Wednesday, November 25th. Class is from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. Students, please see your PM's for more information about the presentations. Wiki page is here! If I missed anyone on the roster, please let me know!

Gryffindor		Hufflepuff		Ravenclaw		Slytherin		Durmstrang
Lua Taylor		----		Kelvin Watkins Harlow Turner Juni Zamperia Alvis Norling Blake Knight Addison Rockwell		Naomi Foley Amara Báthory Nick Mensforth		Emilija Cihala

---

This late November, students and professors alike were still settling down after the last tournament competition and beginning to look forward to winter break with gusto. Aileen was one of the few who did not share their excitement. After her cousin’s tragic death a few weeks ago, and then Headmaster Reid announcing his resignation because of it, her temper was shorter and she’d been easily distracted.

As the students entered the room with various props trailing after them, Aileen mustered up her enthusiasm and smiled. They’d been working on their projects for months. She’d cleared away extra space at the front of the room and placed her desk at the back so she could observe.

“If anyone has forgotten their presentation,” she greeted them as they took their seats, “Now is the time to panic-“ Aileen paused with a wry smile. “Now is the time to politely excuse yourself and run and get it.”

A wide-eyed fourth year promptly dashed from the room.

“You’ve had these assignments since the first day of class, and many of you have shown considerable progress this term. There have been a few hiccups,” she shrugged one shoulder and glanced at Miss Foley, remembering her sizzling shoes. “But overall, I’m proud to say that I’ve seen several of you find that balance between showing initiative and knowing when to come to me with questions.” She glanced at Miss Rockwell.

“I will be grading you on the content of your project, of course, but a portion will be determined by how well you present the information. Remember, you’ve had some experience presenting projects last year. This will simply be on a bigger scale. I’ve also invited Professor Maras to join us this lesson,” she gestured at her Durmstrang colleague. “We’ll ask a question or two after each presentation.”

She looked around the classroom, clasped her hands together, and let one corner of her mouth quirk up. “The first person who volunteers will be shown a bit more leniency. Anyone?”

Alvis waited politely for someone to volunteer. When no one did, he raised his hand. “I’ll go, Professor.”

He gathered up a stack of muggle notecards and the subject of his project, advancing calmly to the front of the room. For once, he wasn’t nervous. As shy as he was interacting with people on a face-to-face basis, Alvis was good at presentations. He took his place at the front of the room, shifted through the notecards to make sure he had them in the right order, and cleared his throat.

“For my project, I decided to examine the runic protection spells found in the armory here at Hogwarts. As I’m sure you all know, it is no longer common for warlocks to don protective armor before entering their duels. This is partially because dueling has moved from being a sport primarily enjoyed by aristocracy to one that is indulged by wizards of every social class; and partially because, around the turn of the eighteenth century, the Prussian model of dueling – that is to say, no protection, non-lethal, and taking pride in one’s scars – took over in popularity.

“As a result, a number of the techniques unique to the crafting of runic armor have not been practiced in centuries. However, through careful study of the armor in the gallery, as well as some basic experimentation, I have created this basic amulet to demonstrate the possibilities.”

He held up the object it question. The disk was mad e of pewter and had the dimensions of a large scone, its flat face carved with a careful network of runes. Alvis knew that no one except maybe the front row could see it clearly, so he reeled the amulet back in, focused on its shape, and pointed his wand at a piece of chalk. “Hauriendam.”

The chalk leaped from its tray and began sketching at record speed. After a moment of concentration on Alvis’s part, it produced an outline of the amulet he’d created, large enough that the students sitting in the back of the room could clearly see the runes.

“There we go. That’s better.” He shifted his notecards to the next point and used his wand to indicate the shapes along the board as he spoke. “Now, the central element of this piece is one I found many times throughout the armor gallery, particularly on artifacts from the north. This is the stave known as aegishjalmur[1], the ‘helm of awe.’ It is composed of many variations and reiterations of algiz, the protection rune. Its structure channels the ambient surrounding magic to create a protection glyph, which wards off aggressive magic."

He turned the amulet over in his hand and huffed like a bird ruffling its feathers. “Of course, a proper amulet would be made of silver, or perhaps copper or bronze, all of which have inherent magical properties for the glyph to tap into. Even better would be an alchemical metal that resonates with the magic of its intended user. But unfortunately, I have no way of smelting those materials in the Ravenclaw common room, so we have to settle for pewter.”

That was a tangent. No tangents. If Alvis started in on tangents, he’d be up here all day. He cleared his throat again and moved his wand to indicate the ring of runes surrounding the aegishjalmur. “As you can see, the key runes along the edge here are nauthiz , for endurance; perthro, as a link to specifically magical defense; eihwaz, for strength and dependability; and isa, to support the others in the patern. This inscription, which channels and maintains the aegishjalmur’s power, is particularly important in the design of an amulet. The aegishjalmur was originally meant to be applied directly to the forehead as war paint or a tattoo. This sequence orients the helm so that it might be worn anywhere on the body and still be effective.”

He stopped and took a breath, double-checking his notecards. Was that all the necessary information? Yes, it looked like he’d covered everything. Now for the demonstration. “To show you what all this means, I’m going to need a volunteer…Ah, yes, you’ll do. Thank you. If you'll come up here please.”

