Study of Ancient Runes

The Study of Ancient Runes (commonly shortened to Ancient Runes) is an elective course at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, that can be taken by students third year and above. It was taught by Professor Bathsheda Babbling during the 1990s at least, and is the study of runic scriptures, or Runology. Ancient Runes is a mostly theoretical subject that studies the ancient runic scripts of magic.

Words learned in this class
Only two words and their English translations are known. Hermione mixed these two words up on her Study of Ancient Runes O.W.L. exam.
 * Ehwaz means "Partnership"
 * Eihwaz means "Defence"

Numbers

 * Demiguise: the creature's invisibility abilities represents "0".
 * Unicorn: the creature's single horn represents "1".
 * Graphorn: the creature's dual horns represent "2".
 * Runespoor: the triple-headed creature represents "3".
 * Fwooper: the creature comprised of four different colours in feathers represents "4".
 * Quintaped: the five legs of the creature represents "5".
 * Salamander: the maximum hours of the creature's ability to survive out of fire represents "6".
 * Unknown: due to the magically powerful number still being shrouded in mysteries, the unknown symbol represents "7".
 * Acromantula: the eight-eyed creature represents "8".
 * Hydra: the nine-headed creature represents "9".

Required reading

 * Advanced Rune Translation
 * Ancient Runes Made Easy
 * Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms
 * Rune Dictionary
 * Spellman's Syllabary

Known O.W.L.s

 * Barty Crouch Jr
 * Bill Weasley
 * Hermione Granger
 * Percy Weasley
 * Bathsheda Babbling

Behind the Scenes

 * Throughout the entire Harry Potter books and film adaptions, not a single Ancient Runes class was seen taking place.
 * In reality, the words mentioned by Hermione in the Order of the Phoenix are Proto-Germanic runes. Ehwaz literally means "horse", while eihwaz literally means "yew-tree."
 * A variety of Elder Futhark runes are depicted on Lucius's Azkaban placard in the film. The easily identified ones are: Othila, which means "estate, heritage, possession" and corresponds to the Latin letter "o"; Fehu (albeit rotated slightly), meaning "one of the Æsir (gods)" and corresponds to the Latin letter "a"; Uruz, meaning "wild ox" or "water" and corresponds to the Latin letter "u"; and Mannaz, meaning "man" and corresponds to the Latin letter "m". This (along with the presence of the aforementioned two other Elder Futhark runes in the novel) suggests that the Elder Futhark runic alphabet at least (if not others too) is very much in use in the wizarding world and most likely learnt in Study of Ancient Runes, albeit with some additions from wizardkind, such as the numbers.
 * In Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, one of the items is a rune book.
 * Luna and Xenophilius Lovegood may have both taken this subject as the latter published some runic texts in an issue of his magazine (the Quibbler) whilst the former explained the information contained in those runic texts.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows