Water Lily | E. Riddle

[18] The Haunted Lavatory

It was their first Astronomy lesson in which they would be allowed to do stargazing. Slytherin and Ravenclaw first years had a class together so Danny was immediately surrounded by his Ravenclaw friends.

Felix, Emmeline, and Derek were much more friendly toward him as compared to the earlier days because by then they had figured out that Eridanus wasn't anything like the rumors about him. 

They were taken to the Astronomy tower which was close to the Ravenclaw common room. Professor Lauren Whimsena told them to observe the night skies and divided them into pairs such that one Slytherin was paired with one Ravenclaw student.

They were sharing one telescope among a pair. Emmeline and Eridanus were paired for that lesson so Emmeline set up her telescope following the instructions given by the Professor.

"Here, you can take a look too," she offered and Eridanus stepped forward, carefully looking through the telescope.

Emmeline noticed a bandage on his hand and as the Professor wasn't close by, she asked, "what happened to your hand?"

Eridanus looked down at the bandage as if just realizing it was there, "I got bitten by a flobberworm in our Care of Magical Creatures class."

"Flobberworms have teeth?"

"Yes," he replied vaguely, changing the topic of their conversation, "we are supposed to mark the constellations we see on a chart. I can see Hydra, at least, it looks like that."

"Let me have a look."

Together the two of them marked their first findings in the night sky on the chart provided to them at the beginning of the lesson. Professor Whimsena collected those charts by the end of the lesson and gave them a short assignment to complete in that week.

"Does it hurt?" Emmeline asked, quite visibly curious as to the flobberworm bite on his hand.

"Not really," Eridanus was a bit startled at first about what she meant but then realized she was referring to the bandage, "I have to keep it covered though to prevent an infection."

"I hadn't known flobberworms could bite people."

"Yes, normally they don't. I think I wasn't handling mine properly," he mumbled, giving the only logical reason he could think of at the moment.

If only Ravenclaws had a Care of Magical Creatures class with Slytherin, Emmeline would see for herself that almost every other creature attacked Eridanus no matter how carefully he was handling them.

After the lesson, they were dismissed and told to go back to the common rooms as it was nighttime already and curfew hours would begin in a while.

"Hey Danny, you can join us," Felix spoke up, flinging his arm casually around Danny's shoulders. "Our common room is close by and we can hang out."

"Yeah mate, that would be awesome," Derek joined as well.

"What do you think, Em?" Felix asked, turning to the brunette witch who was packing her stuff.

Eridanus looked at her as well, surprised to see that she too agreed. "Sure, that would be great," she nodded, "we don't have much time before curfew so let's think of doing something inside the castle."

They were discussing options as they left the tower when Eridanus remembered the supposed haunted lavatory on the second floor. He hadn't gone back there again as he didn't want to get caught by Bellatrix but he was intrigued about the creature calling out to him from there.

"Have you seen the haunted lavatory on the second floor?" Eridanus asked, "I was passing by it once and heard voices coming from inside even though no one uses it."

"Oh that bathroom," Felix shrugged, "it must have been Myrtle, the ghost who lives there."

"And do you know, Myrtle was a student from our house? She died in the lavatory years ago and has been haunting it ever since," Derek added.

Danny felt like Emmeline was a bit too silent about the whole ordeal so he asked, "so this Myrtle, have you ever talked to her?"

"Yes once," she replied, "but why are you so interested?"

"Can Myrtle talk to snakes?" 

Silence fell on the three of them as they looked at Eridanus in confusion.

"A Parseltongue? Myrtle? No, I don't think so," Emmeline remarked, her eyes curiously observing, "why do you ask though?"

Eridanus considered whether or not to tell them exactly what he had heard. But then he decided to tell them a part of it, unsure of how they might react if they found out that he was a Parseltongue.

He had discovered that people did not have a much-favored opinion of the Slytherins as well as those who possessed Salazar Slytherin's traits, especially Parseltongue. 

"I heard hissing sounds... So I was just wondering," he spoke up but it was clear the three of them knew something was up.

"Hissing sounds? But it can't really be Parseltongue if there's no snake around, right? Unless you are a Parselmouth and understood it," Emmeline added, and though she had stated it lightly, the curious spark in her eyes showed that she thought her assumption could be right.

"I... Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I have our house founder's qualities too," Danny carefully dodged the assumption, a light smile playing upon his lips.

"Let's go visit Myrtle then," Derek suggested, "she might seem a bit depressing but if her mood's alright, she might tell us what all that was about."

Eridanus was about to say that there was no need to do so but Felix quickly jumped in on the idea.

"Sounds fun though. Let's go see her."

Emmeline and Eridanus exchanged a glance but seeing their friends so eager about it, they gave in.

"Alright," Emmeline nodded, "that lavatory is on the second floor so it will be easier for Eridanus to go back to his common room when curfew hours start."

Seeing that they wanted to go with him, Eridanus felt a warm feeling seep through him. He felt happy that they wanted to be a part of something he was curious about.

Lucius and his ideologies about bloodlines didn't sit right with Danny at all. He wouldn't give up his friends for such a shallow belief. And perhaps one day when he would be certain that they too didn't view him based on the rumors and the house prejudices, he might tell them things he cautiously omitted around them.

It was all a game of trust. If they could trust him, so would he.

***