Wednesday, April 1 Class is from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Students, check your personal messages for information about this lesson!

3rd Years Clogg-Spleen, Bilius Elison, Amber Falkenrath, Nikolas Foley, Naomi Fox, Baxter  Knight, Blake

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Most of the students were already in their seats when Aileen walked in a couple of minutes before 3:00. Some looked up nervously, others continued to chatter, and still others acted no differently at all. Aileen smiled at a few of them as she walked towards her desk, which was situated in the back. She'd levitated it over there earlier in the afternoon to offer more space up front. It also served as a reminder that today was not going to be a regular old lesson.

Today, each student would present a project on one form of writing magic. Runes was an option, but she'd encouraged them to experiment with different languages and cultures. This would be their last chance to really get creative before preparation for finals hit. The students had approved their ideas with her a month ago, and she'd scheduled assignments along the way to help keep them focused. Aileen knew that most kids hated presentations, but the sooner they had practice with it, the better, and she was confident that the class as a whole was well prepared.

Aileen set her papers and other things on her desk, then walked back to the front and faced the third-years.

"We have a lot to get through today, so let's get started." She waited a few seconds for the chattier ones to calm down. "Each of you will have seven minutes to present your project, and I'll be watching the clock to keep track. As I explained last week, you may involve the class by using a volunteer or asking us questions, incorporate things you've learned from other classes, and do almost anything you'd like as long as it doesn't blow up the classroom." She paused to give them a look.

"I do realize what today is." Someone in back snickered.

"Any pranks will land you an automatic 'T' for the project, along with at least one detention helping Caretaker Encantado clean up the dungbombs that exploded on the fourth floor this morning," Aileen smirked. Any student in their right mind would not want to deal with that man, and she knew very well that Encantado would not appreciate student 'help'. It almost made her wish someone would try something. Almost.

"Remember, this presentation counts for ten percent of your grade." Her dire warnings finished, Aileen gave them a polite smile and walked back to her desk.

"That said, good luck! I look forward to seeing how your projects have turned out. Now, who would like to start?" If no one volunteered, she had the attendance list right in front of her, but hoped she wouldn't need to use it.

Since her ancestors wrote in Nsibidi[1] or variations of it, for spells, Naomi chose to pick another pictographic language from Africa, specifically, Egypt. The Slytherin found them interesting, as she did many African cultural nuggets, and knew the extent of their power, but she wasn't familiar with them.

As superstitious as she was, and her family was, about old and ancient magic, Naomi didn't want to go the project on her own, and turned to Professor Reid, who was rather enthusiastic and encouraging. It was a little more than the young witch expected, but it made her comfortable.

The teacher even lent her a couple simple books about hieroglyphs and Egyptian crafts. And, once she decided her project, Naomi made another request. She wanted to present shabtis and spells, but opted to make her own figurine with special materials and wanted a charm on her written presentation of the spells.

She knew it was an odd request, but almost everything that went into Egyptian magic seemed to have a purpose, and Naomi didn't want something goofy or weird to happen. Even stranger than that, Professor Reid respected it, and didn't even bother questioning it--relieving but really weird. Naomi assumed that's what made the runes witch a good professor.

When the day came to present the projects, Naomi arrived a little early, and had been fiddling with her blank shabti under the lamp of the desk she sat at, chatting with her neighbor about April fools, and the pranks being dealt throughout the day. It was like the school was booby-trapped! (Ans the young Slytherin had been spending most of her day making some backfire, possibly on purpose.)

So once the professor made her entrance, and her lecture, Naomi wasn't particularly interested in going first. She'd rather wait and see if someone had a prank up their sleeves, and go last. So the witch pursed her lips thoughtfully as her virid gaze slowly scanned the room to see if any of her other classmates would volunteer, and avoided the professor's gaze as ignorantly long as possible.

1.	Ideographic language from Nigeria

Baxter had been very excited about this project for Ancient Runes. But he liked projects in general. The fact of the matter was that there were a lot of options here. He had thought about doing one in relation to Egyptian hieroglyphics, but had decided that would be incredibly trite and expected. He wanted to do a little bit of research and find something different- something a little more exciting and which would require a little more hard work. He hoped that the professor would appreciate his choice.

