Ready, set ... go. Clifford kicked off the soft ground when he heard that familiar whistle, holding his broom handle steady as he slowly rose. So they had to fly through those hoops.. hoops that were moving around and getting bigger and smaller too. Eeeeh. It still shouldn't be any trouble.

Leaning forward, Clifford flew easily toward the first hoop. Well, that was until the hoop decided it didn't want him going through it and starting moving. Hmpf! How rude! Leaning to the left, and gripping the handle tighter, Clifford just about managed to fly through the hoop behind Rapunzel and towards the next.

Oh dear! Miranda gulped as she saw the hoops, moving around. But she didnt have much time to think as she heard that whistle and quickly kicked her broom up from the ground.

Ok, take it easy now... She started to block out everything else that surrounded her. It was just her and the hoops, just like quidditch. Only now it wasnt the quaffle that had to go through, but herself.
Miranda snorted. What a fun change.

She neared the first hoop, almost holding her breath as she flew through it. Yes! So far so good. Now the next hoop.
As Miranda got closer, it seemed like the hoop was getting further away. But when she was a few feet from it, she noticed that it was actually shrinking! Oh uh... Miranda grimaced as her head passed through, her elbow touched the hoop too.

Miranda grinned when she felt she was all clear, but her face fell when she felt her foot- was it stuck somewhere?
Looking back she shrieked. The hoop had shrunk and was now around her ankle like a giant ankle-bracelet-thingy!

She shook her foot like mad, wobbling in the air. But soon it fell off and Miranda kept on flying, breathing like mad.

She took a moment to actually start as the loud GO was a surprise to her. Once she came back from la la land Whitney leaned forward and kicked off of the ground. She was up and doing well so far. After she got as high as the regular hoops Whitney flew forward. Than out of nowhere a hoop appeared. 'Yay'. Just as she was about to fly through it, it moved to her far right. "What is this?" she said out loud. Than moved to her right, to than have to fly up. Finally after about 5 minutes of going up,down,left,right. She made it through her first hoop without falling off."Finally!" 'Next hoop, here I come'

As he heard the whistle, Nicholai kicked off and moved to approach the first of the hoo... they were moving. He angled his broom and sharply turned to pass through a hoop, looking back over his shoulder suspiciously as he did so, scanning the area for the professor. He hoped none of the younger students fell off.

He faced front again just as he passed through another hoop purely by chance and he could have sworn it got smaller as he passed through it. He pressed himself into the broom and turned to line up the next hoop, attempting to guess where it was moving to. But the hoop wasn't behaving predictibly at all and Nicholai passed by without coming close to passing through it.

Fine, slow and steady then. Nico halted and examined the moving hoops, slowly turning and approaching another. This one grew bigger as he passed through it and Nicholai immediately turned at passed through it again. He swooped lower and made for another hoop; the line up perfect until it suddenly decreased in size, almost appearing to Nicholai to disappear entirely. He blinked and looked behind him; where had the hoop gone?

He looked down and his eyes widened in surprise; the hoop had gotten small enough to get stuck on his arm. What on earth? Nicholai tugged on it a few times as it continued to shrink, having no effect on the damned hoop whatsoever when suddenly it expanded again and sort of fell over him and his broom. He shook his head and cast his eyes around for the professor again before narrowly dodging someone that was coming right for him.

Slightly annoyed and yet still trying to remain calm, Nicholai turned and managed to fly through four hoops of ever expanding and decreasing size in quick succession before knocking his teeth on the edge of a fifth. He rubbed his mouth in annoyance and decided to go with slow and steady again; it worked better with these tricky hoops.

Rapunzel chanced a glance over her shoulder to see how the other students were doing, and just by leaning around Clifford's big face, she spotted dear little Miranda shaking a hoop off!

Yikes! Punz thought, turning back around to face her next hoop....which was suddenly right in her face like WHOA. "Aaaah!" she mumblescreamed, quickly doing a little dive to swoop around and approach it again. The hoop was contracting and expanding slowly, but at something of a pattern.....by hovering in mid-air, Rapunzel was able to wait until it expanded enough for her to quickly zip through.

