Slytherin crest on the lower back

The damp has finally got into the front room of the boarding house, so I am writing this at the kitchen table with the kettle ticking beside me. Mrs Pargeter says the grey snake on the wall has been there since her husband painted the crest over the mantel in 1961, though nobody in Saltcote remembers why a seaside lodging house wanted a green shield with a banner across it. The paint has flaked to the colour of old pennies, and the snake still looks as if it might uncoil and slide off the plaster toward the door.

Yesterday the lodger from number four asked me to fetch the tin of gold leaf from the shed so he could touch up the lettering. I found the tin, and a letter folded inside it addressed to nobody, in a hand I did not know. It said only that the tide had taken the boat and the crest should stay green until somebody came back for it. I did not tell Mrs Pargeter. I put the tin on the sill by the window, where the sea shows through the gap.

I went down to the harbour after tea. The water was the same green as the shield, and for a moment I thought I saw a grey ripple running along the wall the way a snake moves, unhurried and certain. Then a gull landed on the rail and it was gone.

Write soon and tell me whether the old crest in your kitchen still has its snake. I shall keep the gold leaf until you come.

Yours in salt and paint, Edie