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Post by Anthony Evans on Nov 21, 2009 7:52:48 GMT
The clear-cut feminine voice skid through the classroom, slicing every corner with cruelty.
Or at least, that's how Anthony would have described it. Really, he hadn't been paying attention to anything but his growling stomach, and after the professor had stayed silent for a full five minutes, the Gryffindor was feeling slightly guilty. But one thing was clear: Even though Anthony had barely digested Vanessa's words, he was glaring at her. He, quite plainly, knew this was because of his prejudice against Slytherins.
But, despite his guilt and shame in regard to his disinterest, Anthony had to begrudgingly agree - even though only his subconscious admitted it. He reckoned most of the others in the class were like him... Not interested in such a dull subject, nor knowledgeable in it as it was the first lesson and on the basics no less.
Really, Anthony thought Orwin was a little in over his head. As a result, he felt it was his duty to offer an answer - any answer - even though Runes might as well have been written another language, with how little he understood it. He remembered, feeling quite foolish with his musings, that it was like another language, and promptly volunteered this information.
"It's a like another language, a mysterious one."
Well, the second part he added for the flare of effect. And anyway, it was probably true - he could say it about any subject and the professor would no doubt drone about its "mysterious" history for hours.
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Post by Kohana Engel on Nov 21, 2009 15:45:00 GMT
It was rare that something should diminish Kohana’s fortitude beyond the stoic eyes of portraits, but it was rarer still that the opinion of another person should slam her confidence – yet, Anthony worried her. His needs neglected and his mood thus deprived, he seemed entirely distracted by the snakes in the room, observing them as though he had not already come to a verdict. It was not in their defence that Kohana flustered over this, but that, in Anthony’s eyes, her robes might be changing their hue...
‘Hogwarts must be desperate for staff.’
Myles’s eyes rested like fetters over Kohana’s shoulders, but she could not respond. With laboured courage and poignant humiliation, she slipped away from him and up next to Anthony. It all felt very pathetic, but what else could she do?
Contemptuous laughter.
‘Didn’t you even take the time to look over the assignments from last term?’
Kohana reeled inside, chest growing hot with indignation. She ventured at look at Myles and Vanessa now, affronted by such nonchalance. A swell of protective pity overcame Kohana, and she looked between Anthony and Professor Ames, nodding resolutely. ‘I agree with Anthony. But they’re not just other languages. They’re our own as well; the way we used to speak and write magic centuries ago.’
Her eyes drifted across the room, searching for inspiration. Faded markings were visible on the earth-red walls under certain angles of light, primitive and unusual. Runes. ‘Even in modern times they’re all around us – we just don’t need them anymore.’
Or, so she thought.
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Post by Professor Orwin Ames on Nov 21, 2009 23:02:12 GMT
"The grades on previous assignments weren't very good," Orwin mused, missing the venom in Vanessa's voice rather deliberately. "Ten points for Slytherin, though." He added awkwardly, knowing points were a phenomenon professors were meant to hand out, and he smiled at the young Slytherin as if she had contributed greatly to the class.
The portrait beside him seemed rather affronted. "You mean for Gryffindor!" Mercutio's indignant voice was loud and exasperated.
Orwin frowned, staring at the portrait for a minute looking quite harassed. "Yes, very well." He nodded, smoothing down his wrinkled robes before letting his hands hitch back into their pockets. In order to get away from his demanding accomplice, the professor finally wandered to the head of the classroom, settling at the triangular tip.
"As you have stated," Unable to stare at the entire class much longer, Orwin pointed his gaze at the two neighbouring Gryffindors with relief. "Your sole purpose here is to interpret another language. And Er... yes, it is quite mysterious, I suppose." He stared at Anthony dumbfounded, before moving on.
"However, though there is a direct translation of many Runes in the required dictionary you've brought to class with you, I believe they merely skew results. One isn't supposed to know exactly what a message depicted in Runes is meant to say, and a direct translation would never reveal the true meaning."
