i am snape

Severus Snape deliberately dawdled over dinner in the Great Hall for more than an hour. He didn't casually stroll into the entrance hall and head up to the second floor until the enchanted ceiling twinkled with stars and the hall was almost empty.

The door to the girls' lavatory had a large, mottled sign hanging on it that read "OUT OF ORDER." He reached for the brass doorknob and pushed the door open. It was the gloomiest, most dismal place he had ever been. A musty odor hung in the air, and the walls and floor were damp. Beneath a stained, cracked mirror, there was a row of stone sinks with peeling surfaces. A few candle stubs burned low on their brackets, seeming ready to flicker out at any moment. The dim, flickering light made the floor look eerie.

The wooden doors of the individual stalls were peeling and scratched; one door hung precariously, its hinges broken. From the moment he stepped into the room, the sound of dripping water came from a dark corner, and muffled sobs drifted from a stall deeper inside, echoing endlessly in the empty lavatory.

Snape paused to listen to where the crying was coming from and walked towards the innermost stall. At the door, he gently knocked. "Hello, Myrtle, are you alright?"

Myrtle, still sobbing, was floating in the toilet's cistern, tearfully picking at a pimple on her chin. "This is the girls' lavatory," she said, eyeing Snape suspiciously. "You're not a girl."

"How dare you assume—" Snape almost instinctively unleashed a legendary dark spell from the future but managed to stop himself in time. "Ahem, ahem. Clearly, I am not a girl," he said. "I came here to see you."

"You want to mock me again!" Myrtle wailed. "I have feelings, you know, even if I am dead!"

"Myrtle, no one wants to mock you," Snape said. "I just—"

"No one wants to mock me? That's a grand joke!" Myrtle cried. "There's no joy in my life here, only sorrow, and now that I'm dead, you still won't leave me alone!" Tears streamed quickly from her tiny, transparent eyes.

"I just wanted to ask you how you died!" Snape quickly said loudly.

---

The muffled sobbing stopped, and Myrtle's entire demeanor changed in an instant. It seemed few had ever asked her such an honorable question. She wiped away imaginary tears. "No one has cared about me for over thirty years. Oh, it was just dreadful, what happened right here. I died in this very stall."

Myrtle floated into the air, turned around, and elegantly sat on the cistern. "I remember it perfectly. Olive Hornby was making fun of my glasses, saying I looked like a four-eyed dog, so I hid in here. I locked the door and cried inside, when suddenly I heard someone come in."

"Do you know? They were speaking such funny words. I think it must have been another language. But what bothered me most was that I heard a boy's voice speaking."

"Just like you," Myrtle said, giving Snape a meaningful look, and continued with relish. "So I opened the door and told him to go away, to his own boys' lavatory, and then—" She puffed out her chest, looking rather pleased with herself, her face radiant. "I died."

"How did you die?" Snape asked.

"I don't know," Myrtle whispered mysteriously. "I just remember seeing a pair of incredibly huge, yellow eyes. My whole body felt like it was grabbed, and then I just floated away..."

She gazed at Snape distractedly. "Then I came back here. You know, I was determined to get back at Olive Hornby."

"It took them ages to find my body—I know, I was sitting there waiting for them. Olive Hornby walked into the lavatory—'Are you sulking in here again, Myrtle?' she said. 'Professor Dippet sent me to find you—'" A mischievous expression appeared on Myrtle's face. "That's when she suddenly saw my body... Oh, she never forgot that sight until the day she died, I can promise you... I followed her everywhere, reminding her."

"I remember, at her brother's wedding, when they twisted open the cork to celebrate, what sprayed out with the champagne wasn't just bubbly—"

"It was me." She gave a creepy smile. "Oh, she really regretted mocking my glasses then."

"Later, of course," Myrtle's mood turned somber again, "she went to the Ministry of Magic and stopped me from following her, so I had to come back here and live in my toilet."

"I just don't understand why the Ministry of Magic bothered with that, but they completely ignored what I told them."

"What did you tell the Ministry of Magic?" Snape asked.

"They found me and said the big oaf who caused my death had been expelled, and told me to leave. But the boy's voice I heard was definitely not his. So I told them they caught the wrong person."

"Are you saying that person wasn't Hagrid?"

Myrtle's pearl-like eyes suddenly turned bright white, and her thick spectacles glinted with surprise. "How do you know?"

"Hagrid told me," Snape said calmly. "Did you ever tell Dumbledore about this?"

"I did, he came specifically to ask me about it," Myrtle said, nodding seriously. "But he only said, 'I see,' and asked me to keep it a secret, and that was it."

"Oh, that's very Dumbledore," Snape said, pursing his lips and guiding the conversation. "Can you tell me where you saw those yellow eyes?"

"Pretty much right there," Myrtle said, vaguely pointing to the sink in front of her.

Snape walked to the edge of the grimy sink. It looked quite ordinary. He deliberately examined it thoroughly, inside and out, up and down, not even missing the mirror above or the pipes below. Finally, he inspected the dark green copper faucets. On the side of one faucet, he saw a small serpentine mark.

"This faucet never runs water," Myrtle said happily, seeing Snape try to twist the faucet.

"Do you remember what that boy's funny words sounded like?" Snape stopped trying.

Myrtle frowned and thought for a moment, making a strange hissing sound with her mouth. But nothing happened. It was still the same lavatory, with only the "drip-drip" of falling water reaching their ears.

---

It seems like Snape is on a quest to uncover some hidden truths, much like a detective from the Ministry of Magic! Do you think he's getting closer to figuring out what really happened in the girls' lavatory?