Oh, the boy Tobias was to the rescue. Fortunately he knew what all the Runes on the wall were, because she had a hard time with any of them unless she looked them up in the book. But this kid seemed really smart, so of course he knew. "I definitely think it's the one in the middle. Algiz?" She waited to see if the rest of the team would think the same thing. "Not only is it in the middle, but it's the only one that isn't Othala or Raidho." That had to mean something, right?

Out of nowhere she heard her name, and turning her head toward him, she gave Cutty a don't-attract-more-attention stare. She did shoot him a grin, though. A grateful one for the encouragement.

Thanks, Mordaunt.

....

Turning back toward the wall, she blinked at it. Did her spell work? Huh? HUUUH? Then a boy shouted out he found some runes. OH. What a relief that was! When others of the group started noticing them, she grinned to herself.

Brilliant job, Wayne!

She nodded along with one of her teammates as he pointed out the runes. Wait. That was a backwards Raidho. Hmm. What exactly did that mean? Beverly turned to the old man boy speaking--

Oh. Hey! Hufflepuff-dance-partner-dude...except he'd been less old...and yeah.

Shaking her head, she focused back on the runes. "I get what you mean," she said, agreeing to his first statement about the weak spot. "What if we try the middle one, first though? Wouldn't hurt to try, yeah?"

Wouldn't blow them up, would it?

Beverly eyed the professor. He'd save them right?

Did anyone want to try while she used Hufflepuff-dance-partner-dude as a shield? Maybe Lux. She looked clever. Yep, perfect.

Oichi joined her fellow 7th years in looking over the wall and before long part of it was revealed Ella and then another asked if they just had to cast the opposite rune over the weak spot, that sounded right, "Good job guys, and yeah, we cast the opposite rune over the weak spot, now, which rune is in the middle?", Oichi asked as she took a closer look at the wall and started to think what that muddle rune could be?

"that makes perfect sense to me.." he said as he moved away from the wall to let her have a good look at it. laughing at her comment about the chocolate frogs he pulled a handful more and quickly handed it to her.. "shhhhhh" he said.. if everyone knew that he had all these chocolate frogs with him they would attack.. he didn't want that.. he was nice enough to share them with her…

for some reason in his old age he tend to eat a heck of a lot of chocolate so he always had a stash on him.

"ohhh sorry about that Lex" he had a total brain fart and he felt super bad about it but she didn't seem to be angry with him so that was a bonus. he made sure not to make the same mistake again..

she picked the weak rune.. and Bay totally agree'd with her "yup I agree that its Teiwez.." he said while squinting over at the board to see their next step.

Where in the world were these people looking?! Did they even have the same assigned wall that Sophie did? Toby over there was calling out runes left and right, but Sophie hadn't seen them. Puzzled, she turned toward the wall once again.

...oh.

So there they were. She could have sworn they weren't there before, but maybe the spell hadn't taken affect when she last looked. "Okay, so...identifying runes I'm pretty decent at," she said. "It's everything else that gets me. Anyway, it looks like Raidho, Othala, Algiz, Othala again, and...Raidho reversed."

Apparently, the rest of the group had already discovered that, though, and they were talking about that weak spot again. SIGH. "Can somebody tell me how to find this weak spot?" The professor apparently hadn't understood her question earlier. "That's the part I don't get." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

Oh yes! That was the spell! Adi watched intently for the runes. At first he couldn't see any and he thought something had gone horribly wrong with his eyes. The others were calling out the names of the Runes they saw.

Frowning, Adi stepped closer to the wall and eyed it closely. Oh! There they were! Right above the dude with the cows, just like the others said. Raidho, Othala, Algiz... five in total.

"Why is that Raidho backwards?'' the Puffer asked in puzzlement. "Does that have something to do with the curse?''

Apparently his spell worked, and Mo was delighted when a very faint line of runes appeared just under the seat of one of the figures on the wall. With his finger hovering over the line, Mo traced along the zigzag, counting out the runes.

"Thirteen," he turned to Tag expectantly. "It looks complex to me, but... I'm not sure. I mean, do you think there are three lines? And which ones are in the middle line, that upright one?"

Since Tag was all intent on helping as soon as the runes were revealed and all.

No. Way.

There was no way she was going to question how he had so many chocolate frogs in his pocket to be handing her a handful, nope, it was none of her business and who was she to be asking questions anyway? This was the time to grin widely and thank him for making her day...not as much as the explosion would but making it nonetheless. "Gee thanks!" She said with an enthusiastic whisper and a wide grin plastered across her face. In a quick minute Lex hurried back to where she'd dropped her bag further from the tree and dropped the extras into it then returned to the wall and Bay.

