Raven hummed as he idly shaped a bit of his dawn energy into random forms as he sat at the edge of Minerva's desk, said teacher was currently in the form of a cat and just watching him.
"Don't look at me like that, it's not even that portent." Raven rolled his eyes as he tossed it up and flicked it, the dawn energy in the form of an orb now was flicked before it broke into tiny sparkles of energy falling down.
Of course he was also fibbing, the amount of energy inside of that orb had been enough to destroy part of the castle, but he wasn't going to say that, he liked not having claw marks on his face.
"Professor Inanis?" A timid voice asked and Raven looked down towards the student he sensed entering the room and smiled friendly towards them.
"Yes?" He asked as he hopped off the desk.
"Can we sit anywhere or are there assigned seats?" They asked and Raven waved his hand around.
"Sit anywhere you like, I know I did when I was a student." He whispered like it was some big secret as the new student smiled and ran to get a seat near the front.
He noted idly they were a Ravenclaw, so he wasn't surprised with them being early.
He let a brief amount of his magic spread through the floor and form a rune inside the floor, it would let him keep track of the students magic output and thus letting him overpower their spells canceling them out.
Thirty minutes later and everyone thankfully on time and present, he stood up from Minerva's desk he had chosen to lean against.
"Welcome to Transfiguration, I'm glad to see everyone managed to find their way here and on time. Now then, before we begin, let me say this, in the words of Professor McGonagall, there will be no goofing around, transfiguration is a very dangerous branch of wand waving magic, she nor I will tolerate any tom foolery. Those of you who can't take this class serious…" Raven paused for dramatic effect as the cat on the desk jumped and turned into Minerva.
"Will be banned from ever attending my class again." She finished with a stern look on her face.
"Thank you for that brilliant introduction Mr. Inanis. Now then, please open your textbooks to chapter one, before we begin, you must understand the basic formulas for transfiguration." Minerva said as she waved her hand, he noted her wand hidden inside her sleeve, and all the books flipped to the correct page.
Raven took that moment to slink back to the desk and lean against it, keeping an eye out for those who would seem to be struggling and get them help later.
•~~~~•
"Now, Mr. Inanis will you handle the physical side of this lesson today? The match to silver needle." Minerva said with a thin smile and he nodded as he went to stand in the front of the class.
"Listen well, this is the basic transfiguration spell, this will be the spell you use for half this year. I will be expecting each one of you to repeat the pronunciation to me one at a time. Now, the spell is called Alteratio. It is the Latin word for change. Most the spells you learn here at Hogwarts will have an origin in Latin. You will learn more about this in your other classes, now we will start in the back left and make our way up from the back." Raven said as he began ensuring everyone could pronounce the spell name properly.
"Good. Now, before you begin casting, mentally picture the image you want in your brain." Raven said as he made a match and silver needle appear in his hand.
"The match can ignite when run against the proper surface to cause friction. However the needle doesn't have that effect. Think on just WHAT the needle is.
Envision its shape, its size, color and material. Now you may begin." Raven said as he vanished the match and needle.
"10 points to Hufflepuff for being the first one to get it done. Now, I want you to try and reverse it using the-" Raven paused as he felt someone trying to overpower the spell.
He overpowered their magic and canceled out the spell.
"Huh? Why didn't it work?" He heard the teen mumble.
"Mr. Ford, try using less magic, I know you haven't been taught to control the proper amount of magic you use in spells yet, so here's a short impromptu lesson, by now everyone of you should have felt the magic you used to cast the spell. Start by using the smallest amount you can, and then slowly increasing it till you get the spell to work with just the right amount of magic. Using just the right amount of magic could be beneficial for you in the future. Especially for your fifth and seventh years." Raven said before he brought his focus back to the Hufflepuff.
"Now, please try returning it to its original form ahead of time by using the reverse changing spell, Reditus. Latin for return. Meaning will play a big part in verbal magic." Raven said before he moved around the room, occasionally preventing overpowered spells from going off.
At least it looked like the kids started realizing it and used less magic.
He momentarily, mentally, paused as he realized he had called them kids, and if he was honest, it was probably right that way to call them. Mentally, he was definitely older then almost all of them, most the time. He had his moments of childishness after all.
"Congratulations, everyone managed to change their matches into silver needles. Not all of you managed to reverse spell, but that's ok, we will focus on it next class. For homework I want two pages on the finer details of the theory, spell and how you went about it this class. You're all dismissed." McGonagall said eventually and Raven smiled.
Raven hummed as he watched all the students rush out of the class, he rolled his eyes and hummed as he saw a Ravenclaw slowly making their way out, he nodded pleased as he saw her closing a notebook filled with notes.
