Ancient Runes and You PV

Ami stared at the letter in her hands with wide eyes and a wider smile. Wow, so this was actually going to happen... and she thought it had been all just a dream when she had signed up. Ancient Runes... a whole new language to learn, new things to discover, and most importantly, the runes themselves. Growing up with Thomas as her right-hand man and her father as her mentor, she had watched the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings far too many times to be healthy.

"Mom! Mom, where are you?" Rolling off of her bed with a small oomph, Ami practically flew down the flight of stairs, letter in her hand. Bursting into Abella's office, she thrust the letter into her hands, pleading, "Can I please please please please please please go?"

Runes were fascinating, so of course, Ami wanted to get a head start on them. Learning even just the basics of runes would be enough for her... although, learning a new spell or two would be great- actually, no, that was a lie. She really wanted to learn a new spell or two. 

She had always felt inferior to her fellow classmates because of her inability to pronounce incantations like they did- three years in London had done barely anything to her thick American accent. Sure, her written work was fairly acceptable, but practically... that was a whole different struggle, an uphill battle she had yet to conquer. But, learning new spells, ones that no one else knew... maybe it would prove that she wasn't a dunce, after all.

It was still mostly all for the runes, though. Learning what was essentially an entirely new language excited her, and she couldn't wait to take it in her... second year? Third year? Well, whatever the case, the sneak peek was sure to be exciting.

"Sure, whatever. Just tell me when you need to be dropped off- oh, Charity, close the door on your way out, please." Abella had barely even glanced at the paper before handing it back to Ami, displaying just how much interest she had in how her daughter spent her time. 

It had been unexpected. Luna had signed up for the opportunity thinking she'd never be chosen but why not try? The letter was slid out of the envelope, resting in her porcelain hands. Runes, a subject still out of reach. The fact that Professor Ayers was even giving this opportunity was amazing. It was a head start on almost everyone else in the class. Of course, Luna had already received clearance before she had even signed up. She noted the book required for the future class. She'd likely stop to pick it up in Diagon Alley. 

Luna looked up at her modest desk in her room. Everything was neatly organized. Various resources were neatly stacked up along with some books. There was also a vase of Dahlias on the end of the cherry wood desk. Luna reached over, retrieving both ink and quill. She snatched a piece of parchment and set to replying. She had taken a while to adjust to ink and not just using pens and paper. 

Dear Professor Ayers,

Thank you for accepting me into this adventure. I have indeed received permission to join and will be at The Three Broomsticks. I look forward to the knowledge you can impart as well as meeting you. I hope I can be worthy of your time. 

In great anticipation,
Luna Aurelius, Ravenclaw, Second Year

Tap, Tap, Tap. Aurelia flipped over to her side and pressed one of the many pillows onto the side of her face, attempting to block the noise off. Where the girl 's home was, it usually rained heavily occasionally. The fat drops would patter and pitter so heavily that it would wake Aurelia from her slumber. The girl groaned and plop herself up on her elbows facing the window, truly enough it was pouring from the sky. She wondered why of all fields of fields her parents would choose to build the mansion one which rained constantly nearing the late summer. Maybe it was so that her parents could have access to water easily? She'd never know.

Tap, Tap, Tap. She heard the noise from the window again. It hadn't come from the rain. It didn't sound like the raindrops. She slid from the round bed and her bare feet touched the fur rug. She approached the window, lifting up the curtains lightly with a finger. There outside perched a white bird soaking wet with rain with an envelope in its beak. Poor owl. The girl slid the window open and swiftly took the parchment from its beak.

The letter didn't have a single drop of water on it at all. It was possibly due to magic. Aurelia tore the envelope open and read the contents inside. It was sent to her by Professor Ayers. She was surprised that her sign up had been accepted. There must have been many students that had applied. It was a privileged. She was eager to know what the professor had install for her. Her parents would certainly approve of the invitation. They would prefer her to be doing something constructive back in Hogwarts than stranded in the mansion doing the things she did Everyday.

The patting of feet hitting the wooden floor could be heard through the empty hallway. It wasn’t an all to wide hallway, perhaps a bit wider then two people walking side by side. It was dimly lit and the dusk night sky outside was casting shadows across the floor. The decorum was rather rustic, almost victorian, and while the armor standing by the wall and the tapestries that hung here and there gave the impression of wealth, closer inspection would show a rather fine amount of wear and age on the items. This helped create a rather worn aesthetic to the house.

