Myrtle4

At three o’clock, Myrtle woke up to the sound of howling wind. It seemed that somebody had left the dormitory window open. She put on her dressing gown and slippers and went over to shut it. She shivered slightly as she prepared to get back into bed. As she pulled the covers back over her, the window blew open once again. Myrtle closed it again, and locked it too.

On the way back to her warm, four-poster bed, Myrtle remembered about the package her father had given her before she left. Her trunk lay at the foot of her bed.

Unlocking the huge trunk, Myrtle took out the soft package. She untied the string and ripped open the brown paper encasing her present. It was a long piece of silvery material. Pinned to it, was a note from her father.

“Myrtle, this is your Grandfather’s invisibility cloak. Use it wisely and take good care of it. The second present in this package, is the Marauders Map. Once you figure out how to use it, it will become a great help in your mischief making, Love, Dad.”

“An invisibility cloak,” whispered Myrtle to herself. “Wow!”

Myrtle, for the second time, climbed back into bed. She lay her head down on the soft, fluffy pillow and drifted off to sleep.

“Elli, you are my servant now. You will serve me and I will get your father. Together we will be great. With my contacts in the Ministry and at Hogwarts we will succeed. Ahh, I can tell what you are thinking, that we won’t get your sister as well. Believe me, anything you want, I will give you my faithful servant. You have already served me thus far, continue and there is no telling how greatly you will be rewarded. If killing your sister is the only way that you will be happy when you serve me, then she’s as good as dead.”

Myrtle sat up. Sweat was pouring from her face. She checked the alarm clock beside her bed. It displayed 4:01a.m. Desperately tired, but desperately scared, Myrtle knew that she would not get back to sleep after that nightmare. But, was it a nightmare, everything seemed so real. Like that voice was actually in her head speaking to her. She got up. Put her dressing gown and slippers back on, took the Marauders Map and invisibility cloak and went downstairs into the common room.

The fire had long since gone out. Everything was dark and quiet. The only light was coming from the moon, which beamed in from a nearby window. It was so cold. Myrtle pulled her dressing gown tighter around her and looked at the Marauders Map. It was blank. Not a spot of ink was on this piece of old parchment.

She tried looking at it from every angle, but her tiredness was taking over her. She couldn’t concentrate. What had her father said? If anything was bothering her, to go to Professor Black. Dare she? In the middle of the night? She had the invisibility cloak now, so Filch had no chance of finding her. She didn’t even know where Professor Black was. She knew the location of his office; she had been called in there last year to explain about the canary cream. Did he sleep there? It was worth a try.

Myrtle got up out of the armchair and walked over to the portrait hole. The Fat Lady was fast asleep when the portrait hole swung open. She moaned miserably as Myrtle climbed through.

The corridors outside were very dark. Myrtle slipped the cloak over herself and made sure that none of her personage was showing before setting off in the direction of Black’s office.

When she came to the statue of the stone gargoyle, she tried to remember what the password was. Last year it had been Phoenix, she could try that.

“Phoenix” said Myrtle to the statue.

The statue moved aside, Professor Black hadn’t changed the password. Stepping over the threshold, Myrtle pulled off the invisibility cloak. She still had the Marauders Map enclosed in her hand. She came up to the door. Lifting her hand up to the brass knocker, she knocked and waited.

A gruff voice called from behind it,

“Come in, nighttime wanderer.”

Myrtle turned the handle and entered. Professor Black did not seem alarmed to see her.

“Myrtle, how lovely to see you. But, I would like to know what has brought you to my office at this hour? I know that you cannot be that anxious to see me, my company is not equal to that of your partner in crime, Antoinette Weasley.” Professor Black sat back down in his chair, facing Myrtle and beckoned her to sit down.

“I..I..had a nightmare.” Myrtle said sheepishly. “I know that it mightn’t sound like much but it felt so real. Like there was a voice in my head. They were speaking to my sister, Elli, they wanted to kill me and my father.”

Professor Black’s relaxed look turned to one of panic. Myrtle continued.

“My Dad said that if anything was worrying me that I should come to you straight away. And so I did.”

Professor Black rose from his chair and began pacing whilst he spoke.

“Myrtle, you did the right thing by coming to me. There have been many strange occurrences happening over the last few months. No doubt, you would have seen things become much tougher for your father at work. We are trying to work with the Ministry in order to find out what is going wrong.”