Charlotte had sent a note via first year telling her traitor cousin Katy to meet her here. She'd thought about the dueling arena but decided that somewhere else would be better. And this out of the way classroom, empty as it was, was perfect. This was Toussaint business, not everyone-else business.

She was pacing back and forward, working herself up, more and more mad as she thought about things. About how Katy had BETRAAAYED her. About how she'd not told and kept it secret on PURPOSE. Though Char's last name was Kettleburn, they were both Toussaints, and Toussaints put family first, always. Except Katy, apparently.

Katy didn't care, and it hurt.

Char had arranged that she would not go home for Christmas too, that she'd stay with Uncle Plymouth and Aunt Pensacola, who, thanks to pureblood reasons, were also Katy's Uncle and Aunt, except from Aunt Ola's side where for Char it was through Uncle Plym. Char was mad at her parents too, for sort of the same reason that she was mad at Katy, but mostly mad at Katy.

Katy didn't even DESERVE to be thought of by her nickname in Char's head right now! Katherine.

Katy didn't like being summoned like a house elf, and she didn't like the way that Charlotte's treatment of her the past few days made her feel like there was a cauldron boiling in her stomach. It wasn't fair and it was mean and much as she didn't care what most people thought about her, it really mattered what family thought. And did.

But she came anyway, because she did care what Char thought. And they were friends, of sorts, or they had been before Char got all boy crazy and general crazy.

There was her cousin, former bestest buddy, and she looked SO sour. Ugh. Somehow, she managed not to cross her arms and sulk, although it was close. Instead, she offered a small phial of swirly nailpolish. Petal pink and blue the color of Char's eyes. She'd made it herself and everything. "Peace offering. You don't have to like me but you have to stay until we finish this. One way or the other."

It was hard waiting when she didn't even know if her younger cousin would come. Did she even care? Didn't feel like it, not when she was so callous as to have done what she had. Not being one to stew too long on things, Char had only waited a little whiles until certain other matters were settled before she'd sought her cousin out, but in the meantime she hadn't been able to help the accusing and hurt looks she'd sent the younger girl's way. It was all just so churny and confusing.

But look, here she was.

"Oh good, so you already know you're the worst cousin ever." Char said sounding injured and obviously quite hurt and NOT taking the so called peace offering.

But, in contrast to her actual words, Char squeezed her wand, clasping it to her chest and not at all in any sort of threatening position, save that she had it out at all. In her other hand there was a glove, which in her upset she had sort of planned to use to CHALLENGE KATY TO A DUEL like in the story books, but instead of that, instead, juggling her wand from chest to hand, she charmed the glove to wave a sort of folorn hello.

This was not going as planned. It was hard to stay mad when you just felt betrayed and confused and hurt.

"I truly doubt that I'm the worst ever," Katy wrinkled her nose as she set the phial on a desk. Hopefully Char would grab that later, since it was pretty impressive magicking and Katy had done it specifically for her, even if she hadn't even acknowledged it or said thank you.

"I mean, I think I'm a pretty great cousin. And you disagree, so that's terrible..." She sighed and shoved her hands on her hips. And maybe waved back at the glove, in spite of herself. But NO. She was cross. "Is this about Henry?"

"None of my other cousins have ever betrayed me." SO YEAH. KATY was the WORST. She was trying to bring back the feeling mad thing. Trying to.

... and see?!! SEE! She KNEW what she had done! Katherine Toussaint knew that it was bad!

"Of course it is. You kissed him. Doesn't family mean anything to you?And then you kept it a secret, which is almost worse." Almost but not quite.

"You knew I liked him. For a long long long time, and I bet you're going to bring up Dalton like its some kind of excuse, but it isn't, Katy! It isn't because you knew!" Everyone pretty much did, she'd never exactly hidden how torn she'd been between the two boys, not before she'd chosen, and not after.

"I didn't betray you. Merlin." Charlotte was probably the MOST DRAMATIC PERSON in the whole school. Maybe the whole world. Maybe the universe, once they had proof of life on other planets.

