Chapter Twelve- An Interview With a Ghost

Horace had only told her the name of the ghost that had agreed to Kitty's interview of her life that weekend. He said he didn't really know much about her, since he'd never been in the vicinity of her living area in life. She spent much of her ghostly time playing in the Hogwarts Lake or through the drainpipes to the girl's bathroom on the first floor, and that was all he really knew.

"How's it possible that she could spend time in the drain pipes, Horace? She surely didn't go through the drain pipes while living did she?" Kitty asked, rather disgusted by the idea.

"Of course not, there were some plan changes in Hogwarts after her death. Since she had gone through the areas that now are taken up by piping, she can go through the pipes now," Horace explained as he floated along beside Kitty and down the stairs.

"How is it then you can pass through walls you didn't pass through while living?" Kitty frowned in deep thought, "The same reason perhaps?"

"I'm not exactly sure myself…We live, or rather don't, on another plane of existence that even we have trouble understanding."

"I see…" Kitty murmured as they stepped down from the stairs onto the second floor landing.

A portrait of Anne Boleyn, a former queen of England sat watching her. Kitty had walked past the portrait many times, but she never understood the look of distaste Anne always seemed to have towards everyone. From her history books she had learned Anne was a squib during King Henry VIII's reign. He eventually had her sentenced to death for being a witch, except she really wasn't one, though it is believed she gave Henry love potions of magical origin. Kitty thought perhaps Anne's look of disdain was a way for her to feel better than all of the witches and wizards who had been born with magic whereas she hadn't. As Kitty walked past the portrait, Anne's eyes followed her.

"Be nice to Myrtle, she can get a little…emotional at times, or so I'm told."

"Wait a minute," Kitty finally realized who Horace was talking about, "Moaning Myrtle? The older girls are always saying not to use this bathroom because she cries and floods it."

"Yes, but don't let her hear you calling her that. We have real names too, you know," Horace warned.

"Oh yes, I know. Sorry, Horace."

"No harm done to me," Horace bowed, "This is where I wait for you, then."

Kitty nodded to her friend before stepping up to the door, taking a deep breath. She pressed her hand against the worn wooden door, which was obviously rotting at the bottom, probably from the flooding Myrtle was so popular for. It was definitely a new experience for Kitty to enter an unknown and rather frightening place all alone. The twins had redoubled their efforts to finish their fireworks for Peeves's trick since the library incidence, and Horace was unable to enter the girl's bathroom, having never been there in life, so she had to do this alone. Myrtle's bathroom door closed with a quiet bang.

The room had the appearance of a keyhole as Kitty looked around. It was large and round on one side with sinks, and on the other side of the room with the stalls, the room was rectangular. The floor had some obvious water damage, some of the bricks were loose and the drains had a lot of calcification and rust. She couldn't see anyone, ghost or human in the area. Then, she heard the sound of flushing and there was a splash of water gushing onto the floor from a bathroom stall. The nearly transparent figure of a young girl, only a little older than Kitty herself, flew onto the large, circular windowsill and sat there with a wry smile on her face.

The stained glass of the window could be seen through the young girl's body, which was slightly unsettling. Her hair and eyes were a darker grey than the rest of her, leading Kitty to believe that Myrtle had been dark-haired with brown eyes in her lifetime. The young witch's ghost wore her school robes with the Ravenclaw insignia sewn onto the right side. A large pair of spectacles sat forward on her nose, and her skin seemed speckled with acne. To Kitty, this ghost seemed even sadder than the Bloody Baron.

"So you've come to hear my story," the thin figure of the lounging girl spoke.

Kitty understood just from her voice how this ghost had earned her nickname. The sentence came out as though she was sobbing, or begging her parents for a candy treat. It was rather an uncomfortable voice to listen to.

"That I have, I'll just get out my quill and book," Kitty explained setting her quill onto the book, which began to write the last few words of her sentence immediately after being placed on the page.

Kitty's mother had given her the voice-writing quill for Christmas after hearing of Kitty's interview plans. The ghost eyed the quill rather suspiciously, before rolling her eyes and returning her gaze to Kitty.

"What would you like to know then?"

"What was your family like?" Kitty ventured, her question almost disappearing with the depressive look crossing Myrtle's face.

