A/N- Sorry about the lack of Susanna in this chapter. Well, she's mentioned a few times, but that's about it. I will make up for it next time (:
Tom didn't get up to move, even after most other occupants of the small building had left. Sirius looked at his friend with concern. "Hey, Tom, are you alright?"
Tom looked down at his hands. "I can't believe those bastards actually had the audacity to show up here. How horrible do you have to be to show up at the funeral of the person that you killed? Avery and the others are all disgusting."
Sirius frowned. "I know. I can't believe it either. But there's nothing we can do. Publically accusing them after Susanna's confession would only make us look crazy. And the funeral's over now. If we stick around for too long it'll seem weird."
Tom nodded, and slowly got to his feet. "I just hate how few people were here. Susanna would've been heartbroken to see that. I know that Myrtle wasn't the most popular girl in the school, but that doesn't stop this from totally sucking. And I know that Dippet's funeral was unofficially mandatory, but it doesn't seem right that he got to have his at the school with nearly a thousand people in attendance, while Myrtle's is far away with just a handful of people. And a chunk of that handful being her own murderers."
Sirius nodded towards the exit of the small building, trying to get Tom to follow him out. "Come on. We need to get back with the rest of them. Otherwise we'll be that pair of idiots who got themselves locked out of the school."
The two boys were able to easily catch up with the rest of the group, and they both caught the portkey on time. When they returned to Hogwarts, Tom started to head towards the dungeons, but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Mr Riddle. I finally have some information for you." Tom nodded for Sirius to go on without him, while he turned to face Dumbledore.
He looked at the headmaster with a lot of hope. "Can Henry and I visit her?"
Dumbledore started to gently push Tom in the direction of his office. "Perhaps we could speak of this matter somewhere a bit more private." They went to the office, and Dumbledore was sure to lock the door behind him. "I've made my case with the ministry, and they finally got back to me just before we left for Ms Warren's funeral. They've agreed to allow the two of you to visit Azkaban on Saturday afternoon, as you suggested, so long as I and an official from the ministry, accompany you. It is a matter of security and the fact that you boys cannot do a patronus charm, which means that you'd need supervision just to get through the prison safely. But we shall go. I suggested we go after lunch so you'll have full bellies when you're there."
Tom closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you."
The headmaster smiled gently. "I don't know what you are hoping to get out of this visit, Mr Riddle. But I do hope that you get what you need. And I hope that you'll be able to handle the sight of her in whatever state she may be in."
Tom nodded. "I'm sure that I'll be fine. Have you told Henry yet?"
There was a sudden loud scream coming from somewhere out in the hallway, and Dumbledore and Tom both rushed out to see what the problem was. A girl was sitting on the floor and intermittently screaming and crying as a few other students attempted to comfort her.
Dumbledore pushed past the other students, and knelt down in front of the upset girl. "Miss Rupple, what is wrong?"
She sniffled, and whimpered a few times before pointing over at the girls' lavatory that was right across the hall from where she was sitting. "I just went in to fix my hair, when there was suddenly someone flying out of the mirror! It flew right through me and I just felt so cold…"
Dumbledore frowned. "One of the school ghosts attacked you? That doesn't seem right."
She shook her head. "No. I only got a quick glimpse before I ran out of there, but whoever it was, I didn't recognize them. I don't feel good at all now." Dumbledore motioned to one of the older students who'd come to investigate the commotion.
"Please escort Miss Rupple to the infirmary." He stood back up and looked around at the other kids. "You may carry on with your day. I shall personally see to this matter. Until this is resolved, the girls' lavatory on this floor will be closed off." He hurried away, most likely to find one of the other professors to help him investigate the matter of a ghost.
As soon as the headmaster and the other students had dispersed, Tom quickly slipped into the bathroom, eager to figure out what was going on. The school ghosts were generally good enough to avoid aggressively attacking the students, and for that girl out there, who looked to be a fourth or fifth year, to not recognize the ghost, that would imply it wasn't one of the regular ones.
He stepped into the bathroom, wincing at the taboo of being a guy in the girls' restroom, but luckily, there were no other girls inside at that moment. He walked over to the mirror that had a brush lying on the ground in front of it. "If there's a ghost in here right now, show yourself!"
A moment later, something came at Tom from behind, and went right through his stomach and out the other side. Even though it didn't exactly hurt, it made him feel cold and hollow. He looked up to see who was floating in front of him, and his eyes widened at the sight of a crumpled Ravenclaw uniform, ridiculous pigtails, and round glasses. He stared in surprise.
