Draco C. Malfoy

I think we might need some help here.

We weren't trying to rescue anyone, I swear, only we overheard the teachers say that Professor Lockhart should go out and try to kill the monster in the chamber since he's done so many heroic deeds and such, and then we tried to track him down because we'd learned from Granger that the monster was probably a basilisk and it was living in the pipes somewhere. We thought the information might help him kill the monster, you see. And Weasley was along because he thought it was his sister who was in danger, so he came along with us to Professor Lockhart's office. Only Professor Lockhart wasn't getting ready to fight a monster, he was packing all of his purple frocks into a trunk and getting ready to leave! And then he told us--well, it will take too long to write, but he's a complete fraud, that one, and he tried to ERASE Harry's memories but Harry was really quick and got his wand away from him!

So we had to find the chamber of secrets and make Professor Lockhart kill the monster, but he really didn't want to and he kept trying to escape, so Harry got his wand out and ordered him to get a move on! He was really angry. We found the chamber in the whinging ghost's bathroom, and it took Harry a long time to get it right but he finally said the right parseltongue words and the sink opened up and it was a deep passageway to a part of the castle I didn't even know existed. We were just trying to get Professor Lockhart to go down there and do what all the other teachers said he should do, but when we got to the bottom he snatched Weasley's wand and tried to erase our memories again! But Weasley's wand is rubbish and so the spell didn't work, and some rocks came crashing down and now me, Weasley, and Professor Lockhart are on one side of the rocks, and Harry is on the other. Harry shouted that he was all right and that he was going to have a look around on his own--I tried to tell him not too. But he hasn't said anything for a while now and we're trying to clear away the rocks but there's an awful lot of them, and Professor Lockhart has gone mental and thinks he's a student again and that we're all members of a spelunking club.

Father's last Owl mentioned the importance of writing in my journal and not just writing comments in everyone elses'. I hadn't forgotten, only I've been awfully busy and I'm looking forward to Easter holiday because I think that when I get back, my detentions are over at last.

This last week's detentions were with Professor Lockhart. He wanted me to clean and polish the gallery of art in his office. It's all photographs and paintings of him, usually with someone famous, though in some of them he's standing with one foot on the back of some dark creature that he's conquered. There's really a great load of pictures, and they go all the way up to the ceiling so its good he has one of those sliding ladders like there are in the library. It was funny, though, because I thought the pictures would just be dusty but instead a lot of them were sort of..smeary, I guess. So cleaning them really wasn't that easy.

The real problem was that Dennis came in and tried to help me. I didn't even see him because I was way up on top the ladder and he was way down low near the floor. Only Professor Lockhart came in to check on me and he said he was disappointed that I would recruit my mudblood servant to assist me. Dennis tried to tell him that he came in on his own to help and that Master Draco didn't know he was there, and Professor Lockhart just laughed after that and sent him on his way. But of course Dennis didn't move because he waits until I send him away before he leaves. So I sent him away. But I see now why Harry didn't think Dennis was a very good servant. Because he wants to help you so much but he's too little, or something, to know when and where he should be helping sometimes. I tried to talk to him about never doing anything for me unless I specefically ask for it, and he said that he wouldn't be a very good slave if he did that. That he needs to be able to anticipate my needs to be the best slave there is. I like the idea of him anticipating my needs, but so far he's not very good at it. So after my detentions are over I think I'll have to work on that with him.

One thing I like, though, is that even though they know Dennis is a mudblood, his magic has never manifested - at least not yet. He told me he hopes it never does and I told him I hope so too. If mudbloods steal magic they must steal it from the people they're closest to, so if he decides he can't help it and he needs magic, I'm positive that it's mine that he'll get. I really do wonder how they do that, though. I suppose it's something that the grownups will figure out, eventually.


Here's something else: did anyone see my Aunt Bellatrix at school last week? Around Thursday I think? If she was here it must have been important business, because she didn't come round to say hi to me or to Harry.