Several days later Hermione was walking down the hall on the second floor and turned into the girls Lavatory during the minute when she realized that it was flooding. Water had already gathered in small pools on the floor soaking Hermione's shoes and making her shiver at the sudden coldness seeping into her skin. The water didn't yet reach past her shoes however so the bathroom hadn't yet been fully flooded to its maximum height and durability.
When she walked into the restroom she rushed over to the sinks to turn them off when something, or rather someone shrieked from behind her, "How dare you try to stop my trick, you terrible girl!"
After a moment's hesitation where Hermione seriously thought she might need to make a run for the nearest stall to dodge the ghost, Hermione remembered one solid thing; Myrtle was in the afterlife and therefore could not hurt her…but someone had undoubtedly hurt Myrtle and not only in physical terms. Hermione wanted to get to the bottom of Myrtle's actions and decided to ask the ghost some honest questions point blank.
"Why are you performing such a trick Myrtle?" Hermione spoke softly but firmly and Myrtle sniffed a few times before she responded.
"Why do you care what I do? Aren't you the girl who made fun of me?"
Hermione took a moment before she answered the ghost and heard the running water continuing to trickle from the faucets behind her when she said, "I care Myrtle because I see someone who has been wrongfully accused of crimes she didn't commit and I want to help you. Regardless of my own past mistakes for which I am sorry, I did not mean to hurt your feelings."
The ghost seemed to consider this newfound thought of someone actually taking the time to apologize for their actions and tilted her head to the side before she nodded silently. Hermione took this as permission to venture further into unguarded territory. She spoke gently to Myrtle who leaned against the top of the bathroom stall to her left, floating about four feet above the wet ground of the Lavatory.
"Why are you flooding all of the restrooms Myrtle it doesn't seem like it would be something you would do, so why go through all the trouble?"
Instead of answering straight away Myrtle sighed and looked down at the stall beside her and said with a distant voice that broke Hermione's heart, "You probably don't know or care, but I died in this stall right here."
She shuddered and Hermione closed her eyes for a minute as the vivid picture of Myrtle's memory came into vision for only a second before she opened her eyes to look at the ghost in front of her. Myrtle didn't look at Hermione when she said, "it's truly a terrible thing to remember your own death so clearly. To see everything as it happened as if you are looking down at yourself and watching all the last seconds of your life add up to the most horrible moment of them all. I remember the reason why I came in here that day you know," she paused before she expounded with her story of that horrible day. Her voice grew slightly unsteady with anger as she said, "I was trying to avoid a classmate who did nothing but torture me throughout my stay here at Hogwarts and I…I did nothing to prevent her from treating me like I was nothing more than a mere speck of dirt on the floor."
Hermione felt sorry for Myrtle all over again and wished she could have been there during that time to help the poor girl. Now she only stood back and waited, listening to Myrtle vent about her death. When the ghost finally looked over at Hermione she saw that Myrtle's eyes looked even more morose than her voice sounded. "There was one boy who stood up to the rotten girl and defended me at one point and he was a relative of a friend of yours."
"Harry," said Hermione succinctly.
"Yes," Myrtle looked at Hermione dubiously before she asked her, "How did you know?" When Hermione said nothing Myrtle shrugged and continued to tell her story through her own point of view. "After seeing that Harry listened to my advice during the Goblet of Fire competition when I helped him with one of the clues, it made me think of Charlus and even though I know it's hopeless I sort of…" Myrtle turned beet red if a ghost usually as pale as a white sheet could flush, this was a good attempt at one.
"You formed a crush on Harry and transferred your feelings for gratitude that you felt for Charlus to my friend."
Myrtle looked at her as if she were seeing her for the first time and then blushed again but this time with embarrassment. She craned her head to the side and said with a bit of shamefulness, "You can tell Harry I won't be following him or that horrible red haired boy around any longer."
Hermione smiled at her description of Ron but then looked at Myrtle and said curiously, "Why the sudden change of heart?"
Myrtle sighed as if she were trying hard to look back into her own memories even as she said with a shrug, "No matter how kind Harry is and no matter how much he resembles his great grandfather," she paused before she added shyly. "He's not the boy I was infatuated with back in the day. Charlus was not your everyday ordinary kind of guy he helped me out, and I always thought of him as you know, one of a kind."
Hermione smiled at the thought but only said companionably to Myrtle, "Yes, but aren't all guys one of a kind though?"
Myrtle laughed a rusty misplaced sound, and Hermione heard the water faucets behind her beginning to turn to the left which meant they'd stop flooding the Lavatory soon. Hermione laughed along with the ghost when Myrtle added with a snarky look, "Mostly just the nice ones who aren't total duds, but yes, you're right on that."
Hermione grinned at the ghost who had surprisingly been added to her friend list and even though she hadn't found out the answer to the question she'd asked Myrtle…she'd discovered why Myrtle had been following Harry around and could fit that missing piece into the puzzle of Myrtle's post-life. Placed and checked for good measure she thought with a satisfactory nod.