HP fic; "Best Friends Forever"; Gen
Aug. 16th, 2005 02:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cygna_himeSee! I promised, and I delivered!
Best Friends Forever
Canon: Entirely, congruent with HBP.
Wordcount: 835.
Rating: PG, for death and such.
Spoilers: HBP, for the identity of the Half-blood Prince.
Summary: Once at Hogwarts there were two girls who were the best of friends...
Once at Hogwarts there were two girls named Myrtle Lazenby and Eileen Prince, who were the best of friends. They weren't very pretty, nor yet very cheerful, but they were smart. They studied together and got top marks in almost every subject. Eileen was in Slytherin, but Myrtle was Muggle-born, and so she was in Ravenclaw. Eileen often said Myrtle should have been in Slytherin, but Myrtle didn't much care.
Myrtle and Eileen weren't very popular with the other girls at school. They weren't pretty: Eileen had inherited a sharp face that looked far too much like her father's to be good-looking on a girl, and Myrtle had had to wear thick glasses since she had been very young. Besides, the other girls laughed at Eileen's handed-down robes and Myrtle's cheap new ones. When the girls wanted someone to laugh at, it was usually one of them.
Still, they were friends. Eileen's family, everyone knew, had nothing left but bloodlines, so no one really complained much about her being friends with a Muggle-born. Her parents were very particular, of course, but she never mentioned Myrtle's birth. Eileen always said the two of them had to stick together if they were to survive at Hogwarts. Myrtle never paid attention to the unwritten laws of purity and status. She was almost hopelessly clumsy at such things, which led to a great deal of mistakes for her but suited Eileen perfectly. She hated seeing the people who knew staring at her with pity and contempt.
People, particularly girls, were often horrid to them both. None of the girls (Myrtle and Eileen were never part of 'the girls') ever got in trouble for it. Eileen did, often, for cursing them without being able to explain why to Headmaster Dippet afterward. It was never the sort of thing she could tell another person. Myrtle didn't hex them. She ran away and cried instead. Eileen said Myrtle needed to grow some backbone, but she didn't really mean it. Myrtle said Eileen needed to control her temper, but she didn't really mean that either.
When the attacks started, everyone thought whoever was responsible would get tired of it and go away. They weren't scared until the bodies in the Hospital Wing started to mount up, and it seemed that someone must get killed sooner or later. Myrtle and Eileen went everywhere together after that, except to classes they had separately. They were afraid to be alone, in case they were the next ones to be attacked.
One day in Charms, which Myrtle had with the Gryffindor class, a girl called Olive started teasing Myrtle about her glasses. Myrtle's glasses were her weak point. She was convinced they made her look hideous, like a bug. All the while class was going on, Olive made little bug-eyed gestures where Myrtle could see, and all Olive's friends laughed. Finally, Myrtle could take it no longer, and ran out of the classroom, crying.
Eileen worried when Myrtle didn't appear at lunch, but when she was still gone for Transfiguration, her favourite subject, Eileen grew frantic. She ran out of class to look for her friend, and went first to the place Myrtle most often hid when she was miserable, an incredibly inconvenient girls' bathroom.
She ran back out, screaming.
Eileen wasn't there when Myrtle's body was carried out of the bathroom, as she was in the Hospital Wing, heavily sedated. She missed the expulsion of Myrtle's killer, and Headmaster Dippet's statement that the school would remain open. It was weeks before the teachers stopped watching her closely for any signs of suicide.
They needn't have worried. Eileen never thought about killing herself for more than a few moments. She poured all the anger she felt into studying, getting on her own the high grades she and Myrtle had gotten together, and captaining the Gobstones team they had joined together. She left Hogwarts with enough N.E.W.T.s for both of them--and maybe they were for both of them, at that. She married the Muggle boy Myrtle had told her about, the boy she had watched over the summers. She had the son Myrtle had wanted; Eileen herself had planned for a child, but never looked forward to it, and certainly not a half-blood. Her parents were furious when Severus was born, when there was no longer a hope of ending her marriage in favour of a pure-blooded one. Eileen didn't care. She never had cared for marriage and babies, but Myrtle had, and Eileen loved her son like Myrtle would have loved hers.
No one knew them well enough to know this, of course.
Eileen visited Hogwarts a great deal after she left, during the summer when the school was all but empty. No one ever asked her what she did there, but it was a fact that the ghost in the girls' bathroom moved around a lot more during the summer.
It was after Eileen died that the ghost first earned the name of Moaning Myrtle.
----
This was inspired by the mention that the Advanced Potions book belonging to Eileen Prince looked "at least fifty years old". My mind immediately jumped to the other people who had been living at that time, and poof!
It is and remains my contention that, in the pre-Voldemort days, the lines between Muggle-born and pure-blood, and Slytherin and non-, were much less stringent than they had become by Harry's day. So there.
Crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
genfic_hogwarts.
Best Friends Forever
Canon: Entirely, congruent with HBP.
Wordcount: 835.
Rating: PG, for death and such.
Spoilers: HBP, for the identity of the Half-blood Prince.
Summary: Once at Hogwarts there were two girls who were the best of friends...
Once at Hogwarts there were two girls named Myrtle Lazenby and Eileen Prince, who were the best of friends. They weren't very pretty, nor yet very cheerful, but they were smart. They studied together and got top marks in almost every subject. Eileen was in Slytherin, but Myrtle was Muggle-born, and so she was in Ravenclaw. Eileen often said Myrtle should have been in Slytherin, but Myrtle didn't much care.
Myrtle and Eileen weren't very popular with the other girls at school. They weren't pretty: Eileen had inherited a sharp face that looked far too much like her father's to be good-looking on a girl, and Myrtle had had to wear thick glasses since she had been very young. Besides, the other girls laughed at Eileen's handed-down robes and Myrtle's cheap new ones. When the girls wanted someone to laugh at, it was usually one of them.
Still, they were friends. Eileen's family, everyone knew, had nothing left but bloodlines, so no one really complained much about her being friends with a Muggle-born. Her parents were very particular, of course, but she never mentioned Myrtle's birth. Eileen always said the two of them had to stick together if they were to survive at Hogwarts. Myrtle never paid attention to the unwritten laws of purity and status. She was almost hopelessly clumsy at such things, which led to a great deal of mistakes for her but suited Eileen perfectly. She hated seeing the people who knew staring at her with pity and contempt.
People, particularly girls, were often horrid to them both. None of the girls (Myrtle and Eileen were never part of 'the girls') ever got in trouble for it. Eileen did, often, for cursing them without being able to explain why to Headmaster Dippet afterward. It was never the sort of thing she could tell another person. Myrtle didn't hex them. She ran away and cried instead. Eileen said Myrtle needed to grow some backbone, but she didn't really mean it. Myrtle said Eileen needed to control her temper, but she didn't really mean that either.
When the attacks started, everyone thought whoever was responsible would get tired of it and go away. They weren't scared until the bodies in the Hospital Wing started to mount up, and it seemed that someone must get killed sooner or later. Myrtle and Eileen went everywhere together after that, except to classes they had separately. They were afraid to be alone, in case they were the next ones to be attacked.
One day in Charms, which Myrtle had with the Gryffindor class, a girl called Olive started teasing Myrtle about her glasses. Myrtle's glasses were her weak point. She was convinced they made her look hideous, like a bug. All the while class was going on, Olive made little bug-eyed gestures where Myrtle could see, and all Olive's friends laughed. Finally, Myrtle could take it no longer, and ran out of the classroom, crying.
Eileen worried when Myrtle didn't appear at lunch, but when she was still gone for Transfiguration, her favourite subject, Eileen grew frantic. She ran out of class to look for her friend, and went first to the place Myrtle most often hid when she was miserable, an incredibly inconvenient girls' bathroom.
She ran back out, screaming.
Eileen wasn't there when Myrtle's body was carried out of the bathroom, as she was in the Hospital Wing, heavily sedated. She missed the expulsion of Myrtle's killer, and Headmaster Dippet's statement that the school would remain open. It was weeks before the teachers stopped watching her closely for any signs of suicide.
They needn't have worried. Eileen never thought about killing herself for more than a few moments. She poured all the anger she felt into studying, getting on her own the high grades she and Myrtle had gotten together, and captaining the Gobstones team they had joined together. She left Hogwarts with enough N.E.W.T.s for both of them--and maybe they were for both of them, at that. She married the Muggle boy Myrtle had told her about, the boy she had watched over the summers. She had the son Myrtle had wanted; Eileen herself had planned for a child, but never looked forward to it, and certainly not a half-blood. Her parents were furious when Severus was born, when there was no longer a hope of ending her marriage in favour of a pure-blooded one. Eileen didn't care. She never had cared for marriage and babies, but Myrtle had, and Eileen loved her son like Myrtle would have loved hers.
No one knew them well enough to know this, of course.
Eileen visited Hogwarts a great deal after she left, during the summer when the school was all but empty. No one ever asked her what she did there, but it was a fact that the ghost in the girls' bathroom moved around a lot more during the summer.
It was after Eileen died that the ghost first earned the name of Moaning Myrtle.
----
This was inspired by the mention that the Advanced Potions book belonging to Eileen Prince looked "at least fifty years old". My mind immediately jumped to the other people who had been living at that time, and poof!
It is and remains my contention that, in the pre-Voldemort days, the lines between Muggle-born and pure-blood, and Slytherin and non-, were much less stringent than they had become by Harry's day. So there.
Crossposted to
genfic_hogwarts.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-17 05:50 am (UTC)