With this, Orwin withdrew his hand from his pocket and with a single snap, the dictionaries placed in front of his students disappeared. In their place was one page with a single image - a single rune - marring the surface.
"Whatever you see in front of you is the Rune that personifies you." Orwin's fingers curled over the edge of Kohana's parchment, and regarded it interestedly. "But it doesn't personify you as you are right now, merely who you are becoming due to the direction of the course of your life."
In front of Kohana was a Rune that resembled the jagged teeth of a key. For Anthony there was a fossilized leaf, similar to the sprout on Gemma's. Lilliah received the ancient symbol of the Hydra, Dania the flickering wicker of a candle and Narcissus stared at the thorns of a rose's stem. For the two Slytherins at the far back, there were identical halves of a forked tongue.
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Post by Dania Dahl on Nov 25, 2009 4:28:11 GMT
Jarred violently from her thoughts as the near-tangible disappointment of the Hufflepuff nearby prodded at her palms Dania visibly stirred, softly smiling at her. "I'm sorry.. Lost myself for a while." Was the only explanation offered, and though it was brief and blunt in her grace it was everything she could give. At least in that very moment. Meaningless chatter ensued, the Slytherins insulted the class and the shaggy professor, the Gryffindors made small-talk and tried their hand at amusing one another. Others simply spoke or watched, their eyes scrawling the walls for hints of what this class might hold for them. When the professor spoke again, this time mentioning the runes that personified them at that very instance, she stared down at the one in front of her, the flickering candle warming her heart and her eyes as she speculated it quietly.
While she may excell at insight this meaning was lost on her as she gently nibbled her bottom lip, eyes openly troubled as they followed the edges of the image. "I dont understand." She whispered to Gemma, knowing she probably sounded very clueless as she stared down at the picture, appearing completely lost.
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Post by Jinx Collen on Nov 29, 2009 20:52:24 GMT
Jinx stared befuddled at her piece of paper. While most people had a single item on their parchment, Jinx had a cluster of images that looked rather like a family crest from the medieval ages. She thought about asking the professor or someone nearby to help her with it, but then decided that the only way this could really be her rune is if she figured it out herself.
The first thing Jinx noticed was that the symbol was not in the shape of a shield, but rather a triangle, with three equal compartments meeting in the middle. In the bottom left section was a scythe, in the bottom right section was a violet blossom, and in the top compartment was a sphere with a sort of snowflake design in it.
It was weird, something about this rune sent a chill down her spine. It was somehow balanced, and beautiful chaotic at the same time. She traced her finger around each aspect of it--the violet, brightly colored, natural, representing spring and new life. The scythe, dark, unnaturally fashioned, a symbol of death and destruction and harvest, harvest being a representation of autumn. Then there was the top symbol. Jinx finger traced it a few times; the snowflake, simple enough, white, bright, and wintery which followed the design of the other two symbols, but that circle... full moon? Circle of life? Wheel of fortune?
Well, she'd study that one more later. She sighed, "Professor, I have a question. this rune here, these two bottom fragment balance each other out pretty nicely, which makes plenty of sense for me. I'm exceptionally obsessive about equality, and this clash of hue and shadow, life and death, warmth and chill represents me quite nicely. It's just this top symbol that's confusing me... It doesn't seem to follow the pattern of the two other symbols, is it from a different language or something?"
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Post by Anthony Evans on Dec 2, 2009 15:15:40 GMT
Anthony sent Kohana an amiable glance, feeling very brilliant about his answer. "We're so good at this subject," he whispered to her seriously, with an almost solemn nod.
His confidence deflated at seeing the leaf on his parchment, and he stared at it perplexed. "Is this a fossil? Hey, Koko..." He nudged her agitatedly. "What do you think this means?" He faced her with a blank expression, not letting her see his confusion even though it was quite obvious. "Er... hold on. Is it changing?"
