"I believe they're also known as the Galdor Staves," Vivi offered, her eyebrows climbing way up into her hairline at the fact that Sierra, of all people, had known the answer to this question. Icelandic runes were a bit more obscure and unknown.

She leaned forward on her desk and tried to get a better eye on this professor who was so difficult to understand.

Jory could not remember the name of those staves at all. At least until, the other students started to answer different versions of the name and it suddenly clicked. He knew he read about the staves but the name was so unusual, he could hardly remember it.

He raised his hand. "I think they're called galdrastafir,'' the boy said.

"Well, School is school y'know. So I guess I am neatral about"
Then the lesson started and Sarah turned her attention back to the professor and his question. She remembered reading about it somewhere in her textbook. She paged to the right place... yeah that was it. Sarah raised her hand and said, "Gladrastafir" she said mispronouncing the word

Lesson had started now and Bliss didn't want to get in trouble for talking, so she gave a simple and polite nod and smile to Sarah and looked back at the Professor. His accent was hard to understand sometimes, but Bliss was keeping up. She listened intently to him.

Bliss racked her brain. She knew this. She did. Suddenly it clicked and she remembered everything. Bliss spoke clearly, her hand raised in the air. "They're called Gladrastafir, I believe." Or something like that. Hopefully she was right, otherwise she feel a little silly.

And silleh wasn't a nice feeling. Nu-huh.

Mellow. Professor Accent, was not so easy to understand. One of the reasons why this was the subject, Nessie did least well in. The red head pouted as he asked the first question and eyed all the other students as they attempted their answers.

Glad-ras? ...Okay maybe it was better she didn't attempt saying it. She really did want to answer though. She wanted to put in some input, anything really.

The red head raised her hand, feeling a little silly as to what she was going to say. "The Gladras.." Oh Gosh. Nope she couldn't say it. "Professor, I'd make a fool of myself if I had to pronounce it, but what they're saying is correct, I think." Truth be told, she wasn't sure if it was correct at all. So she hoped what most of the kids had been saying was true, cause if not well than this lesson just got more embarrassing towards Nessie.

Who invited accent boy back? Selina STILL had nightmares of the time he made them all dress in viking attire. It was terrifying and all she wanted to do was get as far away from this guy as humanly possible. That had happened when he left the school, but some brilliant dummy had decided to invite him back into the castle walls. Great. Just bloody brilliant. All she could do now was just hope that he didn't EVER make them dress up again.

But when he asked his first question, Selina was even more in awe at his reappearance. He expected them to have the answer too? Yeah, she didn't have that.

Ohhh... Kat knew the answer, but it was so hard to pronounce. Gal-something something. Seriously? The word was at the TIP of her friggin' tongue and yet she can't even pronounce it well. Oh Merlin. Why was Runes ALWAYS associated with very hard to pronounce words? Really?

Then... let's make a guess. But Kat was all ears at what the others were repling. Ok, she now knew the pronunciation. "Galdrastafir," Kat answered. "Right, professor?"

Hannah seriously hoped that this lesson would be as short as the previous one. The man had a pretty strong accent, but she could understand him for the most part. What he asked the class though Hannah had no idea. She wasn't completely sure what the question was. All she knew for sure was that she did not know the answer.

So instead of looking like she was not interested...which she wasn't by the way...she listened to the answers that the other students gave and wrong down notes on a piece of parchment. Obviously she was going to have to study about the class because she was clueless.

Laura looked at the Professor. "Well maybe it is called The Minister for Magic." Laura smiled he was there to keep the peace, she was hoping that the Professor would realise she had no idea what the actually piece of law was but the Minister was there to keep the peace right.

Tristan listened as the students answered. "Ya. Very god. Galdrastafir iz ze colleczon o' magical staves." He nodded at them. "Or more simply put, ze Galdor staves, az somevon the young miss said." But Galdrastafir was the proper terminology that they would be tested on.

Flicking his wand, Tristan transcribed his notes onto the board:



"Tell me von of ze the staves and its meaning."