The volunteer[2] approached, looking a bit nervous. Alvis offered them a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Now, if you'll please lay your wand on Professor Reid's desk? Yes, thank you. And here's this." He looped the amulet's leather cord around the volunteer's neck, the pewter disk coming to rest over their heart. "There we go. All right, please go stand over there, away from the others, and hold still. I promise, this isn't going to hurt."

Once the volunteer had gotten themselves situation, Alvis took a few steps back and raised his wand. “Stupefy!”

As usual, a ball of light shot from his want and struck the volunteer in the  chest. However, instead of knocking them off their feet, the spell ricocheted off, shooting up at an over-90-degree angle and crashing into the ceiling instead, leaving a faint impact scar in the stone. The amulet around the volunteer's neck turned slightly on its cord and, if they''d touched it, it would have proven slightly hot.

Alvis adjust his glasses and gave everyone -- including the volunteer -- a moment to recover before he continued. “As you can see, this combination of runes provides basic protection, like a Shielding Charm. Unlike a Shielding Charm, however, this amulet is effective even if its wearer does not know it's coming. Even simple invisible spells may be repelled. For example...” He turned his wand on the volunteer again. “Infligo.”

Normally, the Smack Hex would have struck the volunteer right in the face. Instead there came a thundering clap, as though someone had struck the blackboard to with a flat palm. A small cloud of chalk dust billowed up in its wake.

Alvis waved the chalk away with his hand and moved towards the volunteer, closing the distance between them as he spoke. “That said, it’s far from perfect protection. On its own, this configuration does not protect against physical violence –” He took the volunteer’s shoulders and mimed a struggle to show his point “– nor can it deflect elements created by magic, even simple ones. Case in point: Ventus.”

A gust of air burst from the tip of his wand and caught the volunteer full in the face, like being hit head-on by a blow drier. Alvis offered them an apologetic smile and held out his hand to retrieve the amulet. “Thank you, that’s all I needed. Don’t forget your wand.”

With the amulet in-hand once more, he tucked his wand into his back pocket and turned back to the class. “Now, you’ll notice that the metal here is dented now.” He held his project up by its cord, letting it turn slowly to show off the large lumps that had appeared in its previously smooth surface. “A weak amulet such as this can only take the brunt of so much damage. As I said before, the lack of a proper metal weakens it severely. But even in silver or bronze, this design can only take so much – advanced spells or a barrage attack of simple ones would shatter it completely.

“However, as the runes in this design work together, so may several pieces of armor, each set with its own network of runic magic. This is the sort of armor here at Hogwarts, at least, in the ones that aren’t made to move or talk. In particular, amulets are used in these designs as a sort of keystone to tie all the significant spells together. According to some historical accounts, this was the original purpose for the locket of Salazar Slytherin, long before the so-called Dark Lord repurposed it as a Horcrux.

"Of course, this is only one configuration of protection spells, and is limited to the language of the Elder Futhark. Every culture in the world with a written language has some history of inscribed protection spells. Some modern theorists believe that even more powerful protection could be found in combining these techniques." 'Modern theorists' here meaning himself and Casey O'Doherty, but that was a matter of either secrets between friends or client confidentiality,  so he couldn't talk about it in class.

Alvis checked his notecards one more time and, satisfied that he'd covered the gambit, tucked his hands behind his back. "That's everything I've got. Are there any questions?"[3]

1.	Reference: http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/warrior.html
2.	This can be anybody. If you'd like your character to be subjected to this, please feel free; otherwise assume it's one of our nameless NPC classmates.
3.	My apologies for the horrendously long post. It just kept growing.

There was another titter of applause.  (The first occurred when Mr. Norling's assaults on his volunteer were ably deflected.)  Professor Maras was among those who congratulated him with the ovation.  In her opinion, the student was a credit to Ravenclaw House.  The report was thorough and now she'd have to go see the armor gallery for herself, wouldn't she, if Hogwarts had such useful specimens!

Her voice carried up from where she sat in the back with Professor Reid.

"Well done, Mr. Norling.  Tell me: the version you did on the board in chalk - would that work so well as your amulet did?"

A tricky thing about Runes that was often forgot (probably not by Mr. Norling, of course) was that materials were as important as the symbols.  Chalk was itself actually quite a potent medium, but it wasn't universally useful - nothing was. 

Alvis flushed at the applause. He'd even gotten Professor Maras's approval. He wasn't entirely sure what he'd done was worthy of applause -- it was only a simple thing, after all, a way to practice his design skills -- but he was pleased nonetheless that the presentation had gone so well.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said, a bit more quietly, and shook his head. "But no, the chalk design wouldn't work very well. Because of the physical laws governing relative kinetic energy...um, that is to say, the method through which the magic is redirected...not quiet all of the spell's energy bounces off. A relatively small amount is distributed over the surface of the runes. An engraving in metal, even a soft metal like pewter, is able to take that force without much trouble, but the chalk dust would be blown off by the energy. It might weaken a spell a bit, but that's all."

He fidgeted nervously with the hands tucked behind his back and looked to Professor Reid. He was still smiling and a bit red-faced as he waited for her permission to return to his seat.

Aileen nodded after the student answered Professor Maras. "Thank you, Mr. Norling."