"To be fair, he kissed me. And to be more fair, I didn't hate it, and I asked him to, but I didn't make him do anything. And to be triple times fair, I stayed away from him for ages because I knew how you felt, even though you didn't choose him and he was fair game. I did that for you, even though you know how I feel and don't care at all."

So really, Charlotte was the rotten cousin and Katy was the one who was so betrayed. SO BETRAYED. "And to be quadruple fair, how do you think I feel now that I know he kissed me only so he could turn around and tell you about it? He used me to make you feel jealous." She tapped her chest right over her heart. Broken.

"You tricked him into it! You preyed on his nice, sweet Hufflepuff heart so that it would happen! AND you didn't ever say you had FEELINGS, you only wanted kisses! That was all, you never even knew him that well! SO that also means you're super shallow and wanted to kiss him only because he's good looking!" Char defended in a rush.

"He doesn't use anyone ever. Not ever. And if he was trying to make me jealous -and he wasn't!- he would have said about it right away and not just when it came up casually in conversation! He tells me everything, Katy! He wasn't keeping it a secret!" And Henry was a boy, and as her BFF often said, boys were dumb, and he hadn't even realized she still liked him even though it had always been so super obvious. "But YOU were! And YOU don't tell me things, apparently!! You kept it a secret for all this time because you knew it wasn't something that family should do to family!"

Well. That wasn't what happened at ALL, and it sort of pleased Katy that she apparently knew a Henry that Char had never met. Same Henry, same honorable Puff, but more human and a little darker than her cousin seemed to believe. He'd kissed her and it hadn't been a trick and maybe it didn't mean more to him than making Char jealous, but it meant lots to Katy.

"I'm not going to fight you for him, Char. I collected him as my Hufflepuff because I thought you didn't want him and I figured it was my only chance to... know..." She shrugged, 'cause it was too hard to explain. Whatever. "But I don't poach other girl's boyfriends. Or boy whatevers. Hope you're happy together. He'll tell you that I've been pushing him in your direction all year. AND ANOTHER THING... I don't talk about my kissing with the family. I'm not keeping it from you. It just didn't come up. You want to hear who else I kissed?"

"You wouldn't win if you tried!" Charlotte responded, irritated that Katy wasn't even TRYING to understand how she'd hurt her. And with Katy saying she tried to push him to Char AND that she thought Char didn't want him in the same breath was just.... it made no sense. "And I KNOW you had already kissed a Hufflepuff." YEAH Char knew what her cousin had done mhmm!

She didn't respond to any of this.... boy whatever... happy together stuff, for reasons. "You're lying. We used to talk, and then you stopped RIGHT when you kissed him!" And she didn't care who else Katy had kissed. Not even a little bit anymore.

Except that hurt too, actually. When had Katy stopped looking to her for advice and older cousin things and started thinking that it didn't matter about other people's feelings?

"How would you feel? How would you feel if I did it to you?" A little bit of teenage hormone-driven anguish coming through. "If I went and kissed someone that YOU liked, that I KNEW you liked, and then even worse, kept it a secret and acted like I didn't even care what it would mean to you?!"

And why did this keep happening? Why? Maybe she should stop believing in people. Stop trusting them.

A sob escaped, and in annoyance Char tossed the stupid glove, which stupidly just twirled slowly and gently to the floor.

"Now you're just being mean," Katy dropped down to sit on top of a desk. She studied the tops of her shoes and tried not to feel too stung. Like an upset Char was something she could work with, because they were both Toussaints and emotional baggage they got from their mothers, but a mean Char was a whole new monster. She didn't like it at ALL. "I couldn't count the first Hufflepuff. He had a girlfriend I didn't know about, and I told you that I don't go after boys with girlfriends."

And actually, she'd stopped talking to Char long before kissing Henry. That only just happened at the start of summer, and Katy gave up talking to Char when her cousin's judgement about kissing became too much to bear. "We did use to talk, but we haven't in a while. You don't share with me either, so don't act like it's all one sided." Maybe if Char shared her struggling about still liking Henry, for example, Katy wouldn't have felt it was safe to steal that kiss.

