Jillian had been catching up with her reading in the library since this early morning and was thankful enough that her fake baby for Muggle Studies was not that cruel to her today by not crying. Her day was going great ... That is until she heard the Headmaster's voice calling for an assembly in the courtyard. It does sound alarming and Jillian has no idea if it is just a regular assembly OR a crisis is happening around school.

Jillian had to leave the fake baby back to the common room because she doesn't want to handle it when it cries loudly while the Headmaster is talking. Crosses her fingers in hopes that this baby won't be mad crying when she get back.

Several thoughts lingered to what this assembly may be but none of which seemed like it was as the Headmaster's put it 'non-negotiable'. She made her way towards the courtyard and spotted her school mates. She stood near the others and was her quiet self- as usual.

Calm as anything, Malachi made his way to the courtyard, ushering along any students he happened to see straggling along the way. He’d meant what he said when he called this an emergency. He’d meant what he said about it being non-negotiable.

The founders had to go.

“Thank you for your prompt response.” He said once he took his place at the head of the crowd. He wouldn’t go screaming or wailing, he didn’t need to to get his point across. “As you’ve no doubt noticed, our founders—a term used loosely here— have been walking around. Relatively harmless as they’ve been, it’s time we send them back as it seems they’ve developed their own ideas of how the school should be run.” They wanted to take it but there was no need to frighten the children.

“It may seem a small inconvenience, but you’ll have with equal certainty noticed that Professor De Nostredame is no longer with us. He’s recovering at Mungo’s following a run in with Gryffindor’s sword. We cannot allow them to stay and create further problems that could become increasingly worse.” And from what he’d heard, it would be getting worse.

“We’ll first need to find their portraits, then we’ll pop them back in. Shouldn’t take too long then we can head to dinner, but...to be sure...we will find them before dinner.” In case anyone missed it, they weren’t having dinner til this was sorted.

“We’ll break into three teams. One set will be with me, another with Professor Noble and a third set with Professor Recard.” The choice was theirs. “And of course, if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to respond.

More students poured in surrounding the courtyard that Curtis was in. It was fully crowded now as he gave a glance to see everyone that was joining in. He caught Missa's unimpressed expression towards him. He rose a brow, What's with her, he thought before giving her a wink. He must look really good for her to notice him in this crowd. Standing all attentive and ready. He smiled softly looking forward when finally the Headmaster arrived.

Oh... yeah, those founders. Salazar disappointed Curtis, he seemed more snobbish than recorded in documents. Maybe that was a side effect of being in a portrait for many centuries. Anyways, he was surprised to hear about De Nostredame no longer returning. Betsy had been captured and returned back home, no longer allowed back at the castle since then. At least no one died like he heard what happened two years ago here.

So now... they were going to split up and find them. Okay. Do we get to choose which team to stick with? Well, then. Curtis looked around to see if anyone was moving toward a Professor.. Without really thinking he found himself walking towards the Headmaster. Last chance to stop him.

Pretty soon, all the others started pouring in, which only gave Isla a little bit of reassurance about this whole 'emergency' thing. At least she knew she was in the right place now. If there truly was an emergency, the last thing she wanted was to be wandering off on her own while the entire rest of the castle was somewhere else. She took note of Minjae and Fiona standing next to her and nodded when Minjae said he hoped this better be good.

...and then Trent arrived.

She listened as he detailed what was going on. Her face dropped when he mentioned Professor De Nostredame. That had been horrible. Just horrible.

So anyway...he wanted them to just...pop them on back into their portraits? How exactly did he plan on them doing that? None of them, especially Gryffindor and secondly Slytherin, seemed like the top to let the students just pop them on back in a portrait.

Ahem. "Headmaster? I'll go with you, but...how exactly are we going to do this? They don't exactly seem like the type that'll just let us pop 'em on back in," she politely pointed out. "Is there a...plan?" ...and if there wasn't, somebody else could deal with Gryffindor. She was volunteering to convince ole loyal Hufflepuff back in.

Fiona had indeed been right in her assumption. It was something to do with the Hogwarts founding four. Fiona folded her arms as she listened to the Headmaster. After his speech, she noticed that a couple of her fellow students were joining his team. Fiona decided to join Professor Noble's team so she began to search for where he was.

Jina made it to the courtyard just in time to listen to the headmaster's speech. She guessed that the emergency assembly had something to do with the founders walking around the castle. She was generally unaware of happenings at school that did not concern her directly, but of course she had heard about Professor de Nostredame's injury. She hoped he was alright ...

She understood the importance of returning the founders back to their portraits, so she decided to help as best as she could. Also, she was hungry and wanted to eat dinner soon! She moved to join Professor Recard's team. (Where was she?)

Though Nina respected Headmaster Trent very much he was so handsome, she didn't like any of this. Why was it their job to fix this chaos? They were students! Nina had EXAMS to worry about. Besides, finding portraits was far too simple of a solution to actually work in their favor. Nina had doubts.

