13 Days of All Hallows’ Eve: “Don’t Go in the Girls’ Bathroom”

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“Who wants to go first?” asked Lavinia, her face glowing by the light of the fire and her voice echoing off the bathroom walls.

“Shhh!” cried Laura. “Keep your voice down, or we’ll get caught!”

“For sitting in the girls’ bathroom?”

“Laura is right. We shouldn’t be here after hours. We should be in our dormitory asleep. Whisper,” warned Violet.

“All right, all right. So who wants to tell a scary story?”

“I have one,” said Paige, raising her hand. Usually timid, Paige seemed unusually confident as she began to tell her story. “My story has to do with this very bathroom. It has to do with every girls’ bathroom on the school grounds and even the ones at Hogsmeade!

“No one quite knows when it all began. Some say it started 75 years ago when a young girl came into this very bathroom. She was crying because her peers were teasing her. Her cries masked the hissing that came from the sinks where a gigantic snake resided! It slithered menacingly toward her stall and reeked of death.

“Suddenly, she heard the hisses and grew quiet. Convinced it was another student there to make fun of her, she angrily opened the stall door and shouted ‘GO AWAY’ when she dropped dead!”

The girls sat in silence, completely oblivious to how loud Paige’s voice was growing.

“Some say it was on that night that a curse was placed on the girls’ bathrooms. It is said that whoever enters a girls bathroom alone should beware.” She drew the last word out for effect and was not disappointed as her peers looked on in terror. Laura hugged her legs to her chest.

“Little incidents occurred thereafter. The staff thought nothing of them because after all, this is Hogwarts.

“But then, on this very night, a young first year would soon pay the price. Just like the first girl, this girl was crying because her peers had teased her. It is a shame she was missing out on the Halloween feast going on in the Great Hall.

“She was crying for a long time until she heard the door to the girls’ bathroom slowly creak open. She wiped her tears and tried to slip out unnoticed when a rotten smell hit her nose and a loud grunt filled her ears! Standing before her was a fully grown mountain troll!

“If it weren’t for her two friends who came to save her, she too would have died in the girls’ bathroom!

“Then there is the story of the little red-haired girl who entered this very bathroom one day and was taken down to the very bottom depths of the school and was possessed! Her soul was almost sucked out of her body, but someone luckily arrived just in time to rescue her.”

“Is it over?” Laura whimpered.

“Shhh! You’re spoiling it! There’s more, right?” Violet asked.

“There is one final tale,” Paige replied slyly. “This time, it takes place not at Hogwarts but at the village of Hogsmeade at the Hog’s Head! It was a blustery winter day. The snow was falling so thick that you could hardly see your hand extended in front of your face!

“Two friends entered the Hog’s Head to escape the storm when one of them innocently excused herself to use the girls’ bathroom. It is easy to wonder why her friend didn’t accompany her to the bathroom since this curse was widely talked about among the students. I’m sure neither of them expected the curse to trickle through to the village.

“No one knows exactly what happened while the girl was in the girls’ bathroom, but when she returned to her friend, she was holding a mysterious package. She insisted she must take it to the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore!

“Her friend noticed her glassy eyes and vacant expression and tried to stop her, but nothing seemed to work. They were once again out in the cold and heading back to Hogwarts. The friend pleaded to know what was in the package and why the girl was acting so funny. There was no response. Only a determined and far- off look was on her face.

“Then a flap of the package folded over from the wind to reveal a beautiful necklace made of silver and opals! The girl lightly brushed it with her gloved finger and suddenly dropped to the ground. Her friend screamed as the girl twitched. Then, as if possessed, the girl rose high into the air, and she too let out a scream, except hers was spine tingling and her arms were outstretched as if she were a cross!

“Then she fell to the ground and lay as if dead!”

“Was she dead?” Lavinia cried. She wasn’t scared. She didn’t scare easily. Rather she was intrigued. Her voice bounced off of the walls once again.

“She clung to life by a tiny thread,” Paige whispered.

“That’s not scary,” Violet said. “She was clearly under the Imperius Curse! And she didn’t die, did she? Neither did the other girls.”

“I invite you to enter a girls’ bathroom alone, then,” Paige smiled. “See what happens.”

No one spoke, and the sound of slippers pattering down the corridor toward the bathroom door symbolized their night adventure was being cut short.