Or possibly not, of course. The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as 'Things just happen. What the hell.'

     The senior wizards of Unseen University stood and looked at the door.

     There was no doubt  that  whoever  had shut it wanted  it to stay shut. Dozens  of nails secured it  to the door frame. Planks had been nailed right across. And finally it had, up until this morning, been hidden by a bookcase that had been put in front of it.

     'And there's the sign, Ridcully,'  said the Dean. 'You have read  it, I assume. You know? The sign which says "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door"?'

     'Of course I've read it,'  said Ridcully. 'Why  d'yer  think  I want it opened?'

     'Er ... why?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.

     'To see why they wanted it shut, of course.'

     He gestured to Modo,  the University's gardener  and  oddjob dwarf, who was standing by with a crowbar.

     'Go to it, lad.'

     The gardener saluted. 'Right you are, sir.'

     Against a background of  splintering timber, Ridcully went on: 'It says on the plans that this was a bathroom. There's nothing  frightening  about a bathroom, for gods' sake. I want  a  bathroom. I'm fed up with sluicing down with you fellows. It's  unhygienic. You can catch stuff. My  father told  me that. Where  you get lots of people bathing together, the  Verruca  Gnome is running around with his little sack.'

     'Is that like the Tooth Fairy?' said the Dean sarcastically.

     'I'm in  charge here  and I want a  bathroom  of my own,' said Ridcully firmly. 'And that's all there is to it, all right? I want a bathroom in time for Hogswatchnight, understand?'

     And that's a problem with beginnings, of course. Sometimes, when you're dealing with occult realms that have quite a different attitude to time, you get the effect a little way before the cause.