Lily had managed to remember to bundle up before the Runes class, wearing her regular robes along with a heavier jacket, though it still wasn't quite enough for the whole class period. So she was shivering as she made her way down to the vegetable patch. Once she got down to where the class was being held, she smiled to the professor. "Hello Professor Jenkins... Kinda chilly today, don't you think?" She said before making her way over towards where the majority of the class was standing.

Anything to stay warm in this weather...

Sierra walked, quite slowly mind you, out to the vegetable patch. She hated Ancient Runes. Not because of Jenkins, though. It was because of the subject itself. She had to admit, though, that it slightly intrigued her that class was being held at the vegetable patch. She tried to think of any connections between it and the subject, but she never could come up with anything. Maybe her mind just wasn't in the mood for thinking right now. She'd save that for class.

Walking into the area class was being held at, Sierra looked toward Jenkins. "Hello, Professor," she said.

Wrapped in three layers of clothes along with a hat and a scarf, Louisa trotted all the way down to where their 'first' Ancient Runes lesson was taking place. She really wondered why on earth would they go OUT for Ancient Runes... the professor showed exceptional skill at creating a greenery scene of their classroom last term so... what was the deal exactly?

Wiping her nose with her tissue she approached the class and nodded her head at the professor, "Good day professor Jen-"ACHU! "Sorry.. professor Jenkins," she tried again. The tonic potion she'd gulped down should work in a few minutes, no worries.

Waful didn't care much for this time of the year, with its cold and its grey skies and its white stuff that covered the ground. He didn't stick out as much when there was all this white, and how could all the girl and boy persons appreciate what an awesome owl he was if he didn't stick out as he rightfully should?

But even so, he flew towards the castle grounds, flapping his impressive wings as he quickly approached the place where the girl person he was meant to deliver this letter to would be. And even though the grounds were big, he found the girl quickly. He was that awesome.

Waful flew lower and lower until he landed there on the ground beside the girl person, the package and attached letter laying on the ground just beside him, still tied to his leg.

"Hoo." Untie your stuff, girl person, and give us a treat.

Really now. It wasn't THAT cold. Of course he had taken the necessary steps to keep warm. "Hey." Oliver nodded his head at the Hufflepuff.

He watched the Gryffindor Prefect for a moment as she worked quietly off to the side. "Thank you Miss Hollingberry." She would be rewarded.

"Hello ladies." Oliver watched the three girls take their place and he had to hide the small chuckle that came from his mouth. His students needed to toughen up.

"Hello Theo." Yes he remembered this boy from last class.

"Hello. Nice to see you today." he said cheerfully. At least they were making an effort to appear happy to be here.

Oliver's eyebrow raised as he watched the cocky young Hufflepuff. It reminded him of how he was when he was a teenager. But he would of had a totally better pick up line than that.

But then what do you expect from a Hufflepuff?

"It's cold?" Oliver gave her a slightly amused look. "I hadn't noticed." He left her question unanswered, she would find out soon enough.

"Hello Dylan. Prefect Gert." Oliver inclined his head to both boys.

He gave the youngster a warm smile. "I am well and how are you?"

Apparently the cold had frozen this one's lips together. That's the only thing he could think of as to why he would get not greeting of some sort.

Now this was what he liked to see. Oliver waved back to the Ravenclaw. "It is a glorious day." he agreed.

"No, not really." He was still casually leaning against the fence with his arms folded across his chest.


Another eyebrow raised. She was sneezing already? "Prefects Greingoth and Carter. Nice to see you both." He gave the Ravenclaw another look. Well so long as she stayed near the back. He didn't want any germs.

Before Oliver even had the chance to start the class an owl swept down amongst the students and landed next to Miss Hollingberry. He let out a small sigh. "Okay, hurry up and sort out the owl so we can get the class started."

His gaze went to the rest of the class. "Alright then." he said finally unfolding his arms and pushing off the fence. "For those of you who are cold. Miss Hollingberry had kindly placed some blueblell flames into jars. Go and grab yourself one. I don't want to hear anymore complaints about being cold. You older students really should have this covered already." Surely they knew how to do a hot air charm at least.

