Yes! Jayden was correct! And now the Professor had asked a new question. "Professor, the alphabet is called Ancient Runes, but it is also known as Elder Futhark." She answered, after she was called upon. Although, she wasn't really sure if she had answered the question correctly.

Oh phew, she had guessed his question correctly...now came the next one...

Um...alphabet. She knew that word. So, the runic alphabet was being discussed, she could guess that much - especially when a few people mentioned the actual name. So, venturing to add something, Kurumi raised her hand. "The alphabet is the Futhark, or as we have come to call it the Elder Futhark, which gets its name from initias the first six rune names. F from Fehu, U from Uruz, Th from Thurisaz, A from Ansuz, R from Raido, and K from Kenaz."

Thank you OWL and NEWT studies.

Dylan sat back in his seat and observed his class mates. Yes. They knew what it was called...Everyone knew that. Were they reviewing or something?

But...just to contribute..."Since everyone pretty much knows what it's called...I'd like to offer a fact." No disrespect, of course. "It's the oldest form of the runic alphabet...since there are others."

BEAM.

Jory raised his hand. "The alphabet is called Elder Futhark, Professor,'' he said. He tried to remember the answer to the other part of the question but he couldn't so he left his answer to that and listened to the rest of the class.

Cora was still very frightened of the professor, despite the fact that he seemed nice enough. She was generally a good judge of character, but she needed time to warm up to him. So she listened to the other answers. Futhark? She didn't even know what that was. Immediately uncomfortable with her lack of knowledge, Cora was determined to learn everything about Ancient Runes. Cue the note taking.

He turned his head toward Louisa when she began to speak. Whoah.... girlfriend gave a great answer.... Better yet she understood the Professor! Cue lovestruck gazing from boyfriend....

.... which of course was ruined by best bud pulling faces from behind. Cue annoyed glare from best bud's best bud.

Although Elijah's question about finding Runes representation for intruder did catch his curiosity (and furthering his annoyance a bit more since he just KNOWS why the Curly Puff asked that) but the Professor spoke towards their group. There was an answer in there right?

Maybe he should get one of those self writing quills that can translate into several different languages. Goodness knows he needs one right now.

And there was another question from the Professor... or at least his intonation indicated it was a question. What that question was... Vickers was a little lost.... brain still processing sound... tic toc tic toc.

Yet another fortunate chance for young Elijah that Louisa didn't catch him mocking her while she answered, she did have her foot pretty close to Elijah's and he certainly knew how that could be used as a hammer in time of need. Louisa caught Vivi's eye and gave her a smile and a silent salute, the roomie helped a lot during Louisa's illness. At least she didn't cringe so offensively like certain people.

Then Elijah's question echoed through the classroom causing the Ravenclaw's eye to twitch as she forced herself to stay sweetly calm. Girls were far better at this than boys by the way, it's a universally known fact.

So when the professor asked Elijah why he wanted to know, Louisa shot her hand in the air and blurted out an answer of her own, "Oh Elijah is a pretty outstanding student when it comes to Ancient Runes, sir." She gave the Hufflepuff a poisonous sweet smile. "Always up for extra knowledge and assignments, too." There it wasn't a bad revenge or come back, not a strong one either. Just playing with the curly head's nerves.



Even for someone who could make out that deep accent, Louisa had to squint her eyes at the man and try to repeat his words in her heads a couple of times before understanding the keywords. She was about to answer but Vickers' thoughtful and confused face. She leaned closer and whispered the translation, "He's asking about the alphab--" ACHUU! MERLIN'S BEARD! Louisa flushed as her handkerchief clasped on her nose and mouth, embarrassingly wiping. Stupid flu!! She went on with her translation, her voice muffled with the hanky, "The alphabet. What it's called and why."

Once she was sure no upcoming sneezes were going to surprise her, she raised her hand, "There are many Runic alphabets, sir. The Elder Futhark, the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, the Younger Futhark and more. The Elder Futhark is the oldest version and we've been studying that in Hogwarts." Well, at least for as long as Louisa had been here. "It's called Elder after the thought that it's the oldest Runic alphabet, and Futhark after the initial of the first six rune names." She didn't know whether to go on with her explanation or not.

Class had just started and already the professor was starting to loose Hannah. She knew she didn't pay that close attention in previous classes, but she was beginning to wonder if she listened to anything at all.

