Chapter Text
It was the third day of the school year and Even was still adjusting big time. He had spent the summer with his parents in Norway and they even took a little trip to Sweden. Getting back into the muggle world was a hard transition after a Hogwarts school year, but the transition back to school was equally difficult. Luckily Even had his friends in Ravenclaw to make that a lot easier.
At the dinner table in the Great Hall Adam and Mutta had excused themselves to go to the bathroom, and after Even finished his food he started the journey up the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for my N.E.W.T’s.” Elias muttered with a textbook on his lap. He flipped through the thick pages while his hand absentmindedly stroked the back of his head.
“Golpalott’s Third Law seems fun…”
“You know it’s not, Even. Fuck potions, sixth year is supposed to be fun. Now we’ve got to write essays on the Moonstone and shit.” Elias complained.
“Don’t want to be in those advanced classes anymore?” Even asked.
“No fuck, I do… It’s just diffi-” Elias was cut off by the door barging open.
“Guys!” “You have to-” “Unbelievable!” Adam and Mutta looked like they ran up the spiral staircase as if their lives had depended on it.
“Have you guys been in the bathroom all this time?” Even asked, sitting up from his slouching position on the couch.
“No,” Mutta said, giving Adam a glance, “Adam got the riddle wrong three times.”
“But that’s not why we’re here.” Adam rubbed his two hands together and sat on the couch in between Elias and Even. He mentioned them to come closer. With a low voice he said, “We were in the prefects bathroom.”
On the couch opposite of them Mutta waggled his eyebrows. “We think…” A dramatic pause, hands in front of him as if to prepare the others for what he is about to say, “We think we saw a new ghost.”
“What?” Elias huffed.
“No really.” Adam said, still in a low voice.
“What were you doing up there then?” Even asked. The two of them had gotten in trouble countless times in their previous years, so Even wasn’t really surprised, but the prefects’ bathroom? Even couldn’t really think of a reason why they had sneaked into there.
Mutta grinned, “You know we chilled with Moaning Myrtle a couple times last year, and we heard she likes hanging around there so we wanted to pay here a visit. Let her know we’re back!”
Elias huffed out a laugh, shaking his head a bit.
Myrtle had been a constant topic of conversation last year, Adam and Mutta enamoured with her ‘charm’ for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she’s a ghost, or maybe with Myrtle’s interest in them, which she liked to express excessively.
“We know about Myrtle though, she’s not new.” Even asked.
“Yeah yeah, let us finish.”
“So, we broke in, and sure enough she was there. We heard her voice, which was weird. We first thought there was a prefect in the bathroom she was talking to, so we tried to stay really quiet.”
“Which you were great at…” Mutta scoffed at Adam.
“As if it had mattered!” Adam raised his voice a little, obviously annoyed with Mutta.
“He wouldn’t have vanished if you hadn’t stepped in that puddle.” Mutta pushed himself off the couch. Even had a feeling the two hadn’t quite gotten to ‘chilling with Myrtle’ today.
“Well he wouldn’t have talked to us, you’re stupid if you really believe that.” Adam said.
Lost, Even asked who ‘he’ was.
“Sorry, I’ll finish the story.” Adam said, voice quiet again as Mutta sat back down on the couch.
“We rounded the corner to the bathtub, and there she was with her back to us. In the bath. Only, she wasn’t alone. Next to her was another ghost.” Adam looked at Elias and Even, his eyes wide in suspense. “He looked so strange, about the same age as Myrtle. We immediately knew it wasn’t any of the other ghosts in the castle. He was so young! He was wearing old clothes though, something like a suit, and nothing like today. I think he’s been dead for more than a hundred years. Anyway, then I stepped in that puddle… and he jumped out the window. Like, within 2 seconds he was gone, we didn’t even see his face.”
“Myrtle was so shocked! She shouted after him, she wasn’t mad at us though,” Mutta laughed. “But I think they were having a pretty serious conversation because she was quiet, and she’s never quiet. We left pretty soon afterwards, wanting to tell you guys.”
