23 March 2010
Friday @ 10am
Ancient Runes Classroom, Second Floor

Sign-In Sheet
Raine Willows- S
Cadence Bullstrode- S
Xavier Tawse- S
Gabriella Dagon- G
Name - R
Name - H

All three levels of Ancient Runes classes have been covered by Professor Ylva Maras of Durmstrang all week.  Their usual professor had been away on business and the visiting Swede had been very happy to take over more of the course load.  Maras's teaching style, as many of the students had by now begun to understand, was much more rigid and her standards seemed impossibly high.  There was no question that Ylva had a somewhat low regard for the Hogwarts education in general, but seemed to have better feelings about how Professor Reid was training her students.

The desks were gone and the Ancient Runes classroom looked much larger.  Light poured in the stained glass windows and glinted off the instructor's strange silver eye patch.  Around the room were what were spindly silver pedastals with a basin at the top, about wait high.  Inside each one were sticks and blocks of seemingly ordinary white chalk. 

At the center of the front of the room where Professor Reid's desk usually was, there was a large circular pattern drawn on the floor in chalk.  It was comprised of a few concentric circles with writing and runes spaced within and around the edges.  Ylva Maras stood behind it, tapping the butt of her wand in her palm. 

"Set your things down in the back," she instructed students as they arrived.  "Then please come forward and gather around."

With no place to sit, no real way to arrange the students in an orderly fashion, she'd rather she grouped them up than allow them to mingle around like sheep in a pasture.

"Chalk is considered a largely mundane substance in our daily life, but in the field of magic done with runes it is versatile and powerful.  A sturdy, traditional base for circles and staves."

She rubbed her fingers together which were white with dust.  "It does tend to smear..."

"There are different types of chalk, both natural and imbued by a witch's hand. Different chalks lend different properties to magic and have their own advantages and disadvantages.  Classroom chalk is unreliable but works in a pinch.  Here I've used a block of Whittenchalk, a basic white chalk."

Ylva opened a small black wooden box and pulled out a fist-sized block of slightly grey chalk.  It seemed less dusty than classroom chalk, like it might take more pressure to make a mark.  Indeed the lines of the chalk circle on the floor were crisp and lacking in the granules and smears that would be predictably left behind by classroom chalk.

She passed it along for the class to examine.  She also sent around other chalks.  One was black as coal.  Another was cut through with a lightish blue marbling that made it look like a moldy cheese.  There was one that glimmered like silver, another a deep red that chipped like shale.   Each block was in a different state of wear.  The black one, for example, still had sharp edges and looked hardly used, while the whittenchalk had been worn smooth and fit nicely into a palm. 

"Today, we'll be using whittenchalk, available at any apothecary." 

Despite there being some appearance that today's class would be practical, Ylva had book work to do first.  She chose one student to hand out books as she began instruction.  On the blackboard, with plain classroom chalk, she began diagramming how to draft perfect circles using string and bobs.  The board filled with drawings about using triangles and straight edges to measure distances and alight centers, and find tangents. 

"Proportions and precise measurement are crucial to a well-working chalk circle and cannot be rushed.  Oh, I'm sure you've read books where a witch or wizard in some kind of bind just whips a circle onto the floor, stands within and is shielded from all evil, well I can assure you doing so would land you in hospital re-attaching your soul to your corpus!"  She paused.  "Are you writing this down!"

Another lesson with Professor Maras. The young witch was glad to be having the Durmstrang professor leading their lesson. Gabby had never liked Reid yet had taken the class because she was genuinely interested. While Professor Maras and the mystery behind her eye patch were somewhat intimidating, Gabby was happy with the change. Being a little intimidated was good.

With the room set up alluding to a practical class, Gabby had become far more interested. Wondering if they would be up to anything dangerous. Alas, it didn’t seem to be happening any time soon.

The lack of somewhere to sit, in Gabby’s opinion, made for the impossibility of writing neatly on parchment. So instead of struggling and having notes she could not read, Miss Dagon had lowered herself to sit cross legged on the cold floor, bending over her parchment on the floor as she scribbled notes, dark hair falling over her face.

“Professor! How would you go about reattaching your soul if it’s gone? Surely you wouldn’t be aware it’s happened. Like a dementor’s kiss. You’re just empty. Like a vegetable.”

Raine was intrigued when she entered the classroom for her Ancient Rooms lesson. It looked like Professor Maras was intending to give a practical lesson. She'd always enjoyed ancient runes, the idea of a whole secret language being there that people wouldn't understand. Her dad, being a cursebreaker had encouraged her interest. He was always happy to help with her homework for the lesson because he, along with simply enjoying the subject, quite frequently had to translate runes on various cursed magical items. A fascinating yet intriguingly dangerous career in Raine's opinion.

