Chapter 13 - The Return of Myrtle

Boys can be so heartless sometimes... - Moaning Myrtle -

A/N: Amorae's back from hiatus! Sorry for my rather long vacation. It's just that Final Fantasy X and Ranma 1/2 are so distracting..... Err, I mean, I was sick, deadly sick, and I, uh, couldn't write for a month. Uh-huh, horrible disease. Very contagious. You could catch it even now as you read this. Errr, anyway, I apologize again. Next update won't take nearly as long. I kinda, sorta, almost promise!

Virtual Chocolate Brownies will be offered again to anyone who guesses correctly who saves Harry.... again.

Dedicated to Dawgh who was my 300th reviewer

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Harry's appearance into the Ravenclaw Common Room raised a rather large disturbance, but he didn't waste any of his time to stop and explain to the few bewildered fifth year Ravenclaw boys and their Prefect why he was racing out of the girls' dormitory with lipstick smudges on him and half-torn off clothes. They wouldn't have believed him anyway.

Charging between two occupied seats next to the fire and leaping over a boy's legs that were resting over a footstool, he ran out of the room towards the Ravenclaw entrance.

Once outside, things started taking a definite turn for the worse as all of the female pictures began following him in and out of their frames giving catcalls. Also Harry didn't have the foggiest clue as to where he was. He had never been down the Ravenclaw corridor, and the only thing he could make of the place was that it was probably near the bottom of one of the towers.

With my luck, the next person I'll meet is Snape, Harry thought bitterly.

"There he is!" a girl shrieked.

Harry turned around to see Hermione and McGonagall standing at the opposite side of the hallway. Close enough. Hermione's finger was pointed straight at him, and the space between them quickly started to decrease as she and McGonagall sped towards him. McGonagall could run incredibly fast for a woman of her age.

Harry quickly forced himself to forget about that and run. Run. Run.

Dear God, this was a nightmare. If Hogwarts had a track team, he would most definitely be in shape for it towards the end of the day.

Turning down another corridor, Harry spotted and flew down the first set of steps he could find. They lead him to a more familiar hallway where the Prefect Boys' Bathroom was located. Harry resolved that it would not be best to try hiding in the loo again since Myrtle was now after him and wasn't likely to be too abashed to go in since she had done it once before.

Above his head, there was a sudden crackling noise and a voice echoed through the school.

'All Hogwarts residence, May I have your attention please,' Professor Snape's voice boomed. 'I would like to ask at this time that all students return to his or her dormitories after this first period classes due to a special emergency. No one is to leave from their House under any circumstances until further notice is given. Prefects are to insure that this rule is to be enforced, and teachers are to report to the faculty room immediately. Also if there is a particular someone out there that needs assistance for a certain something, Dumbledore requests that he remain where he is. Help is on the way and he will be there shortly. Oh, and before I forget, fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor House.'

There was another crackle then silence.

Hope once again ignited in Harry, turning quickly to annoyance at the point deduction made to Gryffindor. Like this was really all his fault!

Well, technically it sort of was but still....

On a plus though, if Snape was asking for everyone to go to their dorms and for him to stay put then Dumbledore must know about the potion which means that Ginny had pulled through for him after all. But then again, on the negative side, his situation had to have been worse then thought if Dumbledore felt it worth ending classes and confining people to their dormitories. Then another more important thought hit him. Snape had just issued an order that all students go to their dormitories at the end of first period. Harry looked at his watch in alarm. First period classes ended in fifteen minutes. That would mean that they were all going to be going through the hallways in only a few moments which meant that...

Harry had to find a place to hide!

He looked all around the place, forcing the sick pull of panic in his stomach down.

Door.... Door.... Lustful Ravenclaw mob..... A bit of a cord he could use to hang himself....

Hang on.

Harry let out a high-pitched yelp and screeched to an abrupt halt. Cho, Parvati, and the other Ravenclaw girls were all lined up on the opposite of the hallway, blocking any attempts he could take at getting around them. Harry didn't know how they had gotten there so fast though they surely knew the hallways around their common room better then he did. They gave a loud battle cry that would have sent Voldermort running for the hills and charged. Harry turned quickly around only to see McGonagall and Hermione sprinting from the corner towards him.

