The Boy Who Made the Right Choice

11- Myrtle's new friend

(A/N) I am so sorry but this one part has kept me on writer's block for an entire week and to me that's just way too much.

On Thursday night, Draco lay awake in his bed, watching the flicker of a candlelight on his desk glow and illuminate the silver patterns on the emerald walls beside it. The atmosphere in the room was silent, save for Draco's quiet breathing as he lay in his bed, waiting.

Waiting for the clock to strike midnight when he would be sure his dormmates were asleep.

His stormy grey eyes continued staring at the soon to be opened golden egg that was propped up against his trunk, until after what felt like hours, the tiny grandfather clock on his desk chimmed midnight.

Time to meet Alicia.

He pulled himself out of bed, and grabbed his wand, the egg, a small pouch of galleons and his book on Magical Myths of the Deep. The blonde was about to step out the open door of his bedroom with 'lumos' casted from his wand when he looked back at his trunk at the end of his bed, and remembered what use the map Crabbe and Goyle had snatched for him had been when this whole mess had started.

Leaving the door ajar, Draco went to his trunk, and opened it to pull out the Marauders' Map. Better give this back to Potter soon. But he decided one more little adventure around the castle at night wouldn't be so harmless and Potter could go one more night without the map.

He walked thoroughly through the castle's dark corridors, the Marauders' Map in one hand with his glowing wand in the other, his stone grey eyes carefully scanning over the moving ink to ensure his footprints didn't trail anywhere near the names Argus Filch and Mrs. Norris.

Draco at long last came to be at the top of a staircase leading to the fifth floor, which, a few meters along the hall toward one corner of the castle, stood the entrance door to the prefects' bathroom. Pacing frantically outside the double doors was blonde-haired Alicia, her bell-sleeved silk nightgown shimmered gracefully in the warm firelight coming from the walls.

"Ally," 

The poor girl slightly squealed in fright, then turned around with a hand covering her mouth to see Draco standing there, looking from side to side in case anyone heard.

"Oh, you." She relaxed, slowly putting her wand back into the pocket of her nightgown which she'd suddenly drawn on instinct. "This had better be worth it."

"Oh, trust me. It will be." Though deep down inside, Draco was just as unsure about everything happening this year as Alicia was about being outside the girls' dorms at night. The only thing that'd ever really given him relief (besides having potions class with Snape) was Quidditch, though that had been cancelled for the tournament that Draco had taken Potter's place in, completely aware of the concequences while fully blinded also.

He handed Alicia the pouch of galleons he'd pocketed in his dorm, remembering to pack a few extra just in case Alicia did get caught and would be owed extra. 

"So, what do you want me to do if someone is coming?"

"Just use a disillusionment charm or something. Actually... " He held out the map to her, the enchanted ink and footprints still moving. "Use this to tell when someone's coming."

"Woah- where'd you get this? Daddy's money again?" 

"Haha so funny." Draco rolled his eyes, then turned toward the stone doors. "Pine Fresh." (He'd gotten the password from prefect Daphne a while ago when they were studying in the library for a Transfiguration test.)

With that, he swerved through the now opened door, and left it to swing closed quietly as he strolled through the large bathroom, right toward where one of the octagonal bathtubs was being illuminated by the moonlight from the tall stained glass window above it.

~~~~~

Come seek us where our voices sound,
we cannot sing above the ground,

and while you're searching, ponder this:
we've taken what you'll porely miss,

an hour long you'll have to look,
and to recover what we took.

but past an hour - the prospect's black
too late, it's gone, it won't come back

Draco arose back above the water, catching his breath once the enchanting voices of mermaids finished singing from the golden egg he'd opened underwater. Turns out, he and Blaise's hint was correct; the egg did indeed play something far from screeching noises.

The blonde Slytherin was still breathing in the air around him after holding his breath for so long, and he rested the egg back on the edge of the bathtub next to the book and his wand, careful not to drop either one into the warm water.

"Mmm, who is it?!" A loud, and almost sing-song like voice echoed from the stone archway above the exit doors, and before Draco could look up to see what had made the racket, Moaning Myrtle descended in her ghost-like manner down from the archway, her transparent skin pale as always.

"Myrtle!" Draco gasped quietly at the surprise - he'd never actually interracted with the ghost before much else seen her around the castle since she never strayed far from her bathroom. "What're you doing here?" 

"Oh, nothing." She glided down closer to where Draco was sitting in the warm water, his dripping platinum hair sticking to the sides of his face. "It's just that I get so lonely in my bathroom and you, Draco Malfoy were the only one who's actually bothered to come anywhere near there in the past two years!"

She flew to sit herself upon the window ledge, right beside the stained glass window art of a mermaid. Draco processed her words for a moment. "If you don't mind me asking," He attempted to sooth the ghost who appeared to have gone quiet again. "Why don't you leave your bathroom? Interact with the other ghosts?"

Myrtle sighed. "Well, I don't suppose I need to explain why other students don't go near me. The other ghosts don't talk about this, but they think my soul is cursed from how I was killed by You-Know-Who." She turned her head to look at him sadly. "I don't ever leave my bathroom because I always get afraid that even after fifty years the girls in Hogwrats will still tease me, especially for what I am now." She pointed a long, pale finger toward her ghostly complexion, and Draco felt sympathy for the ghost. With her back turned once more, he quietly stepped out of the tub, which begun to magically drain once he'd left it.

"Is that why they call you Moaning Myrtle?" Draco slowly slipped his clothes back on over his wet skin, not bothering to dry it nor his dripping blonde hair. "That's not your real name though, is it?"

"My real name's Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth." Draco repeated, pondering how someone with such a beautiful name ended up bullied and with such a rude sounding title after being murdered as a young girl.

There was silence for a moment, then Elizabeth turned her head and asked, "What were you doing taking a bath at this hour of the night?"

Draco looked toward the golden egg. "It's for the tournament, I had to figure out what the clue for the next task was." She seemed to be interested in that, and actually smiled genuinely for once. 

"Oh, of course, you're the one who-"

"-who saved Harry Potter from being selected, yeah yeah." Draco paused for a moment, scared if cutting her off like that would be too much of a sensative thing for someone who barely ever spoke to anyone. But Myrtle just nodded and looked back at the stained glass art of an amber-haired mermaid sitting on a rock above the water.

Draco followed her gaze. "Hey, Elizabeth?"

She turned her head, clearly shocked but also greatful Draco had called her by her real name. "Yes?"

"You don't think there are merfolk in the Black Lake, do you?"

"I don't know, shouldn't you know?" She shrugged her shoulders and spat a lock of straight brown her from her mouth. "Okay fine, I suppose there is considering that Diggory boy came in here last week and came to the same result - at least, that's what I overhead he and his friends talking about."

Draco nodded, and bid Elizabeth goodnight as she left through the massive arch window, smiling genuinely for the first time in over fifty years.

(A/N) Yes, I know this chapter kinda sucked but I've just come back from over a week of writer's block and still haven't fully recovered so give me a break.