Adam nodded at Mutta and glanced across the room, seeing if anyone had overheard them. It seemed no one was paying attention.
“Are you sure he’s not a regular ghost from the castle?” Even asked. “How would a hundred year old ghost be unknown to anyone?”
“Do you know any other ghosts other than Myrtle that are our age? The Grey Lady looks kind of young, but it’s obviously not her. As for the rest, last year on Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday party there wasn’t anyone like him.”
Even was still pretty sceptical, but also intrigued. “Are you gonna go back?”
“Not now.” Adam said. “But that conversation between them seemed far from over so he must be back. We think we’re gonna go tomorrow.”
“Can I join?”
“Ahhhh I see, you want a piece of that ghost boy, eh?” Mutta laughed, slapping Even’s shoulder.
“I just want to confirm if it’s an unknown ghost, that’s all.”
Adam smiled at him, “You can join, for sure. Wouldn’t it be cool if we discovered him?” He stood up from the couch and gathered his discarded robe from the floor. Even wasn’t sure how you could discover a person. “Then we’ll meet after class.” He saluted them and disappeared into his dorm.
“Wanna chill with Yousef and Mikael in the courtyard?” Mutta asked Elias and Even.
“Sure.”
Even hadn’t seen their Gryffindor friends yet since he returned to Hogwarts. The start of their sixth year being busy for all of them.
+
Even’s transfiguration class seemed to take a lot longer than he would have liked and he couldn’t get the new spell right. Professor Patil shot him a disappointed glare during his third attempt but his mind wasn’t set to it. He’d contemplated going to the library during his break hour to find something on ghosts, but Mikael got him distracted with watching first-years.
Yesterday evening with his friends had been a lot of fun, and Even got his head out of his schoolwork a bit. Though, with every hour passing he thought less of his schoolwork and more about what he was doing this afternoon.
His mind was like roulette, going through all the ghosts Even had ever seen. There were the house ghosts, the nuns, the knights, Peeves didn’t count, and Myrtle herself. None of the old ghosts attending Nick’s deathdays even remotely fit the description Mutta and Adam gave him.
Could they really have seen a new ghost? Frowning, Even messed up his transfiguration spell yet another time and Yousef gave him a concerned look.
“What’s up with you? You’re never bad at this subject.”
“I’m just- thinking, I guess.” Was he allowed to tell their secret? He was one of their best friends after all. “I’m going to the prefects’ bathroom with Mutta and Adam after class.”
“What? You’re breaking in?” Yousef’s hand landed on his shoulder.
“Mister Acar, I suggest you resume your spell.” Professor Patil hovered over their table with a piercing stare.
“Right.” Yousef mumbled, and that was the end of their conversation.
After they were excused Even avoided Yousef’s questioning looks and went up to the Ravenclaw common room. It was a bit pathetic to flee there so quickly as Yousef wasn’t allowed inside, but Even didn’t know how to answer his stares.
Inside the common room Adam was already there, sporting a new bruise from duelling club. “Look at this, Sana hit me pretty well.”
“Why do you keep duelling her? You know she’ll always win.” Even flung his robe on his bed and toed of his shoes, stretching out. “Transfiguration was a pain, man. Kept thinking about ghosts.”
“I know right!” Adam hopped on the bed next to him. “Mutta will be here any second.”
It was empty in their common room. Books lay deserted, some black robes here and there. Most of those belonged to students who were outside or in Hogsmeade. It felt wrong being inside somehow, knowing he should enjoy the last bits of the late summer here. But he was determined. Even if the chances of seeing the ghost were very slim, the inkling of an adventure lured him into trying.
Sure enough Mutta entered the common room not much later, stars in his eyes. “Let’s do this.”
+
The door to the prefects’ bathroom had a protection spell against Alohomora, so Mutta had to pick the lock manually. Even balled his hands together in anticipation, but it took Mutta less than a minute.
Adam had made them take off their shoes in the dorms so they wouldn’t make any noise like he did last time, so they shuffled nervously toward the stalls. Water was running, or so it seemed. With his finger against his lips Adam led the way around the stalls, until Even could see the bath.