"Eh, it's nothing to worry about. I get called all kinds of things, even stuff that have nothing to do with my name, like Candy Girl and Prefect Candy." Neither of which she minded, she was just saying Lex might have been easier was all.

Okay, he was agreeing on Teiwaz. They could get this thing started. "Alright so we know we're looking for the opposite, right?....And Teiwaz is air so we're looking for Earth, yeah?" It made the most logical sense here and she was itching to get to this thing exploded. "Reckon we'd be safe enough choosing Berkana or Ehwaz. I dun care which...unless you have something else in mind." Also, was the Professor taking notes on how well she was being a team player in all this? He owed her chocolate frogs after this and shoulder pats.

As Kace was looking down, he heard Lux and Toby point them out. He saw the runes above the Egyptians head on the lower line! He smiled and knew he would find them eventually. Now what were the runes was the question. Kace piped up and observed them.

"Professor it seems the first one is Raido, the second one is...Othila....and the third one..." he saw it but he didn't know the name of it. He went back to his book to check it out. "I think the third one is Tiwaz i am not sure. But i know the fourth one is Othila again and the fifth one i am not sure." Kace told the professor with a sheepish grin looking through his book.

This was really confusing. The runes were hidden? Why were they hidden? Why couldn't they just BE there? Alice's senile mind was having a very hard time wrapping her head around this lesson, and she mentally praised herself for not choosing a career in cursebreaking again. It seemed super difficult, and she would much rather do more things like riding flying horses like last year.

"Sure. Double ward." Yep. Where were the runes again again? Following Ella's gaze, she finally located to the left of the woman. Clearly, Alice hadn't heard her state the location before. "So.. the weak spot. The angle, like Alec said. Identifying each rune feels like too much effort. Is that Fehu?"

The seventh year jabbed a finger at the angle rune, taking a wild guess. Or no? Was it Algiz? And the rune next to it looked like an ice cream cone.

Bay was smiling when Lex's face lit up.. "your welcome" he said to her "gee thanks" phewww she was being so cool about that awesomeness.. "Prefect Candy?" he said like it was a question.. man people came up with the most weird nicknames ever around here..him included he liked to call Lux "Cucumber" which always made him laugh…

"your so smart Lex" he said while thinking over her idea in his head.. "hmmmm how about we try Ehwaz?" he said if it didn't work they could always try the other one right.. like the wall won't explode on them…. Bay instantly looked over at the Professor he wouldn't harm them right… Bay then looked over at Lex.. "errrr… Did you want me to try to carve it in the wall or did you want to give it a shot?" he didn't know what she would think but better wait to see what she wanted to do.

And Tag watched as what spell Mo had performed on the wall had actually worked. Good. Now they could get onto the next part of the task.

Then Mo was saying 13. Runes, correct? Yes. Must've been the runes. It took Tag some time, we're sorry Mo, but it did take him some time to see it. Apparently the blonde needed to have had something smart to eat before class because he was having trouble grasping this. But eventually he got the 13 down. So he nodded, "Yes, thirteen, I believe, or so it seems to me. Thirteen." Mo was an intelligent guy so Tag was trusting him with his own answer.

Complex. Ok. More staring at the wall, Tag trying to follow Mo's eyes, in hopes of getting it all in. Complex then. "It looks like three to me." But then his next question, Tag didn't really know how to answer that. So he kept completely quiet.

Mo had it down.

Now could some other sixth year please make their way over here? Tag was feeling incompetent working with Mo right now...

"Either the first line is Ansuz Ansuz Ansuz, and the Tiwaz is part of the second line... or the first line is Ansuz Ansuz Ansuz Tiwaz, and the second line is just Raidho." Mo tilted his head back and forth as he considered the lines across the wall. Either way... they could try something, see if it worked, and try something else if it didn't.

No harm done, right?

"I think the Tiwaz is part of the second line, so our first line is Ansuz Ansuz Ansuz. The weak spot is the middle Ansuz... so what d'you think might be the opposite rune? You can carve it, if you want."

Why WAS the Raidho backwards?

Ben mulled over what was being said and the question raised by Adi and a couple of other fellow students. Was it on accident? On purpose? OH!

OH!

He knew this...he knew why it was. The light bulb had gone off in his head from something he vaguely remembered from a previous venture into the runes textbook. "Is it because its meant to be take opposite of the meaning of the rune normally?" he questioned, trying to think of the word it had been called.

"Like Raidho in retrograde...or something like that."

Beverly turned toward the Slytherin with the question. She's seen her before, she knows she has, but from where, she couldn't remember. Did she have a twin sister? Meh, it didn't matter.

