Y7: Lesson 1: Hieroglyphics

[Professor Leonard Ember]

Finally after an entire day of moving all of his belongings into Hogwarts and reminiscing about the good old days as he walked his old footsteps down old familiar corridors, down narrow alleyways and along favoured locations, Leon had felt at home once again. Hogwarts was magical but there was always this extra quality about it that made it feel like home. He was instantly at ease.
He was back home.

His worn brown leather suitcases were all piled on each other, a mismatch of shapes and sizes as they all dominated the corner of his room as he swished his wand this way and that way, altering the room to his liking. It was large and had a large bay window, overlooking the lake where it was unable to be disturbed by students. As far as they eye could see was water and the valley hills either side, the water mouth looking like an inviting entrance to such a grand spectacle such as the castle. The sunset had begun to creep under the water, creating a crimson orange portrait across the sky until the sun finally started sinking into the lake, showing up every bump and ripple into the aqua.

Now was not the time to waste however, and with haste he made his way to his classroom, for his first lesson in Ancient Runes was about to begin.
Opening his classroom door, the room was spacious and adorned with trinkets and scrolls of writing, a giant bookcase spreading across the entire back wall, spilling piles of books from it.
Smiling at the sight, he flicked his wand at the board and it began to write the lesson plan as he walked to the front of the room and sat on his desk, awaiting his students.

Professor Leonard Ember
Lesson 1: Hieroglyphics

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[Ellie Rook]

Ellie hated any class after the hour of three o'clock. It was like her brain was in prime condition for learning from nine 'til two, but after that, it was like she was shut off. It always seemed that the classes Ellie had to endure after this time were also the boring ones. For example, History of Magic first through fourth year had been at four o'clock. Ellie did not receive her highest grade in History of Magic until fifth year, which was an E. Also, the year Ellie was injured the most while taking Care of Magical Creatures was when it was a late afternoon class! It was proof that Ellie's mind just turned off after two.

Ellie thought about all the evidence she had against this dreaded class as she walked through the door. The first student in the room, Ellie sighed. She never knew where to sit when the room was empty. She didn't want to sit up front and then have everyone sit behind her, but she didn't want to sit in back and have everyone sit in front of her. It was a lose/lose. Ellie decided on the exact middle seat. She put her books down and looked up at the front of the room.

Another reason Ellie was not excited about this class was that, so being she had no idea what she wanted to do after Hogwarts, it had been suggested to her that she round her edges, try and get a little glimpses of everything there was to offer at Hogwarts. That being the case, here Ellie sat in Ancient Runes, a class she never wanted to take. Ellie had heard that it was hard, and she had already been proven in potions that she was not a language person and did not excel at translations and reading other languages and symbols. However, Ellie took the class anyway. She would round her edges all right, round them down to nothing.

Ellie smiled at the new professor she sighted at the front of the room. She instantly got up and went to shake his hand. "Hello Professor Ember, I'm Ellie Rook. You probably don't remember me, but I met you as Head Girl a couple days ago." Ellie said, remembering being introduced only in passing, and on a rather bad day, so Ellie had been short with the new Professor. "I apologize if I seemed a little crazy that day, well, I thought I was going crazy." Ellie said, as the next student wandered in. Ellie lowered her voice, "I also apologize for the horrible grade I am going to get in this class in advanced. There is no hope for me, and I bet you just face it now."

[Sarie Thimble]

To say Sarie Thimble was small, was just being kind. She stood about four foot five inches and was often mistaken for a first year. She sighed adjusting her perfect's badge on her robes. She was a fourth year and a perfect. Sarie, herself had thought it odd but it was true. She wondered if her headmaster had lost it. Just the year before he had to stun her to get her back to her common room.

She was off to Ancient Runes. They had just gotten a new teacher and she couldn't really wait to meet to him. She walked along the hallways and found a small fight which she broke up. She sighed often people didn't listen to her either because they thought she was younger or they thought she had cheated to get her badge.

