Chapter 647 - 648: Goldens' Egg Myster; The Marauder's Map Unknown

"Ah!" Ron rushed to reach the golden egg, but his feet slipped, his center of gravity was off balance, and he fell heavily.

Harry fell down with him, and Ron pressed himself against Harry, both of them accidentally swallowing several mouthfuls of bubbles.

They hurriedly broke apart and stood up, gasping for air and yucking up bubbles.

"It's you!" Ron raised his head and saw a sad-looking female ghost teetering on her legs, sitting atop a faucet.

It was Weeping Myrtle!!!!

It was a troublesome ghost; she was the first victim when Tom Riddle opened Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets to release the serpent monster more than 50 years ago.

Since then, she often cried sadly in the sewer pipe of the abandoned girls' washroom.

"It's me!" She said, with a rare, teasing smile on her face.

Following her gaze, Harry looked down and saw his naked, unclothed body.

"Myrtle!" He said irritably, "How can you be here? I, we're not wearing anything!"

Harry had an uncomfortable feeling about being watched by Myrtle like that.

Even though the foam on top of the water was thick and covered everything.

But Harry suspected that Myrtle had been hiding in one of the faucets, peering at him and Ron undressing since they entered.

"I just closed my eyes and didn't see anything!" She said, winking at Harry and Ron from behind her thick lenses, lingering longer at Harry, "Speaking of which, you guys haven't visited me in a while; where's Evan?"

Evan, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had come into contact with Myrtle during the previous year's search all over the castle for the Slytherin Chamber of Secrets.

Especially Ron, who had ended up apologizing to Myrtle alone because of his inappropriate words at Nick's jubilee party.

It was a nightmare memory, and when he thought about it, all the hairs on his body stood up.

"Only that Evan guy could handle her!" Ron muttered in a low voice, leaning closer to Harry, "What should we do?"

Harry shook his head, bending his knees slightly as he did so, making sure the Myrtle could see nothing but his head.

"Why haven't you guys come to see me? Do you hate me?" Myrtle trailed off, looking sad.

"Well," Harry said, "we're not supposed to go into your bathroom, are we? That's the girls' bathroom; boys aren't allowed there."

"But you didn't care!" Myrtle said sadly, "You used to stay there all day."

"That's why we were criticized for going there!" Harry said, giving Ron a shove.

It was half true; Percy had once seen them coming out of Myrtle's washroom.

"Exactly, so we thought it would be best not to go there!" Ron continued.

He wrinkled his nose as hard as possible and tried to stay as far away from Myrtle as possible.

Tonight was a terrible night, stupidly taking a bath with a golden egg, meeting Myrtle, and being spied on by her!

If he knew that, he might as well admit defeat and go straight to Evan and Hermione for help.

"Oh, I see!" Myrtle said sadly, tugging at a lump on her chin, "But you guys can still go later; I'll allow you to go. By the way, you can also call Evan up; the three of you will visit me together!"

Harry and Ron nodded hurriedly, saying they would definitely go in the future.

Anyway, with Evan around, he had a good way of dealing with Weeping Myrtle.

"By the way, you can try putting the golden egg in water; Cedric Diggory did that," Myrtle said.

"Did you spy on him too?" Harry asked, "What are you doing, sneaking here at night and spying on the Head Boys in the bath?"

"Sometimes!" Myrtle said slyly, "After all, it's boring being in the washroom all the time, and I needed some spice, but I've never been out to talk to anyone before."

"What an honor!" Harry said sullenly.

He and Ron stared at each other, neither wanting to go out and get the golden egg that had rolled into the distance while Myrtle watched.

In the end, Ron had to get up; who called him a warrior?

"Myrtle, close your eyes, and don't peek!" He said loudly.

Ron saw that Myrtle had covered her lenses tightly before he got up from the bath and wrapped a towel around his waist.

Harry blinked and saw Myrtle looking at Ron through her fingers, seeing everything.

It was a horrible image, and he promised himself that he would never come here for a bath again.

Ron ran back with the golden egg, gasping for breath.

Harry thought better of it and didn't tell him what had just happened, especially since he was holding the golden egg and the towel had slipped.

"What are we going to do? "

"Open it under the water!"

Ron put the Golden Egg under the foam-covered water and opened it.

This time, it didn't scream; a gurgling song came from the golden egg from underneath the water, and it was impossible to hear what was being sung.

Harry and Ron looked at each other again and realized that this was what was happening!

"Need to get your head in the water too!" Myrtle said, seemingly pleased to be able to tell them what to do, "Get on with it!"

The two men took a deep breath and went underwater.

Sitting on the marble under the bubble bath water, they heard odd voices chorusing in unison from the golden egg: "Come seek us where our voices sound."

You have but one hour to find and reclaim what we have taken from you, and after that hour, there is no hope, for it is gone forever, never to be seen again.

"What does that mean?" Ron asked, stepping out of the bubble-filled water.

"You have to go find people who can't make noise on the ground!" Harry said, following out, "But who's that that can't sing on the ground."

He shook his head, shaking his hair out of his eyes, and a flash of light came to his mind.

"Ron, do you remember Hermione's speculation this morning?" Harry said quickly, "It's what she said when we saw Krum jump inside the lake and what Gabrielle said about her sister getting ready to go winter swimming there!"

"You mean under the lake in front of the castle," Ron said as his face instantly paled in disbelief, "That's impossible!"

"Yes, the second challenge is definitely under the lake for you to find your favorite treasure."

"Ah, that's what Diggory was thinking." Myrtle said, looking admiringly at Harry, "He hid there, talking to himself, mulling it over, mulling it over for a long, long time, so long that almost all the bubbles disappeared."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ron was still digesting the shocking news and couldn't believe he was going inside the lake.