Whew. Now onto the third one....

As soon as Anna heard the signal, she kicked off from the ground and soared high into the sky. She'd walked out to the Pitch today thinking this was going to be just another easy fly...boy was she ever wrong. She eyed the hoops as they floated in the air around her, almost as if they were taunting her in some way. She squinced her eyes and glared at a few of them, daring them to take on her challenge.

Anna leaned forward and tore through the air, heading straight towards the nearest goal hoop. She continued to glare at it as she flew closer and closer. She was nearly there and almost straight through the hoop, when it proceeded to first shrink in size, then grow back to it's original size, and finally dart over to the right. "What?!?!" she thought to herself, looking at the hoop in disbelief. Anna rolled her eyes at that particular hoop and then turned around and headed for the next closest goal hoop.

This goal hoop was a bit easier to handle, as Anna was able to fly straight through it with no problems at all. It may have just been because luck was on her side, though. Just as she'd gone to enter the hoop, it had suddenly grown in size and allowed Anna to easily pass through. Anna smiled and turned around to face the hoop, giving it the thumbs up sign.

With newfound determination, Anna zoomed back down the pitch and headed towards that first goal hoop that had given her so much trouble. She was bound and determined to get it this time. Anna leaned down, glared one good time for added effect, and then zoomed off towards the hoop. Six more feet...four more feet...two mo---ZOOM!---off the hoop went darting down below Anna this time. What was it with this hoop? Anna sighed. She'd only managed to fly through one hoop so far.

This was actually strangely ... amusing. And it was tricky not to simply lose concentration and watch what everyone else was doing. He could've sworn he saw Nicholai getting stuck in one of those shrinking hoops. Hmmm. He needed to watch out for those ones.

Changing direction so he didn't have Rapunzel's tail twigs in his face, Clifford got himself ready for yet another hoop. This one shot meters up into the air when he neared it and it was lucky he leaned back in time gain some height too - he almost missed that one completely.

A little ticked off at himself for nearly messing up, Clifford raced through the hoop with a little too much enthusiasm. Wobbling a little, the end of his broom caught the edge of the hoop and he just about managed to swerve around that bossy Greingoth girl.

So much for being easy. Evil Professor Vindictus.

The third goal hoop appeared to be stable in size and movement, so Rapunzel flew straight at through as quickly as possible before the silly thing decided to change its mind.

Having made it through successfully, Punz smiled slightly and looked at the next one - which again, was not moving much. She zipped towards it cautiously and just as the tip of her broom handle entered the ring, it started moving to the right, then up, then left, back to the right again, down, all around.....just by leaning in a slow circular motion Rapunzel managed to stay on her broom. Now she just had to keep leaning like that and fly forward....

There, she'd cleared that one too. How many of these things were there?! Clearly more than the four she'd made....

Cale had been sitting quietly in the back, getting himself into the Quidditch mindset so he could perform well during the final. He heard the signal and kicked off the ground as instructed, heading towards the first hoop. Rather than stay one size, however, it started to shrink, and then grow bigger. Eyes bugging out of his head slightly, he slowed down until the small hoop grew big enough for him to fly through before he darted through it. One down!

The second one wasn't too hard, it was moving side to side as he approached and he simply judged his timing right and flew through it with ease. It must have been his Chaser instincts--he had to fake left or right so much, that finding the perfect movement to turn seemed to come naturally.

For the next one, however, it was a lot harder. The hoop was shrinking as he approached, and moving up and down as well. GAH! Very tempted to close his eyes, but convincing himself that wasn't the best thing to do, he sped up and zoomed through it as fast as he could. Unfortunately, it was a bit too small for him and he ran into it, bouncing off to the side as he made contact. Agitated, he turned and tried again. This time, the hoop was expanding as he flew towards it, but it seemed to make up in difficulty with the speed in which is was moving up and down. Pausing a few seconds to pick out the perfect moment again, he finally made it through the third hoop and smiled in triumph.

