Moaning Myrtle---Muggleborn?

[Luckdragon]

No: HPFGUIDX 157162

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Eric Oppen" <technomad at ...> 
wrote:
>
> How do we know for sure that Moaning Myrtle was/is (I'm not sure 
about the 
> verb tense here) Muggleborn?
> 
> I know what Draco Malfoy says---but I don't consider Draco Malfoy 
to be a 
> bubbling fountain of truth and information.  He's repeating what 
his Daddy 
> says, and, as near as I can figure out, Moaning Myrtle died 
decades before 
> Lucius Malfoy entered Hogwarts.
> 
> In that length of time, it would be perfectly possible for student 
rumor to 
> get things badly wrong.
> 
> What do we really know about M.M., anyway?
> 
> We know that she was killed by a basilisk, sometime in the 1940s, 
and she's 
> very sad.  Other than that, almost nothing (except that she rather 
fancies 
> Harry Potter.)
> 
> We don't even know her last name, or whether Riddle killed her on 
purpose or 
> by accident.  I have a friend who says that she may have died of 
her own 
> stupidity---in a school of magick, when you hear someone speaking 
in a 
> strange language and something large moving about, you do _not_ 
barge in and 
> interrupt, since the person you are interrupting may be in the 
process of 
> summoning something large and nasty, and if he doesn't manage to 
get the 
> leash on it, it'll get loose and do Horrible Things.  IOW, Riddle 
may not 
> have even known she was in the stall, and when she burst out of it 
to tell 
> him to go use his own bathroom, she startled the basilisk and it 
zapped her. 
> (This would make her death manslaughter of some sort, not murder.  
Come to 
> it---can a manslaughter be used to create a Horcrux?  Inquiring 
minds want 
> to know!)
> 
> For all that we know, she could be as pureblooded as the Malfoys 
themselves, 
> but from a minor or obscure family.  We know that Riddle doesn't 
give a hoot 
> about pureblood issues---he uses them to lure his followers in, 
and he wants 
> the purebloods because a lot of them are Old Money and have very 
useful 
> social and business connections.  Not unlike Slughorn and his Slug 
Club, as 
> a matter of fact.
> 
> While Myrtle may well be Muggleborn (her first name is Muggle, 
instead of 
> something "magicky" like a lot of pureblood families like) she 
could be of 
> any ancestry---and I am not committing to anything until I get 
conformation 
> from a reliable source, like Hermione quoting from _Hogwarts, a 
History_  or 
> Dumbledore (possibly in a Penseive scene.)
>
Luckdragon:
I would love to find out she is related to Harry in some way. I find 
myself feeling sorry for Myrtle despite her seeming enjoyment of her 
own misery. I wish she had played a bigger part in previous books in 
helping Harry learn more about the secrets of the castle and what 
Draco was up to. A ghostly informant to help out the trio. Myrtle 
does seem to parallel Hermione in some ways in that she is used to 
impart information we otherwise would not have known.