Chapter 8 - Deepest Desires and Ancient Runes
Despite his best efforts, Barney had not made any progress with deciphering the book he had found in the South Tower. And other than Thomas and Tabitha he hadn't told anyone else about finding it.
That afternoon he had an Ancient Runes class where he planned to ask Professor Dufour for his help. But first he had double Transfiguration where they were continuing with transforming animals into various items and then Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Barney was glad when he arrived at his Dark Arts class to see Professor Night from Ilvermorny stood at the front of the classroom. A lesson with Professor Grim would only have dampened his mood especially after how bad the class detention had been with her. For their detention Professor Grim had made the whole class sit in silence. At first the students didn't think it was that bad. However she insisted that for the whole detention everyone had to sit up straight and look forwards at all times. The detention was meant to last two hours but every time a student spoke, took their eyes off the front or started to slouch she added an extra five minutes. By the end the class had sat there for over four hours. It made Barney's detention with Filch in the South Tower look like a picnic.
Barney took his seat next to Thomas and hoped for a more riveting lesson than his last Dark Arts class.
Professor Night was dressed very casual in a blue cardigan which had an emblem on the left breast that Barney presumed was the Ilvermorny logo. He also had on a white shirt, brown slacks and a pair of brown boat shoes. He was perched against the front of his desk as he waited for everyone to arrive, nonchalantly scanning the pages of a book he held in front of him. He looked up from his book and saw that the class looked full so he snapped the book shut and placed it on the desk beside him. "So who's going to tell me what you did with Professor Grim last lesson?" Night asked, still casually leaning against his desk before pointing at a student who had his hand up.
"We learnt about werewolves Sir," Maximille answered.
"OK good but please no Sir, my name is Artimus or Art for short. I don't mind which, just no Sir or Professor."
The class were all warming to him very quickly as another student explained in detail what Grim had taught them about werewolves.
"So she taught you all werewolves are dangerous did she?" Professor Night replied sounding a bit surprised. "I actually have a good friend who's a werewolf and apart from shedding fur on the carpet he's no problem at all."
The whole class laughed and Barney really hoped that Professor Grim was up in her office and could hear how much fun they were having with their new teacher.
"OK who can tell me about some of the things you've learnt about in your other years?" Night said before he started picking students at random to answer.
"Banshees," Emery Lawtey called out.
"The Submersi curse," said Odette McCoy.
"Grindylows," Astrid Petticoat added.
"Nasty creatures those," Night interjected before pointing to Tabitha.
"Boggarts," she replied.
"Ah Boggarts. I remember the first time I saw one of those when I was a student," Night said as he started to pace up and down the front of the class. "Do you know what it turned into for me? Myself, but an older version of myself. When I was your age the thing that frightened me most was getting old and dying. And it's the one thing magic can't stop. Well not unless you're willing to do some seriously dark magic. But that's a topic for another day," he said turning back to the class and almost shaking himself out of his own mind and returning to the room.
"What did you turn your Boggart into to stop it Art?" Tabitha asked.
"That first time nothing. I froze and couldn't do anything. My teacher had to banish it for me. They are really quite powerful creatures Boggarts. Now who here has heard of a Wunsch? They're very similar to a Boggart in that they take on different forms depending on who's presence they're in."
"I have Sir, I mean Artimus," Gwen said. "But aren't they very rare?"
"Yes they're very rare and very hard to catch. Who knows what sets them apart from Boggarts?" Professor Night pointed to Everard who had his hand up at the back of the class.
"They don't show you your fears but instead they show you what you desire the most," Everard answered.
"Excellent but it only shows you materialist desires, physical objects say for instance a sack of gold or a pet Abraxan, it wouldn't show you being a great Quidditch player or becoming the Minister for Magic. And it's showing you these desires that makes them even more dangerous than a Boggart. Whereas a Boggart you would naturally fear and try and defend yourself against, anyone unsuspecting who's confronted by a Wunsch would not fear it but would instead embrace it. And once a Wunsch gets hold of you it will consume you and ultimately kill you." Professor Night opened a case that sat on his desk and pulled out a large glass jar and showed it to the class. "And it just so happens that I have one right here."
The class sat in stunned silence as they looked at the jar. Whereas a Boggart had no natural form, the Wunsch was a large cloud of grey smoke like substance that swirled around the jar.
"How comes it's not changing?" Silvanna asked as everyone still watched the cloud intently.
"Oh but it has changed. For me anyway. Unlike the Boggart when a Wunsch shows the person's desires, only the person it is changing for can see what form it takes, everyone else sees it as a cloud still."
"So what do you see Art?" Velyan asked.
"Now that would be telling," Professor Night replied with a wink. "So who wants to give it a go? Don't worry it's perfectly safe, securely contained within the jar."
The students were quick to form a queue in front of Night's desk and one by one they went up to the jar and looked at the Wunsch. The students were enraptured as they came face to face with their desires and most were quick to share with their friends what they had seen.
"Mine was a new telescope," one student said.
"I saw the Elder Wand," another excitedly said.
"What did you see?" Barney asked Thomas after his turn.
"I saw a leather bound, signed first addition of The Art of Metamorphosis & Transfiguration."
Barney knew that Transfiguration was Thomas' favourite class, but he thought his friend would have a better desire than a book.
What did you see?" Thomas asked back.
"A Lightning broom."