She sighed and kicked out her feet to the light bounced off the shiny bits on her shoes. "M'sorry I didn't tell you myself. And that I made you sad. Not sorry I kissed him at all, though, because..." Because she'd never wanted anything she couldn't have before, and she didn't want to think about that anymore. Done thinking. "But sorry for sure that I like someone you like too, and very very sorry that a boy made us fight, because that's a dumb thing for cousins and friends to fight over. Let's fight over string theory or something very clever and impressive."

"And you're being callous." and it's was true, too. Who was the dueler here?

Anything her cousin hadn't known was completely because she chose not to know it. Which was obviously the easier choice if you were plotting to kiss the boy that your cousin had history with, as Char had with Henry. Katy had chosen ignorance as the most enabling path to be out for herself. And besides, Henry was just a catalyst. It was a loyalty thing. A betrayal thing. A family thing.

"If you're not sorry you kissed him then you aren't sorry at all. I don't want to fight. I don't want to hear your excuses or how flippant you are about something that matters more than kissing a boy. I don't want to talk to you at all. You're not family. Your name is a lie. "

Hugging herself, Char looked away and added, "And don't come visit Uncle Plym and Aunt Ola at Christmas because I'll be there and I won't want to see you." Nope. Nopenopenope it would hurt too much.

Char only saw what she wanted to see. She only saw the world in a way that made her the center. Not the world, then... the universe, and it was all revolving around dear darling Char. "You don't know anything about me. Not if you believe all that."

Because Katy was loyal above all things. She wished that Henry hadn't told Char anything, or that he'd told her everything. She'd spent so much time trying to just have friendly feelings and to encourage Henry to talk to Char, and... he didn't tell her that. Just the kissing part.

"They're my family. I'll be there every day, and if you don't like it, you can leave the family altogether. I'm not banishing myself because you're being so childish."

She wasn't going to understand was she? Or care one bit. Charlotte shook her head, and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. What else could she say when Katy had an argument for everything, like she was a victim in this, and it seemed like she just didn't care?

And saying she'd go to visit just out of spite...

... that kind of just added to the whole being callous, not being sorry, not being able to put herself in someone else's shoes, betraying family thing. Char just gave her a sad look. She couldn't anymore. So... she didn't. She turned and left without another word.

Olivia had gone exploring. For some reason, she just couldn't sit still anymore in her common room. After exploring the seventh floor, she headed down to the sixth floor, making sure to stay clear of the portal area. Last time, she had gone past there, weird things had happened and she didn't want that to occur again. Thus, she continued down the corridor until she found a door at the end. Where did this lead? she wondered and without another thought turned the door knob and opened the door. Taking a step into the room, she found that the room was decorated like a very dusty small office. "ACHOO!" she sneezed, covering her sneeze underneath her arm. Did she mention dust? There was a lot of it. She pulled out her wand, casting a simple, "Tergeo" to try to remove some of the dust off of the desk. Then she moved about the room, trying to get rid of most of the dust.

It took her a while to get rid of most of it but when the majority was done (or she felt was done), she turned to examine the mirror. What was there? And why did the room suddenly smell more like pineapple. She clutched her wand just in case an unwanted guest would appear.

"A drrrrrrrrrrrream is a wiiiiiiiiiish your heart maaaaakes!" Carlton sang. "Wheeeeeen you're faaast asleeeeeeeeep. In drrrrreams you will loooose your heartache, whatever you wish for you keeeep."

Nice little melody on that one. He didn't know the rest of the lyrics so he simply hummed the tones of the Disney classic, letting his hand trail the wall of the corridor he walked. He would soon turn around and sing in another corridor since he wasn't allowed to go near the MUSFPP - Or; the Mega Ultra Super Forbidden Portal Place.

He spotted Olivia in front of him and he was just about to call out a 'Hi' when she disappeared into a room. He froze.

