Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Desdemona pushed the girls' door open and carefully walked into the room. She had never been inside this bathroom before, but it was usually labeled "out-of-order..." and now she could see why. Everything was flooded! All the taps on the sink were going and there were even a couple of toilets (mercifully not used) that had overflowed and were adding to the water pooling on the floor.

"Oh, wow..." was the only thing that Desdemona could think to say when she made it all the way into the bathroom and saw that the whole floor from back to front was covered in a sheet of water. "How did all this water even get here?" She thought she heard sniffling from one of the stalls, but she wasn't sure she wanted to check. After all, she was never very good with comforting others, and this sounded like a girl who was crying.

Desdemona turned around quickly and looked the girl up and down, a frown appearing as she realised it was a Hufflepuff that had spoken. "Moaning Myrtle?" she echoed back, not quite sure why the name rang a bell. She had just come in to see what had caused all the water to go everywhere, but was not looking to explain herself to this girl. "So how do you know about her, then, if she doesn't like being disturbed?" Desdemona asked the girl, her eyes narrowing slightly. She had never really spoken to a Hufflepuff before, and wanted to keep this conversation relatively short.

Desdemona frowned. She had read her fair share of books, especially about Hogwarts, and could not remember a Moaning Myrtle in there anywhere. She turned away from the girl and walked further into the heart of the bathroom. "Myrtle?" she called out, curious to see if she was a real thing. "Are you there?" Right after she spoke, Desdemona could have sworn she heard a muffled sob coming from inside one of the stalls. She approached it carefully. "I would really like to meet you, Myrtle," Desdemona couldn't quite pinpoint which stall she thought she heard the sob from, but she continued to advance towards the various stalls; some with intact doors and some without.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you how you died..." Desdemona looked at the pale girl floating now in front of her. She was honestly curious; the ghosts of Hogwarts had always fascinated her and she had never had problems with any of them. She was actually friendlier to them than most living beings she attended classes with. Plus, she wanted to know about the bathroom and why this girl was still here. But Myrtle just laughed. "You want to know how moping, moaning Myrtle died? That's funny!" Although the reply wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear, Desdemona was not deterred. "Yes, I like the Hogwarts ghosts... knowing their stories is important to me." Desdemona blinked, unsure of how the ghost would handle this. She didn't want to upset her more, after all... "Oh... well... Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses, so I ran in here and locked the door to this stall-" Myrtle pointed to one of the stalls with a broken door as she spoke, "and then I heard a boy's voice speaking. So I unlocked the door to tell him to leave, and... I died. All I remember is a pair of big, yellow eyes... over by that sink. One tap has never worked." Desdemona walked over to the sink and examined the taps. She had read about the Chamber of Secrets and, of course, about Harry Potter's foray into the bowels of the chamber, but never thought she would be this close. "Wow," she breathed, touching a small snake on the sink, "this is a very important bathroom." She knew it would be stupid and dangerous, but part of Desdemona wanted to go down into the chamber and see it all for herself..

Desdemona felt a mild pang of annoyance at this know-it-all girl that had interrupted her exploration. She had done her fair share of research, but had elected to skim over some of Hogwarts' details, wanting to figure out and find them for herself. That was part of the reason she had ended up here. "That's too bad, I would really fancy a trip down there," she said snidely. "Thanks though, Myrtle... it was lovely getting to know you better." Desdemona continued her examination of the sink for a few moments more, though she knew she couldn't speak the right words to open it, even if the chamber was still there... which the Hufflepuff had said it was cleared after Voldemort's fall.