Chapter 689

"Hiss -"

After unscrewing the latch of the bathroom door, Ernst gasped and quickly released the brass door handle.

"No one has used this bathroom for a long time. What's the point of keeping the spell on it?"

The girls' bathroom doors at Hogwarts castle are cursed, and only women can safely touch the door handle. If boys want to open the door... It's not absolutely not, but they have to suffer.

Ernst gently shook his right hand and felt the numbness still left on his fingertips - when he opened the door just now, the pain like being scalded by red charcoal was really unforgettable. Even if he had been prepared, he could hardly help but give up.

"Squeak --"

In fact, the door leaf is relatively new. It seems that it has only been replaced for a short time. But because of the moisture accumulated here all year round, the hinge fixing the door leaf will soon become sluggish, and the sound of opening and closing the door is not small.

Of course, today is different. After all, it's noisy outside, isn't it?

As soon as he opened the door, burns found that the girls' bathroom was as dull and cold as he expected. The wall was full of large water stains, and water droplets gathered along several cracks on the wall, leaving several straight dark marks at the root of the wall.

On the opposite side, a row of dirty and cracked wash basins look a little crooked, while a large mirror with the same stains is placed on the wall above the basin, and a zigzag gap is also cracked on the right half of the mirror.

Ernst took a few more steps. There was water everywhere under his feet. Even where there were no obvious water stains, he was still a little greasy. A rather disgusting touch came from the soles of his feet.

Speaking of it, there are several candle brackets on the left wall, on which several candles are burning. But the flames on the heads of the candles were too weak. The light they released could only barely let Ernst see the outline of the compartments on the right.

You can see that the door of the innermost single room has completely fallen off. At the moment, it is lying quietly on the ground, accompanied by the unreal dirty water.

By the way, the smell of this broken place is really unforgettable.

Just then, as he was walking in step by step, Ernst suddenly stopped, because he seemed to hear something suspicious.

He thought it was a slight sob, because he knew that the ghost hiding here all year round always cried alone, so others called it "crying Myrtle".

But when he stopped to listen for a moment, he felt that it didn't look like a girl sobbing. Because there was a faint tone in the voice. It was more a humming song out of tune than a sob.

"Myrtle?"

Ernst gave a tentative whisper. His voice echoed in the bathroom as if it had been amplified a lot, masking the hum.

At the same time, he changed the wand of his left hand back to his right hand - even if his fingertips were still a little numb, but he couldn't care about these minor diseases.

Soon the echo of his voice settled down, but the previously out of tune hum disappeared.

The original silence in the bathroom was restored again, leaving only Ernst's fine and inaudible breathing and the ticking sound of water falling between the cracks in the pool.

Just when Ernst couldn't help but want to check the compartment directly, a charming voice broke the slightly chilly silence.

"Hum, hum," the voice hummed slightly vaguely, "good evening, handsome boy... Are you looking for someone else?"

While talking to each other, Ernst saw a white figure floating out of the innermost compartment. Although there was no door in the single room, the other party still didn't mean to walk well. A corner of the partition of the single room passed directly through the hazy body.

"Are you Myrtle?"

Although none of the senior students mentioned the danger of the ghost with Ernst, he still held his wand.

"Oh - that's right!" Myrtle pushed the round framed glasses on the bridge of her nose and swayed around in front of Ernst, "what's the matter, handsome boy? People don't seem to have seen you... Well, how come there are so many people here in recent years..."

She asked first, and then whispered naturally.

For so many years, she has been shrinking here alone. Apart from sobbing for her sad life, she is only talking to herself. This kind of whispering behavior as if there were no one else has long become a habit of her.

"Well... I just..." RNs sipped his mouth. "I just look around."

"Oh? Hei hei..." Myrtle smiled vaguely when she heard the speech. "Little brother, what are you going to the girls' bathroom to see? Ah, you don't have to say more. People understand... But they don't have anything to show you here!"