While the house seemed old and past its glory, you could also notice the love and care given to all the items in it. The floor was clean, there were no dust on the paintings or tapestries, and while the armor standing here and there were old and unusable now, it was still easy to spot the places where they had been mended and cared for by their owners. In more light, the hallway, and probably the whole house, had a rather cozy and homely feeling.

A few paintings stirred in their sleep as the boy walked passed. One of the paintings, a great big man with short busty hair almost like a pig and faded big gashes of some scares on his face opened his beady eyes as the boy passed his frame. “Paracelsus… ” the burly man in the painting said in a low deep voice. “You know you aren’t allowed to walk out and about at this time of night, what if the devil snare in the basement got hold of you? And what’s with all that dirt on your feet? You haven’t been sneaking outside to that bloody broom shed again?”

The boy stopped dead in his tracks. He turned his head slowly towards the painting and smile gingerly at the big man while scratching the scar on his chin.

“Oh, pleas, Great great great great grandfather Frang, you are a smarter man than this? You certainly already know the answers, don’t you?”
Parcel gave a big bright smile as he said it, he had already been discovered by the paintings in this hallway enough to know what each of his forefathers responded best to, and Frang was a sucker for praise.

Just as Parcel had expected, the man in the painting burst out laughing with a deep hearty laugh.
“Yes, yes, haven’t we all been young once” Frang smiled smartly down at his great-great-great-great grandson. “But really, go to bed now, this is neither a time for paintings or boys to be awake” With the same hearty smile, Frang made a shooing motion with his hand and adjusted himself back into his chair, ready to go back to sleep.

Parcel nodded to the man as he continued creeping closer to his bedroom. He didn’t dare to breath before he had closed the door to his bedroom behind him. A painting noticing him was nothing, he knew how to deal with them, but if his mother ever found him sneaking off to play on the brooms by himself… Parcel shuddered, that’s something he didn’t want to think on. It didn’t matter if he was going to be a second year after the summer break, his mother never seemed to want him on a broom.

Parcel pulled off his sweater and his pants before he lifted a leg and started brushing the grass of his bare feet. He usually sneaked around bare feet to avoid alerting his mother with the tapping of his shoes.
He lost his balance as he was brushing and fell tumbling down over his desk, knocking over the stack of papers and comic books he had in a pile on the side. Parcel had never believed such noise could come from paper and comics! The whole house must have heard!

Parcel could already hear his mother coming down the hall as he hurried down on all fours to pick up the mess. He shuffled the old school assignments, wasted and empty papers, comic books and everything else in a large pile ready to push it under his desk. He would have to do it quick and then just jump into bed, blaming the whole thing on the devil snare moving in the basement could maybe work? But as he was on the floor, on hands and knees, he noticed it… it was his handwriting, but it wasn’t a school assignment, it was a letter, an unsent letter.

Parcel picked it up with a shaky hand, he couldn’t have? He couldn’t have forgotten to send the letter? No, no way… he-… he would most likely have sent it-… he, he might have forgot.

Jumping up on his feet, letter in hand, Parcel gave a great big shout “Mom! MOOOOOOOOOOM! The letter! I forgot to send the letter!!”
He ran out of the room, hurling past his mother that was left standing thunderstruck behind. He almost jumped down the stairs and through the entrance of the house!
“MOOOOOOM! I need to send the letter! I can’t miss this! Its Adventure mom! ADVEEEEENTURE!”
He had been looking forward to this! He had adventure in his blood! He was an addict to it! There was nothing that would stop him from attending an adventure! He had been so lucky to sign up when the teacher posted the notice, and he couldn’t give it up on a technicality! Adventure gave the chance for learning new things! Spells and maybe treasure! He couldn’t miss it!

Parcel jumped over a hedge in their garden on the way to the little cabin they used as a owlery. The lights were quickly turned on in the house behind him as he heard the bellowing and clambering of his father and grandfather.
The letter was blowing in the wind as Parcel clutched it in his hand, running manically toward the first owl he could get his grasp on

“I’m going on an ADVEEEENNTUREEEE!”