Trapped on both sides, he went down the only other hallway available to him which, after a short run, turned out to be a dead end.

Murphy's Law seemed to be against Harry as he felt along the solid stone wall in front of him franticly. He pounded his fist against it like he had in the boys' bathroom, but all he got was a hurt hand. He shook it viciously and flipped around holding it as the shouts drew nearer. He pressing himself against the wall, breathing fast.

Got to think. What was he to do? Harry fumbled through his robes and pulled out his wand with a shaking hand. He aimed it at the mob of girls and started muttering a silent prayer.

He didn't get very far though before the first stunning spell was caste.

Ducking under the powerful ray, he huddled down into a corner. His life started flashing before his eyes. Hagrid, Sirius, Hermione, Ron, his parents, Voldermort - He could see the green flash and hear the maniacal laugh of the Dark Lord again but then Ginny came to his mind - Sweet, innocent Ginny. He was wrong for blaming this all on her. She was only following Professor Snape's orders. If he hadn't of been such an idiot.....

A good chunk of the wall behind him fell on his head as another spell was shot at him.

Ow!

Harry held his head tightly. He was about to give himself up when suddenly grabbed from behind and pulled back. He tried to give a protesting cry, but a hand was clasped tightly over his mouth. The scent of roses met Harry's nostrils as he looked back over his shoulder and widened his eyes.

The wall had opened up behind him and someone was dragging him away into a room.

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Meanwhile back with Ginny.......

"Oh, I hope Harry's all right," Ginny said worriedly as she followed behind Professor Dumbledore, who had been complacently sucking on a lemon drop he had pulled out from his pocket. They were heading towards the Great Hall entrance where Ginny had last left Harry. "Did you ever say how long it took for this potion to take complete affect?" she asked.

"I thought I remembered reading that it took twenty four hours for an Amorae potion to take complete control of its host.... Or was that for a hair growing potion?" Dumbledore sighed wistfully. "At this age it's hard to keep anything straight anymore."

Ginny tightened her fists and tried not to get aggravated. And this is the guy people claim is more powerful then You-Know-Who?

The corridor Dumbledore and she had been going down began to get dimmer. Ginny slowed a bit when her shoes suddenly struck water. She caught sight of a large pile of rubble and dust, and before a question could form in her mind, a sudden transparent blur sped by in front of her carrying bits of rocks and mortar. There seemed to be something strapped onto its back.

Ginny leaped back while Dumbledore calmly stopped in his tracks. "Well, hello there, Myrtle," he greeted.

Myrtle?

Ginny remembered vaguely hearing some fifth year girls talking about a ghost named Moaning Myrtle that mopped about one of the girls' bathrooms, but she had never actually seen her. Ginny walked a little closer towards the mess the ghost was hovering around.

"Ooh dear," she muttered, viewing the destruction.

Instead of what used to be a bathroom and part of a hallway, there was a huge crater of debris. Bathroom doors lay broken on top of large pieces of rubble and stone. There was a sink lying near Ginny's feet and bits and pieces of floor tile sprinkled the area while a large cloud of dust with the pungent scent of Muggle gunpowder hung in the air.

Ginny ducked a bit lower to try and escape the ghastly fumes and dust and stared avidly at Myrtle, who was dressed in full army gear. She knew some of the ghosts in Hogwarts were oddly dressed, but nothing like this. This one looked like she belonged in a Vietnam War film or something.

The ghost raised her helmet and gave Dumbledore and Ginny a suspicious look. "What do you want?" she asked.

Dumbledore casually flicked a piece of dirt off his robe's sleeve and looked around as if he was accustom to seeing blown apart bathrooms. "Oh, Ms. Weasley and I were just strolling along through the halls. Pay us no heed, if you please. But if you don't mind me asking, would you happen to know where exactly the men's facility and hallway went?"

"I blew it up," the ghost answered.

"Ah."

"Is that a problem?"

"Well, it would be unfortunate to any young man around here in desperate need of a bathroom."

