Lux was relieved when she heard that this would be a light lesson, since she had only a basic knowledge of the subject. Even with a textbook on her desk, it might be a bit of a challenge for her. Raising her hand at the first question, she decided to give a good guess. "I think Runes are letters of an ancient alphabet and are used to tell the future like in Divination. I think there are also different meanings to a Rune, depending on whether the letter is shown right side up, or upside down." Sort of like with Tarot cards, she supposed.

Even though it was being asked by Annoying Hufflepuff Whose Name Adrienne Couldn't Remember, the question was a good one, at least. Norse gods she knew pretty well, and their associated runes had been easy to memorise when she was researching them for fun last year. The hard part would be choosing one... she ran through a mental list and decided on Sif, after a little bit of consideration. She'd always liked her best, golden-haired wife of Thor.

"Uh, Sif's one of them. She's the Norse goddess of the Earth, kind of." Slash fertility slash family. "She's generally associated with Jera, I think. 'cause it's the rune that represents growth and change, right, and Sif also represents the changing of seasons, of winter into spring." That sounded about right to Adrienne, so she nodded and smiled and sat back in her seat again, arms crossed, satisfied.

The second question was harder, so Lux had no idea how to properly answer the question. She knew a little about Norse Gods, like Loki, but she was not sure what Rune he was associated with. Why had the Head Boy asked such a difficult question?

Now this was something that Sander knew well. He quickly raised his hand.

"The Norse God Odin is represented by the rune Ansuz. It means a revealing message or insight. Odin being the All Father of Norse Gods was believed to be a man of great insight and wisdom." Sander gave his answer.

Emma listened, turning her head to pay attention to the Hufflepuff boy that the questions had been redirected to. He seemed to be a bit nervous, but quickly came around to asking them the question.

She raised her hand slowly. "The Tiwaz rune is associated with Tyr, the god of law and justice. The rune is said to help with order and decision making..." Thank Merlin her parents had left her with nothing else to do over the break, otherwise she would have had absolutely no idea what everyone was talking about.

Oh! Alec was up. Adi watched as his friend nervously began to speak. Alec could do this! And sure enough Alec began to ask his question and he seemed to be less nervous. His question was of which Adi approved of one hundred percent.

Wasting no time, he put his hand in the air. "Thurisaz,'' he said looking from Botros to Alec. "It's associated with Thor since it has protective powers and Thor protects Asgard.'' He winked at Alec, his memory travelling back to the Dueling Arena when they pretended to be Superheroes.

There was just...so much stuff to learn and understand when it came to runes and Ella couldn't help but glance around the room as Botros talked, paying particular attention to the younger badgers. She knew all of this could be overwhelming if you were just being introduced to the subject but did they see how cool all of this was? DID THEY?

And after taking down a good amount of notes for NEWT reasons and as a review, the blonde focused on her boyfriend. Or well, tried focusing while looking at her boyfriend. It was sort of hard to considering he insisted on being attractive but she was doing her best. Mhm. His question was a good one too and she beamed up at him before offering an answer to it.

"Baldr is Odin's son and he's the god of light. He's associated with Wunjo as Wunjo is about joy and light."

Ooooh the top students were gonna do the questions now? Sounded interesting...if he could concentrate on what they were even talking about. This class sounded and looked like it was a tough one but the first year liked a bit of a challenge so he guessed it was okay.

He turned his mismatched colored eyes towards the Head Boy as he asked the second question and he thought. "algiz" he said after a looooooooooong time of thinking. "Has something to do with Heifferdall dude (Heimdall)..i think." he said unsure. But that was the only thing he could remember from reading the textbook only once in the dormitory when he had been bored. "I can't remember the rest...wait was he even a god? i'm loooost"

Oh. Alec was up. Tag watched him very carefully. And paid full attention to his Professor best friend.

