Written for the Houses Competition

House: Ravenclaw

Category: Themed

Prompt: Ancient Runes

Word count: 1112

Remus sighed as he walked along the back wall of the library, gently running his fingers along the stone. He had been looking for more resources for his Ancient Runes essay, but he hadn't found anything. Suddenly he stopped as he felt steep ridges in the stone, almost as if someone had chiseled part of it away.

Remus crouched down and pulled out his wand. "Lumos," he muttered.

In the dim glow of the wand light, Remus saw that someone had carefully carved runes into the wall. He pulled a piece of parchment and a quill of his satchel and copied down the writing.

Heading back to the dormitory, Remus' mind stayed on the runes. He didn't know why he had copied them down, perhaps he just liked the idea of a challenge. For some reason, Remus felt drawn to look at the parchment again and again as he walked.

Soon, Remus was back in the dormitory. He sat on his bed and pulled out his Ancient Runes textbook, setting it beside the parchment.

"How'd your book hunt go, Moony?" James asked from his own bed.

"Not well," Remus responded, his eyes skimming quickly over the pages of runes and their meanings. Finding a match, he turned to the parchment and wrote the meaning on it.

"So I've been thinking about our next prank," James began. "I think we should use the passage to the teachers' lounge and do a prank in there."

"Okay," Remus responded, writing another translation on the parchment. He put down his quill and picked up the parchment.

If you seek me, I will come.

If you leave me, I will run.

What was that supposed to mean? And why would someone carve it into the wall of a library? Remus read and re-read the writing, ignoring when Sirius and Peter came in and started helping James plan the prank.

After several minutes, the parchment was yanked out of Remus' hands by a summoning spell. He looked up to see Sirius catching the parchment and setting it down.

"Two questions, then you can have your fascinating parchment back," Sirius said sarcastically. "Is it technically in the teachers' lounge if we're standing just inside the hidden passageway?"

Remus shook his head, smiling in exasperation.

"And if you supervise us, it's not technically against the rules to do magic, right?" Sirius continued.

"Sort of," Remus began, "you'll still be outside the designated study areas."

Sirius sighed dramatically as Remus summoned his parchment.

•••

The next day was a Saturday, and Remus spent most of the morning doing homework and trying to figure out what the translation of the runes he had found meant. He suspected it might be a riddle but wasn't sure. It was a strange thing to carve in a library. James, Sirius, and Peter were deep in a game of Wizard's Chess when it finally clicked.

"'If you seek me, I will come. If you leave me, I will run.' Carved into the wall of a library. Books? No, 'if you seek me'; seek? Knowledge!" Remus shouted finally, earning him some disapproving looks.

"What about it?" James asked, capturing Sirius' knight with his rook.

"That's the answer to the riddle: 'If you seek me, I will come. If you leave me, I will run.' Knowledge," Remus explained excitedly.

"How does that make sense?" Sirius asked, glaring at the chessboard as if it was the board's fault he was losing.

"Think about it, Sirius. If you try to learn you always will, even if it's just that you don't like the thing you're learning about. But if you don't use the things you've learned, you'll forget them." Remus stood up and grabbed his bag. "I'll be right back," he said, before quickly leaving the common room.

•••

Remus entered the library and immediately slowed his pace. He nodded politely at the librarian before making a beeline for the back wall. It took him a while to find the words, but he managed.

Kneeling down, Remus ran his fingers over the runes. He pulled out his wand and tapped the stone muttering the word 'knowledge'. Slowly and silently the stones moved aside, revealing a small doorway. Remus smiled at his success. He glanced around to make sure that nobody was watching and stepped through the doorway.

As the door shut magically behind him, Remus lit his wand. The tunnel roof wasn't high but it looked like it got higher further up. It was full of cobwebs and dust that looked like it hadn't been disturbed in centuries. Remus started forward cautiously. As he had expected, the ceiling rose after a short while so he was able to walk without crouching down. After Remus had been walking for what felt like a long time, the tunnel came to a spiral staircase. Taking a deep breath, Remus started up it, and by the time he got to the top, he was completely out of breath.

The tunnel ended at a door. Not a door behind a picture, a proper door. Remus opened it cautiously and looked out. The room was large and circular, and the ceiling came to a point in the middle. What surprised Remus was that the walls were covered in hundreds of books and scrolls.

Like the tunnel, the room looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Remus stepped out of the tunnel and onto what appeared to be a glass floor, painted or charmed on it were thousands of stars. Tentatively, Remus started to approach one of the walls.

"Nobody's found my library in a long time, you know."

Remus jumped and spun around towards the feminine voice. Behind him, was a painting of Rowena Ravenclaw.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Would you rather I not have found it?" Remus asked.

The portrait of Rowena laughed. "No, but I would prefer you kept it a secret," she answered.

Remus nodded. "What language are all the books in?" he asked, looking around.

"Well, seeing as they're magical, they're in whatever language you want them to be in."

Remus nodded. He walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled down one of the volumes: 'The Runes of Old'.

"May I borrow this book for my homework?" Remus asked, looking down at the cover.

"Of course. As long as you are careful with them and don't tell anyone where you got them, you may borrow any of these books," Rowena answered, smiling.

"Thank you, Rowena," Remus said sincerely. "I'll bring it back safely." He opened his satchel and carefully tucked the book in. After one last glance around the room, he smiled at Rowena and headed back down the stairs.