text: > Go down
  As you step on it, the staircase turns into a chute. You rocket down it. Exhilarating!
  
  A long, narrow room, lined with suits of armour on either side. Staircases lead down and up, and you're beginning to catch on: if you go down, something weird is going to happen. Westward you can see the gallery open out into a trophy room.
  
  You can see a scribbled note here.
  
  > read it
  You read: This week's password: Pig snout.
  
  Someone must be a real prat. Who would write a password down? An eleven-year-old, you suppose.
  
  > examine the armour
  Suits of armour from every historical period and every country. Well, from every country that ever had suits of armour, anyway.
  
  > look in the armour
  SEARCH doesn't work that way. You can SEARCH DESK, for instance-but you can't SEARCH ROOM, because that would ruin the fun of exploration.
  
  > wear suit
  They're hardly portable.
  
  > Go west
  The space is dominated by a huge trophy case, which butts directly up against a pedestal holding an enormous brass cup. It's immaculate--no dust anywhere. To the east, suits of armor keep watch in their gallery. Since the portraits are alive here, maybe the suits of armor really are keeping watch. That's a creepy thought.
  
  You can see a tin cup and a long-handled scrub-brush here.
  
  > examine the cup
  (the tin cup)
  A small, battered tin cup, with nothing to recommend it. It is wedged far back between the trophy case and the pedestal.
  
  > examine the brush
  A standard looking sort of scrub-brush. It doesn't make much sense that a wizard would need to clean with normal equipment, but then, maybe the students get assigned to do it for detention or something.
  
  > take the tin cup with the brush
  Just type TAKE THE TIN CUP; you'll automatically use any means necessary to get it.
  
  > take the tin cup
  You try to hook the cup's handle with the brush's handle, but it's too short.
  
  > look at the brass cup
  An enormous cup, engraved with what seems to be a record of which Houses have won it.
  
  You read: ...1985-1986: Slytherin. 1986-1987: Slytherin. 1987-1988: Slytherin. 1988-1989: Slytherin. 1989-1990: Slytherin. 1990-1991: Slytherin. 1991-1992: Gryffindor. 1992-1993: Gryffindor.
  
  > Wave brush
  You look ridiculous waving the long-handled scrub-brush.
  
  > examine case
  A crystal case holding various awards. They're almost boring, given that this is a magical school--the Medal for Magical Merit, as an example, or a series of shields engraved with the words "For Special Services to the School," most recently awarded to Messrs. Harry Potter & Ronald Weasley. You'd expect them to be more interesting. Awards for dragon-slaying or something.
  
  > examine Medal
  >X MEDALLION
  A little wooden medallion, black and white and red and yellow, in the shape of a circle with Celtic knotwork within.
  
  > get the brass cup
  That's fixed in place.
  
  > go to the east
  A long, narrow room, lined with suits of armour on either side. Staircases lead down and up. Westward you can see the gallery open out into a trophy room.
  
  > Go upwards
  As you step on it, the staircase wiggles as if considering something, then subsides. You climb it without incident.
  
  A short corridor, the walls and floor made entirely of granite. Centuries of use have worn a smooth path down the middle. Staircases lead down and up. A plain door leads south, and the hall ends in what looks like a library to the west.
  
  > Go upwards
  The staircase writhes beneath your feet as you climb up.
  
  The walls and ceiling are painted a violent shade of purple. The floor seems to have turned green with envy. A gargoyle of curious mien stands on one wall, and on another hangs a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. A squirming staircase leads down; a narrow passage leads northwest; an ordinary door leads south; and a feather-strewn archway leads northeast.
  
  > talk to the fat lady
  "Pig snout," you say.
  
  "Welcome," the fat lady says graciously. Her portrait swings open, letting you into Gryffindor Tower.
  
  A circular room, its stone walls hung with sumptuous tapestries. It is dominated by a large fireplace; a banner, clearly student-made, hangs above the fireplace. Light from a rose window illuminates a message board. You can go northeast through the back side of the picture-frame, too. Sangita would make a dirty joke about rear entry if she were here.
  
  > Examine banner
  A banner, at least six feet long, its colors magically shifting from red to gold to yellow to orange and back again; it says GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!
  
  > look at the message board
  About three feet wide, covered in cork and flyers. Three stand out: one's about a lost toad, one's about the glee club, and one appears to be a love note.
  
  > read the toad
  You read: LOST TOAD. Answers to Trevor. REWARD. Speak with Neville Longbottom.
  
  > read the glee
  You read: Glee club ~ meets Weds 5pm ~ forget the school song ~ sing in HARMONY!!!!!
  
  > read the love note
  You read: Dearest P.W.,
  
  It continues on in similar fashion, signed P.C., but with a postscript added in pencil in a rather different hand:
  
  GUESS WHO THIS WAS TO AND FROM? She can't be a very smart Ravenclaw if she thought she could trust us!!! Percy's in LOVE!!! FWGW
  
  > examine fireplace
  A large, unlit fireplace with a heavy, carved-wood mantelpiece. Something shiny glints from atop the mantel.
  
  > look at shiny
  A badge of yellow and red enamel, shined to within an inch of its life, emblazoned with a P for PREFECT.
  
  > get the badge
  You feel a little guilty for borrowing someone's badge, but you might need it, even if you don't know why yet. You pin it onto your shirt to make sure you don't lose it.
  
  > look at window
  A huge, circular window with many panes of thick, wavy glass. Through it you can catch glimpses of the castle grounds.