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Hero Files is a kids podcast where sisters Curie & Yeva explore fictional characters and ask one big question: what really makes a hero?
Through stories, discussion, and imagination, each episode turns reading into thoughtful conversation.
The Tragic Tale of Moaning Myrtle
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[00:00:00] We're like very improv'ing right here. Daddy, go away and then I'll start. Bro. Already started. Already started. Okay. Okay. Um, hi everyone. Oh, wait, no, I didn't zoom. Okay. Say hello. I'm Curie and this is my sister Yeva. Right. Okay. Hello everyone. I am Curie and this is my sister Yeva. That was late Anyways, so, um, this is a podcast about podcast or a video?
I, I think it's both, actually. And so basically, um, I read a bunch of fantasy books and I, I'm, I, I'm addicted to books. I love books. I've read powerless. Why do you love books so much? Because they're really good powerless. Harry Potter, hunger Games, Pery Jackson, um, shatter me, uh, let me think. Uh, divergent as became series.
Yeah. That's part of per, that's kind of part [00:01:00] of like Rick Ryan. It. Okay. So basically. Um, I really love books and so my dad encouraged me to start a podcast about this 'cause he knows I really love books and blah. So this podcast is j just basically, I, I read a book and then I pick out some characters that I think are interesting from it, and then I talk about them.
I talk about their story. Okay, so basically this one's about moaning Myrtle. Okay. Okay. No, we're, we're not doing one right now. Just an intro. So the first episode will be about moaning Myrtle. She's a character from Harry Potter. If you've ever read it, if you haven't, then you'll find out. And so basically, yeah, a little about us more, I guess.
I'm Curie and I'm 11 years old, and this is my sister Yeva, and she's nine years old. And I really like books. I already told you that. And Yeva, stop repeating things. Yeva. Yeva [00:02:00] likes music. Music. All right. Uh, thank you and I hope you watch our first episode. Hello everyone. I am I, I I am your hostess, Kiri, and this is my little sister Eva. Of all of Hogwarts ghosts, the one who complains the most is certainly moaning Myrtle. She spends most of her time crying in bathroom stalls loudly, announcing her feelings and making sure absolutely everyone knows that she's deeply unhappy.
She sobs, she rails. She lifted dramatically outta toilets at the worst possible moments she sounds. So annoying. No, she's not. She's just sad. Okay. No, I mean like she is annoying. Okay? And yes, she is annoying. But while moaning Myrtle may not be the bravest, happiest, or most emotionally stable ghost at hogs, her story's actually one of the most saddest and strangest in the school's entire history.
So today we're rewinding the story. Back before the moaning, before the bathroom, and before the [00:03:00] haunting. This is the life of Myrtle Elizabeth Warren. Fun fact, before we began in the Harry Potter movies, Myrtle looks noticeably older than all the other students. That's because Xi Shirley Henderson was 37 years old when she played a 14-year-old ghost movie.
Magic. Anyways. Myrtle Elizabeth Warren was born tempted between ninety twenty eight and 1929. She grew up as a muggle born witch, which already made her an outsider in the wizarding world, especially during the time she attended Hogwarts. When Myrtle arrived at Hogwarts, she was sort of into Raven Claw, the house of intelligence, curiosity, and learning.
I'm also in Raven Claw, so what am I, Slitherin? Why? Because Slytherin are smart too, but in, uh, in an evil way. Alright, moving on. But I don't wanna be evil. Then you have to take the test. Okay. I wanna be in a [00:04:00] Raven Club too. All right then. And for Myrtle, that probably felt like a win. She liked the goal.
She liked roles, she wanted to do well. Well, everybody wants to do well, but unfortunately, Hogwarts did not like her back. Myrtle attended Hogwarts during the same years as a charming, intelligent student named Tom Riddle. And while Tom was quietly becoming one of the most. Dangerous wizards in history.
Myrtle was becoming something else entirely. A target Myrtle was bullied constantly. She was bullied for her glasses, her voice. She was bullied for being shy, emotional, and different. She was bullied for being muggle born. Other students found her annoying and they made sure she knew it every day over and over again.
Her worst. It's so sad. It is. She'd be bullied every single day. That's 'cause it is. What if I bullied you every single day? You already do. Okay. Mm-hmm. Um, her worst bully was a girl named Olive Hornby, who seemed especially committed to making [00:05:00] Myrtle's life miserable. Olive mocked her appearance, teased her relentlessly, and never missed a chance to humiliate her, especially about her glass olive.
Wait. It's olive. Olive, that's her name. Olive. Okay. Don't call. Yes. Don't call mine on other people's name. Alright, Keith is really mean. Yeah. She is. Ghosts, as it turns out, are very good at holding grudges. One day after Olive bullied her yet again, Myrtle finally broke. She did what many overwhelmed Hoggard students might do.