She held out her hand for the amulet, intending on taking a look at every student's project materials once they were done presenting, and then returning them at the end of the week.

"Now, I wouldn't suggest wearing this outside of class," she commented in a mock-serious tone. "Your peers might use you as a human shield." Aileen offered him a pleased smile and gestured him toward his seat.

He hadn't needed any leniency. Shy and fidgety though he might be, the Ravenclaw had just finished an amazing presentation. He'd been confident enough to joke about the pewter (a joke she'd actually chuckled at), and more importantly, he'd shown both the limitations and strengths of the amulet in an engaging way. The ceiling would recover. Perhaps she should have expected this from him, since he'd survived a tomb adventure this summer with only a squib and a precocious first-year at his side.

"Who's next?"

As Alvis presented his project, Naomi watched him in with her normally critical and disinterested stare, but she busying her thoughts with her project while she tried not to mentally mope to herself.

Ever since Blake stole a kiss from her near the end of September, Naomi felt like she hiccupped and swallowed a wad of gum—only there was no hiccup and gum was not involved. It didn’t matter whether or not she liked the kiss, Blake was being egotistical and dumb, so Naomi did her best to ignore the whole thing, leading her to ignore him, which led her to outright avoid him.

Then she started missing one of her best friends.

So, kissing be damned, Naomi decided that she liked her friend more than she disliked his ego… and his obsession with kissing. So she decided to invite Blake to practice Quidditch with her--unfortunately, every invitation she tried to write about Quidditch, beaters, bludgers, or brooms, sounded like one of those awful pages from Witch Weekly.

By her study break, Naomi finally gave up on the whole thing so that she wouldn’t be too frustrated to present her project during class. With it being committed to heart, she needed to stay focused, and with a magical bag and magical bowls, she had pretty much everything ready for her project… well maybe not everything.

Naomi thoughtfully pursed her lips and let a sly glance pass over Blake before her green eyes carefully flitted towards Aileen and Professor Maras. Once Alvis sat down, Naomi rose from her seat, with her python bag slung over her shoulder, and stood at the front of the room and cast a gently disarming smile towards her peers, “I chose to focus on ‘di Hogwarts fireplaces,” the mouth of her bag opened and she slipped her hand inside to quickly pull out a stack of five colorful bowls, “and after some research I found ‘dey function as PyroTransits, which is ‘di word for the type of transportation th’ Floo Network runs on—travel by magical fire.”

Naomi procured her twisted wand and cast a levitation spell on the orange bowl so that the runic design, decorating the inside of the bowl, faced the class, "Here at Hogwarts the main system works off a basic spiral design," she pointed towards the black carving contrasted against the bowl's woody interior and then she began flicking her wand through the air, as if she were wielding  a paintbrush; the result was that she cast a simple spell that allowed her to draw blue-glowing spirals arching twisting away from a center point, "Like 'dis, which is connected by circles," She then added a uniform circle to connect the spirals together, but left out any runes to keep it simple, "’Dis layout creates a hierarchy ‘dat dictates what kind of influence runes will have over th’ magic and how much influence 'dey will have."

She then lowered her wand as she let the glowing design float in the air next to her, "For instance, at Hogwarts, Wunjo works wit' Kauna and Raidho, but Raidho is also constrained by Nauthiz," she pointed her wand towards the center of the floating bowl, where Kauna and Raidho were the focal point of the design, "It makes it so the fireplaces are primarily used to communicate by letting people stick 'deir heads in to talk to people or by sending letters and notices to others, but transporting living t'ings are restricted by 'di current Head of the school and 'di system is very limited to students." That information was gained by talking to a few professors and from reading books, rather than any experimenting on the Slytherin's part, "Professor Cosmos told me 'dis was a needed precaution to defend ‘di from ‘a bunch crazy teenagers’."

The dark-skinned witch then levitated the rest of the bowls, which contained much more intricate designs in their interior, "But ‘dere is an older system I found in other fireplaces," With her now free hand, Naomi batted her glowing drawing away into and then took her wand and began anew, "It works off of a similar pattern, but it is more involved," she began drawing in the air again except she made two circular designs facing each other--one hovering some height over the other one. Then she connected them with a complex weave with a large opening on one side, as if she were making a large cubby hole for a small fire. Again, she left out any specific runes, "It uses most of the same runes but gives ‘dem a different hierarchy, and, specifically, gives Raidho more freedom. 'Dey also reside in a Celtic weave where runes are packed close enough together 'dat their markings combine to make foreign characters--usually ones similar in meaning to Kauna or Raidho."

Witch an elegant hand, Naomi plucked the orange bowl out of the air  so that only the other four remained, "I began mimicking and experimenting wit' th' design on coconuts, their flammability and high resistance to charring letting 'dem act like a miniature stable fireplace," she placed the orange bowl onto a nearby desk as she gestured to the floating bowls, "And it helped myself learn how ‘di design worked." The Slytherin then picked out a green bowl from the air and casually levitated the other three towards Blake's desk[1], barely batting an eyelash as she continued her presentation.

"And t' help me illustrate ‘dat, Blake will stand up and watch 'dese three bowls," She placed the blue one directly in front of him, the red one to his right, and the yellow one to his left, and then she gently fanned away the glowing design in the air next to her, which gave her a reason to be nonchalant about something she decided to do only moments before.