"NOOOO." Carlton ran after her. If Olivia was heading into a portal again he needed to stop her before it was too late! He shoved the door open and stumbled inside the room. "Not another portal, Olivia! The Headmistress will be so mad." He whispered the last word. Because what if she heard him?!

Addison Anders entered the spare office behind Laurel and the Prefects that came with them. Quickly looking over the room she felt it was a decent spot for them to have a seat and talk. Which is exactly what she did. She found herself a clean chair to sit down on after using her wand to clear the seat of the dust, she also did this for the places anyone else sat. Once comfortable and everyone was sat she took out some parchment and a quill. Yes, she was going to take note. Hand written notes.

"Adam please take notes as well. Anyway you wish is just fine by me." Handwritten. Recording it with his wand. Whatever made him most comfortable. (Sam as well if she came with them). "Alright, I'd like to begin by saying that I'm Addison Anders department Head of Mysteries over at the Ministry. We were called upon very recently to come and help out. We weren't given very much information so if we could hear what each of you has to say it would be greatly appreciated." She offered her usual warm smile, a hand resting on her stomach as she looked at everyone.

"Could be start by going one by one and you each can give your name before telling us anything you know about this portal?" When it appeared. If they had been inside it. What they saw, heard, felt. Everything and anything at all.

Kitty was very glad that Professor Vance had given her, Tenacius, and Natalia permission to go into the office with the adults instead of just dismissing them. She followed after them and sat down. While listening to the head of department of mysteries speak, she charmed Rooney's puke off her back.

"I'm Kitty DuGray Valentine, Ravenclaw prefect and I have permission to be here," she said when it was her turn to speak, addressing the head of department of mysteries. Just in case they thought she'd snuck in. "And I was one of the first people to go into the portal. It compelled me to enter through some sort of charm, I guess. On the other side of the portal it looks like Hogwarts, but darker and with these strange dark green tendrils covering the walls. There are also these small tufts of, well I don't know what they are, but they like dander mixed with snow - falling to the ground. Not sure where they came from. We found bones on the ground, and we were chased by something, though none of us could get a look at it. It made monster noises and I'm pretty certain it's the same thing Rooney described a little while ago. While in the portal, I managed to take several pictures." What happened to those pictures? "The headmistress took my pictures."

The past hour or so has been a blur to the Curly Top. So much EXCITING things happening and he hasnt had much time to process it before the next EXCITING thing followed after that. So really, now is the only time that he realizes who these EXCITING people are who arent Airey Flamsteed.

Wait this lady is from the Dept of Mysteries? "Mysteries?? Oh oh thats where you guys study all the weird exciting stuff right? I know someone who works there! Mr Vanderbilt do you know him??" Beams. Of course he's unaware that his info may have been a bit dated, also on the wrong continent.

But yeah this is quite some serious talk. Time to square those shoulders and be reminded that he wears a badge-- a badge-y person that fell through a hole that sure didnt lead to Wonderland.

He listened to Kitty and well she pretty much covered most of it. Is it his turn now? Awkward pause and then "Uhm... yeah hi! I'm Tenacius Salander, Gryffindor Prefect...." as ludicrous as that seemed to be given his general loudness "... and uhm I dont really get the feeling of being compelled to go into the Portal, I mean I was cruising around on my hoverboard and then there was this BIG WEIRD HOLE in the MIDDLE of the place and I was like 'Whattheheckisthatthing???' and I was like 'STOP STOP!' and tried to avoid it but I just like POW!-- hovered right into it." he explained all animated like, typical Tenacius.

"And yeah like Kitty said, that other place is like Hogwarts, but way WAY dirtier and darker and oh!-- everything is BACKWARDS!" Was it really? "I mean its like... MIRROR IMAGE you know? Like the staircases were supposed to be on the left side" action action left side "... but over there it was on the right! We were running, tryna get away from that growly beast thing and I got LOST for a bit. Havent gotten lost in Hogwarts since I was a second year." Sense of direction. He's got it. So getting lost was highly unusual for him not to mention incredibly disorienting.

