Wednesday, October 22 About 2:03 p.m. For information about how classes work, please refer to A Guide to Taking Ancient Runes.

5th Years Amherst, Ferguson  (5) Branwell, Kit (5) Jansdotter, Freya (5) Pratt, Madeline  (5) Ruiz, Megan  (5) Schlagenweit, Sasha  (5) Sellaphix, Figaro  (5) St. James, Julian  (5) Tyrrell, Katarina (5) Woolfolk, Neely  (5)

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Aileen, for once, was running a bit late. She’d just had a very interesting conversation with her older brother, Trevor, and now she was frazzled and on-edge. The unflappable impression she gave off to the world was cracking. Normally, she let very, very little affect her work, but unfortunately, her personal life and her work life seemed insistent on colliding. Trevor had hinted he might be in some kind of trouble at the Ministry, the damn Egyptian dagger still hadn’t been found, and Abby was sending her letters asking to move out of their parent’s house and live with her. Even if she wanted to, Aileen just didn’t have time to take care of her teenaged sister.

She was not in a good mood.

Aileen walked into the classroom quickly, shutting the door behind her and checking her watch. So she was only a few minutes late. That wasn’t the end of the world. However, her students knew she was a stickler for punctuality and that she always came to class about five minutes early.

Glancing around at the students who were present, she flashed them a brief, almost pained smile and set her things on her desk.

“My apologies for running late,” she said, offering no further explanation as she arranged the two baskets on her desk. One had wooden tablets and the other held flat stones. Today, the fifth-years would be carving their own runes, and then casting magic on them. They likely hadn’t done this kind of thing before, so she didn’t expect it to be perfect, but she did expect them to put forth effort and be careful with the tools. Carving their own runes was a valuable skill to have and required more hands-on work, which she hoped would excite the students who got bored or antsy translating week after week.

Aileen wondered for a moment if perhaps she should have supplied gloves. She didn’t want to baby them, and it was difficult to carve well when one couldn’t feel what they were doing. Still, she wasn’t sure she trusted a few of the students with sharp implements. A vision of Figaro popped up in her mind, running to the nurse with bloodied hands. She sighed. That boy was going to be the death of her.

Aiming her wand, Aileen wrote the following instructions on the board, and then sat at her desk, resting her chin in one hand and staring off into space, thinking. A cough made her look up. She realized they were waiting for her to say something, and straightened in her chair.

“You may begin. Steps one and two only, mind you.”

Rune Carving, Special Techniques

1.   Please grab a handful of stone and wood tablets.
2.   Pick several different runes to practice carving. Draw them on the blank tablets yourself, or make stencils.
3.   Wait for my demonstration.
4.   Begin carving. Make at least three well-formed runes.
5.   Once you’ve shown them to me, imbue the runes with magic.

Neely's outfit

Front and center. That’s where Neely liked to be when she was in Professor Reid’s polished presence. The Slytherin beamed at the woman as she hurried in, imagining some torrid love affair the graceful Runes master was having with Professor Frasier. Yes, that must have been it. The cheeky little smile, the glow to her cheeks if one squinted just right. Neely would have to beg her for the details after class. Subtly, of course.

Neely’s eyes shot to the board, following Professor Reid’s wand as if it were a magnet. She even made mundane tasks like writing up instructions look impossibly cool. She reminded Neely of her own mother. Mrs. Woolfolk was a Cool Mum.

Springing out of her desk, Neely floated to the front of the room, sure to be the first one to gather up the stones for carving. Doing the actual work might have proved more of a challenge, but right now she was only thinking of Professor Reid, and becoming a Star Pupil in the eyes of a fellow blonde. She leaned just barely as she reached the desk, inclining herself toward the teacher. “Good afternoon, Professor,” she cooed, offering up a glassy smile. “Busy day?”

Fetching her stones, and putting on something of a melodramatic air while choosing the most aesthetically perfect (and diverse) ones she could fish up, she kept the woman in the peripheral of her baby blues. “I’m really excited about this assignment,” she said, before turning and heading back to her desk. She pushed past the person waiting behind her, elbows becoming makeshift weapons to clear her path. She wanted Professor Reid to know how enthusiastic she was, and she wanted Certain Other People in the room to know she was brilliant-- the second coming, the pint-sized protege who could parrot primeval carvings.