"’Di best way I can describe it is ‘dat th’ design is vague and relative, giving the magic involved wit' the runes enough sentience to be aware of what is sent t'rough, how it's sent t'rough, and where it needs to go, should go, or shouldn't go." It wasn't a concept easily illustrated by speaking about it, so Naomi reached into her bag again and pulled out a right and left beater glove. She then stood next to the green bowl as she regarded the class once more.

"For instance," she placed both gloves into the bowl where they were quickly devoured and snuffed out of sight by a silky flame. Then tge bowls to Blake's sides huffed with flames and deposited a right beater's glove in the bowl to Blake's right, and a left beater glove in the bowl to Blake's left. As she shrugged a shoulder to her cheek, Naomi gestured a hand towards Blake’s desk, "It separated 'di gloves and made 'dem appear next to 'di hands they are worn wit'--right and left."

"Next," Naomi then reached both hands into her bag, "'dey preserve momentum, but it occurs in an equal and opposite direction relative to the orientation of 'di object being transported—so..." From the depths of her bag, Naomi's slender hands were firmly grasped around a dead bludger[2], which she immediately dropped into the green bowl, where it was swallowed by a lick of flames, "It will fall here, and rise--" Naomi pointed a lazy finger at Blake's blue bowl and in a small huff of fire the bludger jumped out of the center bowl, "'dere."

The Slytherin wasn't too concerned with whether or not Blake would catch the bludger, the coconut bowls could take the beating  without breaking and Blake was able enough to handle a dead bludger as well as, or better than he could a live one--by Naomi's reasoning anyway.

She reached into her bag again and lifted out a beater's bat as she stepped next to the orange bowl that imitated how the current Hogwarts fireplaces acted, "However, 'di modern system deliberately takes away any force exerted on th' object and..." She then gripped the bat and firmly launched it down at the orange bowl, which engulfed the bat in a twist of flames. In a huff of fire, the bat appeared in the bowl next to the arm Blake batted with, where it was completely still and balancing on the hilt of its handle as Naomi added, "Makes it inert."

Finally, the curly-haired witch pulled out three pieces of colored paper, blue, green, and orange, from her bag and levitated the red and yellow bowls from Blake's desk and floated them over to Professor Maras and Aileen. Then she took out a quill and began writing on both sides of each of the pieces of paper: blue was for Blake, green was for Aileen, and orange was for Maras, "As time goes on and people change, so do 'deir needs--I imagine 'dis is why Hogwarts changed how the fireplaces work," she then finished writing on the notes and looked at  the class as she quickly folded them into origami boxes, an ordeal that was much simpler than making howlers (not that she would dare do that to professors like Maras or Aileen), "Each system has its benefits, wit' a simple design 'di fireplaces are easier to moderate and upkeep, but are limited. 'Di more detailed one is more autonomous and allows for more freedom, but is sensitive."

Naomi then finished making the small paper boxes, which contained a name on their bottoms and a note on their insides, and dropped them into her bowl where small flame swallowed them all, "It just depends on how someone wants to solve a problem,” then a flame appeared in each of the three bowls, and deposited the paper boxes into the bowl of the person they were addressed to:

1.	OK-ed by Erika
2.	By 'dead' I mean it is only an inanimate object and not a live hazardous bludger.

Ah, very clever.  Maras was again impressed by one of Professor Reid's students.  She wasn't above being impressed, although a lowered expectation did help.  But Miss Foley had presented a content-rich, practical demonstration of applied Rune technique.  It was thorough, clean, and accurate.  She folded her hands in front of her and nodded slowly as Naomi concluded her presentation with another demonstration.

A folded bit of paper popped from her bowl and with a restrained smirk of amusement, the Durmstrang Professor unfolded it. 

Pose a question, it read.

"Tell me, Miss Foley, the Hogwarts Fireplaces will not carry living passengers, but will your coconut bowls? Did you restrain Raidho[1] or let its power run through?"

1.	A wonderful rune for this application. link

The question surprised Naomi, causing the witch to study the runes that decorated her green bowl. It was a welcome distraction from watching Aileen or Blake opening their notes, but it didn't take long for Naomi to realize the question wasn't terribly easy. Raidho didn't look restrained, but she had interwoven so many markings and characters with each other she couldn't be completely sure.

Naomi thoughtfully hummed as she looked back up at Professor Maras, about to reveal her answer to the woman--but then Naomi let her gaze wander towards Aileen, casting the older witch a cool sea-green stare, easily mistaken for confidence, but had far too often been a precursor to mischief.

"Hold on," Naomi dropped the bowl, caught it with the arch of her foot, and then gently let it slide onto the floor. Then she tightened her skirt around her thighs by twisting its hem around her fingers, hopped up, pulled her legs in close to her body, and started to fall towards the bowl with Aileen lovingly in her thoughts. But Naomi's mind excitedly faltered for a moment before the Slytherin was engulfed in a huff of flames and disappeared.

As a twist of fire puffed a crouching Naomi back into the air, the Slytherin only let a flicker of concern cross her face as she realized she had been thrown up precariously high. However, what concerned her more was how she arrived at this conclusion--she was staring down at Blake, a guy who gained an inch or two on her over the summer and was standing up. Naomi had to lull her breathing to a pause to keep her calm and lazy demeanor.

