"Who are you?"
The girl's gaze scrutinized the two little wizards who suddenly intruded into her territory through her thick lenses.
"Uh..."
"Oh, wait, I remember you—" Moaning Myrtle patted her head, pointing at one of the girls in front of her, shouting, "I remember you!" She kept repeating, emotionally agitated, her semi-transparent body rippling, "You were the one who laughed at me at the deathday party—"
"Hey, hey! Lower your voice!" Ginny tried to interrupt, but the crying Moaning Myrtle... or rather, the spirit true to her name, once her tear ducts were activated, tears flowed freely like an open floodgate from her pair of transparent little eyes.
"You think I don't know what others call me behind my back? Fat Moaning Myrtle! Ugly Moaning Myrtle! Poor, weepy, moody Moaning Myrtle!" Moaning Myrtle covered her eyes and turned to rush into the cubicle, a stream of water gushed up to the ceiling from behind the cubicle door, "I should just kill myself, I should die... no, I'm already dead..." A muffled voice accompanied by the sound of water issued from behind the door.
"...What's her problem?" Looking at the bathroom in front of her, Ginny scratched her head a bit bewildered.
"Yes, I have problems! I have a 'little problem' of having already died and can't die again!!" A shriek came from behind the cubicle, a large patch of water began to seep out from under the door.
"Well, it seems we can't stay here." Hermione looked at the parchment in her hand, and after ensuring that no one was around in the corridor, finally nodded.
"Wait a moment..." Ginny signaled, frowning, she stepped into the water—she stroked the metallic washbasin, the confusion in her eyes grew thicker..."I feel like I've been here before?" The girl said softly.
"This is a girls' bathroom, maybe at some time—" Hermione said instinctively, but in the next moment, she saw the expression on Ginny's face, "Oh, alright, is it different from what you said?"
Ginny shook her head without answering, her fingertips glided over the washbasin until..."We really should go!" Seeing the cold water already up to her calves, Hermione quickly stowed away the parchment and grabbed the girl's shoulder to lead her out of the bathroom.
The cold wind of December was biting, finally, Ginny seemed to come to herself, watching Hermione drying the hem of her wizard robe after pulling her to a dry place, she instinctively bit her lip—
"Did you have a fight with Percy today?" Hermione asked without looking up; at that time both were in the passageway from the stairway to the Great Hall on the first floor, she had just glanced before leaving the bathroom, Snape was already on the fourth floor, and another patrolling Professor Flitwick had just come down from Ravenclaw Tower.
So, this place was temporarily safe—as long as Peeves didn't come running from the hall to make trouble.
At the mention of Percy, Ginny's face quickly darkened, "Sort of, I can't figure out why they would suspect Harry Potter, he, he... he stayed at our house for half the summer, can't they see what kind of person he is?"
When talking about Harry, the girl's face began to flush involuntarily.
"Maybe, those boys' brains might be located elsewhere—" Hermione immediately nodded in agreement, she understood a principle well—if you want to find out secrets from someone, it's best to go along with them, "But, do you trust Harry so much?"
She lowered her voice, speaking mysteriously.
"...What do you mean?" Ginny was a bit confused, she didn't want to show her curiosity, but since it concerned Harry Potter, she couldn't suppress her inner urge, and she could only stare at Hermione with her brown eyes inherited from her mother.
Ginny of course knew how close Hermione and Harry were, to be honest, although she completely disagreed with the rumor that Harry was the heir of the Secret Chamber, the gossip about Harry and Hermione still affected her.
"Harry is actually hiding something from me..." Hermione lowered her voice again, seeing Ginny's attention caught, a trace of joy flashed in her eyes—
"I am not!"
A voice full of resistance sounded from an empty spot nearby.
"Harry?"
Hermione instinctively looked over, but there was nothing there. Ginny was also startled, she instantly jumped behind armor against the wall.
"Oh, this beautiful lady..." The armor bowed its head.
"Shut up." Ginny didn't look up.
"Alright." The armor raised its head.
"Is that you, Harry?" Hermione frowned tightly, she had sensed in the common room that Ginny definitely knew something about the attacks, but the situation she had been in was disrupted by that single sentence, it was impossible for her not to be annoyed.
"Of course, it's me, who else could it be?" Harry lifted the Invisibility Cloak off him, appearing out of nowhere in front of them. Seeing the boy appear, Ginny timidly shrank her head back behind the armor.
"...I thought you were asleep, when did you come?" Hermione asked.
"From... when Ginny mentioned I stayed at the Weasley family." Harry instinctively turned his head to the side, as the girl who had just peeked out half of her head from behind the armor disappeared again.
If you'd said you've been here all along, it would have been fine...
Hermione patted her forehead, sighing helplessly, after being caught up in this situation by Harry, she probably wouldn't get any answers tonight.
But Harry evidently didn't intend to let her off so easily, "So, you just said I'm hiding something from you?" He glared at Hermione, his tone full of questioning, clearly intending to get to the bottom of it.
"No, nothing at all—" Hermione took a deep breath, she felt a bit like cursing.
"You're suspecting me too, aren't you, even though every time you've been with me when we saw those people!"
Harry completely missed Hermione's mood, he shouted loudly, seemingly venting all his recent dissatisfaction, "Since Ron got petrified, when have we talked for more than ten minutes? You've been doubting me since then, haven't you?"
The more Harry spoke, the more he felt his reasoning was correct, the sense of being subtly isolated was all vented, "So you've started distancing yourself from me since then (Hermione's protests were weak in comparison. "I haven't."), just because I heard different voices..."
"Heard what voices?"
A hand patted Harry on the shoulder from behind, that familiar warmth once again swept through his body in an instant, emotions already stirred, Harry turned around tearfully—
"Mom..." The boy's voice was a bit hoarse from his earlier shouting.
"?"
No, you're doing this again?
William recoiled as if electrocuted, withdrawing his right hand.