"Oh another thing we noticed, our magic doesnt seem to work all that well over there...." he added after a thought "Like.... because it was dim right? So we tried to Lumos our way through but it was like no matter how hard we tried to make our light brighter, it just wont."

Was that it? Oh wait the most disconcerting thing he experienced for the entire ordeal "Uhm also theres another thing-- our Caretaker, Flynn, he was like missing, and we thought he was just skipping on his duties cuz he left his mop and his bucket like everywhere around here.... well we saw his stuff over there too. But they were all mangled up and stuff and then we saw his shirt, thats where we saw the bones.... we're afraid that he might be dead...." he murmured that bit in the end.

This small meeting or whatever it was they would like to call it was important and Addison was trying her best to be as professional as she could. However when the male Prefect asked about her departments work she couldn't help but crack a grin. "Yes, that would be the very place." There wasn't very much she could tell him exactly. Mr. Vanderbilt. Did she know the man? No, she didn't think so but his name sounded very familiar as if she'd heard i- Ah, yes! "I don't know of him personally but I believe there's a Mr. Vanderbilt in my brothers department but don't hold me to that," she replied after a moments thought her warm smile back in place.

As information began pouring out of the Prefects her full attention switched on one Miss Kitty DuGray Valentine. Adorable name honestly. Everything the young lady said was being noted onto her parchment. From the girls name, house to photos having been taken. All of it. "You were compelled into it? Do you recall how you felt when this happened?" Was she sucked up into it or did she just remember being in Hogwarts and then being on the other side of the 'portal'. Dander and snow? "Like dust or ash?" This was ALL something Airey would be interested in. Notes were being quickly taken! Noises and bones. More notes. Yes, yes writing every word down. Wait what?! "Did you say photos? I will have to speak with you Headmistress about getting copies of those. Photos will be extremely useful to us." Being able to see what the children saw would do wonders for their research!

The blonde's blue eyes swung back onto Tenacius as he began to recount his experience with the portal. So he didn't feel he was compelled into it but more unable to stop from entering it. Interesting. Writing this all down. Backwards? This was another detail to know. "Did you have an interaction with whatever is over there or you just heard it as well?" This was very important because if he didn't know what it was then hopefully Culloden would be able to find out from the boys when they were well enough.

"That's rather interesting. Your magic didn't work at all or just not strong enough to be of any use to you?" Had to get this all down on parchment. So much writing! Why hadn't she grabbed a self writing quill. Sigh. Just as Kitty had mentioned this Prefect went on to talk about bones as well. Only he went into more detail to leave the impression that the Hogwarts caretaker was indeed killed by whatever that thing was inside the portal. "I know this is tough to speak about but all you saw was his shirt, cleaning items and bones, yes?" Nothing else. What did this monster do devour that poor man and spit out his bones? The mysteries department would have their hands full with all of this information and something needed to be done quickly.

Looking over her notes Addison set her quill down for just a moment. "All of this information is very helpful to us so thank you. Is there anything else at all that either of you recall? Anything strange no matter how small can be useful. Also was anyone else inside that portal besides the boys that just returned?" Anyone that knew anything about being inside it or interacted with it would be spoken with.

Indeed it seems like its a case of a Vanderbilt switcheroo, but Tenacius nodded his head believing her anyway. As far as he remembers, theres a Vanderbilt who worked at Mysteries and is a class A weirdo. At least thats what his father says. Clearly theres no love lost between the Vanderbilts and the Astor-Salanders.

But oh follow up questions. The leonine lad had to pause, trying to recall those frantic, confusing moments on the other side of the Portal "Uhm... all I could really remember is the growli-- oh! It had eyes." Nod nod now he remembers "It was when we found the shirt and the bones, then we heard the growling, when I looked towards the direction of the sound, thats when I saw it had eyes-- and lady I had to SCRAM outta there because anything with eyes can see ya and can come after ya!" Which it did.

"No no, our magic worked...." he replied to the next inquiry "... but it just worked at like, half power or something." That was the part that was still confounded him to this day, because for a boy who's magical challenge was learning to scale things back, magic coming out feebly no matter how strongly he made it scared him like never before. He didnt know how to deal with that.