Once the room stopped moving and the Slytherin's dark curls began falling around her shoulders again, Naomi realized she was about to fall back down and she had one of two choices: land on the desk and possibly break it, or try not to land on Blake and break him--suddenly she was also very glad she wore leggings with her uniform skirt.

(Just posting to move the class along! The next presenter can post anytime; Blake and Naomi are still welcome to post their reactions. Thanks guys!)


Aileen plucked the green paper from the bowl with raised eyebrows, shooting a wary, amused glance at the Slytherin student. Anything could be written on there. She hoped it was related to Miss Foley's project, and not something ridiculous, like-

Oh. A thank you. A proper one! Professor Reid supposed she could accept that.

A smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, Aileen listened to the question Professor Maras posed, glad she'd been able to attend today to offer a unique, Durmstrangian perspective. The other professor even sported a non-threatening smirk. Owl the Daily Prophet! Both professors looked pleased by their Runes students.

Of course, that didn't last for long.

"Miss Foley, what are you-" Aileen stood in alarm as the girl crouched into the bowl. She vanished in a puff of smoke and flames, and then hung suspended, a floating ball of mischief over Blake's desk.

Aileen only had a moment. Waving her wand, Aileen casted a featherlight charm that let the girl fall gently. Whether she fell into Blake's arms or onto the desk would probably depend on how much the student was able to move in that state.[1]

"Well then," Aileen sighed once the crisis was over, smoothing back her hair. Knowing Miss Foley, the less attention she paid to the situation, the better at this point.

"Let's avoid any other sudden demonstrations, shall we? Simple answers to our questions will suffice."

The Runes professor sat back at her desk, sharing a look with Maras. "Next."

1.	Leaving this vague for Naomi/Blake to decide

Right from the start of the Ancient Runes class, Alvis presented his project first on the armor in the castle. Addison smiled and clapped for Alvis when his project was over. He was the smart one to go first, at least he was able to get his project out of the way fast. Next, Naomi presented her project on the Hogwarts fireplaces. Again, Addison clapped for her, and watched with concern when she fell near Blake. Once the Slytherin was finished, Addison rose from her seat and headed to the front of the room.

Leaning her covered paintings against the wall, Addison turned to face her audience. She was able to write some notes down on some note cards, hoping not to forget too much of what she wanted to say. Despite her rather talkative nature, she was still a bit apprehensive. This was less about public speaking, and more about showing her artwork to the rather judgmental audience in front of her. It was an apprehension that she revealed to Professor Reid just earlier that month.[1] Despite her insecurities, she would have to present anyway.

'Remember, speak slowly and clearly,' Addison thought to herself as she let out a short sigh. Smiling to her audience, she began, "For my project, I researched the Hogwarts Paintings on display throughout the castle. As I'm sure everyone here has noticed about the magnificent paintings, they talk to anyone that passes by. Some of these portraits move in between frames, and even some change color and other properties. This communication, movement, color changing, and other properties are all caused by runes that were used to actually make the paintings.

"These portraits were created using colored oil paints on canvases, using paintbrushes by the magical artists. This was the method of choice for painting by the artists during the Medieval and Renaissance time periods. Due to the consistency of the oil paints, the paintings were created using layers to minimize the mixture of the paints. The layers would hold this separation, both for the paints and for the magic used in the artwork.

"Aside from how the portraits were made, an observation of the portraits shows how the portraits could communicate. They are able to communicate to any visitor that comes within passing of the portrait. But, this is not the only communication - no. The portraits could communicate with each other as well. This communication appears to occur from carving Ehwaz and Mannaz into the frame, which means to communicate people," she drew her wand as she spoke, charming a piece of chalk to draw the two runes on the chalkboard behind her, "These runes were carved very close together, to not only show their close relationship for this desired effect, but to make a wonderful design pattern." She waved her wand, showing the two runes in close proximity to each other on the board. "These runes appear to be on all of the portraits in the castle that interact, and they are carved all around the border of the frame.

"To show this, I have, uh, made my own portrait with the runes carved on the frame," she said, a little apprehensively.

'Breath Addison,' she thought to herself as she took the covering off of the first painting. Waving her wand, she levitated the painting in the air, so everyone could see it. It was a painting of herself, as a young child. 'No one's laughed yet ... maybe they do like my work,' she thought to herself. The remainder of her speech was now going to be in a more vocally confident tone.

"I made this painting of myself when I was younger to show how these runes work," she stated as she gestured to the runes on the board behind her.

"Oh! Hi there! Who are all of these people?" the portrait asked and giggled.

"All of these people are my class," she said to her portrait, before looking back to her audience, "The portraits are also able replicate that person's personality when it is created," Addison added with a smile. "Now if you don't mind," she started, turning her gaze to her portrait, "I'll take it from here." She could hear her portrait giggle as she looked back to her audience.

"Next, the movement between frames. The runes necessary for the movement between the frames are Uruz, Ansuz, and Raidho, which form a complex pattern. Uruz means life force or manifestation, which refers to the subject in the portrait. Ansuz means communication and Raidho means transportation and movement. The patterns formed by these three runes let the subjects move between frames, and they are found on all portraits in the castle. These patterns are found carved on the borders of the frames, in addition to all around the frame, especially the backside," she said, waving her wand to show the three runes on the board. Turning her wand, she was able to turn her portrait around the reveal the runes on the backside.