Figaro, like his classmates, had all seemed to learn quickly about how much Professor Reid got pissed off when they were late.  And since his standing in this class was teetering on the edge of a knife, he'd been doing his best.  With less than perfect results.  However, today he'd succeeded.  And, as class begun, he was pestering the student in front of him for some ink.

"I'd have got my own, but I didn't want to be late," he hissed.  But their conversation was cut short when he heard Professor Reid tell them to get started.

He jumped up and crowded the front desk like the rest of the class.  Neely was in front of him and getting all nicey-nice with the stone-cold Professor.  And when she finally flounced around, her pointy elbow caught him in the ribs.

"Hey! That hurt!"  He immediately took a polished black river stone and winged it at her perfect gold-blonde hair.

He was less discerning than Neely and others about what stones and wood tablets he selected, so it was a fistfull from one bowl and a fistfull from the other.

As usual, Kat was a bit early for class. While she enjoyed sleeping in, it wasn’t fair to her house mates if she cost them points because she was lazy. Kat turned her light brown eyes to the door as the frazzled Reid walked in, offering no explanation as to her tardiness. On second thought… she looked around once more, trying to spot her friend Maddie. Oh well, she’ll find me when she gets here. Kat dutifully read the instructions on the board, feeling a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach at today’s assignment. Oh, no. No, no, no. Why me? Kat mentally groaned to herself; she and sharp objects didn’t bode well together. The last time she had tried to prepare food the muggle way she had ended up with three stitches in her thumb and a supremely angry mother.

Well… perhaps we’ll be carving them with magic? There IS hope! Kat waited for Neely to sit back down before headed up to the front of the room. She grabbed a handful of both the wooden tiles and stone tablets before hurrying back to her seat. Once at her desk, Kat began to sketch down spiky versions of her favorite runes: Eolh, Wynn, Sigel, and Ur. Together they meant a lot to her; protection, joy, hope, and determination. She smiled to herself; she always had wanted to create her own rune sets. Kat had been concentrating on the scratch of her quill on parchment when she heard Figaro shout; she whipped her head up in time to see him pitch a stone at Neely’s head. Thaaaat’s gonna hurt. Kat thought to herself. Sure, she could have tried to stop it, but was it really her place to interfere?

From Charms to Runes, he always found his books heaviest by the time he made it to the classroom. He did enjoy Ancient Runes—as a young man who enjoyed shaping things with his hands, he found the idea of a bunch of shaped stones with runes cast on them to possibly predict the future alluring. Julian would love to know the future, if only for a glimpse into the unknown, and a little power over others who… didn’t.

After his satisfying lunch, though, he rarely wanted to go to class—he dragged himself to Charms; decent at wand work, he didn’t mind the class. At least he had time before lunch to have some study sessions for coursework he’d not finished or reading he wanted to get caught up on. When he got to the Ancient Runes classroom, he had shown up with a small group of students from Charms; it was easier to walk from class to class, considering they practically fell on top of the other.

When he noticed the Professor had yet to show up, he sat behind Neely with a mate talking his ear off about some short skirt an older girl had been wearing, walking up the stairs ahead of them before lunch. He laughed but concentrated on the Charms work he had from the last class. Why not use time he had to spend in class to be productive, rather than cut into free time later?

An all too familiar, slightly annoying voice cut through, and he lazily glanced back at Figaro. Ink? Making a face, he glanced at his ink pot before finally shrugging, offering it to the kid. “That a first?” Giving the boy a small smirk, he thought about asking him a question.

Then the Professor’s voice cut through, forcing Julian to look toward her and away from Figaro and from his parchment. She was a looker, that was obvious. Frowning slightly as she set up, he rolled his quill between his index and thumb, finally setting it down on the desk. Then his Charms work was put away, tucked into the book he’d taken to Charms, his supplies for Ancient Runes carefully laid across the top of his desk.

Julian chanced a glance at his fellow housemate, grinning a little at Neely. Then the instructions were on the board and he forced himself up to get in line, glad to have chosen a front desk so he wasn’t way in the back. He glanced to the tablets, unable to mask the excitement—he’d get to actually use his hands and make something he might be able to use in Runes.

