Ummmmmm......

"You could make some funky sounding spells with those funky names." That was a pathetic answer. He tried to think back to the rune he had chosen to look at. Tiwaz. "Or maybe.... make spells relating to the meaning of each rune."

So... for Tiwaz, you could make a defensive spell? Defense for the WIN of battles, and such?

No? Theodore bowed his head down.

Derrick had followed every bit of This lesson until now.He didn't know if his answer was right but he still raised his hand.''Well I Guess if Two runes are Put together they can be powerful.''He din't care if it was wrong or right.

Zack knew a bit of the runic magic. He had heard his father talk about it. He didn't have a depth information on the topic but a few that he could mention. He tried to remembe wht his father had told and then raised his hand to answer. He looked at the professor and said "Professor, when we write a word in runes it actually empowers that word. So, i that way the fact is that the very act of writing something in runes, is a spell. It brings the statement into concrete reality." he said bring his hand down.

"Umm, maybe to connect us to our ancestors, who lived before the English alphabet? To know their stories and predictions? Also it may work as a spell?" Sarah said, rather unsure of herself.

Hooow was the rune magic being used?

Hmmm...

Narrowing her eyes a bit, Lea looked at the professor instead of the book as she thought hard to find an answer to that question. To be honest she did not know much about how to cast the magic. It would have been so cool if she did, though. So she hoped the professor would teach that.

Hehe...

Now to answer the question. ''We can carry them around, right? Like a necknale or something.'' She could remember his brother wearing a rune necklace.

Kaiden turned his head to the side just kind of looking at the symbols that appeared on the board. They did look rather funny. Like some type of ancient writing or something. Pulling out his textbook, he flipped through the first few pages where it described the symbols. Ohh, Dagaz looked cool. Finding the right page in the textbook, he read over a some of the stuff it said about it. It was confusing to his eleven year old brain, but there were bits and pieces he understood. "Professor," Kaiden said after raising his hand, " The rune Dagaz, is like the Circle of Life," Like from that old animated movie. "Or like the water cycle. And it means the person is happy, and balanced." Was that it? He couldn't remember. Looking back at the book, "Umm, and Success in new pursuits and things".




So each rune had a special meaning. They could sort of predict the future. Raising his hand, he suggested. "Well, can't you toss some runes in the air, and then ask a question. Depending on how they land depends on the answer." That was using them magically right?

"Not necessarily. Each and every rune is magical. You just have to know how to use their meanings to create the magic." Oh and a bit of sacrificing was helpul but he kept that to himself for now. "Good try though."

Oliver couldn't help but grin a little at the polite way the boy was speaking to him. It was such a foreign concept to him. "Yes you are correct. Although it's not just protective magic that can be created."

"Yes, yes. Very good." Oliver was impressed.

He was starting to get the impression that this youngster was going to be a smart cookie. Either that or he had a good memory. "Yes it does work and very well too."

Oliver chuckled softly. Weren't they supposed to answering the question not asking ones? "Yes there are runes for that."

"While I agree that witches and wizards can use the runes more effectively than muggles. They do manage to use the runes with good results." It's amazing what muggles can do.

"Very good Nora." For some reason though, they all seemed to think that runes were only used for protection. He would show them that they can be used for so many other things.

Oliver raised his eyebrows. He wasn't sure what books she had been reading. "Er...perhaps you might want to take those books back. Runes are not used for fortune telling. They counsel the reader."

"Funky huh?" he asked with a light laugh. "Maybe you could put those sounds to some music?" Perhaps he could make that homework? "Good answer though."

"Oh very good." Nice to see someone give a different answer. The students were impressing him.

"A good way of looking at it." They were thinking more outside the box then he would have thought.

Oliver scratched the back of his head wondering where the young girl was going with the whole ancestor thing. "Okay, that's a way of looking at it."

"Good. Very good." He flashed the young girl an encouraging smile.

"Yes you can but that's kinda not what I meant by using them magically." But hey, it was a good try and Oliver appreciated all their answers.


Standing up from the chair, Oliver began to walk around the room as he spoke to the class. "Okay some of you mentioned chanting. This is one way to use the runes magically. It is called Galdr. I am not going to go into detail right now because we will cover it in another class." Maybe the next one or the one after. He hadn't decided as yet. "Another way is to bind the runes together. This done by combining several runes together. Again we'll go into more detail later. There is also creating amulets / talismans and wearing them either around your neck or as a bracelet." And yes he had a few of them himself. "Another way is to carve your rune, preferably into wood, and stain it with your own blood. That in my opinion is the most effective method of creating magic with your runes."

He moved back to the front of the room. "As I said we will cover these methods of magic more extensively in another class but do any of you have any questions before I call it a day?"

Minerva sat there thinking of her questions, but every question she had Professor Jenkins said they would talk about on another day. Then she made a ick face at the last detail he mentioned and she shot her hand up. "Professor, why is using your own blood more effective and doesn't it hurt to use your own blood?

"Thank you, Professor" he said as professor spoke to him. So, it was a good way of putting it! Yay! something he was right about he thought.

He listened carefully to what professor had to say, he always thought runes to be magical in ever way. They were very interesting to study about. Although runes were magical many people didn't think much of them. Zack always like those bracelets and stuff, he felt it was cool wearing them. But sadly he didn't have any of those.

