Hermione and Piper were not automatically best friends after that, though the sneering had subsided. It was amazing how much of a difference it made when a tormenter apologized. It certainly made Piper feel loads better. For a week or two, Piper was keeping up with her school work, organizing books in the library, and at the same time, watching Hermione in classes so she could excel just like her. Then one day after double-potions Hermione jogged to catch up with Piper. Her footsteps echoed in the large and open dungeons, harmonizing with her heavy breaths.
"Um," she said between breaths. "Hi." Piper stared, then immediately regretted it. "Hi…" "Um," started Hermione. "Well with mid-term exams coming up, I er- kind of need to study" Piper stifled a grin. Hermione Granger? Study? Her head was practically the library. "Anyways, would you, er, want to study together maybe? This afternoon perhaps?" Piper again felt a slicker of warmth somewhere inside of her. For a moment she was about to agree, but that feeling was soon iced over when she remembered. Today was Tuesday.
"Oh dear, I'd love to, but I, um, I have to do a job in the library this afternoon for Madam Pince" she finally said. Hermione fell silent, as if lost for words. Then, her gaze grew distant. "Oh. I see" She scurried on up the steps leaving Piper standing there dumbfounded. She took in a deep breath, then let it out. "Well? Password?" sneered the door behind her. She sighed. "Friendship is blood-deep" she mumbled, as the door to the Slytherin common room unlatched and swung open.
After an hour of hopelessly trying to transfigurate a chushion into a biscuit tin, Piper thought of theonly person she could go to. Well, she shouldn't really say person….
She hadn't been down that corridor in weeks. When she approached the bathroom door, hushed weeping arose. Piper inched the wood open and looked straight ahead at the toilet stalls. "Myrtle?" she asked. Myrtle inhaled before responding with a meek "hi." "What's wrong?" The atmosphere loomed with a salient awkwardness. Myrtle's eyebrows furrowed and her jaw quivered. Then, she continued crying.
"Wow" she choked, and rotated her shiny gray body in the other direction. Piper felt the need to defend herself.
"What are you even doing here?"
"Well, I was GOING to talk to you about what just happened with Hermione, but-" The second the name emerged from her lips Myrtle shot up and squeezed her mouth at tightly as Professor McGonagall's. "Excuse me, but please enlighten me as to the time that you were last in here. Piper's face went hot out of both embarrassment and anger. "Oh yeah? Well it's not my fault that you can't come to me! It's not my fault that you can't get off your lazy bum and dig out from your pity party to at least TRY to come out of your gloomy little bathroom and come hang out with me for a change!
The words came tumbling out as if she were throwing up small blocks. She had gone too far, and even Piper knew it. Her words had struck a chord with Myrtle, which was why she had to choose her next ones very carefully. "Oh myrtle, I-" but Myrtle screamed and slammed her hands over her ears. With tears that glistened like a river flowing down her face and chokes and sobs, she curled up into a ball. Piper's thumping heart broke.
She watched Myrtle screaming and saw a tortured, abused, and broken girl. It made Piper grip her mouth while her face heated up even more. For a full minute she stood there, frozen. Only it didn't feel like she was frozen. It felt like she was slowly being burned, her throat was swelling up, her eyes were growing hot with tears, and it felt like her head was on the verge of turning to liquid. She held her breath. She could not breathe. "STOP!" Myrtle screamed. She looked so beat up and raw.
Her knuckles shook more intensely the harder they grabbed and pushed on her ears. "Stop Olive…"
"I'm so sorry" Piper whispered through her fingers. What just happened had been a part of her that she always wished wasn't there. When Piper got very mad, she tended to explode on people. She had always hated it. A flame ignited in her stomach, the kind that licked up your ribs and cut off your vocal chords, resulting in the even greater desire to scream. But this anger was different. It wasn't directed to those who provoked her. She was angry at herself. She hated, hated, hated it. She ended up hurting the one that she loved. Her friend, the only one that was there for her when she needed one. She hurt the one being she truly cared about, the one who cared about her. "I'm so sorry…" she repeated.
This girl in front of her had gone through torment, taunts, and teases all her life. She had been squeezed out, and just when all she was was a dried up soul she was strangled and stomped on some more. Myrtle was just a helpless creature. Like Piper had noticed before: tortured, abused, and broken.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard from the hallway. Then more, then more. They grew louder and grander each second. "Move along, move along!" It was a deep female voice that Piper had never heard before, and it was speaking very frantically. Whispers rose among the footsteps. "Sirius Black?" someone whispered. "In the building?" another replied. Piper's eyes widened, but she was till unable to move. Apparently, Myrtle heard things too, for her cries grew faint. She looked so tired. "All students into the Great Hall NOW!" boomed the same loud voice. People all the way down the hall shrieked, followed by softer screams and ruffling chaos. "Sirius Black!" called a very far-away voice. Piper remembered what Professor McGonagall had said in the beginning of October, how she announced the safety measures the school was going to ensure that Sirius Black did not enter the building. She thought of the disturbed and shocked look in McGonagall's eye when she talked about the prisoner.
He sounded dangerous.
But then Piper's eyes shifted to focus on Myrtle, all curled up on the cold marble floor. She couldn't leave her like this.
And her legs literally couldn't. She was rooted to the bathroom tiles. "Go on then. Go," Myrtle whimpered. "No" Piper replied. Myrtle slowly lifted her head and met Piper's eyes. Her own were large, shiny, and watery, just like a puppy's. Piper stole a look around and glanced at one of the ancient marble sinks. As the voices outside grew softly into nothingness, she plopped herself onto it, put her hands in her lap, and breathed.
A/N: I'm pretty proud of this chapter! I don't know if it's better than the others but I think it might be. Okay, it definitely is. So now this is the last of the pre-written chapters, which means that the next chapters I will write on the spot. Thank you so much for reading, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter, and the next one should be up in the next two days? It might be more because I'm writing a few fanfics at the same time. Thank you, and goodbye!