After the staring went on for an uncomfortable amount of time, the ghost crossed her arms over her chest. "What's the matter Tom Riddle? You disappointed to see that you weren't able to get rid of a mudblood like me?"
Tom quickly shook his head. "What? No, of course not! Myrtle, I had nothing to do with you dying!"
She shrugged. "I wouldn't know. The last time I spoke to you, you said that you didn't even care about Susanna."
He stopped to think about it, and realized that it was true, his path had mainly stayed separate from Myrtle's since that conversation where she'd told him about Susanna being attacked for the second time. Tom let out a soft sigh. "Listen, that was a long time ago, okay? Susanna and I are very close now. And I'm sorry that this happened to you."
Myrtle's eyes drooped, and she sank a little closer to the floor. "I don't even know what happened. I was just in one of the stalls, um, fixing my hair, when I heard some kind of noise by the sinks. Sounded like someone talking in a funny language, and even weirder, it was definitely a boy. I thought it sounded like you, but with crazy funny languages it can be hard to tell. When I came out to look, I remember feeling scared, and there was a great big pair of yellow eyes, then there was just nothing. The next time I opened up my eyes I was gray and could fly. Wouldn't have figured out that I'm dead if it weren't for that. And no one's come in here since I died. Probably thought it would be too creepy to be in the same room that I died in."
Tom couldn't help feeling surprised. How could it have sounded like him when he knew for sure that he'd had nothing to do with Myrtle's death? He'd been unconscious when she died. "What do you mean by funny language, anyways? Like Latin or something?"
She shook her head, and paused for a moment to think. "No. It was more like a hissing noise. Maybe like a person really dedicated to pretending they're a snake?"
Tom's eyes widened. "You mean like this?" He took a deep breath, then spoke in the hissing dialect of parseltongue. "This is how I talk to Nagini, and it's how I opened the chamber before, but there shouldn't be anyone else able to use parseltongue."
Myrtle narrowed her eyes. "Yes. Exactly like that. It's definitely you that I heard. You really are my killer!"
Tom shook his head. "But I'm not! Maybe I'm wrong, and there's someone else in the school who knows parseltongue, but I swear that I had absolutely nothing to do with your death."
Myrtle looked dubious of that answer. "But the voice I heard sounded just like your hissy voice. How do you explain that?" She held up one hand. "Actually, I don't really care. If you're close with Susanna like you claim, then I want to hear from her. If she says it wasn't you, I'll believe her."
Tom's shoulders slumped down, and he gave Myrtle an apologetic look. "Susanna's not around-"
Myrtle let out an annoying screech. "What? She's dead too!?"
Tom shook his head. "No! God, no. She's not around Hogwarts anymore. She confessed to murdering you, and was sentenced to fifty years in Azkaban."
There was a long moment of silence, and Myrtle sank down even lower. She repositioned herself so that it would look like she was sitting, if it weren't for the fact that she was hovering an inch above the floor. "But Susanna didn't do this." She sounded lost, like she didn't even know what else to say. "Someone must've coerced her into it, or, or," she let out another screech. "Ah! She didn't do this!"
Tom held his hands out. "Hey, you don't have to try and convince me. I already know that. Susanna isn't a killer, and she definitely had no reason to kill her best friend in the entire world. Or Dippet for that matter."
Myrtle peered up at Tom. "What? The headmaster was killed too?" She tilted her head. "Who would possibly be stupid enough to kill the headmaster himself and expect to get away with it?"
He was hesitant to answer even though he knew he was right, until he saw the look on Myrtle's face. He wasn't even sure what it was that she needed to know, but he knew that she was expecting something. "Henry and I think that it was Jonathon Avery. He's in Slytherin, and he's always shown a hateful attitude towards muggle borns. I was teaching some of the guys in Slytherin how to speak in parseltongue, but I stopped before any of them actually really managed to learn anything. I'm pretty sure he's also the one who attacked Susanna that night on the quidditch pitch. He's a real piece of work, but I don't know what I could do to stop him. He comes from a powerful family, and he's strong on his own. He was able to carry on like normal even after I used cr- even after some painful things he's been through."