Chris then moved on to two hoops that were right on top of each other so he flew threw the first

Miranda had calmed down a bit, but it made her nervous to think about her captain also flying around...she didnt want Rapunzel to see her trip on her broom in midair with a hoop around her waist... And the Professor was sitting somewhere...

She looked ahead for the other hoop. This one was making her seasick. It was going up and down, up and down... Urgh... How would she go through that one?
Miranda slowed down a bit and decided that maybe if she flew down in a diagonal direction, maybe she could follow the hoop on its movement.

She sped up a bit, and when she was high up and level with it, she flew down and got through the hoop. Yes! Miranda grinned. This was fun!

Looking around she saw Rapunzel and Dominic doing their thing, flying like the awsome quidditch players they were. Miranda sighed, gosh she loved her team.
Smiling she turned around to look for the other hoop, when suddenly something boinked her on top of her head.

Suddenly, the hoops started spinning wildly and throwing off blue sparks. Touch the edge and you'll get a little shock.

Hoping she didn't look too silly, Whitney looked around. The other students were having just as much trouble as she. She looked forward again and headed diaganoly across from her where another hoop was. She was flying as fast as possible; right when she got there though, it disappeared. Whitney was having no fun.

She made a sharp turn and almost hit another first year. "Sorry" she mumbled making sure he was okay. Than she set off looking for other hoops.

'There!' she thought. Whitney was not going to let this one get away. She headed straight for it but slowed down and made a quick left. The hoop had actually moved there! She was SO close, she went straight as fast as possible and...MISSED! "Ugh!" Giving up on that hoop she turned around and went through a hoop. With a raised eyebrow she looked around and saw that she'd gone through the hoop someone else was trying to go through. 'Two so far.' Trying to go where there were less people and more hoops. She headed to the other side of the field.

A good while later, Anna had somehow managed to get herself through five of the hoops two times each. Even though her spirits were lifted, and she was becoming a little more sure of herself and her abilities, she still hadn't managed to fly through that one goal hoop that had given her trouble in the beginning. She wasn't quite ready to try it yet---she needed a few more successful tries before she attempted that pesky goal hoop again.

Spotting a goal hoop floating nearby, Anna smirked at it and then took off in its direction. It didn't look like it was giving anyone too much trouble. Sure, it was currently bouncing from side to side to side---slowly, but Anna knew that if she aimed her broom just the right way, she could catch it just as it bounced over to the left side. Still smirking, Anna gained in on the hoop, getting closer and closer as it continued to bounce. Finally, just as it bounced to the right, Anna darted left and caught it just as it made a bounce back over to that side.

Anna threw her head back and groaned as she noticed that the hoops suddenly starting spinning and throwing out blue sparks. Yikes. She imagined that touching them now wouldn't be the greatest feeling in the entire world. Just as she'd thought that, a sudden electric spark jolted her right on her bottom, and Anna jumped and turned around to give a bewildered look to a bouncing hoop. Anna growled at the hoop and then darted right through it, being careful not to touch the side of it in any way. Happy that she'd beat the hoop at its own game, Anna stuck out her tongue at the sparking circle and then zoomed off down the pitch.

Cale blinked as the hoops around him started sparking, almost as if they were powered with an electric current. He had a slight feeling that if he didn't make it through the hoops, he'd be in for a bit of a shock--quite literally.

The next two hoops weren't bad at all, but still a bit on the tricky side. They weren't moving, but they were so close to each other that without a quick swerve upwards, you'd never be able to make it through. Thankfully, due to his lightning reflexes, it wasn't much of a challenge. He decided to double back and do the five he had already completed again, so he was half way done with the course.

That was when he noticed a hoop that was growing and shrinking at a rapid pace a bit in front of him. It was so fast that he'd have to time it just perfectly to make it through. He stopped and stared down the hoop, waiting for it to be the perfect size. When he thought it was big enough, he shot forward, but it was just a little too fast. He hit the edge of it and felt the shock travel through his whole body, up to his hair. "AHHHH!" he yelled, bouncing off to the side once more.

He wrinkled his eyebrows in annoyance and flew back to his original spot, smoothing his hair in the process. Finally, he found another opening and shot through the hoop with success this time. He grinned and was so excited, he managed to fly through the one going in circles right in front of him. This was easy!