The Ravenclaw volunteered to go first, and made his way to the front of the class. He had a stack of photographs in his hand, as well as a box filled with what looked to be chunks of rock.

"All ancient cultures have their unique methods of preserving traditions," Baxter began. "Many ancient cultures passed down traditions orally- but some chose to use forms of writing. This is true of both Muggle and Wizard cultures- but what is unknown by most muggles, and many wizards, is that sometimes these cultures would overlap."

"Prehistoric cave paintings depict, to the non-magic eye, images of hunters and gatherers. But to those of us in the wizarding world, prehistoric cave paintings hold powerful secrets in relation to magical rituals and many of the pictures themselves hold magical rituals." Baxter held up one of his photographs, and then handed it to one of his classmates to pass around the classroom. "This painting is thought by muggles as a simple picture. But the wheels of the cart are actually a magical symbol. When touched by magic- potions or wands, the wheels will glow and turn and will actually cause a thunderstorm."

"It is thought by many witches and wizards that the magical beings of mostly non-magical communities would hide their magical secrets in cave paintings. This way they could help their communities by bringing rain, sun, increasing fertilization of creatures or animals secretly- convincing the non-magical peoples that rituals or dances were truly responsible."

Baxter handed out another photo. "But not all magic hidden in the cave paintings was good. This painting is done in blood and is dark in nature. If a person applies blood to it, then it will curse whoever the blood belongs to." Baxter then gave the last of the stack to be passed around.

"Each of these photos is of a cave painting which has magical properties hidden within it. These are how witches and wizards originally used runes- to hide the truth behind what they were doing and to pass on their secrets to future witches and wizards."

He then picked up the box. "Each of the rocks in this box has a replication of a cave painting on it. I've enchanted each painting to move- much the way these cave paintings would have moved for any magical beings who originally created them. There is a card attached to each one describing the painting, where it is from, and what it is used for. I've made enough for the whole class- so that you can all have one if you want." He paused for a moment, looking at the professor. "Is it alright if I leave them up here?" Baxter asked, and she nodded.

Then he moved to take his seat again, waiting on somebody else to go up after him.

"Fantastic job, Mr. Fox." Aileen complimented the boy as he walked back to his seat. He'd given them an interesting, fun way to start off the presentations, and at the very least the other students had something visual to look at. She appreciated the extra work he'd put into the photographs and the rocks, and was glad that he'd presented the project in a prepared, thoughtful way.

"Mr. Fox offers one of the more widely recognized theories as to why ancient witches and wizards hid magic in their paintings. They wanted to control the weather, to lure bison and other animals to the area, to make the land more plentiful. But why use caves, specifically? The areas they painted weren't easy to access, and were only used for ceremonial and magical purposes. So why not use the rocks and stones outside, or the trees, or animal skins? Any ideas?"[1]

Aileen glanced around the classroom, curious to see how many had been paying attention.

1.	There's no one right answer to this. Feel free to BS!

Free of jokes, pranks, or any other sort of April Fools shenanigans--Baxter had presented his project. Naomi nestled in her seat, satisfied that this class was going to be relatively seemed clear so far, but she felt too settled and comfortable to jump up to be the next person to present, so she just admired and played with one of the rocks her classmate had passed around.

Then the professor injected a question at the end, to which no one seemed particularly quick to answer. Naomi listened to the silence, as she appeared to be distracted with the painting in front of her, and the noiselessness settled into fidgeting.

"Iz dark, quiet, and sturdy, wit' lots of surface to cast upon; good conditions for magic," her virid gaze still trained on the rock on her desk, "And it more readily protects th' paintings from di environment..." she stopped fidgeting and raised her eyes to look at Baxter then the professor, then continued as if she had been looking at them the whole time, "And keeps 'em safe from muggles or tamperers."

Aileen was prepared to let the silence stretch on. When she'd first started teaching, it had taken her time to get used to students' reluctance to answer questions, and the long, awkward silences had made her a bit uncomfortable. She'd questioned if she was engaging their attention enough.