The Mysteries Lady was clarifying about the remains. That was particularly tough to try to visualize in his memory because it was the sensation so new and foreign, seeing the remains of what used to be a living thing "Uhm yeah....?" he looked at Kitty for a moment to see how she felt "I mean.... I didnt want to believe that it might be Flynn's bones, but we saw all his stuff, and these past few weeks since its happened and it bothers me at night sometimes, I just... I just gave up and thought maybe thats really Flynn... or whats left of him." Which made him very sad. And guilty. He wasnt exactly the most stellar student as far as Flynn's opinion was concerned.

He couldnt really recall anything else that he hasnt said or that Kitty hadnt covered. But as for students that have already been through the Portal-- [B]"Uhm... theres been others, lotsa others. Theres like a few more who says they been to the Portal too...B] he wasnt that certain because they belonged to other houses "When we were there, theres a whole bunch of us-- Zoryn and Olivia Holden are from my house, then theres my buddy Carl, he's with Hufflepuff, and then Leon--" he looked at Kitty given that he belonged to her house. There were others but he couldnt really remember the rest of them now. Blame that to the fatigue of carrying an ickle lioness up the stairs when they were running for dear life.

Kitty hadn't included the part about Flynn's clothes because she knew Tenacius would mention it. The thought that their caretaker was dead was too terrible for her to think of right now, and she was glad Tenacius included this in his account. "He could have ran away," she piped in. "We didn't see any blood on the cloth, and those bones could have been there a long time."

The department head's question about the portal made her stop to try to remember just what she felt. "Maybe the portal wasn't compelling me," she admitted uncertainly. "I'm not sure. I've always been super curious, so maybe that was just it. But I felt something strange when looking at the portal. I'm not sure if the compelling came from it or from me, or maybe both. As for the odd things floating in the air, I suppose ash or dust could be a good thing to compare them too, though we didn't smell anything burning. But I bet Zoryn could tell you more. She was grabbing at them the whole time we were there, and I think she brought one back with her." If she still had it then that could be something very helpful to the department of mysteries.

She listened as Tenacius listed the others who were with them. "Leon Kennedy," she finished his sentence for him. "He's in my house - seventh term. Actually, Leon was very heroic throughout the whole thing. He brought up the rear when we were retreating and wouldn't leave until we'd all gone. He literally pushed me through the portal and carried some of the others." As head of Department of Mysteries, Anders must know the Minister, and Kitty wondered if she'd recommend Order of Merlin for Leon. "Then there was also Sinead from Slytherin, and Brent, another guy from Slytherin who transferred from another school. Ooh, and of course Carlton. He went in TWO times."

Kitty sensed the conversation was coming to an end, but she didn't want it to end so quickly. There were many questions she had for Addison and she hoped the answers weren't classified. "When we were in that place, some of us wondered if it was an alternate reality. What do you think it might be?" she asked her. "Since you're head of the Department of Mysteries, I bet you know about types of magic no one has ever even heard of. Have you ever come across anything like this before?"

Adam had taken up residence in spare student desk at the back of the room. This allowed him a different vantage point from which to observe the student’s behavior and also allowed Addison to be the student’s sole point of attention. From his robes, he had produced a roll of parchment and his ever-present note taking quill. He muttered the activation charm and let the quill do its thing. As it copied down the student’s words, he was thankful that he had developed the charm on this particular quill because half of what was said in the room was either too animated or too fast or too, well, English for him to follow. But not for his Quill! Over the years he had learned that he sometimes needed help when dealing with his second language and low-and behold, his translator quill was developed. Adam sat quietly listening and reading what was being transcribed for him.

Adam hadn’t had much interaction with Addison outside of departmental meetings, but he had to admit that from what he was understanding of the interviews, she was very good at latching onto questions and asking the appropriate follow up. He just wished his skillset was more useful than as a simple note taker.

