Runic Adventure PV Closed

Aurelia did not expect a few familiar faces in Hogwsmaede. They had been invited to the Study of the ancient runes as well, what were the odds. There were only a total of four students when the Groundskeeper said it was time to go. Was there only such a small handful of students participating?

Aurelia followed anyways making their way to the Scottish castl. It had been only one or two days since she had left the School, but it had felt like a week. She might have been too accustomed to the dorms and cramped with touching elbows during meals that she wasn't used to the her own house anymore.

There at the entrance hall stood a woman with pale skin and looked in her mid twenties grinning in her direction. Her hair was in the same shade as Ami's. Aurelia recognised the woman through passing in the summer camp, she had also gone to the lake where the professor had organised a pool party. It was professor Ayers. She had introduce herself and briefly explained what the girl had came back for in the first place. It was to learn about runes.

Then a piece of handout was set in her palms. It was the Runic Alphabet she learnt in Transfigration class one of the classes that never taught a single spell. Even then, Aurelia had memorised it already. The professor then began leading them down the north tower. She had stated briefly that she was taking the group to the dungeons.

The girl, for the past months in the school, had never been to the dungeons, she had heard from a few students that they only went down there to scrub floors for detention. They were probably spic and span now and Aurelia wouldn't have to worry to much about her shoes being too dirty after the tour.

She turned to the the others behind her. "By any chance, have you guys visited the dungeons? Do you know what it is like?"

The drop-off at Hogsmeade had been nothing special, just a quick wave from Abella and a, "Stay safe!" The walk to Hogwarts was nothing special, either, just a long winding path up to the school. What was special, however, was the adventure she was about to embark upon.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't an adventure, per say, but it was bound to be fun and exciting. At least, with the group that they had, it would be interesting- Aurelia and Parcel, whom she already knew, and another sweet-looking girl with the coolest hair on the planet. 

Ami took the handout from Professor Ayers, glancing over it quickly before stuffing it in her back pocket. The runes from Transfiguration she already knew, although not very well. But she'd have it at the ready if she ever needed to consult it, and with that in mind, she turned to follow the Ancient Runes professor to the Dungeons.

Ah, the Dungeons. The lovely, stinking, musky old Dungeons. Crinkling her nose at the peculiar smell, she noted that it was pretty clean for a place so rarely visited. A scent still lingered, however, despite whatever cleaning it might've gotten, and it certainly wasn't pleasant.

The Professor invited them to vocalize any questions they might have, and Aurelia asked the group if they had ever been in the Dungeons. "Nope," Ami said quickly, because it wasn't a lie. Sure, she had come extremely close to being in the Dungeons, but officially, technically, she hadn't. "We weren't allowed down here." She cast a small smile at Aurelia all the same- after all, they were friends. 

Turning to the girl with platinum hair, Ami smiled in what she hoped was a kind manner. "Hey! I don't think I've seen you 'round, before. I'm Ami." She didn't offer a handshake or anything, this was a casual Runes trip, after all, not some business meeting. Just a bunch of kids at school over to summer to get a grip on Runes.

The one person she steadfastly ignored was Parcel. To say that the relationship between them was strained would've been an understatement. So many odd things had happened between the two, so Ami simply chose to block him out. I know, so nice of her.

Luna had spent one entire day home before returning to Hogwarts again, and even after this excursion, she wouldn't be home long until she had to leave for the History of Magic field trip. Scotland was mostly temperate late summer, so she had dressed for the somewhat cool weather. She had her hair dressed in twin tails trailing down her back. A simple black T-shirt, accompanied by a dark brown jacket kept out the chill in the air. She wore a pair of blue jeans that ran into her black hiking boots. 

The trip to Hogsmeade was mostly uneventful. Her foster mom had hugged her goodbye and then promptly returned to her job, whatever that was. She had silently followed the groundskeeper, and soon they had arrived at the now very familiar school. She was accompanied by three other students, no one which she knew. At all. Well luckily her confidence had grown quickly throughout the first year. They'd either like her or not, and it would be what it would be. 

The Professor seemed to have as much nervous energy as the students themselves. Quickly going through what was occurring today, Luna felt her energy start to coalesce as the Professor mention how important runes were to being a successful witch.  She was right to sign up for this trip. Upon receiving her pamphlet, Luna promptly put it in her shoulder bag. She had the alphabet memorized, but having the resource would be invaluable.   

There were two other girls and one solitary boy. The first girl, with blue eyes and brown hair, asked if any of them had been in the dungeons. Luna had simply shaken her head to the question. A second girl, with reddish-brown hair, turned to Luna and smiled. Luna smiled back, remembering all the lessons on manners she had taken. The girl introduced herself as Ami and Luna felt like kindness was radiating off of her as she introduced herself to Luna.