At once, the edges of the leaf pulled inwards. Now he was just annoyed. "Is that a cloud? How does a cloud personify me?" Anthony stressed the word grumpily, shoving the parchment away only to find his hand was suddenly wet. "Oh, funny," he said, looking at it with narrowed eyes. "It's a rain cloud."
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Post by Professor Orwin Ames on Dec 2, 2009 15:38:01 GMT
"Curious."
Orwin's entire demeanor changed. For the briefest of seconds, his robes looked less wrinkled, hair less mussed and eyes fiery with confidence. Ignoring all the questions, leaving his students ranging from uncomfortable to amused, the Professor bumped past the desks and cut a line straight through the middle of his room. "Very, very interesting." He added, a whisper that echoed somewhat strangely in the three-cornered cavern.
"You see," he said suddenly. His teaching voice was gone, the weary tone replaced with something foreign. It was like he was possessed - but Orwin was a different person when deciphering. "I was expecting, Miss. Dahl, something quite different than a candle for you. The symbol signifying memories and mirrors. You have a rather interesting habit of photography, don't you?"
He paused, staring at Mercutio almost sinisterly. The portrait had seen him like this many times before, so only glared back with annoyance. "And Jinx?" He opted for her first name, forgetting his formality as he scrutinized her rune. "The top symbol doesn't describe you well because it's not personifying you at all. The other two -" He smiled, "Well, those are purely yours.
"All of your Runes are depicting items that represent something prehistoric. The forked tongues, look at its thickness." Orwin reached the back of the classroom and placed a finger on Vanessa's page. As expected, he winced, the pad of it becoming momentarily paralyzed. "The forked tongue of a basilisk. Isn't that strange?
It's as if you've all been given clues to an era from long ago, from a time where Hogwarts was just coming into existence. A time in which none of us lived except..."
Orwin reached Mercutio, his expression suddenly brightening. "Except you, old pal." And just like that, Orwin unhinged the portrait, grabbing it from its frame. Behind the thick parchment was a series of inscriptions, all glowing. Lines and lines of Rune symbols.
The first line consisted of the same symbols in front of the students. Orwin grinned.
"Curious, indeed."[/color]
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Post by Kohana Engel on Dec 3, 2009 17:32:09 GMT
With a hollow crack, Kohana’s rather expensive Runes textbook was dismissed from existence. She grappled feebly with the air where it had previously been, disheartened by the single scrap left in its place. Like most other students in the oddly shaped room, she had not got as far as opening it, let alone peeling the price tag off – a waste, considering the refund she could have had. Things don’t stay vanished forever, she supposed. It would turn up again eventually.
At Professor Ames' attempt to steal her parchment, Kohana firmly tugged it out of his grip. ‘What’s this meant to be?’ she asked incredulously, unimpressed by her personification. It looked like a snake with a broken spine, causing her to glance ashamedly at Myles once more.
Her lines were thick and thin, long and short, all of them branching off horizontally from one vertical stem. Unlike many of the other shapes Kohana glimpsed on other parchments, hers was particularly rigid, contrasting blandly with the smooth, creative curves of other forms – especially Anthony’s.
His did not seem to know what it wanted to be, subtly morphing its outline in protest of any conclusion he came to. His petulance amused Kohana and she could not help but snigger, reaching over to deface his rune with large, hasty raindrops. ‘I think it suits you perfectly, Anthony! I wouldn’t say you had a silver lining, though.' She laughed, shoved to one side as he attempted to scrawl on hers in return.
In their game, Kohana nearly missed Mercutio’s transformation. She found it almost obscene that the professor should be able to strip him in such a way, for portraits could surly feel violated. Mercutio remained aloof to his manhandling however, face hardened with grace as it was swung to face the witness wall.