He heard professor calling it a day. Hmm....it was nice and enjoyable for the first ancient runes lesson he thought. Questions? No questions. He didn't have anything to ask all he wanted to know was when was the next lesson going to held. But he thought better off it. He would know anyway, right?

Alrighty. So... this Galdr thing meant... chanting the name of the rune until it becomes magically active? Nora decided against asking, since the professor said that they'd cover the details in another class, so she'll find out anyway. If she really couldn't wait for so long, there was always the textbook. And then he said something about binding the runes, which sounded pretty cool. Just thinking about how powerful two well chosen runes could be together brought a small smile on Nora's face. Maybe she could make herself an amulet!

But then... blood?!

"Uhm, professor?" He said they could ask questions, didn't he? "You mentioned using blood... but isn't it usually used for... dark arts?" Surely the runes weren't anything dark?

Ok, maybe in the future when he explained Galdr Nigel will understand because right now he did not. Well it looked like class was about to end and Nigel was happy that at least he had a understand of basic runes. Professor , what is your favorite rune? He asked what ours was so Nigel wants to know what his was.

Of course West did.

Have questions.

He put his hand up. "My dad said that the protections on Hogwarts are cos of runes and rune charms in the foundations, that they're like that to be more permanent, on account of they don't need to be recast like a spell might after hundreds and hundreds of years or the death of the caster and all." Wait. That wasn't a question. It was cos he wasn't done yet! "There's that room for ghosts that we can't go in? I was wondering, if its runes that stop us going in there or if its something else?"

Woooow...

Runes were so...interesting and awesome. Especially her favourite rune. She had already always been jealous of the rune necklace her brother had so now she wanted her own with her own favourite rune.

With a little smike, she listened to the professor carefully. So Galdr. That sounded weird. But there was no doubt that it was very useful. Maybe with Galdr, one might never need a wand. Hmm...

Did she have a question?

She raised a hand. ''Professor, are you going to teach us how to make ourselves pretty rune bracelets?''

Or necklaces.

She wanted both.

Jotting down a few notes, Dylan nodded. He still thought Runes were ridiculous...but he wasn't going to mention that to the Professor guy. It seemed he was really into his whole subject area...thing.

...But this mention of soaking the runes in blood...

Another girl...who he then realized was from his own house, had voiced his thoughts...And in return, Dylan raised a brow at her before nodding towards the Professor. "That does sound like something related to Dark Arts...but I'm sure it's probably used in protection spells, too."

He was suddenly struck with an image of some girl sacrificing herself over a runes set to protect her family...

Where these random thoughts came from, Dylan had no clue.

Narumi sat quietly writing down notes when the Professor asked for questions, a lot of questions were flowing through her mind. But one kept poping out probablly thanks to her brothers stories about making the rune set. She asked So each time you make a rune you have to whip it with blood? And after your done is there anything you have to do with all of your runes?

ooc: Sorry guys should have wrapped this class up weeks ago.

He just knew that question was going to be asked and he grinned at Minvera. "Well you only need to prick your finger, so it really shouldn't hurt." But some people didn't have much tolerance for pain. "Because we have magic in our blood, do we not? So by using our blood, we are kind of activating the rune."

Oliver shook his head. "Just because one uses blood in say a potion or a spell doesn't mean you're using dark magic. For magic of any sort to be dark it is the intent behind it." Perhaps he should have a word to Medea. "In the past they used blood because it was meant as a sacrifice. Odin gave his left eye to gain wisdom and so you must give blood to gain power over the runes. But as I told MInerva, I like to use it because our blood is full of magic therefore making the rune more effective."

Ah this would have to be the first time a student has asked him that. "It's Dagaz." he said simply. The boy could work out what that meant by studying up a little further.

Oliver nodded his head as the youngster spoke. He knew quite a lot for a first year which was a good thing. His question caused him to pause for a moment. "Well I'll be honest, there are parts of this castle that I have yet to discover." In other words he had never been to the spirit room. "It is still unknown the extent of powers that ghosts have. So they could have set something in place to keep humans out. Or there could be runes in place. Perhaps we can check it out at some point."

"I'm sure at some point, we'll make some amulets." He was sure the girls would love that but he didn't know how keen the guys would be.

He was definitely going to have to talk to Medea. So many students thinking that using blood was somehow related to Dark Arts. "Like I said before. It's the intention of spellcaster on whether it's Dark magic or not. Using blood has nothing to do with it."

He shook his head. "No, not necessarily. If you don't wish to use blood then you can use red ochre paint to stain the runes. It's used in place of blood. Not quite as effective but works well enough." Oliver sat down on his chair. "Once you have gone through the steps of making a rune set, you energize the runes by making an offering to the gods and then you place them in a pouch to be called upon when you need them."

So did that satisfy everyone?

Ohhh.

As Nora listened to professor Jenkins' answer, and actually understood his point... well, THAT made sense. Why hadn't she thought about it? Of course blood didn't have to result in dark arts... it could be sacrifice as well. But it still sounded creepy. Either that, or Nora was just super terrified at the sight of blood... especially her own.

"Okay," she mumbled in response, feeling sort of embarrassed with her silly question. Well, she probably needed to ask it to be sure of something. That was what professors were made for, right? To answer silly questions and make it all clear. Yup. That was their mission.