X
That night, for the first time in her twelve years of life, Audrey dreamed of Eloise Blanchard.
When she was younger, her dad never had many pictures around the house. He truly avoided many topics of his previous life as a British heir; and visiting his parents was an occurrence that only came once in a blue moon. The name Eloise Blanchard, however, was one she knew deeply well.
Of many regrets that Ezra Blanchard had, his younger sister was certainly the biggest of them.
Blanchard House, however, was a sanctuary of untouched memories. Any time she visited, the faces of the children her grandparents lost were plastered on the walls. None more than her, the only girl, with her aquiline nose and catlike eyes; certainly not a common beauty, Eloise lacked grace in her plain face, but her eyes were a mist grey with a twinkle of intelligence hard to miss. The paintings of her, always moving and speaking in her singsong voice, were stolen memories of a girl bright enough to burn for a century and yet, taken from life at age of sixteen.
Dead at her own house, in the invasion that put the entire magic community at panic. If one of the most powerful and ancient magic families couldn't protect their only daughter, a talented young witch often praised by the likes of Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, how could exist hope for any of them?
For a year, Hogwarts mourned her loss. For a year, nor a single Blanchard had been seen in public. Audrey had no idea what happened in this somber year, except the fact her dad fled, and she was born. Tombs were closed, ghosts buried in sand; and still, some scars cannot be hidden nor forgotten.
Therefore, Audrey would recognize Eloise Blanchard's long face anywhere in world, much less in the dark corridors of a Hogwarts covered by the dark of the night. She stood there, immovable, between stairs and paintings and ghosts, her long, thin, and dark hair dancing around a bony body still in her Ravenclaw uniform, like one of the paintings Evelyn had in her house. Not beautiful, never truly beautiful, but regal all the same.
"Aunt?", she asked, but there stood Eloise Blanchard, silent and cold and much dead, as she should be.
And then she screamed.
Audrey woke up in frenzy, her body sweaty and in a mess of white, cold sheets. For a second, she made sure to take deep breathings and found herself in the same Slytherin half-dark dorm room she had been sleeping for the last weeks; the same door she shared with her friends Daphne and Sophie.
Sophie, who was scary and strong and fierce. Nothing would happen to Audrey while she still had Sophie, quick-witted and foul-mouthed, with a mean punch and a meaner mind. No ghosts of lost family could get her, not here. Hogwarts was many things, but Hogwarts was mostly safe. Besides, what harms could dead girls do?
Putting aside the sheets around her legs, Audrey took another breath and her mind cleared. She was scared, only this. Because of the Chamber of Secrets, certainly. Even Sophie had been pale, and went to sleep in silence; certainly, thinking about the muggleborn dad she had back home. Anthony Roper was a gentle, calm man that liked to watch sports and collect rare coins. A rare kind of person who would rather forget than fight; let innumerable counts of insults go freely, and always said "if we always fight back, what do become of the world?".
Her feet touched the ground silently. She stopped being small enough to dangle her feet a while ago; and still outgrowing little things she liked very much. But this wasn't how she wanted to grow – scared and paranoid and dreaming of dead girls because she feared becoming like them. Eloise died before fulfilling half her dreams, but Audrey refused to have such an end.
And being in danger and not knowing a single thing about it was the worst choice she could ever made. So, at five AM, she left her bed, put her Slytherin uniform and silently left the safety of the girl's dorm. All the students were still sleeping, still the seventh years that woke up specially yearly to study a little before their classes. But this was alright; if no one was awake, then one could've taken the information she needed.
As quietly as she could, Audrey left the dungeons, still trying to wipe sleep from her eyes. Her hair was certainly a mess, which was something so unusual for her that would probably scare Daphne and Sophie to death. But extreme situations – such as cats abuse – needed extreme measures, such as not brushing her hair until it shone in the mornings.
The library, as she expected, was still closed when she arrived. But it was alright – time to wait meant time to think, and this was much needed. As the sun went higher and higher in the sky, Audrey left her mind wander to the horrors her family endured and the scars it left. From the middle child, her dad became the only one; the Blanchards had the choice to step out and remain neutral. They had the safety of a pure blood and an ancient name. Money that could've shielded then, protect their children. But they choose a losing side for the sake of what was right, and what a price they paid for it.
But she wasn't the only one with such a burden. All her classmates were war babies, some of the older ones had fleeting memories of darker days.