However, Aileen had eventually learned that she wasn't the only professor who had to deal with this, and sometimes the best thing to do was wait it out. Like now. She looked around at the backs of the students' heads, resisting a smug smile when a few of them turned in their seats to stare at her worriedly. The silence had likely interrupted their daydreams more than her talking would have. Perhaps, judging by the heads swiveling around to stare at each other, they were wondering if they should be doing something, like finding parchment or writing down an assignment. Or answering a question!

She perked up and looked pleased when Naomi spoke, proving that at least one student had been listening.

"Right," she nodded. "Caves offered a more secluded area to perform magic, and protection from outside influences. The cave structure itself also lends to a gathering of power. Paleolithic peoples did make small, clay figurines, called Venus figurines, which were used as minor fertility symbols. But to amass real power, to control things like the weather or the hunt, things that affected the whole community, they needed a wider canvas. The caves offered that.

"Thank you, Miss Foley. Three points for Slytherin."

Aileen paused, raised her eyebrows. "Who would like to present next?"

Baxter was satisfied that he seemed to do a good job, and was glad that his presentation did not receive much criticism. When she asked about why caves, the Ravenclaw could have groaned. That was something he had left out! He had planned to mention it- but did not like using cards when giving presentations because he found it unprofessional. It was better to memorize what you had to say. It seemed this his brain had failed him this time at least.

Then Professor Reid called for somebody else to present, and he looked around at his classmates- wondering who would go next. He had been the brave one and opted to go first- then again, Baxter always went first if he was given the chance. It was not uncommon to receive house points for going first and then it was over and done with and he did not have to worry about showing others up.

The uncomfortable silence stretched, and Billy finally growled in frustration and stood up, stomping to the front of the class. As the sort of presenter who usually hid in the back and hoped the bell rang before it was his turn, it was odd to see him go so early. But his own presentation was...well. It was short.

"Ahem." He said, taking out a set of stones - Celtic runes carved into their surfaces. "I chose to do a study of Celtic runic writing, as much of their history, magical and otherwise, is inscribed in this form of writing."

He removed a large sheet of paper from his bag, levitating it to show the class. "As you can see, the alphabet's letters, also called runes, are composed entirely of straight lines. This is related to the common magical runes, though not quite the same thing. The ancients used large stones to record  their history, and as part of my project I translated one of these, which is this paper."

He snapped his hands against it for emphasis.

"This stone details the selection of a king via a bean-eating ritual. The king then reigns until spring, when he is ritually sacrificed to bring life to the fields. The ancients went to great detail describing his rather...horrible death," he'd liked that part. "But failed to record his name or any information about the poor sod. From this, I have concluded that the ancient Celts were all tossers. Thank you."

Without waiting for anyone's response, questions or feedback, he rolled up his papers and stomped back his desk.

Aileen resisted letting out a sigh. A few of the kids were giggling. She supposed Bilius Clogg-Spleen's attitude won points with most of his audience, but stomping about and throwing out slang wasn't going to improve the mark he received on this assignment. It was frustrating, because she knew he knew the material.

"They could be bloodthirsty tossers. That's one interpretation," Aileen commented mildly. More giggling from the students.

"I assume, Mr. Clogg-Spleen, that you considered other stones when working on your project. Are they tossers just because you picked a particularly violent example? What were your other choices? How did those inscriptions compare to the one about the king?"

If he wanted a chance at a higher mark, Aileen hoped he'd answer thoughtfully. If not, it was on to the next presentation!

He sighed. "They're bloody. All the other stones I looked and translated where about death and...well, and sex, too." He hadn't minded those too much, admittedly. "They were crazy tossers who'd stab their kings and think that made the sun come up, ma'am. All of the stones I looked at were like that."

Bilius sat at his desk, slouched, arms crossed. "We don't have many stones as it is, but they're all pretty similar. Seems recording 'em as their thing, so to speak. Feed a guy beans, give him a few months of the high life, stab the sob, carve rock. Rinse, repeat."

Aileen paused. His presentation had been well under seven minutes, so she had time for a mini-lecture. 

"Not all of the stones were about death and sex," she corrected him, ignoring any tittering from the peanut gallery.

"What I'm going to tell you goes beyond the scope of your project, and I certainly don't expect you to know everything about the Celts after just a month's worth of research. I do expect you to rethink some of the assumptions you've made, however, and to be more careful before you judge ancient cultures. This goes for everyone," Aileen glanced around the classroom.