She ran, she ran into the girl's bathroom, locked herself inside a saw, sat down and cried. This wasn't dramatic crying. This was quiet, exhausted. I'm done crying. The kind where you're just tired of existing exactly the way you are. Unfortunately for Myrtle, this was not just a bad day. It was the worst day, the last day of her life, while Myle was crying in the bathroom, she heard someone enter, she heard footsteps.
Then she heard a [00:06:00] voice speaking in a strange, unfamiliar language she had never heard before. Partial tongue. Okay. Yeah, that's Parsel tongue. Parsel tongue is like snake language to communicate with snakes. Slowly, uncomfortably. She realized something was wrong because the voice was male and there was a bully in the girl's bathroom already upset, embarrassed, and angry.
Myrtle stood up. She was going to tell him to leave to use his own bathroom, follow the rules for once she opened the stall door, and that's when she saw it. Two enormous yellow eyes. She didn't understand what she was looking at. She didn't have time to scream. Bas bas, yeah, bas, it's a, it's a really big type of snake, so that's why the guy who was speaking partial tongue could communicate or she didn't even have time to be afraid.
Myrtle Elizabeth Warren. Died instantly. That's hard. What [00:07:00] Myrtle didn't know and would only learn later was that she had come face to face with the Bachelor, like we just said, released by Tom Riddle. While the chamber of secrets was open, Myrtle became the first victim, and I think the, yeah, the first victim of Baltimore's rise power naturally.
Myrtle was not thrilled about this. Instead of moving on peacefully, Myrtle returned as a ghost, angry and determined to haunt. Uh, determined to make sure the world never forgot what had happened to her. I thought Angie haunted Olive. Okay, so basically she haunted Olive Hornby for bullying her until Olive contact the Ministry of Magic, and she got placed back into Hogwarts.
So after that she haunted the girl's bathroom where she died. She cried loudly. She complained constantly and made everyone feel de deeply uncomfortable, which is why no one goes to the the, that laboratory. Then what bathroom does the girls go to? Go to? The other one. Alright. And for a while. Oh, [00:08:00] okay. So Myle stayed there for decades, at least five decades.
She watched students come and go 50 years. Yeah. She watched people grow up and she watched people live the life that she never got, which is why the story's very, very sad. And 50 years after her death during Harry Potter, the chosen one. Second year, Myrtle's story finally mattered again. When students began getting petrified.
In the chamber of Secrets, reopened Harry came to Myrtle's bathroom, and for the first time in decades, someone actually listened to her. Myrtle told Harry exactly how she died. She remembered the voice, the strange language, the eyes. And with that information, Harry realized that the monster was a bas.
Well, I, I guess he already knew that and figured, yeah, because Iani told him No. Armani's petrified us. Of course she did talk. No, they're more like Harmani. Left him a note. Yeah. Left him a note and figured out where the chamber seas was located. In the process, [00:09:00] Myrtle developed a very obvious crush on him, and honestly, it makes sense.
Imagine spending 50 years being teased, ignored and avoided, and then someone shows up, talks to you, kindly, asks questions, and actually cared. Harry was the first person who treated Myrtle like she mattered. Of course, she fell for him. She followed him around. She flirted awkwardly and But then how old?
Like, I don't think Harry would like, Harry doesn't like Myrtle. I only said Myrtle likes Harry. I said, Harry, I don't think Harry would like her. And she announced her feeling loudly and without shame. Sovety was never Myrtle Strength and Harry's fourth year Myrtle helped again during the Tri Wizard tournament.
Harry was struggling to understand the horrible screeching noise coming from his golden egg myrtle who had been spying ons dickory because of course she was gave Harry the. Key advice, open the egg underwater in the prefixed bathroom. They [00:10:00] also technically bathed together. If you count a ghost floating row while someone panics in a pool in a Harry sixth year, Myrtle played a quieter but extremely important rule.
Well, this actually only happens in the book, but like if you watch the movie, this won't have happened. So. Uh, well, Draco Malfoy, stressed and terrified about the mission Baltimore had given him, began visiting Myrtle's bathroom to cry and talk. Myrtle listened. She sympathized, she bonded with him. When Harry followed Draco and Adu broke out, Myrtle was there.
And when Harry accidentally used the, or not accidentally, uh, use the s Secum ra Curse andreo. It's a s secum ra curse. It's a curse. What does it do to you? It. Cut that part out. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Okay. And when Harry accidentally used such Simcha curse on Draco, Myrtle screamed murder at the top of her [00:11:00] lungs.
Alerting Professor Snape who arrived just in time to save Draco's life without Myrtle Draco Malfoy might have. So yes, she complains a lot, but Moaning Myrtle is also a victim of bullying, a casualty of Baltimore's first rise, a lonely ghost who remembers what it's like to be ignored. She never got to grow up.
She never loved school, and she never really moved on. But she did matter and sometimes she even helped save the day. Yay. So the next time you hear crying, echoing from a Hogwarts bathroom, remember that behind the moaning is a story of loss unfairness in a girl who just wanted to be seen. But I don't even think Hogwarts is true.
Well, I mean maybe it could be heartbreaking story. Alright, cut. Cut.