The Study of Ancient Runes — Lesson 1

Blue really wasn’t Andrei Kessler’s color or at least so his wife told him. It didn’t go with his wardrobe, it marginalized his watery blue eyes, and it drew attention away from his face. Andrei, however, had a different opinion of the color which he kept to himself in hopes of appeasing his wife’s unyielding fashion sense. Of course, it was no orange, but he rather liked how the Ravenclaw blue tie he now wore complimented his normal tweed jacket and indicated his newest role at Hogwarts, head of Ravenclaw house.

Unfortunately, along with his place as the head of Ravenclaw house came a headache. This headache masqueraded under the deceptively prodigious title of ‘deputy headmaster’. From day one he had to deal with what he dubbed the Hollingberry-Seele incident or, more appropriately, the Hollingberry-Seele tragedy. Press releases, parents, and lawyers; Andrei developed a fleeting hate for these three things. That said, standing once more at the head of his classroom on the sixth floor, such problems felt miles away.

Taking a breath of the stale air, the runes professor smiled to himself, it felt good to be back.

His classroom hadn’t changed much since the previous year. Each desk still stood perfectly aligned in a neat grid, the windows still seemed to be coated with a generous veneer of dust, and his modest desk still sat at the front of the classroom looking as if it were ready to collapse under the ever-growing pile of books atop it. In fact, the only noticeable difference from the year before could be found in the varying artifacts that lined the walls. Replacing the Egyptian theme of the previous year, this year’s decor leaned towards a distinctly Nordic flavor with rune-inscribed axes, swords, and armors of every shape and size making the space look less like a classroom and more like an over-stocked armory.

On the blackboard, written in Andrei’s slanting cursive, read a single word, ‘Runestones’. Today’s lesson would center on one of his discipline’s mainstays, Norse amulets. After all, when most people thought of runes they normally thought—if they thought at all about such things—of Egyptian hieroglyphics and Norse runes. Yes, today would be a fun day for all involved; a bit of theory and a bit of application of said theory, perfect for a first lesson.

The first week of school had been so eventful, Mimosa was having a hard time keeping up with it all. After the extraordinary sorting ceremony where she'd more than less lied her way to the hat, she had been given a hero's welcome in Slytherin. And while the ten year old was inclined to believe it was all because of her, another possible reason became clear as she first stepped through the plain looking patch of wall and into the Slytherin common room. In addition to the dark, chic ambiance, the place was decorated with - among other things - photographs and portraits of notable Slytherins throughout the last century and the most prominent one was a framed photo of Jacques Clement.The child hadn't really read the words under the frame but she was sure he had done something amazing.

Along with her hero status came friends. So. Many. Friends. Mimosa had met more people in just the last few days than she had in the entire year put together. Or at least it felt like it. Whenever the little witch started a conversation, a crowd of students flocked to listen. Whenever she mentioned the Palace or Jacques, suddenly even older students were interested, looking at her fondly and - if she wasn't mistaken - a little hungrily.

All this attention kept Mimosa confined to her own common room the first two nights, and while the witch thrived in it, she also found herself missing Mercy which lead to what people were now calling the "Third Night Debacle". Mimosa hadn't thought it would be a big deal, picking up her plate of food from the Slytherin table and walking over to the Gryffindor one, squeezing herself between Mercy and Dia with a grin. Bushrah who was now sat opposite her looked at the young Slytherin as if she was something divine, an air of pure adoration on her tiny, hijab enclosed face. As the girls had sat chatting, a Gryffindor prefect had arrived to extract Mimosa from the table, only for the child to refuse. She hadn't done anything wrong, she was just having lunch with her friends.

Naturally, the new prefect hadn't understood, and Mimosa, not used to being told no, had resorted to her usual tactics ranging from negotiation, threats, crying and more. The prefect had taken ten points from Slytherin but had nonetheless walked away the guilty party for making a ten year old cry. The American witch wasn't concerned about the points, Ji Hyun and Squid Boy would earn them back.