"I should have guessed. I wonder what Tabitha saw?" Thomas pondered as Tabitha stood back from the jar having just taken her turn.
"Probably Hamish," Barney joked as Tabitha walked over to them, her face a little pale.
"Are you alright?" Thomas asked her but she didn't seem to hear him.
"Tabs what's wrong? What did you see?" Barney said as he waved his hand in her face to get her attention and she gave him a strange look.
"What? Oh sorry. Erm... it was a pet puffskein," she uttered as she walked past them and back to her desk.
As Barney and Thomas watched Tabitha absent mindedly flicking through her text book, Barney turned to his friend. "A pet? Seriously? Do you get the feeling she's not telling us the truth?"
After the last student had looked into the Wunsch jar, Professor night placed it securely back inside his case.
"Artimus, how would you stop a Wunsch if you ever saw one?" Astrid asked as she took a seat back at her desk.
"Well the trouble with stopping one is first you have to know when you're confronted by one. If you desired a unicorn and you saw one next to you what would you do? You'd go up and stroke it and it would be too late. Obviously if you're with someone else they won't see the same thing as you so they can warn you. Secondly Wunsch can't be killed. They will die eventually but only if they haven't fed for long enough. So the only way to stop one is to capture it and you do that with a Patronus Charm."
"What's a Patronus Charm?" Theo asked.
"That is a subject for another day as we're at the end of the lesson. Your homework is to not get attached by any Boggarts or Wunschs before our next lesson," he joked.
The class laughed and Barney thought how much better this Dark Arts lesson had been compared to Professor Grim's and wished that Artimus could take all their lessons.
After lunch Barney made his way up to the sixth floor for his Ancient Runes lesson and was excited at the prospect of getting some answers about the runes in the book he had found. When he got to the classroom he saw Thomas at their usual desk and went over and sat next to him.
"Hey, did you see Tabitha at lunchtime?" Barney asked. "Was she still acting weird?"
"No I didn't see her, she was probably off with Hamish somewhere. Did you manage to do the Runes homework? That text was hard to translate," Thomas said as Professor Dufour walked into the classroom.
Professor Selwyn Dufour had been teaching Ancient Runes at Hogwarts for the last three years, having previously taught at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic before a brief break where he travelled around Eastern Europe studying medieval Vampire runes. With a French father and an English mother, Dufour was fluent in both languages from a young age as well as twelve other languages so it was no surprise that he developed a love of runes and translation. He was in his early forties, slim build, luxurious flowing brown hair, an olive complexion and a pencil thin moustache. Some would say he had a matinee idol look about him and he was very popular amongst his students.
As Ancient Runes was an elective subject only ten students had decided to take it so the class was small which Barney was glad of as it meant it would be easier to get Professor Dufour's attentions to ask him about the runes he had found.
"Today class we will be diving in to the world of merpeople and studying ancient Aquan runes. Please turn to page twenty-two of your text books," he said as he bewitched a piece of chalk to start drawing some runes on the blackboard.
Professor Dufour had the class translating a stone tablet that was over ten thousand years old and came from Atlantis.
"So are you going to ask Professor about your runes?" Thomas asked as he took a break from his translation.
"Yeah when he next comes over I'll ask him if he knows what they are," Barney said as he retrieved a piece of parchment from his page. "I've copied down just the three from the first page for now."
"And what are you going to tell him about how you came across them?"
"Hopefully he won't ask."
Thomas didn't think much to Barney's plan.
By the time Professor Dufour came over to their desk Barney had nearly finished the translation of the Atlantean text.
"You two are very quiet today. I haven't stumped you with this translation have I?" the professor asked as he looked down at their work.
"Oh no we've just been very absorbed in it. It's so fascinating learning about new runes," Barney replied and Thomas started to cringe and had to turn away from the Professor, not wanting to be part of his friend's lies.
"Actually Professor I was wondering if you could help me with something?"
"Yes sure Barney, what is it?"
Barney pulled the parchment from underneath his work and showed it to his teacher who looked at it curiously.
"Do you know what these mean Professor?"
"Where did you get these from Barney?" Dufour asked suspiciously.
"Er... well.." Barney replied as he tried to quickly think of a lie, "it's a puzzle... set by one of the seventh year prefects," he said but felt extremely bad about lying to a teacher.
"Well this is very advance stuff, even for a seventh year. I'm impressed."
"So do you know what they mean?" Barney asked again.
"Well this one here," Dufour said as he pointed to the first symbol on the parchment, "is an old Sumerian rune meaning land. But then this one here is Celtic in origin and means fire. This last one though is not from any language I recognise. And you say a seventh year did this?"
Barney hated having to continue lying to a teacher but he nodded in agreement.
"Well the last one could be made up. I'd hate to see you waste your time on a silly puzzle that can't be solved. And don't let it distract you from your work. You're doing excellent with this Atlantean translation so far. Keep it up."
Professor Dufour headed off to the next table as Barney turned to Thomas with a look of joy on his face.
"We're finally getting somewhere," he said with a contented smile.
"We are? You still don't know what the last rune is and what any of it means. Land and water? So what? How is that going to reveal what's written on the pages? And there might not even be anything on the pages."
Barney was a little disappointed that his friend didn't share his enthusiasm. He now knew two languages that the runes came from. As soon as he could he would head to the library to get books on Sumerian and Celtic runes and start trying to translate the other pages. He was determined that before long he would find out what secrets the book held.