Wandwork: A Harry Potter OC Story

The Many Horrors of the Fourth Floor Girls Bathroom

"Hmph."-Myrtle Warren

Gold's POV

On a particularly wet and windy Saturday on the date of October 24th, 1992, Gold had just finished her Quidditch practice. Jay and Flynn were in the hospital wing, as they had both caught colds and though they were cured, their ears were still smoking from the Pepperup Potion they had been diagnosed.

Gold had left her Nimbus 1000 with Madam Hooch as she kept forgetting to bring it to practice, so she was empty handed as she walked up to the castle, drenched, mud splattered all over, and cold, and she accidentally took a wrong turn.

Most students knew never to go near Filch's office; he would always find an excuse to write them a detention and so they took routes around it. Gold however, in her hurry to get dry, had taken the fast route. And that was how Filch had gotten her.

"YOU!" he shouted wildly, mop in hand and free hand pointing at her aggressively. She jumped about two feet in the air, and quickly backed up. "WHADDYA THINK YOUR DOING, SPLATTERING MUD ALL OVER THE DAMN CASTLE- I'D CHAIN YA TO THE CEILING UPSIDE DOWN BY YOUR ANKLES AND WHIP YOU IF THE OLD RULES WERE STILL INTACT-" He ran up to Gold, grabbed her in his free hand, and pulled her to his office. Gold was too shocked to resist.

When Filch unlocked and entered the office, Gold barely stifled a gasp.
The room was dingy, windowless, dark and damp illuminated only by a single oil lamp dangling from the low ceiling. Gold smelled fried fish faintly, and wooden filing cabinets were half opened- Gold saw files of Hogwarts students, their crimes, and Filch's ideal punishment (usually containing whipping, decapitation, dismemberment, disemboweling, and beatings.)
The most disturbing thing however, was the gleaming collection of chains and manacles. Gold gulped.

Filch grabbed some parchment from the stack and began writing down her crime. The ferocious scratching of his quill splattered ink around the small desk as he wrote ferociously. Gold desperately began wiping her muddy face in a feeble attempt to make herself more presentable.

"Gold Sione, Crime, large amounts of mud on person- DON'T YOU DARE SIT THERE!" He shouted suddenly. Gold had bent down to sit on a chair opposite of the desk, and jumped up when she heard him shout.

"You expect me to let your filthy, mud covered, robes touch my chair? I THINK NOT! In fact, I think that your punishment should be doubled... yes yes, that ought to do it- hm?"

An owl swooped into the room through the ajar door, carrying a glossy purple envelope.
"Ah, yes, I've been waiting for this- wait." Filch had begun, then remembering Gold was there. "You stay still, filthy girl, and don't breathe a word of this..." He began reading the letter again.

Gold thought for a moment. Filch was clearly quite busy with his envelope... this was the perfect opportunity to escape. All she had to do was gather up the guts to do it.

Thinking for a moment on what her plan of action should be, she settled on the perfect spell. Double checking to make sure Filch was still occupied, she slipped her muddy hand into her robes pocket, grabbed her wand, and pointed it at Filch from under the desk.

"Petrificus Totalus!" she murmured under her breath. The spell had been taught to her by Flynn in hopes of her defending in case another team attempted to sabotage them by attacking her.
Filch went rigid like stone, and fell, still clutching his envelope. Gold straightened, hardly believing her dare, and rushed out the office.

It was now dark outside. Deciding that the best thing to do was to get to the laundry to dump her robes in their and change, she headed upstairs to the fourth floor, when she saw a Ravenclaw prefect about to turn the corner into the hallway Gold was currently in.
If a prefect saw her out this late, she would surely be in big trouble. The only solution past was to distract her and run towards a door- she had cornered herself in a corridor.
She pulled her hair towards her. The mud and rain from Quidditch practice had made her golden hair mostly brown. Squeezing out some mud as quietly as she could, she balled it, and threw it as hard as she could.

"What the-" the prefect said startled as the mud splattered on the wall. Gold quickly ran past, and rushed into the nearest door she could, and locked herself in.

This, it turned out was a mistake. She had locked herself in Moaning Mrytle's bathroom.

Moaning Myrtle's bathroom was avoided by most students of the female gender; it was usually flooded or soaked, one of the sinks didn't work, and Moaning Myrtle herself often sobbed so loudly you could hear it outside her door.

But Gold had already locked herself in; she would have to wait out the night in here.
Wading through the water, which had flooded so thoroughly that it was a foot high and up to her shins. Moaning Mrytle was sitting in the corner, sobbing loudly. She turned as Gold splashed through the water awkwardly.

"What are you doing in here?" She muttered with a bit of venom. "Come to throw things at me? Laugh at me? Ooh, you girls are just like the students here fifty years ago. That filthy Olive Hornby always used to laugh at me, 'Oh look at Myrtle, with her four eyes and spots all over her face-'" She then devolved into a long rant about her past experiences at Hogwarts, while Gold stood there uncomfortable, unsure of whether she should comfort her or let her stay there.

"So then I got locked into this stall where I died in and I've been here ever since. Wait- why are you here again?" She finished.

"Uh- I uh- well I just wanna stay here the night, and then I'll be off." Gold muttered in reply, avoiding the question.

"Hmph. Fine, but I swear if you throw one thing at me or talk to me behind my back I'll have you drowned!" And with that, she flew into a toilet, splashing her with even more water.

Gold tried to fall asleep on one of the toilets but it was quite hard to do so when Myrtle often dived in and out of toilets, dousing her with water.

"Do you mind," Gold said when she couldn't bare being drenched just when she was about to doze off anymore, "Trying to move around- er, slower? I'm trying to sleep and that waters really cold..."

She had attempted to word this as kindly as possible, but Myrtle immediately burst into tears once more.
"You think your problems are bad- I was bullied relentlessly everyday- no one knew I died till hours after the matter because no one cared to look-" (Gold privately agreed with her then- if Myrtle acted like this everyday she was alive, she wouldn't take much care into finding her either.)

"OK! Ok, ok I get it! I'll just sit in the corner and- and try to sleep there I guess..."
Lighting her wand, she left the stall quickly and waded through the water, that was now up to her ankles. She chanced a look out the circular window. She could see some light... the horizon was coming up....

She decided on a plan of action. The idea was to go straight down to the common room, dump her robes and change, wait there till dawn, then go to the showers. She would take a shower, then dump her wet robes in the laundry.

As she reached the door out, she heard something... something unnatural, something strange, something that made the drenched hair on her stand tall. A hissing noise. A high pitched hissing noise, that seemed to be coming from... the pipes?

Deciding that this was just another reason to get out of the bathroom as soon as possible, she kicked open the door and ran.