Even though she knew how old she was different from Ernst, she took it for granted to call Ernst "little brother", as if it was not against her.

But for Myrtle's teasing, Ernst just frowned.

In his opinion, the "crying Myrtle" seems to be quite different from the image described in the rumors - what about the agreed "crying"? I seem to be teased by her smile!

But where did he know that ghosts were different from some wandering souls wandering in the dead. Like people, they have independent thinking ability, and their character will change gradually with time and environment.

"... why don't you talk?" Myrtle seemed to feel that the silent Ernst was very boring. She called again, and soon her face became more dark. "I hate it, I hate it... People know that you must also come to drill the pipe... I don't understand you little guys. It's dark and terrible. What's good to go there?"

However, hearing her words, Ernst suddenly raised his attention, and even his eyes widened.

"Pipe? What pipe?"

"Eh? Didn't you come to drill the pipe?" seeing that he didn't seem to know anything, Myrtle was interested again. "That is to say, did you really come to find someone else? Well, if you were older, people would like the more mature type --"

"You --"

Ernst wanted her to stop talking nonsense, but on second thought, he probably shouldn't have had any trouble with the ghost. Because he may not only come here once, and... He has to keep the ghost secret afterwards!

"HMM... that..." he thought about it and thought it was really such a reason. He couldn't help twisting his face several times, "I'm looking for you, Myrtle... If you like, I'll come again in the future..."

"Ah - really?" Myrtle was pleasantly surprised and clenched her hands on her chest, but soon she was lost again. "Oh... It really makes people happy and sad... It's the first time they wish they hadn't died... No, no, no, if they hadn't died, they wouldn't have met you again..."

There was another burst of self talk from her side, which made Ernst roll his eyes.

"Er... Myrtle, this... It doesn't matter. It's good to see each other?" RNs felt that he was holding his breath and his heart was full of depression. "But you can't mention me to others in the future, otherwise... Otherwise..."

Sometimes, it's not so easy to find a reason. It's easy to get stuck when your thoughts are tangled in front of you.

"Otherwise..." after tossing for several times in a row, he said subconsciously, "if others hear it, they will laugh at me."

To tell the truth, generally speaking, this decision is not a good reason. How can a girl be happy when she hears this worry?

But if this reason is put in Myrtle, it seems quite sympathetic.

I think apart from Voldemort and basilisk, the main reason why she died in this bathroom was that she was laughed at by a classmate. If it weren't for that guy, she wouldn't hide here and cry alone, and she wouldn't be poisoned by Tom Riddle.

"Oh! I understand that feeling... It's hard to be laughed at, it's really hard..." she agreed without saying a word. "I'll keep it a secret. Only the two of us will know!"

"Well, that's really... That's good," said Ernst, stunned, and then nodded quickly. "Oh, by the way - what did you just say 'drilling a pipe'? Will anyone else come here?"

"Don't worry, dear! Don't worry -" Myrtle's pale face was full of smiles at this time. "Those little guys don't want to pay attention to me, and I'll only like you... Well, as for the pipe... I heard that it's the entrance to Slytherin's secret room... Look! It's the faucet. It never comes out."

Hearing the speech, Ernst hurriedly walked in the direction pointed by myrtle and looked down.

This copper faucet is very common and looks similar to others. After observing carefully for a moment, Ernst tilted his head under the reminder of myrtle's words, and then saw the snake pattern on the side.

"Is there magic on it?"

Myrtle affirmed Ernst's guess and praised him in a charming voice.

"Honey, you're so smart!" she said. "I've seen two people who can let it out of the pipe. One is Mr. McLean. He can do it with a wave of his hand. I always don't understand how he did it... And the other is Mr. Potter, who just came some time ago - with his friends..."

"How did he do it?" erns asked immediately.

"In fact, I didn't understand his way," Myrtle said innocently, "he shouted at the faucet..."

When Ernst heard this, he was stunned.