Raine had so far enjoyed her lessons with Professor Maras, although she'd also liked Professor Reid. Raine was curious as to what they would get to do in this practical lesson, just drawing the circles or actually seeing them work? Although that seemed unlikely, however Maras' lessons had always been exciting and she taught differently from Hogwarts Professors, so she could always hope. As the different samples of chalk were passed around the class, Raine examined them with fascination. How could something so simple be responsible for the power of the runes? And changing something as simple as the type of chalk effect so much.

Debating how best to hold a textbook and take notes at once, Raine noticed one of her classmates, Gabby, lowering herself to the floor. She decided this was a wise decision and followed her lead, thumping rather loudly to the floor before getting into her note-taking. Raine listened with interest at the discussion Professor Maras was having about the importance of precision and the consequences for rushing. She tried to imagine what it would be like to have your soul detached from your body. Probably rather horrific. She'd never been aware that there were methods of reattaching souls. She'd have to look into this later. (If the books were available. They sounded like the kind of thing that might be in the restricted section, although she guessed Professor Maras would maybe sign her slip to access them if she showed an interest. Professors always enjoyed when students took an interest, she'd discovered.)

"Hardly on topic," Maras answered bluntly when Gabriella Dagon asked about the details of soul-corpse reuinification.  "Ask Professor Elliot if you must."  Miranda Elliot was Durmstrang's tangible magic instructor, specializing in Healing.

It seemed that while it might be engaging, Professor Maras had little interest in tangents.  "Suffice it to say, don't let me catch you playing with sloppy circles."  A few moments more and Maras was satisfied with the note-taking and moved to redirect the class. 

"You, you and you: group one.  You two, and you: group two.  The rest of you four are group three.  Using the structures on pages two hundred and thirty to two hundred and thirty-seven, design and construct a chalk circle.  These circles are from the Galileo set, collated in 1789 and revised in 1920.  You'll want to be using the astronomical runic lexicon.  I recommend you spread out and tread lightly."

She opened her hands in a gesture that said, 'have at it'. 

Xavier entered the class and soon curled his lips with a smirk. A practical lesson was just what this class needed. While he was disappointed that Professor Reid still wasn't back he was certainly enjoying Professor Maras teaching style. In fact most of the visiting Professors had a unique teaching style that almost made him wish he was getting educated at their respective schools, almost. He'd have to wait another day to tease and/or infuriate Professor Reid about her sister, it was so much fun getting under her skin, for now there was work to be done.

He stood with his arms over his chest and absently scratched at his first scruffy beard. His attention while seemingly elsewhere was indeed enraptured by their one eyed Professor. As the chalks were handed around he turned them in his hands, getting a feel for them, lingering a bit more with the red chalk than the others before passing them on. As the books were handed out he scowled a bit. He was hoping for a purely practical lesson. As others took to sitting on the floor in order to take their required notes Xavier heard a scoff to his left. He glanced over at his cousin whom he knew wasn't about to wrinkle her skirt or her appearance by crouching down. He rolled his eyes at her and suddenly his book jumped out of his hand and floated in the air in front of him, opened to the page the Professor had indicated. Cadance has obviously charmed it, much like she had her own book, allowing both of them to take notes without sitting on the classroom floor to do so.

With notes taken and any questions the students had about reattaching a soul to it's body quashed the practical part of the lesson began. Xavier joined his group and wrung his hands eager to get started, "So whi'h circle shall we do then?"

Cadance was not happy that the whole week of lessons had been headed by the garishly dressed Durmstrang Professor. She missed Professor Reid and was eagerly awaiting her return. She always wasn't too happy to find that their desks had been removed and they were to be doing a practical lesson either. She was great with written work and got good grades with the practicals but Ancient Runes wasn't like Charms or Transfiguration. Practical lessons usually meant getting your hands dirty and Cadance certainly did not like getting her hands dirty.

She stood near her cousin as the chalks were passed around opting out of handling them directly herself. She fought against a scowl as Xavier scratched at the horrible bristles he so proudly displayed as his first ever beard. Boys trying to be men were infuriating.

It appeared that the Professor intended them to take notes before getting dirty, further degrading them by not even being decent enough to give them chairs. Cadance watched as her fellow sixth years crouched down to the floor and she let out a scoff. They were witches for Merlin's Sake! She exchanged a look with Xavier who rolled his eyes at her. Removing her wand she snapped it at his book charming the tome to float in front of him so he wouldn't have to squat like and animal and proceeded to do the same with her own.

Notes taken, books away and the students shuffled off into groups. Cadance moved over to where she had been assigned, glancing over at her cousin who wasn't in her group but seemed very eager to get started. She was worried just how much work she'd have to do. It wasn't that she didn't want to do work, she very much enjoyed it but she doubted Professor Hook would allow her to use her wand to move the chalk rather than her hands.