[Dulcie is very anxious to meet her students, talk to as many of them as she can, so she's even ferreting out the ones who are hiding. Maybe looking for them more than anyone, since they're the most likely to need a friendly face.

Not a friend. She has to be a teacher above all else. But these kids need support as well, and she can offer that in her capacity as faculty member.

She's crossing the grounds for a quick breather when she spots one of those more distant students reading a book. He doesn't look lonely or lost, exactly, but his very solitude draws her over; it's the book that makes her speak up. The Two Towers.]

I said "No!" out loud when I first finished that book. My parents had fallen asleep during a TV movie, it nearly scared the life out of them.