Hermione suspected the ceremony for Olive's brother went as planned with nothing out of the ordinary happening…until they moved everyone into the old fashioned ball room which was decorated elegantly for the occasion.
Crystal made Chandeliers created by very particular artists hung from the ceiling of the room and the walls were draped with white silk curtains. There was a serving area where they'd set out a variety of refreshments on the buffet table and candles hung from magically suspended glass vases. It looked as if Olive wasn't the only one in her family who was magically inclined. The marble floors were gray mixed with white and they glimmered in the dimly lit room while the orchestra on the stage performed Classical music. Hermione recognized the ballad being played and listened to the comforting song by Ponchielle called Dance of the hours
While the bride and the groom smiled at each other as they took the lead in the dancing everyone else fell into place. Humming to herself and leaning against the wall of the ballroom, Olive was busy stuffing her face with pastries and other gooey desserts from the refreshment table. She had only just popped a mini chocolate covered éclair into her mouth when she unexpectedly felt a trickle of something wet splash against her neck.
She placed her hand against the wetness and her fingers came back dampened. Olive glared at the elderly man standing close beside her who looked puzzled at Olive's angry expression and walked away. Olive rolled her eyes and cursed the strange man thinking that he might have spit on her neck purely for sport. Licking the sticky substance of the dessert from her fingers Olive paused when she felt something wet trickling down the back of her hair not two minutes later.
"Olive?" Distractedly she turned her head to look at the elderly woman who approached her and when she caught sight of the woman, Olive didn't bother groaning inwardly.
"Lucinda Fanghorn what are you doing here? I didn't know my mother had extended an invitation for you?" Or Olive might have thought of some excuse to avoid the elderly woman. Lucinda was an old busybody who did nothing but bore Olive to tears with her stories of other people's lives. Olive's mother had made her visit the older woman when she was younger to keep her company but Olive had always dreaded going over to Lucinda's house because it smelled like rotting sewage and aged flesh; but her mother had been adamant about Olive visiting the older woman…and Olive had finally succumbed to her mother's persuasions.
"Yes my dear, your mother was kind enough to send me an invitation and I dare say the wedding turned out to be quite beautiful, didn't it?" The older woman practically gushed with unbridled enthusiasm as she went on speaking to Olive without waiting for a response to her question. "My dear, is there something troubling you right now, you seem-a bit-um-distracted?"
Olive kept feeling a trickle of wet liquid fall down the back of her coiffure styled hair and it felt as if someone were pouring water from some place directly above her. Olive glanced up at the ceiling and saw only the white drapes sparkling against the light from the candles and the gleam from the crystal chandeliers but otherwise everything else remained ordinary, and even passive.
Something happened however which made Olive and the elderly woman beside her glance up once again. Olive shivered as she looked up to see a stream of water cascade down from above her seemingly coming from out of nowhere. The water hovered above her head and hit Olive with a full force and drenched her without so much as touching Lucinda or any of the other guests or possessions at the wedding. The gushing waterfall above her only touched Olive and didn't disturb anything or anyone else at the wedding.
"What the—" Lucinda backed away from Olive and looked at her as if she were seeing a ghost. Olive screeched at the top of her lungs and the Orchestra paused with their music for only a minute as she ran from the room gasping with fright. The trail of water drenched Olive and the liquid continued to fall in rivulets which clung to her as she left.
Hermione followed Olive from the room and several guests looked at the girl with a mixture of horror and confusion stamped on their faces as they saw the water falling from an invisible barrier above her. It really made quite the picture, and Hermione burst out laughing as she watched Olive dash straight down the hall. She realized the girl's intentions of hoping to escape the puzzling dilemma which followed her when Olive moved directly for the nearest bathroom. Myrtle had outdone herself Hermione thought and felt suddenly as if this was only the beginning.
Miss Lucinda Fanghorn came running down the hall as fast as her chubby legs could carry her and she went in pursuit of Olive who had reached the girl's bathroom by now. Hermione didn't need to wonder what else Moaning Myrtle had in store for Olive when she watched the girl place her hand on the knob of the bathroom door.
"Uh-oh," Hermione gasped out loud even though she knew no one could hear her. She couldn't help it…she knew that Myrtle had been up to something when she had checked the bathroom earlier to make certain no one was occupying any of the stalls within.
During the moment when Olive turned the knob Hermione's eyebrows shot up to her hairline with widened shock as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. Olive twisted her wrist around the handle of the door and jerked it open but screamed as if someone had truly terrified her when a wall of water came crashing down upon her. The water had been placed under a magical spell. Hermione knew this to be a fact because she had watched the ghost place the spell in the bathroom and the water obeyed only Moaning Myrtle's command.
Hermione saw the ghost appear beside her as she stood safely in the entrance leading to the ballroom. The water engulfed only Olive, and Hermione had to grin because she knew the girl was safe from any physical danger. Because of the magical spell placed over the water the liquid would not harm any belongings of Olive's brother either, and it would not drown Olive; it would merely frighten her half to death and Hermione thought the girl deserved every horrified scream she produced.
The wall of water spread through the hall as swiftly as the destructive fire had disintegrated all of Myrtle's Hogwarts possessions. It carried Olive who sat on the top of the tallest wave as she screamed loud enough to bring down the entire house. On this point though, nothing was harmed as in the case of the fire, and Olive would not sport any heart aches from any losses like Myrtle felt. She would indeed be seriously pissed off but for now, Hermione thought that retribution was fine indeed.
Moaning Myrtle seemed to relish the happenings as she viewed the scene from the side of the hallway. Chuckling with delight Hermione thought Myrtle's laugh sounded more like a cackle of pure glee than a laugh of any other kind. With a broad smile to cover her worry for what might lie ahead of Moaning Myrtle, Hermione took a moment and stood back.
She leaned against the wall and with Moaning Myrtle, Hermione laughed with great amusement as she enjoyed the view. When the wall of water carrying Olive Hornby stopped at the end of the hallway, Olive was jerked back and forth among the jumpy waves. Her arms flailed and her feet stuck up as her head became submerged beneath the pool of liquid. Hermione's laughter soon faded however, when she caught sight of someone else being carried in the water along with Myrtle's nemesis.
"Olive," Shrieked Miss Lucinda Fanghorn, "Olive what is happening to us?"
"Lucinda, don't just sit there gawking, help me!" Unsurprisingly it appeared that Olive's only concern upon seeing the elderly woman floating among the tossing waves beside her was for herself; but the woman beside her had her own concerns.
It seemed as if the magical spell had produced a momentary glitch and accidentally caught up not only Olive but Miss Lucinda Fanghorn as well. Another crashing wave proceeded to engulf Miss Lucinda Fanghorn and as soon as Hermione realized that Moaning Myrtle had caught sight of the woman dangling about the water waves in the hallway she gasped. Pausing for only a second to enjoy Olive's harmless battle in the water, Myrtle watched the girl gulp down more water and saw that Olive grew more spastic in the liquid body surrounding her…and this was the moment when Moaning Myrtle called a halt to her spell entirely.
During the next second when she put a stop to the fiasco before her, the water vanished from the room…and the hallway remained purely as it had been before dry and undamaged. The only thing Hermione thought was different now, was the fact that Olive and Miss Lucinda Fanghorn stood dripping at the end of the hall in there unfashionable dresses and looked like a veritable bunch of drowned snappy poodles.
Hermione winced when Olive looked directly over at her and thought for an excruciating moment that the girl could see her…but Olive wasn't looking at Hermione. She was gazing at Moaning Myrtle who was visible now, floating in the air above Hermione and biting her lip nervously as Olive's face caught sight of her and turned red with pent up rage.