Chapter 1: Course Enrollment
Harry had serious regrets.
Half-asleep he looked over Hermione and noticed she was blinking profusely - desperately trying to stay attentive. On the pale green chalkboard in front of the drowsy pair stood the middle-aged and voluptuous Professor Bathesba Babbling, inscribing an ancient runic passage. It was half-past nine in the evening and they were still only halfway through the class.
Harry glanced around the empty classroom. It was just the three of them: Harry, Hermione, and Professor Babbling.
The week prior Harry and his fellow 6th years had to do course registration with Professor McGonagall, and Hermione desperately pleaded with Harry and Ron to take Ancient Runes with her. Apparently, there was historically low interest and Hermione was the only student who enrolled. Neither Harry nor Ron was surprised. The night before course registration the three were huddled around the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room.
"Please, please, please!" Hermione pleaded. "It really isn't that boring. All of the oldest texts in the Hogwarts library are written in ancient runes - think of all the magic and history we'll be able to know."
Ron rolled his eyes and set them back to his game of wizard chess, moving a knight that swiftly decapitated a neighbouring pawn.
"I don't know about this one Hermione. Late-night classes really aren't my fancy." Harry sheepishly responded.
"I can show you how interesting it can be!" Hermione shot up from the couch. "I have an idea, grab your invisibility cloak!"
"What!?" Harry looked at Hermione curiously.
"Trust me, we're going to the library!" Hermione took Harry's hand and giddily pulled him up from his reclined position. "You too, Ron!"
"Over my dead nan," Ron replied. He moved his queen which kicked Harry's king in the sack. "I win, and I.. I... I am going to sleep." Ron quietly announced through a fit of yawns.
Harry turned to Hermione and rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay."
Hogwart's Library
Harry quietly followed Hermione's lead under the invisibility cloak, his eyes widening as she took a b-line straight for the restricted section.
"Hermione..." Harry whispered.
"Shhhhhhhh!"
Oddly enough Hermione seemed to be passing the seemingly more interesting books in the section. They passed books of dark magic and honed in on a thick dusty book that was as tall as a house elf. Hermione slowly opened it and began swiftly turning the pages. Harry looked down and saw that the yellowed pages were filled with handwritten runic inscriptions and drawings of various wizards. She stopped and shoved the book in Harry's face.
"Hermione, how do you expect me to read this and why should I care?" Harry stared blankly at the page.
Hermione smiled and simply pointed at a drawing of a wizard with familiar messy black hair, round glasses, and an expression he saw every day in the mirror.
"This is why you should care. Purebloods kept meticulous records of family history, including the Potters. This book has the history of nearly every wizarding family in England. I suspect they keep this book here because there is quite a bit of embarrassing history in this book."
"This is brilliant!" Harry said as he stared back at what looked like an 18th-century version of himself. "But you didn't answer my first question, how do you expect me to read this Can you read it for me?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and smirked.
"Of course, I can read it, I'll be taking ancient runes. But I won't read it for you."
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"Because you'll read it for yourself when you take ancient runes with me."
"Both of you, wake up!" Professor Babbling exclaimed and crossly glared at Harry and Hermione. "Long-day? Or is this all a bit too boring for your fancy?"
Harry and Hermione were now both very much awake and simultaneously glanced at each other - waiting for the other to reply.
"Uh... well..." Harry began.
"Well fuck translating this shit then!" Babbling wiped the text off the board. Harry and Hermione's eyes both went wide.
The professor turned back to them, and she smirked. "Oh come on now! It's just the two of you, I can swear. I get it. I was a student too, and the course material really is quite a drag. It didn't get interesting until I found some interesting text on my own."
"Oh, the course is fine..." Hermione began.
"No need to lie to me through your teeth, Miss Granger." Babbling smirked. She in front of Harry and paused. Harry couldn't meet her eye and just set them on what was in front of him, which was now the sultry Professor's cleavage. Babbling cleared her throat, and Harry caught himself.
"Mr. Potter..." Babbling smirked.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Professor I just -"
"... gave me an idea!" Babbling cut Harry off. "And please enough with the formalities, or you'll be bored to death by the end of the week. Call me Sheby."
Hermione had the same look as a wizard who had just been hit by a petrificus totalus. Harry was taken aback much the same.
Sheby went to her desk, and pulled open a book.
"History and stories about a thousand-year-old monk's day really are quite a bore. There might be some interesting history for Potter, but ancient and forgotten magic - now that on the other hand might be more interesting to the both of you. Did you know that runes aren't just an ancient language?"
Hermione's eyes lit up. "Wait, really? Why didn't it say so in the syllabus?"
"It's not something the ministry is exactly keen for students in particular to know - because..." The professor paused. "Well, I'm not sure how to be less crass about it but students are a horny bunch."
Both Harry and Hermione turned redder than a ripe tomato.
"Runes have magical properties and can be used for particularly special enchantments," Sheby drew her wand and took a small opalescent pendant from her desk and placed it in front of Harry. "All types of magic can be performed with runic enchantments, but certain types of magic like sexual magic are exclusively performed by runic enchantments. Everyone who learns about runic enchantments runs into sexual magic within a week, and that makes running a school quite the hassle."
"Enscriptorio encanto!" A bright yellow glow emanated from her wand, and she drew a series of ancient runes around the pendant with the light. The pendant glowed for a brief moment and just as quickly subsided, leaving a shimmering aura around the pendant.
"For you Harry. This might come in handy." Harry carefully picked up the pendant and eyed it warily.
"What did you do to the pendant?"
"An ancient protection enchantment that wards off simple attack spells, such as disarmament and weakly cast stuns. So long as the pendant is on your person you'll have all the properties you enchant it with. I figured it would come in handy with everything that happened in the ministry." The Professor smiled.
Hermione and Harry looked at each other in awe.
"This is bloody brilliant!" Harry exclaimed.
"When you said 'all the properties you enchant it with', can you put multiple enchantments on a single pendant?" Hermione asked.
"Oh of course. It would be quite the hassle carrying around a hundred pendants in your trousers now, wouldn't it? Sheby casually replied as if this was common knowledge.
The cogs in Hermione's brain seemed to rapidly turn, but then she paused.
"Why are you telling us all this?" Hermione asked.
There was a brief moment of silence that hung in the air.
"I believe this magic is important, even if the ministry believes it is dangerous. And I believe you are both responsible, more so than the last few wizards and witches that were taught this. Omitting the magical side of runes... well runes really are quite boring... and I'd be out of a job if you both drop the course." Sheby shrugged her shoulders.
"And it made my Hogwarts years a lot more fun when I stumbled across it." Sheby bit her lip and briefly averted her gaze from the two students. She looked back with a devilish grin. "It might make things a bit more fun for the two of you as well."
Author's Note:
Hello! Thanks for reading the first chapter of what will hopefully be a fun, smutty little story. As it says in the description, this is meant to be an 18+ story and the erotica will get a bit steamy once the groundwork has been established.