Kaiden made his away up to the Runes classroom, curious at to what it was about. When he found the room, his curiosity only greatened as he took in the sights. He was slack-jawed. This was the strangest thing he had ever seen, and he had already seen flesh eating plants and baby dragons. It was like a grassy meadow inside. Seeing the tree, the boy ran over to it, but frowned. He wanted to climb it, but there were already a lot of people up there, or trying to get up there. Seeing his slytherin pal, he hollered up "Hey, Odessa, Is this thing like a real tree?" Because West should know, he was in it.

"Like I said, it's totally up to you whether you." He said with a grin.

Oliver took the parchment and tipped the youngster a small wink.

"Well it's a pleasure to meet you Pyresphonie Freja Oedegaard. What lovely manners you have." Something seriously lacking in this class at the moment.

Oliver blinked at the familiar looking Hufflepuff. "Well how much of it did you miss exactly? Because we'll be covering stuff that we did last term. It's going to be pretty boring for you to hear the same stuff all over again. Not to mention not very fair to the students who are unfamiliar with the subject." He was pretty sure that he had seen the Hufflepuff in his other classes.



Ooookay then. Apparently his tree was very popular. So much so that the students were just totally walking passed him without even a 'hello.' Oliver stood up with a frown on his face and walked over to the tree and cleared his throat.

"This is Ancient Runes." he said, glancing between the three first years. "And class is about to start so go and take a seat." Oliver pointed at the Slytherin kid (Theodore). "You didn't ask permission to climb the tree. I have a very good reason to take points from you right now. Unless you can convince me otherwise."

WHAT??

That's it! Oliver was not wearing his robes anymore especially if he was going to be mistaken for a woman. "It's nice to see you here." He just hoped the girl wasn't going to keep calling him 'Mam.'


With a wry smile on his lips, Professor Jenkins walked up to the front of the room and cleared his throat once again. "Hello everyone and welcome to Ancient Runes. My name is Professor Oliver Jenkins and I will be hopefully helping you to understand the runes better this term."

He took out his wand and conjured up a chair for him to sit in. "Now who can tell me what they know about the Runes? No text book answers please. Just what you think you know or may have heard about them."

Nigel was not that interested in Runes but was willing to give it a try. Nigel of course knew close nothing about them and he could only guess what the purpose of them were. "Um Professor are they like a really old language with its own alphabet"

Minerva frowned a bit "Well I was actually only at the first class. Last term then a family emergency came up and I had to leave. I made it back just as term ended pretty much. So I didn't get much at all and the fact that Runes confuses me a great deal, I won't be showing up anyone, but if you feel I will be okay with not being here for this one, then I can go ahead and not be here." she wasn't sure what to do, whether to stay or to go. If needed she could ask one of her friends for help to make sure she wasn't behind.

OOC: I actually only did come to the first class. I ended up getting a bit crazy in RL and missed the rest of term until a few days before the feast

Pyrsephonie raised her hand. "There are 10 runes," she said. "0-9. Each rune is represented by a magical creature and something it is able to do. If I can remember correctly..." She had to think about it. "0 is a Demiguise, 1 is a Unicorn, 2 is a Graphorn, 3 is a Runespoor, 4 is a Fwooper, 5 is a Quintaped, 6 is a Salamander, 7 is unknown, 8 is an Acromantula, and 9 is a Hydra." She smiled happily, proud of herself. Then she realized that the Professor might not have meant those kinds of runes. "Did you mean Muggle runes?" She asked. Pyrsephonie knew about those too, but had assumed that the Professor had meant Wizard runes. Oops.

Oichi was glad to see class begin and the professor ask the first question. Perhaps the monkeying in the trees would even come to an end. "Well, I know they cause strange things to happen that may not have happened otherwise", that is what ichi got out of muggle movies though as a witch now she knew perhaps the muggles really don't understand diddly about magical anything. But who knows.

Hmmm Autumn thought she had only been for the first 2 lessons last year until her fathers death.
She rasied her hand "Sir aren't they a way of cummunicating and writing in acient times, they were like a first written language."

Addie really was enjoying this class so far even though it just started. Especially the fact that she got to sit in a tree before class started. The professor then called them down. "Thank you for letting me sit in your tree sir," she said cheerfully. Now what did she know about runes? Addie knew that it was a class her mum felt unnecessary despite Addie's protests. Something about the ancient...language maybe not needing to be taught. "Professor doesn't it have to do with some ancient language," Addie asked from her new seat on the ground.

Wait a minute, duh, runes had something to do with it. Addie remembered seeing her brothers rune dictionary. It had symbols. "And aren't runes symbols," she asked.

Elise sighed and shook her head at the tree climbing people. Weren't they afraid of falling down or something?! Looking at the Professor person, she almost smiled when he threatened to take points off Slytherin. Yeah, well... She did want her house to win this year.

Raising her hand, Elise was just a little unsure of herself. "Isn't it like a magical alphabet?" she asked, curious. Obviously ,she didn't go for Ancient Runes the previous year.

