Beginning of Term Staff Meeting

"Hmm?" she finished off her bite of pastry and set her spoon down as she swallowed. Nervousness was flaring up a bit but so was excitement for the endeavor ahead of them. "Ah yes, well, I strongly think that we need to proceed carefully. Focus on the basics of each subject. These students will have to start somewhere and we can't just drop them into the lake and expect them to swim laps." She fixed her gaze on Salazar for a moment before continuing.

"As such, I know we need to let each one be evaluated by Lady Moore on just how much they can read and write and proceed to tailor our subjects from there. I plan on discussing what Divination is, as well as the basics of enchantment charms," she revealed her focus for at least the first week or two. "Any student who is still lacking in a wand for example should be taken to Ollivander's in the village post haste, so that they may begin to learn how to properly channel their magic through it."

"I know that I don't mind sharing in the cost of providing wands to those students in need of one," she stated. "As I'm sure the two of you will agree, given that some of our future students come from unknown origins and mundane family lives." She figured that Helga would agree one hundred percent but Salazar might be iffy about providing his own funding for those in his house.

Helga blinked a few times, taking a moment to go over not just her friends words and the tone of admirations not often woven in them but the gut fueled laugh he had expressed just before them. While she didn't think brooms enchanted to help with daily cleaning was anything impressive, it did seem as though they were a rather cleaver defense system should someone try to sneak in as well as sneak out.

 She smiled, muffling a small chuckle between her lips as she gave her head a light shake. No, she fully expected their tardy friend to have a rather rough encounter with the brooms and she hoped he wouldn't be too mad about it. Maybe with an extra dessert later that could earn some forgiveness for what was a harmless mistake. It did cause the image of Godric to form in her mind, swinging his sword around as four or five brooms beat their straw ends against him. She couldn't help but agree it was a sight not to be missed if given the chance to witness.

Helga went for a few bite of her pastry as they seemed ready to get the meeting going with Godric. He would catch up no doubt once he finished the battle of the brooms no doubt. She turned her attention to Rowena as her best friend kicked off the meeting. She gave an occasional nod along the way, setting down her plate and reaching for her goblet when the topic shifted to wands and providing for those who may not have the means to the rather important tool to any witch or wizard.

"I don't mind at all, I insist in fact on in fact and it doesn't matter if they are in my house or anothers. Heaven knows how important a wand is and the sooner they have one fitted to their growing magic and bright soul the better." she replied, giving Rowena a warm smile then a moment later she took a small drink of wine from her goblet and set it back down again.

"Well, of course they must have a wand. I have yet to meet the witch or wizard who can do magic without one." He waved Rowena off, having a feeling that she was directing this slight at him. Of course he would see the students of his house properly outfitted or else their time would be completely wasted. "I suggest that that is handled day one. We should each be waiting upon the students arrival and before they are granted access to the school itself, if they have not a wand, then we send them down to Olivanders. Lady Moore seems like she could handle the process well while we greet the others.

"At the end of the day, after the feast has concluded, Lady Moore shall give us the tally and, once we've contributed our share, I will head down and pay the man for his products.

"I shall cover Godric's portion, whereas I think if he presents his brother with one more bill from this place, his Grace will likely have an apoplexy. Then again, that makes Godric the heir and no longer will he had to beg and scrape for every coin he gets..." Hmm, the idea had merit that's for certain. Hell, he would have taken care of the miser long ago. However, Godric seemed to take it in stride so Salazar had as well - for the time being. If it continued, however, Salazar would refused to be responsible for his actions.

"As for evaluating their skills as far as reading and writing, that will make things all the more trickier. But are you certain Lady Moore is up to the task? While I have no doubts she is capable of teaching, evaluating where everyone is and setting a lesson plan for each one accordingly might be too large a task for her, dear thing." There was a tone in his voice. While he trusted Godric's idea of letting his baby sister teach at the school, it was just to get her out of the house. Teaching letters and numbers were easy enough but evaluating each student's level and their capabilities definitely seemed beyond her simple capabilities.

Rowena nodded as Helga agreed as she thought she would and turned toward Salazar. His answer surprised her slightly and quite frankly got her dander up. Her brows rose slightly at his declaration that he had never known a witch or wizard that had been able to do magic without a wand. While she wasn't skilled with wandless magic, she had had a few successes in her time.

"You are telling me that in all of your travels you've never met a witch or wizard who could perform wandless magic?" she bubbled up with laughter. "You are sitting across from one and I had thought your pursuits for magical perfection would have led you to attempt it. Surely someone of your prodigious skill could accomplish that."

"With that said, I agree that the students should be first taken to Ollivander's," she said with an incline of her head. "And I agree to you settling the bill once we've all pitched in. However, I do not agree that Lady Moore isn't up to the task of a preliminary judgment of whether or not students can read or write well enough to keep up with our instruction. Surely it is as simple as having the students write out their name or read a passage from a book. I would take but a moment of time for each student to complete and she would notate who struggled and who did not."

