Ancient Runes

[Professor Juliette Vector]

Juliette walked around the classroom watching the students work on their first spell. Most seemed to have remembered how to do it from the last class and thus had little trouble. Miss Sullivan of course apparently didn't realize she had class today and was obviously not ready. "Miss Sullivan please sit at the front desk" Juliette said while motioning to a desk in the very front of the room she had reserved specifically for the talkative girl. When most the students had their chests and their bag of runes she spoke up. "Well I see most of us have our runes and chests, so now we will move onto our spell. Your chests are locked, you will need to unlock them like last time. Does anyone recall from last class what runes you would need to unlock something?"

[Pansy Parkinson S7]

"KAL YLEM!" Pansy declared confidently and watched her chest fly over to her and land on her table. It really wasn't all that hard of a spell, especially since they did it in the LAST class. She next summoned her bag of runes and dumped them out onto the table and sorted them into a stacked pile and watched the little Hufflepuff girl next to her struggle to even get her items. Making a fist, Pansy hit the little girl in her arm, "Come on Noko-O-Hominis! It's not that hard! We did this last time, quite goofing around and get your stupid runes already!" Rolling her eyes, Pansy listened to the next set of direction, they were now to unlock the stupid chests!? They had done that last time! Why did she even bother with this stupid class anyway? With disgust she took a rune, "DES" and set it on her desk. Then aiming it, she flicked it towards that little Hufflepuff girl who couldn't shut up.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah patiently worked on her KAL YLEM spell while focusing on a bag of runes and a blue chest. Her patience paid off as after a few failed attempts she was able to summon herself a bag of runes, and then the blue chest that she had set her sites on. Glancing to her right she noticed Catalina still had several cookies on her plate, with a smirk on her face she continued her summoning spell. "KAL YLEM, KAL YLEM" she repeated and lifted a cookie off Catalina's plate and floated it to her end of the desk where it landed nicely in front of her. "Tough luck Caty, this is mine now" she said as she took a bite of the chocolate cookie and waited for class to continue.

Soon Professor Vector asked what they could use to unlock something, that was something they'd done in the last class. Quickly opening her notes she found the last class and looked at the spells they'd used and found it. Calmly Savannah raised her hand to answer the question.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

Juliette had no sooner asked her question when out of the corner of her eye she spotted something fly quickly across the room towards the front. Tracing the rune's source it led her to Miss Parkinson. "Miss Parkinson, go pick it up, and 5 points from Slytherin!" She then scanned the room for hands and found one, "Yes Miss Johnstone, can you tell us what runes we need in order to open these chests?"

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

"Ex and Ylem" Savannah cooly stated when the professor called upon her. "EX means to free something, and YLEM means matter, so you are freeing matter." It didn't really make a whole lot of sense when one spoke it, but it was what worked last time and apparently the ancients who used Runes all the time spoke differently perhaps that was why it didn't translate well. In any event Savannah waited for the next part of the class.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

Juliette listened to the Ravenclaw's answer, "correct Miss Johnstone, take 5 points." She then turned to face the rest of the class. "As Miss Johnstone has reminded us, EX and YLEM are the two runes that are required to open a locked item. Now then, using those runes I want everyone to open their chests and take out the item that is inside. Once you have your item please wait quietly for the rest of the class before we move on." Juliette then walked around the room watching the students get to work on their locks, if they were successful they'd be able to open their locked chest and take out the tiny old candle that was inside each chest.

[Kim Sullivan H4]

Kim sighed as she had to sit down for class, she thought she was only going to be playing games today, she didn't realize that she had class today. Sitting down in the front where the professor told her to she looked over her shoulder as Nokomis went to sit with a Slytherin girl. Kim then looked at the two Runes that she had in front of her, Kal and Ylem. Kim liked this class because the runes looked like little dominos and she liked to play dominos. Turning the two runes into the big letter T like she was supposed to, Kim began to say "KAL YLEM" over and over while she looked at a bag of runes and tried to get it. Slowly the bag lifted up and floated over to her desk, this was perhaps the only class that Kim did alright in as she liked to play with the Runes when she was done so she naturally had a motivation to get her spells done right.

