The Study of Ancient Runes — Spring Term [All Years]

The small room on the sixth floor looked different. Sure, the carefully aligned rows of desk remained, but gone were the trinkets of civilizations past that had once lined the walls. Taking the place of these trinkets were long stretches of pristine blackboard, which allowed the room’s very walls to become a canvas for students to write on. The darkness one might expect to be found in such a room was, however, absent as natural light streamed in from large windows near the front of the classroom lending the room an almost cheery atmosphere.

Beneath these windows and behind a modest desk sat Andrei Kessler, Hogwarts’ ancient runes professor. With wrinkles worn deep into his face, blue robes hanging from his gaunt figure, and streaks of gray running through his straw-like hair the man looked to have gone through hell. The slender cane propped up against his desk stood as a testament to his weakness, yet still, he sat up straight in his chair as if to defy his own condition.

Tomb sickness was no joke, but he had won out in the end.

With only a large leather-bound book and a flask of bright red liquid to keep him company, Andrei waited for the arrival of his first class since his involuntary leave of absence. Flipping through the book with a few lazy flicks of his wrist, he went over his lesson plan one last time. Today’s class would not be the most interesting, but it would prove vital to anyone who wished to progress further in their study of ancient runes. After all, how could anyone hope to excel in the discipline without first learning how to use a runic dictionary? Yes, today would be less of an applied lesson and more of a theoretical one.

Hopefully no one forgot their books.

Summer was once again approaching and so were offers from all over the world. School unfortunately had made it rather difficult for the young girl to keep up with her modelling career so it was now looking as if she would spend her holidays doing that. Of course, most of the work as narrated by her agent sounded really boring, the only thing that stood out came from the same agency that had hired her last year for the ad film in India.

They were offering her another kind of job though, one that didn't require filming of any sort or photographing. truth be told she hadn't understood it and had emailed Grandpa for clarification. The idea of going to India again did interest the child, though it currently fought with the idea o wanting to go home and sleep.

Having her morning free of lessons, the girl had met her agent on school grounds and then headed straight for Runes. She'd heard the teacher was back and immediately decided to go. Any teacher should see her first thing upon return, that was just logic. So for once, the Slytherin witch traipsed into class all on her own - and a few minutes early by the looks of it.

"Hello Professor K, welcome ba-" she faltered, taking in the Ravenclaw Head's appearance, her small mouth fell open in shock.

Wherever the Professor had gone, it clearly wasn't a spa. He looked... like the spa should close down if he was at one. Mimosa remembered him as the tall person who had lied to her but he had gotten even taller somehow, and yet hunched over like some scary guy from a movie. "Wow sir, you look terrible," she blurted before letting out a squeak.

What if he could summon those witch eating cabbages again? "I mean, in a good way."

Elena walked into the classroom around the same time Mimosa said that the Professor looked terrible. Elena gasped shocked that Mimosa actually said that. "Mimosa you cannot say such things to our Professors. Sir you don't look terrible" Elena reassured but she got a good look and saw that Mimosa was right but Elena was not going to admit that.

"Hello Professor, good to see you today" Elena then took her seat and pulls out her sketch pad and begins to sketch while she waits for the rest of the class to show. She didn't want to see here twiddling her thumbs but she also didn't want to keep looking at the Professor who looked like he'll beat him up, so she settled for just sketching a Lily for Mimosa. She had a feeling that the young Slytherin would like it because she loves pretty things.

Clara had been overjoyed to see that Ancient Runes was back on the class schedule for the end of the year. She had missed this class, and the professor who had so suddenly disappeared due to some mysterious "illness." Truthfully, she had doubted that he would ever return. For once, she was actually relieved to be proven wrong.

Just because the class had not been offered for the majority of the year, that didn't mean Clara had stopped studying. She had made sure to keep practicing everything they had learned so far in previous years to keep herself sharp. To some, it may have seemed obsessive, the way she drilled runic alphabets into her brain whenever she had free time, but the truth was...well, she enjoyed it. It relaxed her when she felt stressed or overwhelmed. Needless to say, she had immediately cleared her schedule for the spring term to make room for this class.

Thus she was positively joyful as she stepped into the classroom that day, the familiar weight of her textbook in the bag at her side. The room had been remodeled to include several large blackboards, and she couldn't wait to see what was in store for them.

She managed to catch a brief conversation between two girls who had entered the classroom before her, and turned to look curiously at the professor, the object of their discussion. The mysterious illness had left its mark, apparently.

"Oh no, you look absolutely dreadful, sir," she said seriously, refuting the blonde girl's obvious lie. "But it could be worse. At least you're not dead."

She meant every word, and hoped that she had been successful in conveying her happiness at the professor's continued existence. With that, she took her seat on the far side of the room and waited expectantly for the lesson to begin.

Sasha had actually liked the ancient runes classes last year and when they heard that they were there again now then the girl decided to take them. She wasn't sure how well she will do in this class but for some reasons, Ancient Runes were something that seemed to interest girl.

She walked into the classroom and could tell the professor look a bit different than usual but she didn't begin to question why. "Hello, professor," she said with a small smile on her face. Over some time Sasha really was in the good mood. Her life seemed to go well. Even yeah so much has changed in past months for the girl. Nothing isn't the same.

The head girl walked towards the middle desks and sat down there somewhere. She took out her book and was very curious about what they will learn here today. She hoped something interesting. She wasn't really sure what to expect from this class.