"Since this is a simple ward, the weak spot," she said to the girl, pointing at the wall with her wand, "is the rune in the middle." Beverly blinked at the girl. "In this case it's Algiz."

Get it?

He was giving her a look now, like he'd never heard that name before, or maybe it was just all kinds of odd to him. Whatever the case was, she gave a small shrug. "Jun calls me that. I dunno, I like it." Then again she liked anything with the word candy in it so that wasn't really saying much. Oh well.

And he called her smart. Alexa BEAMED at him, despite her feeling she had no idea what she was doing. A feeling that was melting slowly. This wasn't all that hard when she thought about it. "Thanks! Took me a while but I got to learning the runes and the little extras about them. Kinda makes this easier." You know....because she wasn't running for her textbook, desperately trying to remember which runes did what.

She didn't have a problem with Ehwaz, it'd been one of her two choices she'd offered. "You can go ahead. I'm blasting this wall to pieces. Least I can do is let you get to start the breaking down process."

He just needed to carve the rune and they'd be set to get these explosions started.

"thats cool" thats all he managed to spit out.. wow he was super cool, moving around on the hard ground below him he made sure his knee was doing okay.. "that is a super good idea" maybe he will do that on his free time.. thats if he gets any.. OWL's this year and it was starting to get crazy for him.

"awesome.. this is going to be fun" he said as he hobbled his way unto the wall and he took out his wand, holding it to it he said "Intaglio Ehwaz…Ehwaz…Ehwaz…Ehwaz.." as he started to carve… holding his hand as steady as he could he finished his Ehwaz rune and he hobbled away from it to get a better look.

They wait for a moment before thin smoke starts rising from the Ehwaz rune. Success!

he thought he did a pretty good job.. "I hope this works" he said while staring at the still whomping willow.. he hoped it stayed that way for a long time.. pulling out his own chocolate frog he unwrapped it quickly and shoved the whole thing in his mouth.. while putting the wrapper in his robe pocket.. he was eating because he was nervous.

Cutty sighed and looked toward Tobias with crossed arms. It wasn't a look that Tobias was meant to see so much as the natural manifestation of his utter disappointment and annoyance at the venture not paying out like he thought it would. He was bored. So. So. So. Bored.

And it put him in a bad mood, until...




Cutty's scowl turned to a smile and he tsked once. "BeeEeev, don't josh her. She needs to understand. Everyone knows it's always the first rune in a simple line." He just looooooved messing with Sophie Newell. Billywigs on a train. BwahahAHahAhaahaha! Ha. "Nar, I'm joshing. She's right. It is Algiz." Or was it?




"Inverted. I think that's what it's called." And he was somewhat out of his bad mood now, having just made fun at someone else's expense and gone on to academic discussion.

Sander craned his neck as he studied the runes again.

Yep...Quidditch Captain was right about that. The angle rune was Fehu.

"Um.....I agree with you, Alice. the rune that forms the angle is Fehu. Everyone, I think we just the broke the double ward into two simple wards," Sander looked over at his fellow seventh years, smiling from ear to ear.

Yes even the simple things like this was cause for celebration...at least that's what Sander thought.

Whew...one step down....a whole bunch more to go.

Sander rubbed his chin deep in thought as he tried applying the process he vaguely remembered Professor Botros teaching them in their last lesson.

"[b]Now that we have two simple wards, we need to find the weak spot of first simple ward right? That would be ......aargghh!....we have six runes in the first ward. That means there are two runes in the middle that could possibly be the first weak spot. It's either Jera or Ingwaz...but which one is it? Which would be easier to break first?[b]" Sander turned to ask the others hoping they'd know the answer.

He knew that there was a logical way of figuring that part out, but logical thinking wasn't always his forte.

Another seventh year had joined them and Ella smiled at Oichi, waving in greeting. The more the merrier, yeah? It seemed that with the whole old age thing, the more brain power they had, the better off they'd be.

The eighteen year old was relieved that her guess had been right and smiled when that was confirmed. And while Oichi wanted to jump into finding the middle rune, Ella was hoping to break them down into two separate lines first. It'd be easier that way, right? It seemed that the others had a similar idea and Ella smiled as Alice identified Fehu as the corner rune and nodded her head. "Yup, Fehu." Well done. And that meant they could work with each line now, right? As long as Fehu was included in both. The blonde looked to Alec to see what he thought and then back at the wall. Hm.

"I wish we had chairs." For the activity, that is. Her back was hurting.

Anyway, back to runes. Wait, Jera or Ingwaz? "Maybe we can think of it like which has a clearer opposite? Because to break it, we need to carve the opposite rune over the weak one." Nodnod. Something like that. "Anyone have any idea which runes would be opposite either of those?" Hopeful looks were being given.