"Oh I DO." Enjoy climbing. Wasn't it obvious? West was becoming ONE with the TREE. He was gonna be awesome at this class.



"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii BLUETHEOKAID." Yeah he merged their names into one. "Yeah its Runes! Cool tree right? But you're supposed to ask the professor. But I'll put in a GOOD WORD after, and we can ALL CLIMB maybe!" Yeah! Good idea West Odessa! It really deserved a high five, but it wasn't easy to give or get those when you were hanging upside down in a tree.


... did West have to sit TOO?

He did chime in in defense of Theo though, "Mr.... dude? Err... Jenkins?" Yeah. "Theo was helping me test the flexibility of the branches, see? Cos did you know druids and junk used to make walking sticks from these things? And they make flexy wand too. So we were just checking that OUT. To wrap our HEADS around it." West explained all this in upside-down earnest. See? Firsties were so innocent. Weren't they?

OH. OH CLASS WAS STARTING!

He got to stay in the tree right? At least until Dude!Jenkins said otherwise.

He put his hand up. Errr... down. Err... out.

"I know that my dad used them cos he was a curse-breaker and sometimes the curses were in runic and not with like, spells from wands!" What else? "My dad says that the barrier at platform 9 and 3/4 is made possible by rune charms! And he said the runes that are most common, the Norse ones, are like our alphabet cos its called what the first couple runes are just like alphabet is alpha and beta for a and b.... Futh... Furrr.... Futhark?"

Those were good things right? Yeah. Dad things were always good and right.

"Yeah, there is a tree inside." He said, looking up at the monkey boy in the tree. Professor? had he seen a professor? He peered around the room until he noticed the man laying on the ground. Oops. "Yeah, you should."



Ahh! The professor man was coming over. "I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you there, I just saw the tree." Nodding at the order to find a seat, the boy headed off to one near the front. Over hearing the next bit, Kaiden was glad he didn't climb the tree. Right, Jenkins, Professor Jenkins. Was there anything in his head about Runes? Well, he had see something about it in this old movie he had seen. Raising his hand, he offered. "Can't you us runes to answer questions, and like find out which direction to go?" Because thats what they did in the movie.

"Alright, alright you can stay." he said with a smile. How could he possibly say no after that.



Oliver nodded his head at the answers that were coming his way. "You are all correct. The runes were and are still used as a mesaging system."

A small chuckle left his mouth. "You're not wrong but we are studying the other runes today. And while muggles do use them, they're not just for them. Wizards and witches use the runes also."

Olly raised his eyebrows at this. "Really? Tell me about these strange happenings that come from using runes." He was most interested in hearing this.

'yes that's right. It's called a runic spread and we'll get onto that later."

Uh huh. Yeah sure kid. He remembered using excuses like that too when he had been trying to get himself and his friends out of trouble. "Riiiiight." He had to hold the laugh in as he gestured for the boy to get down out of the tree.

Not only could the kid talk himself out of trouble but he also knew about the subject. "Very good..." Er, he need to get these kids names. "Yes not only are the runes an alphabet used for writing messages but they are also used to create magic." He nodded his head. "Yeah curse-breakers would need a good knowledge in Ancient Runes."

Oliver turned his chair around before sitting down upon it and hanging his arms over the back. "The word rune means 'secret,' 'whisper' and 'mystery.'" Didn't that sound exciting? Probably not to the students but he never got bored of talking about them.

"Okay let's start with the alphabet, shall we? There is in actual fact three runic alphabets but the one we will be studying is the Elder Futhark. It is the oldest of the three and the most studied. So can anyone tell me what they know of the Elder Futhark? Again, in your own words and just a little piece of information will do."

Minerva put up her hand happy she was allowed to stay, because she really did struggle in this class. 'Umm professor I know that it has well I think 23 or 24 runes. That are arranged in an order of groups." She was hoping she was right, she really wanted to open her book and look to make sure, but fought the urge since he had told the class to tell in their own words.

Now that Pyrsephonie knew that they were dealing with the Germanic runes, there wouldn't be anymore mistakes. "The Elder Futhark is the 'original', so to speak," she said. "It is made up of 24 runes in three groups called Freyr, Heimdall, and Tyr." Pyrsephonie noticed that her accent strengthened when she said this.

Hmmm the Elder Futhark?

Nora raised her hand once again, with a tiiiiny grin on her face. "It was used by the Germanic tribes around Denmark," well, of course she knew THAT, "Sweden, Norway, and Germany, for communication, divination, and invocation." Or something like that.

"Runic Spread," he repeated, in an attempt to remember the term later. Well, at least he knew what the thing he had seen in the movie was called.

Considering the meaning of the word rune it sounded like this class would be a lot of fun. The young puff had a very confused look on his face. Three alphabets? there were three? Wasn't there only one alphabet, you know, the one that goes A, B, C. And this Elder Futhar thing? He didn't know anything about it, but well. "Is it the Oldest of the alphabets?"

