Moaning Myrtle

A few weeks have passed since Oz and Harry first began their lessons. Since them some changes have happened.

Firstly, Luna has now integrated herself into the study group that visits the library every so often. Oz introduced her explaining that he's known Luna even before she came to Hogwarts to which the rest of the gang readily accepted her into the group. Harry and Daphne were especially excited immediately trying to get her to come under their wing, however it seemed Luna had her head screwed on right as she didn't want to partake in the pranks they'd sometimes pull.

As for Oz's own personal endeavours he seemed to be making strides in his ability to pick up a horcrux using his dragon eyes. However, he was still limited in the distance he needed to be to detect it. Horcruxes are an ancient magic after all and Voldemort wanted these horcruxes hidden due to his fear of death. If it wasn't for Harry himself being part-horcrux then the gang in the original canon probably would never have found any other horcruxes besides the diary, locket and ring two of which Dumbledore had to personally find out by himself over the span of a few years.

Even though progress was slow however, Oz could see that this method would eventually allow him to enter the RoR to search for the diadem and at least act as a sensor to detect the diary if it ever came close to him.

As for the normal school year as it progressed, nothing of note had happened. It was a simple school life in the background of all these events for Oz and he spent his time calmly and quietly. On a certain night however, he decided to confirm some suspicions heading off from the Slytherin dungeons quickly and quietly...

.

'Me sneaking around the castle at night is becoming an artform at this point...'.

Oz uncloaked himself as he arrived at his destination, in front of him was a bathroom. This bathroom was the bathroom just above the great hall on the second floor. A girls bathroom that was hardly ever in use due to a certain ghost that haunted it. Oz slowly walked inside the big bathroom and walked towards the sinks in the middle.

'What was that descendants name... Corvinus Gaunt? He's the reason why the chambers entrance ended up being in the girls bathroom in the end I think... Was he some kind of per-'.

Stopping Oz's train of thought he sensed a presence nearby as he turned his head. In front of him was a bespectacled ghost looking at him in slight anger and confusion.

"What's a boy like you doing in the girls toilets!".

Screaming out loud was Moaning Myrtle, the ghost in front of him wailed as she noticed that Oz was a boy. Oz sighed to himself as he knew this scenario would happen. He couldn't exactly attack a ghost, at least not yet and he didn't really want to. As a matter of fact Myrtle would become a very important piece for him to find out who has the diary. If magic was out then all Oz could use was his glib tongue...

Oz turned his head around fully and looked up at the ghost whose expression changed upon seeing Oz's face.

"You must be Moaning Myrtle correct? I came here as I wanted to meet you...".

Moaning Myrtle stammered slightly before replying to Oz.

"M-meet me?! Why would the descendant of Merlin want to meet me?!".

Oz expected Myrtle to understand who he was. After all the ghost network in this castle is nothing to scoff at and although Myrtle is definitely an outcast to an extent, word would have reached her regardless of that fact.

"You know who I am?".

Myrtle nodded her head as she flew down closer to Oz.

"You were a hot-topic amongst the ghosts here when your identity spread around the castle... Especially that one ghost who spends most of her time in the ravenclaw tower, I was there when she first heard of the news and she looked shocked beyond belief...".

Oz eyes widened as he mind rolled realising what ghost Myrtle was referring to.

'Helena Ravenclaw... I didn't think she would know much about my heritage however if what Myrtle is saying is true, then maybe she knows more than I would have guessed'.

"I always thought you stayed in this bathroom Myrtle... do you meet up with the other ghosts a lot?".

Myrtle scoffed as she heard Oz's question.

"I don't meet up with them by choice... It gets lonely here sometimes and they usually have information about what's going on in the castle. I need something to entertain me why im here... all alone...".

Looking up at the ghost, Oz smiled wryly.

"Well Myrtle... I don't mind coming and talking to you from time to time in the future. If you can tell me what's going on around the castle at times...".

Myrtle immediately stopped sobbing as she looked down into Oz's purple eyes.

"Really!? you'd come talk to a ghost like me!? B-but you're the descendant of Merlin!".

Oz laughed as he looked up at the ghost warmly.

"I may be the descendant of Merlin but that doesn't make me an untouchable figure. I'm still a boy after all whose in school. Sometimes this place gets boring after some time so changing things up and talking to someone like you would help me as much as it would help you".

Myrtles face started to morph into a delighted grin as she flew around the toilet in glee. Oz looked at the ghost with a slight smile seeing her so happy.

'I mean as long as she's happy... I also get an information network out of this if she does stay in contact with the other ghosts...'.

After a while of parading around the bathroom, Myrtle flew down towards Oz with a grin on her face.