Was her dad so wrong, so coward in running away – in choosing to raise his children in a safer, calmer place, away from things like dark marks and secret chambers?
After what seemed a lifetime, Madam Pince finally opened the library. At this point, some students – specially those studying for NEWTs and NOMs were already gathering around the library, for some peaceful time before first class. Audrey lost no time; despite being tall of her age, she still was much smaller than most older students, and passing through them was an easy feat. As she expected, many went directly for a specific book – but she was faster, smaller, and smarter.
With a copy of Hogwarts: A History, she found herself a silent corner and started reading. Hogwarts was old, this much she knew, but how old surprised her. Hogwarts went as far as Britain history she could recall, and even before. But Audrey had no time to read the entire book, as such, she jumped straight for what she needed: The Chamber of Secrets.
There was only a passage for this, not even an entire subsection. More of a legend than anything else, a rumor that grew between students and professors alike and then went buried when one or another Minister wanted to polish Hogwarts' public image. With the downfall of Salazar's relationship with the other founders, he left Hogwarts behind, but not without what someone allegedly call a legacy. Some fonts say a secret chamber has hidden in the depths of the castle, to be found and open by Salazar's heir only, to finish what Slytherin's founder could not: ridden Hogwarts of any seen as unworthy.
But if Salazar Slytherin's heir wanted to get rid of muggleborns, what would they do with someone who wasn't even fully human?
X
The days after the attack went as blur. Audrey felt like her magic was in a fizzle, burning under her skin like molted lava; her mind was scattered everywhere, and so was her attention. Her results in charms flunked, and so did her amazing abilities in transfiguration. For the first time, she couldn't keep up with McGonagall, what got her more than one disappointed look. And, of course, Audrey obliged herself to look over her shoulder every five steps she took. She still couldn't be sure that no one knew about her blood, and as such, she was even less safe than muggleborns.
But the worst came after Potions.
Snape was in a foul mood that day. Perhaps he hadn't been able to bully Harry Potter as he usually liked, or maybe Slytherin had lost more points than he expected, but one way or another, things were a mess. Sophie had been feeling unwell all morning, which meant Audrey and Daphne left her at the hospital wing earlier; without her typical partner, Audrey had to sit with Neville Longbottom, which would've been a disaster to anyone.
Not even her silver-and-green tie protected her from Snape's fury.
When neither her nor Neville could turn up with a completely done potion, Snape hold her back to say, "He wouldn't tolerate laziness in Slytherin – nor stupid little girls".
She lost it. Completely lost it.
Started with a burning in her throat, then tears that she couldn't avoid rolling down. With a blurry vision and a heavy chest, Audrey found herself in the place she lest wanted to be – the only bathroom the older girls said to avoid, but the first one she found her way back to without having to be in the dungeons. For the first time in her life, Audrey had sure that the snakes she proudly worn would choke, bite, eat her alive.
At least, the bathroom was empty.
She let herself slide to the ground and, for the first time in her Hogwarts-life, Audrey cried in the worst way possible. Not weeping in her bed, not letting tears run freely, but completely, body-wrecking crying, to the point she couldn't breathe, and her throat was hurting.
Worst part? Audrey didn't know if she could stop. Not when she was so scared, and people were cracking jokes. Not when she couldn't pay attention to class and there wasn't a single person to talk to, because her secrets were hers only and, oh, God, why was she being so weak? So sensible?
She didn't want to die, to be honest. Audrey didn't want to die and be a girl in a twelve-year-old nightmare, wearing her school uniform forever, stuck in a twelve-year-body that would never develop, wear pretty clothes, see Paris, have a boyfriend. Audrey wanted too many things, but mostly, she wanted to be able to have those things.
And she wanted to not feel so lonely, all the time, pretending to be a girl she could never fit in the shoes.
"I'm sorry, but this bathroom is occupied! Find another place to moan!"
The whiny voice made her move her head out of her arms. Audrey blinked, still crying uncontrollable, but trying to see between the blurriness of the tears. A ghost was looking directly at her with angry, big eyes hidden behind a pair of small, rounded glasses. Another girl that died too young – perhaps Hogwarts made a tradition of those. Perhaps Audrey was the next one on the list.
"I'm sorry", she blurted. "I-I-I don't want to… to bother anyone".
"The find another bathroom for you to haunt".
