Ancient Runes (3rd - 7th years)

[Professor Sandra Tyler]

Sandra was humming peacefully to herself as she filled her cup with coffee in the Great Hall. There were already students stumbling in groggily for Breakfast, others were wide awake, happy for the new day. The weather had been getting nippier with each day of February. Though, that wasn’t stopping the students from going outside, especially Quidditch. If Sandra could remember correctly, Ravenclaw was going to be playing against Slytherin soon. Sandra wasn’t into Qudditch much, but she liked watching the games. She of course was rooting for Ravenclaw in this match, but her loyalties would lie within the Hufflepuff house. After all, she was a Hufflepuff graduate. Her house team had lost their own recent Quidditch match, but it was truly one of the bests she’d seen them play in a while. Most of the professors that taught at Hogwarts were in Ravenclaw. Well some of them were, but a majority of them were scattered throughout each house. Pushing those thoughts in the back of her mind, Sandra pulled the cap on her mug tight before walking out of the hall toward her classroom. There still was still an hour left of Breakfast, but she still needed to get her room organized for the upcoming activity she had planned. Opening the door to her classroom, Sandra left it gaped open as she headed to her leather seat by the desk. Her long brown hair lay in natural curls to her shoulders. A Daily Prophet was tucked under her as she sat it down in a cushioned chair. Taking the paper from under her arm Sandra set it down on the oak table while taking a sip of the warm coffee. A smile spread across her face as a warm sensation filled her insides.

Ancient Runes was located on the second flour across from Charms and next to Arithmancy. Sandra still had to get to know the recent additions to the Hogwarts facility. She had been introduced to them, but never really had gotten a chance to talk to them alone. Shrugging, Sandra added that to her long lists of things to do before looking around her empty classroom. The corridor leading down it was quite busy but the walls were charmed so no noise could cause distraction to the class. The entire classroom was carpeted with white carpeting that she added a charm just incase if anything was spelt on the floor. Sandra didn’t understand why her room had to be carpeted. She liked how her room was different from the others, expect Divination, but it was harder to take care of. The center of the room had eighteen oak tables with two cushioned stool chairs at each table. The wall opposite of the door was lined with cabinets that were all locked with runes. The back wall was occupied with two large windows that were usually cranked open to let some breeze come through the stuffy classroom. But this morning they were closed with the blinds dangling shut.

Taking a short sip of her coffee, Sandra set the mug back down on the table leaving the Daily Prophet closed by her lesson plans. Taking her wands from her robber pockets, Sandra used it to open her dowers where she had put her keys and graded papers. If there was one thing that students needed to know about Sandra, was that she was very cautious of where she kept her things. Taking out a gold key which was used to open the rune cabinets, she closed the dower shut standing up and heading toward the oak cabinets in the back of the room. Setting the key into the key holder she twisted it in the right direction hearing the familiar click of the lock unlock. Smiling, Sandra held up her wand and with a swish of her hand each black bag flew out and landed two by two on each table. Once the bags were disturbed Sandra then flicked her wrist against large white posters appearing at the front of the classroom followed by markers. Sandra had a special open introductory to begin her class today. She was quite interested in seeing what her students would come up with.

Once everything was set Sandra then turned the green chalk board over properly, picking up a piece of chalk that stood alone on the mantle. Writing out the simple directions, Sandra turned around shortly as she noticed students already entering. Smiling kindly at them, she turned back to finishing her work. With a short nod as she dotted her last period, Sandra set the chalk back down heading to her own seats. The last few students were already piling into the room. “It’s nice to see everyone again,” Sandra spoke as she waited for the last person to take their seat. Flicking her wand the door closed shut indicating that whoever came in would be late. Professor Tyler did not stand lateness unless it was a good reason, or the student had a note from another Professor. “Please read the board for the activity planned. I do not want to see wands out. There is no need for them in this classroom. Please follow the direction. Only 2 two 4 people in a group. All the supplies are in the front of the classroom.” Motioning her hands toward the table in front of her where the white posters and marker were she sat back down on her desk, searching her table top for her book.

[Celia Richmond]

Celia was more awake than usual that morning. It was probably to do with the fact that the previous night she had neither been patrolling the corridors as a prefect or had an astronomy lesson, so she could get to sleep earler than usual. And besides, she was generally a morning person as it was-her worst time was in the early afternoon. She often had to be awak till the early hours for one reason or another, and she often had to be up early too, so the early afternoon was when the tiredness usually crept up on her. Which didn't help when she had a lesson straight after lunch, though a good meal often made her feel better, giving her more energy to cope with afternoon lessons.

Being awake, Celia decided she might as well get up, not noticing that it was still only 7am until she'd freshened herself up and gone back to the dormitory to get dressed. She decided there was no pointin just sitting there, so she decided to go down to breakfast before the main rush. None of the others in her dorm were awake yet, and she assumed that neither were most people in school. She was often one of the first to wake, though not usually this early.

