Ancient Runes 6.1

[william]

Professor Mason was half sitting on his desk as he went over the prepared class material one last time. He believed Egyptian Runes would interest his students, although they only had time to go over the basics due to the script's great variation. But that would still be great exposure for his NEWT class.

He was rather deep in thought, until the sound of someone entering brought him back to reality. "Please have a seat," he said to the student with a smile.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew had spent most of the previous year as the only student in Professor Mason's class. The ravenclaw wasn't sure if it was the one-on-one attention or the fact that he was honestly good at the subject, but Runes had become one of the boy's favorite classes. He wasn't sure how this year would pan out, but he was looking forward to it.

"Got an O on my OWL," he announced proudly as he took his seat. He figured Mason didn't need to hear what his first attempt had gotten him.

[Tristan Howard]

He finally show'd up for this class? He was skipping half of last year in this class and managed to pass the exam. Probably because Tristan indeed does study. He didn't want the professor looking at him and staring at him. He wondered if other people were doing the same thing. He walked in with a smile. Seeing Drew first, he nodded to him a hello. Then looked at the professor and walked off fast.

He took a seat. With a big grin on his fast.

[william]

Mason smiled at Drew. He was mighty glad that he did so well on his OWL, espeically that the boy did work hard towards the goal. And to think that the boy did not even ask for extra help from him, it really was his own hard work.

"Congratulations Mr Thornton," he said with a small nod. "Now I know where to send my 5th years if they have questions."

[Drew Thornton]

"Couple of third years are worried too," Drew told the man as he took his seat. "They wanted to know what they were in for, but I put in a good word for you." Drew finished this off with a wide smile.

[william]

The fact that his third years were worried was more of a concern. He though he already toned it down a little so they could have better adjustment. Was he going too fast again? Or was he being too strict. But that's impossible, he only assigned like 15 pages of reading. Perhaps he could arrange to have extra lessons to help them.

"Maybe I really do need an assistant," he replied, both to himself and to Drew. He was quite lost in thought and thus missing the big smile on the boy's face. He gotta talk to the Headmistress about that.

[Drew Thornton]

Drew grinned wider and gave a small shrug, not sure if the man was offering a position or not, but willing to take it on if he was. Sure, he would rather aide in Defence, but he wasn't going to turn his nose up at this one either. Despite what everyone said, he was sure he'd find a use for this subject in the future.

[william]

The man considered that notion a little longer, thinking the matter thorough before realizing he had a roomful of students looking at him. Shaking his head to pull himself together, he shoved the idea to the back of his mind.

"First off, congratulations on getting an E or above in your OWL in Ancient Runes," he half smiled. He knew half of the class, while the other half he didn't even remembering seeing from before. "Any comments on the exam itself? Any expectations of what you want to achieve in NEWTs?"

[Drew Thornton]

Drew shrugged off the exam, not really having any comment on it. The test had been tough, even the second time through, but he had done well... even the first time through. He consistentlydid well in this particular class and was fully confident he'd get another O when NEWTs came around.

[william]

"Egyptian Runes, also known as the divine words <i>Medwneter</i>, is the topic of this year," the man said, when nobody replied verbally to his last question. It's probably way too early for the 6th years to think about NEWTs, although he didn't agree.

"The Greeks called it called hieroglyphs," he continued, writing "hieros" and "glyphs" separately on the board. "Which means the holy carving. Anyone heard of the Rosetta Stone before?"

[Drew Thornton]

Drew had heard of the ancient stone. Theyhad done a whole thing on it in sixth greade way back when he was in Muggle school. "It was written in three languages," he said. "Archeologists used the Greek translation on the stone to decipher the other two languages. It was a decree from Ptolomy telling his subjects to do stuff and he wanted to make sure they all understood him, I guess. That's why they wrote it in three different languages. They do that with signs and paperwork in communities that have a lot of different languages to deal with." Back home, it was always English and Spanish, but he had noticed in Europe it was usually English, French, and German.

[william]

"That's correct," the man nodded, very very pleased. "The stone was created in 196 B.C., discovered by the French in 1799 at Rosetta, Egypt, and translated in 1822."

"Translation of the stone helped in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing, and made this year's topic possible," he continued. He could only imagine the great satisfaction of discovering such an important object. "That's all for today. Please read Chapter 1 to 2 before next class."