"Well of course it wasn't what he said," Randall threw back. "Doesn't fit your purposes, does it?" Oh yes, very clear. After all that had happened, the Board should have had more involvement, in the school, not less. It could only have gone this way because someone was spinning things to suit them, a tactic Randall knew well.

He made to speak again, but the pesky boy from the front gate spoke up, and he abruptly closed his mouth again. No need to linger on the point that he was not officially supposed to be here and sort of… was. But with the best intentions. Bitterwood had no time for the boy's logic. The less people who listened to him the better. "Preposterous," he dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and again to the professor who spoke up with him. "Preposterous."

The more the students spoke up, the more vehemently he shook his head, striding forward with great authority into the Hall. He was not daft, he had no cronies, but that last boy had the right of it. Help.

"Don't be absurd. The Board of Governors is not in the business of trying to harm the students of this fine establishment, or the staff. The Board missed the true nature of the plant just as everyone else did. I understand some of you students have ample cause to be suspicious of those around you, but we were simply trying to help." Though it was, in part, an attempt to pacify and butter up his listeners, none of what he had said - uh, at least in that last few sentences - was technically untrue. "The fact remains, it was handled poorly after the fact, months it took to address the situation, and now the building is falling apart. If I'd have known one little plant would have the castle falling down on top of your heads, I would never have sent-..."

Oh. Uh. Scratch that last. Redo.

"... I would... I mean to say..."