"And once you have yourselves sorted, can anyone hazard a guess as to what we will be doing today?" This will be interesting.

Alyssa rushed down to the vegetable patch hoping that she wasn't late for Ancient Runes class.

She saw the Professor and quicky greeted her,"Good day Professor."

Then before she could settle down the Professor posed her first question.

She thought for awhile before raising her hand,"Some of the vegetables are related to the Ancient Runes like the meaning of Laguz is related to the leek."

"So I guess we're here to study some of the vegetables and how they are related to the Runes. "

Dale did NOT waste any time in getting one of those nifty jars of flames. He curved his hands around it in an attempt to absorb as much heat from it as possible. Really, this was totally nothing like his warm and toasty dormitory. Dale saw nothing wrong with indoor classes. Even, like... flying could be indoors.

... now there's an idea.

When Professor Dudebro asked his question, Dale looked stumped. But, you know, may as well try. He raised both hands in the air, along with the jar Well... he was comfortable holding it with both hands and all.

"Gardening?" he said, halfway between disgruntled and interested in the legit answer.

Ella and went to grab a jar with bluebell flames for herself. She loved these flames and definitely needed to learn how to produce them herself. They were quite pretty and they definitely would be useful during this lesson out in the cold. She gave the Gryffindor prefect a grateful smile, before heading back to the spot she had originally been standing in.

As for what they would be doing today, Ella didn't have the slightest idea. "Probably discussing runes, sir." The second year said matter-of-factly before realizing that was quite a dumb answer. OF COURSE they were discussing runes...this was an ANCIENT RUNES lesson after all. She really needed to retire her captain obvious uniform and soon.

That was nice of the Professor and the Gryffindor Prefect.

Nigel really did need something to keep him warm because right now he was freezing. Even though he was dressed up warmly.

Hr walked over to where the jars of bluebell flames were and took one and immedialty felt better and most definitely warmer. Nigel then walked back to were he was and thought about what they would be doing today. They were in a vegetable patch in winter maybe that had something to do with the lesson, but Nigel did not know.

He would take a guess though, why not. He raised one hand and held the jar with the other. "Professor are we picking vegetables?". They were in a vegetable patch after all.

HEH. These warming charms were pretty handy.

Raising his hand comfortably, João said "How runes help the plants grow? Or," he had just seen the runes around the neck of the professor, "how runes keep one warm?"

They were about to start class and someone was getting on owl? Glancing in the Gryffindor's direction, Dylan rolled his eyes.

...Really, he had no idea why he was being so annoyed with people lately...It wasn't her fault she'd gotten an owl.

Trying not to devote too much thought towards that girl...he looked towards the Professor. One thing he could say...Professor Jenkins was a pretty cool guy. That was one plus...

Not even noticing the chill, Dylan crossed his arms. What could they possibly be doing in a vegetable garden in the middle of winter...that involved Ancient Runes? "Are we blessing the vegetables or something?" Scratching his chin, he frowned. "Are we going to place protection spells on them so they're protected from...pests?"

It seemed legit.

Sierra hated, absolutely hated, needing something that Hollingberry had been responsible for. As it was, though, she was feeling too cold to pass up the opportunity, so she headed over to the jars of bluebell flames, selected one, and then walked back over to where she'd been before.

She had to refrain from rolling her eyes at the Puffer who suggested they'd be studying runes today. Well, duh. Thank you, Sherlock Holmes. Although Sierra may not have the right answer, she thought hers at least showed some thought. She raised her hand. "Runes have the ability to make things in our lives better," she said, eyeing the runes around Jenkins' neck, "so maybe we're studying a way to use runes to make the vegetables grow faster and bigger, or maybe runes to help protect the vegetables from the weather or other things that can ruin them."

Bowing her head almost in apology for the owl, Kurumi shuffled her feet away from the jars - keeping one for herself of course - and joined the rest of her classmates. The jar did manage to keep her hands nice and warm, but the Gryffindor was wishing that she had remembered to bring her mittens with her.

