Chapter 66: 4th September 1991, Wednesday: Part 4

George lifted his weary head from his hands after listening to the ghost's moaning for ten straight uninterrupted minutes. He was starting to doubt if she would ever stop. Of course the question he'd asked was rhetorical, he already knew this ghost's history inside and out, but this response was far more 'passionate' than he had expected. George looked around the bathroom once the moaning stopped and he couldn't find the ghost at first. That was until he spotted her sitting on the ledge of the round window above the cubicles. She was looking through the window with a forlorn expression. George decided this would be the right moment to redirect the conversation once again.

He asked in a slightly less nervous voice, "were the Slytherin students mean to you as well?"

The ghost looked in George's direction with a face of unmasked rage, she fell from the window and swooped through the air until she was standing right over the top of him. She spoke with a raised voice with more fury than she had shown throughout their entire one-sided conversation.

"You must be joking. Those oh-so-privileged Slytherin students are the worst. They think they're better than everyone else and can do whatever they like. Oliver Hornby used to pretend to be my friend, that liar tricked me and made fun of my glasses right in front of everyone in the Great Hall. He called me a specky four-eyed freak in front of the entire school, it was the worst day of my life."

George surprised the ghost by smiling after hearing her rant about Slytherin. He adjusted his robes and deliberately pointed his Slytherin crest in her direction. She noticed the crest and immediately looked embarrassed after basically calling him scum, but George didn't mind the insult. Both his real and persona's opinions generally agreed with her. It wasn't hard to complain about Slytherin, George could write an essay about everything wrong with that house. In a perfect world, Slytherin would be removed and the underground common room should be flooded.

George concurred with her sentiments, "that's about right from what I've seen. Slytherins are a really nasty bunch. I like to think I'm not a Slytherin at heart but the Sorting Hat didn't seem to agree.

On that topic, Miss Warren, maybe you can explain something to me. What is a mud-blood?"

The ghost's embarrassed expression instantly changed back to fury as she looked accusingly at him.

"What did you just call me?"

Oops, he might have made his first mistake. Hopefully, the situation could be rectified before the fish riggles free. George panicked as he waved his hands back and forth, he didn't want her to think he was implying anything. He quickly spoke before she could misinterpret his words any further.

"I wasn't calling you a mud-blood, I just want to know what it means. According to the other Slytherin students, I am one. So... I would like to know if it's something bad."

The ghost's furious expression appeared to vanish in an instant like she had Multiple Personality Disorder. She then started to laugh loudly enough to echo through the bathroom.

She held her stomach whilst pointing at George, "no way. They called you a mud-blood and you're in Slytherin. That has to be the best joke I've ever heard."

The ghost clearly hadn't realised that George had been deadly serious, this gave his persona enough courage to correct her. She needed to know they were the same, at least in regards to having muggle parental figures.

George stood up with clenched fists as he interrupted her laughter, "it isn't a joke, I'm being very serious. They kept calling me that whilst they… Never mind, that's not important. You wouldn't understand anyway, you were in Ravenclaw."

She paused in the middle of her laughter, she seemed to realise George wasn't making anything up. Her expression softened as she probably understood the implications of what George might have been insinuating.

Every word that George had spoken was deliberate to provoke a reaction from the ghost. He based his story all on the ghost's history to seem as relatable as possible, this would in turn initiate the fastest-growing relationship. George had known from the exact moment he had entered the bathroom everything he needed to know about the ghost, the information came from both his fragmented memories and the books he had collected about Hogwarts. He was currently talking to the ghost of Myrtle Warren, who is better known as Moaning Myrtle.

George used her surname as a way to address her for multiple reasons, it was a way to show her respect and to remind her of a time before she would have been bullied. This respect would consequently associate George with her more positive memories. She had only negative memories of students at Hogwarts so anything he could do to separate himself from them was essential. He also knew that she was an individual who was heavily bullied whilst at Hogwarts before she died. Therefore, George also had to be someone who was being bullied.

Since George was already a muggle-born in Slytherin, it would only be a matter of time before he was bullied legitimately. His self-mutilation was simply a method of speeding up the process to make his Calming Draught deadline. Myrtle was always someone who craved attention both in life and in death, he just had to indulge that demand to become her only friend.

Therefore, George would learn to live with her ranting and raving and would support and justify her feelings. Provided she reciprocated some of that positive reinforcement, Myrtle should begin associating his opinions with her own. That way, George could encourage her to make suggestions that would be beneficial to himself. It was perfect since she wouldn't realise he'd been the one to put the idea in her head. Now Mytrle's reaction to George's preparations would blossom or burn depending on how well he had performed.

Myrtle slowly floated towards George whilst looking down at him with an empathetic gaze, "a mud-blood is a horrible name for a muggle-born. I was also called it from time to time but I wasn't in Slytherin unlike you, I guess you'll probably get it a lot more.

If what you've said is true, then you're not going to have a good time in Slytherin. But, you probably already know that judging by your face. You're going to have to deal with... falling into a lot more rose bushes in the future."

George nodded his head whilst holding a self-deprecating smile. His persona had already worked out the meaning of mud-blood and just wanted confirmation from another he trusted.

He bowed his head towards Myrtle out of respect, "thank you for being honest, I needed to hear that although I think I already knew it, I just didn't want to believe it. It seems that the next few years at Hogwarts might be quite difficult for me but that's my problem and not yours.

I'm sorry for disturbing you and bringing up bad memories. I feel a lot better now after talking to you and I think I'm ready to go back outside. I'll be taking my leave if you don't mind."