Ella eyed the different staves and bit her lip, trying to spot one she recognized from her text. After a minute or two of thinking and eyeing, she raised her hand. "Professor? Ottastafur is a stave meaning to induce fear I think..." It was one of the terror staves, yeah? The ones warriors used to like tattoo on their bodies or whatever? Ouch. That probably really hurt too.

Laura looked at the Professor and smiled, she had no idea what they were suppost to be looking at, she couldn't care about something that probably hadn't been used in like a millenium or more. "I like the first one, does that mean that there will be snow this christmas?" Laura wasn't sure if it did or not but it did remind her of a snow flake.

Minerva listened and watched as the symbols came in front of them. She thought about them and put up her hand recognizing only one. "Professor, the musical note circle one that is called Ginfaxi. If placed under the toes of the left foot means to magically ensure victory." Putting her hand back down she took notes on the others and listened to the rest of the class answer.

Oh! So thats what Sierra meant. Vickers finally found the chapter then looked up on the board when the Professor revealed the other Runes. There was one he immediately recognized, having seen it as one of the amulets his uncle wears. "Professor, that second one from the bottom left, the one that looks like a diamond with an inverted 7 through it, thats for wishing someone good health."

So it had come to this again had it? Showing squibbly lines and expecting students to know the answer. Granted it seemed some did know the answer--only merlin knew how they did--but that was besides the point. Lex didn't speak squibbly lines; she was happy enough knowing english thank you very much.

Time to take a look into that textbook people kept telling her about. Every now and then it came in handy.

Right.

Flip. Flip. Flip.

She kept flipping until she came to a page that had the same squibbly lines and symbols. "That funny looking star thing's called..." She paused, wondering about the pronunciation for a minute. "Veg..vi...sir--right, that word so anyway the book says the word literally means 'guidepost'." She squinted a bit at the page. "And it has something to do with guiding travellers through like rough waters and stuff....?" That was it, wasn't it?

Yep, she'd been the one to call them Galdor staves, so that made one Vivi Branxton the young miss. Only a little redundant, since the miss implied youth, but that was neither here nor there. She copied does the words she understood from the professor, as well as the very complicated runes he presented.

THIS was why she preferred the Elder Futhark. Whew. All those lines!

"Professor, the stave Svefnthorn, or the Sleeping Thorn, is said to aid in sleeping in even the most adverse conditions. One is supposed to place the stave under the bed or pillow, but I suppose it could also be used to lull someone to sleep or distraction. It's also suggested that this is not a good rune for body art." She could imagine it would put someone to sleep ALL the time, which was ineffective.

Sigh..

Yeah.. this is why Ethan did not care much for this class. All those symbols that resembled chicken scratch and doodling more than they did anything else, made the boys eyes cross. And no, these were not ones that he could say anything about off the top of his head. Hopefully they would not be on his OWLs..

Flipping through the book to find the correct page, Ethan's finger landed on the relevant passage and he peered up at the board and down at the book a few times trying to match one up. Okay, here's one..

Raising his hand, Ethan paraphrased from his book and said, "That one that looks like a fancy L.. Odin's Illusionary Rune? It was meant to give the user invisibility or to become like a metamorphmagus." And both were pretty cool in their own right, thought the boy.

"Or an animagus," Kurumi said softly as she glanced over at Ethan after his answer - because she had ironically been looking at the same rune in her textbook. "Says that that Viking berzerkers took on the form, strength, and courage of bears in battle sometimes with the aid of that rune." She knew she couldn't turn herself into a full animal as a metamorphagus...had never seen her father do it either to be entirely honest. Just parts of animals tended to sprout here and there.

Like cat ears.

Flipping through her book some more, Kurumi came across the rune that looked like two asterisks and finally raised her hand after some reading. "The center run on the second line is Hraethigaldur," Kurumi said, coooooooooompletely butchering the pronunciation of it to be sure. "It is known as one of the "terror staves" and would be carried over one's breast, or inscribed upon a shield. It was used to invoke terror in one's enemies, taking on active protection rather than passive. It was usually paired with..." That other run that Kurumi did not want to venture trying to pronounce the name of. "...the rune that is beside it on the chart. The one to the right."

