I'll Always Be Here

I´LL ALWAYS BE HERE

It started off as a mistake. When he had run from that insane Mad-Eye Moody, he hadn´t intended on running into a girl´s bathroom. It was simply the first door he had come across and, unaware of what it was, he had dived in. It was only when he got round to looking at his surroundings properly that he had noticed he was in a bathroom at all. There was a cluster of sinks in front of him, and to his left there were some cubicles. It was a room he had never seen before. And he soon learnt why.

"Who´s there?" The female voice sounded a little tearful. His first instinct was to turn and run, but he found himself rooted to the spot. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a slight swishing movement and then, before he knew it, there was a ghostly figure in front of him. As far as he could tell, the girl had black hair in two bunches. She wore glasses and her robes were very different to his own. Instead of a House badge, there was a Hogwarts crest. There was nothing about her to indicate which House she belonged to - or at least, which House she had belonged to when she was alive. He was roused from his observations when she snarled "Who are you? And what are you doing here? This is a GIRL´S bathroom."

"I´m sorry. I...I got a bit lost." Draco hated admitting his weaknesses, but then the girl was dead. "I´m Draco Malfoy, by the way."

"Oh, so you´re Draco. I heard a lot about you in second year...of course a lot of it turned out to be false..."

"What are you talking about? And while I´m at it, who are you?"

The girl seemed to get quite upset by this. "Of course, I wouldn´t expect a great Slytherin like you to know who I am. What would Moaning Myrtle mean to you?"

Draco paused. He was about to question how she knew what House he was in, before he realised that it was quite clear from his robes. Instead he asked "So what did you hear in second year?"

"Well, as you know, the Chamber of Secrets was opened again. And Harry and his friends thought it was you to begin with."

Draco noticed that the ghost spoke Harry´s name with quite a bit of affection. He raised an eyebrow "They thought it was me? What on earth gave them that idea?" He knew full well why they had suspected him, but Myrtle didn´t need to know about that. He looked more closely at her. "So...how did you die?"

"The basilisk. Of course, I didn´t know it at the time."

"So you´re the Mudblood who died the first time the Chamber was opened." Draco had used the insult casually but it had clearly upset the ghost. "You shouldn´t use names like that!" she sobbed, before floating off and diving down her toilet. Draco followed her, not entirely certain why he was doing it, but there was something about this ghost. "I´m sorry. I didn´t mean to upset you."

"Of course you didn´t!" Myrtle´s voice dripped with sarcasm. "No-one ever means to upset Myrtle. If only Myrtle wasn´t so sensitive..."

"It would probably help." At Draco´s interruption, Myrtle resurfaced from the toilet and floated a little way in front of him. "Help? What help is it now that I´m dead?"

Draco shrugged. "It was just a thought. What House were you in anyway?"

"Ravenclaw. Why, got something to say about that too have you?"

Draco smiled. The ghost was arguing back - and he actually enjoyed it. "Not at all. Ravenclaw´s a perfectly respectable House if you don´t have what it takes to be in Slytherin."

Myrtle looked at him. "Are you sure you´re a Slytherin?"

"I´m a Malfoy. Of course I´m a Slytherin. Not to mention, I´m my head of House´s favourite." Draco couldn´t help but smile smugly at this.

"It´s just that...well, for a start, you used the word Mudblood...but you´re still talking to me." The girl sounded a little surprised at this. "Even Harry and his friends rarely come and visit me anymore, and they´re supposed to be honourable Gryffindors."

"Damn those Gryffindors." Draco was teasing, but there was a serious note to his voice. Myrtle picked up on this straight away. "Gryffindors always get the credit, don´t they? Even when I first came to school, everyone on the train was saying that it was the House to be in. Ravenclaw always came out second, of course, but Slytherin and Hufflepuff got a rough deal."

Draco nodded. "I´m sure it´s gotten even worse now. Everyone instantly equates the word Slytherin with the word evil. Which is fine if you´re like my father..."

