Ancient Runes Lesson Three [All Years]

The sun had not yet risen over the school's ancient grounds; most sensible students and staff still lay in bed and only flickering torchlight illuminated the darkness. The only sound to be heard was the occasional frenzied twitter of birds and the soft crunch of frost underfoot. While most had slept through the night Andrei Kessler had not slept a wink.

Three weeks prior he had distributed permission slips to all his students. Those who had attended his second lesson hopefully picked up the slips in person and those who did not had hopefully received them by owl. Normally, a class such as his did not require such formalities. However, there would be nothing normal about today's class in the slightest as not only would it bring together students of all years, but would also necessitate traveling beyond the school's boundaries.

Yes, a field trip or, as Andrei preferred to call it, an expedition.

Pulling his tattered traveling cloak around him tightly, the runes professor came to a halt a few steps from the forbidden forest. Stuck into the frosted ground stood a long shovel whose gnarled wooden handle seemed just about ready to snap in two. The unassuming excavation implement would serve as the first step in this third lesson.

With any luck, he wouldn't be left waiting in the lightless morning for very long.

[I'll be starting this lesson in roughly a week, so if you'd like to participate please post here before then. Do know that once we start it will require a bit of back and forth so keep an eye out!]

While Mercy generally wasn't a fan of the subject, she had to admit the Ancient Runes professor knew how to pique her interest. Runes themselves made very little sense to Mercy; however, Professor Kessler did well enough making his lessons interactive, and archeological expeditions (especially those involving potential ancient curses and unforseen dangers) were right up her alley.

As such, she couldn't wait to go on this field trip. She'd gotten her permission slip signed as soon as she received it, and her parents simply couldn't say no when they saw how excited she was about a class. School had never been her favourite thing, and Ancient Runes in particular was not a class they would expect her to be passionate about. In truth, she wasn't. But any excuse to get out of the classroom, and out adventuring in the great wide world, was enough for her.

Mercy overslept slightly that morning, but the anticipation quickly chased away the last vestiges of sleep from her brain. She stuffed all of the essentials--her permission slip, some snacks, a water bottle, her wand, and her phone--into her backpack, and threw it over her shoulder, before bounding down the stairs two at a time, and dashing across the grounds to meet the large group gathered at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She had yet to venture in there--it was on her list of things to do, she just hadn't gotten around to it yet. She still had six more years to explore, so there was no rush.

Since she'd arrived a little later than most people, she found herself standing on the outskirts of the group, and she couldn't see much around the older students. She didn't mind much, as it seemed like nothing was really happening yet. When she thought there was something to see, she would weave her way toward the front of the group, but for now, she was content to wait near the back.

The pleasantries—as they always did—came first. A few good mornings here, some friendly nods there, and in no time at all a good-sized group stood at the foot of the forbidden forest. Announcing a field trip really did wonders for attendance, go figure. Interestingly though, it seemed that only one student out of the bunch had an ounce of foresight and gave him her permission slip, not that he’d blame the rest in the slightest—it was still early.

“Thank you very much, Miss. Smith,” Andrei honestly never knew how to go about tackling those hyphenated names and went out on a limb with the Hufflepuff’s name before raising his voice so the whole class could hear. “Good morning, everyone; I hope you slept well because we have quite a day ahead of us. Before we begin can I please get everyone’s permission slips?”

Hopefully, the students had gathered their wits enough to go about this process in some semblance of an orderly manner—death via mob of teenagers would be less than optimal at this point in his life.  Regardless, he’d thank each student who presented him with the required form with a soft murmur. Then, once all the students had turned in their respective slips, the runes professor thumbed through the documents quickly before folding them into one the many bottomless pockets in his cloak.

“Very good, very good,” he affirmed with a nod to no one in particular. “Now, for those of you who do not know, this is a portkey.”

He gestured to the shovel as he spoke.

“It will serve as the doorway to our final lesson. If this is your first time traveling by portkey I will admit it isn’t the most pleasant thing in the world, but it is pretty straightforward: grab the shovel wherever you can, hold on tight, and no matter what you do don’t let go until you feel solid ground beneath your feet.”

Thankfully it seemed that everyone would have just enough room to hold onto the shovel’s handle.

“So, everyone gather round and grab on, next stop Egypt.”

Waiting until everyone had taken up a position around the portkey, Andrei stepped forward, glanced around at what was hopefully a circle of students to make sure everyone had a firm grip, and placed his hand atop the pommel of the shovel. The golden wedding ring on his right hand that served as the portkey’s catalyst burned slightly, but the pain soon gave way to nausea as the world began to seemingly spin out of control. He never much liked portkeys or apparating for this very reason, it felt like someone was turning your stomach inside out.

Probably less than a minute passed before the spinning stopped and the former coolness of the school grounds was replaced by a dry heat. The shovel, which had been stuck into the freezing ground before, now found itself stuck hilt deep in sand. Taking a breath, Andrei couldn’t help but smile ever so slightly: they’d made it safely.

“Class, let me be the first to welcome you all to the valley of kings,” he announced with more than a hint of showmanship and a grand flourish of his hands. “Today we’ll be visiting one of the lesser known tombs of the god-king Hankeman and his wife Nefret.”

These two rulers were of particular interest to the wizarding community because they were one of Egypt’s first magical leaders from the new kingdom era. And, more importantly, their burial place had been shrouded from Muggles, which would allow the class to explore with impunity. In fact, the portkey had transported the class just a few hundred meters from the tomb’s entrance and well within the protective veil—the runes professor wasn’t about to let his class roam free through Egypt, that would be asking for trouble.

“While all the more dangerous traps have been neutralized you will find some more innocuous ones here and there,” the older man started making his way towards the entrance hopefully with his class in tow. “I’ve arranged with the dig team to give us free reign for the next couple hours to explore as we see fit. The artifacts and hieroglyphs here are protected by certain charms that prevent their removal or destruction, but that does not mean you should go touching them. Please be respectful.”

Looking more like a giant fissure in the ground than anything else and marked by yellow tape, the entrance came into view. The stairs that led downwards opened up into a large main chamber adorned with gold as far as the eye could see with walls covered in writing and lit by smokeless torches of eternal flame. Branching off from the main chamber was a maze of other chambers filled with treasure beyond one’s wildest imagining—this was the find of a lifetime and Andrei had to cash in more than a few favors to get access.  

“Today’s class will focus on transcription,” Andrei paused at the entrance of the tomb. “I’d like you to sift through the runic script you find here, identify the symbols you know, and copy them down. Just be aware that what I suppose we’d call ‘font’ nowadays might make familiar symbols look foreign so keep a sharp eye and open mind, but most of all have fun, it’s a field trip. If you have questions I’ll be up here, best of luck.”

Stepping away from the entrance, Andrei made room for the class to descend into the depths of the royal tomb. What they’d find below? Well, that would be up to them and how adventurous each student was. Of course, they wouldn’t find anything remotely life-threatening as Andrei had combed over the tomb himself, but he had failed to mention the presence of more than a few ghosts and rune-powered illusions.

Oh well; in the meantime, he’d see to getting breakfast ready.

[Forgive me, I had to take some liberties to make sure this thread moved smoothly. Feel free to let your imagination run wild from here on out!]