Final Thoughts

[Anne-Marie Gagne]

It’s the end of the month, everyone worked really hard to get the castle clean! You’re realizing now that cleaning the whole castle was quite ambitious, you actually did get a lot of it done! The only things not fully clean are the dungeons and the towers but you had a feeling those three places would be the last ones to get done. You do know that you and a few others will probably continue to clean when you have the time because exam season is coming up and you’ve found it was a great way to relieve stress. Final exams will be here before you know it and your best friend is already making a study schedule for the two of you so having another outlet to not get overwhelmed by studying makes you feel much better about not completely fulfilling your objective.

You do notice that the school feels lighter and seems brighter. You notice that when the staircases move, they don’t take you as far out of your way as they used to. You even notice that the ghosts and the portraits are more energetic (well, as energetic as they can be). While your friend hasn’t noticed these things, you know that your plan to wake the castle up worked and even with not getting it 100% done, you feel like you did what you set out to do. It's like the castle is breathing easier without all the dust and clutter and debris filling its rooms and corridors.

You smile as you sit on one of the stairs of the Grand Staircase and know that you and the teams did Hogwarts a world of good and decide that you’ll continue to keep it as clean as possible the rest of your time here. Maybe even recruit each new first year class to help. You can tell the castle appreciates it and that is what matters the most.