"Well done Raven, you did a very good job teaching the first years today. I've never seen so many so interested in trying, especially with how you were nullifing the overcharged spells." Minerva said pleased and he shrugged, it wasn't much.
"It wasn't so bad, wait…" Raven paused as he looked at his schedule that he just withdrew from his pocket and blinked.
"Crap! I have a runes lesson to teach in three minutes!" Raven panicked and in a moment he turned into his crow form and flew out the window and around the castle and into the runes classroom and slowly perched himself atop a stand in the room.
He felt the urge to sneeze, but not at the same time. Did he have bird allergies?
•~~~~•
Rose Rhea Potter swished her legs slowly inside of the runes classroom, and wished that Raven was here, but he had gone and graduated, now she was here by herself, ok, not alone, but still, Hermione wasn't a friend to her like Raven was…
No wait, that sounded offensive.
She sighed, sometimes she wished she could become a bird like Raven, being a crow must be awesome, just flying through the sky uninterrupted and free.
(Eren: "Tatakai?")
"Welcome everyone, I'm glad to see all of you managed to find my class and got here on time. Today is purely a theoretical lesson on ancient runes. I am Professor Bathsheda Babbling. You may address me as Professor or Professor Babbling." Professor Babbling said with a small smile as she walked over to a chalk board.
"Now before we begin, I won't actually be teaching this introduction, instead someone you are all familiar with will teach you." The professor said with a amused tone as she glanced up at the top of the classroom.
Everyone glanced up and saw a crow looking down at them with beady eyes.
"A bird will teach us Anicent Runes? What's next, it will teach us how to find hidden treasure? Just wait till my father hears about this all, it's such a shame-" Draco Malfoy laughed mockingly before he was cut off as the crow flew down.
However moments before it reached the ground, its form started shifting, growing and changing.
Rose smiled widely.
•~~~~•
Raven frowned at the blonde ferret.
"25 points from Slytherin Mr. Malfoy, next time its detention." Raven said as he glanced around the room, looking every single person in the eyes as he stared at them seriously.
"Thank you for the welcome Professor. Now, who here can tell me what exactly is a rune?" Raven asked as he saw a few hands go up.
"Mr. Malfoy would you care to answer?" Raven asked with a thin smile at the boy who had been talking with a fellow Slytherin.
"It's a symbol that when magic is channeled into it makes a magical phenomenon happen." The blonde ferret said bored.
"Wrong." Raven said as he waved his hand and a symbol formed on the chalk board. The runic word for Light in Greek.
"Runes are runic languages that hold meaning. I'm sure all of you have heard this phrase somewhere once. Words have power." Raven said as he snapped his fingers and the rune started glowing softly.
"The phrase is actuate to what runes are, they are written words of power. Now, this here is the runic word for Light in Greek, it is one of the three runic languages you will be learning this year." Raven said as the rune stopped glowing.
"Now, runes have unlimited potential. They can create many wonders, the mysteries of this castle for instance is one of them. This castle is covered in runes and you will never see any of them in most occasions." Raven said with a smile.
"However, as a teacher I will show you just what it means to write runes on such a complex scale like Hogwarts." Raven said as he snapped his fingers and suddenly the floor, walls and ceiling were covered in black markings.
"This is the work of a runic master, the four founders inscribed each of these individual runes on such a scale across the whole castle." Raven snapped his fingers and the runes were gone.
"Now, does anyone have any questions?" Raven asked and a few people raised their hands.
"Can you really do anything with runes?" A student asked curiously.
"Yes, the only limit is your imagination, dedication and number of limbs remaining, runic etching and testing can be very dangerous for even masters." Raven said as he remembered his own experiments constantly blowing up or catching fire.
"Why do runes work?" Rose asked and Raven smirked at that.
"A very good question, I will be leaving that for the end of class. Next question." Raven said with a subtle wink as Rose pouted at him.
"Why doesn't the magic in the air activate runes?"
"A also good question, the simple answer is that runes require active magic, of course they're is a way for them to use the magic in the air and I believe you will be reviewing that in your fifth year?" Raven glanced at Professor Babbling who nodded her head.
"Answer solved. Any other questions?"
"Why are we only learning three runic languages and why those specific three?" Granger asked confused and Raven nodded his head as he waved his hand as three symbols formed on the chalk board.
"A good question, you will be learning Greek, Latin and English runic language. They are amongst the more basic of runic languages and are easier to translate." Raven said in response.
"Translate?" A random student asked.
"Yes, translate. To learn a runic language, you must first learn the language, then you learn its runic form. Words have meaning, and those meanings have power in the form of words. So by writing them down, you are granting the words their power." Raven explained before he saw no more questions were being asked.
