Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Overhearing the three tasks that they were meant to be doing, Sophie nodded to herself then went to collect a broom, some polish, and a rag. She couldn't understand why the school just didn't invest in some brand new brooms from time to time. These were the brooms her mother and father probably used, right? Maybe even her grandparents.

Oh, well.

Sophie sat down in an area with a good amount of room and laid the broom before her. She then applied a bit of polish to the rag then began wiping down the broom. "Err, Professor? Or, Ma'am?" she asked. Whatever they called Quidditch Officials. "What's the best way to wash and trim the tails?" She could think of a few spells, but was there a spell she preferred?

Originally Posted by Felixir

Ooh, yeah, Toby recognised that Sander kid! He was the tall one who Toby assumed must be a transfer; no first year was that tall, and a kid that forthcoming with answers in class would have been noticed before, even by someone as unobservant as Toby, right?

Right.

Tobias gave the taller kid a grin and a cheerful wave, happy to properly meet someone whom he only knew from their answers in lessons. He paused for a minute, actually considering whether or not he should correct him, or to pretend like he would need help, just because he wasn't comfortable correcting people he didn't know. Especially older people with more authority than him, roles which, in his opinion, were both filled by all seventh years. In the end he opted for truth, though. "Oh, you won't need to help me out, this is my hobby!" he grinned, eyes twinkling. "I can give you some tips though, if you need them." He was still grinning. A grin that hopefully said 'I'm joking, this is friendly banter, just messin', hey bro, I'm cool, see look at my cool sass, banter, yeah'. Whether a grin could say all that was something he did not know.

Right now, Toby looked over to his bestie again. "'Sup Soph!" His greeting was way less cool. Was it possible to be cool AND enthusiastic? Probably not.

Now Toby had a slight dilemma, and that was the dilemma of choosing between people. He wanted to go and sit with Sophie, really. For bestie reasons. But this also seemed like the perfect opportunity to get to know this Sander kid and maybe work out how he was so good at lessons. Tobias did love to make new friends after all.

Even as he thought this, Toby's eyes gaze fell upon the Slytherin Captain, West, who was already here, and then at the others who were arriving. Tobias knew them all by name, apart from one, and... was that Sophie? And Caleb? Like, Newell. Wow, he hadn't spoken to either of them in ages. Like since Diagon Alley a whole year and a half ago. They got grins too. Tobias then looked back at West for just another second, then picked up the broom he was nearest and turned to properly look at Professor Tyner.

"Professor, d'you need us to do a proper soak of the tail twigs before we trim them?" Toby asked. He assumed so; these brooms looked kind of worse for wear.

Also, when Toby paused his grinning in favour of talking, one might be able to make out faint lines on his face that stayed, almost as a reminder of his excessive grinning.

Originally Posted by carpediem

Caelen hung in the back of the broom shed. When she said she would get into everything this year. She apparently meant EVERYTHING. Including clean up activities. Because she was here, ready to help refurbish brooms. The same brooms that she JUST became comfortable riding.

"Um.. Professor? Ma'am?" Broom person. She noticed someone else had issues with figuring out what to call the person. Seriously, how did you address them? One of the great mysteries of life.

And their were a lot of Ravenclaws here. A helpful bunch they were apparently. That or diligent. Something like that.

Right. She had to complete her sentence, yeah?

"Is there anything you need me to do?" Because she was going to be a good citizen and help. Something like that.

Originally Posted by Tegz

"Alright sure." West responded to Tyner agreeably and began half-filling a couple of buckets with warm water, and then he measured a cleaning solution into the buckets too. Was that Toby kid going to join him then? Based on his question.. yeah? No? Whichever.

"Okay anyone who wants to help out over here, make sure you follow the steps right, okay? We can start a chain, pass the clean ones down to the clippers and polishers." He took a seat with a bucket in front of him between his feet, and two towels over his knee. West picked a broom up and submerged the twigs in the solution.

"Let it soak for a minute and then gently stir the broom in the solution clockwise ten times." He said. "Dirt effects how brooms fly. Its the first thing you should do if you're cleaning or maintaining your own broom too." Even before clipping or polishing. "Try not to slosh it too much either." He started stirring gently, counting in his head to ten times.

"Then we let it sit another minute and stir counter-clockwise ten times. Then we lift it out and let the solution drip back into the bucket. Once that is done we wrap the towels around the twigs. We do that so that the liquid remaining gets soaked up from the twigs, and also to keep outside gunk off the twigs while they dry. Then we can give them to polish people, and they can do the handles."

HOPEFULLY people doing polish knew what they were doing and all. West would just focus on this side of things.