As the witch was trying to back peddle her comment, Elena entered, making it worse by pointing it out even more. Though the blonde did apologize, and Mimosa could never be mad at Elena. Though what helped most was the Head Girl walking in and saying pretty much the same thing.

"See, you can totally say that," Mimosa pointed out, taking her seat next to the older Slytherin. People were starting to arrive within the next few moments, and with a dull sense of realization, Mimosa noticed a lot of them had books.

She clearly hand't thought this through. She only wanted to come cheer the professor up, but now she had to stay in class and read, or write. Or both. The young Slytherin winced at the idea of doing both those things at once.

The eleven year old sighed, slumping lower in her chair. Why was she so nice? It only got her in situations like these.

Dominique knew that Ancient Runes might come in handy one day. Really wasn’t sure but she knew that her parents liked the idea that she was taking the class. But she could at least hoped that some of her friends were there. This time she was going to try harder to pay attention. As she remembered the howler that her parents sent when they found out about what happened in Global Citizenship. That was something that she would never forget. So this time she had to pay even more attention in the class. Which if she wanted to be a perfect and head girl one day, she would have to improve.

Walking into the classroom she had a grin on her face. As she had seen that Elena, Sasha, and Mimosa was there. So at least the class wouldn’t be boring. Now she was just ready for it to start. As it was near the end of the school year. Meaning summer break would be starting and Dominique would be going back home to America.

Yes, at least I'm not dead.

The thought amused the aging man more than he could put into words—leave it to a Ravenclaw student to make the most insightful observation. Each greeting he received was met with the same thin smile he had always worn. Sure, he had a few more wrinkles here and there and, yes, he still had trouble standing on his own two legs, but he was here. He was here doing something he loved, teaching. And, for all of life's ups and downs, doing what he loved made the days easier and the nights more restful.

"Good afternoon everyone."

Why the school would schedule his class right before lunch was beyond him. It was not conducive to learning in the slightest. Oh well...

"I hope you have all been keeping up in your studies," he pushed himself up from his chair and with the help of his cane made his way to the blackboard at the front of the class. "As many of you have noticed—"

His sharp gaze moved across the classroom spending not more than a few seconds on each face.

"—I have not fully recovered, so I hope you'll forgive the less than enthralling class I have planned for today." When his one of his previous lessons involved a field trip to Eygpt everything else tended to pale in comparison. "Nevertheless, I think you'll find it more than a bit helpful when you happen upon a rune you don't quite remember."

He paused here and took a labored breath.

"I will readily admit I often find myself having to refer back to a dictionary from time to time. So, with that in mind, our lesson will focus on translation."

He drew his wand with his free hand, gave it a twist as if he were turning a key in a lock, and then followed it up with a gentle swish. In response, the stack of papers that once sat in his locked desk drawer burst from their hiding place and into the classroom. Fluttering about like lost birds, the sheets of paper whizzed around the room until each student had a sheet sitting in front of them. When the last sheet of paper found a home Andrei spoke up once more.

"Each of you now has a unique set of runes you will need to translate," he returned his wand to the folds of his robes. "There are, without a doubt, runes you will not know the meaning of. That is why you all hopefully brought your dictionaries."

The runes professor hobbled back to his seat.

"You will have half an hour to work on his before we move onto the second part of this lesson. This is meant to be an individual assignment. That said, if you have questions I will gladly answer them, but I do ask that you do so quietly so as not to disturb your classmates."

Leaning back in his chair, Andrei made it abundantly clear he had nothing more to say as he once more cracked open the book he had been reading previously. The translation work he provided for the class ranged from legitimate documents and historical verses all the way to complete and utter gibberish. Hopefully, no one would find themselves too discouraged by the latter.

Mimosa had of course not being paying attention when the professor spoke, to busy settling in beside Elena and whispering here and there. As Bushrah slunk in on her other side, passing her a textbook, the Slytherin managed to somehow work out that this would be a book based lesson. The young American was just about to protest when a slew of flying papers crowded the class, making her giggle.

Maybe this lessons wouldn't be so bad after all?

But the papers did nothing more than land on each students' desks, doing nothing else but be boring and full of Runes that Mimosa had now learned to recognize but not really interpret upon first glance. Catching snippets of conversation from here and there, the child figured out their assignment and then took the book Bushrah had laid on her desk. the Gryffindor herself probably had to share but Mimosa wasn't the type to really care about that.

The task was slow, and soooo boring. Most of the words didn't make sense so the second year began with the one she could definitely recognize. The Es and the As, the Ms were good too, basically anything that made up her name was first to be translated, and then she had to figure out the spaces. The symbols made her head hurt but the mystery kept her going.

In the end, the little witch deduced there were four lines, and began writing out what she knew of each one, leaving blank the letters that simply refused to make sense:

I wa-ched wi-h -lee
Wh-le -our ki--s and quee-s
Fou-h- for -en decades
For -he -ods -hey made.

Unbeknownst tot eh witch, forty five minutes had passed in ehr attempts to uncover whatever it was she w supposed to be uncovering, and now Mimosa was tired of flipping through the dictionary. Pushing the thick tome aside, she simply began to fill in the words as best she could. Five minutes later, her translation read a little bit differently.

I watched with Vlee
While your kinVs and queens
FouVht for ten decades
For the Vods they made

That made no sense either, there was no such word as "Vods". Or was there? The young witch contemplated the words again before smiling to herself. She was the smartest person in he class after all, it was no surprise she would figure it out.

Quickly changing the "Vods" to "Pods" the girl grinned. She had finally done it! People could fight over Pods, not Vods.