"Mr. Clogg-Spleen is correct in that we don't have many stones to study in the first place. The most well-known stones are the ones you can find some information about in the Hogwarts library, which Mr. Clogg-Spleen went over." Or at least, he'd provided an example.

"There are stones from the Primitive Irish period that do not focus on ritual sacrifice. They were used to record names, family lines, and to show who had ownership over the land. They too, used the Ogham script. The stones sometimes held hidden messages from one wizard to another. They also included edits and crossed out names, so you can say these stones functioned a bit like the elaborate family trees we see in Wizarding families today."

She noticed a student yawning widely and bit back a sigh. "That said, don't expect people from ancient times to think exactly the way we do. As for Mr. Clogg-Spleen's king, we might wonder what his name was, how he felt about his sacrifice, and whether he particularly liked beans, but the Celts considered those details as unimportant to the story. His role was important. Continuing the cycle that they set forth was important. Everything else was extra, unnecessary."

And now that she'd probably disturbed them all, Aileen smiled. "Time for our third presentation. Who's up next?"

[Part 1: Normal and Educational part]

Projects came and went, and everyone had eventually gone but Naomi. Satisfied but a little disheartened at nothing happening, she gathered up her poster and levitated it up for the class. She gestured towards the  writing on it as she began to speak, "Some pictographs evolved into logographic systems and languages, representing ideas radder 'den sounds. So th' same character can be said two different ways an' mean two different t'ings," she twiddle to of her fingers for the class as she turned back to her poster, "which is what sort of system th' Egyptians grew to use: Hieroglyphs."

"Of course it's not that simple," Her lilt churned a little, "It's figurative, symbolic, and phonetic at th' same time, in the same text, the same phrase, maybe the same word--because of that, it's one of th' languages most highly susceptible to magic." And Naomi was very suspicious and respectful of it.

"So its effects can vary from where it's at, what material it's writtin on, an' maybe who even made it. So it 'cn be treated lotsa ways, but I studied their use of eet in relation to death, and 'dey have a whole system of spells created for it--called The Book of the Dead."

The Slytherin continued on casually, "Most of 'da spells are inscribed or painted onto objects in tombs, so they'd serve a purpose in th' afterlife, like this one," Naomi held up the blank figurine she made for the presentation, "This is a shabti," she handed it to the nearest student to pass around, "S'blank, and made of faience, but up here is what's usually written on it, they're believed and described t'be types of servants to take to th' afterlife.

"It says, 'O, this or these ushebti or ushebtis. If one counts, if one reckons the Osiris," her voice lowered to interrupt the format, "th' name of the dead person goes dere, to do all the works which are wont to be done there in God's Land," a draft hummed in Naomi's ear, causing her to prop her hand on her neck, unaware of the magical and hidden artifact it was coming from, "Now indeed obstacles are implanted therewith--" a barrage of whispers rose from the humming draft, in a language she wasn't familiar with speaking. Her face fell, eyebrows narrowed and lips parted as she looked around the room doubtfully, nobody seemed to notice it, so she waited for the whispers to disappear. They didn't.

Her eyes fell back to her poster, and she leaned forward to look at it and then the text started to do something odd.

[Part 2: Abnormally Educational with a Malfunctioning Project]

Shadows of the hieroglyphs pulled from the page and the ink slowly faded away, finally leaving the parchment blank and dry as it fell to the floor with a pitiful crinkle.

She raised an eyebrow and looked at the class suspiciously; no one had a wand out, or seemed to ,rise to take credit for it, and the professor looked about just as accusatory as she did.

Thud, clack, click! Naomi shot her gaze to the door as the door bolted itself shut, followed by a snapping and cracking noise the young witch's gaze followed to the windows; the glass panes filled with white cracks, blocking the view outside, until only rays of light squeezed through them. Something like this served better as a Halloween joke than an April Fools one, and no one had a wand out, and it couldn't be her project because she was too superstitious to let it fall prey to any spells--unless the professor was behind it, and she hoped not.