"Thor is a Norse god. He's usually related to Jera. He's the god of thunder so, maybe a reason he can be related to that rune is because Jera means the weather. Storms and thunder is, obviously, weather related. So, that's why he's associated with that rune." Or at least Tag hoped. The boy sat about his desk watching everyone else give their own answer.

"Ingwaz," Alice volunteered, waving her hand frantically about. "It's named for the Norse hero-god Ing. The guy united the people of... of Viking Jutlin... Jutland? Jutland. Came from across the sea and then went back, leaving harmony and peace and all that happy," Hufflepuff-y, "stuff in his wake. That rune means togetherness, agreement, unity, harmony, peace... all the things that he stood for and caused."

Pause.

"I think."

She swung her legs and waited for someone to tell her if she was right .Was she right?

Awesome that simply answering a question Nigel had earned some points. Now it was Alec's turn to ask a question. God, Rune, God It. Hehe punny.

"Thurisaz with Thor.....eh..forgot the reason why."

Might be that it sounded similar. But please that is hardly a legitimate reason why. Someone probably already said the reason, when Nigel was thinking.

Did she get points for that answer? He'd said she was correct, but hadn't announced that she'd gotten any points. Well, it wasn't as if she knew very much about this stuff in the first place. Next question. Why was the Head Boy asking the question instead of the professor? Had they planned the lesson together? It didn't seem like it.

She scanned her memory. Norse Gods. She knew something! Where was it? Zeke had that poster. It was Norse, wasn't it? "Tiwaz!" she said, remembering suddenly. Whoops. She raised her hand. "Tiwaz is a Norse god, and the rune associated with him, I don't know what it's called, but it kinda looks like an upward arrow." Why that rune? She had no idea. The only reason she knew this much was because her brother had a poster of the Norse god. "Also Thor." She added the last part quietly. Maybe he wasn't Norse. In The Avengers he came from Asgard, but she thought the legend was distinctly Norse in nature.

Toby threw his hand in the air. Hi Alec! Hiiiiiiii!

"What about Frigga?" Girl power. "She was the goddess of marriage and stuff and she was like married to Odin which is pretty awesome. And her rune would be berkana, probably because of the fertility and conception and new beginnings, which is kiiiiiind of related to marriage, because sometimes marriage leads to starting a new life with someone, or creating new life and having kids."

Tobias paused and lowered his hand again. But he wasn't finished. Oh no. "Buuuuuut I think other runes could probably be associated to her. Like you could probably link her to Gebo, which can be about relationships and love and marriage and partnership and everything, and also strengthening relationships. I don't think they're linked in the book, but I mean it makes sense, doesn't it?"

Maybe? Or he could just be really wrong, which was likely.

Josette had found the Professor to be rather nice actually & surprisingly. She especially thought that when he had tried to comfort the terrified first year. Although she did almost cower away again when he had lightly patted her shoulder. But she did slightly feel bad though, he was clearly being polite to her, but she couldn't help but continuously keep hearing her father's words ringing in her head.

But before she could go into getting lost in her thoughts, the lesson had already begun & her full attention had been on the Professor up front. And as she was listening to everything she'd heard so far she couldn't help but feel like all of this information sounded familiar to her. Had she somehow read about Runes somewhere in father's study?

It was when the other students started giving the name of gods & their runes associated with them did it hit her head! She did in fact remember these readings! It had actually been one of Josette's favorite books to read because of it's never-ending history & myths, along with all of these intertwining stories!

Then one name that she believed hadn't been mentioned popped into her head & her hand raised slowly as she tried to get the attention of the seventh year Hufflepuff boy who had taken over the lesson for a moment to ask that question. "Um...The god Frey...He's um...The brother of Freya...And I think he's a god of Fertility...I read somewhere that he was apparently..the um..the most important god of the Vanir family of gods..who watched over the prosperity of mankind" She paused briefly before continuing on, "The Rune usually associated with Frey is "Ingwaz," which is the Rune of the potential of the coming harvest.."" Nodding her head, she slowly sunk down into her seat bashfully.