"Well Oz, is there anything you'd like to talk about now? anything at all?".

Looking at Myrtles enthusiasm Oz smiled lightly as he asked her the main question first.

"Besides me Myrtle, has anyone else visited the bathroom since the school reopened? Anyone who you'd deem suspicious?".

Myrtle put her finger on her chin as she began to think back. After some time she shook her head.

"There's been some girls entering of course however none have been suspicious...".

Oz felt conflicted hearing this. He was glad as that meant the basilisk wasn't unleashed yet but he also was a bit disappointed as if it was released he might have been able to go down tonight and confront it. The blood within him that was hoping for a fight seemed to simmer down a bit.

"Well Myrtle if there's ever any sort of suspicious characters, let me know. We can't have them disturbing your place here can we?".

Myrtle nodded feverantly at Oz's request. while flying around the toilet some more. Oz looked dead ahead at the taps in front of him.

'So this here is the entrance to the chamber...'.

Oz walked up slowly to the entrance with Myrtle looking at his confused from above. Oz slowly put his hand on the mirror in front of him and immediately activated his eyes. Looking closely Oz could see wards placed on the circle of sinks in front of him.

'Its just as I thought... In the canon it seemed that Parseltongue was all that was needed to enter the chamber but in fact it needed another key as well. Harry was only able to enter the chamber as he himself is a horcrux of Voldemort who is the heir of Slytherin. Ginny was able to open the chamber as she herself held the diary which was a part of Voldemort as well. Parseltongue itself isn't enough to open this door, you also need a part of Voldemort, the heir of Slytherin, for the verification process...'.

Myrtle looked down at Oz who was staring intently at the mirror in front of him. Myrtle looked into the mirror as well and felt herself get absorbed into Oz's eyes that were glowing a bit. she shook herself out of her daze after a while and asked.

"Oz... what are you doing?".

Oz hearing Myrtles question turned his head and looked up at the ghost.

"I thought I had a spot on my face... seems im all clear though".

Myrtle tilted her head looking at Oz in confusion as he started to walk towards the exit of the toilet.

"Well Myrtle feel free to see me when you want, Ill come visit every now and then from now on as well so let me know any juicy information thats spreading around the castle!".

Myrtle smiled and nodded as she watched Oz head out of the toilets and seemingly vanish. She smiled to herself as she flew over into her stall.

.

As Oz sneaked back through the castle, he smiled noting how important that little meeting with Myrtle was.

Not only did he learn about how the chamber is needed to be opened, but he also gained another ally in Myrtle who had connections to the ghosts in the castle. Considering the vast amount of ghosts here having a connection to them would becoming extremely beneficial in the long run for Oz's information gathering. As he was running back Oz also felt more pieces fall into place in regards to the entrance of the chamber of secrets.

'The whole idea of having a horcrux with you as well explains how Ron and Hermione entered the chamber in the final book... They were holding onto the goblet after all...'.

When the pieces fell into place like this Oz couldn't help but feel fulfilled. Although it did make things difficult for him, this was information he needed to know and he was adamant that the old snake wouldn't just have the entrance to his secret chamber be another language. Although he was annoying he was a founder at the end of the day...

Mulling over this information Oz now had a few steps he could go with. One was to find the diadem as soon as possible and teach himself some parseltongue. Seeing as though Oz was already becoming slowly familiar with dragontongue he imagined that parseltongue would be easier in comparison to learn. With this method, he would be able to open the chamber himself and confront the basilisk straight away. The other method would be to wait until Harry realises he can use parseltongue and bring him along like he did at the end of last year, the risk here however was that if they did this pre-emptively, Fawkes may not come to pluck out the basilisks eyes like it did in the canon leaving Harry in actual danger in the fight. If Oz was by himself he was confident he could beat back the snake especially due to his dragon like instincts. Having Harry there however would basically be extra baggage to look after. The final method would be to wait for the chamber to be opened by whoever had the diary. Oz wanted to avoid this method if possible as it would put people in danger however if it needed to be done then it needed to be done.

'So it seems my original plan of looking for the diadem is what I need to do... Myrtle can be my eyes and ears in that toilet and hopefully will let me know if someone opens up that entrance, when that happens I need to act fast'.

Thinking on the diadem Oz thought back to what Myrtle said about Helena being interested in Oz's appearance at the school.

'Cho and Luna are both in Ravenclaw aren't they... Maybe I can ask her to let me in Ravenclaw tower so I can approach and talk to Helena. She may have an idea on how to find the diadem faster...'.

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A/N - A little reminder that reading my authors notes help understand my thought process behind certain ideas in chapters. Sometimes I put nothing there but for a chapter like this a lot of explaining is needed outside the chapter itself so I encourage you to read them :)