Since that moment however, Bushrah had decided to become Mimosa's little shadow. The shy Gryffindor now hung around the hallways waiting for the child model to emerge from her common room just so she could follow Mimosa around. They were together in all the classes that Gryffindor and Slytherin shared and any extra study time spent outside common rooms. Luckily Bushrah was not the kind of person who felt the need to fill every moment with conversation, she was perfectly happy to hang back and watch Mimosa interact with others, clutching on the younger witch's popularity like some kind of medallion to keep herself as obscure as possible.

Runes class came highly recommended to the younger Slytherins so most of them were giving it a try even if they couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was about. Since the class was going to be after lunch, the Slytherin troop had already gathered their books and bags and were going to head there straight from the Great Hall. Mimosa, Catherine, Ji Hyun, Constance and the Squid Boy all finished their lunch and were grabbing their bags when Mimosa noticed Squid Boy hanging back.

"Come on Nikolai, look sharp," a second year snapped only for the younger boy to shake his head.

"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." The crowd didn't need telling twice. Making their way out of the hall, they were joined by Bushrah and a small group of Ravenclaws. Jia En had decided that since she was not in the same house as her twin brother, she would compensate by taking all the same classes as him. Seema Biswas, Mimosa was certain, had taken every single class. Weird.

So it was among a flurry of half a dozen students that Mimosa first entered the Ancient Runes classroom, looking around it in mild distaste until her blue eyes landed on the man in front of the class. Rapidly, her mind recalled last Halloween, when a tall, bat like man had told her there were man eating cabbages coming to get her. The child had since come to understand she had been lied to, she also knew lying was bad.

"You," she pointed out petulantly, a finger raised in the man's direction. "You lied to- ACHOOOO!"

Alas, the classroom must have been more dusty then people realized, foiling the young Slytherin's plans to make Mr. Kessler pay for his crimes.

Clara stepped into the familiar classroom and looked around curiously at the new decor. She'd quite enjoyed Ancient Runes last year, so she was looking forward to taking it again. A slight smile pulled at her lips as she recognized the straight lines and sharp corners of Nordic runes. She'd gone through a phase when she was nine where she'd extensively researched Norse mythology, and even memorized the Norse runic alphabet, which she had used to write coded messages to herself when she'd needed to remember things. It was pointless, sure, but she'd thought it was fun.

And now, six years later, she was aware of the existence of magic, and realized that the runes she'd learned were far more useful than she had initially thought. It seemed she would have an advantage--at least, if she could still remember any of it. She was fairly certain she still knew most of the letters, but she hadn't used them in several years.

It seemed she'd walked in at the wrong time, as a flock of younger students were taking their seats, and one in particular seemed to be accusing the professor of something before sneezing violently. Clara hesitated for a moment, surveying the scene with a confused look before proceeding toward one of the open seats.

She nodded to Professor Kessler, who was now her Head of House, and took a seat near the front, setting her bag down and looking up at the board. Runestones. This was going to be fun.

Dominique walked into the Ancient Runes classroom. She had a mixture of being both excited and nervous. But that all went away as soon as she seen Mim. As she went over and sat down beside of one of her best friends. Dom knew that this class would be fun. And if she had problems, she could also ask Mim to help her out. Being a first year Dom knew that this was an important year for her. As this was the first of many.

She then took her notebook and quill out. Just was ready to start taking notes. Because she knew that she would need them. Just so that she could look back and help her with her homework. As she knew that taking notes would also be important when she need to study for the test. And hopefully this would help her remember what the professor was talking about. It didn’t matter who else was going to be in the class. As she was here with her best friend.

Andrei liked to think being a parent prepared one for the novelties life can throw at a person. For example, how to remove crayon from the wall, how to change a diaper on a plane, and how to work with less than three hours of sleep per night. So, remaining expressionless in the face of just another screaming child in his classroom was, well, child's play. Perhaps the young Miss. Harrington found out that it was no killer cabbage, but rather man-eating melon that patrolled the kitchens? He couldn't be sure, but, all the same, common decency dictated what he say next.