Professor Botros was nice. Or maybe it was that his appearance made him seem nice, but he asked Bev if she had breakfast. That spoke about him, no? That he, at some level, wanted to make her feel welcome or at least comfortable.

She shifted around to make sure her bag was neatly hung on the back of her chair and her parchment and quill were at her desk. Gripping her quill, she thought about the first question and prepared to take notes.

Runes was a world Bev enjoyed wandering into, but it wasn't one of her best subjects. In fact, she still didn't understand some of the runes on her black pearled bracelet. The same one she always wore and fidgeted with when she was nervous. She just knew that she must NOT lose it. Dad had seemed extremely serious about that.

What are runes?

They are the ABCs of magic, she thought. Symbols that hold and lend power. Enhances and protects. She felt too timid saying it out loud since she was sat at the front, so instead she wrote it down on her parchment. She'd participate next round. Yeah. M'hm.



And the next round arrived soon.

When the second question was asked -- by the Head Boy no less -- Bev noticed his quirks and stuff. She might not be the only one that was nervous, maybe? Then again he was facing an entire class. But somehow it helped lessen her sense of nervousness.

Raising her hand slowly, almost as if she was hesitating, Bev said before she took it back: "Um...Thurisaz is too, a rune that represents Loki, the god of mischief. Thurisaz was originally another word for giants, and Loki is son of two giants, so..." She spoke in her usual quiet voice. Not exactly a whisper, but probably not loud enough for someone who stood at the back by the door to hear. She couldn't go louder, okay.

They got it, though, yeah? Thurisaz equals giants. Giant plus giant equal Loki. Thus Thurisaz equals Loki. Yeah?

Bev put her hand down quickly, peeking up at the Head Boy with her kaleidoscope-like eyes. Yeah, yeah?

Benjamin listened as class was begun and his fellow students answered the questions posed to them by the professor. So....runes were associated with Norse and Scandanavian gods. That was a new one to the second year as were the names and meanings various students were saying aloud in response to the inquiry relating to them. He was doing his best to keep up with what was being said, taking notes in the process before switching to the textbook to try and think on his own. He flipped through pages until he came to mentions that he didn't think had been mentioned.

"Um...there's Sunna...the Norse sun goddess," Ben answered after raising his hand. Part one done but now there was the meaning. Looking at what was written he was unsure what to give. The elder man had said that he was looking for stuff perhaps not expressed in the textbook, but this one was pretty simple and he didn't think there was anything else to say then what was given. "She would be associated with the...um...sowilo rune. Since it means sun and success."

Caleb, for whatever reason, had been really drawn to the muggle comic book Thor, so most of these names were familiar. Of course, he was used to them in the COMIC setting, not the RUNES setting, so he had to figure out what was fact and what was fiction.

It was all fiction though, right?

He raised his hand. "Algiz is associated with Heimdall, who protects Asgard from invaders and stuff. He's pretty cool. Algiz stands for protection and defense, so it's the obvious choice for him," he explained. Yup. Pretty simple.

Asher listened closely to the others answers. Maybe they would give him some insight to runes. Most of them were interesting he felt that he should have wrote some of them down. Just to remember them. He started, you know if he thought they'd help him.

So Summers was teaching this part of the lesson. Awesome. He also listened to the others answer Summers question. He raised his hand "Valkyrie, the rune closely related to her is Death, that's because she choose which soldiers died in battle." She scared the pants off of the Roman soldiers for years in Rome he bet. Or that what Asher thought.

That was the saddest. Thing. Ever. EVER. Mo leaned against his desk and gave Botros an extremely sad face. He completely understood that, although Botros was a professor and shouldn't have to leave his puppy at home. "My cruppy is called Dart, and he has to stay at my sister's while I'm at school. I miss him. Maybe we can have tea sometime and I'll show you pictures of stuff Dart peed on."