"Hi. My name is Luna and it's a pleasure to meet you Ami. I'm in Ravenclaw and didn't really get around too much in my first year. Do you have an interest in Runes as well? Oh, and I haven't been in the dungeons but I heard that some students had to clean them up as punishment during the summer camp." She replied simply. 

Parcel was rocking back and forth eagerly on the balls of his feet. He was standing in the entrance hall with the rest of the students allowed to go on the adventure.

He had first been quite flustered when he entered the Three Broomsticks and found out that there only were girls going… three girls and him. Parcel had imagined a rowdy group of boys, working together through heaps of danger, facing terrible monsters on their way towards glory, but instead he would have to like… what do girls like? Paint their nails and do their hair up fancy? Not an adventure but a sleepover?

Well, at least he knew some of them, two of three to be precise. Aurelia and Ami were both girls he had done stuff with before, and he was fairly sure they knew how to handle their stuff, that being the adventure stuff of course.

Aurelia could take a beating at least, and Ami um, well Ami was also good at taking a beating? She was fairly good at quidditch too, but not Parcel’s first choice as a companion for an adventure. He had ratter tried to avoid her as much as possible after the Ball. The third girl on the other hand was one he didn’t know at all, he had probably seen her in a class or two, but didn’t remember her, maybe she didn’t do to much out of herself like some of the other girls? Well, at least Parcel hadn’t had her laying on top of him, and he hadn’t beaten her black and blue, that had to count for something.

But soon the Grounds keeper had come, and Parcel forgot all about girls. This after all, was a time for adventure! And no number of cooties could come between Parcel and his exploring.
Parcel had practically sprinted up the castle grounds as they walked towards the entrance. He had to stop and wait for the others at regular intervals. And after what felt like hours, they had finally walked into the school and met the professor.

As the professor finished speaking, Parcel received his paper along with the girls. He had, after hours of memorizing, learned the alphabet earlier this year, but Parcel guessed that having a backup note wouldn’t hurt either.

Parcel had a focused expression as they started to walk. The professor had said they where going to the dungeons! The dungeons!! A place Parcel had never been before. This was great, and he could feel a surge of excitement. Unexplored areas were truly the funniest places to be!

"By any chance, have you guys visited the dungeons? Do you know what it is like?"
Parcel looked over at Aurelia. “I wish!” he replied with a bit of longing. What wouldn’t he give for a chance to explore the dungeons alone! He had heard they kept Vampires down there! Parcel had never seen a vampire before. Well, it might just have been something the older students said to frighten him, but all it did was make Parcel more eager on getting a chance to go down there! Ami had apparently not been down there either, but someone had! If Parcel was to believe the girl he didn’t know, gosh, Parcel hoped they hadn’t scared the vampires away.

Parcel continued to trot alongside the others without saying much.

The North Tower came quickly, and the children seemed to strike up conversations among themselves. No direct questions for her right now, it seemed. she recognized the faces of all of the students in her presence, and she knew the names of them all as well as she made a point to memorize them before the trip. However, aside from that she simply recognized them from around the halls. She was most familiar with Parcel, as he was a Gryiffindor Prefect and Adelaide resided within the Gryffindor House.

It was true, what the children were saying, that the dungeons were off limits to students. Well, only partially true. Some vital locations of the school were located in the dungeons such as the Potions classroom as well as the Slytherin Common Room. So really, only the majority of the dungeons was unavailable to the students. Adelaide, however, was not worried about the children having come across the location they were headed today, whether from rebellious sneaking or detention trips. The focal point of the adventure today was not a room they would know even existed before today, and one they would not be able to return to after.

Once the small group reached the North Tower, she began leading them down the stairs. Normally, one would go up to certain classrooms or other locations. A normal, rule abiding student, would not have ever descended these specific stairs. In fact, they would have had to open a loacked door in order to even begin. Adelaide did so in a swift motion, before shuffling the students inside ahead of her, so she could lock the door again behind them.

"Welcome to the dungeons, kiddos. Obviously this is not a location you will have seen before, so feel free to take it in." As she said so, she raised her wand and with it the torches lining the hallway they now stood in, lighted, giving everyone a good few of the area. In itself it was not very interested. It was simply a long hallway with three wooden doors set into very old, rough, grey stone on either side. The air would smell musky and somewhat damp, and despite the light from the torches, the place would still have a seemingly dark aura to it.

"I wont bother telling you what is behind each of these doors. They are all locked and none will be related to where we are going today." She strode in front of the group now, walking backwards so she could look at them while speaking. "Instead we will be going through here." She pointed towards the end of the hallway where a simple stone wall, and nothing else, stood.

