<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-decoration: underline">King’s Cross Station</span></div><br/><br/>Professor Blake nodded in greeting when she saw Professor Mortimer. He was surely someone much less intimidating than Professor Jordan, even if they didn’t happen to be great friends. He was at least merely quiet, not unfriendly. “I have had a pretty good summer, thank you. I hope yours has been just as good”, the young woman replied in her usual friendly and kind intonation. <br/><br/>Her greeting of the other professors didn’t go much farther than that, though, for different reasons. Professor Jordan obviously didn’t like her, so Beatrice preferred to be civil to him and nothing more. As for Professor Mortimer, he seemed to be a pretty shy person, and she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.<br/><br/>So, after her greetings, Professor Blake resumed searching for a place to settle down. She had considered - very briefly - a light petting on Professor Jordan’s dog, but quickly decided against it. Whoever knew what could happen, right? Also, right now, Professor Blake wasn’t exactly in the mood for conversations. That in itself was a bit strange, as Beatrice could be described as overly cheerful and extremely chatty. Right now, though, there was, once again, that feeling that something bad was about to happen. And yet - the most annoying thing about having the gift of foresight - she couldn’t really put her finger on it or focus on the fabric of Fate enough to find out where danger was coming from. It just felt as though it was serious. She would have to see Professor Sykes. As soon as they set foot in the castle.<br/><br/>With that in mind, and letting out a happy sigh at finding her favorite cabin - all the way to the back - empty, Professor Blake slipped into it and dropped to a seat. Leaning her head against the glass, she noticed that one of the other professors - Professor Ren, if her memory didn’t fail her - also arriving. They should be ready to depart soon.<br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline"><div style="text-align: center;">Hogwarts</div></span><br/><br/>After finishing talking to Alexander, Professor Sykes returned to his office and sat down. Picking up a piece of parchment and a quill, he started making notes.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">‘Meeting with the professors - let them know I shall be gone for a few days, but any important matter should be sent to me via owl;<br/><br/>Make sure all the professors see that students will not be about after hours;<br/><br/>Protect the Groundskeeper house with spells;<br/><br/>See to what else needs to be seen to before leaving’.</span><br/><br/>Once the notes were made, Professor Sykes repeated them aloud a few times. It wouldn’t be safe to keep them to himself and have them accidentally be seen, after all. Secrets were supposed to be kept - even more carefully when they could cause serious trouble to a friend if discovered by the wrong person. For now, as far as Professor Sykes knew, only himself and Professor Blake knew of Alexander’s… condition, and both of them knew about it only because the Groundskeeper had chosen to confide in them. He planned on keeping things this way.<br/><br/>After memorizing everything on his list, Professor Sykes burned it and prepared to exit his office again - unaware that someone had been listening to him, and had slipped away as quietly as they had come near his door.<br/><br/>Unaware of what had happened, Jonathan strolled to the kitchen for a snack, and then to the Library. It was as good place as any to wait for the time to go welcome the professors in.</div>