"Moving onward to the changing colors. This is by far the most complex out of any of the runes that I'm talking about today. The color changing utilizes a complex pattern of a layer of paint and then a layer of runes. This pattern continues for all of the layers. The oil paintings that have the color changing quality were first created with a base layer of what the portrait would look like originally. After a layer of runes, another paint layer is created that changes the painting. This could just be a simple color change like green to blue. Or it could be more complex, like changing the clothes on the subject in the portrait or changing the seasons of the painting.

"Each painting in the castle that changes colors does so with a different assortment of runes to achieve the desired effect. A basic layer of Jera changes the color of the painting, and Perthro hides the patterns caused by the rune layers. Trust me, uncovering these layers meant that I had to utilize Perthro many times for each painting. Just a few nights ago, I managed the cast it in my sleep when I forgot to take my wand out of my pocket, causing a pattern on my bed to disappear," she joked.

'You're going too far off on a tangent. Breathe. Go Slower. Breath,' she thought to herself.

"Anyway, Berkano is used as well to renew the pattern of color changing in the paintings. Raido shows the change of the colors as well," she said, making sure to show an example of each rune on the board with chalk as she talked. Taking the cloth off of the second portrait, she levitated it right alongside her other portrait, turning the first one of herself back around. This second portrait, was of a tree with its leaves green. After a few moments, the leaves turned green. After a few more moments, it would change back to green and continue the cycle.

'Bloody hell, I thought I made a more complex and gradual change in the leaves. Ah, oh well, I only needed to show the actual change of color, nothing complex,' she thought to herself when she saw the color change, before continuing again.

"This second portrait, of a tree, changes the colors of the leaves from green to orange and then back again. It is designed to continuously change colors. And now, my first portrait will move from her first frame, over to the frame with the tree," she said, turning to her portrait, gesturing the move.

"Move over there? Alright then" the portrait commented. The younger version of herself crossed from her own portrait to the portrait containing the tree.

"An additional effect that I have seen in some of the paintings has been a rather natural and in depth attribute to the painting. These attributes lets the painting seem more realistic and life-like, than other oil paintings. These paintings were made from paint brushes that had wand like qualities," she gestured to her own wand, "This included making the paintbrush out of different woods. For example, bocote wood really illuminates reds and pinks. Using different wand cores produced different results. For example, unicorn tail hair causes the paint to radiant, which is most noticeable with white paint. I was unable to show an example of this, due to my inability to obtain the necessary supplies."

Confident that she was able to cover everything, she smiled to her audience. "Thank you. Does anyone have any questions?"[2]

1.	References here
2.	All runes referenced came from here and here

Aileen smiled encouragingly at the girl, remembering how nervous she'd gotten in her office, and glad she'd decided to go through with it and display her own paintings.

As the Ravenclaw began the presentation, Aileen saw little evidence of nerves. She thoroughly explained how the frames allowed communication and movement, and how the combination of paint layers and layers of runes caused the setting to change. The demonstrations certainly added an extra something. Aileen imagined that as a first year, Miss Rockwell had likely been one of the rare well-behaved ones (with occasional bouts of giggling).

And finally, she concluded by commenting on the unique paintbrushes. Aileen gave her a nod of approval. Of course, she would not expect her to procure such rare items for the sake of a project, but was glad she'd added the information into her speech.

She applauded with the class when the student finished. Miss Rockwell had covered a great deal and done a fantastic job, though she had not quite explained the limitations of the magic used, or the experimental nature of some artists who played with magical symbols and patterns rather than standard runes. This was one of the reasons why Aileen enjoyed asking questions - to give them a chance to cover anything they might have missed.

"Miss Rockwell, you mentioned that portraits may replicate a person's personality - how well do they do that?"

A rather general question, so Aileen gestured at the student's self-portrait.

"How many memories would the younger version of you be able to retain, for instance, and would she be allowed to 'grow up' or grow with her experiences as a painting?"[1]

1.	It seems that this section here has some good info!

Maras continued to listen to the presentations, just as pleased as a one-eyed cat on a warm hearth.  She wouldn't be so arrogant as to say it out loud to anyone other than perhaps Headmaster Eisenberg or Professor Hendurabi, but she would have hoped that their success must be the result of her addition to the joined Runes curriculum.  But at the same time, Maras had come to hold a deep respect for her English counterpart and credit were credit was due.  Despite a different fundamentals approach, they were capably prepared for this type of practical application.

Maras uncrossed and crossed her legs the other way, curious to hear how Miss Rockwell responded to deeper questioning on the subject. 

But then, with lighting-fast reflexes, she flicked out her wand and rapped the back of the head of a chattering Hufflepuff.  "Shh!"

Addison smiled at the applause. No boos! No one in the room appeared to hate her paintings. No one shouted out that they were terrible, and she didn't sense any hostility in the room after her presentation. Sure, it was long, but everyone in the room probably expected that out of her. She could be quite the talker. At the very least, she stayed on topic for most of her speech. Perhaps she could've been more confident from the beginning, but it didn't seem to have changed her result at all.