Some behind him might have found his critical judgment of the various tablets to be a bit too in depth for a simple in class task. Still, once he was happy with his choices, he moved back to his chair, all ready concentrated on the tablets as he laid one stone and one wood out next to each other. Leaning a knee on his chair, Julian hunched over them, finally pulling his quill from its solitary place. His book was quickly opened and the crisp pages were easily turned to marked locations.

Finally he settled on one of his favorite runes, slowly and meticulously marking out the Dagaz symbol. His body slowly settled into the seat after a few minutes of carefully marking out the lines just so, letting the ink dry as he turned to the next rune he had an interest in, glancing momentarily up at his fellow classmates.

Eager to take advantage of the few extra free moments of study time, Sasha wasn't one to idle in the halls between classes.  With a full schedule of electives in the morning, along with Transfiguration, between classes and lunch were his only opportunities to put any sort of dent into his homework.  With quidditch practice after dinner, the bigger the dent he made during the day, the fewer wee hours of the morning he'd see before finally making it to bed.   

Sasha chanced an uncertain and somewhat questioning glance in Neely's direction before choosing a seat.  She was still angry with him, which Sasha had accepted he deserved.  But, despite his few (granted, not very hearty) attempts to try to apologize and explain, she still wasn't talking to him.  And, now, as he eyed Cornelia surrounded by the usual assortment of Slytherins and the start to class pending (delayed as it was), Sasha knew he didn't stand a chance.  It seemed, things had returned to how they'd been before.  He pursed his lips, slightly before finding a seat next to Kat. 

It wasn't customary for Professor Reid to be late but Sasha wasn't about to pass up on the opportunity for a few extra study moments.  Offering Kat a slight grin, he tugged a page of French adverb pronouns from between his books and set to scribbling in the blanks. 

It was only a few moments before Professor Reid showed, looking rather harried and flustered.  Sasha was careful to give no indication he'd even noticed a difference as he slipped his French workbook page in his bag.   He waited until the directions had been offered and the first wave of students had retrieved their stones before rising to his feet and hand selecting a fistful of stones.  He arranged them in an orderly fashion in the corner of his desk.  He chose a rune from each of the Aetts and began sketching them, carefully and steadily:  Ehwaz, Algiz and Kenaz.

It was very lucky occurrence that Neely Woolfolk had sprayed her hair that morning to keep her loose, old-fashioned wavy curls in place. Her hair, charmed thick and full of girly secrets, had softened the blow. But still, the little stone grazed her scalp before bouncing to the floor. Neely whirled around with a shrieking “OW!” Clutching both sides of her head like a mad woman. Her wide eyes narrowed like a hawk’s, koala cheeks bunching in suspicion and anger. Figaro Sellaphix.

One glance in Professor Reid’s direction brought Neely back to reality. She lowered her hands and lightened her stance, appearing much less outraged and simultaneously weaker than she had a moment ago. Puppy dog chin trembling slightly, she pushed her lips into a pout and lowered her mascared lashes onto the apples of her cheeks. Each fist, clutching stones, suddenly disentangled, as if Figaro’s retaliation had been enough to make the Slytherin lose her grip. The stones fell to the floor in a marbly shower, and quickly lay inanimate.

Neely drew in a mewling breath, her eyes refocusing on the Hufflepuff. If she couldn’t hex his bum off in front of the lovely woman, she could at least fit the bill for a hoodlum’s innocent victim. A near state of crocodile tears was becoming quite routine this semester. She wondered how many more trips to Tulo she could pull off before the winter hols.

Miss Woolfolk was one of the first students at her desk, collecting her materials with a sugary sweet smile. Aileen managed an indulgent smile back. She liked Neely. Even if the girl didn’t seem particularly enthralled with runes, she cared enough to try to impress her, and generally behaved well. In some ways, Neely reminded her of her younger sister (who shared her obsession with shoes), though Aileen tried not to let it affect her interactions with the student too much.

A few of the students spent an inordinate amount of time selecting their tablets. Aileen was tempted to remind them that it didn’t matter, and a few of the stones would have to be discarded because of carving mistakes anyway, but she shook her head and looked back at Miss Woolfolk, who still hovered by her desk.