The mermaid in the glass had its eyes closed and water swayed silently around her. Warm light flooded through the coloured glass. Underneath the window were the faucets, Even had never seen anything like it. Getting a little closer, he could see there was no water running, despite the sound of it echoing through the bathroom.
Even slowly lowered his eyes, daring to look at what (or rather, who) was in the bathtub.
Closest to him was a slender girl with ponytails, undoubtedly Myrtle. Her head was leaning to the side while she slowly twirled one ponytail through her fingers. Her white glow didn’t fit in with the warm tones of the light, and she seemed to float above the bath tiles. In a low voice she spoke to the ghost sitting in front of her.
He was hidden from Even’s view slightly as Myrtle was sitting directly in front of him, but he could make out some of the ghost through Myrtle’s translucent form. He had a slightly colder tone of white than Myrtle, almost as if he was blue. As Myrtle swayed from left to right during their conversation Even could make out his curly, light hair.
“This place always reminds me of him. Sooo sad he died…” The way she spoke made every word feel almost sarcastic, but Even could hear the pain in there somewhere.
“I think you would have liked him.” She giggled while floating up and down in the tub.
“Are you talking about Cedric?” The boy spoke, even quieter than Myrtle.
In contradiction to the cold undertones of his form, his voice was warm. It had an age to it, how he treated each vowel with care. The letters slipped over his tongue like sand through fingers, and it echoed through the empty space.
“When he died I waited here, hoping he’d come back to me. Together, at last, in death.” Myrtle said wistfully. “But he never did.”
“Perhaps you scared him off while creeping on him in here, he did not want to come back.”
“I don’t blame him, who would ever want to be with me?” Wailing the last syllable, she suddenly jumped up from the bath and darted down the toilet only to stick her head up through it right after.
That left the ghost boy alone in the tub. Even’s heart beat erratically in his chest, and he and the others moved back behind the stalls, hoping he hadn’t seen them. They had seen him though, and Even stared at the walls of the toilet stall wishing he could see through them just to see the ghosts’ face a little longer.
“How long has it been then? Since you started hanging out in here?” The boy spoke again, and Even had to restrain himself mentally from peeking around the stall.
“23 years.”
“Then why are you still around?”
“I don’t know…” She dragged her words. “I like being a ghost, better dead than alive.”
Even heard splashing and slowly, he peeked around the stall. Myrtle was back in the tub, on her back, while the boy watched her with an empty expression.
“Why are we so miserable?”
“Because we died miserable.”
Staring at the pair, Even wondered what had happened to the boy for him to come back. Being hidden away in the castle couldn’t be a very interesting way to spend your afterlife. A part of Even ached for a time turner to take him back before the boy’s life had ended and save him from his fate. He sighed, feeling so helpless just standing there hiding from him.
Immediately after Even realised his mistake of sighing rather loudly, time slowed down. As their eyes met for a split second Even felt himself suffocating, struggling to breathe underwater.
Then everything sped up. Adam yanked him away from the edge, but it was too late. Myrtle turned around in a millisecond and she let out an incredibly high wailing sound. Her eyes were trained on the three boys and she suddenly towered over them.
“Isak! Someone has come to visit us!”
Even’s eyes shot back at the ghost still sitting in the empty tub.
Isak.
Even couldn’t think of a better fitting name.
“Hello boys,” Myrtle hovered before them, blocking Even once again from seeing Isak. “You’re new.” She said to him in a honeyed voice.
“Uhh, hi.” Even said, breathlessly. He tried to push her away out of instinct, but found his arm going right through her, a cold feeling seeping through him causing goosebumps. Confused, Even stepped around her.
Isak looked at him, eyes wide and frightened, before flinging himself through the coloured glass. A shattering sound erupted from his escape, but there was no physical evidence that he’d ever been there with them.
The mermaid, now awakened, looked back at Even. Her eyes were green, and for a moment Even thought he saw a tear roll down her cheek. Then she turned her back on him and the light that engulfed the room slipped away.