Once that applause subsided, Addison turned to Professor Reid, who had decided to ask her a question. 'That wasn't brought up in our meeting. I think Professor Reid was being nit picky,' she thought to herself as she listened to the question. Nevertheless, it was still a good question that she probably could have mentioned in her speech. She hadn't been entirely aware that mentioning the limitations of the magical paintings was necessary. She quickly shuffled through her cards, almost expecting that the answer would be right in front of her. Despite that moment of hope, she knew that she had nothing written down. It would have to be answered from memory.

"Well, my particular painting has more of my younger personality and some memories of my childhood," Addison responded, gesturing to her painting,"Despite that, she cannot grow and she would develop her own memories and personality in any gaps. She could have her own experiences as a painting, but she wouldn't grow older," she responded. Looking out at her fellow classmates, and Professor Maras as well, she awaited to see if they had any other questions.

Aileen hid a smile as Miss Rockwell shuffled through her notecards. Answering questions on the spot was good for some students, especially Ravenclaws, who tended to prepare so well they could recite their presentations in their sleep. It turned out Miss Rockwell did in fact know what to say, and Aileen silently approved.

"Yes. She would essentially remain forever young, with the same characteristics and personality you gave her when you painted the portrait," she glanced at the painting.

"Self-portraits tend to be the truest to life, in that sense."

And who was on a tangent now!

Aileen smiled at Miss Rockwell, gesturing for her to bring over her paintings and add them to the stack of projects.

"Who would like to continue the winning streak?" She wondered aloud, looking around the room. Certainly not that chattering Hufflepuff.

"I'll go, if that's all right," Nick said, standing up with a few pieces of parchment and notable absence of cards in his hands. It wasn't really his style to come prepared, at least in the formal sense. If he didn't know what he was talking about enough to talk about it on his own, he probably didn't know enough to deserve a good grade. Not that he cared so much about deserving his grades, but that seemed more honorable than the truth, which was that he couldn't be arsed to write bullet points on little cards, even for an exam. Quickly reaching the front of his room with his loping saunter, Nick set aside the parchments for the time being and cleared his throat.

"Right, so, I was having the worst time thinking of something what I could talk about," Nick said, "Wondering about with that little map we all got, thinking, 'well, armor might have something interesting, I should go look at that, then, least give it a try,' when I realized that one of the stair-cases had gone and moved on me. Well, the first thought that crossed my mind is the sort of thing what I shouldn't repeat in front of a Professor, but right after that, another thought crossed my mind." Nick's informal style tended to disarm teachers, as well as his class mates, to lull them into low expectations. After all, that only made it more impressive when, in his sloppy speech, he said something intelligent, such as, "How did my map, a little piece of paper, not just know which staircase moved, but which staircase moved and to where? Curious, I thought I'd look at the stairs and see if my suspicions were correct and, matter of fact, they were, though I'd underestimated my little bit of parchment even more than I knew."

"So, today, I'd like to share with you all the great intricacy of the castle's locus runes," Nick said, adopting a slightly more professional air now that he'd revealed his project was to examine something most had taken for granted. "They may not be as impressive as a protection rune, as flashy as the floo system, or as mysterious as those which animate our paintings," Nick added with deferent gestures to the previous presenters, "but what they lack in showiness, they make up for in complexity and ingenuity." Nick picked up the top piece of parchment and held it up.

"Now, this looks familiar to all of you, I'd imagine; it's the basic map we all got. Now, besides what is on it, let's notice what's not on it. The map doesn't show us how to get anywhere where we're not supposed to be. On the other hand, Professor Reid has a map which shows her more places, and I'd imagine others have maps that show even more. Now, all the maps do is track the runes, thanks to spell what does just that. Since we're studying runes, though, let's focus on the runes on the various places of which the map keeps track. There's two basic goals for these runes. First, for them to correctly give the map all relevant information, and, secondly, for them to only give certain maps certain information. There're three main problems in the way of these two goals, as follows: material variety, which is to say that, like that first bloke said, the material of a rune matters; specificity, you know, what runes go to which map and which way the map's facing and all that; and, last but not least, simplicity, since, after all, the more complex you make the categorization system, the harder it'll be to enchant the parchment to detect it. Much like a relationship, the problems pretty much set the tone for everything else, so I'll explain how these maps get made, one problem at a time."

"Let's start with simplicity," Nick said, ignoring the fact that he'd listed it last, since it was the best to talk about first. This was why other people wrote cards, he figured, but the fact was it didn't matter what order he listed them, as long as the order in which he explained them was ideal. "It may seem that the easiest way to do this is to give each item a different rune what tracks it specifically, one for stairs or even one for each specific staircase, and another one to show which maps it should appear on. In terms of runes, yeah, that'd be right. Unfortunately, nothing is life is that simple, and that approach would lead to each map requiring painstaking hours of spell-work to properly track the location of everything what it's supposed to," Nick paused and took out the next piece of paper, this one blank. "In example, I've marked those two desks with specific runes," he pointed to his desk and the one next to it, "unique to each. Let's get this parchment to track 'em, eh?" he said, casting a location spell and painstakingly drawing each mark in the air, having to repeat one of them when it didn't appear on his parchment.

