Graphemes, Galdr and Lokk

"Everyone should have already memorized all twenty-four of the ancient runes by now," said Professor Babbling meaningfully. "So far, we've only used them in class to read ancient texts, but as I'm sure you all already know thanks to the Greengrass girls and their friends, it is also possible to use them to enchant objects and to cast spells."

Since they already knew all about the subject, the class had been pretty boring for the Slytherin Trio so far. The inheritance of the stars had already instiled Oleandra with all the knowledge she would ever need, and she had taught the others what she had learned.

In fact, the only reason Oleandra and company were even taking the class in the first place was for the course credits. If they wanted to get official runesmithing licences after graduation, they would need to have passed their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s on the subject. It didn't matter how skilled they were; they would still need official proof.

Nevertheless, if the teacher had something new to teach her, Oleandra wouldn't turn up her nose at it…

"Who can tell me the difference between a Grapheme, a Galdr and a Lokk?"

Hermione instantly raised her hand, eager to answer the question. Oleandra couldn't be bothered to answer, so she let her take the credit.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" said Professor Babbling.

"A Grapheme is a letter," Hermione explained. "The twenty-four ancient runes are all letters in their alphabet. A Galdr is a spell, isn't it? As for the term Lokk, I'm afraid I don't know it."

As much as Hermione was loath to admit that she didn't know something, her curiosity vastly overpowered her fear of appearing ignorant.

As for her explanation, it technically wasn't wrong, but neither was it complete. She didn't know very much about runic magic, and all knowledge concerning it was locked— you guessed it— behind grimoires written entirely in ancient runes. And while Hermione could read those letters, and while she had learned a bit of old English and was the proud owner of a dictionary, progress was inevitably slower than reading books written in Roman letters and in modern English.

"Anyone else?" asked Professor Babbling giddily.

Daphne raised her hand.

"In terms of magic, she explained, "Graphemes can be used by themselves, or in combination with others."

For example, simply calling out a single word like Thursaz to strike an opponent, or calling upon Elhaz to defend oneself. It was the most basic and common use of runic magic.

"Since each rune has a name, an individual Grapheme can be equated to a word. Extending the metaphor, putting words together creates sentences, known as Galdrar; the plural of Galdr."

For example, Oleandra's Tree-Portation spell: it used Wunjo, harmony, which ensured the teleporting party didn't get separated; Berkana, tree, as a focus for the sympathetic magic to establish a link between the real world and the World Tree; Raidhu, riding, in order to travel; Eihwaz, yew, in order to make use of the World Tree; and Dagaz, time, to synchronize the space-time between locations.

"A Lokk," Daphne continued, "is like a Galdr, but instead of stringing words together to make a sentence, many runes are melded together in order to create a new letter, or sigil. It's much more powerful, but much more complicated."

"Very good. Five points to Slytherin," said Professor Babbling.

There was a tinge of disappointment in her voice; she probably hadn't expected that Daphne would already know about Lokk…

"Allow me to put it more simply, for those of you who are more visual: Imagine that you are trying to break a window with some rocks…

If the glass is very thin, you might only need to throw a single pebble (a single rune) in order to shatter it.

If the glass is a little thicker, you may need to throw many pebbles (multiple runes strung together into a Galdr) in order to weaken the glass pane before breaking it.

But if you're up against reinforced glass, it doesn't matter how many pebbles you throw, the window will never break. That's when you throw a boulder at the window (multiple runes fused together into a Lokk)!"

She turned around and started drawing lines on the blackboard with precision and confidence. Little by little, a rather familiar shape began to emerge; that of Ægishjálmur…? No, that wasn't it; it was similar, but it wasn't quite the same. The branches of the symbol weren't connected to the centre, there were a few more details missing, and there were also two fewer branches in total: six Elhaz in total, instead of eight.

Oleandra leaned forward in her seat, curious to see how a Witch that did not have the twenty-four runes of the stars engraved on her soul used runic magic. It looked like drawing the runes was an absolute requirement for her; stances and hand signs wouldn't work for ordinary runic magic practitioners.

The teacher then turned around and rapped the blackboard with her knuckles.

"This is the Full Suit of Armour of Elhaz," she explained, before placing her hand at its centre, and chanting, "Elhaz in front, Elhaz behind, Elhaz to the right, Elhaz to the left, Elhaz above and Elhaz below! Protect!"

The space around her visibly shimmered, distorting the teacher's appearance within the translucent bubble. It was as if the sunlight coming in through the window had somehow heated up the air around her to the point of producing a heat haze.

"How about we test the Armour's defences?" Professor Babbling proposed. "You can use any spell you want; I guarantee I won't get hurt!"

"I hardly think this is appropriate," Umbridge began, but her words were soon drowned out by a chorus of shouted incantations.

Disarming charms, Stunning spells and Full-Body Binds harmlessly ended their flights on Professor Babbling's invisible shield. Oleandra's Thursaz had no effect, and even her Teiwaz, which possessed armour-piercing attributes, barely shook it.

In the end, it took Daphne's Pleiades' Sevenfold Strike spell (a Galdr composed of seven Thursaz) to bring down Professor Babbling's defences. The seven bands of light twisted and darted from her body, consecutively striking the shield in the exact same spot; with the last one finally shattering the invisible barrier.

Then, to everyone's surprise, Professor Babbling's transparent ward then sputtered back to life, flickering slightly.

Professor Babbling stood next to the smoking hole in the blackboard in shocked silence, still registering the fact that her defences had been overcome by a student. It just went to show that only a Galdr could defeat another Galdr! Runic magic may take time to invoke, but it lasted forever when engraved onto a surface, and the more complex the spell, the stronger it would be!

The fierce scratching of a quill was the only sound to break the silence, as Umbridge furiously wrote down her report on the unacceptable use of offensive magic in a class where one was only supposed to be reading and writing!

"Ahem," Professor Babbling finally said, "Excellent use of a Galdr; ten points to Slytherin. As you can see (she tapped on the hole in the blackboard), even though one of the Elhaz that makes up this magical armour has been severely damaged, the spell still works; though its potency has been impaired."

The class oohed and aahed.

"This is the greatest advantage Galdr have over Lokk; if most of the runes that make up a Galdr are functional, then the spell will still work. However, a single mistake in a Lokk's design will cause it to short out and fail completely."