Rowena looked over at Helga hoping for some backup here. She had every faith that Lady Moore could handle it otherwise she felt compelled to step in and do it herself, regardless of the fact she didn't have that kind of time on her hands.

As the two Founders looked to Helga to settled the dispute, their fourth finally decided to make his entrance in a grandiose manner. The door blew open and there was a sharp bark from the door as Godric came bursting in and quickly slammed the door behind him, breathing hard as he leaned against it. Rhiannon had just barely gotten her tail in before the door shut quickly behind him.

"Bloody hell! Someone's set all the brooms to attack! I fought off the ones that I encountered in the kitchen but I thought I heard more of them coming!" His face was all scratched up, his hair tousled messily, and a small rent in the knee of his pants. "We need to find the others and warn them!"

"Then allow me to contribute to Godrics portion as well, I wouldn't want what remains of the good faith and trust between my brother-in-laws to become dented any further. Besides, I will owe him a rather large debt depending on how many times the brooms attack him coming into the castle covered in dirt." Helga said turning to Salazar. 

She turned to look forward at the empty chair across from her, exhaling a small breath realizing her mistake as the pair raised the debate on wandless magic. "Though I do believe I may have chosen my words earlier a little poorly. Naturally in one form or another we all can do wandless magic, either from the first time it bursts alive through us or on the occasion we manage a spell without the use of a wand. What I should have said was that it was important to have a wand if to help the learning and control of magic as they absorb the lessons we teach. Its more a tool of necessity in order to provide aid in growth and strength. While it is possible to do wandless magic and by no means should it be full counted out, its important we imply the need of one while our students are here to learn magic." Helga explained, hoping to put the discussion to rest for now or at least put it aside until the meeting was over and the pair could go at it as much as they wanted to. 

Helga turned to Rowena as another topic seemed to spark a debate between her two friends. She knew Lady Moore a little bit here and there, hearing about her more from her sister's letters then from the actual person. While the young woman seemed more than capable to handle the task, she could see Salazar's hesitance to put the weight of such work on the young woman. "Given the weight of the task at hand, the key here is having it in capable hands that will do the task with the importance it deserves. When it comes to Lady Moore I would have to agree with Row..." before she could voice the remainder of her thoughts the attention of the room was sharply brought to the door as their missing friend finally entered with a loud slam of the door behind him.

"Good heavens Godric. Are you alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't think the brooms would have given you that much of a beating" Helga said, quickly getting to her feet and hurrying over to him. She didn't think the brooms would be this responsive and suddenly wondering if the charm had been set to strong. Granted in their defense he was layered with a light dusting of dirt. She ushered him towards his chair, being careful of Rhiannon as she followed at his feet and away from the door with a calm but firm "Sit sit" every other step. 

"I should go check on the brooms, if you came in through the kitchen entrance no doubt the house elves are in a confused state on what to do. Be back in a moment." She added as she looked around at the other two. Her sudden idea to help keep things clean suddenly seemed like a terrible idea but a rather good defense system. A blended worry fueling her energy, Helga excused herself and hurried calmly from the room. 

A few minutes later she returned with a small bowl held securely in her hands. "Ive tasked a few of the house elves with repairing the damaged brooms and for now the charm has been removed until I can rework it a bit better." Helga explained as she stepped around the table towards Godric and set the bowl down on the floor for Rhiannon containing cool water with a hint of beef broth. An apology for the distress of the brooms she figured and with it delivered she returned to the other side of the table and her empty chair. Taking a seat she exhaled a small breath as she took a moment to recollect her self and her focus to the meeting.

At Godric's entrance, Salazar could only stare at the man who was, in fact, covered in a fine layer of dirt as usual. Just a bit dusty with a single leaf in his hair, which was an improvement to what was usual. Rowena wouldn't care for it but that was just the way their friend was. No matter what Godric did, he threw himself fully into a task to do it the right way and that was at least commendable.

However, he could only control his amusement for so long. At the declaration that they needed to warn the others, Salazar lost it completely. Hunched over, bursting out with laughter at the slightly deranged, panicked look on Godric's face and then befuddlement as Helga quickly hopped up and explained on her way out what had happened. Salazar hardly heard it though, laughing as hard as he was. He didn't even notice or care immediately when he dropped his pie and Rhiannon was there to scoop it up sneakily (or as sneakily as a dog that size can) before heading to curl partially around her master's usual chair.

By the time Helga returned, Godric had recovered and was sharing in the laughter from the chair he'd taken before Helga had departed the room. Salazar was wiping the tears from his eyes, having enjoyed the joke immensely. Though it hadn't been meant as one, it was still a rather good play at their friend's expense. Perhaps it would teach Godric to be in the castle and attend his meetings on time, for once. So a lesson through consequence - no better teacher really, in Salazar's opinion. And in Godric's as well, considering all the talks they had had.

Now noticing that his treat was now gone, Salazar glared at the dog at his friend's feet, who was now happily lapping up the broth Helga had brought with her. Using his wand, he levitated the fourth pie to himself. "Your dog ate yours." He explained to Godric, an eyebrow arched as a dare to complain. Considering the man knew that Rhiannon was not supposed to be in here in the first place, said man hadn't a leg to stand on. Just to make the possession of the pie clear, he took a deliberate bite.