“Busy day?”

“You could say that,” she replied dryly, watching her flounce back to her seat with raised eyebrows. The elbowing wasn’t really necessary, but she let it pass. Fast as a wink, however, Figaro took offense and lodged a stone at the girl’s head.

Neely let out a shriek and whirled around. The stress and anger Aileen had been trying to suppress all day quickly bubbled to the surface.

“Mr. Sellaphix!” She rose out of her chair, glaring at him sternly. “You are not two years old, you do not throw things, and I expect you to behave like a rational human being in this classroom,” her voice rose as she lectured him. She was tired of Figaro’s antics, and was beginning to regret allowing him to continue her class. He tended to be a distraction to others. Often it was unintentional on his part- he came in late, forgot his supplies, or talked too much. Other times, like now, he got into snits and acted out, which she could not tolerate.

 “If I catch you doing something like that again, you’ll get detention and no credit for the day. With your grades, I think we both know you can’t afford that. “

Aileen paused, and felt a flicker of shame. When students misbehaved, she took away points, gave out detentions, and frequently kicked the troublemakers out of her classroom, but she didn’t try to humiliate them. Until now, apparently. Her harsh words seemed to sober her somewhat, and though her voice was still clipped, she sounded quieter and calmer.

“Five points from Hufflepuff. Take your seat, follow the instructions on the board, and don’t test my patience. Is that understood?” She stared him down for a few moments, took her own seat, and glanced at Neely, who had an impressive display of tears in her eyes.

“Miss Woolfolk. Are you all right?” She sounded gentler now, but also impatient.

Kat blushed lightly and gave Sasha a small grin; manners were manners, after all. She saw him pull out his French worksheet and quickly cursed herself for only studying Spanish in her free time. Ah well, she figured, he likely wouldn’t need my help any way. Kat shrugged and went back to sketching out her runes. That was… until she heard the commotion Neely caused.

Startled, Kat glanced up to see the effects her non-action had yielded. She could have easily warned the girl that Fig Newton over there had thrown something at her; coulda, shoulda, woulda. Honestly, Kat hadn’t felt the need to protect the Slytherin—she was never particularly nice to anybody, that Kat could see, and she had no desire to raise issues with the attacker. So, instead, Kat watched in silence as Neely turned bright red with anger and a scowl formed on her face. Indeed, Figaro had to be stupid to attack the Slytherin, and why would Kat want to anger such a stupid person? She waited to see Neely’s next reaction, waited for that seam to burst. Kat held her breath in anticipation…

But no, instead, Woolfolk’s stance slumped, and her anger appeared to have dissipated. Kat shook her head at the anticlimactic ending; ah well, Figaro will get what’s coming to him sooner or later. Anybody with eyes knew Neely was a force to be reckoned with. However, Katarina Tyrrell was not about to be let down; no, instead of Neely exploding, Reid actually went off on the lad. Kat chuckled quietly to herself at the professor’s verbal lashing, berating his maturity and his grades. Well, Ancient Runes never did fail to deliver.

"Aw! C'mon!" Figaro protested with disgust as Neely's childish charade brought the wrath of Professor Reid down upon him.  Not that he and Professor Reid were exactly cozy.  His standing in the class was still as precarious as the day he began.  And Professor Reid was dead right: he was a breath away from Trolling out again.

When she asked if he understood, he just stared at her impudently and rolled his eyes.  However, he didn't give Professor Reid anymore backtalk.  Instead, he turned his back on her and stalked back to his desk behind Julian.  On his way, he made sure to bump into Neely.  He didn't bowl her over, but he did give her a jostling 'thanks for nothing' kind of bump.

So what was up with the normally unflappable Figaro Sellaphix? These last few weeks had been tough on him and now Runes, especially Runes, was more difficult to bear.  He was testy and his temper was more vindictive.  When in the past he would have tried to talk his way out of his mistakes, he was now pushing against his professors.  And it all pointed to the fact that his father had been arrested a few weeks ago.  The family apothecary was shut up.  He was worried and embarassed and seriously wondering if all this hard work he was supposed to be doing to please his dad was worth anything anymore anyway.