Myrtle raised one eyebrow. "You don't have to act so innocent. I know that you haven't always been mister nice guy. Not that I'm saying I believe that you suddenly are right now, but you do seem to have a better attitude than last time we spoke." She got up, and let out a long sigh. "If magical ghosts are anything like the ones my dad used to tell me stories about, then I'll be stuck here until my unfinished business gets finished. I'm assuming that that would be catching my killer, and getting Susanna out of the slammer if I can. Then I'll be able to go somewhere… else."
Tom frowned. "I'm not sure that that's exactly it. Not that I'm an expert in this stuff. I was raised by muggles too." Myrtle seemed surprised by that new nugget of information, though she didn't interrupt Tom. "I think that if you become a ghost it means that you were really really scared at the time of your death."
Myrtle shrugged. "Obviously I was scared, but since I didn't really know that I was going to be dropping dead immediately, I didn't have time to build up the really strong fear. Let's just say that neither of us have any clue what we're actually talking about."
"That's fair."
They were both silent for a minute, before Myrtle looked at Tom sadly. "So how are we going to catch this creep and spring Susanna free? Please tell me that you didn't tell me all that sad stuff just to say that there's nothing we can do about it. Because if that's the case, then I'll-" The door to the bathroom swung open, and Tom ducked into one of the stalls, not wanting to be spotted in the girls' room, especially after Dumbledore had announced that it was going to be shut down.
Tom had the feeling that he was going to be caught and get in trouble when he heard Dumbledore's voice. "Miss Warren," he didn't sound exactly surprised, but he could just be good at hiding it.
Instead of answering him like a normal human being, she screamed loudly, and Tom could hear the loud whooshes of her flying around the room. "Go use your own toilet!" she screamed in an unnecessarily high pitch. A moment later, she pushed her head into the cubicle Tom was hiding in, going right through the metal door. "They're gone now."
Tom got out of the stall. "Why did you scare them away like that?"
She grinned. "Didn't want you getting in trouble for using the wrong toilet yourself. Besides, if I'm too nice, they'll try and find a way to kick me out, and I'm not ready to go yet. I need to scare Olive Hornby at least once. Maybe a few more times than that. Oh, and this Avery kid. I definitely need to give him a good fright."
Tom tilted his head. "Who's Olive Hornby?"
Myrtle frowned. "I guess you could say that she's the reason that I was in this stupid bathroom on the day that I died. I lied before. I wasn't actually fixing my hair that night, I was crying, because Olive is a bully. And I wasn't going to complain to Susanna again about it, because I know that she'd be willing to listen, but it wouldn't be fair to keep burdening her with that stuff. It'll probably be more fun if I go haunt Avery first though, before he gets word that I'm here."
Tom shook his head. "I don't think that that's such a good idea."
She snorted. "Why? You afraid that he'll kill me or something?"
Tom sighed. "I just don't think it is. But of course I can't stop you. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to scare him into confessing. And I suppose that at least if you're roaming the school you won't be cooped up in this bathroom for eternity. That sounds like it would get old fast."
Myrtle nodded. "Yeah, I know. So you said he's a Slytherin? Don't worry, I'll find him." There was a mischievous grin on her face. "If that boy is responsible for my death and Susanna's incarceration, then he's definitely going to pay. I'll never let him forget what happened."
She sounded so sadistically gleeful, but Tom couldn't really fault her for that. He didn't think he'd just sit back and do nothing if someone had murdered him and he'd come back as a ghost. So he could understand how she wanted to get back at her murderer.
Tom turned towards the bathroom door. "I'm just going to get out of here, alright? Henry and I are going to go visit Susanna tomorrow afternoon. I'll come find you afterwards to let you know how she's doing."
Myrtle nodded, her grin fading and getting replaced with a more serious look. "Alright. Thank you. Is it mean for me to say that I'm glad I'm the one who's dead and not the one who's locked up in Azkaban?"
Tom shook his head. "No, that's not mean. But Susanna said she knew what she was getting into, so hopefully she really does have some absolutely brilliant plan hidden up her sleeve." He paused next to the door and glanced back. "And Myrtle? I know that we aren't the best of friends or anything, but I'm glad that you're not gone forever."
The ghost gave him a large smile in response. "Well, you're the first to say so. Thank you."
Then Tom left, and hurried away, hoping that no one saw him leave the girls' room. The last thing he needed was some reputation as a peeping tom. He hurried back to the Slytherin dorms, hoping to find Sirius and tell him about everything that had just happened. This was starting to be all too much for one teenage boy to carry on his own.
