A/N: In case anyone wonders exactly what the Merlin are Younger Futhork and Medieval Futhark while reading this chapter, they're versions of the Runic alphabet. Etruskan is another type of ancient alphabet, which the other two possibly derived from.
Chapter 21: Runes Class
Leaving the Potions classroom, the girls and I found James, Remus, and Peter standing around outside, probably waiting for Sirius, who was still in the classroom scrubbing off mucus.
"Hey, Luna, got a minute?" James asked as we approached them.
I told Lily, Emma, Dorcas, and Mary that I'd see them later, after Ancient Runes class, since I was the only 7th year Gryffindor girl taking it. Then I approached the three Marauders, my hand in my pocket, next to my wand. Just in case.
"A bit paranoid, are we?" James observed, smiling, apparently having noticed my mistrust even though I was trying to be subtle about it.
"Shouldn't I be?" I asked, smiling back, and studying the boys' face for signs of mischief. Growing up with my brother James, I'd gotten pretty damn good at spotting them: eyes slightly too wide in a slightly exaggerated look of innocence, or a tiny flicker of amusement at the corners of the mouth. Fortunately, I didn't see anything of the sort on the boys' faces. James looked amused, sure, but not in a way that suggested he was hiding something, and he had his hands where I could see them. Remus and Peter only gave me polite smiles of acknowledgement because they were still discussing the potion we had all just finished making.
"Well, maybe you should. But I'm still offended you don't trust me, of all people." said James, dramatically bringing his hand to his chest.
I scoffed. "Yeah. You are best friends with the git, are you not?"
"Sure. But see, if I side with Sirius, you stand absolutely no chance." James explained. "And I'm enjoying this little rivalry too much to let it end that quickly. So, until further notice, I'm Switzerland."
"Really?" I asked, my eyes narrowed and my suspicion still not all cleared. "Swear on your honor."
"Swear on my honor." repeated James, sticking out his hand for me to shake. "I shall remain neutral in this conflict."
I accepted, a bit relieved to be honest. James seemed like the type to take his honor seriously, so I decided I had reason enough to trust him again.
"Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I was thinking of having a little get-together tomorrow night, a sort of welcome party for you." James revealed the reason he had called me over, "I figure as Head Boy it's practically my duty to make a new student feel welcome."
"Oh!" I said, surprised but rather honored. "What kind of party?"
"Just us older students at the Gryffindor Tower." he explained. "A bit of music, lots of snacks, a drinking game or two."
"We wanted to ask if you prefer butterbeer, or firewhiskey." put in Peter, who, along with Remus, had turned to join the conversation.
"There's a right and a wrong answer here." James said pointedly before I had a chance to reply.
"Pay no attention to him." Remus countered, giving James a look. "Not everyone likes to get shit-face drunk like you and Padfoot."
"Yeah," James brushed him off, "but I have a feeling Luna here is one of us."
"Firewhiskey sounds good." I confirmed, smiling. I mean, not that I wanted to get shit-face drunk, as Remus put it; I prefer my alcohol in moderate amounts after a couple of bad experiences in sixth year. But butterbeer? What were we, third years? Yet, I've never particularly liked the taste of firewhiskey.. Reconsidering, I added, "Although..my favorite's definitely Knotgrass Mead. Maybe get a bottle of both?"
"Knotgrass Mead." Petter thought aloud. "I'm sure Rosemerta's got some."
"Hey!" said James, suddenly excited. "What's your last class tomorrow?"
"Herbology, why?" I remembered because I had two free periods after that, which made Friday a very good day for me.
"Excellent." James grinned. "Us too. Fancy tagging along on our run to Hogsmeade?"
"Er.." I wasn't sure how to answer, since that 'us' certainly included Sirius.
"It's a small village outside the school." Remus explained, mistaking my hesitance for confusion. "Rather quaint, but they've got some nice shops."
"Yeah, you'll love it if you've never been before!" Peter told me.
"Well, the thing is," I started, looking at James, "You may be Switzerland, but no one else promised me neutrality. Especially right now, I don't think Sirius is very happy with me. It'd be a bit stupid of me to galavanting somewhere completely unfamiliar with a bloke who's holding a grudge and his three best friends."
"Well.." said James thoughtfully. "What if he agrees to make the trip off limits to pranking? Or at least, anything extreme."
"Alright!" I said after a moment of thought. "But only if he agrees." Honestly though, I was super excited to be going to Hogsmeade with the Marauders! They were the whole reason I got to sneak out there as much as I did back in my time with Emily and Hugo. And just overall, they seemed like a fun bunch. Dangerous, but fun. I bet we would take one of the secret passages on their map. It'd probably be one I'd already used a hundred times over, but still, I expected they knew a lot of Hogwarts secrets they never got to writing down anywhere and passing on to posterity. I sort of wished I could share my secrets, too, but knew it was too early for me to have an excuse to know any.
"So, after Herbology, then?" James asked.
"After Herbology." I confirmed, before giving the three of them a wave and hurrying off, a tad bit late to Ancient Runes.
Thankfully, the class was on the second floor, so I didn't have to run up too many flights of stairs to make it there. But still, Professor Babbling was already talking when I walked in. I sat down in the only empty seat, and took out some parchment to take a few notes. Generally, I'm not one to write things down, but notetaking was a bit of a necessity in Runes class, since it was otherwise impossible to memorize all the foreign-looking characters.
After another minute the Professor finished talking, and we were given an assignment to translate a passage of some runic scripture.