But for now, he focused on the arts and crafts.  He sat down at his desk and started drawing on the smooth rocks.  He tried some Futhark and the Greek they'd learned.  But after a couple, he decided it would be better to draw a Dark Mark.

He'd tried to remain focused on the tasks in front of him - Neely had moved on to her own circle of friends again.  She still wasn't talking to him.  More than likely, she didn't want him interfering anymore - after all, who was he when one considered the entourage of Slytherins that surrounded her?  They'd agreed on that, actually.  He was just Sasha. 

So, when Figaro and Neely seemed to be getting into their invasion of personal space drama, Sasha had tried to remain focused on carefully arranging his stones on his desk in ascending surface-to-mass ratio Or the best that he could gauge by simply holding the stone in his hand and comparing how much space it took up by how heavy it felt.  (The primary reasoning being that some of his runes would require a larger surface to work with.  The secondary, though arguably more important reason, was that it was a good distraction.) 

He looked up as Neely shrieked, habitually starting to push himself to his feet as the stones showered from her hands but stopped when Professor Reid spoke up.  He was torn between feeling sympathetic for Neely and ... well, feeling sympathetic for Figaro.  He tried to offer him an apologetic grimace that - he hoped - conveyed 'sorry mate' but the Hufflepuff was already stalking back to his seat.  What was it about Runes and the classes inability to avoid drama?  Even as the thought shifted through Sasha's head, he tried not to glance in Figaro's direction. 

But, at least, things seemed to be settling down slightly.  Hoping, praying the gesture would pan out as smoothly in reality as he envisioned it in his head, Sasha tugged his wand out of his robes to summon the scattered stones from the floor.  It was a vain hope, he knew, and when the stones finally came to him on the fourth attempt (unfortunately, along with a few stray ones from other people's collections), Sasha wished that he hadn't bothered trying.  His wand was in one of those moods, again. 

After returning the strays to their rightful owners (as best he could - once in his hand, they all kind of looked the same) and quietly placing the remainder on Neely's desk, he sat quietly back down in his seat and turned back to his sketching.

Ancient Runes. Last class, Meg had been one of the poor souls to venture into the classroom late. Thankfully it was their first day, so Professor Reid didn't take off any points for her tardiness. It made her realize that she should really try to arrive to Ancient Runes in a more timely manner. If she told Professor Reid that she had gotten lost, she would probably have gotten a firm talking to about taking better care to arrive to class on time.

Thankfully, this class, Meg actually arrived on time, and even before Professor Reid. That was rather surprising, especially since Professor Reid was normally so early. Taking a seat to the side of the room, she took a little advantage of the free time to get her workspace set up. A few moments after she finished assembling her Runes book, parchment, quill, and other supplies, Professor Reid walked in with absolutely no explanation for being late.

Meg watched as Professor Reid conjured the directions up on the board. She waited a bit after the first few students got up, and went into line herself. She noticed Figaro hurl a stone at Neely. She frowned at the display, but did absolutely nothing about it. Neely was far from her favorite person, and she was certainly not inclined to make her few interactions with Neely any faster than the current wait. Therefore, she waited for her turn in line.

When Professor Reid went off on Figaro, Meg cringed a little. Professor Reid seemed a bit high strung, perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she was late? At any rate, she had no idea, and gave no attempt to even try. Eventually getting to the front of the line, she quietly choose an assortment of woods and stone, basing her decision on which ones appeared too fragile to her.

Gathering the supplies, Meg hurried back to her desk and sat down. Placing her stock on the side, she began to think on which runes to practice with. Picking up her quill, she started to draw the three runes that she chose: ansuz, sowulo, and jera. Her  drawings of each rune were neat on the parchment in front of her, taking her time drawing them out.

Nikolai walked into the classroom shortly before Professor Aileen, taking a seat in the back. This meant he was barely on time himself, an unusual trait for him.  As the Professor walked in, he looked at her deeply with his piercing blue eyes. He leaned back in his chair and listened to her intently. He could tell something was amiss in her life. Unfortunately, it was none of his business, so he dared not ask. He was slightly concerned however, as was his nature to be so.

