Myrtle Warren

Myrtle
Biographical information
Born	Late 1920s or early 1930s
Died	June 13, 1943
Blood status	Muggle-born
Also known as	Moaning Myrtle
Physical information
Species	Ghost (formerly human)
Gender	Female
Hair colour	Dark Brown
Skin colour	Pale and acne-ridden
Family information
Family members	Father Mother
Affiliation
House	Ravenclaw
Loyalty	Somewhat loyal to Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"D'you think I don't know what people call me behind my back? Fat Myrtle! Ugly Myrtle! Miserable, moaning, moping Myrtle!"

— Moaning Myrtle to Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Peeves

Moaning Myrtle is the ghost of a witch who haunts the second floor girl's bathroom (and occasionally other bathroom facilities) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was a student at the school in the 1930s and 1940s. She was sorted into Ravenclaw house. Myrtle was killed by Slytherin's Basilisk in 1943 on the orders of Tom Marvolo Riddle who had opened the Chamber of Secrets and would later become Lord Voldemort.

Biography

Myrtle before her death.

Education at Hogwarts

When Myrtle first went to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry she was sorted into Ravenclaw but failed to make any friends and was constantly teased and bullied by her fellow students.

Murder and the Chamber of Secrets

She was murdered by Tom Marvolo Riddle when the Chamber of Secrets was opened for the first time in 1943. While she was crying in one of the bathroom's stalls after Olive Hornby made fun of her glasses, Riddle entered the bathroom and started speaking in Parseltongue in order to open the Chamber, which entrance was hidden behind the bathroom sinks. The Monster of Slytherin (a Basilisk) then emerged from the Chamber of Secret's entrance.

Myrtle, still on one of the stalls, recognized the voice as being from a boy. Opening the stall's door, she yelled at Riddle to go away. On Riddle's command, the Basilisk stared at Myrtle, and her eyes met with the monster's. Looking at a Basilisk's eyes being a fatal act, Myrtle's body fell to the bathroom floor. Her death was the murder that Tom used to make his first Horcrux: the Diary.

Post-Mortem

Haunting Olive Hornby

Myrtle returned as a ghost to haunt Olive Hornby.

Myrtle chose to return as a ghost so she could haunt Olive Hornby in revenge for bullying her. Olive recruited the help of the Ministry of Magic to get rid of Myrtle, who was thereafter obliged to remain at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Myrtle chose to haunt the bathroom where she had died and was rarely seen outside of it.

Re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets

"Harry, if you die down there, you're welcome to share my toilet."

— Myrtle to Harry before he enters the Chamber of Secrets

The Chamber of Secrets was opened again multiple times during the 1992-1993 school year by Ginny Weasley, a first-year at the time, who was being possessed by Tom Riddle's diary. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger used Myrtle's bathroom in 1992 to brew Polyjuice Potion that was used to disguise Harry and Ron as Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle so that they could sneak into the Slytherin Dungeon to interrogate Draco Malfoy about the Chamber of Secrets.

In 1993, Myrtle helped Harry and Ron to find out about the monster inside the Chamber of Secrets. When Harry asked her about how she died, Myrtle was actually flattered, and acted as though she had never been asked this question before.

She also flooded the bathroom after "somebody" attempted to flush Tom Riddle's diary down her toilet to dispose of it.

Triwizard Tournament

"I'd try to put it in the water if I were you..."

— Moaning Myrtle about solving the Golden Egg's clue

Myrtle in the Prefect's bathrooom in 1995

In 1995 Myrtle helped Harry with his second task in the Triwizard Tournament, popping up in the Prefects' Bathroom (which she admits to doing occasionally in order to spy on prefects). Though Cedric Diggory had told Harry to take a bath while thinking about it, and provided him with the password to the prefect's bathroom; it was Myrtle who told Harry how to solve the clue, by opening it underwater. She also appeared before Harry in the Black Lake, and pointed him in the right direction of the captives of the Merpeople during the Triwizard Tournament.

Comforting Draco Malfoy

"…he's sensitive, people bully him, too, and he feels lonely and hasn't got anybody to talk to, and he's not afraid to show his feelings and cry!"

— Moaning Myrtle about Draco Malfoy

In 1997 Draco Malfoy confided in Moaning Myrtle about his assassination attempts of Albus Dumbledore. Myrtle comforts him, and feels that she understands him. However when Malfoy and Harry enage in an intense duel, Myrtle does cry out for them to stop, but it is clear to Harry that she enjoys the excitement. Previously, when Harry had asked Myrtle about who the boy she has been seeing is, she does not tell him but states that she has 'learned not to expect too much from boys', as Harry has never once visited her bathroom as she'd asked him to. The last time Myrtle is seen by Harry Potter is when she is ordered to leave the bathroom by Severus Snape.

Physical description

Myrtle in her bathroom.

Myrtle is a squat ghost with dark, lank hair, pimples, and thick glasses and looks oddly like Harry Potter. She hardly ever smiles and takes great offense at the smallest excuses, crying rivers of tears and wailing.

Etymology

• Myrtle' is a type of evergreen shrub that is often overlooked because of its plainness, native to southern Europe and north Africa.
• Myrtle is a variety of the colour green. It is immoderately dark, slightly more so than the colour spinach.

Behind the scenes

• The myrtle tree is a close relative of the willow tree. "Moaning Myrtle" is a similar phrase to "weeping willow." Her name is also possibly related to the "Moaning Minnie," the British name for a German WWII artillery shell that made a distinctive moaning whine before it hit.
• Moaning Myrtle was portrayed by Shirley Henderson in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Being 5' 0½" (1.54 m) and 37 years old when she first played Moaning Myrtle, she is the oldest actor to play a teenage Hogwarts student in the Harry Potter films.
• The myrtle ("Myrtus") is a flowering plant of southern Europe and north Africa. In Greek mythology, it was sacred to Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, and to Demeter, goddess of grain and fertility; Pausanias relates it to the tragedy of Adonis. Romans, through Virgin, relate the myrtle to Venus and used them in wedding rituals, something that Jewish liturgy, which deemed it sacred, also used. Myrtle has also uses in Wiccan rituals, and was considered medicinal by the ancients, including Hippocrates, Pliny, Galen and Arabian writers.
• Myrtle's surname is not known, as it has never been said in the canon.
• In one scene of Chamber of Secrets, Ron jokingly suggests that Tom Riddle earned his Special Award for Services to the School for killing Myrtle; this foreshadows the fact that Riddle did indeed kill her.
• Hermione says Moaning Myrtle haunts the bathroom on the first floor. However, when Harry sees the writing on the wall outside her bathroom, he is on the second floor. This may be attributed to the English/European manner of naming the Ground Floor as the one usually with the main entrance, and the First Floor as one floor up from the Ground Floor.
• Myrtle is shown to have a crush on Harry throughout the series. In the Goblet of Fire film, the bathroom scene shows her acting sexually towards Harry.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First appearance)(Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film) (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Appears as a ghost or a spirit)