Rapunzel was halfway through the fifth hoop when all of a sudden she heard this sharp little buzzing, like an electrical sound almost. "What the...." Punz murmured, hurrying to get out of that hoop.

Once she'd cleared it, she slowly hovered around and gaped at the hoops. They were all now spinning and shooting off blue sparks anytime someone came too close to their edges. "Greaaaat, just perfect. Totally Vindictus." She shook her head and narrowed her eyes, summing up some courage to approach the sixth hoop.

She took a breath and slowly flew towards it, trying to be careful not to get thrown off by their dizzying motion. Punz slowly ambled through the center of the hoop, trying to focus on staying straight but she got distracted by the pretty color of the sparks and hovered too close to the left side....and then she touched the hoop!

"EEEEP!" Punz shouted, shocked that the thing had stung right through her robes and onto her shoulder! She zipped more towards the right side of that hoop and, having over-corrected, accidentally touched that edge of the hoop too!

"OWWWW!" Rapunzel moaned; now BOTH of her shoulders were zinging from the zap of the stoopid hoops. She frowned with fury and zipped the heck out of the sixth hoop. I am SO taking my time with the next one....

Ready! Set . . . go! it was at that those words combined with the sound of the whistle, where Dominic kicked off from the ground and into the sky. The feel of fresh, crisp Springtime air on his face felt rejuvenating and made Dominic realize how much he had missed flying when not at practice. Oh he'd be sure to beg his mother to let him fly at home - and if she didn't let him, then he'd just have to sneak out at night or something.

Completely lost in the moment, Dominic nearly forgot the task at hand was to fly through all the hoops. Until the edge of one was quite near to his face and his seeker instincts were used to steer clear - just in time! Except that the hoop moved!? What in the world of canaries was Vindictus playing at with these moving hoops!? He'd much rather be chasing a snitch or a quaffle than hoops... this was insane!

Nevertheless, he had little choice but to do as the Professor instructed. For Hufflepuff and his captain ... and even little Miranda who constantly was eying him during practices. Flying after the hoop, he swerved carefully to avoid collisions with the other players - nearly swiping the tail twigs of the Ravenclaw Captain. Whoops! Perhaps a premonition for the game?

Dominic had the look of determination mixed with frustration on his face, as dove towards the hoop, aimed right and then just as he was almost through the hoop, it constricted in size - effectively tying his calves to the broomstick. EEK! Well at least it wasn't too tight, right? And he didn't need to move his legs too much as he flew through a second hoop. Actually, having his calves tied down almost made it easier, so long as it didn't cut off circulation ....

How many hoops had he gone through already? Clifford had lost count already. How was he meant to count AND fly? He wasn't that good at mult-tasking. Bleh. Hopefully Professor Vindictus was keeping watch or something?

Seeing one of the hoops growing in size, Clifford decided to seize the chance, leaned flat against his broom and zoomed easily through it. Bwahahaa! He was PWNing this hoops..

.. so far anyway.

He was on his way through another, when the pyshco hoop simply decided to spin around wildly AND shoot off scary, blue sparks. This couldn't be good. Unable to think fast enough - due to his smaller than average sized brain - Clifford gripped his broom and braced himself. There was no way he could get himself out of this muddle without touching the side, Clifford's elbow recieved a rather nasty shock of some sort and he could've sworn he felt his robes sizzle a little. OUCH! Wincing, he somehow managed to escape the wrath of the evil hoop.

Going forward a spinning hoop barely touched her and she felt a shock. 'You have got to be kidding me.' Whitney couldn't believe that she now had to stay on her broom while going through moving,disappearing,spinning, and shocking hoops. She had a huge feeling that she wasn't going to last. "Here goes nothing." she said and flew upwards. A hoop appeared out of nowhere. Spinning clockwise,than counter-clockwise. Feeling confident Whitney went for it.

She'd gotten about half a foot away than stopped. She couldn't do it. Whitney hated pain. 'Maybe it will disappear.' Just as she thought this the hoop really did disappear. Not giving up, she kept flying straight hoping that she'd fly through hoops unexpectedly and without getting hurt.