He suddenly spied Figaro taking aim at Neely's skull, and he frowned. He glared at Figaro and ground his teeth. As the stone struck her, Nikolai prepared to say something, but was beaten to it by Professor Reid's fierce scolding of Figaro. This appeased his anger greatly. He stood up, seeing the line forming at the front of the room, and took his place in the back of the line, towering over the students in front of him.

As he stepped forward to pick his supplies out, he smiled at Professor Reid warmly. Perhaps a smile would make her day better? He chose his supplies and walked back to his seat, his huge form filling the aisle. He sat back down in his seat in the back alone, and began to work on his runes. Working carefully, Nikolai began to draw the symbols for Kenaz, Tiwaz, and Laguz.

Neely sniffed, nodding solemnly as the professor inquired after her well-being. “Yes, thank you, Professor,” she said softly, offering a sad little smile, like a weak chick struggling to use its wings. As she turned around again and headed for her desk, she narrowed her eyes at Figaro, and have him a nasty scowl like a hustling, hawk-eyed model on the cover of a high fashion magazine. (With her back to the Runes teacher, it was not so incriminating.) It was the very least she could do after he sought revenge in the form of an ungraceful bump.

She’d not made it back to her desk before she found herself standing beside Sasha, who was returning her fallen stones (and it was a lucky thing, as the theatrics had caused the assignment to go flying out of Neely’s head faster than Figaro had chucked the stone).

She tilted her head toward him, eyes appraising his face. She opened her mouth, closed it again. Blinked. “Thanks,” she murmured, placing her palm softly over the pretty selection of rocks. She turned away from him with a shimmy of blonde hair and subtle swirl of her skirt, not so humbly. Rounding the desk, she fell daintily into her seat. There was a flourish to her movements, and yet, when her eyes landed on the woman at the front of the room, Neely was sure not to look so put together. She had, after all, just narrowly escaped a tragic coma at the barbarian paws of a savage badger.

To keep her mind (and eyes) off of the handsome Ravenclaw, Neely split her attention between her stones and the nearest distraction. “What are you carving, Julian?” She asked, trying to sound both innocent and interested. Really, anything to keep her from actually having to work on her own. With luck, she could follow the St. James boy’s lead. He was good with his hands, wasn’t he?

Aileen glanced around the classroom, appeased when she saw that most of the students were finished drawing their runes. The class could be salvaged, she reassured herself. Today was not a complete disaster, and she would have one calm, productive class session that did not involve drama from the fifth-years.

Right. Aileen took a deep breath and stood, clearing her throat. “If you have not yet completed your drawings, please stop for a few moments and look up here. I’ll be doing the demonstration now.”

She lifted her wand in one hand and a simple stone-cutting tool in the other. “You have two options for carving: your wand, or the knife. You can try both if you’re feeling courageous,” she smirked, setting the things down and handing a basket of tools to a student sitting in the front row so it could be passed around the classroom while she talked.

“The spell required for this is called Perseco,” Aileen wrote it on the board. “It’s a variant of the Diffindo spell, but meant for smaller cuts. I encourage all of you to concentrate and use precise, controlled movements. Dramatic flourishes could cost you a finger.” Not really. However, she needed to impress on them that this wasn’t a baton-twirling contest.

She picked a larger stone from the pile on her desk and recited the spell, moving her wand across the surface more slowly than she usually did so they could see what she was doing. When she was done carving, she tapped her wand once on it so the rune glowed.

Aileen picked up another stone, set her wand down, and did the same thing with the knife. “As you can see, both methods require care and patience. It’s not a race, so take however long you need. If you’re careful, like you should be, mistakes will only get you a paper cut or two.”

Aileen hesitated, and then decided it was better to be safe than sorry. “There are some extra gloves in the cabinet if you’d like to use them.” The first-aid supplies were also in there, though she hoped to Merlin that no one would need it.

“Once you’ve finished carving at least three runes, raise your hand and I’ll show you how to imbue the rune with magic.”

Her eyes flicked to Figaro. “If I see anyone acting recklessly with the spell or the knives, there will be consequences,” she warned darkly. “Ask me if you need help. You may begin.”

With that, Aileen took a seat at her desk and started flipping through the papers from her other classes, glancing up often to ensure they were behaving.


OOC Note: Figured I’d try to revive this (my own fault for not posting). Feel free to come up with more mayhem or whatever you’d like!