"I'm not haunting anywhere, I'm not dead! I won't be dead!", she stopped to hiccup and try to clean her tears. "Why can't I stop crying? I'm sorry, I just want to stop crying! How do I stop crying?".
The ghost went silent for a second, then came closer to Audrey. "Ooooh, I couldn't stop crying either! Did they make fun of you too?".
"Who?", Audrey sniffed. "Nobody made fun of me. Or maybe they do. I think I can be pathetic. Little old Audrey, with her stupid cat and her stupid books, and now her stupid incoming death".
"Are you dying or not? Because I'm not sharing this bathroom! Specially with someone like you", the ghost said. Moaning Myrtle, Audrey remembered. One of the most disliked ghosts of Hogwarts, purely for being annoying. She rarely left her little bathroom, and for this all the girls evited this place like the plague – what made it the perfect corner for a stupid like Audrey having her stupid meltdown for stupid reasons.
"I don't know. People say the Chamber of Secrets had been open. I'm not a pureblood, I think I can be on the list. I'm scared. And I can't talk to anyone about it. And what's wrong with me?!".
"You would make fun of me, wouldn't you? You look like her, Olive! With her perfect smile and perfect hair! Always making fun of poor Myrtle, saying how ugly I was, with my glasses and the acne!".
Audrey went silent at this. She had never been the but of the joke; always a social butterfly, able to pass through any social circle with perfection, smiling and cracking jokes and captivating people because this was what Audrey was. She was the girl with the prettiest face and the sweetest words, capable of twisting phrases in whatever they needed to be to convince her peers to let her be the leader, the popular one, the girl the others would copycat. She had the face, the money, the silver tongue.
And here she was, all the privileges, breaking down side by side with a girl that never had none.
"I'm sorry", she murmured. "There's nothing wrong with your glasses. I think rounded glasses are pretty cute, actually".
"Are you playing with me?!", the ghost girl roared, and made a full circle in the air. The sunlight peaking through the windows made her look silvery, glimmering soft despite her angry face and the pigtails. "People always pointing and laughing at poor Myrtle!".
"I'm not. I'm not. Your glasses are cute, and even if there weren't, Olive shouldn't made fun of you. It was wrong of her, and I'm sorry."
At this, Myrtle went silent. "No one never said sorry to me", her small voice said. "They made me stay here, haunting where I died, when I tried to get revenge. They never made her say sorry".
Audrey had no idea who they were. She didn't even know if it was possible to make a ghost haunt one or another place – thinking better, hardly any place except for Hogwarts had ghosts. Blanchard House was centuries old and never had been haunted, neither mostly manors nor estates. There was Hogsmeade's Shrieking Shack, but if ghosts truly lived there, what was heard was only noises; not even one had been seen.
So, either they had to be locked in a specific place to exist, or becoming a ghost wasn't such an easy feat.
The War left so many dead people, and yet, she never saw a single ghost from back then.
Did they didn't exist anymore?
"They should've", Audrey sniffed. "And I'm sorry they made you stay there, too. It's a lovely stall, but if I was a ghost, would've be going places. Traveling without spending any money? Going anywhere, any time?".
"It's alright, I like Hogwarts! And now I have my own bathroom, even if it's a little lonely!", the ghost whined. "No one comes here because no one likes old Myrtle. Moaning Myrtle, they call me".
"I can visit if you want. We can talk, and we can be friends. Sounds good?", Audrey whipped her tears. She thought that a little bit of kindness couldn't hurt this poor girl; if her aunt – beloved Eloise – had been locked in a bathroom in her afterlife, Audrey would've liked to have someone visiting her. Being kind. Perhaps Myrtle have had brothers and sisters once; perhaps she has a niece out there, not knowing that her aunt is here, all alone, crying herself for all eternity because of the cruelty of a teenager a lifetime ago.
"Friends?", Myrtle said in the whisper of a voice. "I never had friends before".
"You have now, then. Besides, you saw me crying. Not even my living friends see this. I think we need some kind of relationship".
A/N
i'm sorry. i know i have been MIA for what, 2 years? but life is chaotic and being an adult, let me tell you, is no easy business. i had been looking in my drafts and found this story again. thought - why not give another shot? maybe still people wanting to read it.
good news: i have material for a while, which means some updates in the next weeks. not constantly, tho, but I'M WORKING ON IT i swear. you know what they say: devil work hard, but fanfic authors work harder.