Hearing Jimmy say Lexi's name Marie looked up just as the girl walked by. That's right Lexi, just keep walking, we do not want you here with us.

Turning her full attention back to Jim she couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, I think you're pretty awesome too." She then raised an eyebrow at him. "Of course you don't snog just anyone. You snog me... your girlfriend." she said as she nudged him with her shoulder.

"If I pass? But what if it takes more than one study session for me to understand... do I have to wait?" Pfft! Like she would. She would so attack him the moment they were alone somewhere... where no one could interrupt them.

Um yeah, the elemental magic part... if you say. "Oh yeah, right, that. Like how does the magic in them work?" Okay, so hopefully they were on the right track here.

She started to listen as he began explaining how the runes worked. "So the runes are like a wand?" Alright, she could see that, sorta. But how were they supposed to work if you didn't have them in your possession?

Hmm, maybe now would be a good time to get out some parchment and a quill to take some notes here. She would hate for this study session to be for nothing because yeah, she knew she would have to read over the notes again later.

Still listening as Jimmy continued to talk she tried writing down everything he was saying. 'invoking a rune, and channeling the magic through it can be more lasting than just casting a spell with your wand.' "So in reality the power of the rune is greater than the power of the wand?" If that was the case then why didn't everyone just carry runes with them instead of a wand? That was a question she would ask later... maybe. Oh forget it, she wouldn't have to ask, he just answered that for her. 'With your wand you could cast whatever spell you wanted within reason, but with a rune you're limited by the kind of magic that resonates with that individual rune symbol.' Yeah she made sure to write that part down in her notes for later review.

"Okay, let me see if I have this so far. Runes are sorta like a wand. The magic is within you but is connected to the rune. The magic that comes from a rune can or is more powerful than that which comes from the wand... yet with the wand you have freedom to do more magic whereas with the rune you can only perform what that rune is meant for?" Was she even close on that one?

She was so gonna need the whole term to understand this class.

"Thats the general idea of this whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing." Jim agreed breezily, barely moving at all with the shoulder nudge.

"Aww now Marie, have a bit of faith in my ability to teach you, okay?" Grin. Yeah because could anyone picture a world where James Wilkes would happily go without snogging for extended periods of time? Anyone?

*crickets*

He listened to her summarize his words back to him and nodded. "Thats pretty much it, to start with anyway. The magic isn't necessarily more powerful, not on its own at least. The way you make it more powerful is by combining more than one rune together, in a string or in ligature. You can customize it that way."

Jim wondered if it was worth grabbing a book so he could at least pretend that he was talking about all this from a book and not just off the top of his head.

"So... aside from a wand, you need the incantation and the intent to cast a spell right?" He grinned at her. "With rune magic, you need the rune, the invocation and that same intent. The invocation is when you sing to the rune, like... chant the magic and activate whatever channel the magic is intended to flow through." There was other bits but starting basic was good. "Its called a galdr."

Those were fun, you got to make strange noises.

"And there is one other bit thats really important, the movement? Yeah that kinda relates to risting the rune in the first place. I dunno if those associations will help you at all, but it helped me get my head around it."

For the very first time, Elle walked into the library. Wow, such an astounding, magnificent place! She adored books and had a large collection of them at home. But this, here at Hogwarts, was like two times bigger than hers.

She strolled down, aisle by aisle. When she reached the end of the room, Elle noticed how much time had passed. Anyway, as she was exiting the library, a book caught her eye. A peculiar one. But there was nothing written on the spine. Funny. She stepped closer and closer.

"Well it sounds like I might be good at it," Beth said with a smile. "Wait, your reading about dragons? I didn't think that they were even real. I mean wizards and witches that was pretty hard to get my head around but now there are dragons too. Gosh, I mean is every muggle 'fairy tale' story based on some real creature that no one else knew about?" All of this was seeming like to much to be real.

"Herbology eh? You like plants then?" Emily smiled then laughed when Beth talked about dragons.
"Oh yeah! They're real! Only muggles don't see them. The ministry of magic has departments to hide them and make sure muggles don't find them. And not every fairy tale I guess... but dragons, werewolves, trolls, giants, merepeople, unicorns to name a few..." Emily laughed again "They're real! And more. You'll learn more about it in Care of Magical Creatures class."

"You see," Beth laughed, "This is one of the conversations I never thought I'd have in a library. It was up there with emm... never thinking I would be magical and go to a magical school for witches and wizards." Beth smiled before looking back down at her book and sighing. "As for the plants, well they've always been a big part of my life. My Gran was a florist when she was younger, my mother never followed her interest but I did. It made my Gran proud. . . " Beth stopped talking suddenly aware if she went on any more she might begin to cry.

Emily could tell something was wrong as Beth fell silent, staring at her book.
Should she ask what was wrong or not? She didn't want Beth to get more upset.
Finally Emily decided she should be there for her friend. Mabye she could help her?
"What's wrong? Do you miss your gran or family or something?" then she quickly added "Sorry to intrude! You don't have to tell me anything if it's personal!"