"Wha--" Naomi began as she turned back to the class, but then her eyes landed on her missing project: hieroglyphs  trying to burn onto her blank doll and burning into various bricked places of the room and melting the stone into clay. No one had a wand out, no one seemed to be snickering; Most the room just reflected her baffled and clueless expression back at her.

Naomi's eyes turned back to the molding clay as her legs slowly criss-crossed and backtracked her towards the window and her last step rose to her buttocks as she slipped out her twisted wand from her stocking and aimed it at the glass windows. The clay finally molded into some Egyptian figurines, with the appropriate chapter of the Book of the Dead written on them, standing at about the size of house elves, silently waiting. With a hurried whisper Naomi flicked her wand, "Reducto."

THOOM! A forceful blast ricocheted off the windows and took to part of a shelf, smashing it into pieces. The hazel eyes of the Slytherin peered at the professor before it caught site of movement from the figurines and snapped back to see it clap with resounding thunder. Naomi dropped against the floor as he heard another thoom fly off the window, and send her hair into a whirlwind of black curls.

She lifted her nutmeg face from the floor and looked through her messy black mane to the room to the students and Professor Reid, but her voice was more delicate than her apperance, tip-toe-ing around her consonants, "Somebaddy wanna try th' door?"[1]

1.

They're trapped in the room right now. The dolls will try and do everyones' bidding, even if they don't want them too, and they will probably try and guess or be way too helpful, such as what happened to Naomi. The blank doll Naomi made, however, won't hold any hieroglyphs on it; inscriptions will just fade in and out on the front of the figurine for now. Besides that, have fun with everything!

Aileen sprang to her feet when the door bolted shut, intending to put a stop to this prank once and for all. She scanned the classroom for any smirking faces or overly innocent ones, checking for wands, much like Miss Foley had done, and finding only baffled expressions. Before she could demand answers, the windows cracked in a spiderweb pattern, and muddy things started rising up from the stone floor, morphing into silent shabtis. Alarm flickered across her face as Foley stepped back and flicked her wand. 

"No!-"

But it was too late, and Reducto had been cast. Aileen ducked, covering her ears at the noise.

After a pause when she looked around to make sure everyone was alright, she started firing spells at the door. It wouldn't even budge. The dolls immediately crowded around the exit, blocking a path to it as they tried to 'help'.

"Everyone keep calm," she ordered the class, voice harried. "Stay seated. Don't move, don't cast spells, don't talk, don't try to do anything."

She strode over towards a student who now held Miss Foley's project. "Show me the figurine," Aileen held out a hand for it, glancing at Foley by the window and resisting the urge to blame her for this mess. The student looked scared, not guilty. She shouldn't have been able to do this kind of magic anyway. A very bad feeling settled in Aileen's stomach.

One of the dolls had followed Aileen's movements, snatching the blank figurine from the student and holding it up like an offering. Aileen reached for the figurine, but the shabti wouldn't let it go.

She heard commotion from behind her. A student was perched on her desk with her legs curled up, glancing around with a panicked expression as her action drew the dolls towards her.

"Get down from there!" Aileen started towards her, but the dolls were faster. The girl shrieked as four dolls picked up the desk and started carrying it around the classroom like a sedan chair. Every time the student tried to touch her feet to the floor, they'd hold it up higher, dolls stacking themselves one on top of the other to create long columns.

"They won't let me!" She wailed, clutching the edges of the desk as her desk inched closer to the ceiling.


(OOC Note: Anyone is welcome to play the part of the poor student in the air, or try to help her, or do whatever! Just keep in mind that the door won't budge for a while.)

Well! This class had gone from boring as always to....not boring. Quite funny, actually, now that he thought about it. The chaos was fun, the girl screaming very amusing. She was high up on a tower of the little statues, which was increasing in height.

He did have an idea on how to fix that. Not for her sake, Merlin no. This was just plain fun. The statutes wanted to help, did they? Well, there were plenty of things they could help with around here, he was sure. Too bad Oliver and Pepper weren't here, but those two louts were too stupid to stand this class for more than 5 minutes. Maybe they could have made them smart stupider.

His gaze fell on the Professor. Frazzled, distracted...

"Oh, no, Professor," he said, voice one of painfully genuine concern. "Your top's been messed up! You really should get help with that."

Why should he worry about consequences? He was just trying to help!