"The alphabet is called Futhark." But whhhy is was called that was a different story. She had no idea why. She knew that somebody would know the answer though. *eyes Ravenclaws* Merlin! she was going to have to take notes this term.

Laura looked at the Professor, was there a difference between Ruins and runes, well she wasn't happy that she had got it wrong, well she would try harder on the next one. "Professor is it called The Chocolate Factory Alphabet?"

Kat raised her hand. "I'm not so sure but," Kat said. Yeah, she wasn't. But she'd heard of it but it wasn't proven... yet. "They called futharks. They're named that due to the first six letters of any version spell out the word."

And since someone already mentioned the guy behind all this, Elder Futhark, she had nothing else to add. Yep.

Glare.

Averting her eyes from the Professor for a short moment, Nessie looked over to Elijah and gave him a rude stare. She was still made at him for potions, and soon, soon she'd get him back. All she needed was to find a good way to do so without getting into trouble that was.

Huh?

Her attention was lost when the Professor asked his next question, and because of thaa Nessie was unsure what the others were really talking about. Futhark? Well whatever that was, it was tongue twister and just like every other word in Ancient Runes it wasn't something Nessie could say easily.

Trying to look like she was paying full attention, Ness raised her hand. "Fart-huk" WHOOPS! That was a mistake. "Um..I mean Futhark..Professor, or whatever it was, Professor." Ness wasn't even aware of what the actual answer was really about, which made this whole situation a little worse.

People hadn't noticed though right? Because then...

Erm..where was an invisibilty cloak when she needed one?

Sarah remembered that from last year.. or whereever she learned it from. she raised her hand "It is called the elder Futhark. Futhark is an acronym for the first sequence of runes. Acronyms help us remember things. Using the word Futhark as a benchmark, I can name the first few runes. I know the first one starts with an 'f', so therefore it must be Fehu"

Orr shook her head. She didn't have a clue what the Rune Alphabet was called but...but...maybe it could be.

She put up her hand quickly before she lost her nerve and said, "Um...Professor? I don't know the name but could it have to do with the first few letters in the alphabet? Since our alphabet nowadays actually is named after the first two letters of the Greek Alphabet."

She hoped that she didn't sound like an idiot

"Professor,"Seri sighed. "Surely you understand school would be purposeless if we already knew everything. So, correct me if I am wrong, is it not your job to explain such things to us" Seri said prudishly. She was sooooo tired of these teachers, they just asked QUESTIONS and QUESTIONS. Did they not go to a Wizarding University? Had they drank one to many firewhiskeys and forgotten the lesson plan?

"Ya. Good. Zat is correct. Elder Futhark, because of ze first six letters." He said nodding and making notes.



"Yes it's called ze Elder Futhark, bui not becauser it's ze oldest." He said and laughed.



"You forgots ze vy... vy is it called zat." He told them shaking his finger at them.

"Ya... very good." He said nodding.

"Zat so?" He asked and he looked at the boy. "Zen find ze answer to your own question... Vich runes vould you use for an intruder?"

"No." He said unimpressed.

"Miss. It is your job to prepare for class." He said glaring at the girl. "Vy else do you purchase books before class." He said shaking his head. "If you vant to just sit zere doink nosink, zat is fine, but you vill not earn participation points." He said.

Pointing above the students he drew the Futhark in the air for them:



"Pick one rune and tell me it's meanink." He said waiting for the students to start off.

Hmm....Looking at the list of runes, Ella tried to pick the one she knew the most about. Her eyes landed on the lightning bolt looking one and the third year smiled. Yup. She knew about Sowilo. Raising her hand, the small blonde sat up a little straighter waiting to share.

"Professor, Sowilo means the sun and it has to do with um..." Wait, it was all good stuff, yeah? She bit her lip, searching her brain for what Sowilo represented. "Oh! It represents success and health and stuff." Or something like that.

Jayden raised her hand slowly. "Professor, the Futhark letter Berkano has the same phoenitic value as the English letter 'b'. It has magical uses, too. Some of those magical uses are good for healing. It also has the energy of the Birch, supposedly." She added, biting her lower lip nervously. She could only hope she was right. She didn't want to have him yelling and shaking her finger at her again.