‘Those are our symbols...’ Her eyes grew glassy with their soft, bronze glow. The runes were undeniably old, if not ageless altogether in their prophetic wisdom, and despite being concealed behind a disgruntled portrait, Kohana was overcome with the strange respect one gave to inanimate objects. Even as she watched them, they wavered restlessly. The blunt lines of her rune seemingly disrupted, Kohana glanced back down to see they had re-aligned themselves into a small, simple maze. Of course, that could have been Anthony’s doing while she was distracted.
‘What are the other ones for? Do they tell a story?’ Kohana pushed her attention back to glowing runes, half-eying Professor Ames. There were at least twenty more of them, some as simple as orbs, while others were etched deep with the rustic shpes of nature, veiny and complicated. The most uninspiring came in the form of some great, jagged mound, nothing more than a rock. It reminded her of Anthony’s gloomy cloud.
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Post by Jinx Collen on Dec 5, 2009 7:53:05 GMT
Jinx leapt up from her chair and crossed to where the professor was standing to get a better look at the symbols behind the portrait. Perhaps it was not the most orderly conduct, but Jinx had been orderly enough in her classes that day.
As she studied the impossibly old runes on the parchment a slim frown began to form on her face and her brows furrowed in confusion.
"Professor, this still isn't making sense!" she persisted, pointing to the emblems in order, "Look, here are theirs," she pointed to her fellow Hufflepuffs, "And here are theirs," she pointed one finger at the page, and one towards the pair of Gryffindors who seemed to be doodling on each other's papers. "Here's hers," she pointed next to the symbol that matched the Ravenclaw girl's, "His," she jabbed a thumb in Narcissus's direction, "And there, the split forked tongue."
Her eyes searched the page miserably, "But look... mine's missing!" she indicated a spot at the end of the line of runes where something had clearly been smudged off the page. If you looked very carefully, you could still see the grooves in the ancient parchment where someone long ago had originally placed a spherical design with similar shatter marks through it like the snowflake pattern on Jinx's paper, but now all that was left was the indentation and a dirty looking smudge. "Professor, did I end up with an ancient curse word or something?" she looked both elated and distraught at the idea. It would be fascinating to think that she was the only one in the class whose rune was vile enough to be marked out of ancient history, but at the same time... was she really personified by something so inappropriate it had to be removed?
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Post by Dania Dahl on Dec 12, 2009 22:09:32 GMT
At the professor's inquiry of her photography she gave a slight nod of the head, though if she expected him to clear the meaning she was terribly mistaken. He remarked of how he had been prepared for a different rune for her, one that dealt with the mirrors and the memories. Though instead she had a candle and she was still very confused, despite the calm expression on her face. Black eyes sparkled with subtle puzzlement however, though it was replaced with distraction as Jinx leaped from her chair, expressing herself as one such as Jinx only could--loud and blatantly exclaiming their confusement. She risked a glance at Myles, discreetly examining his face for any telltale signs of what the entire class was feeling; a mixture of confuse and frustration. She herself wasn't as frustrated with the rune she was given, though she was dreadfully curious as to what it could mean. And though she was the unwanted blot of ink on the parchment of his life she had a feeling he would be seeing more of her in the future.
The question she was about to ask was then silenced by Jinx's lingering, almost tangible exclamation of protest, and she lowered her hand slowly, crossing her arms on the desk to rest her chin on them. This class was proving to be difficult to understand indeed.
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Post by Riley Harris on Dec 20, 2009 20:46:44 GMT
Riley sat there silent in the darkest back corner and stared befuddled by the piece of paper infront of her. It showed a simple image depicting an animal on all fours but it was unclear what type of animal it was. Riley just sat there and wondered how an animal could describe her now her father she could certainly understand and even her mother who was exceptionally brave but her?
Riley's musings were interrupted by Jinx who was bustling about following the professor and talking about ancient swear words. Riley suddenly wished she had been paying attention to the conversation because from what she heard now it sounded like it might have actually been interesting.
Oh well, Riley thought to herself. She supposed that Professor Ames or his odd portrait friend would explain everything in time. And she certainly did hope that he would tell her what it all meant.
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