#qah

OHHHH YEESSSSSS I LOVE THIS!!!

So I brought this up in a tinychat the other day, but I thought it was well-worth exploring here.

In Chapter 21, The Unknowable Room, of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Ron are in the boy's bathroom after quidditch practice when Myrtle unexpectedly pays them a visit.

"...Myrtle, this is the boys' bathroom!" The ghost of a girl had risen out of the toilet in a cubicle behind them and was now floating in midair, staring at them through thick, white, round glasses. "Oh," she said glumly. "It's you two." "Who were you expecting?" said Ron, looking at her in the mirror. "Nobody," said Myrtle, picking moodily at a spot on her chin. "He said he'd come back and see me, but then you said you'd pop in and visit me too..." she gave Harry a reproachful look "... and I haven't seen you for months and months. I've learned not to expect too much from boys." "I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry, who had been careful to give the place a wide berth for some years now. "I do," she said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?" "Vividly," said Harry. "But I thought he liked me," she said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it." And she looked hopefully toward the door. "When you say you had lots in common," said Ron, sounding rather amused now, "d'you mean he lives in an S-bend too?" "No," said Myrtle defiantly, her voice echoing loudly around the old tiled bathroom. "I mean 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!" "There's been a boy in here crying?" said Harry curiously. "A young boy?" "Never you mind!" said Myrtle, her small, leaky eyes fixed on Ron, who was now definitely grinning. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone, and I'll take his secret to the --" "-- not the grave, surely?" said Ron with a snort. "The sewers, maybe."

Alright, so now we know that someone (and if you've read the books you'll immediately know who) has been tearfully confiding in Moaning Myrtle. Perhaps some of you even know where I'm going with this now.

Later, in Chapter 24, Sectumsempra, we learn that the "sensitive", "lonely" boy that Myrtle was so anxious to see again back in Chapter 21 is, in fact, Draco Malfoy. 

For a moment he could not find Malfoy anywhere and assumed he must indeed be inside the Room of Requirement again, but then he saw Malfoy's tiny, labeled dot standing in a boys' bathroom on the floor below, accompanied, not by Crabbe or Goyle, but by Moaning Myrtle.

Harry sees the two of them together on the Marauder's Map, and being the inquisitive, boisterous young Gryffindor that he is, he immediately goes to investigate. They end up dueling and Harry finds out what the curse sectumsempra does, but that's not the point.

My point, if you have stayed with me up until now, is that Draco Malfoy was hanging around with Moaning Myrtle. You know, the muggleborn killed by the Basilisk back when Voldemort was at- oh yeah, you caught that too, huh? The muggleborn.

We know she's a muggleborn. Draco surely knows she's a muggleborn. And yet. And yet he confides in her. He trusts her with his secrets. Why? That's a long way from "You'll be next, Mudbloods!" and "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little Mudblood!"

Draco had a whole bunch of people he could have talked to about his troubles in the Room of Requirement. He had a ton of Slytherin friends he could have confided in. Hell, Snape practically begged him to let him in on the big secret. But he chose Myrtle.

Again, why? I believe that Draco did not trust his Slytherin friends enough to show them any hint of weakness, nor did he trust Snape, who he outright accused of trying to steal the glory for himself in Chapter 15, The Unbreakable Vow. So he turned to the only person who was willing to listen sympathetically, who was far-enough removed from the situation that there no danger in honesty, who understood what it was like to feel bullied and alone. He chose Myrtle. And because he chose Myrtle, he defied the very belief system that got him into the whole mess in the first place.

Could it be that Draco Malfoy's friendship with Myrtle is a clue to his changing attitude toward muggleborns? Or is he simply desperate enough for a confidant that he is willing to turn to the ghost of a muggleborn (and a Ravenclaw, no less) for comfort?