Chapter 116
Chapter 116
“I think you ought to get some more sleep, Hagrid.” Standing outside the hut, Suer waved away Hagrid’s invitation to come in for tea.
“Woof…” Fang shook his head and thrashed his tail wildly.
“All right.” Hagrid scratched his head in embarrassment. “It’s all the mead’s fault. It tasted so good that I drank too much before I knew it. I’m sorry. I promised we’d look round Hogsmeade and then come straight back.”
“Don’t worry, Hagrid. I’ll remember last night’s remarkable experience for the rest of my life,” Suer said with a smile.
“See you later.”
Hagrid instinctively waved. He watched Suer leave with a baffled expression. “Is Suer angry? Why did his tone sound strange? What d’you think, Fang?”
“Grrrr… Woof!” Fang barked loudly and struck the food bowl hard with one paw.
Where’s my food?!
The first thing Suer did after returning to the common room was take a proper bath. The Three Broomsticks had been very warm. He had sweated all over, then gone outside and let the cold wind dry it, leaving his entire body sticky.
A Cleaning Charm could remove the grime, but bathing was a pleasure for the spirit.
Why had he not bathed at the Hog’s Head? That damned room did not even have a bathroom!
And even if it had, Suer would not have used it. Who knew whether an enormous cockroach or centipede might crawl out halfway through?
Soon, Suer had changed into his pyjamas and buried himself in the soft bed with a blissful sigh.
As sleep approached, he suddenly wondered whether he had forgotten something.
That’s right! The catgirl!
The thought banished every trace of drowsiness!
Suer shot upright and changed clothes with remarkable speed.
As he climbed out of the Hufflepuff common room, he unexpectedly met Moaning Myrtle.
“I heard the other ghosts say you came back yesterday.” She looked hesitant and uneasy.
“I just ran into the Heir of Slytherin. You almost never saw me again.” Myrtle patted her chest, which did not move in the slightest.
“It’s been a while, Myrtle. Did you just say the Heir of Slytherin?” Suer greeted her.
“Yes. Harry Potter. That’s what everyone says.” Myrtle looked as though she had narrowly escaped with her life.
“Nearly Headless Nick suffered at his hands, didn’t he?”
“All right, but did you need something from me?” Suer saw that Myrtle had more to say and immediately interrupted her.
“Oh, I nearly forgot.” Moaning Myrtle pushed the spectacles perched on her nose. “I did come to find you about something.”
“You haven’t forgotten, have you?”
“Of course not.” Myrtle’s reminder brought it back to him. After Colin Creevey was petrified, Suer had indeed asked Myrtle to watch for anything strange happening in her bathroom.
He simply had not visited her since. Or rather, Suer had completely forgotten her for a while.
“Did something strange happen?”
“Of course.” Myrtle proudly raised her chin. “All sorts of things happened during the Christmas holiday.”
Could it be…? Suer’s heart tightened. Had Myrtle seen Ginny entering the Chamber of Secrets?
“Will you tell me, Myrtle?”
“Why else would I risk being killed by the Heir to come and find you?” Myrtle rolled her eyes with coquettish exaggeration.
Then her eyes darted about, and she adopted an expression on the verge of tears.
“You promised you’d visit and talk to me when you had time, but you… You haven’t come once since that day… Do you hate me? Are you like all those horrible wizards and ghosts who think I… Boo hoo…”
Myrtle sounded so resentful that one might have thought Suer a scoundrel who had played with her feelings and body, then refused to take responsibility.
Luminous white tears were already about to spill from her eyes.
Suer had to admire her. The calculated delicacy, the ability to cry at will, the performance worthy of an Oscar–he would be the first to object if she did not receive one…
No. It would be more accurate to say that she was simply playing herself.
“Of course not, Myrtle. I don’t hate you. On the contrary, I should thank you for bringing me information,” Suer said sincerely.
“R-really?” Myrtle blinked and sniffed.
“Really!” Suer answered firmly. “If the information is useful, you’ll have helped me enormously!”
