"This is the girls' restroom,"
Moaning Myrtle said, glaring at Harry and Ron suspiciously.
# Moaning Myrtle
"They're not girls."
# Hermione
"Yes, of course,"
Hermione agreed quickly.
# Hermione
"I just wanted to show them how—uh—lovely it is here."
# Harry
"Ask her about it,"
Harry whispered to Orli from behind.
# Moaning Myrtle
"What are you whispering about?"
Moaning Myrtle stared at him accusingly.
# Harry
"Nothing,"
Harry replied hastily.
# Harry
"We just wanted to ask—"
# Moaning Myrtle
"I wish people wouldn't talk behind my back!"
Moaning Myrtle wailed dramatically.
# Moaning Myrtle
"I have feelings too, you know, even if I'm dead."
## Orli
"Moaning Myrtle, no one wants to upset you,"
Orli said gently.
## Orli
"Harry was just—"
# Moaning Myrtle
"No one wants to upset me! That's rich!"
Moaning Myrtle shrieked.
# Moaning Myrtle
"My life here was miserable, and now that I'm dead, people still won't leave me alone!"
# Hermione
"We just wanted to ask how you died,"
Hermione interjected quickly.
# Hermione
"You died here at school, didn't you?"
Moaning Myrtle's expression shifted instantly. It seemed no one had ever asked her this question since she became a ghost.
# Moaning Myrtle
"Oh, it was dreadful,"
she began, her tone turning dramatic.
# Moaning Myrtle
"It happened right here. I died in this very stall. I remember it vividly. Olive Hornby had been teasing me about my glasses, saying I looked like a four-eyed dog, so I came here to hide. I locked the door and started crying. Then suddenly, someone came in. They were speaking in some strange, funny language—I think it was foreign. But what really got me was hearing a boy's voice. So I opened the door to tell him to go use his own bathroom. And then—"
Moaning Myrtle tilted her chin up triumphantly, her face alight with pride.
# Moaning Myrtle
"And then I died."
# Harry
"How did you die?"
Harry pressed on.
# Moaning Myrtle
"I don't know,"
Moaning Myrtle replied mysteriously, lowering her voice.
# Moaning Myrtle
"I just remember seeing a pair of enormous yellow eyes. My whole body seemed to be lifted off the ground, and then I floated away..."
She gazed dreamily at Harry.
# Moaning Myrtle
"Later, I came back. You see, I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, so I stuck to her. She was terribly sorry for making fun of me."
Ron gasped audibly, while Orli and Hermione exchanged meaningful glances.
# Hermione
"Enormous yellow eyes..."
Hermione murmured, pulling out Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from her bag. She flipped to the page on the basilisk and pointed at the illustration, showing it to Moaning Myrtle.
# Hermione
"Did the eyes look like this? With vertical pupils and surrounded by black?"
# Moaning Myrtle
"Maybe... sort of? I didn't get a good look, you know, since I died instantly. Besides, it's been fifty years—who could remember something like that?"
Moaning Myrtle said, rolling her eyes uncertainly.
# Ron
"Fifty years? You died fifty years ago?! That means the Chamber of Secrets was opened back then, and the basilisk was released!"
Ron exclaimed, glancing around nervously, as if expecting a giant snake to slither out of the shadows.
# Hermione
"What happened next? Who opened the Chamber? Was it closed again?"
Hermione asked urgently.
# Moaning Myrtle
"I don't know."
Moaning Myrtle replied irritably, floating higher into the air.
# Moaning Myrtle
"By the time I came back as a ghost, it was all over."
## Orli
"Don't you want to know who killed you? It's been fifty years, and you haven't found out anything?"
Orli asked, her frustration mounting. The truth seemed so close—if only Moaning Myrtle could mention Tom Riddle, everything would fall into place.
# Moaning Myrtle
"I told you, I don't know!!"
Moaning Myrtle snapped, diving headfirst into the toilet, splashing water everywhere before vanishing.
Harry and Ron stood frozen in shock. Orli looked so disgusted she nearly gagged. Hermione sighed deeply in exasperation.
# Hermione
"Let's go. At least we've learned a lot today. We can focus on events from fifty years ago—that narrows things down significantly."
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