Rune Materials
By Landen O'Nally
   Runes, when used, written, and understood correctly are very powerful and can be very lasting. Most runes are written in stone or wood, and the first found runes were said to be etched upon wood because the substance was easy to carve upon, and the line within the wood were often used to construct the runes. Though there must be a deeper reason for runes upon bark to be found so often despite the "simplicity" of writing them upon the surface of something so easily scratched.
   Trees are living things, as are the people who make the runes. Runes, when written upon stone or any other surface, are just that: marks upon a plane that, if made properly and by a person with insight behind that rune, can protect a thing, tell of the future, or, in some cases, condemn the writer. A stone has never lived and never shall. But when a rune is made upon wood and that rune is stained with the maker's blood, then that rune becomes something deeper than a mere mark. The wood will absorb the blood, and in a sense, that rune will become a part of yourself. Made upon life and given life through blood, the rune becomes more meaningful and complete, making the affects of the written object stronger and more lasting.
   My first wood of choice if I were to carve a rune would be Port-Orford Cedar, also known as white cedar. The wood itself is light, moderately soft, yet also durable and has a resistance to decay. Because the wood isn't hard or overly coarse, it is easy to carve into, which would make the difficult task of rune making less stressful than it already is. This type of cedar is also known for its ability to accept stains well. If greeted with my blood, the wood would absorb and retain the moisture with ease, unlike other types of wood that do not stain as easily. White cedar is the wood of my choice, and I would recommend it to those who seriously consider the study and making of runes.
   Written in a thin red script are the Professor's comments on the subject: Perceptive essay on the reason why wood is best suited for making a set of runes for oneself. One looks to the "Song of the Sybil," or "Voluspa" for the text referring to trees as sacred, perfect beings. For your and the classes' benefit here are the pertinent lines describing the first encounter of three Gods with trees on earth:

Bindrunes
By Landen O'Nally
   A practical bindrune takes two or more runes and puts them together to form a single design. These runes may be any that the caster chooses, though one must keep in mind that the energies of these runes, when combined into one, will be released to benefit either the user or the person that the practical bindrune design will be given to. One must keep in mind though that bindrunes are used to help people, not hurt them. A cursed bindrune either will not work or perhaps will bring harm to the person who made the rune for them.
   Though the runes, after being drawn upon a surface, may be somewhat unclear in appearance at a quick glance, it's important to know that the runes are still individual marking and keep their individuality. Each must be able to be seen in the design as an individual rune, which is why it is important that a person does not use too many within a single bindrune. Two or three is ideal especially if someone is unaccustomed to making bindrunes, and more than that may become too complicated to draw and keep each rune decipherable and visible. For instance, if I were to make a bindrune to give joy to another person, then my choices would be merely two; Gebu and Laguz.
   Most bindrunes, like many other single runes, are used to protect. A person can protect the home, another person, their job, their love life, themselves, and many other arrays of things, though this is not the sole purpose and uses of bindrunes. Perhaps someone wants to become stronger, or in the case of Hogwarts, a bit smarter for upcoming NEWTs or OWLs, or even for the sport of Quidditch, a player yearns for better speed, strength, endurance, or eyesight. If done correctly and inscribed and anointed, these runes could help.
   As usual, the surface that you choose to write your rune on is important. While you could do so on a sheet of parchment paper or stone like in ancient time, the more desirable material would be wood. Of course, wood is a living thing, and any thing living when it comes to creating wood will almost always have better results than when written upon a slab of the unliving object, such as stone. The wood should be cut, polished, and brandished carefully before the rune is inscribed, which is why I would again choose cedar for my wood of choice. Along with being an absorbent and light wood that's resistant to decay and breakage, it also has a visual appeal. When the bindrune has been finished, it is then set in a secretive place. The requirements of this place should be that it is a point of very high earth energy where two positive leylines cross. Bindrunes are worn as pendants or amulets.
   The difference between practical bindrunes and personal bindrunes is that personal bindrunes are made from initials of a person, and that they are made to reinforce the personality. Perhaps making a personal rune would be a little more challenging for a caster because one would have to try to choose which rune best represents that letter of their name. For instance, if a woman had the name of Cathy, then she would chose the rune Kauno since her name has the "K" sound. But then, if the name were Cedric, although his name also begins with a C, he would most likely chose Sowilo instead to correlate with the "S" sound that his name has. In personal bindrunes, the runes that you chose from are limited to your name, unlike the array that comes with making a practical bindrune.