When Professor Jenkins spoke, Kurumi almost reluctantly removed her hand from the side of the jar to raise it and venture a guess. "Runes can be very beneficial for gardening depending on the rune placed with what crop and in the direction that rune is buried in the ground," Kurumi began, remembering some of the research she had done during their assignment where they had to assign a rune to a professor. She had selected Professor Bentley and had stumbled upon more information involving gardening and runes than she had even imagined existed. "Perhaps we are going to be learning and practicing how to elicit runic properties when it comes to growing certain plants or protecting a garden - especially from the cold?"

Because Merlin knew that this vegetable patch was a center of chaos.

Louisa missed the extra look she was given by the professor since the white owl flew closer to the crowd distracting her. She watched it approach the Gryffindor Prefect.

The professor's voice snapped her attention away from Kurumi. Oh, right. The flame balls. Heh. She didn't need those; She wasn't cold, she had cold. There was a big differen-ACHU!

..never mind.

What did they think they were doing here? Louisa had a ton of witty replies to that, none of which were serious though. She kept silent, hearing what the others had.

Zhenya didn't need a jar of fire. Nope, she was used to the cold. Except for the slight shivers when the wind whooshed past her face, she was quite warm in all her clothing. She listened to Professor Jenkins asking them to guess what they would be doing today, and she raised her hand. "I assume we're not digging up ancient vegetables to use as runes, so my guess is that we might be looking at different vegetables and how they relate to different runes, and complement each other. Er.. you know, certain runes might complement certain vegetables, and can be used to influence growth of the vegetables."

Yes, it certainly was a guess.

The prefect explained about her putting bluebell flames into jars, stating the obvious but remember: girls LOVED to talk about anything. "Well, that is very kind of you to do that for us. There aren't many people in the world who would go out their way soooo much to help out others," he praised.

He noticed that she gave him a smile of her own and that was when Elijah KNEW he had her. She was totally infatuated with him. Wasn't it completely obvious? "Why thank you," he beamed, taking one of the jars she had filled and giving her a small wink as a reward. Afterall, his winks were so unbelievably amazing that they could be nothing but rewarding.

As he wrapped his hands around his jar to get some warmth, his bro Vickers turned up with an ickle Huffie. "Heyyyyy! Vickers!" he greeted, genuinely happy to see him. It wasn't often he met other guys who didn't act like toolbags around him because of their jealousy of his good looks. "And hello to you, too, Dale," he greeted, picking up his name from the pretty Gryffindor prefect. He sure hoped that that boy's stutter wasn't a permanent thing because he didn't even have to explain how unfortunately unattractive that would be.

His name was the next to come from her lips, and it wasn't surprising at all to him that she knew who he was. Most people did. They alwaysss had to know who the hot guy was. It had nothing to do with Vickers just mentioning it at all. Nope. "Kurumi? Wow. Pretty name! Almost as pretty as the person who owns it," WINK. Oh yeeeeeaaahhhh. He totally had her.



He had just been getting into prime flirtatious mode when the Professor decided he MUST start the lesson right at that moment. Talk about inconvenient. Way to NOT have a bros back.

Either way, he gathered around with the rest of his classmates and listened to the lesson begin. It started off with a question in regards to what exactly they might be doing out in the vegetable patches for a Runes lesson and Elijah hadn't a scooby. He only elected for this class to please his parents, remember?

Although, whilst he may not have a clue, Kurumi certainly seemed to. "What an incredibly good answer, Kurmui," he praised. Girls LOVED praise.

He decided to try and have a go at an answer himself, ya know, to try and impress the girl with his smarts. There was the slight problem of him not having many smarts to utilise, but it was worth a try. Raising his hand he offered, "Perhaps you would like us to try and see how Runes can be used in a more... er.... natural environment?" It didn't sound too awful, did it? Probably. But he tried. Might as well send her another GORGEOUS wink just incase.

Prue glanced longingly at one of the jars with a blue bell flame in it, shuffling over quickly to pick it up, content to just clasp it in her hands. It was definitely warming her hands up more, her gloves seeming to have barely any effect, she'd have to remember to look up a charm to put on them as soon as she got back.