And if it were anyone but Trent who had asked this of them, she would have immediately opted out. Because it was him, however, she would help. For a bit, at least. It all depended on how fruitful the search would be. The question as to whose team she would choose was fairly easy. After that one potions lesson, Nina was very much still upset with Professor Noble and would be avoiding him as much as possible. His words had hurt and he had embarrassed her in front of the entire class.

In Nina's eyes, Professor Recard was not suitable leader. She had let Rowena Ravenclaw derail her entire class. So obviously Nina would be joining the Headmaster's team.

Until she saw Curtis Fuller doing so.

Which immediately prompted Nina to move towards Professor Recard instead.

Hands stuffed into his pockets, Gus stood watch over the students that were gathered. And then as they were being dispersed into groups, he moved over toward Healer Recard. He liked the idea of going with her group. She seemed like she could take care of them if they ran into any trouble. ObViously he'd be there for deputy assistance but uh...... he would take a back seat for that. Maybe they'd run into a plant kind of problem! Or maybe not and he'd just get to be a helping hand or ensure students safely got to the bathroom.

To avoid another Mathys situation.

Yikes.

Missa's hungry stomach couldn't stomach this. But clearly she could do nothing but abide by this non-negotiable assembly. The mention of the creatures professor and what the lunatic founders had done so far made her take this more seriously though.

Solemnly nodding to herself, Missa moved toward Professor Noble's team - since there was hopeful comfort that Eiji might be doing the same.

Okay but was Professor De Nostredame going to make a full recovery? Cecelia had come to REALLY enjoy his classes and she was feeling all SORTS of upset over what had happened to the guy. What made it WORSE was that Gryffindor had been the one to hurt him! She was a Gryffindor and she wondered if this meant he'd hold it against her and the rest of the lions forever. She really, really, REALLY hoped not.

Moving over to Headmaster Trent, the second year gave his sleeve a gentle tug. "You don't think they'll hurt us too, do you?" Because she wasn't THAT great at defensive spells yet, 'specially not if someone was waving a sword around in her general direction.

The questions they had thus far were not unexpected ones, especially given...Gryffindor's penchant for....overreacting. That was why none of the students would be going off on their own parties. No telling what the quack would do. Slytherin was no better but at least had not tried to physically assault anyone.

"No worries on that account, Bellchant. There's a plan and I daresay they don't have a choice of whether they want to be popped back in at this point."

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Fuller-Thompson walking over to him and internally cringed. It wasn't that he particularly disliked and had a vendetta against the boy, but he didn't like him either and had been given no reason this entire term to change that. Quite the opposite.

But this was no time for petty squabbles so he simply nodded to the boy before Precious Bean #3 caught his attention with her question. "I think they'll be wise not to, but not to worry, my dear, if they make an attempt, your Headmaster will take care of it." He'd never standby and let it happen but they wouldn't leave them unattended while they went searching. That was how hostage situations happened.

"Let's not dilly dally, with me now. We've got a lot of searching to do."

Oh, hmm, they were going on a portrait hunt, huh? Bernie was thinking they might need a few more students than this because there were LITERALLY HUNDREDS of portraits in the castle. However, maybe they could get the GOOD portraits to help them look for the founders' empty frames, right? Right?

Either way, she found herself drifting toward Professor Noble's team. Bernie was not so eager to encounter Gryffindor again, and had a feeling he would try to stop the Headmaster. Which founder would have a problem with the Potions master? Probably none of them, because he was a L E G I T professor. So she'd follow him, they'd snag a founder's frame, and get this all wrapped up before dinner, as the Headmaster had said. Because she was hungry for dinner already.

Yup, wherever Trent went, Phoebe was going to. He was the only person who could be trusted to keep them safe. To be fair, he'd kept them (mostly) safe last term when things went nutso when everyone else would have let Phoebe end up in jail. JAIL. AS A PRETEEN.

So she was going with Trent. The end.

This was all very The Picture of Dorian Gray, wasn't it? The novel version, not the film. Novels always did tend to be the superior versions of storytelling anyway. Maybe they could stab Godric Gryffindor's portrait with his own sword. Yes, the sixth year was still salty over his near decapitation. Was anyone really surprised by that?

Of course his instincts had him stepping towards the headmaster...that is until he saw his Head of House's son moving that direction and he veered a hard right to move away from that forming group. Thankfully Missa had as well and he felt a haughty tug in his chest when he saw her stand with Professor Noble - because obviously she had selected him because she knew this Slytherin would do the same.

Even if that loud little Gryffindor was joining them. She was ... moderately tolerable. And, ironically, they shared a similar thought which - had she voiced it aloud - would have earned her a sliver of respect.

"Professor Noble," he spoke soundly as he approached the Potions Master. "Do you think the pureblood portraits would be on our side if we were to ask them the location of the other portraits? Like Helga Hufflepuff's or Godric Gryffindor's?" he inquired. Since his own house's founder had been particularly focused on certain changes, perhaps those two founders who had historically been more opposed to Slytherin would be more easily betrayed.

The first thing that popped into Isla's mind was that she had been address as 'Bellchant', whereas Cecilia had been address as 'my dear'. Did that make Isla what they call the 'black sheep'? Maybe she should scurry off with Noble or Recard after all? Maybe she was just overreacting, but she could suddenly picture herself being "thrown to the wolves" when push came to shove.