As Kim then began to focus on getting a chest she felt something hit her shoulder. Looking down she saw a rune on the floor. "Ooow..." Kim whined as she raised her hand, but the professor was already on it. It was that Parkinson girl, the one that Nokomis was sitting next to. Kim sighed and turned around and went back to work on getting her chest from the front of the class.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy frowned as she concentrated on the chest. She was supposed to be opening it. The wooden chest she had summoned had a copper coloured lock. Would that be easy or hard to open? Well, it would be hard for Ivy, whichever way.
Ivy flicked through her notes from last class to remember how she was supposed to arrange the 'EX' and 'YLEM' runes. She had drawn a rough diagram of it on her parchment, and she arranged her runes in the same pattern. Now she had to try to open this thing.

"EX YEEM!" Ivy said. She felt the lock nearly spring open, but it resisted her and stayed locked. Ivy mustered her strength to try again.
"EX YEEM!" Nothing happened. Ivy tried it again, and again nothing happened. Tears of frustration started to spring into her eyes. Why could she not do it? Then Ivy reminded herself that she was being silly - Ancient Runes was one of the hardest classes you could take, and Ivy took it for a challenge. She had to rise to the challenge, despite the fact that she wasn't always at her best to cope with it.

Ivy composed herself and said the incantation again with some frustration. "EX YEEM!" She felt resistance from the lock. At least the spell had touched the lock, even if it hadn't started to unlock it.
Ivy concentrated fully on the lock. "EX YEEM!" she said, firmly. Finally it sprang open. Ivy hadn't been the first student to open her chest by any means, and others were already waiting for the next stage. Ivy didn't mind having a little rest, although she probably wouldn't get one. Ivy took out the little tiny candle inside. It had a yellow sort of wax. It was kind of sweet, Ivy decided, fiddling with it absentmindedly.

[Head Girl Andi]

Catalina sat there in her chair looking at her bag full of runes and her chest. They were supposed to open it like last time, she must have been tired though because the Professor asked a question, and she knew the answer, yet before she could even think of raising her hand Savannah had already beaten her too it! At least Ravenclaw got the points, that was all that really mattered. Then as she began to look through her bag for the right runes that she would need, a most peculiar site caught her attention. One of her chocolate chip cookies was floating away from her plate. Slowly the cookie floated away, over Valerie's head and then down in front of... Savannah! "Aye Savannah! Ye gobdaw! Give it back!" It was no use of course as Savannah had by now already taken a bite. "If ye wanted one ye could haf' asked ye kno!"

Carefully guarding her plate of cookies next to her now, Catalina took out her EX and YLEM runes and set them up. Focusing on her chest was a bit harder to do now that she'd had a theft of a precious belonging. "EX YEEM" she managed to say a few times while trying to concentrate on her lock. Slowly the lock clicked and after a few more tries it finally popped open and she lifted it open. Inside she found a small candle and looked at it carefully, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Savannah.

[Valerie Rice]

Valerie was soon joined by flanked by Catalina and Savannah which was nothing new. Quietly she listened as class began and their first task was given to them. The last class she had struggled a lot trying to get her spells to work. Eventually after some extra help from her friends she was able to feebly get her spells to work. It was always a struggle for Valerie to get any spell to work right, much less an Ancient Rune spell. “KAL YEEM” Valerie began chanting over and over concentrating hard on a bag of runes and blocking out the others around her. After what seemed like minutes she finally had a bag of runes in front of her.

Sighing heavily she leaned back in time to see a cookie flying past her and the two girls exchanging their words over the cookie. Valerie always felt at ease with these two girls, Savannah seemed to enjoy ruffling Catalina’s feathers. Seizing the moment and taking a bold step, Valerie reached over and snatched another one of Catalina’s cookies! “Sorry, uhh, Savannah made me do it” Valerie said while trying to hide a slight smile. The professor then instructed them on their next spell that they were to use to open the chests. Removing her EX rune from the bag, Valerie carefully lined up her runes and began to work on opening her chest.

[Perseus Feynman]

Perseus listened intently to the instructions before taking up his runes and configuring it so that it became the shape of a capital T. He watched as multifarious bags and chests flew to nearby students. Deciding that he had better start, Perseus held the runes and targeted it at the miniscule chests on the table. He glared at the chest in intense concentration and muttered, "KAL YEEM!!" The chest came flying at him at a prodigious speed. It was not hard for Perseus to succeed on the his first try as they had done this spell last class. After acquiring his chest, Perseus turned his attention to the bags weighed down by a plethora of runes. He chanted the spell twice before a bag was summoned. Perseus grabbed it out of the air as it soared towards him at the speed of a bullet.