George didn't wait for a response as he started leaving the bathroom for the third time. This was going to be the final test to see if his plan worked. Instead of his path being blocked again, George was just about to pass the threshold to the bathroom when he heard Myrtle's voice from behind.

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"What's your name?"

George turned around with a radiant smile on his face, "George Linwood, Miss Warren. But you can call me George. It was a pleasure talking to you."

Myrtle was floating above the marble pillar with a once-in-a-blue-moon happy smile on her face, "it was nice meeting you too, Mr Linwood."

George just smiled and nodded as he turned back around, but, he stopped as he heard Myrtle speak once again.

"You know, if you ever wanted to talk, you can always come back and visit my toilet. I'm here every day."

George was beaming inside as he was now holding the fish in his metaphorical hands, but he repressed his happiness before it could show. He couldn't afford to bottle it now he was so close to the end.

He turned back around with a confused look on his face, "isn't this the girl's bathroom? I'm not allowed to come back here, isn't it against the rules?"

Myrtle played with one of her ponytails as she shyly answered, "I won't tell anyone if you don't. It can be our secret."

George laughed internally at the number of times he seemed to be making friends with secrets. There would be dozens of people with blackmail on him at this rate if he allowed this to continue. But when it came to this ghost, the secret was well worth the risks.

He looked left and right before asking, "but this is still a girl's bathroom. What if a girl comes in whilst we're talking? She'll think I'm a peeping Tom and I really don't need another reason for people to hate me."

Myrtle appeared to find George's concerns funny as she formed another mischievous smirk, she flew off the pillar and landed in front of him.

Her face couldn't hide her cheeky smile as she explained, "nobody comes here anyway because of me. All those evil prefects spreading rumours are to blame. It turns out that people don't like a ghost watching them whilst they go to the toilet, it's not my fault that this is where I died. So you might as well visit all you like."

George and Myrtle both stared at each other with knowing looks before they burst into laughter. They both giggled for a few seconds before George collected himself and wiped the tears from forming in the corners of his eyes. That should be enough to bag this fish, he held out his hand towards Myrtle whilst accepting her offer.

"Then it's official. If I ever feel like having a good chat/rant with a new friend then I will come right here. In exchange, you can tell me how much worse your school life was than mine.

Do you find these terms agreeable, Miss Warren?"

Myrtle looked at the outstretched hand before returning her gaze to George, a bit of life seemed to have returned to her dull grey eyes.

She held out her hand and responded, "I do, Mr Linwood."

Both of their hands overlapped as they attempted to shake them, George didn't feel any resistance no matter how much his hand enveloped hers. They both looked at each other awkwardly before bursting into laughter once again.

George left the girl's bathroom with twenty-five minutes to spare before Lunch, he was well ahead of his schedule. He now had his laboratory and his personal ghost guard dog to keep others from prying. He had considered many locations for his potion-making. Two particular locations had stood out to him, but he had inevitably decided to settle with the girl's bathroom. The alternative option was the Room of Requirements which was better than the girl's bathroom in almost every regard. The Room of Requirements provided more space and equipment as well as reading material than the bathroom, but it had one fatal flaw.

If the day ever came when he was discovered in his laboratory, George needed plausible deniability. Dumbledore had to be keeping a close eye on every part of the school and the Room of Requirements location wouldn't be an exception. It would be unbelievable for a first-year student to discover the Room of Requirements within two days of attending Hogwarts. Any professors would assume that George had secret information about the school before he had attended. Those professors would be very suspicious because the only contact George had outside of Hogwarts, which was magical, was Remus. It wouldn't take much for Dumbledore to squeeze information out of that werewolf, so George wasn't going to push his luck.

On the other hand, George stumbling across the girl's bathroom after being bullied and befriending Myrtle seemed like a much more plausible story. It would be way easier for his persona to sell that lie on the day he was being interrogated in Snape's or Dumbledore's office. George planned to return to the girl's bathroom tomorrow to start the first trials of making the Calming Draught. There were two reasons to not get started right away. One, he needed to let Myrtle brew for a little before he could start making potions in her company. And two, he still lacked the knowledge to brew the potion with any degree of success.

George changed into another clean robe in the abandoned corridor and headed down to the Library. The rest of today would be unfortunately spent searching for any more information on the Calming Draught. Regardless of whether he found anything, George was going to start brewing tomorrow in the girl's bathroom after he gathers the crocodile hearts from the potion classrooms. If his second dive into the potion section was another failure, then he might have to resort to plan B and locate a useful book somewhere in the dungeons.

A thought popped into George's head as he was about to enter the Library, he recalled his self-inflicted injury which had left his face disfigured. He wanted to quickly check to see how it was healing, he hoped his nose would only look bruised by now. George had injured himself before at the Linwood house as an experiment, and he had observed his injuries healing faster as the past year went by. By his calculations, a broken nose should take one to two hours to heal completely. George pulled out a mirror and looked at himself, he was shocked to see his face was looking almost completely fine. The only marks he could find, if he looked close enough, were a few purple bruises around the bridge of his nose.

George's natural healing ability had rapidly accelerated far beyond his imagination, he wasn't sure if this was good or bad news. He knew this had to be related to his sudden emotional and strength increase, he predicted his next transformation would show similar changes. Regardless of what may happen next time he turns, he decided to not worry about it since it wasn't causing him any problems right now. His current situation didn't accommodate planning weeks into the future when he can barely predict how tomorrow will fair. George put away the mirror, took in a deep breath, and entered the Library.

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