Mo held back in answering Botros' first question, in part because it was an easy one that was probably intended for the younger kids in the class. And in part because he was thinking about whether or not he was a good enough Runes student to get called on. And mostly because he was being sad faced about Dart.

He did look up when Alec was given a turn to ask a question. Lucky Head Boy, and that was a pretty good question too. Again, Mo waited for some of the younger students (and an Alice) to answer before offering his own suggestion. "Gebo. Generally associated with Gefn, which is considered to be one of the nine names of Freyja. And... um... Gefn means "the giver", and she's associated with the fertility and prosperity."

Oh. My. Merlin.

What if Sophie got called on to ask a question?! The best thing she could come up with is, 'How do we spell RUNE?' Other than that, she wasn't too sure she was one of Botros' top students. SHe'd likely barely managed to survive this class as a first year.

So all Summers wanted them to do is throw out a name and rune? Good. Did she have to raise her hand to the Head Boy? She didn't want to, but she did. Safe side and all. "There's Dagr," she said, "and I think he's associated with Dagaz, because..." They were spelled almost the same? Errr... "...they both have something to do with daylight?"

This is what Hope was talking about. It was mind numbing to her to even try to connect these things. She decided that it was just best to listen and scribble down notes. She tried to keep up with everyone and their answers, but she wasn't sure if they were right and she wasn't that fast a writer. Maybe she could opt to listen and then ask questions later when they bubbled to her lips. Maybe the end of class.

Bri quickly wrote down notes after listening to the professor speak, before she turned to Alec, who asked the next question. 'Students asked the questions as well?' Bri thought to her self, 'I hope I don't get asked to do that... at least any time soon.'. The young girl perked up at the question, she actually knew a bit about norse gods. She rose her hand before answering. " There is the God Baldur. He was the god of innocence and peace. I am not sure about the rune though, but I am guess it could have been the Sun rune : Sowilo, since I think he was also believe to be the god of summer." Bri finished not sure if she got it right.

Robin smiled at the head boy, who seemed just a bit uncomfortable to be up in front and addressing the class. She was shocked when his question actually rang a bell in her head. Runes and gods, she remembered her father actually studying it in one of his 'I'm bored lets take another college class' times. He had those a lot. There was one in particular he liked, what was his name.... she raised her hand, still thinking
"Heimdalla, or Heimdallr I think? something like that, well I think he and the rune he was paired with symbolized protection and it was called algiz i think"
She sighed- so much for trying to look like she knew what she was doing.

Kace heard the professor go over the runes aspect of the class. He smirked because he remembered the beginning of this class when he was a first year and just learning as much as he can. Plus Professor Bostros was pretty chill for a teacher. He heard the other students answers and he agreed with them. He copied them down in his notebook just for some review.

Then he heard that Alec was gonna talk in front of the class. He smiled and gave his fellow badger all his attention. He smiled and was interested in what he was saying. Man this guy really knew a lot about Ancient Runes. He wondered if he was gonna be a professional in it or something.

Now Alec was asking the questions? That was new. He was liking it! He wondered if they could name a Norse God. Kace came up with one in an instant. "There is Norse god called...Thor! He is associated with the power of controlling thunder which is part of the weather. That is why he is related to Jera."

Oh look it was Wade's boyfriend dude that Luc would talk about. He met him at the feast. He was going to teach the class? Well that was a little interesting. A small groan quietly left him as he heard about myths and the gods and goddesses. Now see this is why Runes was his most hated subject. So much information it hurt his brain. People shouldn't be allowed to hurt your brain like this.

Now he was asking about the gods and runes and what? Gosh Bart wanted to leave and go play quidditch or something. He put his head on his had and rested his elbow on his desk. Soon his eyes started to drift close and open.. close and open. Would this be a good place for a nap? The old guy probably wouldn't notice him in the back. Ya know because his eyes sight was probably going.