"Them…I wish I could have seen them again," her voice broke with sobs, "My mom and dad loved me. They were Muggles you know…I was loved…their only child," Myrtle seemed unable to continue with her choking sobs, "They came to retrieve my body from Armando Dippet, when it happened you know, their only daughter. I was too afraid to show myself to them, but I wanted to say goodbye to them so desperately. Their poor Muggle hearts…wouldn't have been able to take it, I'm sure…"

"I'm sorry, Myrtle…" Kitty felt extreme pity for the sobbing teenager.

"What good does a sorry do?!" Myrtle became angry now, "Don't pity me, it is simply what happened. And now I live, dead, with these memories, though I'd rather leave the Earth most days."

"You don't want to be a ghost?"

"Want? Dear goodness, no! It's awful here. The students make fun of me, Peeves tries to make my days miserable; not that they aren't already; and I have to sit here with my memories."

"Why don't you just…pass on to the next life?" Kitty inclined her head.

"It's not that easy, you see…I want to pass on, but I can't. I'm too afraid. The whole reason I'm here in the first place is that I was afraid to die, and I wanted to live. I didn't want to be forgotten, especially not by a certain girl who was still living."

"And what was it like, while living?"

At this question Myrtle floated down quickly, circling Kitty as she spoke, "It was a dreadful existence. I was so excited to be a Ravenclaw, you see I'd always known I was smart, but the others didn't like me. 'She's too emotional, too needy, too ugly,' they all said," Myrtle sniffed, "and perhaps I was," she sobbed again, "I must have had no friends for a reason."

"The reason being that people are cruel, Myrtle, not that you were flawed."

"Says you, you have friends. I hear about those twins of yours all the time," Myrtle grumped.

Kitty was surprised that Myrtle knew of her, but continued unperturbed, "Yes says I. I had no friends at home in Truscan, except for my sister, but that is because young people are cruel to each other. They chose you to treat badly because they could, not because you are undeserving of friendship," the young ghost was watching Kitty with feigned disinterest now, she'd stopped circling and turned her face away, "Friendship is a right, the people who bullied, and still bully you, just don't understand or respect that."

"Perhaps you are right, but it is the hand I was dealt…" Myrtle sighed sadly.

"Perhaps telling me how you died will help cheer you?"

Myrtle's eyes instantly brightened, "Yes, my death day! I was fourteen you know, it happened right in this very bathroom."

At this, Kitty paled with fear, but Myrtle continued her story, "That cubicle, right over there," Myrtle pointed, "that's where it happened. I'd hidden in here to cry, Olive Hornby had been teasing me about my glasses. Oh, but I made her regret it."

Myrtle made a few more circles in the air. Her body flipped and twisted without any struggle. It was a strange experience seeing what appeared to be a human body changing form the way a ghost's body tended to do. Myrtle sank back down onto the windowsill she'd lounged on before.

"I heard a noise, someone coming in and called out, wondering who it was. I don't think they heard me at all. Then I noticed the person was hissing something, and it sounded like a boy's voice, so I got out to tell him to get out of the girl's bathroom, and then, I died."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," Myrtle sighed with happy remembrance, "I saw a great big pair of yellow eyes, and then I was gone, except I wasn't…I held onto life, didn't want to let go and disappear, even though I was basically already invisible. It took hours before anyone even came looking for me. I know because I sat there waiting for them, right up here on this very window sill…I didn't see who the boy had been, though, but I didn't really care for some reason, lost in my own thoughts…because I wanted to haunt Olive Hornby for the rest of her life. I was planning."

"Eventually, Olive showed up to tease me some more, but then she saw my body lying there cold and motionless. Her reaction was perfect. She ran to me, not understanding, for once in her life feeling guilt and shook me, saying it wasn't funny. So I told her from the window, 'Neither is what you've done to me,' and she fainted right there," a genuine smile appeared on Myrtle's face and she laughed, chilling Kitty to the bone.

"I haunted Olive Hornby until her final days, and then I returned here…to my bathroom. No one really comes around anymore, but I still try not to be forgotten."

"Do you think you'll ever pass on?" Kitty asked with a twinge of concern.

"I don't know," Myrtle replied thoughtfully, "but maybe someday. We'll see."

Kitty emerged from Myrtle's bathroom slightly shaken, her thoughts reeling, but they were broken by Horace's voice, "That seemed like it went well, the bathroom isn't flooded, and I don't hear shrieks."

"That would depend on your definition of something 'going well,'" Kitty replied, returning to her thoughts.