Reaching the great hall, her suspicions were confirmed. There were some other students there, but not very many, as she'd expected. Most of the professors were there-probably getting an early breakfast before setting up their lessons. She had Ancient Runes first, which was one of her favourite subjects, and had been since she first chose it at the beginning of her third year (along with Muggle Studies). She was in no rush to finish her breakfast as the class wasn't due to start for over another hour, so she took a couple of slices of toast and heaped a pile of scrambled eggs onto it, and started to eat. Clearing her plate, she began to wonder what Professor Tyler had planned for todays lesson-undoubtedly though it'd be interesting as always.

Celia took a strawberry yoghurt and began to eat as the room filled up more around her. She greeted some of her friends as they sat by her, discussing anything and everything, as they often did. She finished her yoghurt and cup of tea and made her way up to the second floor and the Ancient Runes classroom. It was one of her favourite rooms, and one she could spend a lot of time in-she loved the minimalistic atmosphere, and it was such a contrast to the somewhat disorganised, wood-pannelled Charms classroom next door where she also spent a lot of time. She was the first to arrive, and sat down at a table near the front, cheerily greeting the professor, taking her textbook out and reading what it said on the board. She went to the front of the room to collect a poster and a marker pen, and waited for some other students to turn up.

[Ashley Hill]

Ashley yawned loudly as she griped the sides of the sink with her hands. She stared blindly into the mirror that hung on the wall before her. She had straightened her blonde hair for the school day, which made it longer than usual. Shaking her head, Ashley sighed as she turned the knob of the faucet on. Warm water poured out of the steel and into the sink, the noise bouncing off the bathroom walls. Grabbing a black ponytail holder from her wrist, Ashley pulled her thick hair into a tight bun on her head. Pushing down on the top of facial liquid soap container, Ashley felt the cold liquid fall into her hands. Rubbing her palms together briefly, she scrubbed the soap into her face, closing her eyes just in case. Ashley had countless of times gotten the bubbly soap into her eyes, which left them red all day. Washing the rest of the liquid from her hands, Ashley cupped water into her palms throwing it onto her face. Even though the water was warm, it hit her face like a pile of cold bricks, which awakened her sleepy state. Making sure her face was clear, she grabbed a blue towel from the side, damping her face with it. Ashley had a routine when she woke up in the morning. First she got dressed, second she went down to the bathrooms to brush her teeth, and then washed her face was the last thing to do. Sometimes she didn’t have time to wash her face, so she would hurry down to breakfast, or to the class she was about to late too. Ashley liked to sleep in, but lately she had been doing that too lately. She was lucky not to be late for Herbology. Professor Sprout wouldn’t be too happy that a member from her own house was late to her class. This morning was different though. Ashley had forced herself to wake up earlier than usual, and she still had almost an hour left to eat Breakfast.

Throwing the towel in the laundry bin, Ashley picked up her back pack from the ground next to the sink. Setting the straps over her shoulders, she headed out of the bathroom, pulling the pony tail holder out as she headed toward the Great Hall. Tugging the black elastic over her wrist, Ashley left it there as she entered the noisy hall. There were already so many students awake for Breakfast. Ashley tried not to skip the first meal of the day, but she did have her days where she was late. Heading toward the Hufflepuff table, Ashley noticed that Bryce was sitting with Luke, both of them indulged into a conversation. She had heard about Luke’s recent accident from the news paper. It was sad really. He probably couldn’t play Quidditch anymore. Sighing, Ashley passed the boys as she made her way further down the table where Ivy sat along with Charles. Smiling at her friends, Ashley took a seat across from the couple as she began to pile her plate full of food. She wasn’t hungry that morning. Actually, she hadn’t been too hungry lately. Not after the train ride incident with Bryce. Everything was just still so confusing. She was even puzzling herself! Ashley so badly wanted to be with Bryce, but was still hurt. Sighing, Ashley took a bite out of one of the bacon pieces on her plate.

As students began piling out of the hall, Ashley rubbed her hands on one of the napkins before getting up to leave. She waved bye at her friends heading out of the hall, taking great care not to look at Bryce and Luke. It was a good thing Ancient Runes just down the hall by Charms and Arithmancy. As she entered the cozy classroom, Ashley stopped as she took notice to the board in the front of the class. An activity? Eh. Running her hands through her hair, Ashley noticed that there was already sited in front of the classroom. Normally Ashley worked on projects with Ivy, but maybe her friend wouldn’t mind if she branched out today? They were allowed 4 people to a group, so Ivy could join them. Nodding, Ashley took a seat next to the sixth year, smiling at the younger girl. “How about we work together?” Ashley asked setting her bag on the ground hoping that the girl would say yes.

