Kennedy pulled his cloak a bit tighter. He wasn't cold, just getting comfy. He had charmed his cloak to stay warm so there was no complain there. He glanced around the vegetable patch and wondered why runes would aid it in either growth, protection or whatever else it needed.

After a while he raised his hand. "Ingwaz," he volunteered. "It stands for fertility, growth, strength... among other things." You know, so those vegetables grow big and strong.

Angelina thought threw the runes. When finally thinking of one she raised her hand and said, "There is Sowilo, professor. It means sun, and most garden's need sun to grow."

Derrick Loosened his Tie and thought About the Question.After a while of thinking he slowly raised his hand.''Professor,would you need the Rune Algiz.''He explained.''You could use it for Protection and Rapid Development.''He said smiling.

Narumi scratched her head so runes can help plants...Plants need water sun and oh wait was that it...Hmm she had read some of the runes in the previous class...What was that rune that dealt with the sun?Sowila, Sowil, Sowito, Sowilo...That was it Sowilo! Raising her hand still not one hundred percent sure, Could the rune Sowilo be used because it deals with the sun?

Alyssa raised her hand to answer but everytime she did, someone gave the answer she did. So she quickly wrote down the answers they had given and tried to find one that no one had. Raising her hand, she hoped that no one had mentioned this Rune.

"Professor what about Ingwaz? It is the rune for the Earth God and it does represent male fertility and gestation and I'm sure that in order for the plants to pollinate and grow we need both male and female plants."

Dale... blinked.

Okay. So he'd been... right about gardening. Well, kind of. That threw him off a bit.

And now he was completely out of his depth. Runes had been the class he least prepared for; all those squiggly lines bothered him his textbook so he'd put it off until the actual class. Now he regretted it.

Except... he didn't.

As everyone started to answer, Dale maintained a silence and tried to memorise everything as he brought the jar to his face and rested his lips against the rim, getting the advantage of WARMTH immediately.

Toasty.

And no, he was NOT eating the jar.

So they're going to do some gardening today? With runes? Sounds fun.

Oh another question. What runes that they could use to help the garden? Hmm..Messer thought a moment then someone mentioned about using Algiz. Hand up. "Professor, I agree with him." he said motioning the Gryffindor boy (Derrick). "We could use Algiz to help the garden. We could use it to protect the garden from gnome maybe?" Since Algiz mean protection. Surely it could give the garden more protection, yes?

Theodore was SHOCKED no one had said this rune. Or maybe they had. Theo wasn't paying serious attention to the other students. But he had read about lots of different runes after the first lesson because it completely boggled his brain.

So he needed to learn.

But this was easy. "The Jera rune... is a gardener's rune." BOOYA... Don't get your hopes up, that's all he knew about it. And the topic of the lesson had only sparked his memory.

He thanked Kurumi for the jar that held the bluebell flame, watching the other boy take the jar too. So taken was he by this new source of heat that he only caught on when the Professor asked about what Runes would be beneficial to the Vegetable Patch.

A quick raise of his hand before it goes back to cradling the bluebell jar "The Jera rune, its always represented the hope for a good and fruitful harvest, and can be specially useful when the earth that the crop is cultivated on has grown stagnant." meaning land that was once fertile can get a boost from this rune.

"I was thinking along the lines of the others, yet Othala literally meand land. The vegetables here are fruit off the ground. May they too be prosperous." Sarah put in her 2 pence on the matter.

Silvia stood wrapped in a comfortable jacket and warming her hands on one of the blue flame jars. She made a mental note to move this useful spell to the top of her list of spells to learn. She listened as the professor asked a question and her fellow students began answering. Silvia thought about the question for a moment, but all of the runes she could think of that might help with gardening had already been mentioned. So she just stood there quietly for the time being.

He was quite surprised that not more people mentioned this particular rune. "Correct. Jera, as we know means harvest. Using this rune will give us a bountiful crop after the hard work that Groundskeeper Murdoch put in." Actually he doubted that any hard work went into the garden but no point in letting the students know that.

"Also it is the 12th rune in the Elder Futhark which represents the 12 months of the year and the cycle of seasons. Very good."




"Precisely. Laguz is the water rune and without water the garden here won't survive." He paused and shifted his feet a little. "But we have to be careful not to go overboard with this rune. Laguz means all forms of water so we don't want to create a tidal wave in Waylon's garden."



