Tomorrow is Yesterday || Ancient Runes 6th & 7th years

They had no sooner sat down, then the class was instructed to rise again. Yet the chagrin Snape felt at being driven around like cattle was quickly evaporated by the promise of something to pique his curiosity. What was the new professor hiding in these little bags. Surely it was not some sort of conciliatory gesture to win over the students through bribery? No, it was an assignment, Pipindorio said, and his serious tone of voice (or at least as serious as he seemed likely to be) hinted at a greater mystery within the little sachets. Severus moved forward with the rest of the class. He scowled down at the desk in contemplation. 'Let one jump out' at him? They were just bags... Or so he thought until his eyes landed on one bag in particular. He could not have explained why, but he did feel drawn to it. Somehow it singled itself out from the rest. As he plucked it up, he heard a soft clatter of stones. He returned to his seat, sure that there were rune stones inside. Then again, what else was a logical thing to get in an Ancient Runes class?

He eyed Adeline warily as he passed by her. She had laughed far too hard at his earlier quip. It made Severus regret having said anything at all. He did not like drawing attention to himself, and she had put a spotlight directly on them with her obscene reaction to his minuscule banter. He might not care what his peers thought about him, but that did not mean he liked to be embarrassed in front of them – and this time not even by Potter or some other bully. He was suffering humiliation at the hands of a Ravenclaw girl, and a pregnant one at that! The most he could hope for was that people thought she was unhinged. Maybe then they'd leave him out of their recollections completely. He also could hope that her pregnancy (which was all-too-obvious in the outfit she wore) would take precedence over gossip about him. On the subject of which, his eyes darted to Rodolphus. Lestrange was being indiscreet, mentioning things like leaving homework in Adeline's room. Then again, since it was clear she was no longer hiding the baby, perhaps neither was he. Severus, who knew more than either of these two realized, thought that admission was very unwise of them. Bellatrix would find them out in a minute and not take the news well... Then again, the enemy of an enemy was a friend, or so it was said. Snape preferred to think of them as tools to exploit rather than friends on equal terms, but he could possibly make use of Rodolphus and Adeline, if push came to shove with Bellatrix.

Everyone else took their seats again, and the Pipindorio continued, drawing Severus' attention back to the lesson. Necklaces – was he serious? The professor had given them all... jewelry? Snape looked around surreptitiously, trying to gauge the reaction of other males in the class. Surely he was not the only guy who had reservations about wearing a necklace around for who knew how long... 'Silly' was not quite the word he would have used to describe his attitude toward this unusual assignment, but as Pipindorio kept talking, he began to loosen up his thinking. What Pipindorio was saying about words having power, that resonated deeply with Sev. He had experienced that first-hand in many forms, but most notably through the creation of his own spells, curses and counter-curses over the years. He knew exactly how much power there was in language, in words. That was why he had taken Ancient Runes in the beginning. If they were finally going to be tought something useful, if this new teacher understood the true potential of his subject, then Snape would learn to bear with jewelry. His guess that the class was going to be much more interesting from here on out was looking likely to prove true.

Privately, he was not sure he agreed with the way Pipindorio spoke about the rune stones as though they were living things. Severus saw people as tools; that did not make the reverse true, that he viewed inanimate objects as having souls. Still, he could not deny the sense of power buzzing through his fingers as he slid his necklace free of its bag. Strung together on a leather cord were three stones, just as the professor had said. He examined them closely. There was a large black stone: þurisaz. Next to it was a perfect oval of opaque, white quartz: hagalaz. The final stone was a myriad of greens and blues and browns, depending on how it was shifted in the light: laguz. Giant, hail, and water – powerful elements and ill omens all three. The stones felt unnaturally cold in his hand. He glanced side-long at his neighbors, curious what other people had gotten.