"Of course," She continued, "You may be wondering how we are to continue through a stone wall. Well, the answer is right in front of you. Take a closer look." As they approached the wall, Adelaide stood aside, giving the children a full view of the stone in front of them. Initially it would seem the same as the walls they just walked by, but soon one of them would notice the runes engraved into the grey stone.



If they have truly memorized their alphabet as they were instructed to by their Transfiguration teacher, they would perhaps recognize some of the letters presented. Others would have to look to their handout to continue.

"I'll make it a bit easier on you, and tell you right now that this is a word scramble puzzle. I'm sure all of you have played this type of game before, and it should not be difficult to solve. Feel free to turn to your papers I passed out prior, talk among yourself if you need help. I expect a guess from each of you, even if another guessed your answer before you had a chance to."

With that she fell quiet, and waited for her students to deliberate.

Professor Ayers had wasted no time starting their adventure. Luna was ready to go anyway, as the brimming excitement from the lone boy was seemingly infectious, causing her own excitement to begin swelling. She had only ever personally been into the dungeon for classes anyway, and somehow knew this would be an experience many other students would miss out on without a doubt. Luna walked along her fellow students as they followed the Runes Professor.

Luna looked on in curiosity as their guide led them to a locked door. Luna had never really paid too much attention to the dungeons and so this door even existing was a surprise. She quickly moved through the open entrance when ushered forward. A staircase met her on the other side of the door. Descending quickly, but not too quickly, Luna found herself before a long hallway. It looked dreary and dark, showing very few signs anyone had traversed the likely ancient walkway. Once the professor lit the torches lining the hallway many of the shadows retreated,  yet the darkness seemed to linger like a miasma reluctant to be blown away so easily.

They were on the move again in quick order, guided past enigmatic doors begging those with lesser willpower or excessive curiosity to investigate them. A part of Luna wanted to, but she was here for runes. Perhaps later adventures might someday bring her back here. 

Soon the hallway reached a seemingly dead end. Luna noticed the Runes quite quickly as Professor Ayers explained the nature of progression and the puzzle now before them. Words were her forte, whereas numbers not so much. This was Luna's kind of puzzle. She stepped forward enough to be able to see the Runes clearly. The pamphlet, while useful, wasn't needed at this point. The runes were the letters n, r, e, s, and u. While the word was obvious to her at this point, she still didn't get how it helped with the way forward. She shrugged, turning to the Professor.

"My guess is the word 'Runes'. The only other word I can think to make from the letters is nurse. But that doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone else have any other ideas?" She turned to her fellow students, ready to see if anyone had found something she missed. After all how "Runes" allowed them passage was still a mystery.

"Luna, it's really nice to meet you. Yeah, I'm here because runes are fricking awesome." Luna seemed like a nice enough girl, probably on the scholarly, educational side of things, but still, chill enough to be friends with. Maybe they'd become said friends over the course over the day?

Professor Ayers honest to god would be her mom if her mom were a professor. Did that make sense? Maybe? Was Professor Ayers secretly her mom? Well, probably, not, but her point remained the same. The Runes professor was blunt and straight to the point, which Ami appreciated. But, moving on, because things weren't making sense anymore.

Upon arrival at the wall that they were supposed to walk through, Luna had immediately translated the runes on the wall, identifying them as n, r, e, s, and u, saying that it was either Runes or Nurse. "Yeah, uh, runes sounds good," Ami said, blinking rapidly as she marveled at how quickly Luna had translated the runes on the wall. Trying to subtly take out her cheat sheet, Ami double checked that the runes Luna had identified were correct.

She almost opened her mouth to contradict the R, thinking that it was an O, but noticed the faint circle on the left just in time before she completely and utterly embarrassed herself. If she kept this up, all she was going to do was embarrass herself. Time to just shut up and let the adults do the talking. 

Parcel gazed around as they entered the dungeons. This was a part he hadn’t been in before! A new part, not the same old potions room they had permission to walk to alone.
As the professor lit the torches in the corridor they walked in to, Parcel peered around intently. Where was the vampires? Had they run away when they heard someone enter? Was there Vampires lurking the corners, could he see them?
But alas, no Vampires was in sight, Parcel started to think the older students might have said it in an attempt to frighten him.

Sighing a bit, Parcel came up to the same wall the others were looking at. Wasn’t it much easier to walk in one of the doors?
As he peered at the wall, Parcel could notice the runes written it, and as he did, the professor confirmed that they were there, and she also said it was their job to decipher them and put them into a word.
Reading over the runes ones more, Parcel tried translating them, the runes seemed to… um seemed to spell out “Runes”. Like a practical joke? The runes spell runes.