[Seth Wright]

“Dude! Wait for me!” Seth hollered across the dormitory at Chace, who was standing by the door, ready to leave without him. “Damnit! I can’t find my Runes textbook! Chace, have you seen it?” Seth’s best friend gave a long-suffering sigh, and sticking his wand in the air, performed a perfect Accio, causing a textbook to wangle its way out of a large pile of rubbish – consisting of other books, a few chocolate frog wrappers, a few odd shirts, and what looked to be a hairbrush… “Chace, you are a genius!” Seth praised, running after the floating book and snatching it out of the air in time before it reached Chace. “C’mon then, let’s go.” Seth grinned gratefully, stuffing the textbook into his bag and hurrying after his best friend. The two friends walked briskly through the Common Room and separated once in the corridors, Chace heading for his lesson and Seth his. Feeling the usual feeling of rising disappointment in his chest, Seth made his way to his Ancient Runes class in his usual mood. Once there, he sat down in his usual seat somewhere near the back, and waited for the professor to start the lesson. He was earlier than usual, which was a surprise since his textbook had decided to elude him his morning – or rather, he had left it in a pile of junk to be forgotten about and lost eventually had it not been for Chace’s wit.

Seth started daydreaming about several things at once – Willow, Quidditch, Potions, Chace, comics… The mix of which was not exactly the best combination. It resulted in Seth imagining Willow and Chace as super heroes on broomsticks in a Quidditch match, losing their balance because of a Potion the evil Professor Snape had fed to them secretly before… Seth finally jumped out of his thoughts when the class started to move around the room, joining in groups of two to four people. Some were at the top of the classroom, getting materials. Panicking a little, Seth’s eyes skimmed the blackboard, reading Professor Tyler’s handwriting. Nodding to himself and muttering under his breath, Seth joined the throng of students queuing for the pens and paper, and eventually retrieved them. His markers were blue and green, and he looked at them as he carried them back to his seat. He liked Ancient Runes for many reasons – mainly because it was a subject he could do. This was because it did not involve much wand-use. Seth was not much good with a wand, that had to be said. He could perform the normal spells a wizard used in daily life, but he was afraid to go further. Perhaps he could with practice, but Seth didn’t enjoy them anyway, so had little motivation to do so.

Along with Potions, Charms, Muggle Studies and Arithmancy, Seth found Ancient Runes as one of his easier subjects. Muggle Studies was, for Seth, pretty easy for obvious reasons, and perhaps that was why he had taken it. Potions was his affinitive subject, and he enjoyed it immensely. Had it not have been for Professor Snape, Seth probably would’ve spent his life in the dungeons concocting all sorts. Charms he still struggled with, expectedly, but recently, with more confidence than he had ever had in his life, his spells were getting more effective, his flicks of the wrist and pronunciation more pronounced. Seth’s problem didn’t stem from his natural ability –though perhaps his grades in Herbology and Transfiguration always would be – rather, it was the technical side of Charms he could never master. NEWT level was harder than ever, as expected. Arithmancy was just plain difficult, as many people had told him, but Seth stumbled through it well enough. His subjects weren’t so hard to endure nowadays, which he was glad of. However, when it got to socialising activities such as these, Seth became somewhat helpless. Who was he going to work with when he didn’t really know any of these people. Sitting in his seat, he waited for someone to approach him; surely not everyone was paired up yet?

[Ruby Lehane]

Form moved at an even pace, time stretching on slowly, holding her black leather messenger bag with the green etched snake on the front to her body. Icy blue orbs landed on no one else around her. She had a clear cut goal in her mind and she would not be wavered from it. Then again, it was because she was headed to Ancient Runes, a class she'd come to truly enjoy. Runes held such an important part of their history, a history that would help her in her future endeavors. The smirked played at the corner of her lips, as long blonde hair flowed out from her body as she moved, her Slytherin robes clung to her body perfectly in that winter morning. The cool air had already chilled her to the bone that morning, but she wasn't about to let it affect her outward appearance. No...that would be a weakness of sort wouldn't it?

The door was still held open before her, leading the way to the very classroom she sought. Ruby didn't hesitate as she moved quickly through the door, her eyes falling on the rather small class so far. Digits moved softly over her robes as she fixed the rolled cuff of her sleeve. Flesh rolled the poster and marker between more flesh as she picked up the required materials from the front of the class as she had been instructed to do. Within seconds she then took her seat beside a Hufflepuff she recognized as Seth Wright. Normally in a million years she wouldn't be sitting next to him, but she had no choice that morning. The assignment was clear and besides she could always use a few more 'friends.' Cool orbs moved to glance at him. He was a year older than her she knew, but not much else had caught her attention, other than the fact that he was definitely not what her brother and her were looking for, but maybe that was a good thing for him.

"Do you mind if I work with you?" she said in a sweet voice as she tried to keep her attitude as good as possible. She had to wary of people more so now than ever before. Of course she wasn't about to let them know that they should be far more afraid of her than she of them. Digits whirled the small marker between crevices in the hands. Her eyes glanced back up at the chalk board. "Ancient Runes and why they're still important?" she murmured the words mostly to herself as she thought. They were important in many ways...or at least she thought so. There was something about the power that they still possessed even though they were merely symbols. Ruby quickly wrote out Ancient Runes in the center of the poster page, her irises meeting the student beside her. "Why do you think they're still important?" she asked her head moving to toss her blonde hair back over her shoulder as she waited for a response.