Wow, these runes are definitely trickier to draw...and to remember. She looked through her book and tried to find some definitions, which was difficult because she had to keep looking back to the runes the professor had displayed. There were so many lines on them, it was hard to tell them apart. I'm sure it will get easier...maybe.


She finally found some information on one and offered an answer.
"Gibu Auja is used for good luck. It could mean luck with fortune or wealth or it could be used for protection too." I think...

Oichi's eyes popped open as the professor revealed the runes for this class on the board. She knew nothing about them but they all looked facinating. Some simple, some more complex but they all held a meaning and she could not wait to learn all about it. She flipped through her book and found the runw she thought looked like a pinwheel and started to read more about it. When she got through enough information she raised her hand said, "The rune of the far right which kind of looks like a pinwheel top is called ginfaxi, it represents courage in battle. So basically the rune gives you the stregnth to be at you're best no matter what obstacle you may face".

Jory looked at the runes with interest. He raised his hand after listening to a few responses then he consulted his text book.

"The last rune in the last row,'' he said. "It means good luck.'' He looked back at his text, reading the rune names and their meanings

"Yes, very good." Tristan said, nodding at the blond.

But his smile faded at hearing the response from the next student. Clearly this one could learn a thing or two from the blond like about researching before opening one's mouth. "No. it is used for irrisistibility in battle. And protection. Has nozing to do vith Christmas."


"Yes. And courage." He nodded at the girl, pleased that at least most of the students had intelligible answers.

"Yes." Tristan said nodding. "Good job."

"Vegvisir, yes. You've got it." Tristan said, giving a small smile to the young one. "Guidepost or runic compass. As it looks like a compass, no?" Yes. It did.


"Yes. Very good." Clearly the blue ones were the ones who were the witty and intelligent, as he'd been told in his first year he was asked to teach.

"Yes. Good alliteration, even." Tristan said.

She was able to pronounce Hraethigaldur, but not Ottastfur? "Yes. Ottastfur and Hraethigaldur are indeed used together to invoke terror and fear."

"Very good," Tristan said, to another young one.

And simply nodded to the next student as she named ginfaxi which another student had already named moments prior.

"No. Zat is ze first rune in ze last rune vich means good luck. Ze last rune in ze last row means peace." Tristan corrected the boy.

"Vight. So ve vill be creating compasses, but first. Vat are some runes that one might use for protection. Staves aside." Tristan said, continuing. "As in, vich runes might have protective properties."

Ella smiled at the Professor, happy her answer had been correct. This rune stuff was quite interesting actually and Ella listened carefully as the next question was asked. Hmm...so they would be talking about runes now. Ella thought back to last term and the runes she'd learned about. There were a few that could be seen as protective though one stuck out. "Professor, Algiz is a protective rune. Doesn't it have to do with a shield or something?" Eh. She was pretty sure that was right.

Minerva listened to the other students and then she heard the next question and put her hand up. "Professor, I think I remember from a few terms ago you talking about a few protection runes. One was for travel, but I can't remember the name. I do remember HAGALAZ was a protection rune against storms and evil spells." She put her hand back down hoping she remembered correctly.

Eeeep! She actually got it right!! The power of the textbook was great, she would never underestimate it again. Granted, she wouldn't be reading very often either but at least now she knew that it was good for more than throwing down on a shelf and looking heavy. Nod.

Oooooooo, compasses!!! Hands on work!!! The Professor was finally speaking her language and she likd it!

O__O

And there he went again. Honestly, it was like the man couldn't help himself. She sighed and stared over at the man. Once again she would simply wait for someone to get the answer. One might ask why seeing as she had just found out the power of the text but honestly she was feeling too lazy and uninterested to flip through any more pages. So good she wouldn't be doing any OWLS or NEWTS, otherwise she'd actually have to care!