"Ah, your father. Lucius Malfoy, yes? I vaguely remember that Ron boy mentioning his name." Myrtle looked at Draco, and he could have sworn he saw sympathy in her dead eyes. He backed away slowly. "Listen, um, it was nice to meet you Myrtle. Maybe I´ll come and see you again sometime."

He turned to walk out. The last words he heard from Myrtle were "I´ll always be here."

~DM~ ~MM~

Over the next couple of years, Draco built up quite a friendship with Hogwarts´ most elusive ghost. He found himself opening up to her in ways he could never have imagined him doing with anyone else. He found himself admitting his jealousies, his insecurities and everything else that could be perceived as a weakness to any mortal. He found her to be a good listener - no matter how distraught she sounded when he crept in she always stopped for him to talk. In time, he almost found himself wishing she was real. Of course, his father would have killed him if he knew his son was talking to the ghost of a Muggle-born, but Draco didn´t care. Once you got past the fact that she was highly sensitive, Myrtle turned out to be an intelligent and at times witty girl. Draco relished the opportunity to talk to someone as an equal - someone who would actually talk to him instead of just agreeing with him like the rest of the Slytherins did, or arguing with him like the Gryffindors did, or ignoring him like the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws did. So the bathroom was the obvious place to go when his world fell apart...

If he hadn´t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it. His father and Snape, the two people he admired most, had come to blows over what course of action Draco should take on leaving Hogwarts. Lucius had been adamant that his son would follow him into the Inner Circle of Death Eaters, and would some day work his way high up into the hierarchy. Snape, on the other hand, had wanted Lucius to leave the decision to Draco. He had said that Draco was the type to work for himself, and so would probably hate the idea of serving a single leader. The argument had got more and more heated, to the point where Draco had decided it was pointless to remind them that the subject of their discussion was in fact still in the room. He had stood up to leave when he heard two voices shout "Avada Kedavra!"

He had turned around in time to see his two mentors get hit by a green light shot out from the other. In two short seconds, Draco had found himself staring at the bodies of the two men he had looked up to the most. In two short seconds, he had lost the two people who had given his life meaning...

~DM~ ~MM~

Myrtle was sat in the window when she heard the door open. She looked up to see the blond-haired boy run in, tears streaming down his face. Swooping down so that she could face him, she whispered "What´s wrong?"

Draco didn´t respond, instead opting to run to the nearest corner before collapsing to the ground. His sobs filled the room for about fifteen minutes, and all the while Myrtle hovered next to him, patiently waiting until he was ready to talk.

Finally, he looked up. "My father and Snape...both gone...killed each other," he whispered between sobs. Myrtle gasped. "Oh you poor thing. Where did this happen?"

"Snape´s office." Draco sniffed, trying to fight back his grief. Myrtle knelt next to him as best she could and wrapped her ghostly arms around him. He felt a peculiar cold sensation as Myrtle´s touch went through him. All the same, though, it was strangely comforting. Draco had never been a tactile person - he had always been brought up otherwise - but he found himself relaxing in the ghost´s embrace. Almost without thinking he laid his head on her shoulder, and had to pull back when he sank into her. Myrtle looked at him. "I don´t mind, you know. Do whatever feels right."

Draco returned his head to Myrtle´s shoulder, enjoying the coldness she brought him. His tears flowed freely again, and for the next ten minutes the pair stayed as they were. Myrtle seemed quite glad to be the one comforting someone else for a change, and Draco was glad that he had made that `mistake´ in fourth year. The pair only moved when they heard a door rattle. Draco hastily stood up and Myrtle rose up with him. "Hide in one of the cubicles. I´ll get rid of them."

Draco nodded and darted into one of the cubicles. He could hear Myrtle talking to someone - Granger, as it turned out.

"Hello Myrtle. I was wondering if I could ask you something-"

"I´m busy! Do you think I spend my unlife sitting around waiting for a know-it-all genius to come and hassle me?"