"Now, Ms. Potter here asked a great question earlier. Why do runes work?" Raven said as he paused and in the air wrote the word Fire in English.
"This is the word Fire. Everyone here knows what Fire is." Raven said as a small flame floated above his hand. "It burns, takes, destroys and much much more. Yet, it is also life giving, warmth and more." Raven flicked his hand and the fire extinguished itself.
"Back in the day, before writing was a thing, we had words only. The days of old when mystery was abundant, overflowing, Ether didn't exist, but another form of power, stronger. Those of the old age could bring about power by merely speaking words of power." Raven smirked as he took a deep breath and focused himself.
"Power!" Raven said as a beam of energy formed besides him before it was fired into a barrier he had formed in advance.
"Power could mean anything, so why did it form a beam of energy? Can anyone guess why that is?" Raven asked with a smile.
"Go ahead Mr. Zabini." Raven said as he choose his target.
"Meaning. Today power could mean anything, strength, political might and a lot of other things, in the past, words could mean several things, but also one single thing. What it means today, isn't what it mean in the past. People respected power, so it came in the form of the energy everyone used, magic. Thus a beam of energy." Blaise Zabini said after a moment of thinking.
"Correct." Raven said before he glanced up at the clock on the wall, class was almost over.
"To shorten the remaining explanation, verbal words lost their power when writing came about. They became Divine Words, only capable by using divine tongue, so people discovered a new method, written words of power in the many tongues spoken converted to written words." Raven said as he waved his hand and threw words formed on the chalk board.
Power.
Life.
Death.
"This will be your homework, due next class. Research the meaning of these three words in the three languages you will be learning, is there a difference between them due to the language barrier? Does it have new meaning because of the change in language? I expect no less then one page minimum for each word, three pages maximum for each." Raven said before he moved back as Professor Babbling stepped forward.
"Mr. Inanis is indeed correct, words have power, no matter the form. I believe Professor Snape says that potions can even put a stopper in death, well I will be teaching you how to do that with runes. You're all dismissed for the day, I do expect that homework by next class." The professor said with a stern look as everyone gathered their stuff and started leaving the room.
"I must say Mr. Inanis, your knowledge on runes and their origins is superb, might I ask where you learned such information? I had to fight record holders just to obtain pieces of that." Professor Babbling asked excited.
"Let's just say I know a guy who's ancient, who knows a girl who's even more ancient who told him all that." Raven said as the image of a chibi skeleton appeared in his mind.
"I see, well I won't bother you about it, I would recommend leaving soon though if you wish to make it on time for the defense lesson." Professor Babbling said with a smile and Raven went wide eye before he rushed out the window in the room in his crow form.
He cursed as he flew through the grounds wondering why his sense of time was so wonky today. It's like his internal clock is just messed up, as if time was wonky. However he's sure it's not since the last report he got was that The Blue was half way across the world being her usual chaotic self.
•~~~~•
Raven watched quietly as Professor Lupin taught the Riddikulus spell against a boggart. It was interesting seeing what other people feared, he momentarily frowned as he saw Lupin exclude Rose from the group, but nodded as he said he was worried it might turn into the dark lord, a reasonable worry.
Raven waited till the class ended and all the students were gone to talk with the professor.
"Mind if I try? I'm honestly curious what my worst fear is, it will definitely help with my therapy sessions." Raven said with an amused smile as Professor Lupin nodded his head and counted down from three.
The boggart came out the dresser, Raven felt it trying to breach his mind and let it. He waited as its formed glowed before it changed into… himself?
He wore shredded clothes, a hollow look in his eyes with tears streaming down his face as he stared at his clawed hands as they held glowing orbs that circled above it. Souls, of those he cared about he realized in morbid amusement.
"Riddikulus." Raven said after a moment as the boggart turned into a white fured peacock with its head tucked into the ground.
"This has been most informative Professor Werewolf, thanks for the help." Raven said as he walked out the clsssroom not hearing the professor call him back.
•~~~~•
Raven laughed softly as he sat on the roof of the castle as the image of the boggart flashed in his mind.
"I guess some part of my humanity remains, how quaint." Raven smiled before he stepped forward and off the roof into a dive that had him changing into his bird form and taking flight.
•~~~~•~~~~•~~~~•
The story finally returns, and with three chapters provided as a gift for the return of the story.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapters, ima go to sleep now, my brain hurts from thinking on how I had to write this into the power system to function with three different kind of power systems.
I regret having three power systems, but I also don't regret it. Ugh, curse past me!
Anyways, bye for now!
Bye~
-Voidy, The Insomniac
P.S. Ima give a little recommendation to those of you who have been enjoying the chapters, start paying close attention to chapter 70 and beyond, there will be some epic lore ima drop around that time for the future arcs.
Toodles~