laughing their heads off. It all became clear to Harry as to why they were laughing. He caught sight of Avery and another boy from his group using their spoons to ping gravy-soaked food at the girls' backs. However, when each food item came within a few centimetres of each of their backs, the missiles turned around and flew back, hitting the person who had thrown it in the face.

"How stupid can you be, seriously?" Lelly scoffed, smirking, as she turned to look at the confused Avery, gravy running down from a spot on his forehead. Harry had to laugh at the obvious bewilderment on his face.

Suddenly Olive Hornby twisted sideways on her chair, her dark eyes flashing wickedly.

"You think you are all so clever, don't you?" she hissed harshly, "Well, you know what I think? I think you're all pretty pathetic, thinking that you're all so clever with that shield charm you put on yourselves."

"I think you just described yourself there." Myrtle muttered before Lelly could even open her mouth. The Italian girl turned to face the short, black haired one, her face twisted in a sneer.

"Can I ask you a question?" she said in a faux-sweet voice.

"Sure"

"What gave you the impression that I asked for or even care about your opinion you fat, ugly little half-blood scum?" Myrtle's face fell as Olive and her friends began to laugh and make nasty comments about half-bloods. Harry was confused, he was sure that Myrtle was a muggle-born. But thinking about it again, Harry remembered the time period and the general hatred and prejudice towards muggle-borns and was not surprised that Myrtle had lied about her heritage.

"That's enough!" Lelly called warningly, surprisingly calm for her, "Ignore them Myrtle, they're just jealous." Olive and her friends burst into more hysterical laughter at this.

"Jealous? Of what? Seriously, there must be some type of award you get given for being that ugly." Olive added, raising one dark, glossy eyebrow.

Myrtle gave a great shudder, her breath catching in her throat and her lips beginning to tremble. The other girls noticed her crying and began to snort with laughter.

"Aw, is she crying? Poor, fat little Myrtle." A ginger girl remarked unpleasantly.

"I can't tell through those specs. They look like she has sawed the bottoms of two glass bottles and made them into glasses. Her family are probably too poor to buy real ones."

"Is there any reason that you are still talking to us?" Lelly cut in dangerously.

"To be honest," Olive addressed her friends loudly, ignoring Lelly, "if I was as fat, ugly, spotty, blind and thick as she was I would have to kill myself."

This was the final straw for Myrtle. She pushed her dinner plate away from her with a nasty scraping noise and she ran past the laughing girls, sobbing.

"Wait Myrtle! It isn't safe to go off by yourself!" Lelly and Abigale got up to follow her but Professor Dippet shook his head and waved at them to sit back down.

Soon, supper ended and the students began to file back to their common rooms.

"We've got to look for her Abi," Lelly whispered to her friend as they ascended the tower to the Ravenclaw common room.

"But with all these attacks on the students it isn't safe to go wondering off!" Abigale protested but not without looking guilty.

"Exactly! Myrtle is in danger!" Lelly argued, looking appalled.

"It's only the muggle-borns that are being attacked! Myrtle isn't a muggle-born!"

Abigale's guilty face turned to terror when Lelly gave her such an angry, hurt and disappointed look. They stood like two rival statues on the staircase while other Ravenclaw students parted around them like the red sea.

"Yes she is! Where have you been these past three years? She just lies about it to stop people from being nastier to her than they are now. Are you coming with me or not?!" Lelly half-yelled at Abigale, who stood paralysed on the spot.

Slowly, the other girl shook her head tearfully.

"No. I know that Myrtle is our friend but we could also be in danger if we go out to look for her." Abigale reasoned.

It was futile. With one last ice-cold, glare at her friend, Lelly ran back down the stairs. Abigale disappeared in the other direction, increasing the distance between the friends. Harry had a nasty feeling that things wouldn't be the same between them ever again

"Where might she be?" Lelly muttered to herself before seemingly decided on a direction to walk in. Harry, of course, followed a few seconds later, her pale skin and fiery hair shining in the low-lighting of the corridors.

Harry's blood ran cold when he realised where she was going. No please, not now. Not this he thought. Well, I suppose I knew it was coming he added bitterly.

A splashing sound snapped him back to the present, well past, and he looked down to see the floor flooded with water. Lelly contemplated the pooling of the water around her feet, wide-eyed and bewildered. She then dashed along the corridor, as curious and light-footed as a cat, to the first-floor girl's bathroom.

The door was shut but water streamed from the gap between the floor and door. Harry could smell burning.

"Myrtle!" Lelly yelled with panic, fiddling frantically with the door knob.

Suddenly the door flew open with much force and Lelly stumbled into the room. Silence, half a second of silence fell like a curtain falling at the end of a performance. Harry watched as Lelly's face twisted in horror. Then she screamed a blood-curdling shriek that made Harry's blood turn to ice. He ran up behind Lelly and froze at what he saw.

Myrtle lay spread-eagled on the tiles near the sinks, her body surrounded by blood-tinted water. Her skin was icy blue but steam rose from it as if it was blistering hot. Harry's eyes travelled to her face and he was sickened to the stomach.

