
Myrtle's Bathroom
"It's been out of order all year because she keeps having
tantrums and flooding the place."
--
Hermione
(CS8)
Upon his first visit to Myrtle's bathroom during his second year,
Harry's opinion was that this was the
gloomiest, most depressing bathroom he had ever entered. The bathroom's
wooden cubicles are worn and ill-maintained, and even the stone sinks are
chipped. Like many of Hogwarts' rooms - including the opulent
prefects' bathroom -
the room is candle-lit, but the candles are in holders rather
than a chandelier and there are not enough of them to light the room
properly.
The sinks, which form a row under a large cracked and spotted mirror,
have copper taps, one of which has a tiny snake scratched on the side.
Apparently that particular tap is a complete dud when considered as part
of the plumbing; it serves another function. In fact, if given the proper
password,
that particular tap will glow and spin briefly before the entire sink drops
down out of sight to expose the large pipe leading to the
Chamber of Secrets
(CS9,
(CS16).
Which floor? Differences between the U.K.
and U.S. editions
Harry confirmed that Myrtle's bathroom is
"three floors below" the
prefects' bathroom
(which is on the fifth floor),
so this room is definitely on the
second floor
(GF25).
So why is this a question?
In both the U.K. and U.S. editions of
CS8,
Hermione said at the
Deathday Party that
Myrtle haunts a bathroom on the
"first floor". This
in itself gives rise to confusion because what in the U.S.
is referred to as 'the first floor' is in the U.K. called the 'ground
floor,' while the U.S. 'second floor' is in the U.K. 'first floor.'
(See the St. Mungo's
floor guide in OP for
an example.)
However, when Harry,
Ron, and
Hermione run upstairs
following the voice, they run up to the
second floor
(and CS8 clearly states
that they are on the
second floor) to where they see
the cat hanging outside the bathroom.
In the U.S. hardcover
CS8, start with the
Deathday Party, which was held in a dungeon.
Harry sprinted up the marble staircase
to the first floor, Ron and
Hermione clattering behind
him.
(So this 'first floor' is the ground floor.)
...ignoring Ron and
Hermione's bewildered
faces, he ran up the next flight of steps... hurtled around the whole
of the second floor...
So it looks as though
Hermione's remark
in CS8 is
an error in the text. It isn't consistent with the other references to
the bathroom's location, or with either U.K. usage
(which would be 'second floor') or
U.S. usage (which would be 'third floor').
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