After everyone had gotten their runes and chests, the Professor continued her instructions. Perseus listened carefully to the professors question and heard a Ravenclaw 6th year answer the question and the EX rune. Perseus took up his runes and placed them in the right position before concentrating on his rather sophisticated lock, which consisted of both a key and combination lock. He pointed his runes towards his chest and chanted, "EX YEEM!!" His spell only turned the combination lock several times. It was unambiguous that Perseus was not concentrating hard enough, especially with the complexity of the lock. So, Perseus focused on the way the locks were opened and meticulously put his runes together before shouting, "EX YEEM!!!" The lock spun and the lid of the chest sprang open. Inside, Perseus found an antediluvian candle that seemed to have been used before.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

(( Forgive me for rushing you guys, but Quidditch is about to start, Herbology has begun and Potions needs to start soon so I'm speeding this class up a bit ))

By this time the class had almost all opened their chests and most seemed to have had little trouble recalling their work from the previous class, now however they were to embark upon two new spells, the later of which was quite dangerous if not done correctly and instinctively Juliette's eyes fell on young Miss Sullivan. "Very good class, please put all your runes down and listen up. We are now going to proceed with a new spell. By now you all should have an old candle in front of you that is for all purposes, unusable. Today I will show you how to enlarge your candles back to a usable size."

Juliette then waved her wand and the runes on the black board fell to the carpet and two new runes took their place, side by side, *IN* and *YLEM* "For this spell to work, you must as always concentrate on your target, this spell will channel your energy into the target and then will cause the target to increase in mass. Most of your candles will grow fatter in width rather than taller, which is fine. Only with a lot of practice is one able to control how an object grows. You may now begin trying to enlarge your candles and while you work, is there anyone who can tell us why this spell is quite useful?"

[Jaquin Prokenstien]

Jaquin payed close attention to Professor Vector's instructions and took out his two runes, Kal and Ylem. Peicing them together in the shape of a capital T, Jaquin aimed it at one of the multafarious chests and chanted, "KAL YEEM!" His chest skidded to the edge of the table, but did not come flying to Jaquin, which it should have done. Jaquin new that he was not concentrating hard enough, so, with every particular of his mind, Jaquin concentrated on the chest and envisioned it soaring towards him. "KAL YEEM!!!" he shouted. The minute chest that had opulent diamonds encrusted upon it flew towards him at a prodigious speed and Jaquin caught it just in time; it almost hit the head of the student behind him. Then, turning to the bag of runes, Jaquin summoned it on his first try as they had done in the last class.

After the class had obtained their runes and chests, Vector continued her instructions and Jaquin listened to a fellow Rvenclaw 6th year answer the question correctly. Then, in a sudden flurry of movement, everyone took out their runes, Ex and Ylem and began attempting to open the locks on their chests. Jaquin placed the two runes together and focused on the lock, "Ex Yeem!" The large combination lock turned like the wheel of a car but did nothing. Jaquin tried a second time, in which he felt the lock's sophisticated mechanism with his mind and once again chanted, "EX YEEM!" The lock gave way and the lid of the chest opened to reveal a minute and primeval candle, one that looked as if it had been stored away for a long time because of its small size.

He listened as Professor Vector explained the next spell, one that sounded like an engorgement and shrinking spell. Taking up the two runes, In and Ylem, Jaquin focused on his candle and chanted the words. Nothing happened. Endeavoring once again to change the size of the candle, Jaquin invisioned a much taller candle about two times its original size before saying, "IN YEEM!!" The candle grew much taller, but not much wider. He had succeeded Of course, this would be usefull for a candle because it would burn longer if it were taller. So, when Professor Vector inquired the class on the spell's usefullness, Jaquin raised his hand and waited to be called on.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

Savannah had to exert great self control to not burst out laughing when Valerie lifted a cookie from Catalina's plate. Rather she turned her full attention to her runes and took the needed ones, IN and YLEM which she still had out from her previous work. Taking them and lining them up she looked at her candle and placed it squarely in front of her, when the professor asked her next question. It was an easy question and as she glanced around, saw Jaquin already had his hand up and there was no need to fight someone in her own house for points. Returning to her candle she focused, "IN YEEM!" over and over she cast her spell, or at least thought she was casting it. Though the candle itself gave no proof of growing in any direction.