Thinking about the question Professor Jenkins asked she thought a while, looking at the vegetable patch in front of her. "Sir, are we using the runes to help with the gardening? Like to help the plants grow or to protect them from certain elements" if they were as sensitive to the cold as she felt, that might be a reason why they were having a lesson in the freezing cold. To protect the darling little plants from the nasty coldness...

"If any of you missed that. Today's lesson will be using the runes to give Groundskeeper Murdoch's vegetable garden a helping hand." Oliver gestured towards the garden. "Now I came down here earlier and took down all of Murdoch's charms around the garden." Something he might have forgotten to mention to his friend, just quietly. "So we will be working from scratch with no other magical interference."

He was glad that Waylon had a fence around the garden. It would make things easier. "So who can tell me what runes we could use to help this garden along? Just one rune per person. And also tell me why you chose that rune."

Okay so maybe Ella's last attempt at answering a question had been a colossal fail...that didn't mean she wasn't going to try an answer anything ever again. She liked Ancient Runes, found it interesting, and wanted to learn. Considering all this, she raised her hand when the next question was presented. "Professor, I think Jera would be helpful. Especially because it has to do with seeing that something ends in success, right? I mean the vegetable garden is already planted so we'd just be giving it a little extra help to turn out great." And that seemed like a legit reason to the second year.

Sierra beamed when it was confirmed that her answer was the right one. Of course it was the right. She was just awesome, and that was all there was to it. Now she just had to figure out which runes were right for what they were about to do. "What about Laguz?" she suggested, raising her hand. "It stands for water, life energy, and organic growth." It sounded to her like it would help the vegetables grow big and healthy.

Wait, wait...wait. He'd been...right? Kinda...?

o.O

Okay.....

Feeling a little caught off guard, Dylan didn't even think to stop himself when he said, "I don't think we want to scare my classmates or the produce, Professor." Blinking, he couldn't help but to follow that up with a laugh. Mainly because of how utterly TRUE the statement was.

The Slytherin was pretty terrible.

Feeling obligated to answer this follow up question, he thought real hard about the runes...offering up "Sowilo, Professor." Moving a hand up to muse his hair, he elaborated...some. "Erm...It means the Sun. I'd imagine that would be important to a garden."

Nigel most certainly did not want to be hexed. So he just shut his mouth and listened to what they were going to be doing today in the vegetable patch.

Nigel thought he might know one rune that would help.

"Professor how about naudiz, it means need. You need vegetables for this lesson right?"

"Laguz should work well since it helps with fertility and a healing power of renewal which would definately help the plants", Oichi answered with her hand raised high.

Ooooh, they were going to use runes for the vegetables? This would be cool!

And now... what runes could help? "Maybe Dagaz? It means sunlight, and plants need a lot of it," especially those days, when everything was covered in snow. Nora also thought of other runes, but she could remember none that haven't already been mentioned. Well, that's why they were so many in a class. Hehe.

"I'm just doing what I was asked to by Professor Jenkins," she replied softly, shrugging her shoulders. She did catch his wink, but didn't really have any reaction to it other than cocking her head slightly to the side.

Attention back on the professor and the class discussion now, Kurumi's eyes widened when she heard him call her pretty. Kurumi never considered herself as such, finding herself rather plain and the only thing that stood out about her were her violet eyes. It had only been recently that she had come to like them, but even then compliments about her appearance were just not things she knew how to handle. Which is why her cheeks were now flushed and she had bit down on her lower lip nervously.

She only felt even more nervous when he had all of a sudden complimented her answer. Wait...how had they ended up standing next to each other? Kurumi looked at Elijah, mouth sightly parted in surprise, and her cheeks still very much a rosy color.

Should she say thank you?

Saved by the Ancient Runes professor! Sort of.

Kurumi blushed even more at the thumbs up the man gave. She was just thankful she had come across that bit of information in her research. Not that she was entirely sure at how effective the method was - it reminded her of that semi ridiculous notion of Moon Planting - but it was another theory to try out.

Thinking for a moment, Kurumi tried to recall what rune it was she had given Professor Bentley, but found that the memory simply escaped her. Oh well, there were others that she could mention. "Berkana is another," she answered after raising her hand. "It is associated with the element of Earth and represents birth and growth, so I imagine it is especially helpful in planting and plant growth."