The following morning, the Great Hall once again (though for breakfast this time), Ted listened to Lyra's infinite woes once again.
"And then the head disappeared right off her when she put the hat on. They kept chatting all night. I couldn't sleep at all." Lyra nibbled at her toast.
"What class do we have first?"
"We have double History with the Ravenclaws. History of Magic. How long has it been around anyway?"
"Since humans, Lyra."
"Poor you," said the tall Gryffindor from the Hogwarts Express, "History of Magic has got to be the most boring class of all. Professor Binns never shuts up. And it's like he's emotionless too. He's a ghost, you know."
"No!" she shoved her face in her hands. "I can't stand the ghosts! They're so eerie and ominous-looking."
"Are you a Muggle-born?" asked the boy.
"Yes." she sniffed.
"I'm Jonathan. Sixth year. Sorry if I seemed rude on the train. Some blokes had set my robes on fire." He pointed to himself, and his tattered robes.
"I'm Lyra, and this is Ted."
"How are you, Ted?" Jonathan asked. "Good? The four-posters are the best aren't they?"
"Yeah."
That was how the two met Jonathan the sixth year, who continued to socialize them whenever he saw the opportunity.
As they walked to History of Magic, they noticed how he was walking up a staircase above them.
"Ted! Lyra! It's me, Jonathan!" he smiled and waved.
"He must have no life," Ted said to Lyra.
"Ted! He's being nice."
"He must have no friends if he has to launch into a full conversation every time he catches a glimpse of us."
"Oh, really, Ted, I think you're being blunt. And we just met him."
In class, Professor Binns sighed deeply as he called roll. He sniffed. "I have a new classroom this year. Supposed to make room for double-classes. Ah, well. Let's begin at the beginning. In the 4562 B.C., the first traces of wizardry were recorded…"
Ted immediately felt his excitement for Hogwarts drop.
He decided to pass Lyra a note:
Hi. This is boring. –T
Hush! I'm trying to learn. –L
Right. Because that's perfectly normal. –T
It is! And I'm trying to take notes. –L
You'll live. –T
Hi! It's LeeAnn! -L.A.
You gave her the note! –T
There's nothing wrong with that. –L
Hey! You three shouldn't be passing notes! –E
Emma! How are you writing? –L.A.
I'm using witchcraft. Obviously. –E
But that's advanced material! –L.A.
That's what happens if you listen to Mum when she's trying to teach us. –E
Know-it-all. –L.A.
Idiot. –E
Um, excuse me, but I started this note. And you two interrupted. –T
Did not! –L.A.
Yeah, you did. Anyway---
"Professor, they're passing notes." Emma said, raising her hand.
"Good. Then, in the Medieval Age, Merlin became prominent in…"
Ha!–L.A.
I did it for your own good. –E
Good thing we didn't get in trouble. –L
Why did you have to tell him? –L.A.
You know it's wrong. And let me take my notes now! –E
Really. Write: need to get a social life ASAP. –L.A.
Very funny. –E
Ted packed his books as the class began to rise to leave the classroom. He crumpled the note, tossing it in a bin.
Emma looked at them with crossed arms. "You three are troublemakers."
"Honestly, it's not that big of a deal."
Lyra said, "We must be getting to…Herbology."
"Neville's there. I've met him a couple of times."
"Professor Longbottom, dear." Professor McFyd said, as he rounded the corner.
Ted, Lyra, and LeeAnn went to Herbology Greenhouse One, where there was a tall, round-cheeked man, with frantic eyes.
"Er, hello, I'm, uh, Professor Longbottom, and I am teaching Herbology." he said nervously. "So I thought we'd do something fun and look at the Jupiter Jolives. Who knows what they are?"
No one answered.
"They're supposed to cause a sense of happiness, in your, er, being. You have to concoct a potion where the main ingredient is the Jupiter Jolive. So we'll be doing a joint project with Professor Tomar from Potions. We'll be tending to them everyday." He seemed to think about this. "Yeah, that's all."
Professor Longbottom instructed them to pat the large, roundish seeds and massage them.
"They'll begin to complain when you overdo it. That's when you stuff 'em in the pot and cover them with the soil real fast."
Ted poked at his, attempting to knead at it roughly with his hands.
After a while, it began to groan. "Ouch, watch it! That's a bad muscle right there you're playin' with!"
Ecstatic, he shoved it into the pot in front of him, dumping soil on them as the moans grew louder.
"Good job there, er…"
"Ted."
"Oh! Ted Lupin, right? I know you! I met you before!"
"Yeah."
"Harry's great, isn't he? Lucky you! You're his godson. He still talks to me a lot, and Hermione and Ron. It's just like the good old days."
When the class ended, only Ted and another boy had managed to coax their seeds into complaining.
"You get to start from scratch tomorrow then," Professor Longbottom told the others. "It'll be fun, really!"
The class stared at him.
"Well, bye then," he mumbled.
Later in the day, at lunch, Lyra began to share her worries.
"All the teachers are strange, and they never really show magic."
"I bet they will in Transfiguration." Ted looked at his sheet, "It looks interesting."