Thinking a bit more, Parcel also came up with the word “nurse” which also could be spelled from the same letters. Could this have been an old nurse’s office or something? Did they have a medical wing in the dungeons before? Hmm, perhaps he would have known if he read over “Hogwarts, a history”… but that might have been the god awful most boring book he had ever laid his eyes on, and no way he would be able to finish that.

Parcel was scratching the scar on his chin as the first student spoke up, it was Luna, which soon after got confirmation from Ami, which had the same thought.
“Um, the school didn’t have any hospital wing’s in the dungeons, did it? So, there wouldn’t be a nurse’s office here, would it?” Parcel looked up at the professor as he spoke “Because if there wasn’t, then I too think its meant to spell runes”

Adelaide leaned back against the stone wall next to the runes as she calmly waited for the children's answer. It was not a difficult puzzle. Adelaide had specifically changed the puzzle so that it wasn't difficult. Previously is was an extremely complicated Latin word related to the origins of Runes that these students would have no way of knowing. This was significantly easier. Honestly, she was more worried the students would think it was some type of trick question it was so simple.

She listened though, as each student guessed the right word. She would have no way of knowing if Parcel and Ami were simply copying Luna in her guess, or if they managed to figure it out themselves. Thinking the best of the students, though, she figured it was easy enough for them to understand as well. They even managed to find the only other word this specific scramble allowed, the word nurse. Adelaide giggled a bit at Parcel when he suggested that there might be an old nurse's station in the dungeons. "No, it's not an old nurse hub, but good guess. Fortunately, you all were correct in guessing Runes. It was rather obvious, but I didn't want to stump you too soon.

With that she turned to the runes on the wall and lifted her hand. Touching each rune she moved them with her fingertips through each other and into their correct space on the wall. This was a magical move, as the stones were set in the wall and could not be moved normally. The spell, though, Ayers chanted in her mind, so the student's would not have a clue on how to return. Not that they could get past the locked door, or figure out the original puzzle once it returns to that state after this. But still, caution.

Once all the runes were in place, the wall began to magically disappear. Slowly fading in opacity until a gaping rectangular black hole was visible. Clearly, the hole lead into another room, but the room, at this very moment, was pitch black and the students would not be able to see anything inside.

This was always an annoying part for most witches and wizards who entered the chamber. The torch light from the hallway could not seem to penetrate through the hole, as if the wall was still there. And so most had to grapple around with the next part of the puzzle. Adelaide, with her half vampyre nature, had a bit of an advantage, with her slightly better night vision. Not amazing, but enough to help guide her wand.

Before she stepped in, she cast Lumos, and her wand lit up a very bright, light blue color. Turning her head toward the children, "If you know this spell, you should cast it now. Follow me very closely, feel free to hold onto my and each other's shirts, and absolutely do not wander off." then she took a few steps into the black hole. Much like the torch light, the Lumos light had a difficult time penetrating the darkness around the small group. It was enough to give some light to Adelaide's night vision, and just enough for her to locate the rune on the wall next to the entry way that she would be looking for.

Before continuing she had the children gather around her, each with their Lumos light. She pushed her wand up close to the rune, and told the others to gather their light there as well. This gave the wall enough light for the students to see the rune Adelaide had located clearly. "This is the Lumos Rune." She started. "Before wands and incantations, there were runes. Every single old spell, that is every spell created before modern times, has a unique rune dedicated to it. Before wands, runes were exclusively used to cast spells. You will learn more about it in my classroom, but for now, understand that Runes are the base of nearly every spell."



With those words, Adelaide touched her lighted wand to the middle of the rune, where the petal-like designs came together. She muttered Lumos' incantation again and the etched rune began to glow with the same blue light as her wand. As it spread through the carving, the students would notice the glow penetrate the darkness, where their wands were unable to. Then the light would continue to spread, revealing more and more runes etched into the wall, spreading quickly to each one until the entire room was lit with the blue light. The students would notice then that the entryway they had come through had been closed, and the wall where it was was covered in runes just like the rest of the perimeter.

It was a beautiful and dazzling sight, and Adelaide would take a moment to let the students sink it in. The room was not very large, probably around the same size as each student's dorm room. It was bare of anything, from furniture to moving pictures so commonly seen in the castle. Instead there was what looked like a stone altar in the middle of the floor, stone just like the rest of the floor, walls and ceiling. It was a rather boring room, if one did not account for the numerous glowing runes in the walls. If they looked closer they would see the altar itself was covered in runes, though these ones would not be glowing with Lumos light.