Olive Hornby

""Nobody missed me even when I was alive. Took them hours to find my body- I know, I was sitting there waiting for them. Olive Hornby came into the bathroom- 'Are you in here again, sulking Myrtle?, she said, 'because Professor Dippet asked me to look for you-' And then she saw my body...ooooh, she didn't forget that until her dying day, I'm sure of that..."

- Moaning Myrtle to Harry Potter

Olive Hornby was a witch who used to tease Moaning Myrtle about her glasses when they were school girls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Early life
Olive was born between the mid-1920s and early-1930s, around the time Myrtle was born. She also had a brother.

Hogwarts School
When she was eleven years-old, Olive received a letter, accepting her into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It's unknown if she was older than or was the same age as Myrtle, so their Sorting might have been at the same time or in different years.



Myrtle
"Are you in here again, sulking Myrtle? Because Professor Dippet asked me to look for you-"

- Olive finding Myrtle's body.

Myrtle was Sorted into Ravenclaw in 1941. She was constantly teased and bullied by her fellow students. On one such occasion, Olive made fun of her glasses, which was the reason Myrtle was in the bathroom that concealed the Chamber of Secrets the night of her murder. After realizing that no one had seen Myrtle for a couple of hours, and knowing that Olive Hornby made fun of Myrtle, Professor Armando Dippet, then-Headmaster of Hogwarts, asked her to go and look for Myrtle. When Olive got to the bathroom, the first thing she saw was Myrtle's dead body lying on the floor. This left Olive in a state of shock, according to Myrtle's ghost, who watched the scene with delight.

Haunted by Moaning Myrtle
Moaning Myrtle, as Myrtle's ghost was now known, haunted Olive Hornby for a long period of time, even after she left Hogwarts. After Moaning Myrtle interrupted her brother's wedding, Olive went to the Ministry of Magic to get rid of the ghost. Moaning Myrtle was then sent back to Hogwarts Castle, where she haunted the bathroom in which she died.

Death
Olive Hornby was already dead before the events surrounding the 1994-1995 Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts.

Etymology

 * The olive branch to the ancient Greeks, was sacred to Athena and was a sign of peace.
 * Her last name, "Hornby" is an Old Norse personal name composed of the elements horn ‘horn' + boði ‘messenger'. This could possibly point to the fact that Olive was most likely the first to send the message about Myrtle's death. Horns were also a symbol of power in many cultures, which could mean that Olive had power and authority over Myrtle.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Notes and references
Olive Hornby