LeeAnn joined them.
"Hey, there, Ted!" she said, winking.
"Er, hello, LeeAnn."
"You know I'm awfully glad my sister's in a different House. She's always on my case. Emma has the need to tell me I'm the black sheep of the family. Excuse me, but last time I checked, Gryffindor was definitely cooler. And just because my whole family's Ravenclaw doesn't mean I have to. Oh, hello there." she said, noticing Lyra. "You're the one who sobbed at the Sorting, right?"
"Yes." Lyra said.
"Peeves!" LeeAnn hollered. "He's the poltergeist, and he has a cool nickname for you."
Peeves flew in, shimmering in the light of the morning. "Did someone call trouble?"
LeeAnn laughed as if it was hilarious, "No, I just want you to tell this lady here the name you came up with."
"Oh." Peeves sucked in his breath, then began to yell. "LYRA THE CRYA!" Then he broke out into a loud song:
"SOBBED WHEN SHE PUT ON THE HAT,
LITTLE LYRA HAS TO CRY,
POOR BABY, THE SCARDIEST CAT,
IN THE REAL WORLD, SHE WOULD DIE!"
Lyra gaped at him in horror, finally standing up and rushing out. The Houses laughed loudly; they had all been watching Peeves.
"LeeAnn, what did you do that for?" Ted stood up.
She shrugged. "It was better she was told than if she had to find out herself."
He glared at her once before running out in the direction that he had seen Lyra go.
"VICTOIRE!" he cried out. Then he noticed that he had accidentally said the wrong name. "LYRA!"
He looked for her, instead running into Professor Sonisis.
"Er, hello, sir." he said, bowing his head down. "Sorry."
Professor Sonisis looked at him as if he just realized he were there. "It's alright, son." he continued walking.
Ted breathed in deeply then going to the room that Lyra had run to. With a start, he realized it was a bathroom.
"Lyra! Peeves was being a poltergeist, that's all! Don't take it personally!"
"But I do cry!" Lyra emerged from a stall, weeping. "All the time!"
Ted had nothing to say to this.
"I am freaked out by this whole world and would want no part in it if I had a choice! My Mum and Dad were happy! And I hate being the weakest! The wimp."
"Look, don't let them, you know, get to you."
"I hate this school! They act like I'm dung! LeeAnn is an arrogant git!"
"I am very used to that kind of treatment," sighed a voice that was neither of theirs.
"Who was that?" Ted asked.
"I dunno. Maybe the walls were talking to us," Lyra said sarcastically. That was the worst mood he had seen her in.
"It's me. See, even when I died people don't notice me." A high-pitched, quivering voice answered.
A white, transparent figure emerged from the farthest stall.
"I'm Myrtle."
She had black hair, and very round spectacles. She had her Hogwarts robes on, and looked quite somber.
"Moaning Myrtle?" Ted said excitedly, remembering Ron's accounts of this startlingly depressing ghost in the girls' bathroom. "You're her!"
"Moaning Myrtle? That's what you wish to call me? Oh, you people have no ethics!" she cried, swirling around. "Who are you?"
"I'm Ted Lupin, and that's Lyra Lorne."
"Well, Ted, you're very like your godfather's friend. You insist on calling me Moaning Myrtle. If you were dead, you would know what I mean!" she barked.
"Wait…how do you know who's my godfather?"
"News travels very fast in the latrine system." she smiled slyly, "it's more that I escaped over the summer. I haven't left this place in over sixty years. Though I did it to visit your handsome godfather. He married! And he seemed very perturbed when I popped up on his wedding night. How was I supposed to know?" she giggled.
"Well, he had a point. You don't really disturb someone on their, you know, wedding night."
"I did! And he never came back to visit, so I might as well have gone to see him myself."
Lyra began to speak, "You haunt people?"
"OH!" Moaning Myrtle yelled angrily. "THAT'S ALL A GHOST GIRL CAN DO, RIGHT? JUST HAUNT BECAUSE NO CARES TO SEE HER BY CHOICE!"
"Er, Myrtle, I didn't mean to---"
"Right. That's what they all told me. You know that's how I died!"
"From bullying?" Lyra said blankly.
"No! I had to go to the bathroom, someone was making fun of me, and then I died."
"Oh." Lyra seemed mildly frightened.
"You should watch your back," Myrtle said. "And you, Ted, are too rude! No one treats me right. It's like I'm the rear end of a dragon! No one gets near it because it could kill you, yet is impossible to remove. I'm your Hogwarts' annoyance! No one loves me."
"Myrtle, just, you know, try to calm---"
The girl ghost rose up, then dived into a stall. Then a splash sounded like toilet water.
"Moaning Myrtle? Why?"
"Guess."
"I suppose she sounded depressing."
"Harry told me about her. She's supposed to be really upset and annoying."
"That's better that Lyra the Crya."
"Look, they're just entertaining themselves. I don't think you're a crier." he said nervously.
"I'm probably going to end up like her! Horribly tortured!"
"Oh, I heard that!" Myrtle said loudly.
Lyra's eyes widened, and she bolted out the door, Ted right behind her.