"No it's fine," said Beth taking a deep breath and looking back up. "I mean I have to face it sooner or later. . .You can't keep running forever."She said the last part almost to her self, reassuring. "It was just over a year ago when my Gran passed on, it was an accident she fell on the floor of her greenhouse where it had been slippy from the water. Hit her head hard . . .too hard. She was the only person I connected with, the one who didn't care how I dressed or how I spent my time. The one who taught me it was good to read and learn and do well." Beth laughed softly. "She would have been so proud of me, being here, would have told me to write to her. . . My parents are too scared, to be truethful we've been growing apart for years but I think this is maybe an excuse to show that I'm nothing like them." Beth sniffed slightly but she was determined, she would get through this without crying.

Emily covered her mouth with her hands. She felt bad now, like she was intruding.
"Oh my Beth... I'm so sorry! I-I didn't realise..."
Emily did her best to give Beth a reasuring smile
"Well, you know she would be proud of you now! And I bet your parents are as well! It just takes... getting used to..." she stammered hopeing she wasn't making Beth feel worse

Beth smiled, even though she tried not to, Emily just looked hilarious.
"Its fine. Your more understanding than most of the muggles I've had the displeasure of knowing. Just because you like plants and books doesn't make you an outcast from society here but jeez the muggles I went to school with seemed to think it did. Any how you don't need to look so shocked, I mean everyone dies eventually." Beth laughed quietly, "She wouldn't want me to cry everytime I try talking about her so I suppose I'd best start now." Beth smiled, she felt better now sh had confideded in somebody she could trust. Someone who liked her for who she was.

Emily went red. She didn't realise she had over reacted.
"Oh sorry. It's just I don't know anyone who's died..."
Great, she'd put her foot in her mouth!
"Not that's a bad thing! I don't really want someone I know to die. But, I'm sure you didn't want your Gran to die! I..." she was rambling now. Why coudn't she stop?!?!
"I-I don't... It's just... My goldfish died!" she spluttered
Why did she had to stop there?!?!

Beth smiled and began to laugh again. "How to reply to that I'm not quite sure. I'm also very sorry you goldfish died," she said when she'd stopped. "Don't worry, I'm not going to get mad at you, you just successfully cheered me up."

Emily (still red) tried a smile
"Yeah, well... I'm good at the sort of thing"'Even though I hadn't ment too' she thought
They both paused for a few moments as they read their books.
"Oh Beth, look at this!" Emily (who had finally stopped being red) said showing Beth her book
"It says here they're are 10 different breeds of dragon. The 'Hungarian Horntail' being supposedly the most dargerous." she shrugged and carried on reading
"Lets just hope we don't meet one of them!"

"From the word Hugarian I'm guessing unless someones keeping one as a pet we aren't very likely to run into one any where nearby," Beth pointed out. I'm reading about Mandrake roots and they can be used in potions to change people who have been petrified back to normal."

"Yeah, I guess..." Emily said "But keeping dragons as pets is illegal. Besides, who would want one?"
Her sister probably.
"Mandrakes? The plants that scream when you pull them up? My sister said she learned about them in her second year! Of course, the school's curriculum has probably changed by now..."
Another scilence fell. Only the cackling fire and the turning of pages could be heard. It made Emily want to laugh for some reason.

Beth was staring back down at her book again, now she was reading about the uses of plants in other potions. The plants here were so strange looking, some where colourful, others were dull but all of them were far from ordinary. She turned the page to a plant called Devils Snare.
"Look at this she said pointing at the page. This plant hates sunlight. Like the vampire of the plant world."

Emily looked at where Beth was pointing.
"Yeah, but that's Devils Snare! It's one of the dangerous plant's I was telling you about! If you touch any of it, it wraps itself around you 'till eventually you carn't breath... other than that, it's great!"

Hearing the hey, Simon turned to look where it had come from and finding the girl smiling at him knew it had been addressed to him personally and not anyone else. In fact there wasn't anyone else around that she could have been speaking to.

"Hey," he replied returning the smile politely. "So are you ready for a new term?" the Gryffindor asked as he tried to think of something to say to the stranger. Simon wasn't exactly the greatest in that regard on conversation or at least starting it.

Marie would never get tired of hearing herself referred to as Jimmy's girlfriend... or hearing it said out loud that he was her boyfriend. Somehow hearing it made it seem even more real. Yes, Marie Salazar is James Wilkes girlfriend. That's right girls, be jealous... his lips are off the market for you.

"I do have faith in you. I wouldn't have asked you to help me if I didn't." Well maybe she would have, you know just to have an excuse to spend more time with him. "It's me I don't have faith in." She knew she was by no means stupid it's just for some reason she was having a hard time figuring out this one class... and maybe Astronomy too. Maybe with the help of Jimmy AND with Professor Truebridge teaching Runes she would actually get it. As for Astronomy, she could only hope to understand enough to pass that OWL.

She watched him nod his head as she spoke. Nodding was better than shaking it back and forth. This was as if he was agreeing with her... right? Wait. To start with?

