Moaning Myrtle's Bathroom

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 45737

Ellen Anglin writes;

>>As I have pointed out before, Moaning Myrtles bathroom certinaly hasn't 
been around since the 11th century, so who put the snake on the faucet? Heck- 
Who installed the trick sink?  Thre must have been an Heir about before Tom 
Riddle....or at least "Slytherins Plumber"<<

Actually, the *bathroom* probably has been around that long. The concept of 
the "waste pipes" to the lake would have come over with the Romans. And once 
a "channel" was in place it might have been doable to reproduce it magically 
without having to rebuild the entire supporting wall. 

I suspect that Myrtle's bathroom (and all the others at Hogwarts) has 
undergone considerable modification throughtout the centuries. First, 
channels would have been added for expanded need, then others would have been 
created for "water in" as well as "waste out" once someone came up with the 
idea. 

Which may have been quite early. (The earliest implimentation of a sink would 
have been a "dry" trough for washing with just a drainhole. The water for 
washing lives in a tank on the roof or an upper floor and is heated magically 
at need.) None of this is so far a concept for an 11th-century immigrant from 
the Mediteranean to have not encountered before. Or for some other member of 
the design and construction crew to have encountered. 

The actual fittings in the room would also have been updated at various 
points. (I get the distinct impression that the most recent may have been in 
the 19th century.) As well as the addition of actual pipes within the 
original dry stonework channels. The "dud" sink is not so different from the 
rest, actually. The water inflow line is false ("That tap never worked") and 
the drain goes to the passage under the lake rather than the lake itself. The 
amount of water expected to drain down a false sink (at some point someone 
would probably have emptied things down it) would not significantly damage 
the passage. If a false sink was in place by the time Slytherin left, 
difficult as it is to believe, it is at least *scantly* possible that the 
room fittings have been transfigured along with the rest and no one ever took 
the responsibility to figure out why that tap never worked.

I agree with whoever suggested that the snake scratched on the dud tap may 
have been done by Riddle, rather than left by Slytherin.

-JOdel