#8 - The Hunt for the Ravenclaw Ghost

The bathroom was quiet, apart from the sound of dripping water. The floor was damp, though not so much it was a hindrance. It seemed no one was there, yet if the bathroom was so well known for being haunted then there must be some way to draw her out, right?

'MRYTLE,' came a loud screech, clearly angry. The ghost of a girl shot up from the sink Grace was inspecting, glaring through her glasses at the Gryffindor who couldn't even remember her name. If Grace's footing wasn't strong, she might slip on the water during her fright.

The ghost, when she'd have died, wasn't that much older than Grace - as she was dressed in a version of the Hogwarts uniform. Ravenclaw, apparently.

'I don't expect you to know me,' Mrytle said, floating through the sink and Grace - which felt like a bucket of ice water touched her insides. 'Who would ever talk about miserable, moping, moaning Mrytle?' She choked back sobs, drifting further towards the stalls as if preparing for a fast exit.

Mrytle shot Grace a suspicious look, but stopped drifting away - even moving a bit closer to become part of a conversation. If one could call it that. She was quite surprised anyone wanted to talk to her though, rather than tease and make fun of her. She didn't trust this Gryffindor girl at all, but was willing to stick around and listen.

Instead of a normal response, though, Grace got wailings and sobs that were hard to make sense of - how Mrytle's life was full of horrible people who teased her, called her ugly, or stole her glasses. Then something about how no one wanted to be around her, so how could she have talked to anyone? She mostly kept to her toilet, though often hang around in the pipe bends.

She calmed a bit after her breakdown, as if she needed to get that out of her system first. Or whatever the ghost equivalent of that was.

'Why?' she asked, accusatory yet with a hint of curiosity. 'What do you want to know?'

Being entrusted with a secret certainly raised Mrytle's opinion of Grace. She nodded eagerly, floating closer, giving he Gryffindor her full attention now. She remained a bit suspicious, bu that was probably never going to change for a ghost like her.

'Ohh, that room,' she breathed, though no breath left her. She was intrigued by the subject, though a hint of disappointment showed too. 'I've heard of it, of course, back when I was still alive. There was a message in the fireplace in the Ravenclaw common room. I couldn't read it. I thought it was a trick.' She huffed.

Mrytle wanted to help her secret-entruster though, so thought a bit more on something that Grace could use. She frowned at the question of if she left the bathrooms much, though didn't get too emotional as Grace's offer for her to come along softened it.

'No, why would I?' Mrytle crossed her arms. 'Besides, she won't like that. Her mother's precious artefact room. You'll have to ask that stingy hag-of-secrets - the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower.' Recalling her own failures with the task Grace strove towards, Mryle made sounds of misery and floated away through a stall door.

The door banged shut, and there was a loud splash - sending puddles of water towards Grace's feet. Had Mrysle dove into a toilet? Whatever it was had been quite dramatic, and it was a miracle if the toilet seat hadn't broken.