Your children, meanwhile, spent the night in my office (as did I); upon their arrival last night, Evelyn informed me that she, quoting to the best of my memory, "couldn't stand both not knowing and being in the common room with people who didn't even know there was something they didn't know".

We spent much of the evening in quiet contemplation and study, but there was an emotional undercurrent I did not much like. Poppy and I agree that the children are likely steps away from volunteering themselves to join you; she is watching them closely, and I am likewise prepared to keep them free of the fray. If we are unable to keep them from making a break for it, I will do whatever I can to ensure that they are, at least, not alone.

(I will resist the urge to do so in Albus's skin. I am exceptionally irate with him this morning.)