Her final scream was etched onto her face, set like a gargoyle. Her eyes were by far the worst bit. There was no eyeball left in either socket, instead blood flowed freely from them while smoke rose like bats. Her glasses had presumably been burned away. Thin trickles of blood also flowed from her ears and mouth.

Lelly turned and ran, screaming and sobbing, in the general direction of Dippet's office. She dashed along the corridors blindly, clutching her eyes.

Suddenly she ran into a tall, black figure from behind. Tom Riddle turned in surprise, clearly caught off guard but was still sharp enough to catch the girl as she fell into him. Lelly clutched fistfuls of dark fabric as she cried uncontrollably into his robes. Harry ground his teeth; Lelly had run straight into the arms of Myrtle's killer.

Tom held Lelly out at arm's length, concern and bewilderment playing on his face.

"Lelly, what's wrong? Are you unwell?" he asked, wide-eyed. When he looked down the corridor from whence she came, his eyes widened a little bit more with concern for himself.

"I need to see Professor Dippet!" she moaned, trying to skirt round him. He caught her arm and brought her back to face him.

"Now seriously, what's happened?" He replied more firmly, his face showing genuine concern.

"It's Myrtle," Lelly replied, her voice cracking with emotion, "I found her in the first floor girl's bathroom. I th-think that she might be dead."

She dissolved into fresh tears. Harry immediately turned to look at Tom's face, to see his reaction.

Harry was not disappointed, Tom looked like he had been slapped repeatedly round the face with a wet fish, and he was appalled. His face grew paler than ever, dangerously pale, and expressed genuine anguish. However, what scared Harry was the cold hard anger that lay beneath all of the sorrow. He was livid, murderously livid.

Quickly, he enveloped Lelly in a hug. As the fiery-haired girl cried a river into his left shoulder, he glared at the empty space over her right-hand shoulder.

Myrtle was a mudblood? He mouthed to himself, looking perturbed.

He pulled away and took Lelly's pale hand in his. Saying nothing, he escorted Lelly to Professor Dippet's office. She had since stopped crying, her perfect, tear-stained face set like marble.

"Merlin's beard."

The grey stone gargoyles moved aside and Tom gently led her up the spiral staircase towards the big door of the headmaster's office.

He rapped on the door, the noise sounding thin. There were murmurings from inside the office but a few seconds later they were called in.

"Goodness gracious, why are you two not in your common rooms?" Dippet asked, alarmed, "It's dangerous to be walking the castle at this time of night, especially with these attacks that have been occurring."

That was the wrong thing for Dippet to say as tears began to fall back down Lelly's cheeks. She began to sink to the floor but Tom put an arm around her waist to hold her up.

"What's wrong with Miss Bellis?" Professor Dumbledore, who was also in the room, asked.

"It's Myrtle, sir, "Lelly replied in a barely-audible squeak, leaning on Tom for support, "I-I found her in the first-floor girl's bathroom. She's in a really, terribly, bad way. I think she's dead."

Dippet went white with horror and Dumbledore took a deep breath. For a moment they were clearly thinking about Myrtle, as a person and a student. Dippet gave a great sigh and rubbed his chin, blinking. He was emotional.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Dippet eventually asked, regaining his composure. Lelly swayed a little bit and Tom tightened his grip on her waist. He was turning paler and sweatier by the minute.

"I-I don't know. I-I-I went looking for her after she ran from the feast and I found her in the bathroom. It was terrible. I-it looked looked as if her eyes had been burned away, the sockets were smoking. She was steaming as if she was hot even though she was pale…deathly pale." Lelly was cut off as she swayed again, falling to the floor out cold. Tom knelt beside her, shaking her shoulders to try and wake her.

Dippet looked with terrified eyes at Dumbledore.

"This school isn't safe anymore Albus. What are we going to do? The students can't stay here." He whispered to the younger, ginger-haired man.

"I'll escort Mr Riddle back to his dormitory while you take Miss Bellis to the hospital wing, Albus. She needs treatment for shock." Dippet said for Tom to hear too.

With that, Dippet guided a reluctant Tom away from Lelly while Dumbledore gently scooped the unconscious girl up. They turned and left the office in single file.

When they had reached the stone gargoyles they stopped again.

"Get someone to contact the girl's parents." Dippet instructed Dumbledore in a low voice. Tom heard this and turned ashen.

The two teachers then parted and branched off in different directions, Dippet guiding Tom back to the Slytherin common room while Dumbledore carried Lelly to the hospital wing, her legs dangling awkwardly over his arm as he carried her.

Tom glanced back briefly as he was being escorted away. At the same time, Dumbledore looked back at Tom. For a second they exchanged a hard stare, tension crackling. As they looked away from each other the memory dissolved yet again. Harry was sent again back into the darkness, eager to know more.


Hey, it's Randomwriting98. I hope you had a lovely Christmas guys. I have made some major plot changes in this fic for the future which should be much more exciting than what it was. It also means that this fic will end on a cliff hanger... Sequel alert! But of course it depends on how much you enjoy the ending and the story in general but I'd very much like to write the sequel. Words can't describe how much I love writing this :3. PM me or review with what you think about a sequel. Thanks guys. If I don't update before then, have a great new year! I'm sorry this chapter has to be a sad one. I promise no more deaths... at least for a while. Mwahahahahaha. Ciao!