Savannah took a deep breath and closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, this class was one of the most mentally draining ones and it was pointless to try and cast a spell if you weren't concentrating right. After her short break she once more looked at her candle and decided to focus all her attention on a little jutting from the side of the candle, "IN YEEM" she repeated a few times and was able to detect a slight growth in the jutting. It was a good start.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

Julliete walked around the class watching the progress of the students. "Excellent work Mr. Prokenstien, 5 points for you. Well done Miss Johnstone, take 5 points. Now then, once you have enlarged your candle to a respectable size your next task is to light your candle's wick. For this you will need, *IN* and *FLAM* The spell is simply IN-FLAM. However I must warn you that this spell is quite powerful. You only need a tiny flame to light your candle so you will only need to whisper your spell, anything more will be too much fire." As she said this her eyes fell on Miss Sullivan in the first row, "I repeat myself, whisper your last spell. Once you have lit your candle, put your runes away and bring your candle up to my desk. You then may leave, your homework is on the board."

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Ancient Runes Homework

Take your bag of runes with you and study them. Write down at least three spells that we have NOT done in class, then write what you believe those spells will do. Please IM your homework to me by Monday 11:59 PM Eastern US Time, January 24th.

[Head Girl Andi]

Catalina looked at her little candle and set it down in front of her then put her runes directly in front of her when Valerie reached over and took a cookie! “Aye! Savannah! Stop!” Catalina said as she grabbed her plate and moved it all the way over to her side of the table away from their reach. She then returned to her runic work. “IN YEEM!” over and over Catalina recited as she focused her mental energy on the little candle in front of her. After about five minutes of work the candle had grown somewhat taller and quite a bit fatter, it was good enough for today though and it was now time to try and light it up. “in flam” she whispered trying to not cause a large fire. After several more tries she manage a small bit of smoke. Another two minutes later and her candle was gently burning. Picking up the candle she walked up to the front of the room to show her candle to Professor Vector.

[Savannah Johnstone R7]

The last spell seemed quite obvious to Savannah as she looked at the runes, they had just used create matter, so now it was obvious they'd need create fire to light the candles. Getting the spell to work however was far from easy. "IN FLAM" Savannah whispered to which a small puff of smoke appeared on the candle but not close to enough so as to cause the candle's wick to ignite. After a good dozen further attempts she manage a small kindling of fire on the wick. Quickly she covered the flame with her hands to prevent any outside wind from blowing it out. After a few tense moments her candle's wick was aflame and she relaxed.

Gathering up her candle she walked to the front of the room and stood behind Catalina to show her candle to Professor Vector.

[Valerie Rice]

Valerie felt very dumb as both Catalina and Savannah got up from the table to show their lit candles. Of course they were Ravenclaws, it was to be expected but she was so far behind she thought she'd be here when everyone turned up for the next class. "In Yeem" over and over Valerie repeated herself and stared blankly at the small candle that sat in front of her which simply refused to grow. "Come on stupid! You can do this!" She scolded herself and forcefully cast "In Yeem" with once more no success. Looking around the room Valerie saw that nearly half the class had by now left and she slumped down in her chair, looking exasperated at her candle. How could something so small cause her so much trouble? “In yeeeem” she repeated half looking at the candle and once more nothing happened.

What was the point now anyway? She wasn’t going to get this spell to work, she never could do them anyway. Plus it wasn’t like she was going to get a job using ancient runes, in fact in a few months she’d probably never return to the magical world. The muggle world was where she belonged, she honestly didn’t know why she hadn’t been kicked out of Hogwarts after her first year. If she did manage a job in the magical world it’d be very low class, a waitress perhaps, or a store clerk, basically the same type of job she could get outside in the Muggle world. In the muggle world though she wouldn’t run into people from school who would poke fun at her, she could escape…. Valerie’s thoughts were brought back to class by someone dropping their bag of runes somewhere in back of the class. Looking down at her candle she sighed and picked it up, there was no point in staying here any longer, she’d failed this lesson like so many before. Grabbing her bag she walked up to the front of the room to show the professor her candle.

[Professor Juliette Vector]

Juliette looked up as three students came to her desk. First was Ms. Cavales and her candle. "Well done Miss Cavales, 10 points for Ravenclaw. You too Miss Johnstone, 10 points. Miss Rice, you made a good attempt, take 10 points also." Juliette then stood up and addressed the rest of the class. "That is good for today, you may leave or stay and finish if you'd like.

