In a long, narrow dungeon with a low ceiling, round lamps glowing green hung on chains from the rough stone ceiling.
A fire burned beneath an exquisitely carved mantelpiece, its light spilling past a skull ornament onto the rough walls-even so, the common room still looked dim and chilly.
Indistinct fish shapes outside the windows always vanished in an instant. "We live in a sunken ship underwater"-this was the Slytherin Common Room.
"Honor." Draco Malfoy did his best to hide his excitement as he spoke in a steady voice to a stone wall in the Hogwarts dungeons-the wall parted to either side, providing a stone doorway to enter through.
He had something important to do today, so he had sent Goyle and Crabbe to the library to return books for him, and they were not at his side.
After entering the common room, Draco headed straight for the raised area on the second floor, where there was another small, separate fireplace-to keep the relatively damp second floor from going unused.
For the past three years, this area of the second floor had been the Slytherin Quidditch Team's most frequently used spot for small meetings, and now it was also where their captain, Marcus Flint, spent most of his time.
Usually, Marcus preferred to replenish his energy there by stuffing himself with food. On rare occasions, he also vented his emotions by punching the padding on the wall-those rare occasions being when the Slytherin Quidditch Team lost a match.
The Slytherin Quidditch Team had lost only one match that year, the one against Gryffindor. Yet that was the most important reason they had lost both the Quidditch championship and the House Cup that year-only when the banners in the Great Hall changed to Gryffindor's did Marcus truly feel the tidal surge