After the Welcoming Feast, Dalton thanked the ghosts for the third time that the Slytherin dormitory wasn't in one of the towers as he dragged his feet slowly down the steps, and pushing through the entrance ahead of all of the first years. He continued to drag his feet across the Common Room and up into his dormitory, before spotting his trunk and flopping face first onto his bed sheets.

Suppressing a groan into his pillow, he lay still for a while, hoping slightly that this year would be better than the last.