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The study on the seventh floor, dedicated to the subject of Ancient Runes, looked rather interesting and unusual. It reminded me of an old memory from a previous life when I was five or six years old when my parents had sent me to study English. In that classroom, all the walls were covered with various posters, charts, pictures, and other things, but every word and letter, absolutely every single one, was in a language I did not know. It would seem that the letters were similar, but they formed some incredible nonsense, and the lessons themselves were held on the principle of total immersion - not a word in Russian. That was stressful.

Now I experienced a strong sense of nostalgia, looking at the various pictures and posters along the walls, tables, and shelves with objects marked with runic inscriptions. And I couldn't understand a word of it. Well, almost. The meaning of a couple of runes, an approximate translation of others, I knew. This knowledge provoked a burst of nostalgia - like the characters are familiar but do not understand a word.

At the teacher's desk sat a respectable-looking lady of indeterminate age but not young. Her black hair was pulled back in the manner of Legolas, but with straight bangs, neat glasses, and a dark maroon robe, as if made of silk.

"Hello," we said at the same time as Hermione, looking around at the students. There weren't many. I would even say very few. A blonde girl from Slytherin, a curly-haired boy from Ravenclaw, Goldstein, if I'm not mistaken. That's it. Not a single person from the Hufflepuff. Very curious.

"Oh, more students," the teacher allowed herself a slight smile as she looked up from some scrolls. "Have a seat. We'll begin shortly."

We walked forward and sat at the first desk in the middle row. On the right was the blonde. Greengrass, right. I'd forgotten she even existed. She was sitting upright, like a proper student, with her hands on her desk, her textbook, and a couple of scrolls beside her. In the row to our left sat Goldstein, no less studiously posing as a monument to an excellent student.

After laying out everything we had for the lesson, we wasted no time. Hermione pulled out a small book and began to read it with great interest while I continued to work on the "mind in a cube" project, taking notes in a small notebook. With the most ordinary pen. We had very few students who used pens and notebooks for personal note-taking - all with quills.

"Okay, students," our teacher stood up from her desk, and the door to the office closed. "Let's not waste time and wait for class to start. No one else should come anyway."

The teacher came out to us, standing in front of the middle row.

"First of all, since there are so few of us, I suggest we do a little reshuffle."

With a slight movement of her wand, the first desks of the neighboring rows slowly and carefully moved in close to us. Greengrass only arched an eyebrow in perfect imitation of Snape, and Goldstein didn't care at all - he was expecting a lesson.

"I have no desire at all to run between the four of you all over the room. I hope there's nothing wrong with that? No? That's great. Let's get acquainted. My name is Bathsheda Babbling. I hold the title of Master of Runology in Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon Studies. Yes?"

Professor Babbling looked at Goldstein's raised hand.

"Professor, but... Are they different profiles? I mean, they're the same."

"You're not quite right, Mr...."

"Goldstein. Anthony Goldstein, ma'am."

"Mr. Goldstein. The most ancient are considered to be the so-called Proto-Scandinavian runes. As time went on, ancient peoples migrated, conquered new territories, and their language changed and improved. As a result, over time, the same at first glance runes have different meanings, supplemented, or no longer used. However, really, if you take the same runes in different alphabets, we will get almost identical magical impact, but possibly different meanings. Suppose the runes will be used for direct application to an object, etching, embroidery, or in any other way. In that case, the difference in the alphabet is of minimal importance, which can be neglected. However, if the runes are used in a magical formula for a spell, in a text, in recipes, and so forth, where it is not the magical effect but the meaning that is important, then you understand yourself, the difference can be not just noticeable, but incredibly huge."

"I see. Thank you, Professor."

"So. Let's develop a curriculum for the first semester. To that end, now we're going to talk a little bit about what you know about the runes and how you see them in your life."

We found out that no one really knew anything about the runes and that we'd signed up for these classes for very different reasons. I and Hermione, for the complicated spell formulas, and Goldstein, for the creepy interest. Greengrass, because she couldn't learn it normally at home, unlike the rest of the subjects. The second lesson was more practical. We studied the very basics from the very beginning. The Elder Futhark - on the basis of this ancient runic alphabet, later developed the rest, with their magical meaning and interpretation, various sacred meanings. Junior runes we will also go through, but out of them, even a third does not have real magical meaning and therefore are only suitable for writing.

The first rune is Fehu. We wrote down a whole bunch of different versions of its magical interpretation and single use. When applied to the surface, the main purpose of it is to defocus directed magical energy in all directions. And the energy doesn't get any weaker because of that. A simple rune chain "Protective Cross" was used as an example. In it, Fehu is the center, and around it are four unfamiliar runes. The effect of the Cross, when applied to a surface and activated by a portion of magic, is that the object is protected from negative, destructive effects. The limit of protection is the invested power multiplied by four. Will not protect against "total destruction" class magic such as Fiendfyre and mental directions. Without the rune, Fehu Protective Cross can be made to work, but then you would have to combine the four remaining in a closed system, and the ratio of protection and infused magic will be one to one.

In addition, there was a sea of other information about the Fehu rune, including the possible magical interpretations when turning the runes at different right angles.

With ink and pen, we were entrusted to enchant a wooden cube. The runes were carefully and meticulously applied. It took a long time. It wasn't right the first time - small mistakes negated the protection factors of the cubes, but anyway, it was fun to see how Professor Babbling's blue ray of Reducto either absorbed the cube with a little glow or destroyed it. Such protection seemed effective, but then Professor Babbling reminded us that the magical capacity of a rune depended on the material and that Reducto was as weak as it could be. That was the end of the lesson.