Too late. Whitney glanced away for a fourth of a second and ran into a hoop. She convinced herself she was okay and tried flying through the hoop that had shocked her. No luck. She felt like she was going to go crazy. Whitney looked up and saw that somehow she'd fallen about ten feet. Realizing the shock had distracted her, she automatically flew back up and went straight for another hoop. Still no luck.

Nicholai examined the hoop in front of him and veered off in alarm as it spun crazily and shot off blue sparks. He turned and made it through a hoop that was trying its best to jump to one side and looked around for another hoop. He passed through one of the spinning ones and his hand brushed the sparking edges. Nicholai flinched as a shock passed through him but it only made him more determined to continue.

He carefully avoided touching the sparking sides as he passed through two more hoops, sure that he'd passed through those ones already.

Cale Newell was getting a teensy bit cocky. He had flown through 15 hoops, twisting and turning and swooping and passing this test with ease. That was why he didn't see the really small hoop coming, and why he didn't see it as a threat.

The hoop was straight ahead and would have been incredibly easy if he had slowed down and timed it right like the hoops at the beginning. But this time, he was going too fast, certain in his abilities to go through the hoop. So certain, in fact, he didn't notice that it got smaller, and smaller, and smaller...

BAM! The hoop was so small that it was impassible for even the smallest first year in the class, and he hit it head on. The shock jolted his whole body and he lost his grip on his broom. Thankfully, he had a bit of luck and was only a foot or two off the ground, so when he slipped off his broom, he fell with a small thud on the ground but didn't injury himself horribly. "Owwwwwww," he muttered to himself, sitting up and rubbing his head (his hair had once again stood on end due to the electric jolt) as he tried to gain perspective as to where he was on the ground. He finally got up and remounted his broom, shaking his head and sighing at his own stupidity. Mental note: Take each hop slow no matter how amazing I think I am, he thought to himself. He wasn't Superman. Duh.

The spinning and sparking stops, but then the hoops change appearance. They now resemble large chocolate chip cookies that move around, expand and contract. It's an illusion, but why do they smell like the real thing?

"Ouch!" Miranda looked up and saw another hoop floating. Or this one was actually bouncing around everywhere it seemed.
She frowned and rubbed her head as she made her way around to try to get through it.
Suddlenly it stopped and started to spin instead. As the blue sparks appeared, Miranda stopped and hoovered in mid air as her jaw dropped. Gosh those were some pretty sparks A silly smile crept up on her face. She shook her head and now sped up, feeling the wind in her hair.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" she flew through the sparkly hoop, but she almost touched with her knee making her swerve a bit to the left.

But she was through it!

Not only was he having trouble counting the hoops.. but Clifford now was getting confused with which hoops he'd been through already..

..and getting confused when he wasn't meant to be flying through spinny, shrinky, sparky shocking hoops in a flying final was. Not. Cooooool!

But wait ...

Nostrils aquiver, Clifford's stomach gave a loud rumble. A VERY loud rumble. Chocolate cookies. That's all he could see and smell ... and he was flying straight for one. Oh yes. He was flying towards a giant cookie ... he'd DREAMT about this day.

Siiiiigh.

Mouth open wide, ready for impact, Clifford almost let go of his broom handle as he flew head first into a giant chocolate chipped cookie. WOOO!

Apparently, if you hover in one spot long enough, the hoops will magically become cookies! GASP!

Rapunzel positively beamed at the sight and delicious smell that was now coming from the hoops - at least this way they wouldn't spark her when she flew at them. And they distracted Clifford too....mwahaha.

Zooming slowly towards the seventh hoop, Rapunzel hesitated before flying directly into it. Will it be solid? I mean, it looks and smells so real...she stuck out an arm and reached for the cookie, curious to see if that big chocolate hunk would feel like a hunk of chocolate.

And no, it didn't. Deciding that was safe enough for the moment, Rapunzel quickly darted through that hoop and on towards the next one, telling herself that she didn't need all the calories of a real chocolate chip cookie anyways.