Hogwarts crest with quote on upper back

The rain has not stopped since Tuesday, and the lamps in the long corridor were lit before tea again today. Matron says the boiler on the east side has been sulking since the autumn gales, so we all wash in cold water and pretend we like it. I have been put on the list for the bell tower, which means I climb forty-one steps every morning to ring for prayers, and nobody ever asks whether I want to.

Your parcel came on Thursday. The jam was squashed flat but the socks were fine, and the ginger biscuits lasted until Friday, which Tomasz says is a record. I did not tell anyone that the letter inside made me cross for a whole afternoon, because you wrote that the house is quiet now and the kettle sounds lonely. I wanted to write back that I am not lonely at all, which is a lie I am getting quite good at.

There is a crest above the great doors, four shields painted in red, green, gold and blue around a single letter, with laurel curling round the edge. On my first night I thought it was just decoration. Last week Mr Ashdown told us that the words beneath it are older than the stone, and that the school has never once let a child walk back out into the dark without a lamp left burning. I laughed at him. This morning I came down the stairs and saw the lamp in the porter's window, still lit at six, and I stood there longer than I should have.

Write me about the hens, and tell Dad the gate is not to be painted until I am home.

Your loving son, Edwin