Yeah, that look from Cutty? Tobias totally missed it. He had been paying attention to the others talking about the weak spots, and was therefore distracted.

"It makes sense for it to be Algiz, since it's for protection," Tobias added, to show he agreed. Also, that one kid had made a good point about how Algiz broke the pattern, so yeah. "So we need to do Intaglio and carve........... uhhh..." What was an opposite of Algiz? "Maybe... what about Isa? 'Cause that rune can work to block things and stop them, so it could maybe stop the protection of Algiz?"

He paused and bit his lip. Tobias really wanted to prove that he knew this stuff to Botros. "And if not that one, maybe Hagalaz, 'cause that one is more to do with destruction."

Tobias looked at his classmates again. "Whatcha reckon?"

Oh, there was Cutty. He got a wave. Hiiiiiiiii Cutty.

Oh hey! Another seventh year. "Hey Oichi!" he called, smiling over at the girl. He knew her, yeah? Something to do with... photographs...

... Moving on.

Alec looked over at Alice and then over at the wall. Identifying each rune did sound like too much effort. It was still something the boy had done for the homework but... that was something he was going to keep to himself right about now. Because they were looking for the weak spot, yeah? Which meant... "Yeah, Fehu sounds great to me." Nodnod. Angle rune and all. "Good find!" So now they just needed to figure out--

... Chairs? Grey-blue eyes landed on the blonde. "I could carry you."

... Right. Yeah. Runes. Jera... and Ingwaz? Alec stared at the runes on the wall, his head tilted to the side. Two possible weak spots made everything more difficult. And usually he'd have selected the one that was least powerful or possibly stood out from the rest but... this wasn't the case now. Now they were looking for a clear opposite rune? This was hard.

"Well... Ingwaz is talking about... work and productivity and a bounty. And... I think it mentions something about a healthy lifestyle too. Or a need to pay attention to that." ... Pause. "Maybe the opposite of that could be Nauthiz? It represents poverty and hardship and an obstacle and... and a degradation in the quality of someone's life. I mean..." He shrugged before looking over at the others. "It could be an option, right?" ... Unless... it was the opposite of Jera? Which was a positive rune, right?

... Yeah, the Head Boy had no clue.

Sophie looked at Adi and then back at the wall. Yeah. Why [i]was[/] Raidho backwards? Didn't that mean really bad things? Sophie thought that one should be the weak rune, but apparently it wasn't. "Oh," she said to Beverly, "thanks. Algiz it is then. I thought that backwards Raidho looked pretty bad, but you're the expert here."

Sophie passed a smirk in Cutty Mordaunt's direction. They'd never discussed the whole 'billywigs on the train' incident, but she was pretty sure he'd be proud of her if he knew the whole story. That was how Cutty worked, she'd learned. She thumped him on the back of the ear then turned to Toby.

"I'm glad you know what you're doing," she said. She moved a step closer to Toby. RUNES PARTNER right here, folks! Not that they were partnering up, but she could at least stand by somebody who knew what was going on. "I kept thinking that backward rune was the weak one, but...who knew it was Algiz. What's so weak about protection anyway?"

He did not just nickname here.

Beverly narrowed her eyes at him and nudged him in the gut with her elbow. Not a hit, she wasn't so bold to do that yet. He also earned that because of what he said. Was he messing with the girl or her?

Meh. She just wouldn't share her beetle earrings with him anymore...but sweets.





Enough of that, though. Cutty wasn't a bad guy. Interesting, but not bad. Facing her other teammates she nodded at the Hufflepuff, then shrugged at the girl. She wasn't an expert. Potions was her thing, not runes.

"It's just a speculation," she told the Slytherin. "I think we're going to try different options..?" Right? That's what the Hufflepuff was going for, yeah?

His (Tobias) ideas did make sense, so did the runes he just mentioned. "Why don't you try one of the ones you mentioned, it can't hurt, right?" He was the one with the ideas, and she'd already done part of the work.

Did anyone else have more suggestions?

It seemed that they had more or less reached an agreement that it was a good idea to see if Algiz was the weak Rune in the chain. If it proved to be the reverse Raidho instead, they could speculate more ideas. As long as time didn't run out, they were all good here.

Lux nodded as Tobias gave a few ideas of what Runes could counteract Algiz. Again she nodded as Beverly basically gave the go ahead for him to try one of them out. It was only fair, since he had been the one to come up with them in the first place. Wishing that she had more to contribute, she remained silent for the moment. This really was not her best subject, unfortunately.