*gulp*

Minerva frowned and leaned in her chair lower. She never felt so dumb as she did right now. She was never wrong.. well at least as much as she was in this class at this moment.

Looking at the Runes she put her hand up, but she spoke really quiet and unsure, "Professor Mannaz Rune is the run that means mankind or humankind awareness." She put her hand down and look at her parchment afraid that she was totally off again.

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled. "Isa is that called the Isa because it's an eyesore?!" Laura wasn't sure if it was but it was worth a shot right, she can't be that wrong an anyway these weren't used now so it was all history right.

Cassia stared at the runes. At first sight they didn't mean anything to her. She couldn't decipher any of them. It was her first lesson but she had once listened to some friends studying and discussing them. So she expected herself to remember something. Anything! And she even read in the book a couple of minutes this morning. So why wasn't she remembering anything?

Stare..Stare..

But when students started answering. A couple of things popped into her brain. She leaned forward focusing and then raised her hand slowly, "Isa...is the ice rune..." She glanced at the Professor questioningly. She remembers that the one like an I had something to do with cold. That's how she connected it. And ice is actually close to the word ice. That's how she remembered it.

Orr put up her hand and waited for the Professor to call on her before saying, "Well, I really like the shape and meaning of Algiz--it means protection and higher self."

He could almost feel the gears in his head turn painfully slow as he tried to make heads or tails of what the Professor said, when he felt Louisa move closer to him. She as going to translate! Huzz--

-- no she sneezed.



And now she translated it.

"Thanks Louisa." he nodded quietly and gave her a thankful smile, although at the back if his head he struggled with his OCD kicking into high gear, trying to keep his fingers stapled onto his desk and not whip out his wand and scourgify every square inch of his face, his clothes, his things, his desk and doing the same to her. He scolded himself quietly to keep calm, after all she has been under the weather since December rolled around, and he has attended to her, given her hugs-- whatever she has, he already has it. So he should just chill right? Right.

Thing is probably everybody he has had contact with may have the bug whizzing around inside them too by now. Ooops. Merry Christmas Elijah.

And really, keeping calm and not laughing out loud is the best he can do at that moment as the Head Girl has managed to turn the spotlight back to the Curly Puff. Yeah come on buddy, work that charm on the ginger Viking, how much harder can it be from a 70 year old pensioner right?




Ok he understood the pick one rune... but tell him the what? Again wheels spinning in this Ravenclaw's head. The most he can probably do was just say something about one of them right? Oh boy here we go half guessing... and up goes the hand "Uhm Professor there is the Jera Rune, its the 4th symbol in the second Ætt, it has a general meaning of harvest, fertility and fruition, which essentially means successful endeavors or that there are hopes for peace and prosperity."

Again, Vivi rolled her eyes for Louisa's benefit, although perhaps a bit at Louisa as well. Elijah was harmless, and occasionally quite funny. Plus, the professor had asked him an actual question, and since Vivi was a bit put out at the man for not realizing she'd answered his Elder Futhark question before he'd even asked it, she decided to do a question!steal and help a curly-haired-'Puff out.

Hand up! "Professor, I'm not sure what Elijah's opinion is, but I would say Hagalaz would represent the intruder quite well. That rune is the one of disruption and interference, although not insurmountable ones. Some might even interpret interference as an opportunity for growth. What do you think, Mr. Wilde?" Boom. Vivi does Runes. Take it and run, Elijah-Puff.

Oakey watched as the Professor swished each of the letters into he air and asked what each one was and what it meant. His eyes laid upon the very last Rune, and Oakey spoke up. "Professor, the last Rune in the Elder Furthark, Othala. It is commonly associated with Peace, Freedom, Nobility, and translates literally to Homeland."

Where were these people getting all these answers? HOW were they getting these answers? Those letters--no, those things didn't look anything like the alphabet. Once again she would be unable to make an educated guess as to what he was talking about.

For a split second she thought that staring a little harder would make them magically transform into a language that she actually understood but that dream quickly died when all she got was a headache. Her eyes drifted over to Seri who seemed willing to voice what the 11 year old didn't feel like saying. She must have been just as frustrated.

She turned to the runes once more, deciding to give it another try. This time her brows furrowed. "How do you all know so much just by looking at those squibbly things?" It was a serious question and she wanted it answered. Were they all looking through some kind of invincible glasses that deciphered this stuff? If so then where was her pair?