She finally found her way to the room. She walked in and was thankful the fight she had to break up didn't make her late. Sarie hated being late. She hated more then when people asked how a first year was a prefect. No that a fourth year was much better but it was still more believable than a first. She walked in to see Ellie Rock the head-girl. She waved and took a seat in the front row. She noticed the Professor and felt her heart skip a beat, he was good looking. She shook it off, he had to be at least twice her age.

She wasn't sure if he wanted her to introduce herself then or wait till everyone was in the class room. She sat down and took out things to write with and copied was already written on the board. She often fell behind in notes while listening to the teacher. She wanted to make sure she had everything from the first day.

[Rosalind Matthews]

Why was she doing this again? Rosa was smart but the whole idea of ancient runes terrified her to no end. All of it seemed rather difficult to her but she didn't want to appear afraid of the subject. Friends talked her into signing up so she immediately took to the library to read up on the subject, whoa there was a lot to learn and all the symbols and stuff seemed like a jumble of things she would never really understand. Too bad she had already enrolled so now there was truly no turning back.

The first day of class Rosa showed up in the Great Hall had breakfast with her sister Paige at the Hufflepuff table. Paige was going a mile a minute about one thing or another Rosa simply nodded at all the right moments though she really wasn't listening to her. When the bell rang signaling the beginning of that days classes Paige had to tap her sister on the should to get her attention.

Rosa looked up and nodded to her sister getting slowly up from the table and making her way quietly to her days lessons. Soon it was time for Ancient Runes and Rosa was already feeling rather nervous as she entered the room.

At least she wasn't the first one there, besides the professor Ellie Rook and Sarie Thimble were already seated. Rosa not really knowing either girl very well simply nodded to both of them before heading toward a seat in the back of the room. Hopefully she would be safe in the back, sitting down she took out parchment and quill waiting for the class to begin and hoping that some of her friends would make their way to the room soon because she didn't think she could handle this class on her own.

[Dania Dahl]

Dania inhaled, fingertips hovering at the cusp of her throat as her other hand reached higher, tucking a small strand of hair behind one ear. She felt as if it were the kind of afternoon where you could imagine fat, engorged raindrops crawling down the window panes of your common room, pattering incessantly at the glass as if beckoning her notice. And yet the moment she opened her eyes the reverie burst into nothingness right in front of her, and she was left alone again. The Hufflepuff could feel her blankets calling to her. She nearly paused at the door, having half a right mind to turn back and just.. Sleep. The world could move around her, the world could ignore her, all she wanted to do was sleep.

What kept her walking was not a strange feeling of neccessity; Dania wasn't whispered to by her intuition that this lesson was not one she would want to miss. Perhaps she knew that she couldn't sleep her life away, or perhaps it was because she was supposedly required to set a good example for the other students. Most likely it was Adrian, who had barged out from behind her, giving her a quick little shove in the right direction. "You have to go." He said with that cheeky smile, to which she simply stuck her tongue out before beginning to walk again.

Entering the classroom now Dania glanced at the chalkboard, and while her interest was terribly piqued at the subject of the lesson she gave nothing away. Taking a seat, her black eyes closed for a while, and she could almost pretend she was sleeping.

[Harrison Greg]

As Head Boy Harrison new he needed to set a good example and by doing that he needed to attended lessons…or at least, that is what Professor Hubbles had told him. He had remembered coming back to the Gryffindor Commonroom that night and just moaning and moaning about it to all his mates, but now the year was getting along he was starting to enjoy going to the lessons. Yes, Harrison Greg was enjoying learning, and that was something he thought he would never ever say, but then maybe he was just a late bloomer and it took seven years for him to finally enjoy Hogwarts to his fullest.

Over these seven years at Hogwarts he had seen a lot of teachers come and go, some lasted longer then others, but in a way it was nice keeping things fresh as every Professor had a different method of teaching and they all brought something new to the table…oh lord, he had turned into a right square!

Today was one of those days when Harrison was about to attend another lesson with yet another new teacher, this time it was Ancient Runes. This was always a class that Harrison had found difficult, you could not rely on your ability with a wand for this lesson, you actually had to use the little gray cells in his head and that was something he did not do much, as to be honest there was very little up there! But as the Gryffindor pushed open the wooden door hearing it creak on its old hinges the Head Boy looked around the room seeing if anyone good was also attending this lesson and there she was…Miss Ellie Rook. With a wide grin Harrison strut over and sat down right next to her giving her the cheesiest grin he could, in fact he ignored the new Professor Ember all together and at that moment in time if you had asked him to describe the professor he would even be able to tell you the colour of his hair!