His quill got confused when the students began listing off student names and their school houses. In fact, if it wasn’t for his old friend Jory, Adam wouldn’t have known what the students were talking about either. Making an executive decision, the quill skipped over the house names, figuring them unimportant and continued scratching along quietly. Adam sat with his head propped up in his hand watching the students. One of them, Salamander, Adam thought his name was – was very very animate. Perhaps too animated…

The first moment there was even the slightest pause in the conversation Addison glanced over her shoulder at where Adam had sat himself down. To see that he had kept himself away from the center of the conversation wasn't entirely surprising at all. The most important part of this was that he was paying attention and taking down notes, both of which the man was doing. She flashed him a quick smile and an approving nod of her head.

Growling and the 'monster' had eyes. Well alright then. Nod. Nod. "Either way, since we don't have those bones and we're going off of what's being said here I'll have to take both ideas into account. From what I'm gathering is it's been quite some time since this Caretaker has disappeared..." It was safe to say the man was indeed missing if not dead like the children thought. Neither option was good. Shifting her gaze onto the boy she nodded with full understanding. "What you're feeling is normal, that experience had to be very scary...speak with the Healer if you haven't already. It may help." Or the Healer could possibly give him something to help him sleep at least.

Everything these two were telling her was indeed very interesting. She nodded once at Kitty making note to speak with 'Zoryn' and see if the girl did indeed have one of those particles from inside the portal. "If she does have something from in the portal if could be a tremendous help." After taking a few more notes she looked back to Tenacius again. "That's very curious. Something that will be looked into as well."

Whoa, whoa! All these students have been inside the portal and they were just hearing about this NOW?! To say that Addison was a bit upset about this would be a clear understatement. A slight frown was tugging quickly at the women's lips but she quickly replaced it with a small smile. This was concerning. As she very quickly jotted down each and every name her eyes turned towards the Professor. "Is it possible to get these students in here? Anything else they could tell me would be largely helpful. Minus the one that was there...twice now. He's in the hospital wing?" That poor child. She couldn't imagine what the boy was going through.

What was this? She was being asked questions now. The blonde women couldn't help but grin at Kitty. Being the head of Mysteries there wasn't very much she could tell them but she would try. "Many do believe in alternate universes, yes. I myself happen to be one of those people that do." No details as to why would be given. Sorry. "I suppose it's possible and from what I'm hearing so it sounds like that but honestly I just can't be sure right yet. Mysteries deals with many many things. My team as well as myself have seen, heard and experienced many things. Some we can't even fully explain ourselves." Like what happened with her own husband as well as what happened with the former Head of the department.

Laurel was deep in thoughts as she led the way to the spare office. Coming inside she stood silent and a little to the side as the ministry madam questioned Tenacious and Kitty in depth about their portal experiences. She had not been inside the portal so she couldn't provide anything useful about that even if she had had a number of predictions about it.

When there was a lull Laurel cleared her throat and spoke up. "I'm Laurel Vance and I'm Divination Professor of this school. The school caretaker Flynn disappeared mid October and hasn't yet returned. We presume that Flynn is dead because of what the students that have been inside the portal have witnessed and found of his belongings and bones." Shudder. It was not something she had wanted any growing child to see from what she had heard described.

"The portal can appear in different locations around the school. It recently appeared out on the grounds so sadly its mobile, and that was where I was witness to a student disappearing right before my very eyes, swallowed up by the portal. It was very upsetting." Laurel commented, trying to keep herself from becoming too emotional. Just give facts, it was what Regina expected of her.

Before she could add anything else however Ms Anders directed a question in her direction which she quickly responded to. "If Headmistress Hawthorne approves then yes I can send for some of the other students that have been inside the portal to come here and answer questions that will further aid you and your employees in your investigation of the portal and how to get rid of it. The names of the students that have been inside the portal are Brent Westwood, Olivia Holden, Leon Kennedy, Zoryn Spinnet, Sinead Dance, Henrietta Kramer, Junia Botros and Carl Leonard and they belong to all of the four school houses." She sincerely hoped that the ministry could soon remove the portal from the school premises. She didn't want anymore traumatized students.