The Study of Ancient Runes—Lesson Two [All Years]

Another day, another class, and another headache. As of late the head of Ravenclaw house found himself suffering from frequent headaches. Marie told him they had something to do with his new duties and distinct lack of sleep, but Andrei waved her concerns off without much thought. It was true though, that he had been run ragged over the past couple months. A trip to Wales, a trip to Sweden, and teaching on top of it all. Oh, and how could one forget the paperwork and interviews required for the Hollingberry-Seele incident? Yes, perhaps he could do with some more sleep.

Alas, such a small thing like sleep would have to wait till the holidays—he had work to do.

Sitting behind his desk at the front of the classroom, the older man waited for his class to file in at the appointed time. Normally he would have stood at the head of the class, but the aching in his head did not allow for it and for the first time in a long while he felt tired. Nikolai, his son, would have told him his age was catching up with him and as he sat in the empty classroom Andrei felt it hard to deny the fact that he was no spring chicken anymore. Not that he'd ever admit such a fact to anyone save for maybe Marie and even then it was questionable.

Scribbled on the blackboard in messier cursive than usual read, 'Transcription'.

The only thing that had propelled the first year Slytherin out of bed today was the fact that it was the last day of classes before Christmas Vacation hit for real. Her plans were made, her bags were packed, she couldn't wait to go back home and see Grandpa and Clara and now she just had to put up with one last boring class before she was home free! At least she was attending class, he girl thought smugly to herself as she bit down on a cookie at the Slyherin lunch table, looking around at all the students who were planning to bunk. Truth be told, Mimosa would have very much liked to skip too but both Ji Hyun and Squid Boy were attending and the class needed to have at lest one Slytherin girl.

So with girl power making her decision for her, Mimosa waked into class with the other two first years, immediately noticing that the professor didn't appear to want to be here any more than some of his students did. Oh well, he would probably appreciate a loud, squealing greeting to lift his mood. "Hello Professor!!!" she screeched from where she stood, a big grin on her face. For she had decided to forgive the old man his rudeness to her all these months ago. She was a rather nice, forgiving, person after all.

"Did you see the snow outside? Isn't is so pretty?" Before she could add more fun facts about snow and how it never happened in her own home town, Squid Boy grabbed on to her arm and pulled her down to her seat. What was his problem anyway?

Clara was actually excited for this class. Most classes she regarded with interest, but not necessarily excitement. The only class she'd really been excited for before was Potions. But over the past two years, Clara had discovered an unexpected passion for Ancient Runes, which had even led to experimenting a little bit outside of class. There was just so much to learn and discover that she hadn't even considered before.

She stepped into the classroom and took a seat near the front, hardly paying any attention to the other students in the room. There weren't too many people there today. She'd noticed class attendance tended to drop as the holidays approached, for whatever reason. It didn't make much sense to her. She was looking forward to the holidays as much as anyone else, but that didn't give her a reason to skip class--it wasn't as if not going to class would make the break approach any faster.

Still, she didn't necessarily mind smaller class sizes. She took out all of the necessary materials, and glanced up at the board. Transcription. Was that just copying things? On the surface, it didn't seem terribly exciting, but she suspected there was probably more to it than met the eye.

Blinking, Gaspard was sure that if he hadn't been awake before, then Mimosa's loud greeting would have done the trick. As it was, it left his ears ringing after his cringe like one would with nails on a chalkboard. Placing his hands over his ears and then taking them away slowly a couple times just to be sure she hadn't ruptured his eardrums, he swore that would be the last time he'd be within a ten foot vicinity of her greeting a professor. If he was capable of it, he would have felt sorry for his head of house, but he didn't.

Spotting when the girl was sitting, he made sure he was as far away as he could be. Sitting down, he glanced at the board, blinked and frowned before going and digging out his parchment notebook and a fountain pen. Setting those on the desk, he set his bag between his feet, the boy dropped his elbow onto the desk and propped his chin as he allowed his gaze to wander while the gears in his brain turned and his mental filing cabinets were being raided.

He knew what transcripts were. That was basically the whole thing of this class was it? While he knew he'd be taking a lot of notes in this class, he really couldn't wait until they actually got to part where they were actually working with the runes to create something. Training wheels first though he supposed. Since along with Potions, this was one of the classes that was the more dangerous.

Wincing ever so slightly, Andrei cast his hardened blue gaze onto the young first year and though his eyes shot daggers his tone was genial and almost friendly.

"Good afternoon, Miss Harrington," he turned his attention to the dusty windows at the mention of snow before agreeing with the young girl's assessment. "I suppose it is."

Thankfully, his young son, Nikolai, had the presence of mind to remove his fellow Slytherin at this point. Of course, the aging professor was not one to go off on a student, especially one so young, but it did save the class at large from having to deal with a less than pleased Andrei. Now absentmindedly rubbing his temples, he nodded to each student who had the courtesy to greet him and taking note of those who did not. He didn't necessarily label a lack of greeting as a bad thing; some people were more genial than others, so his observations merely served as a way to better understand each student.

Sighing inaudibly at the distant toll of the class bell, Andrei stood up from behind his desk and formally began class.

"Good afternoon everyone, I know you're probably all itching to head off for the holidays, but stick with me over the next hour and we'll get there together," Walking slowing to his normal spot in front of the blackboard, Andrei continued. "Before we begin, however, if you could please pass your assigned paper on the rise and fall of the Scandinavian scripts to the front of class it would be much appreciated."

The essay itself had been pretty straightforward. It required students to research, compile, and write on the rather broad topic of the 'Rise and Fall of Scandinavian Scripts'. Each student had the freedom to pursue whatever they deemed important under this large umbrella of topics. With any luck, there would be some interesting papers to read later in the evening.

As the class filled up, Mimosa made sure to wave to everyone she knew who entered. And just as she thought she was done, Gaspard came in, looking as if he was a zombie. But he cheered right up when he saw Mimosa, even raising his hands to his ear in a funny greeting. Mimosa waved frantically at the Ravenclaw boy, motioning for him to come and join her and her friends but Gaspard chose to sit away, probably afraid of the Professor or something.

Squid Boy only rolled his eyes beside the girl, watching the exchange with am amused expression on his face the expression changed into alertness when Professor Kessler asked for their homework. Mimosa extracted hers all bound in a near file and handed it to Squid Boy who also collected Bushrah's and Ji Hyun's, delivering it in a bundle to the old teacher.

Mimosa hoped she would get a good grade on her work, Bushrah had worked really hard on it after all. Who knew people did your homework just for some specially imported sweets Grandmere kept sending her? The young Slytherin had more than enough to share with her friends and in return, Bushrah had offered to take all the silly writing off Mimosa's hands.

At their professor's greeting, Gaspard was reminded that he hadn't made up his mind whether he had wanted to go home or stay, thus rendering his decision moot. He'd been too late and now had to go home since he hadn't signed his name to stay. That caused a scowl to make a brief appearance on his face before he sighed and locked it all away and focused on his professor. This was one of his favorite subjects so he was sure to enjoy the next hour before reality had to rear its ugly head.

With the mention of their homework, the boy reached down to his bag at his feet and pulled out his work. Hoping that he'd done it correctly, Gaspard handed his forward. He hoped that the professor didn't mind that he might have gone on a bit about parallels to invading civilizations and such with the scripts. After handing his paper forward, he hooked his around his chair and waited for the rest of the students to hand theirs in.