"Myrtle, what other animals live in the lake besides giant squid?" Harry continued to ask.

"Oh, there's lots of things, more kinds than you can imagine!" As if a little less than pleased, she said, "I sometimes go out into the lake to hang out, and sometimes there's no choice. Someone flushes my toilet when I'm not expecting it ..."

Harry restrained himself from thinking about how funny it must have been for Myrtle to be flushed down the drain and into the lake with the toilet filth.

He would like to try it once if he could.

"So, what's in there that makes human sounds?" Harry asked, "Slow down ..."

His eyes fell on the picture of the sleeping mermaid on the wall, and he hastily nudged Ron.

"Mermaids, Ron, definitely mermaids!" He said quickly, "Myrtle, there are mermaids there, aren't there?"

"Very good!" She said, her thick lenses sparkling as she looked at Harry with satisfaction, "Diggory took much longer, and she was still awake at the time!"

She pointed her head at the mermaid, a look of utter revulsion on her sad face.

"Hmph, giggling as usual, scratching her head like a student coming over for a bath, showing off her fins ..." She said disgruntled.

"Harry, you mean ..." Ron's eyes fell to the mermaid portrait as well.

"That must be it; the second program is to go to the lake and find the mermaid, and then ..." Harry couldn't go on, suddenly reacting to what he was saying, the excitement of discovering the secret suddenly slipping out of him.

He remembered that the lake is very wide and deep; mermaids must live in the deepest part of the water ...

This is no longer a matter of going down for a swim; how can Ron breathe in it?

Obviously, Ron also thought of this. He now has no joy in cracking the golden egg; his face is ashen.

"Myrtle, do you know how to breathe underwater?" He asked with hope.

Hearing this, tears suddenly sprang up in Myrtle's eyes again.

"Heartless!" She muttered, fumbling in her robes for a handkerchief, "To discuss breathing in front of me!"

The tears inside her eyes grew, and she jumped off the top of the faucet.

"You know I can't!" She screamed shrilly, her voice echoing loudly in the shower room, "Knowing full well that I, for a long, long time, haven't ..."

She buried her face in her handkerchief and blew her nose loudly.

It occurred to Harry that Myrtle had always been very sensitive about her death and that no other ghost he had known had made such a fuss.

Ron had thought of that, too, but he didn't want to comfort Myrtle; he just wanted to get out of here.

He was about to drown in the lake, and now he needed to apologize to an annoying ghost?

"I'm sorry!" Finally, it was Harry who said impatiently, "We didn't mean to; we just forgot!"

"Oh, yes, it's easy to forget that Myrtle's dead," said Myrtle, choking up as she looked up at them with red, swollen eyes, "Even when I was alive, none of them held me. It took them a long time to find my body, and I know because I was waiting for them. Olive Humbelwa came into the lavatory and asked, 'Are you sulking here again, Myrtle?' Professor Dippet sent me to see you ....' And that's when she suddenly saw my body; she couldn't get that scene out of her mind till the day she died, I can assure you, and I followed her everywhere, reminding her of it. I remember, at her brother's wedding ... Of course, she then went to the Ministry of Magic and stopped me from following her, so I had to come back here and live in my toilet!"

It was an unpleasant memory, and Myrtle seemed to hold a grudge beyond belief.

Harry and Ron weren't listening; they didn't even care if the others saw them.

The two picked up the golden egg from the bottom of the bath, climbed up, dried themselves as fast as they could, and redressed.

"Fred and George must have known about this, knowing that Myrtle would come over and peek before they told me the password to get in here!" Ron said angrily, "Visit her? I'm not going near that place again until all the toilets in the castle are sealed with dirt."

"Myrtle's awful indeed, but she did give us help after all!" Harry said, "What will you do when you dive under the water?"

"I don't know; go back and ask Evan and Hermione; they must know!" Ron said breathlessly.

Although he didn't want to admit it, he had no solution to the current situation.

He originally thought that he could not rely on Evan's help this time, but he could not.

From the ball to seeing that look of Hermione, Ron has been very uncomfortable lately, always remembering the picture of Evan and Hermione dancing, as well as this morning in the tavern to see Evan taken out of the parchment with those horrible drawings ...

Ron reminded himself that now was not the time to be at odds with Evan, a lesson he had learned over the past few years.

Evan was strong, far stronger than he had ever imagined, and needed his opponent's help.

"Ron, we have to get back soon!" Harry said, shining the invisibility cloak over the two men's heads and double-checking it, "It's getting late; come on, I'll take the golden egg, and you check the the Marauder's Map."

The two of them went outside into the darkened hallway, and Ron absentmindedly examined the Marauder's Map.

The two dots on the map for Filch and his cat, Lady Loris, were safe and sound in their office.

There was silence in the castle rush, with only Peppermint moving about, but he was making a fuss in the prize showroom upstairs.

"Let's go!" Ron said, stopping abruptly.

Peppermint wasn't the only one active; he saw Evan and Hermione suddenly appear at the castle gates.

What were they doing out? Were they on a date?

He felt uncomfortable about the picture of Evan and Hermione kissing when he thought of this.

Ron had recently gone out on a date with Lavender, so he knew what boys and girls did when alone.

Come to think of it, Evan and Hermione had been together for a long time, and they must have been the same ...

"What's up, Ron?" Harry came over and saw Evan and Hermione, who appeared at the front door, "Strange, why are the two of them there? Let's go over there!"

He tugged on Ron's sleeve, and Ron looked back.

"Oh!" He was about to put the map of the living spot away when his sight suddenly stopped again.

He saw another dot moving around in a room on the ground floor, around the left-hand corner.

It was Professor Snape's office, but the name beside the dot was not "Severus Snape."

Instead, it was Carysius Slytherin!