Hermione rushed over to Harry and Ron who were busy eating their afternoon meal in the Great Hall. She sat down beside Ron and thrust a piece of paper in front of his face, "Look at this, it came! The response to the letter Dumbledore wrote to the Ministry of Magic-it took them long enough to answer, three weeks actually, but it's here!"
"What was the final answer then?" Unlike Ron who kept chewing on his chicken drum stick as if he hadn't eaten a meal in three weeks, Harry looked over at Hermione with interest on the matter.
"I'll read you what the letter says," Hermione spread the letter out on the table next to a plate filled with potatoes and other magically grown vegetables. Professor Sprout had recently started to grow her own vegetables organically. Hermione could always tell which ones were grown from the quirky teacher because the vegetables tended to move and wriggle around on the table as if they had minds of their own. The plate to her left had a small amount of potatoes and carrots shifting and moving against each other, so Hermione shoved the plate away and one of the students to her left cried out, "Hey!" When Hermione glanced over she saw that one of the small spuds had taken a fast leap into the air and had slammed the unsuspecting kid squarely in the eye.
Ron had seen the whole thing and chuckled, "Oh, that's going to be a shiner. Poor kid," he glanced over at Hermione with a shrug. "Hey why don't you stop stalling and read us your letter before we find something more exciting to talk about?"
Hermione reached over and smacked Ron's arm rolling her eyes at him before she took the letter in hand. "Look it says the head Minister of Magic Cornelius Oswald Fudge wrote the contents of the letter himself."
"Oswald," Ron snickered at the name and Hermione gave him a dirty glare before she turned back to the matter at hand.
"Come on Hermione, read it," Harry was getting impatient so she took the letter and quoted from the important parts of it.
To Albus Dumbledore, head master of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry:
I have read the information you disclosed in your letter and I have come to a conclusion which may surprise you. I'm known as somewhat strict in some parts of the wizarding world but I can hold a soft spot or two for some. When it was brought to my attention that Ms. Myrtle has been consigned to the grounds of Hogwarts since her untimely death I shudder to think of what the poor girl must have gone through when she was among the living…"
Hermione skipped down a few paragraphs which described a few of the details Dumbledore had put in his letter telling the Minister a little about Myrtle's neglected life.
"I've come to the conclusion that because Myrtle's death was in fact a result of a murder conducted by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named I feel more sympathy toward the poor girl than I otherwise might have felt. With this in mind, I have decided to award Myrtle with the matter of choice regarding her sentence. If she chooses to leave Hogwarts at any time in the future from here on, she can do so freely. If she wants to stay at the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry where she is familiar with her surroundings then, she can stay as well. I leave the decision up to Ms. Myrtle to make.
By the way, Dumbledore I tried your Haggis at the last pot luck we held for the Ministry and professor's from various school districts. What was the secret ingredient you put in the sheep's pluck to make the pudding taste so scrumptious?"
Hermione winced at the last paragraph's detailed description of her least favorite dish and looked over at her friends. She smiled with her eyes when she said, "Do you realize what this means for Myrtle?"
"Aside from the nasty description of Haggis in the letter I'd say it was a rather enlightening read from Fudge."
"Hey I like Haggis my mum makes it with sausage casings sometimes."
When Harry made a face of disgust at his friend Hermione smacked them both on their heads with the letter.
"You idiots, this isn't about the Haggis, this is about Myrtle. She's free to do as she wishes, can't you see?"
"Yes we can see Hermione and that's good news, but will she stay at Hogwarts? Or will she leave everyone here and find another place to live?"
"It's up to her," Hermione looked a bit glum then said, "I'd better get this letter back to Dumbledore before he starts looking around for it in his office."
"You mean you took the letter from Dumbledore without him saying you could?" Ron's mouth practically fell open with shock. Then he grinned, "You've been hanging around us too long Hermione. You're starting to act like us now; you know that's stealing when you take something without asking for it right?"
"Yes but I'm not stealing the letter, I'm only borrowing it," Hermione rolled her eyes at him and turned her back to her friends when something appeared behind her coming from out of nowhere.
"Oh Myrtle," Hermione saw the ghost float up from the side of the wall near the entrance to the Great Hall. When she came up behind Hermione she was looking at her with some suspicion.
"Is that the letter you and the Professor have been waiting for?"