Oh Batman Nigel did not know enough about runes to give information on them that well. He only heard of Elder Futhark when he was skimming through a book he read at home. Well he had to give it a chance " Um Professor isn't most runes that we see written are written in Elder Futhark"

Well. At least Theo wasn't losing points! But West had to get out of the treee. NOTFAIR the other two didn't have to! Right?

He grumbled a bit but did get down, and he put one hand up for a second and then both hands went to his head like horns. "URUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ." He offered an answer.

Yes he was being an Auroch. He even scraped the ground with one foot like a bull getting ready to charge since he was standing and on the way to a seat.

Once he got there, he elaborated on his non answer of sorts, hand up again, "All the runes they have symbols, of like... stuff. Things or concepts that were common and easy to recognize for the people that were around when it was invented and stuff. There's a lot that are creatures, and like, relating to domestic wealth cos like how cows were money and stuff, and then Norse gods and weather, which probably is what they blamed all bad things on too, cos they were real superstitious. So like even if the meanings might not make sense to us now, they made sense back then. So yeah, its all symbols of things."

That was West's understaaaanding at least. Yup. His dad told him STUFF. The firstie put his hand down and turned slightly where he sat... and stared longingly at the tree.

Okay. The Elder Futhark. The blonde guy still remembered when he got the lesson at his former school. But he felt asleep maybe at the class, because it was boring!

"The Elder Futhark has 24 runes." said him. "And it was used by so many artifacts such as amulet and runestones."

Derrick had not really a single clue about Ancient Runes other then when he partly learned it at his old school.He slowly raised his hand and said''Ancient Runes is an old Alphabet or numbers with signs to show what they mean.''He explained.

EIDJGGGODKGDFLKG,VR.

Theodore shuffled rigorously and jumped down from the tree, looking as if someone just murdered him on the spot. "I...I... I'M VERY SORRY." He said quickly, then looked over to West as he defended him. Dude, that guy was COOL. Bowing his head down slightly in embarrassment, Theo took a seat next to West as class began.

He didn't know what Runes were. Hadn't a clue. So he hushed.

The alphabet. WELL.... Theodore knew his alphabet! YAAAY. The boy cheered up a bit, glad that he was on the same page as everyone else. But Elder Futhark?

Raising his hand, Theo tried, bless him... "It's the Runic alphabet... which has different looking letters to our alphabet. But it's still the same, right?" Ohhhhhhhh. Merlin, he hoped he was right. Otherwise this professor might mark him for life as being an idiot.

Well they had the basics anyway. Which is what he pretty much expected from students who had never studied Ancient Runes before.

Leaning back in his chair, Oliver tapped the board with his wand. "This." he said, "Is the Elder Futhark."



"As you can see, it is made up of symbols. Just like our young Slytherin friend over there told us." He pointed to where West was sitting. "Each letter / symbol has a different meaning. Also you will see that the first six letters make up the word FUTHARK and there are twenty four letters in total." Oliver draped his arms over the back of the chair again and rested his chin on the edge.

"Alright. I am going to give you five minutes to have a look through your text book, pick out one rune and give me a brief description about it."

Oichi was quite glad the lesson moved on quickly after he asked her about what makes Ancient Runes supernatural. She really did not want to explain. Well atleat not in front of everyone knowing the professor may find her explanation stupid and laugh at her due to lack of experience. She moved on and continued to listen to the professor. She skipped one question due to the sheer umber of hands that rose up faster. With the seccons question she was alert and had her hand in the air the moment she had an answer after skimming through her book, "Fehu is the first rune of the Futhark set and it symbolizes wealth and stregnth to come. Wait, that sounds like divination. What is the difference?".

Elder Futhark She had to remember that. As it started sinking into her brain she flicked through her textbook and looked at all the runes. She liked the look of all of them. They looked cool and it was more interesting to look at then English or German even! Professor Jenkins had instructed them to do a little research about one. She chose Isa the I. She liked looking at I's. Random thought but it was there. She found out enough about the it and went up to Professor Jenkins.

[B]"Professor, I chose Isa also known as the I. Isa means ice. It also looks like an I."/B] Eh. That wasn't a great explanation but it was actually an explanation. Some kids may have done Isa has three letters or something like that.

Okay. Gary looked at his textbook, found the runes and read the description. This lesson seemed interesting. How could he often got asleep at this class when he was still in Salem? He remembered that the Professor at Salem looked old, creepy, had a low voice and seemed like he didn't have any spirit again to live. That's why he never enjoyed the lesson. Hogwarts and Salem were totally different!

The blonde guy read again his book and picked a rune to explain. "Professor, I pick Tiwaz." Silly.. He didn't know why he chose it. Because it has a shape like an arrow maybe? "Well, it means Honor, justice, leadership and authority." Maybe is there any correlation between the shape and the meaning? He didn't know yet.