Okay, that was just silly. Who cared what Trent called her, as long as it wasn't 'Ole Flobberworm' or something like that. Her mind was officially way off track and trailing off in places that would get her absolutely nowhere right now. Apparently, they were going on a scavenger hunt, and as Trent had said, they shouldn't dilly dally.

The first year turned on her heels and headed off after Trent and company.

Noble had been near the back of the gathering, standing tall in his navy robes and on full alert as the Headmaster spoke. It was never a good sign when they were called to an assembly in the courtyard, and beneath his furrowed brow, his gaze moved over the students. Somehow, he couldn't help but think Malachi was glossing over things; nothing about the founders he'd encountered so far gave him the impression that they'd just 'pop' back into their frames as easily as they'd apparently popped out of them. Even with whatever plan Malachi insisted they had. More than likely, this was going to be something between a wild goose chase and looking for a needle in a haystack, though he wouldn't say no to any of the founders being gone. Helga's insistence that he eat more had become stifling, even for a gastronome like him, not to say of the other disturbances around the castle or Gryffindor's attack on de Nostredame.

"Those of you coming with me, move this way," Noble said, waving his arm to gather them as he spotted Missa, Eiji, Bernadette and Fiona already heading in his direction. "We'll take the lower floors of the castle, starting at the bottom and work our way up to meet the others." And at Eiji's suggestion, he gave a thoughtful nod. "Quite possibly, and given the number of pictures hung in this castle, well worth a try."

"Now, wands out as we head back inside..." Better to be safe, even if he didn't know whether their magic could actually effect a reanimated painting.

One minute they were all standing there and then the next the students are now deciding which professor they will be grouping with in the search of the founders. Jillian noticed that Professor De Nostredame just suddenly went idle at school but she didn't know that the poor man was suffering because of what Godric Gryffindor did to him. That must have really hurt and she's hoping that he is doing okay.

When it came down to deciding for this group thing, Jillian just started walking when the rest did and stood into the group with Headmaster Trent. She did smile politely at everyone and turned to the headmaster when he spoke once again, leading the students to their location to find the founders.

This will be.... fun.

Doing as instructed, his wand clutched in his hand which he idly twirled around his fingers, Eiji glanced over at Missa with a look that quietly requested she stayed close. He was hardly fearful for his life, though the mention of the former Beauxbatons professor now being in Mungo's was concerning, but he didn't want her out of his sight. She could get dragged into a portrait, which would be stressful enough to deal with even with - according to rumors - there being an easy fix for that to be undone.

And while he wanted to hold her hand, it was impractical to do so. Plus he did not want Professor Noble to scoff at him or otherwise have any certain opinion about him.

So, the sixth year simply nodded and followed the Potions Master back inside the castle.

She had been there and had been quiet. Listening to all that was being said and her mouth went open when talk of the COMC professor was brought up. She wished she had hit Gryffindor with a spell that day in class.

She thought back to the first time she had seen her own founder and where that location was. As they picked groups to go with she decided to just follow Trent, though she glanced to see if other teams seemed to have less. With everyone going different places she shrugged and just followed the headmaster.

Gabi had been hanging out behind Trent, listening intently as he explained what was going on and delegating everyone in to groups. This whole situation was peculiar and frustrating, and she admired the way he was staying so calm about everything. Merlin knew she likely wouldn't be as collected if she had been in his shoes.

"Everyone coming with me - we'll be headed towards the clocktower," she explained. It was a good place to scope out the grounds, once you climbed up to the top - and since the founders seemed to be trying to start some sort of uprising against Trent, they may be using it for recon purposes as well. So it was as good a place to start as any. She beckoned them to follow her as she turned on her heel and headed that direction. Chop chop, people!

With Professor Rainwater joining their team, hopefully there would be some level of competence between the two Professors present. Because let it be known, Nina Castillo would not be putting herself in the line of fire. She fully intended on shielding herself behind someone else as soon as there was any sort of confrontation with the House Founders.

Sacrifice? That was what Gryffindors were for. Except Calyx. She wouldn't allow him to do something so stupid.

And..... They were headed to the clocktower. Nina regretted everything immediately. But the other groups were off, which meant she was following Healer Recard. Was it too late to opt out?

Rowan followed Missa's gaze around the courtyard, noticing all the students talking with one another. There truly were a lot of people here, and while it was overwhelming, it was comforting to know he was surrounded by people just like him. Turning his attention back to Missa, he nodded. "I will, for sure." He said. "As for friends, I think I've met a few people, but haven't really gotten close enough yet." He shrugged. He was trying his best, at least, though it was hard with the business of classes sometimes. He did fancy Bernadette though, she was always fun to be around and he liked being her friend.

Aaaand now the older Ravenclaw was offering to be his first real friend. The boy could CRY (of happiness, of course). How was she so kind?! He smiled up at her. "That would be awesome," he said, shaking her outstretched hand, feeling the shyness in him fully wash away.