Simon focused his attention back to the front of the classroom when the foreign professor started class. Listening to his words, the Gryffindor tried his best to decipher what was being said, finally thinking he had the question in mind and therefore going to his memory to figure out an answer before raising his hand.

"Around 150 AD, I believe," he said before lowering his hand.

Samira sighed and raised her hand. Luckily she read the textbook beforehand, and her answer seemed to be the same as what others were saying...

"The earliest runic inscriptions date from around AD 150," answered Samira.

Hmm.. Louisa raised her hand hesitantly, "Could it be for protection, sir?" She suggested. "Old people used to have them as necklaces or bracelets either to protect them from a spell or a spirit or something they thought was evil." She was sure that she read about the theory but didn't quite remember the details but things were sometimes logical to the Ravenclaw so..

Ja, they were all fine. Hehe.

But anyway. What was the earliest use of runes? Ahh what was the year? Think.

Oh! It was like a light bulb had been lit in Helena's head. "They were used to communicate, starting with 150 AD," the girl said, with her hand in the air. Or... weren't they used for that, back then?

Lara was trying to stay awake which was a hard job to do. She thought that the only way to do this is by trying to answer the Professor's question.

she paused trying to remember something she knows about Ancient Runes, she wasn't sure though but she raised her hand anyway and answered "I've heard that in the very past ,Wizards used to use Anciet Runes to record important events on walls or rocks " she said ,she hoped that she heard it right.

Some of the students were mentioning dates... "Nei, nei," Tristan said and shook his head. Then the Gryffindor mentioned communication... "Communication," he said and nodded. His accent was as heavy as ever.

"Ze earliest use of runes is beink communication. Ve discuss runes as a language, ja?" He paused for a second. "From vhich alphabet is ze runic alphabet beink historically derived?"



ooc: So he's asking From which alphabet is the runic alphabet historically derived?

Oh. She was wrong. Bugger. Samira tried to revise her answer, hopefully getting it right this time.

"The runic alphabet was used to write various German languages, before being converted to Latin." That was right, wasn't it?

Upon hearing Kurumi's answer, Simon began to doubt he and the other mentioning dates might have been on the wrong meaning of the professor's question, a thought confirmed as the older man spoke once more. Listening carefully as the second question was asked, he hoped to better this time around.

"Isn't it the old Italic alphabet," he supplied slightly hesitant this time around.

Communication. Riiiight. She mentioned that.

As for the next question, Helena wasn't quite sure. "Germanic?" The girl suggested as she raised her hand. "Before the adoption of the Latin alphabet," she added.

Uhh... that was the correct answer, riiiight?

Neigh Neigh? Now this man was speaking like a horse?

Kurumi's eyes widened wondering if there was some sort of theme with horses and runes that she didn't know about when she saw him nod towards her - her eyes widened even more. Still, a small smile appeared around the corners of her lips not so much that she had answered correctly, but more about her understanding him or guessing correctly as the case may be.

Breathing a little easier, Kurumi set her mind to trying to understand what he was asking next. Something about languages and...beink? What was beink?! She thought she heard him say something about alphabets, so her eyes flew to her notes as she scanned for something that seemed fitting.

Aha!

"Perhaps..the Etruscan alphabet?"

Some of the shapes she had written in her notes certainly seemed similar to Elder Futhark runes at least.

He knew this one! He just needed time to think. He scratched his head and thought then finally raised his hand. "It originated from old Italic alphabets, but I'm not sure if it originated from a North Italic variant, such as the Etruscan or Raetic alphabets, or the Latin alphabet." He enjoyed studying runes in his time off because they were rocks, and that was enough. Thankfully, all that hard worked paid off. Plus, he didn't regret sitting through all those Latin lessons so much now.

Selina shot her hand up in the air at his question and said, "I think it was the Etruscan alphabet, no?" Honestly she was just throwing that out there. Over the summer her mother had made her pick up a book about Ancient Runes because, honestly, she had barely scraped by a A last year in that class. Her mother was a stickler about getting an E or better. She thought, personally, that getting all A's was a good thing, but average wasn't good enough for Sophia Skylar. So she had to read that bloody book on ancient runes that had almost put her to sleep.

"Ja.. ze Old Italic alphabets..." Tristan nodded at the students. "Ze Old Italic alphabets are now beink extinct. Ze Germanic runic alphabet vas derived from zem and used to communicate. It is not settled vhich of ze Old Italic alphabets are beink ze point of origin. "

He nodded again. "Ze shape of ze runes vas angular, ja? Vy vas ze shape of ze runes angular? Vat did ze angular shape of ze runes help in?"



ooc: He's asking you to tell him why the shape of the runes was angular or what the angulgar shape helped in.