[Nasser Salah G6]

Precisely on time and with his textbook under his arm Nasser entered the Ancient Runes class glad it was the first thing they had today. It was a relief that they didn't have Potions first thing in the morning, it left a bad taste in his mouth for the rest of the day and whatever he told himself Snape's well-chosen sarcastic comments were never too easy to ignore. With a quick grin at Professor Vector he took his bags of Runes and sat in his usual place in the middle of the second row. Perseus was not too far away, but Nasser was a slower worker than him and found he concentrated better when he was not sitting next to his best friend in this class. That way he would not be distracted if things were zooming towards him and he could always ask him for help after he had finished should he need it.

The first charm, the equivalent of Accio had they been doing wand magic, was the first thing they had to do today. Nasser remembered Professor Vector always liked making sure they had practiced the work they had done last week, which was why he had already tried it several times during the week before their class. He set his runes in the correct orientation as asked, chanted "KAL-YEEM" twice, and watched his bag of runes happily as it flew towards him. He repeated the same procedure to summon the chest from the Professor's table, taking care to change the position of his runes but make sure they still formed a large T.

A Slytherin was insulting a Hufflepuff and Nasser smiled grimly to himself as Professor Vector put her in place. If Professor Snape was ready to favour the Slytherins well then Professor Vector was not. That was certainly a welcome change. The class commenced and Professor Vector posed a question and immediately the hand of a Ravenclaw went up, and she answered the question correctly. Nasser frowned a little. He needed to revise that again, he couldn't remember it from last class or the time he had read in his notes during the past week. He listened to the student's explanation and that triggered his memory, yes, that spell had given quite a hard time last class. He hoped it would not be too much of an obstacle today as it was obvious they would be casting a third spell before the end of class. He hated it when was left behind.

He tried to remember what they had done last class and could distinctly recall the orientation of the runes and the way they were supposed to pronounce the incantation. Chest in hand and runes set on the table Nasser repeated the incantation three times but saw no change. He took a deep breath, moved his runes around a bit and tried again. This time the box sprung open so quickly Nasser dropped it onto his desk, then he quickly picked it up eagerly looking to find out what was inside. It was small candle. Nasser liked candles, they always made an atmosphere of a room so relaxing, but what did Professor Vector want them to do with candles? He couldn’t remember doing anything with candles in the previous two years, and since he never did any further reading outside what they covered in their Runes class he couldn't guess.

Nasser listened interestedly as Professor Vector informed them about the "IN" and "YLEM" runes. They had already used one of them before, but the "IN" rune they hadn't used, at least not this year. Mass and Energy… he had heard that before from Perseus… of course, Einstein! Einstein had reached the astonishing revelation that mass could be transformed into energy, that is at a very high speed approaching that of light, and the equation containing both variables was E = mc² if Nasser remembered that correctly.

"OK, here comes the hard work," he thought, bracing himself. He heard another Ravenclaw, a good of friend of Perseus who possessed just as much intelligence answer another question from the Professor. It really was a useful incantation, and Nasser thought it was much better than an Engorgement Charm which tended to make the target enlarge too quickly to keep one in control of its growth. Nasser slid his rune to one side with his arm, set the other runes as e had been instructed, but somehow he wasn't thinking this would work. Sure enough, his first three trials were unsuccessful. "Channel your energy, come on, you can do this," said a voice in his head. Holding the candle very firmly and attempting the spell once again, Nasser felt its growth in his hand before he saw it. Thrilled at his success he repeated this once again, and finally saw that the candle's width had expanded visibly. He was very excited about this but they still had to do another thing before they were finished with today's class.

Candle lighting… that was pretty easy with a wand. But this was not the case with runes, as Nasser had learnt ever since his first runes class. Nasser whispered the incantation several times but he was getting nowhere. Two Ravenclaws had been trying too and Nasser watched them and finally discovered where he was going. He shifted his runes and repeated the incantation again, but he was a little too enthused. This resulted in a large flame appearing at the top of his candle which he anxiously extinguished with a little water from his wand. He tried the candle and tried again, and this time a small flame appeared at the end of it but it was rater weak and looked like it would disappear any moment. Nasser quickly took his candle, very much aware of its wet and lumpy appearance, and showed it with a bashful expression on his face to the professor. He wished it looked a little better, but at least it was obvious that its width had expanded.