Oliver nodded his head, pleased with the answers he was receiving. "And just as the garden needs water, it also needs the sun which is what Sowilo represents. It is also symbolises energy."



"Very good Miss Hollingberry." She was always thinking outside the norm. "Berkana is another energy rune which represents a time for new life and bumper crops."



And rounding out the five. "Yes Algiz, the protection rune will help keep the garden safe from attack."



"That is true. Othala does mean land but it's more about the inheritance of land. Not what grows on it. Nice try though."

Oliver moved back to the fence and placed his hand upon the top of it. "Okay, so the runes we will be working with today are Jera, Laguz, Sowilo, Berkana and Algiz. Now if you'll remember from last term you need to carve your runes into wood." He patted the fence. "We'll leave the protection rune to last. So this is how I'll work it. Gryffindors, I want you to carve the rune Jera into the fence. Hufflepuffs, will do the rune Sowilo, Ravenclaws, You'll be carving Laguz and that leaves the Slytherins with Berkana."

He moved over to a table he had set up to the side and gestured at the tools that were sitting there. "Here, you will find the required carving tools that you will need. The older students may use the Intaglio spell if you like. So pick a spot around the garden and carve the required runes into the fence. if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask."

Alyssa listened as Professor Jenkins gave them instructions on what they had to do. Since she belonged to Hufflepuff house, she would be carving the Rune Sowilo into the fence.

Alyssa reviewed her textbook just to make sure that she had the right rune in mind. Sowilo looked like the letter S. So she walked around the vegetable patch until she found a spot on the fence where she would carve the Rune into it. She took out her wand and before she started to carve the rune into the fence, she first concentrated on the rune and what Sowilo represented which was the energy of the Sun.

Once Alyssa was ready, Alyssa first closed her eyes and visualized what the rune would look like. Then she concentrated again on what the rune represented before she pointed her wand at the part of the fence that she was going to carve the rune into and chanted "INTAGLIO...SOWILO........SOWILO" as she concentrated on the meaning of the rune and carved the rune that looked like the letter S into the fence. Once she was done, she brushed off the splinters from the fence and stepped back to look at it.

Zhenya listened to the instructions and wrote down the runes that they would be working with. She underlined Berkana and linked it up with what Professor Jenkins wrote; Berkana is another energy rune which represents a time for new life and bumper crops. So they were going to carve stuff onto school property? Cool! She looked around and saw that the students had began their work, and she stood up. Walking to the table and looking at the tools, she grabbed a carving tool and moved towards an area in the fence where she began carving out the Berkana rune. She was actually relieved, too, because it was quite an easy rune to draw, like the others that were being used too.

Ravenclaws were carving the Rune Laguz.

And it involved water. That comment about creating a tidal wave at the garden was amusing.

Moving her eyes to where the Professor was gesturing them, Erin saw the carving tools needed in order to do the task. She had watched the other students before, using that spell Intaglio but she hadn't actually tried it herself. Instead, Erin resorted to doing the carving manually to avoid any kind of mishaps. She didn't want anyone getting hurt because of her or she might just end up hurting her own self.

Erin picked a place at the fence as Professor Jenkins had instructed. Choosing the spot near Zhenya, -yes, they did have an awkward encounter earlier - she smiled at her and started on carving the Laguz rune which almost looked like an small 'r'.

So Ravenclaws would have Laguz, the water rune. It was a rather simple rune, easy to carve...One of the easiest. Nerida had began to walk over to the carving tunes that Professor Jenkins had gestured to. When she remembered she had learned the intaglio spell already and had used it last term to make her rune set. Taking out her wand, she walked over to an empty part of the rune. It would be odd vandalizing school property but the Professor did tell them too. Closing her eyes she visualized her rune and thought of what it meant. After she got a clear mental image of the rune she said Intaglio...Laguz........Laguz. and carved what looked like a little r. After finishing her rune she blowed off the splinters and ran her hand over it just to feel it. Standing up and stepping back she took a look at her work.

So she was carving Jera!Sarah took the carving tools and headed over to the fence. She was rather nervous that she would mess up, and it will be like that for ever. Slowly she drew the Jera sign. She moved back and surveyed her handiwork - it now llok like an S from afar - the two scythes.

