The students soon said their farewells as all the Gryffindors bar Harry and Hermione went towards the North Tower for Divination. The two remainders made their way towards the Ancient Runes classroom, which was located on the sixth floor.
Professor Bathsheda Babbling, the Professor of Ancient Runes, was standing outside, chatting amicably to a few Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff fourth years about their summers. Due to the fact that this period was an elective, the class was taken by all four houses at the same time. It was a shame that most of Slytherin seemed to be present, although Draco and his two bodyguards were nowhere to be found.
After a few minutes outside the classroom, Professor Babbling brought them all inside. The classroom walls were engulfed in pieces of parchment, many of them in turn covered by inky symbols. Harry recognized each and every one of the symbols drawn upon the parchment.
Salazar had been right; the current studies on Runes was absolutely pathetic. Whoever had written on the walls (Harry expected it had been Professor Babbling) had skill, but their knowledge on how to use runes, as well as construct them was subpar.
To be fair, she didn't have access to a painting with knowledge on Ancient Magics.
Perhaps this level of knowledge was impressive in today's times. Harry had suddenly lost any lingering hope that he might learn something in this class. He was mostly fine with that; Harry would just sit in the back of the class after the first few classes, and perhaps practice some of the magic Salazar taught him.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts!" said Professor Babbling, smiling at all of them as they found their seats. Harry sat to the left of Hermione, who had taken a seat in the center of the first row.
"We are going to be getting straight into work today, regardless of it being the first day. However, we had a new student in our midst. Mr. Potter, please introduce yourself."
Harry froze, not having expected being told to introduce himself. No professor had ever asked that of him, and the reason as to why was obvious. The class seemed to agree with him, although many of the Slytherins seemed amused at his predicament.
"Er - my name is Harry Potter." said Harry somewhat lamely.
"Brilliant!" exclaimed Professor Babbling in a bubbly voice, "I was told by Professor McGonagall of your transfer. As standard, if you show yourself incapable of maintaining a good grade, you will either be moved to the third year class, or asked to leave. Professor McGonagall has told me that you believe yourself to be capable of the fourth year assignments so we shall see if this is true."
Harry nodded, having figured out that much on his own. Professor Babbling soon passed out assignment sheets, a copy of 'Advanced Rune Translation', as well as a small wooden box. According to the assignment, their goal was to make the box bigger on the inside than it was on the outside. In fact, it was rather similar to the tent the Weasley's had used at the Quidditch World Cup.
The difference was that one was with spellwork, while the other was runes. The charm placed upon the tent would break within a few years, while the runes would last for eternity, as long as the runes were not messed up. Due to the nature of runes, messing them up would be near impossible, as long one added a simple rune series to prevent such an occurrence.
All that learned in a single night, thanks to an old portrait.
Their solution to the assignment was to be inspected in an hour. Harry was sure he could do it within a third of the given time. He quickly began marking the box with runes created from his wand.
"Harry, what are you doing?" sighed Hermione fifteen minutes later.
"Finishing the assignment." Harry responded, not taking his eyes off the box. He carved a few more runes into the box, before dropping his wand and standing up proudly.
It had been fifteen minutes.
Never again will I doubt Salazar's teaching methods.
To be fair, he had met the portrait a day ago, regardless of having spent hours by Salazar's side learning. Plus, Salazar wasn't exactly represented kindly in the history books. Harry felt Slytherin had been horribly represented; as far as Harry knew, he didn't even hate muggleborns. The portrait had, however, made several comments on him being in Gryffindor House, though that was to be expected.
Harry spent the next forty-five minutes sitting in his chair, pondering on what else he might be interested in learning from Salazar, as well as how and when he would be visiting the chamber. Thankfully for Harry, Hermione had not noticed, as she was too busy working on her own assignment. Every few minutes she would mutter nasty things under her breath, before removing a few runes she had drawn with her wand. She did not seem remotely pleased at Harry's potential accomplishment, that much was certain.
The only person who had noticed Harry sitting still and doing nothing was Daphne Greengrass, the pretty blonde girl from earlier. She had merely scoffed, before turning back to her own box.
"Please write your name somewhere on the box with ink, and place it upon my desk for inspection." called Professor Babbling.
.....
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