“Hey Ellie.” He continued to grin. “Hope you don’t mind me sitting next to you.”

[Professor Leonard Ember]

He smiled at every single student as they entered the room, some returned the expression, others didn't express any emotion, and others just snarled. Lovely manners these kids had. Still, he didn't really mind how they reacted to him as long as they tried to learn or at least retain some information he spouted at them. If not, well...he definately would not accept them not trying at least...

"Yes, I remember you Miss Rook. Head girl aye? I was a prefect back in the day." he smiled, shaking her hand before signalling back to her chair for her to sit.
"I'm sure if you stick with it, you'll do fine. If you ever need any extra tuition or more help on something, don't be afraid to ask... Please, feel free to sit down. The sooner we get this lesson started the sooner I might let you all out 15 minutes earlier" he smiled cheekily before nodding over to Sarie as she entered.

"Ah, Miss Thimble. I see you've come well prepared. Excellent!" he grinned widely, astonished that somebody seemed so driven and focused or even organised for this class. Usually students took this as a last resort as it was well known to be extremely hard.
He stood up and made his way around the classroom, shaking his head and laughing silently as Harrison Gregg plonked himself down next to Ellie and started flirting. He licked the tip of his index finger and flicked a few pages into his grasp before putting them on each desk. All the pieces of parchment were packed with scrolling of ancient egyptian hieroglyphics.

Noticing from the corner of his eye a Hufflepuff girl was half asleep, he placed the parchment sheets on her desk a little harder before walking past.
"There will be no falling asleep in my class please Miss Dahl. If you're having trouble staying away I suggest hot chocolate before bed and early nights" he said, reaching his desk now and turning to look directly at her, his eyebrow raised and the slight hint of a smirk plainly on his lips.

"Very good..." he continued.
"Right then. We might as well get started." he sighed before flicking his wand at the board, and it began to write what he was saying.

"Hieroglyphics is a way of writing used by the Ancient Egyptians. There are different forms of writing, Hieroglyphics are the formal way of writing, and then there are other types such as Demotic, or Hieratic script which was developed along side Hieroglyphics. The main factor is that they are not the same."

"The word 'Hieroglyphic' comes from the Greek, meaning 'I Carve, Engrave'. The glyphs themselves were actually called 'the sacred engraved letters'. The first known appearance of the useage of Hieroglyphs were found from around 3200BC. There has also been some partial evidence that Hieroglyphs could of been used from as early as the 33rd Century BC in Abydos, Egypt."

"Visually hieroglyphs are all more or less figurative: they represent real or illusional elements, sometimes stylized and simplified, but all generally perfectly recognizable in form. However, the same sign can, according to context, be interpreted in diverse ways: as a phonogram (phonetic reading), as a logogram, or as an ideogram (semagram; "determinative") (semantic reading). The determinative was not read as a phonetic constituent, but facilitated understanding by differentiating the word from its homophones. Also, most of them are read phonetically. For example, a picture of an eye could mean either 'Eye' or 'I' as in the person. It all depends on it's placement." he continued...

"So, can anyone tell me if they have ever studied Hieroglyphics before, and if so does anyone care to come and write some for me?"

[Sarie Thimble]

Sarie raised her hand. She read a book once. It had told her the basics of hieroglyphics. she could only remember one word. "I only know one word Professor." She felt really shy agian. Why couldn't she just kept her mouth shut.

She wasn't sure if she was suppose to go the the broad yet.She was really nervous. She felt people looking at her. She left really dumb. She didn't really know any of the rule just what one word looked like. "Well I know what it looks like." She added so she sounded less like a no it all.

