Professor McGonagall looked down at the letter on her desk with mixed feelings. She really wished the students would have told her where they were going before they had taken off, so that she could at least know where they were and offer them some words of advice, or perhaps a protective spell or two, before they went on their way. She didn't exactly disapprove of their absence, but she really wished they had thought to leave her more of an explanation than:

Dear Professor McGonagall—
Me, Harry, Ron, Ethan, Isabel, Rochelle, and Matt have left Hogwarts for the next few days to complete our current quest to locate and destroy You-Know-Who's horcruxes, so that Harry can come closer to his ultimate destiny of destroying the most evil wizard known to man. We apologize for leaving school on such short notice, and we ask for you to please excuse our absences. We will send Hedwig to your office every day so that you can send us our homework assignments and—
I apologize, Professor. Hermione had a lapse of judgment when she asked you for our homework assignments. As you know, we will be off looking for one of You-Know-Who's horcruxes and won't have any time to do homework or even study. So instead of asking for our homework to be sent to us via Hedwig, we would like to ask you to please give us perfect marks for the next few days—
Please excuse Ron, Professor. He just doesn't want to have homework. Well, neither do I, but Hermione is watching me pen this letter and I know that if I tell the truth then she will bash me over the head with her Transfiguration textbook like she did to Ron. So please send us our homework every morning. Thank you!
Yours truly,
Hermione Granger
Ron Weasley
Harry Potter
PS: I'm sorry for infiltrating and then skipping school with Rochelle, Isabel, and Matt, but we really do have to look after Harry. I'm sure you understand. After all—
Before Ethan goes of on a tangent, I would like to warn you about this one person whose thoughts I picked up in the Three Broomsticks. I'm not entirely sure if the thinker might be a threat, but I just wanted to be sure that you could—
I'm sorry Rochelle is so paranoid, Professor; it's probably a side-effect of her previous training in the Order of Chaos. As we have explained to you, the Order of Chaos is the bad guys in our world. Therefore—
Professor, please disregard Matt's distrust of Rochelle. They have a history together and my brother is still somewhat sore, since their relationship ended when he found out that she was just using him to further the Order's goals. I know that does sound a bit… malevolent… but I swear to you that Rochelle has changed. You can ask Ethan to vouch for this fact, since he has always had a bit of a soft spot for her. Anyway, this letter is already longer than it should have been, so I am just going to close this postscript and send this letter to you.
Your favorite infiltrators,
Ethan Roberts
Rochelle Thallimar
Matt Becket
Isabel Becket

Professor McGonagall sat back in her chair in her office, trying to make some sense out of the letter. It was obvious that the seven students had gone to get the horcruxes, but the rest of the letter was so full of "Please excuse us"'s and "Please ignore this person"'s that she couldn't make any more sense out of it. She would just have to trust that the seven of them would be able to take care of themselves on this mission… and how could they not, as two wizards, a witch, and four Guardian bodyguards?