alt_mcgonagall

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Hogwarts Professors, there is a staff meeting this evening at eight o'clock.

The business of Hogwarts must continue, regardless of events outside our walls, and I believe we have much to discuss with regards to the spring term.

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From:

alt_mcgonagall

You are quite right that we need to discuss events, but it wouldn't do to say that where students might see; and I do believe that it is very important to give them structure and normalcy, as much as is possible.

From:

alt_horace

Yes, indeed, Minerva. Thank you for seeing to it.

For my own charges, they seem relatively calm, though of course it would be fair to say all of Slytherin realised immediately that Charles and Darius would not be returning to school right away. Mr Derrick is re-settled, as you know.

I presume that Prof. Vector will want to discuss Thos. Capper? Really, I don't believe there's anything more to say, Minerva.

From:

alt_sinistra

Of course I'll be there.

I meant to inquire, yesterday - are you all right, after Saturday? The students who were up on the tower last night were quiet, as one might expect.

I kept the public conversation to safe topics - stars, mostly - but I did hear a few bits of more private conversation. And I sent a couple off to check in with Poppy, as well, when it was obvious they'd had greater problems eating or sleeping.

From:

alt_mcgonagall

I am personally fine.

I have been asked to check in with our Lord Protector once a week in future - about the goings-on at Hogwarts, and particularly about young Marvolo's progress. I am not certain that this is a good sign for any of us here, but it is not punishment.

There has been quite a high incidence of students having trouble in the aftermath. I had believed the youth of the Protectorate to be made of sterner stuff. They have certainly been tried enough.

From:

alt_sinistra

Good to hear that you are. ~~I'm not.~~

I do see the difficulty with that kind of report (I've been, as you know, under scrutiny for the YPL work, and expect some more - well, they said any day now). On the one hand, I understand the importance of close oversight, on the other hand, it does take time and attention from the real work of doing.

As to the students - I've honestly heard a mix of responses. And from what I've heard about the wireless broadcast, I think it was honestly confusing what was happening and why, and that left room for fears and terrors to grow.

From:

alt_mcgonagall

The question of time and attention is one issue, but more than that – when the Lord Protector sent his son to Hogwarts, he told me that he trusted me with his son's growth. It was the closest he has ever been to sentimental with me. He made it clear that he trusted me and Horace, in particular, his old teachers, with his son's education.

Now I wonder – have I lost that trust?

From:

alt_sinistra

Oh, yes. I can quite see the concern there.

I don't even know what to suggest - certainly both you and Horace have vastly more experience of students than I do.

It seems impertinent to ask, somehow, but do you know what Our Lord most appreciated, or found useful, about his education here? Perhaps there is a way to bring that out more clearly, now?

From:

alt_mcgonagall

That is the problem. He has said many times that the 'freedom of Hogwarts' appealed to him most; or, in any case, he did when his son first began here. But that is not what his actions seem to say.