Harry Potter: A Certain Ancient Rune Professor of Hogwarts (TL)

“The Rune ‘sun wheel’, describes a dynamic process of rising, of change … can indicate the rising of the sun, the change of will, in particular, it refers to the change of will influenced by magic… …and the path to success, the honour achieved by the strong will of the individual …”

While Felix spoke eloquently from the podium, Professor Griselda Marchbanks, who is seated in the back row, stared in amazement.

She is very old, a bit deaf, so she was about to use a magic spell to improve her hearing – a spell that would put her in an irritable mood after using it for a long time, like a thousand bees buzzing in her ears, so she only uses it on important occasions, such as the annual wizarding level tests. But she suddenly realized that before she could draw her wand, Felix’s voice was already ringing loud and clear in her ears.

The key point is that – as she looked around – no one else felt any discomfort at all, which meant that Felix had silently managed to reach her alone.

In addition to that, as she looked at a bright symbol that Felix held in his palm, she also solved a doubt as to why this young kid dared to state in front of her, the examiner, that ‘this part of knowledge may appear in the O.W.Ls exam’ a while before …

Because this is a practical ancient rune. There are not many people who can be more vocal in this field other than this young professor and his students.

At best, there are some alchemists, but they are only slightly dabbled in it, and their research direction is still the application of runes in alchemy.

Except for these people, no one even from the Wizarding Examinations Authority could participate in the test question selection; What about the people from the Ancient Rune Society? – she glanced at the old man whose eyes also widened, knowing full well in her heart – they couldn’t either.

A student raised her hand.

“Miss Greengrass?”

“Um, so it’s a dual-purpose rune? Both a translational and a practical kind?” Daphne asked.

“That’s right,” Felix nodded towards her, “you can interpret it that way.”

At that moment, the Hedstrom Vera sitting in the back row stared at the Rune in Felix’s hand and froze for a moment, and rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then with an ecstatic expression on his face, he followed Daphne’s example and also raised his hand, looking at Felix with bated breath.

“Well … what do you think about this, Mr. Vera?” Felix stifled a smile and asked.

“It’s like this,” Hedstrom Vera said in a smug tone as his eyes widened, “I also studied this Rune, only the way I taught myself to write it wasn’t quite the same as yours.” He held out his chubby fingers and pointed to the rune and said, “And I’m pretty sure this one of yours is different from the one marked in the Ancient Rune Book too, the correct way would look like … er …”

From the podium, Felix matched the speed of his speech and angled the rune in midair slightly, with a little added curvature on either side of it, “Is this right?”

Strangely enough, when he did so, the rune immediately became dull and lost its lustre.

“… is correct.” The old man showed an uncomprehending expression.

Felix looked at the crowd below the podium.

“Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Vera,” he said happily, seemingly genuinely grateful, “and that’s what I need you all to notice.”

The students stared at him with wide eyes.

“I have recently made a new discovery: many runes that are considered to be a translational kind of rune are actually a variation or typo of certain practical runes, and I guess it may be the result happened due to a long time … so I intend to give you a quick recap of what you have learned in the past in the near future.”

“For example, take this sample in front of you, the translatable rune looks like a slightly curved stroke of lightning, or a flat, angled letter ‘S’; and the practical rune,” Felix readjusted the rune in his hand so that the students could see the whole change, with the curved lines were gradually straightened, like –

“Flipped over Capital letter ‘N’, with top and bottom tips slightly out.” He said. The symbol in his hand was also re-lit, shimmering with hazy light.

Hedstrom Vera’s face stifled red, and he couldn’t utter a word.

“The proof for this is in the grimoire of two medieval wizards in the library, The Will to Magic and Derek Audlin’s Notes, which come from a wizard with high-level magical attainment and an apprentice wizard respectively, and this can be judged from the depth of the content recorded by both … They wrote the same runes, but with slightly different writing styles in their notes. A reasonable guess is that the former knew what those runes really looked like, while the latter just copied it, or was simply a lazy kid …”

Hedstrom Vera looked around, the students are all busy looking down and taking notes, only he had nothing in front of him … he suddenly thought of a good idea.

Crabbe felt his back being poked hard, and then heard a muffled voice saying, “Fatty!”

Fatty?

He turned back in annoyance, staring at the similarly disproportionate Hedstrom Vera with unkind eyes, and it took him a few seconds to realize that the man behind him had come to observe, and he looked blankly at the vice president of the Ancient Rune Society as if he had been under a Confundus Charm.

“Fatty! Hey!” Old Vera waved his wand in front of Crabbe, “Lend me your parchment and quill to copy.”

Crabbe looked confused, as if he didn’t understand him.