Draco couldn´t help but be impressed - the ghost had obviously toughened up over the last few years. Granger seemed to be having the same thoughts.

"I´m sorry Myrtle. It´s just that, well, I was after some more information on how ghosts come to exist, and I was wondering if I could use you as a case study."

"A case study? Me?" Myrtle sounded quite flattered, and for a moment Draco feared he would be stuck listening to her and Granger talking for hours. He should have known better.

"You´ll have to come back tomorrow. I´ll be able to speak to you then."

"Okay, thanks Myrtle. Um, if you don´t mind me asking, why can´t you talk to me today?"

"Mind your own business!" Even Draco flinched at the volume of Myrtle´s outburst. He didn´t want to think about the affect it had on the Gryffindor. He heard the girl saying "Okay Myrtle. I understand. I´ll see you tomorrow."

As soon as the coast was clear, Myrtle poked her head through the cubicle. "It´s safe now."

"Thanks Myrtle." Draco walked out of the cubicle and over to the sinks. He gazed into the mirror, seemingly lost in his reflection. He felt the now-familiar cold sensation as Myrtle wrapped her arms around him and they sunk past his skin. In her usual tearful voice she asked "What are you thinking?"

"I´m the embodiment of my father. Everyone will remember him when they see me. Everyone will look at me and remember the cold, heartless man who killed and tortured so many people."

"As you´ve told me many times, your family is one of the last remaining pure bloodlines. And pure bloodlines tend to lead to striking resemblances between parent and child. You´ll just have to work hard to prove to people that you´re not like your father."

"Maybe I am, though. I mean, all of my ideals were based on pleasing him. Everything I did, everything I said, was because I thought it would make Father proud."

"Really? And what about Snape? I´ve heard you say many times that he had great faith in you. You must have done something to earn that."

Draco smiled weakly. "Is this the same ghost that practically bit my head off before she even knew who I was?"

Myrtle nodded. "Of course I am. It´s just that...well, over the years I´ve got to know you. And I´ve realised that you´re not all that bad."

"What makes you say that?" Draco looked the ghost´s reflection in the eye. He gasped as he felt her cold touch spread through his chest to the area around his heart. "This," she whispered. "It´s the thing that makes you care so much what people think of you. It´s the thing that makes you different to your father. As far as he was concerned, everyone else existed for his use. You, on the other hand, allow yourself to get attached to people."

Draco turned his head around to look at her. "How do you know so much about my father?"

"You told me. On top of which, I´ve been dead for fifty-five years. I´ve heard people talk about him - girls would come in here to gossip. Before I scared them away, of course. I scare everyone away."

Now it was Draco´s turn to take on the role of comforter. "You haven´t scared me away. And you clearly haven´t scared Granger off, either."

Myrtle let out a shy smile. "I...I guess that´s true."

Draco smiled. "So do you think you could stop freezing my heart? Comforting as it is, of course, I don´t think it´s doing me much good."

Myrtle was about to pull away, insulted, but she stopped herself. She had known Draco for three years now, and she knew that he hadn´t meant to upset her. She pulled her arms back a bit, so that they rested just above his waist. "Better?"

"Much." Draco leant back a little, allowing himself to sink into Myrtle´s body. He was getting used to the cold sensation now and was actually beginning to enjoy it. They were interrupted by Professor McGonagall´s voice announcing "Could all students please report to their Houses immediately. All Slytherins are to proceed to the Great Hall."

Draco sighed. "Guess this is it then. How much trouble do you think I can get into for not going straight to a teacher?"

"You´ll be fine, Draco. Dumbledore will understand." Myrtle gently kissed Draco´s cheek.

A cool calm fell over the boy as her lips sank past the skin. "Thank you Myrtle."

He moved away, trying to compose himself. As he moved for the door, he heard Myrtle say something very similar to the first time they´d met.

"No matter what happens, I´ll always be here."