Myrtle shrugged uncaringly probably because she had never had to use the bathroom for over fifty years and forgot what it was like to need to go. Or else she was just being insensitive.

Dumbledore peered at Myrtle over his spectacles. "Out of curiosity, for what reason did you have in disposing of this particular bathroom? Were the others not as worthy?"

"I wasn't wanting to blow up the bathroom,' Myrtle snapped. "I was aiming for a student."

"Now that's a little more understandable, though you may have gone a bit overboard in the carry. What did the poor boy do?"

"Nothing really," Myrtle stated with a shrug. "I just wanted to kill him. That way we would never be apart." A strange light shown in her eyes. "But it seems as though he doesn't want me. I've been searching all through here and found not a single trace of him. Boys can be so heartless sometimes." A familiar mopping expression overtook Myrtle's face. She floated through a bit of the ruin then sank down onto a toilet seat sitting half submerged at an angle on the very top of all the rabble. Burying her face in her hands, she started crying pitifully, oblivious to the steam of water shooting through her head from a broken pipe behind her.

A fearful jolt went through Ginny. "Um, excuse me," she said, taking a couple steps towards Myrtle, "but what was this boy's name?"

Myrtle jerked her head out of her hands and glared angrily down at Ginny. "What do you care?" she choked. "It's not like he would be of any interest to a little unimportant girl like you."

The harsh words made Ginny's ears go a bit red. The Weasley temper in her rose. "I don't care about whether or not I'd find him interesting. I just want to know who he was. You don't need to be so snappish about it."

In a sudden rush of wind, Ginny found herself all at once staring at a set of very cold transparent eyes. "I'd watch yourself if I were you," Myrtle warned, reaching over her shoulder to touch the gun strapped to her back, her face inches from Ginny's. "I don't have time or patience to deal with an impotent little child."

Something that must be understood about the Weasley temper is that under pressure it tends to get worse. Therefore, while most people who had a ghost threatening their life with a big gun would have the common sense to back off, Ginny Weasley did not. Instead she glared back. "Hey! Who're you calling impotent? I was just asking a simple question."

"Hn! Not only are you little, but you're stupid too!" Myrtle took her gun out and aimed at Ginny's head. "Wanna say anything else now, girlly?"

"Uuuuh...." Staring down the end of a gun barrel, Ginny realized that she had probably gone a bit too far again.

Lucky, before things could get messy, Dumbledore stepped in and put his hand lightly on Myrtle's gun and pushed it down. His eyes were flashing as he forced a smile. "I think that this has gone on quite long enough now," he stated. "We should probably be going now, Ms. Weasley. Our Mr. Potter still needs assistance after all."

Ginny was more then happy to comply, though she didn't let it show for pride's sake.

Moaning Myrtle gave a swift glance at Dumbledore. "Did you say Potter, as in Harry Potter?"

"Why, yes. Perhaps you know where we might find him?"

Myrtle's mouth scrunched up and her eyes started brimming with tears. The gun she was carrying went clamoring to the floor as she took off to the opposite side of the room, bawling in her hands.

"Harry Potter," Myrtle sobbed, "is the reason I'm here right now. It was so mean of him to take off from my bathroom like he did, after he came to visit too. I don't see why he had to runaway. I was only trying to kill him."

"Kill Harry? But why?" Ginny demanded.

"Because as a ghost he and I could be together forever."

"I still don't think we're following you," said Dumbledore.

"Is it so hard to understand? When you're in love, nothing is too hard. I wanted us together, to do that, he'd have to be dead first."

Ginny gapped at the guilt-free face of Myrtle. Who knew Hogwarts had such homicidal ghosts floating around? Somehow though Ginny figured that Myrtle was not exactly the normal, run-of-the-mill Spook. At least she couldn't really see Nearly-Headless-Nike waving a gun around and trying to murder potential love interests. It made an interesting mental image however...

Ginny's eyes drifted from the weeping ghost towards a large hole in the far wall. She blinked. "Hey, Headmaster, where do you suppose that leads?" she asked, pointing at Harry and Ron's tunnel.