Simon let out a inward sigh of relief that his answer had been correct, feeling a bit more confident. He was trying his best to do good in the class especially as it neared close to the nd of term and the dreaded tests to prepare for. "They helped with creating runes in hard woods and stones since curves are far for difficult to make in those materials," he supplied after raising his hand once more.

"Runes are angular because they used to have to put them on tablets and it was really had to curve anything on tablets. So by putting them all on angles you could write easily and without any specific issues. It was just a matter of convenience for the people who wrote out the language," Selina explained. Personally the whole idea of writing on tablets was not Selina's idea of fun, but hey who was she to make a judgment? She still wrote with a quill which most Muggles had outdated nearly two hundred years ago.

It took Helena a few moments to understand the man's last questions, but she finally understood and raised her hand. "Runes were carved in stone or wood, so it was simple if there weren't any curves."

Didn't professor Truebridge mention this last term? Or maybe not.

Okay...what? Kurumi's eyes were narrowing so much that it probably looked like her eyes were closed. Now she was wishing more than ever that she had finished writing that dictionary with Caroline.

It wasn't until Simon spoke that she was able to put two and two together.

"I thought that the angular shape was something that came from the Old Italic alphabets that were also written in the same sort of style," she said cocking her head to the side for a moment. "Angular shapes would also make it easier to carve into stone and wood."

"Good." Tristan nodded.

"Ze runes had to be carved on materials such az vood, stone, bones and metal." He said. His accent as heavy as ever. "It vas eazier if zere vere no curves. Ze runes vere used to create records and inscribe ze zacred places. It iz usual now for ze runic script to be used to pass alonk coded messages."

"Now... ve come to ze present era, ja? Vat is ze second most common use of runes?"



ooc: He's saying that runes have been used to create records, inscribe sacred places and communicate in codes. He's also asking you to tell him what the second most common use of runes is, today.

This guy was CREEPER.TASTIC. That period was there to add much needed emphasis. Sheesh... what language was he speaking anyway? Lexi scrunched up her nose and raised her hand. "For magical protection and the like?" Perhaps. She was not entirely sure. Anyway... where was TRUEBS. She wanted to learn from him. He made sense. PERFECT SENSE. HMPH.

"Ummm... Occultism?" He said with his hand raised. Eino wasn't sure of the order in which runes were most used, but occultism was as good as a guess as any. Plus, it was fairly common lately. Well, he didn't really practice rune reading and he didn't know many people who did, but he remembered that there was a whole shelf on Occultism and Runes at Flourish & Blotts, so maybe he was right.

It was hard to understand the man, and Evan had to think for a few minutes to figure out what he said. Still, it didn't affect the enthusiasm of the prefect for the man, and he raised his hand once he made out the question.

"As a method of divination, perhaps?"

And cue some more blank stares from Kurumi as he spoke again. Essentially everything he was saying went in one ear and out the other, until he got to talking about the second most common use of runes. Seriously, wasn't there some sort of wizarding translator spell? If not, there really should be. Perhaps she could work with one of the professor in creating one? Kurumi made a note to ask about it later - just not to Mr. Viking.

"Divination?" she asked since Lexi had already mentioned protection. Or, was divination more of the modern usage of runes and not the second most used?

"Nei..." Tristan shook his head until the Slytherin prefect spoke. "Ja.. runes are beink used for divination... by muggles. Muggles do not understand, ja? Ze runes cannot predict ze future. Zey cannot tell us vat vill happen tomorrow or day after tomorrow. But ze runes can be used to know more about ze path zat iz beink lying ahead. Zey are zere to guide us to vat should be done to reach preferable outcome."

He nodded and hoped they understood.

"How are ze runes used by ze vizards and vitches to know about preferrable outcome? What do ze vizards and vitches do?"



ooc: So he's saying that runes cannot be used to predict the future, but can guide us about the paths that we should take. He wants to know how wizards and witches use runes to learn more about the future. He's looking for a general and basic answer.

He was speaking like a horse again!

Okay, so he only neighed once and then had moved on to the next part of the lesson which took her much longer than previous answers to sort through.

Runes were NOT used for predicting the future? Hadn't that been what they had used them for in the previous lesson? Or was she misunderstanding him? It certainly wouldn't be the first time to be sure.

"By interpreting the meaning associated with a rune in a given spread," she replied with an obvious tone of uncertainty in her voice. "In our previous lesson we used three rune spread to gain a deeper insight into our past, present, and possible future situation for example..."

Wiliam raised his hand. " Runastafer forteold the future by Runemal or casting of Runes" William told the professor.