Moaning Myrtle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harry Potter character | |
 Shirley Henderson as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. |
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| Moaning Myrtle | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Female |
| Hair colour | Lank (book), Dark (film & book) |
| Parentage | Muggle-born |
| Allegiance | None |
| Actor | Shirley Henderson |
| First appearance | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
Moaning Myrtle (died c. June 13, 1943) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of books by J. K. Rowling. She is a ghost who haunts the second floor girls' lavatory at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. True to her nickname, Myrtle has a tendency to sob, whine, wail and complain.
Shirley Henderson played Moaning Myrtle in the movie adaptions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Myrtle (surname unknown) is the ghost of a Muggle-born witch who died while a student at Hogwarts, fifty years prior to the events in the books. It is indicated that Myrtle was often bullied during her years at Hogwarts, leading her to become extremely depressed and often retreat to the second floor girls' lavatory to weep. Coincidentally, the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was hidden in this bathroom. On one occasion as Myrtle was hiding there to elude Olive Hornby, a classmate of hers who perpetually tormented her with teasing, the Chamber was opened, Tom Riddle's basilisk emerged, and Myrtle was slain.
After death, Myrtle haunted Olive everywhere she went, harassing her in revenge for the teasing Myrtle had endured from her in life ("why, I remember once at her brother's wedding..."). Olive complained to the Ministry of Magic, who ordered Myrtle to return to Hogwarts. Ever since then, Myrtle has haunted the same lavatory where she died.
Unlike the other Hogwarts ghosts, Myrtle is not very sociable, and is sensitive about the fact that she is dead (and just about everything else, as well). She is perpetually depressed, morbid (she says that she spends a great deal of her time "thinking about death"), and takes offense at any imagined insult. Her constant moping and wailing causes plumbing problems in the lavatory which she haunts. Myrtle has a peculiar affinity for dwelling in the U-bend of certain pipes. Sometimes she is accidentally flushed out into the Black Lake along with the contents of the toilet she was in.
Moaning Myrtle's important role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is to help Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger find out about the monster inside the Chamber of Secrets.
Myrtle also helps Harry with his second task in the Triwizard Tournament, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is Myrtle who tells Harry how to solve the puzzle of the golden egg that he retrieved in the first task, by opening the egg underwater.
Myrtle apparently has a slight crush on Harry, whom she invites to share her toilet in the event that he is killed while on a mission.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, she appears as a comforter to Draco Malfoy who is worried about the task given to him by Lord Voldemort.