[Dania Dahl]

She popped an eye open at the increased pressure, smiling. "Im up, professor! Just resting my eyes." Nodding sweetly and opening the other eye now the Hufflepuff licked her lips at the idea of some hot chocolate, deciding to grab a glass of it after class. Stretching her hands out and resisting a yawn the girl straighented somewhat, figuring as she knew a few words she might as well provide them, at least to glean a few points for her house. She raised her hand. "I know a little, only because I really loved reading about Ancient Egypt as a child." Hesitantly sliding out from behind her desk Dania made her way towards the board, taking up a piece of chalk and drawing three waved lines, one under the other. "I believe it represents waters? And I think it also has something to do with the alphabet, but I cant quite remember what."

Dusting off her hands now and stepping away from the board Dania turned, going back to her seat. Drowsiness nearly set in the moment she relaxed into the chair but her eyes remained wide, she wasn't about to have this new professor thinking she was a slacking student. She wasn't a perfect prefect either, but she could try and represent herself with some semblance of grace. That of course didn't include drooling all over the desk.

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie smield at the Professor's offered help as she went back to her seat. She proceeded to take out the necessary materials for the class when she saw out of the corner of her eye someone sitting down next to her. She turned to be greeted with the cheesiest smile she ever saw. She stopped herself from laughing out loud and settled with a large smile.

"Hi Harrison." Ellie said calmly back, though her smile gave away most of the silly school girl crush emotions she was having. "Oh, I don't mind at all." She said, as she took out her quill and then turned to smile back. "Please tell me you're good at Ancient Runes. Anything without a wand I just, well, I suck at it." She mentally crossed her fingers that Harrison was a wiz at the subject and they could study together, or something along those lines.

Class had started, and Ellie was already over whelmed with information. She hurriedly took notes as the Professor spoke. The second she realized what she was taking notes on, Ellie breathed a slight sigh of relief. Ellie had lived in Egypt twice. The witches and wizards of Egypt still held strong to their cat worshiping ancestors and still regularly used Hieroglyphics.

Dahlia had just sat back down when Ellie raised her hand as well. "I can read it a lot better then I can write it." She started, but realized that she must sound insane. "I, uhh, used to live in Egypt." She said sheepishly. Ellie never knew why, but she sometimes felt like people didn't believe her when she mentioned that she used to live in Egypt, or Australia, or Greece. "May I?" Ellie said getting up, glancing at Harrison before she got up to the board. With a shaky hand, not very well written, she managed to write:

"My name is Ellie. I live on a boat. I have blue eyes."

She looked back a Professor Ember. "I just remember stupid little sentences. I think they are more memorized then me actually knowing what I'm writing though." Ellie admitted before she walked back to her seat and sat down.

Ellie was the type of toddler who memorized their favorite book word for word by her mother reading it to her every night, and then picked up the book and recited it. Ellie's mother didn't realize she couldn't actually read for over a month. The same must be said for Hieroglyphics.

[Rosalind Matthews]

Rosalind wasn't really looking at anyone or anything in the room. At this moment she was perfectly content with blending in with her surroundings simply because for once she felt out of sorts with this subject. Rosa didn't like to feel out of sorts in her own way she was sort of a geek and enjoyed knowing about things, so when she didn't she felt odd like right now. So far the professor seemed alright but then again looks could be very deceiving she just hoped he wasn't a hard grader and she also hoped he wasn't the kind of professor who refused to give extra credit if it was needed.

From her vantage point in the back of the room she could see the students as they walked in, soon there was Gryffindor and another Hufflepuff so far no other claws for her to hang with making her feel even more like she didn't belong. So all she could do now was sort of people watch. Staring as Harrison Greg took a seat beside Ellie and the flirting started almost at once. It took every ounce of strength Rosa had not to laugh herself hoarse. Boys were simply the most amusing creatures and Harrison Greg seemed to be the most amusing.

Then Rosa turned her head to watch the Hufflepuff girl who seemed to have fallen asleep. Right on cue the professor seemed to notice this and called attention to it. OK so he wasn't one to mess with Rosa took notice. Seems like class was about to start so she made sure to have quill in hand and the moment he started to talk she made sure to write everything down. So far it didn't seem so bad. When he asked if anyone knew anything about Hieroglyphs Rosa didn't even attempt to raise her hand because she didn't know a darned thing. She waited for one of her classmates to say something...