The Study & Appreciation of Ancient Runes (Open to all years)

Truthfully... Nikolai had zoned out much too much for the first ten minutes or so of the class. He had thought he'd just shut out Mimosa's talking, but it soon became apparent when he heard the very familiar sound of his dad's voice continuing on after Mimosa's and then another background noise that the lesson had actually started.

Berating himself internally, Nikolai could just about catch on to what they were doing when he saw the very familiar image of the light stones his dad had shown him a fair while ago. These stones were particularly good night lights, and when you had a Runes professor as your dad these 'cool' -- Nikolai preferred to call his dad's excitements over runes 'quirky' -- lights became something of common place.

Quirking an eyebrow at his dad in silent, amused question as the man finished his explanation of the day's lesson, Nikolai shook his head with something of a small smile before pulling his stone towards him. Everyone else had reached forth for their book -- Nikolai could only guess this was because his dad had told them to -- but it didn't matter.

Instead, the boy took out his wand, and focused on what he was trying to achieve. At home he had a blue rock, probably because his dad had made it and the eldest Kessler was a Ravenclaw, but, somewhat gladly, today's stone was a deep green that would serve the Slytherin pride much more than the one he had at home. Also rather useful for when he got hooked in the nighttime reading, assuming that they could keep them, of course.

Checking the rune on the board, and committing it to memory, Nikolai closed his eyes for a moment, pushing all errant thoughts from his mind, before focusing on the only thing he needed to in that moment. Making the rock in his hands produce light. And, with that, the Slytherin's wand began to move slowly, carefully, in the movement shown on the board, drawing gently curved runes in to the stone much as his dad had done. Though, he doubted they would be as neat, or as powerful as the Headmaster's work, Nikolai was sure he could do it.

Three minutes passed before Nikolai's wand stopped moving, his mind still focused on the light he wanted to emanate from the rock when he'd finished. One curve had not quite been as smooth as the boy would have liked, but as he sat back, admiring his work, it didn't look too far off from the one on the board. Stealing himself for a moment, Nikolai placed his wand down on his desk before lifting up the rock.

One small squeeze...

The light came from the rock in an almost perfect replica of his dad's. Except for the part of the rock above the jagged edge of the runes he'd drawn in to it. Here, the magic was not quite right, and the stone remained in it's non-illuminated state. Not that Nikolai minded, of course, he knew it took years to become as good at these things as his dad was. Squeezing the rock again, the light went out, and Nikolai sat back in his seat, waiting for further instructions, or indeed praise, to come from his dad.

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It took a long time, and it wasn't the most fun work. But supplemented with memories of the palace which may or may not have turned the young Slytheirn's concentration into slightly happy dreaminess, the charm slowly began to take shape.

Once the runes were properly inscribed - and Mimosa double checked this time using her phone - not a single stroke was out of place, she began the wandwork just as carefully. Using a wand was almost more tedious than writing out the runes but the child persevered because she had a good idea of what the end result would be.

And soon enough, the rock began to glow a faint pink around the edges. Excited and energized anew by her own prowess, Mimosa doubled down on the smooth surface, trying to make the light brighter. And after a further fifteen minutes, it seemed to work. Now, upon being squeezed, the lamp stone shone a brilliant bright pink.

And upon being squeezed once more, didn't turn off. She must have focused too hard, the witch assumed. Still happy with her work, she figured that a lamp stone that glowed eternally was better than one that could be switched on and off. Not interested in knowing where she had gone wrong because she didn't believe she had, the child raised her stone proudly above her head.

"Look sir, mine is pink!"

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Amanda knew heard what was need to do with the stone now. So the girl took it to her hand and smiled. She tried to think good memories and happy ones. Most of them were with her family.

Amanda just kept focusing on her stone and was she was sure it was done the first part of it. Then she used the wand to cast lumos spell on it. She watched as her stone went to bright color. She smiled.

She realised she had successed on her task. She now watched around the room to see what others did. She didn't say anything really. There was no point really. She just soon looked back to her stone. It was still turned on but she soon made the light go out.

She had no clue what they supposed to do next now. She hoped it won't be something very hard. This task seemed to be easy one.

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While Clara partially paid attention to Professor Kessler's lecture, she knew the lesson was a fairly simple one, and one she already understood. As such, she thought it should be fairly safe to tune out most of it in favor of getting some work done. It was sometimes hard to find time amidst her schoolwork to complete the more menial tasks she was assigned by the Ministry - mainly paperwork - so she latched onto every opportunity she got.

She briefly glanced up when he asked a question, but although she knew the answer, she knew everyone else probably also knew the answer - lumos was a first year spell, after all - so she didn't bother raising her hand.

She set aside her paperwork when the professor began his demonstration, just to make sure she knew what they were supposed to be doing. When he released them to try on their own, Clara picked up the pale blue stone off her desk and drew her wand. She flipped to page 24 of her textbook and skimmed it just in case, but she knew the basics already. With a few careful strokes, she carved the spell into her stone, appreciating how geometric the runic alphabet was. When she finished, she set her wand down and gave the rock a quick squeeze just to be sure she'd done it right. The stone lit up like Professor Kessler's had, so she squeezed it again to extinguish it, and returned to the papers she'd been filling out.

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Spending most of his time helping a particularly hapless Hufflepuff, Andrei only had a brief few minutes to make a final round around the classroom to check on each student’s progress. First there was the Harrington girl, she seemed to be having an issue with extinguishing her stone. Luckily, being a low-level inscription and relatively innocuous spell, lumos would not have any adverse effects were it left on for too long. At worst the stone would crack in half from wear after a couple hours depending on how strong the girl’s focus was during enchantment.

“Very good Miss Harrington, in the future take care to make cleaner runes,” he turned to his son who seemed to have taken a shine to the Harrington girl as he always seemed to be nearby. “Nikolai, you can do better. Work on your concentration when enchanting.”

Did he hold his son to a higher standard than most of the class? Yes, without a doubt. After all, the boy had grown up learning his runic alphabets right along with the Latin one. And he—Andrei—could not help projecting a bit of his perfectionism onto his son, for better or for worse.

Both Miss Larson and, of course, Miss Goldstein had completed the task without so much as breaking a sweat. Much like Nikolai, the headmaster held his Ravenclaws to a high standard and expected nothing short of perfection. Luckily, most of his house met and, in most cases, exceeded his expectations.

“Wonderful job everyone,” he finally announced having arrived at the front of class and finding himself in the last couple minutes of class. “For homework please read pages 50 to 150 and come to the next class prepared to discuss the pros and cons of different enchanting mediums.”

And just like that class was over and students were rushing out of the room.

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M. Harrington (Slytherin): +5 for attendance and +10 for participation

N. Kessler (Slytherin): +5 for attendance and +10 for participation

A. Larson (Ravenclaw): +5 for attendance, +10 for participation, and +5 for a correct answer

C. Goldstein (Ravenclaw): +5 for attendance and +10 for participation

» The Study & Appreciation of Ancient Runes Lesson Three [All Years]
» The Study & Appreciation of Ancient Runes Lesson Two [All Years]
» The Study and Appreciation of Ancient Runes: Lesson One [All Years]
» The Study of Ancient Runes—Lesson Two [All Years]
» The Study of Ancient Runes — Spring Term [All Years]