Nick gave an embarrassed smile at the mistake, although it had been very much intentional; it wouldn't really demonstrate the difficulty of drawing a map that way if he'd gotten it right the first time he tried. "Now, of course, the people making these maps have a steadier hand than I have, sure, but if one needed a specific rune for every little thing, they're going to get harder and harder to trace in the air like that, now aren't they? Luckily, I can use the same rune on each desk and get it to track them separately, like so." Nick switched to a new blank parchment and cast a spell to not only identify an object's location, but also which direction that object was facing. "The reason this works, see, is that the spell tells us where the rune is, not where the desk is, and which direction the rune is facing, and the concentration tells which shape to draw for each rune. So, the rune on my desk is sideways, but I have it mark the front of my desk as the 'side,' so that it appears the same." He drew the same rune on the board twice, except that he rotated the second example 90 degrees, to demonstrate what he had done on the desks. Repeating the spell, the two runes showed up in the proper place on his map of the classroom. Just in case, he tied it in to the example of the map, with which everyone was familiar. "In other words, the same rune is drawn on each staircase, but it labels the 'front' of the staircase as pointing a different direction, the map draws them all separately, since it considers the altered runes individually, but you only have to use one spell, since it's tracking different versions of a single rune. Otherwise, it's as simple as telling it what kind of mark to make for each, so whatever the map things is the 'front' is arbitrary. That's important for later, so remember that." It was confusing to think of the idea that the "front" of a staircase, according to the map, might be a side or a corner according to a person, so he wanted to make sure the idea got through. "Just like how the two runes I drew on the board show up facing the same way on the map, even though they aren't on the board.

"Speaking of the chalk runes, much like how chalk ain't any good for protection, a lot of the materials around here make for poor location runes. Carpet, for example, is truly terrible at it. On the other hand, wood is basically perfect, chalk's brilliant, and stone's a lot worse than you'd guess. This problem is actually just an opportunity, though, to even further simplify. Not only will different directions of the same location rune," Nick pointed to the two examples on the board, "Track different objects, different materials of the same locations rune will track different types of objects. If you noticed, the runes I drew in chalk showed up as pictures of the runes on my map," Nick pointed to them as he held the large piece of parchment in place with his chin, "But the runes I drew on the desks made the desks show up as rectangles." He gave a sheepish smile to Professor Reid and Professor Maras, the only two people in the room who could probably guess at this point in his presentation that he didn't so much draw the runes on the desks as carve the runes into them. Most likely, they would also know the runes could be small enough, since they were carved in wood, that they wouldn't really hurt anything. "So, to track different types of objects, hallways versus staircases and so on, you just need the rune to be in a different material. Of course, in the less apt media, you just make the thing bigger, like how my drawings on the board are much, much, much," he added emphasis for the professors' benefit, "larger than the ones I, er, drew on the desks. Just so, there are gigantic runes carved under the carpets in the hallway, while little bitty ones cover the staircases and doors, which, if you've ever wondered, are made of different kinds of wood for this precise reason."

"So, materials help with both simplicity and specificity, but material alone can't control what shows up on which map, now can it?" Nick kept his face deadly serious as he added, "If you've ever thought that the way teachers see the world is right topsy-turvy, in one sense, you'd be right," Nick let his face break into a grin, "Since they're always looking at their maps upside-down." He paused a moment before explaining the cryptic statement. "Their maps track a different rune, but, really, only nominally, since that rune is perthro, which you might remember from the first bloke's presentation. While it tracks perthro, that isn't what it marks; the protection rune reflects the tracking spell, which then marks the same location rune what all of our maps track, same as ours marked them, but upside-down" Nick explained, "Only, of course, that don't matter, since 'front' is arbitrary and all." Nick gestured back to the symbols on the board as a reminder. "The exception, of course, is the places which aren't supposed to show up on our maps, since the perthro wouldn't have a location rune at which to relfect the tracking spell. Or, at least, not a proper one," Nick said, drawing a misshapen version of the rune on the board a third time. "Now, you cast a spell to detect perthro and place the rune at such an angle that the reflected spell, which works in the same manner as normal optics, would render a proper rune, instead of this scrunched-up one. This part I can't demonstrate, both because it's very difficult to cast a spell to track runes what aren't meant for it, like perthro, otherwise anyone who thought about too long could find everything what was supposed to be hidden, and because it would break the rules to do it if I did figure out how, anyway," he said, doing his best to suppress a sly grin.

"So, for my project, I invented my own tracking system and added it to my map of Hogwarts," he said, withdrawing the last piece of parchment, which proved to be the map they'd all been initially given. "So, any of you what borrows a quill from me and don't give it back, I'll know where it is," Nick pointed to a tiny [Q] on the map, in the back of the classroom, before looking up to identify the culprit and adding "Mister Martin," with a joking glare. "Or, if I realize I left my coat in one of my earlier classes," he scanned his map for the appropriate marker and tapped a classroom on the third floor, "I know right where to get it, and I can tell if it moves before I get there. Same with my bag and each of my books, and so on. In fact, a little bit of peroxide, careful use of a cotton swab, and a great deal of trust, and I can tell exactly where my owl is," Nick said, allowing himself another grin as he watched the little owl-face on his map flit around wildly, typical of his over-energetic pet. "Does anyone have a question or anything they'd like me to keep track of for them?"