I've recently been able to listen to the audio versions of Joanne's books, and I must say, despite their lack of total accuracy, something that I can't claim to be inaccurate are the voice impressions Stephen Fry does! He's absolutely spot on with most of us, me especially! Quite how he was able to copy my teenage voice so well is beyond me, as I've never met him, and as far as I'm aware, no one else I know has either! The only ones he doesn't do well are Tonks, who for some reason he gives a northern accent, and Professor McGonagall, who is Scottish, but he doesn't do a Scottish accent for her. Everyone else is perfect though! Also, I'm aware that for some reason Americans had a different person called Jim Dale reading their audio versions, but he isn't as good as Stephen Fry. His impression of me sounds male!

We turned around, coughing and spitting, as we had swallowed a lot of bubbles in shock. and saw the ghost of a very glum looking girl sitting cross-legged on top of one of the taps. It was Moaning Myrtle, who was usually to be heard sobbing in the S-bend of a toilet three floors below.

"Myrtle!" Harry said in outrage, "we'reβ€” we're not wearing anything!"

"Ginny's in her swimming clothes" Myrtle replied, "and I closed my eyes when you got in" She blinked at us through her thick spectacles. "You haven't been to see me for ages. Either of you!"

This was highly insulting.

"I never wanted to visit, thank you very much!" I snapped at her "I was being possessed for fuck's sake! Oh, and by the way, Harry and I are together, so you can get any sick fantasies you might have had out of your head!"

Myrtle was taken aback by my outburst, and she had ghostly tears forming in her eyes now.

"I-well- he always came willingly!" she said, pointing at Harry

This was true, though only because Harry, Ron, and Hermione had found Myrtle's out-of-order toilets a convenient place to brew Polyjuice Potion in secret β€” a forbidden potion that had turned him and Ron into living replicas of Crabbe and Goyle for an hour, so that they could sneak into the Slytherin common room.

"I got told off for going in there," said Harry, which was halftrue; Percy had once caught him coming out of Myrtle's bathroom. "I thought I'd better not come back after that."

"Oh . . . I see . . ." said Myrtle, picking at a spot on her chin in a morose sort of way. "Well. . . anyway . . . I'd try the egg in the water. That's what Cedric Diggory did."

"Have you been spying on him too?" said Harry indignantly. "What d'you do, sneak up here in the evenings to watch the prefects take baths?"

"Sometimes," said Myrtle, rather slyly, "but I've never come out to speak to anyone before."

"I'm honoured," said Harry darkly.

"That's fucking disgusting, no wonder no one likes you!" I shouted

Harry looked at me in a way which said "you've gone too far" but it was too late, as Myrtle said "ok, enjoy your lives then, I'll just go home and suffer!"

She wailed and started crying, before diving up into the air and back down into the water, and we could tell she had left by her cries getting quieter and quieter as she got further away down the drainpipes.

"Did you have to do that?" said Harry

"Of course I did! That's fucking creepy, her spying on everyone who comes in here. I don't believe her when she said she had her eyes closed today either! If she's able to come in here that easily, what about when you or I are taking a bath upstairs in Gryffindor Tower, huh? Who's to say she's not there, invisible, watching us secretly?"

"You've got a point. Alright then, let me just get the egg". He got out of the bath and retrieved it. Once he got back in, he said "so far, we've relied on Cedric Diggory and Myrtle Warren. Not exactly the most trustworthy people. I'm not sure this is a good idea"

I rolled my eyes.

"Just do it, we've come all this way, there's nothing to lose, and potentially a hell of a lot to gain!"

"Ok, ok"

He plunged the egg into the water. This time, it did not wail. A gurgling song was coming out of it, a song whose words we couldn't distinguish.

"You reckon we should put our heads under too?" he asked

I nodded, and we ducked down under the water. I opened my eyes and found myself and Harry sitting on the floor of the bath, and we could now clearly hear the song.

"Come seek us where our voices sound, We cannot sing above the ground, And while you're searching ponder this: We've taken what you'll sorely miss, An hour long you'll have to look, And to recover what we took, But past an hour β€” the prospect's black, Too late, it's gone, it won't come back."

We emerged at the surface.

"Do you know what that means?" I asked him

"'Come seek us where our voices sound . . .' and if I need persuading . . . hang on, I need to listen again. . . ."

I already had most of it memorized, so I waited for him to emerge again. I wasn't sure why he needed this, the meaning seemed pretty obvious to me!

"I've got to go and look for people who can't use their voices above the ground. . . ." he said slowly. "Er . . . who could that be?"

"It means the merpeople in the lake" I told him, exasperated

"There are merpeople there?"

"Of course there are! That lake is massive, did you think it was only the giant squid?"

"Umm.. yeah"

"Honestly, don't you read?"

"No, that's Hermione's job. Anyway, so you're saying it's the merpeople, so what about them? I've got an hour to recover what they took, something I'll sorely miss, and it'll be gone forever if I can't. Oh SHIT!"

Suddenly his eyes were wide.

"Ginny, you don't reckon it means you, do you?