Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 160

Kirra amused herself for a while turning the taps on and off, particularly enjoying the effect of one whose jet bounced off the surface of the water in large arcs. Her mind began to drift to when she had first became a prefect. Her and Tom were prefects together, meaning that they had both had entry to the bathroom. She smiled softly at the thought before shaking the thoughts away and looking around the room, waiting for the bath to fill.

Then, when the deep pool was full of hot water, foam, and bubbles, which took a very short time considering its size, Kirra turned off all the taps, pulled off her pajamas, slippers, and dressing gown, and slid into the water.

It was so deep that her feet barely touched the bottom, and she actually did a couple of lengths before swimming back to the side and treading water, staring at the egg. Highly enjoyable though it was to swim in hot and foamy water with clouds of different-coloured steam wafting all around her, no stroke of brilliance came to her,no sudden burst of understanding.

Kirra stretched out her arms, lifted the egg in her wet hands, and opened it. The wailing, screeching sound filled the bathroom, echoing and reverberating off the marble walls, but it sounded just as incomprehensible as ever, if not more so with all the echoes. 

She snapped it shut again, worried that the sound would attract Filch, — she thought about it, maybe she should try and put it under the water and see what happened, she knew that water would muffle the sound, and maybe there was a hidden message amongst the screaching. She was about to dip it under the water and then, making her jump so badly that she dropped the egg, which clattered away across the bathroom floor, someone spoke. 

"I'd try putting it in the water, if I were you." Kirra had swallowed a considerable amount of bubbles in shock. She stood up, sputtering, and saw the ghost of a very glum looking girl sitting cross-legged on top of one of the taps. 

It was Moaning Myrtle, who was usually to be heard sobbing in the S-bend of a toilet three floors below.

"Myrtle!" Kirra said in outrage, "I'm — I'm not wearing anything!" The foam was so dense that this hardly mattered, but she had a nasty feeling that Myrtle had been spying on her from out of one of the taps ever since she had arrived.

"I closed my eyes when you got in, and besides its not like I haven't seen you naked before, that boy with the grey-blue eyes and curly hair seemed to like to take you to the bathroom a fair bit didn't he?" she said, blinking at her through her thick spectacles, "that slythering who was in the year under you?" 

Kirra's cheeks went red as she looked at the girl, "jesus Myrtle, youre a creep," she choked out as she stared at the ghost

"You haven't been to see me for ages."

"Yeah . . . well . . ." said Kirra, bending her knees slightly, just to make absolutely sure Myrtle couldn't see anything but her head, "youre not really giving me any good reasons to want to come see you, are you? Besides, the toilet is out of bounds anyways."

"You didn't used to care," said Myrtle miserably. "You used to be in there all the time."

This was true, though only because Kirra and Theodore had found Myrtle's out-of-order toilets a convenient place to brew potions in secret — and her and Regulus had often went there when they were together."

"I got told off for going in there," said Kirra, which was half true; Percy had once caught her, Theodore and Mattheo coming out of Myrtle's bathroom. "I thought I'd better not come back after that."

"Oh . . . I see . . ." said Myrtle, picking at a spot on her chin in a morose sort of way. "Well. . . anyway . . . I'd try the egg in the water. That's what Cedric Diggory did."