Dear Dennis,
Hahahaha! Now you finally understand! All that laughing is coming back to bite you!
I'm sure it isn't that bad, though! I can tell you that by the end of the year you'll want to listen to that welcome assembly just one more time. It isn't going to take you long before you realise that the Headteacher meant that the younger students are going to ask you for help… especially when they get lost, which is a lot more often than you would like to think. Seriously.
The Slytherins aren't nice! They're a bunch of bullies, honestly, but they don't let any of the Professors catch them when they do something wrong. The Professors are wary of them, but the 'innocent until proven guilty' thing still happens here!
I know! Apparently Harry defeating You-Know-Who the first time was only temporary. There hadn't been anything said by the Professors, but everyone knew that Harry had fought You-Know-Who! I'm guessing he's some kind of ghost, or something invisible, because no one knows how he looks, or even saw a hint of him. The Defence Professor from last year disappeared around the same time as well. It's all very suspicious, but no one knows actual facts. Except Harry, of course, but no one asks him…
The paintings don't move. The people in them do, and, no, they can't reach out of the painting. Or at least I haven't seen any of them do that. I do wonder how they make those portraits though. The more I watch them, the more curious I am about them. How are they made? What allow them to move? It's fascinating! I tried asking one of the prefects but he didn't know, just telling me to concentrate on my studies and that I would find out later. Hmph.
I think you'd need to see the staircases for yourself to see what I mean! It's kind of hard to explain. They're in the same place, but not at the same time! They're always stuck to the same platform but can take you to different places depending on when you're on them.
I do not feed him too much! Morpheus was probably just hungry from the long flight, that's all. I'll try and tell Morpheus to behave, but I don't know if he will listen… Owls are really intelligent, but I think Morpheus likes teasing you for some reason. I doubt he would really hurt you.
I just snorted out loud, and there are a couple people looking at me strangely. I doubt Snape could ever be nicer, even if you shoved a ton of sugar town his throat. The sugar would probably turn into salt on contact! I don't even know if that's a joke or not!
We're all in the Common Room right now. We had the Halloween feast earlier. The Professors charmed a whole lot of bats to swoop around the ceiling of the Great Hall as we ate. The carved pumpkin faces were so real! They had flickering lights in their eyes that made them look demented too! It's was so spooky! I would have sworn some of the armour in the corridors moved as well, but I never actually saw them moving! I would have hated to be alone in one of those corridors! I heard that there was a ghost celebrating his Death Day too! I don't know which ghost it was, but can you imagine that? Celebrating your Death Day like it were your birthday?
The real scary part happened after that, though. We were all going back to our Common Rooms, when we saw that one of the bathrooms had been flooded and there was a message written in blood (whose, I have no idea) on the wall: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir Beware." I thought it was just a joke at first, but the Professors looked worried. So, naturally, everyone started looking up what the 'Chamber of Secrets' was. It was in Hogwarts: A History (I'm really happy I remembered to bring my copy)! It's the secret chamber that Salazar Slytherin (the founder of Slytherin House) created without the knowledge of the other founders. It was never found, and said to be purely myth.
But it also says that there's a monster in the chamber. I'm hoping that it's a myth.
- Colin