"Five points from Gryffindor for your tardiness, Miss Porter." Babbling said as she walked past, giving me the page I was to translate.
"Merlin.." I said as I examined what was written on the parchment. "What language is this? I don't know any of it.."
"It's Etruskan." answered the rather small Ravenclaw boy with whom I was sharing a desk. When that obviously didn't clear it up for me, he asked "Need some help?"
"Yeah, that'd be great." I said with a bit of relief, turning to the him. And then I noticed something. His two front teeth, and the way they overlapped a little..
"Erm, I'm Cassius. Cassius Ackerley." he said, reaching out a hand and no longer showing his teeth. I guess I was staring a bit.
But it wasn't because I was trying to be rude or anything. I was staring because I was reminded of someone I knew, and I realized whom right when he said his name: Cassius Ackerley happened to be my old Ancient Runes professor. He had the same smile, but the curly brown hair he had in my time had been peppered with gray. Also, the boy I was looking at seemed a bit nervous to be talking to me, while as a professor Ackerley had been always cool-headed and self-assured.
"Oh!" I suddenly realized he was expecting me to shake his hand, and not just keep staring at him. "I'm Luna Porter."
"You're the transfer student then, in Gryffindor? Well at least now I'm not the only one in the class who doesn't fit in." I raised my eyebrows and he explained, "I'm a fourth year. The only one here."
"But isn't this N.E.W.T. level?" I asked, a bit confused.
"Yeah, but when I started this class I was already a bit ahead, so they let me skip a few years."
"A few years? You mean three?" If I hadn't been staring at him in amazement before, I was now. "What are you, some sort of genius brainiac?"
Ackerley blushed a little. "No, I haven't skipped ahead in any of my other classes! I've just always had an interest in history and ancient languages."
I nodded, smiling because I got a sudden image in my head of a baby popping into the world, ready to start translating Proto-Norse. "So why Ancient Runes?"
"It's my uncle," Ackerley explained. "I was raised by him, and he owns an antique store down in Diagon Alley. Or, it's more of a bookstore than an antique store - almost all of it is books, old books. My uncle sort of collects them."
"Hm." I said, but not in a disinterested way. I mean, normally I wouldn't want to sit around and listen to any old bloke's life story, but this bloke was the one who assigned the project which led me to the past in the first place… Also, he was skilled with reading runes, and he was telling me about an uncle who specializes in old books! It just all seemed somehow connected to me, like too much of a coincidence to ignore.
Ackerley was still talking, his cheeks a bit pink. "I spent a lot of time in there. Bartleby's Antiques, it's called. My uncle taught me how to read some of the books, so by the time I was a third year, I was pretty familiar with both the Younger Futhork and Medieval Futhark alphabets, which is all you really learn at the O.W.L. level. So I took the test, did alright, and they let me skip ahead."
"You took an O.W.L. in third year?" I asked flatly.
"Well, the end of second." corrected Cassius.
"You know, it would normally wound my pride to get classwork help from a fourth year," I admitted, staring at him now for a completely different reason, "But with you, I'll make an exception."
"Just with Runes." put in Cassius, seeming desperate to prove he wasn't some sort of freak."I probably couldn't help you with anything else."
It was a bit funny to see him like this, as someone obviously used to being teased, and compare him to the older man I used to know. The older Ackerley hadn't hesitated to give me detention for setting off a few Exploding Whizz Poppers in his classroom once. The Ackerley in front of me seemed glad that I was even talking to him.
Luckily, with a lot of help from Cassius, I was able to finish the assignment by the end of the class period.
Unluckily, it looked like the homework was also in Etruskan. And even if I could've found a dictionary in the library, it would still take an eternity to look up every single word.
But Cassius seemed to notice my disheartened look and came to the rescue once again.
"Would you want to meet me in the library one of these days? You should probably copy my notes from earlier, and I could help if you have trouble again." he said as we left the classroom.
"Oh Merlin, yes!" I said, relieved. "When are you free?"
"I'm in the library most days." he told me. "Except Wednesdays, which is Frog Choir practice. But our next class is Tuesday, so you'd probably want to meet before then."
"Er, yeah." I said. 'In the library most days?' I really pitied the kid. "Well, I have plans tomorrow, so how about Saturday night?"
"Sure." he said, giving me a wave as our ways parted, and I walked off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower.
A/N: I wonder, does anyone remember a Professor Ackerley from Chapter 1? Hehe, probably not since he didn't make much of an appearance. He's the one Lily Luna had to hide from in the trophy room on her way back from the kitchens, so he's been a long time coming! Lol. He's one of the very few important characters in here that I made up 100%.
As for what you guys had to say about Lily Luna's mystery lover… Looks like there were 3 votes/guesses for Snape and 1 for Sirius. Ah, I really want to comment but I shall refrain! Lol. No one wants me to spoil it, right? And anyway, I imagine how things develop with Lily Luna and ? is probably more important and interesting than the simple fact of who it is. At least I hope so. But if anyone has any questions that they need answered because it will totally make or break this story for them, feel free to PM me!
Beta spot still open. I'd be awesome if someone other than my barely willing boyfriend could proofread for me! Lol.
(Edit Note: I posted a bunch of character sketches on deviantArt! There's a link in my profile (looks like I'm not allowed to put links directly in here). You guys should check it out! They're in my scrap gallery because the photos aren't the best quality, and most of them aren't colored, but if there's interest I can scan and photoshop them in the future!)
Remember to review please :D