Secrets of Hogwarts
This is the third in a series of secrets about Hogwarts that you wouldn't know unless you stumbled upon them. I will try to go into as much detail about each place as possible, so in case you ever come across, or go looking for, these things, you will be prepared, although there might be a few I don't suggest you go looking for. When these come up, I will make sure to tell you.

If any readers know more facts about the place I cover, feel free to owl it to us at the Daily Prophet.

Dungeon of Cheer
Holidays are coming up, so we thought this area of Hogwarts would help you along your way. Now, this room isn't available to everyone, and is not, unfortunately, available year round. But it is one of the best rooms that you'll ever comes across, for better or for worse.

A fair warning to you all, though: this room can be addictive. That is one of the reasons it shows up for only one month out of the year.

To find this area, you must first find dungeon number 14, and yes, it does exist, between the dates of November 23rd to December 23rd. Dungeon number 14 can be found behind a painting of a village in the corridor where you can find dungeons 2, 3, and 7. Certain conditions must be met to be able to find this portrait.

The first condition, of course, is the date, which was mentioned above. The second, you must be stressed. Third, you must be enrolled in or be employed at Hogwarts. And fourth, you must be at least 14 years of age (we tested this). We know that the higher the stress level of a person, the easier it is to find this dungeon, but we are unsure if the use of a stress-amplifying potion will increase your chances of finding it since the data is very sporadic.

This dungeon was added to Hogwarts by Arguinious Naphinda, a headmaster of Hogwarts during the 13th century. A few centuries before this, a winter holiday of gifts was being brought into the wizarding world, and those from rich families took this tradition a little too seriously, until the situation finally got out of hand. Rich students at Hogwarts would buy very expensive trinkets for their friends and would expect something back, which caused those families who didn't have a lot of money to go broke.

In the 13th century, Naphinda hated the unfairness, stress, and unhappiness that overtook Hogwarts at this time of year. You also must consider that at this time, Hogwarts wasn't entirely like it is now. There were, of course, the separate houses, but the tension between them wasn't nearly as bad. Families began competing, and those who gave the best, most expensive presents were usually regarded higher on the social scale. This included school age children, even though it was the parents who bought the gifts.

Finally fed up, Naphinda charmed one of the existing dungeons to cheer and calm any person who enters it. Time for those people is somehow temporarily suspended and the person is usually sent into a more giddy state. Since whoever enters these rooms are unable to do any work while there, there has been no research on how this happens or what spells have been used.

A person is not able to stay in here forever (if they did, it would probably appear as if they disappeared with no trace because of the time suspension), but we are also unsure how long a person can stay because when a person enters, to those who don't enter, it seems as if they were gone for only a few seconds. These people do feel like they've been in there forever, though.

We highly suggest you go looking for this room, and if you are able to remember any information that could be useful to understand this mystery we would appreciate it if you sent it in. Also, if you encounter any bad side affects, those would be useful, too. In fact, any information you could give us on the room would be useful to us because everyone we send in there remembers nothing but being happy. We are sending you a thanks in advance . . .