   As always, Mr O'Nally, an excellent treatise on Bindrunes, both practical and personal. I would in the future ask that you explain your reasons for choosing the runes that you did for the assigned problem.

Runes and the Dark Arts
By Landen O'Nally
   If one chooses to do so, a person can study the art of Ancient Runes for many consecutive years at Hogwarts. Runes, as I have learned, have many uses besides mere "fortune telling" and seem to date back to the beginning of time. They are useful, or so they seem. These antique inscriptions are one of the taxis from which our magical essence is emitted, and the magic that is released from our written runes is found buried deep within us and in the power of magic of old. Runes are as powerful as the inscriber makes them, and from my years of schooling I know now that that power can be very formidable.
   But now I sit and wonder just how dominant this force truly is. Over the years, I've been largely exposed to runes both in school and out, but it was in my fourth year that I came across a student who had them inscribed on her body. One Ravenclaw, whose name will not be mentioned here, was seen with runes inscribed upon her hands. Although I know not the name of the runes or what instrument she used to scry them, I cannot help but wonder the purpose. I know that when stained with blood, the rune is said to be stronger, so are runes that are etched upon the skin the most powerful of all since blood courses through our bodies? And if this is true, how powerful can runes truly be against the ever increasing dark forces and spells?
   The Unforgivable Curses. There are three. One takes away the right of our own free will, rendering us mere puppets beneath the hand of master puppeteer. We are controlled by unseen strings and have no power over our actions or words. Set on a stage, we are played like toys beneath The Imperious Curse. Another is said to cause the victim "intolerable pain", though no statement can word the insurmountable and excruciating feeling that is given through the Cruciatus Curse. The will is broken, your screams only seem to intensify the torture, and because the wand is in the hand of a person cruel enough to administer the spell, there is no sympathy. The wails are answered only by a smile, a wicked smile that can haunt a person's dreams for the rest of a lifetime, no matter how young the victim may be. How a person can smile when administering such torment I do not know, but I do know that the heartless do wander our world, cloaked in darkness, impenetrable to the light of good.
   And now there is death. Avada Kedavra. There is a green light and nothing more. An empty blackness follows .. if death is actually a dark hole of a never-ending nothingness. Being alive, I cannot speak of what happens after death, but I can speculate. Being killed by a curse I believe is a curse within itself. The soul of the damned is forever damned by the damned. Avada Kedavra is said to be unblockable. In theory, there is no counter curse that can deflect the spell, though that brings forth questions. Has the curse been tested against every other known spell and magical force? I can't believe that this is true for reasons of morality. A curse that brings immediate death cannot be safely tested against another human being, and creatures of the animal kingdom do not posses the same magical abilities as witches and wizards. So perhaps, there is a counter curse that has not been tried or discovered. I cannot believe that there is a spell that's superior to all, and I have my own hypothesis.
   The rune Ansuz is said to be a protector against death and fear when used as an amulet, and that raises the question of the correlation of fear and death. If one doesn't fear death, then would the curse still be fatal? Does one have to fear in order to die beneath the flash of wand? And if the rune Ansuz is inscribed in wood and stained with the inscriber's blood, then would that rune protect against the death caused by such a curse? There is also Eloh, or Algiz, the rune of protection. Eloh was often carved into weapons for victory and safety during battle in times of old. If made strong enough and worn upon a person, or perhaps inscribed upon the flesh of a person, would this rune along with others be enough to ward off an Unforgivable Curse such as Avada Kedavra? As stated above, a rune is only as strong as the inscriber makes it, and I believe in order for rune to work at its greatest potential, not only must it be carved on a living surface and stained with the blood of life, but also the caster must believe in that specific rune's potential. Fear may get in the way, and showing and feeling less of it may be the difference between life and death.
   Runes and the dark arts seem to tie together more often than not, for each rune does have a dark connotation along with a more uplifting one. Could runes be the answer to the impending fear of being killed beneath the blink of an eye? Or perhaps, our savior lies within the lost magics of old. We learn the new arts, and asides from Ancient Runes, we know nothing, if not little of the magic of the past, though that may be because of no documentation of that magic of prehistory. Maybe these lost arts are what I seek, and what many seek when battling this Unforgivable Curse. Or possibly, the answer that seems so impossible to find lies within the inscription of a single, lost rune.