Crud... More note taking.

'Rune magic not more powerful on its own. Made more powerful by combining more than one rune together in a string.' "So would it be like if you were using more than one wand at a time?" How cool would that be... a wand in each hand... hexing those mortal enemies of yours. Oh wait, she had done that before... in her second year when she took that other kids wand during the battle. Only problem there... she wasn't having any fun considering the person she was hexing was Destiny. Okay, maybe two wands wasn't such a good idea just yet.

"Right." She agreed as she continued writing notes. 'Wand = Incantation and the intent to cast a spell.' "I think I have that much mastered." She did feel pretty at ease using her wand. She continued to listen to him tell her about rune magic. Then he was talking about singing. She was not about to sing to a rock to make its magic work. However she would write all this down. She was sure it would come up again at some point. So biting her bottom lip she inked her quill back up she wrote, ' Rune magic = Rune, invocation and intent. Invocation = sing to the rune so not gonna happen (chant the magic and activate whatever channel the magic is intended to flow through)'. "It's called a what?" She asked finally looking up at him giving him a funny look. Was he making this up to see if she was paying attention?

"More?" Oh Merlin and to think they only just started. "How does the movement relate to risting? Isn't that like inscribig the runes onto wood?" Or was she thinking of something else totally different?

Gah! She would never understand all this in nine short months... would she?

"Yeah you would have." Jim disagreed, with a smile for her. "I'm pretty sure you like spending time with me, even if its so's you can study for exams. And I have faith in you. Where'd you get all those points last term if there wasn't a brain in there huh?" He kissed her forehead.


"Nah. Not like using more than one wand... more like, you know the primary colours, blue and red and yellow? If you mix them together you get more colours, and if you mix those together, the possibilities are endless, but you can already do a lot with red and blue and yellow to begin with." Right so he was trying the metaphor thing here. Hopefully it worked. "The wand is already every colour, only limited by the skill and imagination of the artist." Get it? He paused so she could add to her notes.

"Galdr." He answered, poking his tongue out at her. "Its Old Norse. Means Incantation, or spell."

"Yeah thats exactly what risting is. Inscribing. Its about the form, see? He drew his wand, holding it surely and did what looked like a few precise and basic wand movements... but really he was writing in the air, golden sparks forming into the shapes of the first six runes.

"Movement." He summarized. "The movement is in the shape of the rune itself, not in what you do with the rune."

"Yeah, you're right." She said winking at him. "You seem to know me so well. Besides, studying with you is a win win situation. I get to be with you and my brain gets smarter." Yep, it was just win for her no matter how you looked at it. "Points... I stole them from Evelyn. She had more than she needed so I figured she needed to share." Or you now she actually worked really hard to get them, since you know there was no way to really steal Ev's points.

Aww, he kissed her brain.

"Okay, I think I got it now." 'Wand = lots of colors. Only limited by the skill and imagination of the artist/person using the wand. Rune = one color. Need to use more than one rune to mix the colors and get the effect of a wand.' she wrote down. She passed the notes over to Jimmy. "Does that look right?"

"Oh, well why didn't you just say that in the first place?" she said poking her tongue out at him too as she grabbed her notes back so she could write down the meaning of that word. 'Galdr= word she will never use Incantation, or spell.'

Finally she got something right. There was hope for her after all. She watched as he drew symbols in the air with his wand...

oooh, pretty sparks. Marie started to daydream a little as she watched the golden sparks floating in the air. "Movement... shape of rune." she said not really aware of what she was saying.

Yeah, Jimmy's wand work was a bit of a distraction to her. She had warned him that it didn't take much to distract her... or had she?

"Yeah, a joy to be around I'm sure," Beth chuckled as she read on. "Yeah it talks about how dangerous it is here. See." Beth showed the book to Emily again. "Hmm. . . It goes into a lot more detail about the wrapping around you until you can't breath than you did. In order to not be scared for life I may have to turn the page." She turned the page and went back to her reading.

The girls just sat and read for a while. The library was a peaceful place!
It was Emily who started conversation off again...
"So, have you had a chance to explore the rest of the school yet? Or did you come here first?"

"Yes, I am." Evangeline said, in a reply to his question. "But then again, this is my very first term at Hogwarts." She said. She glanced at him, and saw his badge. "So, you're one of the Quidditch captains?" Eva asked him.

Satine walked through the library walking as softly as she could to keep her heels from clicking too loud...great idea wearing heels to the library......She walked towards one of her most favorite spots in the room..yes that made her a nerd that she had a favorite spot in the library but really who cares...right?

Finally she could feel the warmth from the sun shining through the beautimous stained glass window hit her arm and then her face. She glanced up into the stained glass portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw. She smiled up at the stained glass and in the back of her head she thought it smiled back at her. She quickly took a seat on the cushioned window seat and made herself comfy spreading her legs out across the seat and leaning up against the wall with her bag.

She glanced around the room and then opened her book, The Gazateer of the Wizarding World, Exploring the most beautiful places in the Wizarding World, and then was instantly in another place and time...well atleast in her mind..