This door was nearly always locked

Listened to The Silver Chair again this week.

"If only the door was open again!" said Scrubb as they went on, and Jill nodded. For at the top of the shrubbery was a high stone wall and in that wall a door by which you could get out onto open moor. This door was nearly always locked. But there had been times when people had found it open; or perhaps there had been only one time. But you may imagine how the memory of even one time kept people hoping, and trying the door; for if it should happen to be unlocked it would be a splendid way of getting outside the school grounds without being seen. 

I love this picture of the nature of desperation and hope. It resonated with me this week in my life.

Jill and Eustace, now both very hot and very grubby from going
along bent almost double under the laurels, panted up to the wall. And
there was the door, shut as usual.
"It's sure to be no good," said Eustace with his hand on the handle; and then, "O-o-oh. By Gum!!" For the handle turned and the door opened. 

Before we even get to Narnia, Lewis is already setting the stage for the themes of defeat and eucatastrophe - themes that echo through each chapter and crescendo in the climax.