"Hopefully the house elfs are not too upset." He said quite cordially. Those little creatures were invaluable and this school likely wouldn't be able to function without them. Even if they were just servants, he knew that Helga thought more of them than that and Salazar could respect her feelings, even if he didn't agree with her on her stance.

"Now then, where were we before the interruption?" Salazar questioned Rowena. He knew but she was better at recounting things for Godric's sake, sticking to facts instead of the emotions involved. Speaking of facts, while he took his second bite, he checked his closest friend for signs of blood. Damn - he owed Helga five galleons.

Rowena made a slight face of disapproval as Godric entered looking like a wildman who had just attempted to tame a foul beast. She sighed and was tempted to pinch the bridge of her nose as Helga set about sitting Godric down before scurrying off to handle the brooms. She looked over at Salazar who was laughing it up and shook her head, her eyes rolling as Godric joined in.

Once Helga returned and gave a status report she murmured something unintelligible before looking back at Salazar. As always her posture was perfect though she mentally straightened up.

"We have already discussed paying for wands for those students who cannot afford one due to their familial circumstances, and this will be done day one," she recounted. "I believe we were discussing the task of testing the students on their abilities to read and write and whether or not Lady Moore is up to the task. I firmly believe it is a simple case and that yes she can handle it. Salazar is of the dissenting opinion, but I believe Helga was about to agree with me when you came in."

She looked between Godric and Helga expectantly. "To reiterate, it is my belief that something simple as writing one's name and reading a passage from a tome should suffice to see who needs more work than others and that Lady Moore can more than handle that easily," she explained for context.

Godric narrowed his eyes as Salazar. What should have been Helga's amazing rabbit (from the smell of things) pastry that she had brought for him was now in the hands of his friend. Was it worth the fight? Looking down at the happy dog at his feet, he realized it wasn't so bad. At least it had gone to someone who had earned it tonight.

At the announcement that the others had agreed to pay for wands of those who could not afford it themselves, he managed to control the wince. Gifford was going to kill him but he had to pay his share. Maybe the rents from his land would be right this time and he could pay for it himself without having to beg. So degrading but he refused to not add his share.

Being a second son had never bothered him before but now that he was undergoing this endeavor, never had he felt it so keenly.

Thus, he simply nodded in agreement to the suggestion and listened as Rowena continued. Godric gave his friend the evil eye when it was admitted that Salazar did not believe that Gwen could handle the evaluation of the students' abilities. Then again, Salazar had never had siblings and he had not had much to do with the young lady other than hear of her from Godric's own tales of her silliness as a child. No wonder he did not believe in her, as the stories were all about her more naive nature.

"My sister is quite capable of the task, I assure you my friend. She's been teaching longer than any of the rest of us have, starting with her dolls at the age of six and her own friends from village when she was about ten." Salazar opened his mouth to say something but Godric already knew what he was going to say. They were too good of friends for him not to know. "Considering when our dear Rowena asked you to teach her to make a wand, you just dumped her in a fen with a farewell and good luck, I say that really doesn't count as teaching. So let's trust the people we hired and stick to our own duties. We have more than enough of them already."

Helga exhaled a sigh, raising her wand she tapped the empty tray and several more pastries appeared as warm and freshly steaming as the first batch had been. She had learned a long time ago not to underestimate the stomach of the male gender. From children to elder adult they could eat quite a feast if given the opportunity and it was a good thing she excelled at filling those stomachs with food. 

She gave her wand a small flick, raising a pastry up from the tray and hovering it towards Godric across the table from her. "There are plenty to go around, no need to fight over the last one." She muttered as she then wave over a goblet and filled it with wine before setting it down on the table. The two tasks done, she returned her hand and wand to her lap for the time being. The refilling charm would take the next refill of pastry should the tray become empty again.

Settled in her seat once again, Helga returned her attention to Rowena and their interrupted conversation. She gave a subtle nod as Godric gave his opinion, he would know the best out of the three of them when it came to his sisters abilities. 

"I must agree as well. For a task like this I think Lady Moore is more than capable of the task should it be as Rowena explained. With her education and experience not to mention her hearing and penmanship is rather good given the brothers example it is compared too." Helga said, shooting Godric a look knowing she plenty of examples should he try to deny it. "In a way she would be an impartial third judge on the matter, had each of us done it to our new students the results would not be consistent as we have different opinions on levels of skill. Besides we each still have a list of things to do that would impact our judgement on the testing as well, its better we have someone with a lighter workload to assign to the task. We can always double check her findings should they not feel right but otherwise it seems like Lady Moore can see to the test just fine." 

She felt a bit bad for the three of them disagreeing with Salazar. While yes they didn't always agree it also wasn't often it was a clear line on the decision vote of 3 to 1. Helga glanced at her friend, not wanting to fully look at him should he be upset or annoyed they had disagreed with him. No need to get him uncomfortable when the meeting had just begun after all.