“Then… why didn’t you come and talk to me?”
“Sigh…” Suer shook his head. “You know how difficult life is for us second-year students. There’s so much homework, and I’m not very talented, so I have to work harder just to keep up with everyone else. Why, I have to visit Professor Flitwick’s office this afternoon and ask him questions.”
“Is it really that hard?” Despite having lived for decades, Myrtle easily swallowed Suer’s nonsense. “Would you like to become a ghost with me, then? It’s simple. You only need to take a knife and stab it in here.”
Listen to what you’re saying! Oh, right. Myrtle was already a ghost.
“No, no. Absolutely unnecessary.” Suer hurriedly waved the suggestion away. Seeing that Myrtle was about to cry again, he changed direction. “I promise I’ll visit and talk to you during my free time from now on.”
“Really?” Myrtle asked repeatedly.
“Really.” Suer nodded vigorously. “A wizard doesn’t lie to a ghost!”
“All right.” Myrtle looked at him suspiciously. Perhaps his final declaration worked, for she happily chose to believe him.
“Then I’ll tell you what happened,” she said.
“You certainly don’t know about the little witch who sneaked into the cubicle beside mine with the Heir and did something in there.”
“If I hadn’t hidden well, you would never have seen me again.” Myrtle still looked frightened. “The little witch and the Heir drank some sort of potion. Then the Heir turned into a boy I’d never seen before.”
“As for the little witch… Giggle…” Myrtle abruptly began to laugh. “You’ve certainly never seen anyone like her. Her whole face was covered in black fur. She grew two ears and a tail.”
“She must have done something wrong and been punished by the Heir. It was hilarious.” Myrtle laughed in a coarse voice.
“Are you sure there was only one boy and one girl?” Suer asked with a peculiar expression. Unexpectedly, although he had kept them from brewing the potion in Myrtle’s bathroom, they had still gone there for the actual transformation.
“Oh, let me think.” Myrtle tilted her head. “Maybe there were two boys? I was hiding in the toilet cistern, so I couldn’t see everyone.”
“Never mind. It isn’t important.” Suer waved a hand. “Was there anything else?”
“No.” Myrtle shook her head. “Isn’t that the most important thing? Think about it. Instead of eating in the Great Hall, young wizards ran into a girls’ bathroom to drink potion and transform. The Heir must have been planning something.”
“All right.” Suer shook his head in disappointment.
“But…” Myrtle hesitated. “Someone else did come into the bathroom…”
“Who?” Suer immediately pressed.
“A little witch I didn’t recognise,” Myrtle said. “No one else has come into my bathroom for a very long time.”
“But one day after Christmas, someone arrived wearing a hood. I couldn’t see her face clearly, but she had red hair and several chicken feathers hanging from her clothes. It was funny, and it was cruel.” As Myrtle spoke, tears began gathering in her eyes again.
“Wait, Myrtle.” Suer interrupted her performance with a headache. “What did she do that was cruel?”
“She threw something at me! I was sitting on the toilet seat, thinking about death, when that book suddenly fell straight through my head…”
“A book? Red hair? Chicken feathers?” Suer considered the clues in silence. “It really was Ginny.”
“Where’s the book?” Suer asked.
“Still there. After it fell, I splashed water all over it. It must be soaked and ruined by now!” Myrtle said proudly. “It was easy to work out. They must have invented another new game.”
“Throw books at Myrtle because she can’t feel anything. Fifty points if you hit her head and ten if you hit her stomach!”
“What a delightful game, except I don’t find it funny at all,” Myrtle shrieked.
Myrtle’s rapid shifts between joy and misery made Suer rub his forehead, but at least she had brought new information.
“May I ask you for another favour, Myrtle?”
“Of course. You’re a good person. I’ll help you, as long as you don’t lie to me and really come to talk.”
“Please guard that book and don’t let anyone take it away. Can you do that? I will keep my promise to you,” Suer said sincerely.