"Bless you, Miss Harrington."

He then gave a friendly nod to his prefect and to each student who entered after her. Luckily, any more accusations against his person would have to wait until after class as the distant school bells rang out the time and signaled the beginning of class. Of course, Andrei could not fail to notice the slim figure of his son slip in at the last moment—at least he wasn't skipping class.

"Alright, alright, everyone please take a seat," he called out making his way towards his desk. "Today we'll be exploring one of the better-known runic texts, elder futhark."

He picked up a slim book from atop his desk, Runes and Ruins.

"For those of you who have not yet done the reading," A slim smile slipped across his face here, students and reading didn't often go together especially for the first class. "Elder Futhark was the text of Germanic tribes in use from as early as the second century. It was later adapted into younger futhark used by Scandinavian peoples that you might know better as Vikings. Each rune has its own meaning and thus its own magical use as we will see today."

Andrei flipped open the book with a practiced scholarly grace.

"If you'll turn to page ten in our textbook you'll see there are only twenty-four runes. Don't let this number deceive you, working with them is much harder than first meets the eye. For those of you who took this class last year, you will remember how important intent is when inscribing runes, the same concept applies here. While you might be able to write out a spell you want to imbue an object with it's just a jumble of useless text without the intent to bring it to life. That, however, will come later; for the time being please pair up with those around you and work at writing out your name as best you can using your textbook as a guide. If you need any help I will be making my way through the classroom, best of luck."

With that, the older professor fell silent, carefully replaced Runes and Ruins atop his desk, and began his first round of the classroom. He doubted this exercise would be too difficult for his students, but, more importantly, it would give the students some time to get to know one another. He always liked to think that was important.

Clara pulled out her textbook as the professor started talking, but didn't open it, opting instead to simply listen to his words. She'd done the reading of course; as soon as she'd gotten her textbooks, she'd read all of them, as was her usual custom. She nodded along as he refreshed the class on what they should have read. It was nothing new.

She did, however, focus in on the part where he explained the importance of intention. She knew that from last year, but having it applied here made a few things click--particularly why she had been able to write in magical runes for nearly a year without anything strange happening. Good thing, too, she thought to herself. It was comforting to know she hadn't unintentionally placed herself in danger.

When he announced that their first assignment was simply to write their names, Clara smirked slightly. That was one thing she definitely hadn't forgotten--it was practically muscle memory by now. Without even opening the textbook, she took a sheet of parchment from her bag, along with a quill and some ink. She carefully dipped her quill, and neatly penned her name near the top of the page.

There was no C, so the equivalent was K, or kaunaz, which looked like a "less than" sign. Next was laguz, the right half of an upward pointing arrow. Then ansuz, a wonky looking F, then raitho, a pointed R, then ansuz again. She used to sign her name like this on homework, underneath the English version. Her teachers found it a little strange, but as long as she signed in English as well, they didn't really care.

All of this took a maximum of twenty seconds, after which she leaned back and looked around, waiting for everyone else to finish. She doodled lazily in the corner of her parchment, drawing a series of interlocking shapes that slowly climbed up the margin of her paper.

Dominique was excited for ancient runes. As she was taking it with Mimosa and Sasha. So this was going to be fun. She turned her book to the page that she needed. Thank goodness that she did the reading or she would be lost.  Right now she had to write out her name in runes. And that was going to be hard for her. As she was seeing that there was no q. So she was going to need some help. But it seemed like she could find someone to pair with.

She then wonders why she couldn’t have a simple name. But her name was unique and loved it. Maybe she could get by with just doing Dom or maybe use her last name. Help was something that she needed. And knew that she could ask Sasha for help. Because she could end up having problems with Ancient Runes.

But this was only the first class and knew that she could always improve.