Okay, the Professor gives me complex motives vibes. Their initial interactions seem that of someone being forced to do something, which for a mighty dragon would chafe something terrible. The fact they also seem to have partial mind reading power( hinted at by Legundo’s latest conversation) means they know much more than they let on yet rarely interfere. The one factor that I keep coming back to for this behavior is that we do not know if they are bonded to a person or who that is. From Jibble(Jubble?) we see that dragons that are unbonded are either incredibly slow growing or are limited by a lack of magic in an area (or he has dwarfism of some variety). If the Professor was not around for the predecessors time then they are likely bonded to someone. The most likely candidate is the Queen or a high ranking official. The wildest potential bond would be Junipers mother considering what Juniper said about dragon bonding showing hereditary tendencies. If the Professor is bonded to the queen and she has , let’s say less than genuine intentions for the academy they would know. There is a whole thing about Summer/ Winter or Seelie/ Unseelie fae and how they trick and interact with mortals that are pinging for me with the Realm of Summer and Realm of Eternal Storm. Summer fae on the surface can be inviting and sweet but are prone to truly horrible deals when they want; sweet words to horrible traps. Winter fae are also capable of this but are more outwardly horrifying, they don’t hide their brutality;if they are gonna screw you over they are more straightforward. The strange thing is the winter fae are said to be the ones to bargain with if you are in the unenviable position of needing to. Winter fae are transactional in bargains ,they will ruthlessly enforce that bargain but they are less likely to bargain for frivolous things so you better have something they deeply want or need. Less likely to add flowery worded traps to the bargain but still capable.The Queen gives summer fae vibes 100% . I think there are some ancient wrongs fueling this conflict and the corruption that she knows about.