Old Vera stared at him, and after a few seconds of stalemate, his wand pointed nimbly: “Accio Parchment, Accio Quill… Nice, Geminio! Geminio!”

Old Vera looked at the replica in his hand and nodded in satisfaction. “Here, your stuff.” He handed Crabbe’s stuff back to him. With that, he began to take notes.

He must check all the information that the boy mentioned, who knows if it was made up along the way, must not let the boy get away with it!

He thought indignantly as he took notes and soon filled a parchment.

Felix looked at everything from the podium, and spoke in a pleasant tone, he anticipated this scene already, and he knew that Professor Marchbanks and old Vera intended to stay for a short period of time, which meant he should prepare a few more lessons like this.

The thinking room – class, the stone basin, even the classroom seven, all of these could be considered.

The only thing that made him hesitate was that Felix hadn’t thought about whether to show the true level of the students; he figured that he had the power to suggest practical runes for the test, but he might not be able to intervene when it came to the translation part.

If they really raise the difficulty, the student will have to worry about the … worry about the … Huh? It doesn’t seem like a big deal.

Felix pondered, there are only so many translatable runes, and the range of exams from left to right is not beyond what is already uncovered in the magic handbook.

In addition, the Ancient Rune Society publishes a magazine every once in a while, and the release interval mainly depends on when new findings are available.

The library at Hogwarts had ordered a few copies, but as far as he could see, no one read them, and they are still as good as new, as they were twenty years ago. He can read them all in one morning on a weekend.

…

Finally, the bell rang and the students streamed out, leaving only three adults in the classroom. Felix is just about to say something when the short Professor Marchbanks comes up with a rush, grabbing his hand and busily enquiring.

“What was the spell you just used?”

“Just a simple adaptation of the Amplifying Charm.” Felix replied with uncertainty.

“A simple adaptation!” Professor Marchbanks looked at him in surprise, “It seems you haven’t fallen behind in your study of magic spells … But do you have any better remedies for elderly folks with weak ears?”

“Of course, I know a spell: ‘Clarity Ear’, Professor Flitwick researched this one …” (*made up spell*)

Felix smiled as he talked with Professor Marchbanks, which somewhat relieved the embarrassment of the other man in the room.

Hedstrom Vera breathed a silent sigh of relief, all of a sudden he felt afraid of facing this young man alone, Felix Hap had shaken the career that had sustained him for half a century with a single lesson.

He lost some of his composure, his own granddaughter would chatter and yap about the scenes in the company of ‘Future World’ vividly each time she returned.

“Mr. Vera … Mr. Vera?” A voice seemed to come from beyond the sky.

“What is it?” Old Vera responded casually.

“… nothing,” Felix measured him impassively, “just now Professor Marchbanks asked your opinion, after all, she doesn’t really know much about ancient runes, and it is said that you volunteered to join –”

“Oh, uh,” said old Vera, straightening his body, assuming the face of one who is preparing for a duel, and saying righteously, “Ahem! We can’t jump to conclusions just yet … There’s a lot of vagueness that I need to look up, er, I mean, I need to sort through.”

“Sure, no problem.” Felix said with a smile, “Then it’s a deal, I’ll be waiting for your report.” He sighed in a feigned manner, “Professor Marchbanks, Mr. Vera, you two may not know that I have been carrying a tremendous amount of pressure for the past two years …”

“Pressure?” Professor Marchbanks looked at him sceptically.

Old Vera also showed an astonished expression, with the intention of listening properly.

“… Yes, you two may not be aware that I didn’t choose the advanced ancient rune class when I was in school, and I have improved over the past few years by self-study, and correspondence with Professor Babbling, so when I first joined, I was afraid that I would teach my students poorly.”

Professor Marchbanks looked at him with an odd expression, the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes stretched out because of her widened eyes, and she confirmed it with a rare hesitant tone, “You said you were afraid that you would teach your students poorly, yet consequently, all the students who graduated last year received O except for one student who got E?”

“Uh …”

“And as far as I know, a third of the students who took the exam at that time finished answering their papers a little early.” Professor Marchbanks said slowly, “I’m deaf, but I still remember some chatter between a young couple very vividly near the end of the exam.”

“What did they say?” Felix asked briskly, as if he was genuinely curious.

“One of them said, ‘The paper was so easy, I’m about to throw up after checking it five times.’ The other said: ‘Just this once, bear with it, I’ve checked it six times …\'” Professor Marchbanks pursed her lips and repeated dryly.

Old Vera also stood frozen in place, a portion of the annual O.W.Ls exam questions were prepared by the Ancient Rune Society. He couldn’t help but clench the parchment in his hand, which had a bunch of questions waiting for him to confirm it.

For the next few minutes, the three acted as if that conversation hadn’t happened at all.

————

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