So the Hufflepuffs would be in charge of carving Sowilo eh? That seemed appropriate. What with Hufflepuffs embodying the whole warmth, positivity, and drive bit. And plus...the Sowilo symbol looking a lot like a lightning bolt! AND HOW COOL WAS THAT?! SO cool. That's how cool that was.

Walking over to the table where the tools were, Ella picked up a gouge tool and then headed over to the fence to find a good spot to start carving.

Jotting down a few notes on her parchment, the reference to protection runes and energy runes did not go unnoticed by the Gryffindor. Until now, they had mostly been discussing protection runes - as far as her memory could recall at least - so it was interesting that they were using a combination of them now.

Placing her parchment and quill back in her bag, Kurumi walked over to a section of the fence near Professor Jenkins so she could ask him a question while she worked. "Professor, do energy runes and protection runes serve a similar function? I mean, protection runes are more...defensive I suppose you could say. Do protection runes act in the same way, or could you call them more...offensive?" Did that even make any sense? Maybe she had been talking Quidditch too much with Selina recently or something.

Removing her wand from its holster, Kurumi found a spot on the fence and brushed it off with the sleeve of her robe before pointing her wand at it. "Intaglio Jera....Jera...Jera...Jera....Jera..." Jera was another rune that wasn't too difficult to carve, especially when it resembled a hiragana character doubled and with one reversed. Once she had finished, Kurumi dusted off the area with her hand and inspected her carving. It was a little more stylized, thanks to her calligraphy background, but she was satisfied with her work.

How many of this particular rune should they carve?

Well this will be easy, Nigel thought. The Laguz rune looks like a lowercase r.

Nigel walked over to the table where the tools were, picked up a gouge tool and then headed over to the fence to start carving. He found an empty spot and started to carve his rune.

Once he finished, he stepped back and inspected his work. Not bad for a first year, Nigel thought.

Ohhh so they get the water rune. Good stuff, he could do that.

He made his way down the fence line, picking a spot a bit further away where the vegetation was larger and would likely be needing more water. He knelt by the side of the fence and took out his book, making sure he sees what the Laguz rune looked like before taking up his wand and started carving the rune into the wood "Intaglio Laguz..." he repeated the incantation with a decisive pace, working on the top arm of the rune before driving his wand down to etch out a vertical line.

So... the Slytherins were going to carve Berkana into the fence. But... why the fence? Would it work? Well, if professor Jenkins told them so, it surely had to work.

With a quick look at the carving tools, Nora decided to try the spell, even though she wasn't very familiar with it. Eh, how hard could it be? Facing the fence, she pointed her wand at it and kept mumbling "Intaglio Berkana," but it didn't work.

...

Concentrating more on the soon-to-be-rune, she said "Intaglio Berkana," but clearer and louder this time, and kept repeating it until the rune actually carved itself into the fence. There! See? It was easy. Heh.

Louisa listened to the professor, trying so hard not to blow her nose while he was talking so that she wouldn't miss any word Ancient Runes wasn't her brightest skill, Eino used to help a lot with this but now that he was lost in the Restricted Section... siiiiigh.

Once the missions were distributed, the Prefect moved forward with her wand in hand. She glanced at a few younger students heading for the table with the items and smiled in relief that her days as a younger student was over... her days as a student per se was over actually but LET'S NOT THINK ABOUT IT NOW.

She stopped at a random spot at the fence and raised her wand, "Intaglio Laguz.. Laguz... Laguz.. Laguz.." Thank Merlin there was no Ns in the Rune name or the girl with the nasal voice here would be in trouble.

After Professor Jenkins let them go for their activity. Narumi flipped open her book and found the rune Jera. It was like a...well Narumi didnt really know how to describe it. After getting a good luck at it and practicing drawing it. She walked over to the carving tools and picked them up. Being a first year she didnt know the intaglio spell and was forced to crave the muggle way. Finding a open space which just happened to be next to Nerida's she began carving the Jera rune. Once done she whipped it off and stepped back to look at it and then at the book. Yeap it looked pretty good.

So, Berkana for Slytherins. João nodded to himself and watched the others for a moment. They were to carve it into the fence? He thought it would be cooler and fancier if they carved them into the soil, but the man was the professor, so... better to go by what he deemed the best.

Picking a spot next to somewhere he didn't even glance at, he merely said "Intaglio Berkana," and just like that, he was done.

The power of being a seventh year. Every spell was easy.