Dumbledore looked thoughtful. "How about we go see?" he said.

Ginny nodded, and they headed towards the tunnel entrance. She leaned in a bit, peering into it. "I can't see an end," she said excitedly. "Do you think we should follow it in case Harry went down there?"

"It would be a wise choice of action. If Miss. Myrtle really was telling to truth about her murder attempt and if Mr. Potter was really chased into this former bathroom then it's the best lead we have."

"Please, tell me the potion isn't responsible for all this."

"Actually, from what I've heard, this is a good day for Myrtle."

"You mean she's tried to kill students before?"

"Kill? Oh, no, of course not. That's all the potion's doing, but take out the homicidal factors, and everything else is the typical Moaning Myrtle."

Ginny didn't know quite how to respond to this. "Oh," she said.

"Can I come too?" Myrtle suddenly ask, appearing beside them, her face the utmost of the word 'glum'.

"You?" Ginny said in shocked disbelief. "Why, so you can have another shot at killing Harry?"

Myrtle glared at Ginny fiercely. "I didn't ask for your opinion. I was asking Dumbledore."

"Well, Ms. Weasley does bring up a valid point," Dumbledore said truthfully. "School killings are such a nuisance when it comes to all the paperwork and forms to fill out."

"Err, well, what if I promised not to do that?" Myrtle asked.

"Then we could maybe work out a deal. We'd have to make sure that your, er, arsenal would be disposed of first though."

Myrtle fingered the grenades strapped across her chest fretfully.

"I couldn't even keep one?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Even if I promised not to use it?"

"Yep."

"Bugger," Myrtle muttered. She hesitated for a moment before unfastening her belt and laying down all her handguns. The grenades came next, then three more guns from her back pockets, an assortment of knives, a blow gun, four dangerous looking boomerangs, a bit of a chain, a whip, and a small container of silly putty.

"Silly putty?" Ginny asked, starring at the pile on the floor.

Myrtle shrugged. "I've seen it in movies."

A few more things were added onto the pile until it stood two feet above the ground.

Dumbledore surveyed the booty shrewdly. "Are you sure that's all, Myrtle? No forgotten bombs or misplaced knives?"

"Yes sir," said Myrtle innocently.

"The you wouldn't mind taking off your coat for me, would you?"

There was a pause.

"I really wasn't going to use them."

"Of course not."

Six more guns and a row of bullets were added to the pile. The whole thing was enough to make Saddam Hussein drool jealously.

"Alright," Dumbledore said cheerfully as the last bit of Myrtle's weapons was disposed of. "I guess we'd better be going then. You two will be sure to get along together then, won't you?"

"Oh, sure," Myrtle and Ginny said together before sending each other deadly glares behind Dumbledore's back.

"Good!"

They entered the mysterious tunnel with Dumbledore leading.

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Catspook – Shh! You didn't see that, alright? ^_~ It was aaaaall in your head.

Haer'Dalis – Tee hee hee, yeah I bet a lot of guys wish they were Harry. I'm not lazy though. I'd prefer the term: "motivationally deficient"

Kei-chan – How long is the torture gonna go on for? Until I get bored, I guess. ::evil grin:: Maybe a little bit longer.

Cleo-chan - Where did Draco the sex god disappear to by the way? My bedroom. ^_^ (Or else he's off burning incense and candles at his Harry Potter shrine. I'm sure he'll be popping back into the story once he's done. What's a story, after all, without a hot Slytherin stalker in it?)

Psychochick – Is this the end for our poor Ronny-kins? I dunno, I haven't thought that far…. I was thinking about dousing him in hot sauce and feeding him to the wild Mary Sue's in the Forbidden Forest (Deadly things, they are. Hagrid won't even go near them) for no reason except that it would be fun, but I decided against it since the Mary Sues in the Forest only seem interested in Draco for some reason. What IS it with the blonds, anyway? I'll keep the Trelawney bit in mind as maybe a kind of alternate torture for Ron or Harry.

Dawgh – As long as it was an accident, I'll forgive you for all the erasing I had to do. ^_~ Just don't let it happen again. Ya know what? I want a tail too. Strange.