Tiffany stopped staring at the other students zooming around her and decided to try again. It had to work this time. She knew it was probably because she hadn't ever done magic before Hogwarts, but then again, several students were Muggle-borns.

She sighed, holding out her hand above her motionless broom. "Up!" She cried, a little too loudly. The broom started vibrating softly, then, to her surprise, it shot up into the air, hitting her hand with so much force that her eyes watered. Tiffany took a deep breath, before sitting on her broom. She kicked the ground, her brain repeating the words annoyingly in her head: I'm going to fly! I'm going to fly!

A sudden rush of cold air hit her face as she took off. Her hands were aching from her grip on the broom. It was the best feeling ever. All thoughts were blocked out by the sound of rushing air, and the feeling of freedom, of happiness. Tiffany didn't dare look dow, but she could tell that she was getting higher now. Maybe she should get down now? But how? She ducked her head, and suddenly she was zooming down, heading straight for the grass below. "How do you stop?!?!" She screamed, as cold air filled her lungs. Her voice was drowned out by the air's fierce roaring noise. She tried to tilt her body, but that just turned her to the right. She regretted this move immediately. She was now heading straight for a tree. She was going to hit it! "Heellp-"

CRASH!

Tiffany groaned, rubbing her forehead which had she had hit on the tree during her crash-landing. That was nothing though, as she remembered the broom. She spun her round, to see it motionless on the grass, not a single scratch on it. Great.

It took Broccoli a moment to realize he was on the ground. It took him another moment to process that he had just bucked himself off a broom.

Right, well....limb check. Toes? He wiggled his toes. Check. Ankles? He wiggled them. The rest of his checks were quiet similar although the pinkie on his left hand felt a bit odd. He sat up and wiggled his fingers. The pinkie didn't move. Looked like he dislocated it.

Oh well, I'll deal with it later. he told himself as he got up. "Where'd my broom go?" He called out much louder then he thought since he was still having problems hearing.

He spotted it near Professor Vindictus and hobbled over to retrieve it.

A minute or two later he was straddling the broom again. "Alright...push off gently, lean forward to move, pull back to stoop." Stoop? was that right? Why would one stoop on a broom? He shrugged and pushed off hovering slowly in the air.

Mounting his broom one last time William kicked off the ground with ease now that he knew he wouldn't face a grass sandwich and took off until he was at around fifteen feet. It felt a little weird for him, especially since he didn't dare look down due to his total fear of heights. Instead he kept his eyes on the sky before him, flying in a safe speed as he moved his broom to the left and right, zig-zagging a bit as if dodging pylons. Sure, he could still do a barrel roll and hang upside down but he so didn't need that again.

He looked down, realizing he was one of the last few students still in the air and figured that class was ending. Lowering the front of his broom he slowly did a dive until he was a few inches from the ground before skidding to a halt and dismounting the broom. he held it in his right hand and shook his head to try and get his hair back to normal before placing the broom with the others and grinning at Vindictus and saying, "Thanks Professor. Great lesson." before nodding his head at him and picking up his school bag before walking away towards the castle.

Broccoli hovered a few inches of the ground. "So now what?" He asked himself aloud. "I guess..." he leaned forward and the broom zoomed forward. This wasn't so bad. He seemed to be doing well right? He went a littler higher, figuring he was doing alright. A bit longer and he sped up just a little.

Halfway across the marked out space, he started to loose his balance and leaned left. The broom turned on him and he went left, circling around a few students in the air.

"Ahh..." How did he stop? He wasn't sure. "Can't stop...." He wobbled a bit more and shot right, heading back to where he started from. He soon found himself in line to mow Professor Vindictus down.

He was watching the other students leave the practice area when a strange whistling sound caught his attention. Both blue eyes looked upwards to where the sound was coming from. "Pull up! PULL UP!" Vindictus shouted as Aden's out-of-control form hurtled towards him and he dropped to the ground.

Dani laughed loudly as Professor Vindictus dove out of the way of the rampaging broom. She lost control of herself and fell off her broom again. This time though, instead of fainting, she rolled around laughing. She just couldn't stop.

"Bull pup! What?!" Broccoli yelled trying to turn and avoid the man. Why wasn't Professor Vindictus making any sense? It didn't occur to Broccoli that the man hadn't beem making sense since he'd been smacked in the head with his broom handle.

The attempted turn, however, didn't work. All it did was put him in a slow spin. Grass. Sky. Grass. Sky. Grass...

Maybe if he leaned counter the spin he'd steady out? He leaned the other way. Something brown came slowly into focus as he leaned in the other direction.

"Ah - broo-"

Boom.

Crash.

Thunk.

Bounce.

Broccoli hit the stack of extra brooms like a bowling ball hitting the headpin straight in the pocket. The brooms scattered like a set of tenpins on a clean strike. Once again, the fourth year Ravenclaw bounced on the invisible cushiony ground and laid sprawled out like a voodoo doll that was tossed to the side.

Like they say - Down, down, down.

And downer, after that.

Fyo landed on the ground in a bouncy, happy sort of way, glad that he was getting somewhere with this whole quidditch thing - not that he was afraid of it or anything, really - and sorta wide-eyed about the whole experience.

He almost wanted to do it again..

Out of luck.

Because the professor was telling them to wrap up.

He shouldered his broom, scanning his surroundings without realizing it. There was the hint of a bird - or at least, a bird like shape - somewhere in the distance and, for a couple of seconds, he let himself watch as it vanished into the bluish sky. Then, realizing he had to give back the broomstick, he turned.

Now, where to place this?

The neat pile, yes.

He returned it as Professor Vindictus had instructed, brushing back the messy hair all over his forehead as he finally decided it was time to go. Go, and tie that hair up some way, really.

"Great lesson, sir -" he began cheerfully.

Next second, someone had crashed - pretty hard, it seemed - into the pile of broomsticks behind him.

Whoa, BAAAADD.

The sickening cracking sounds of twigs and sticks splintering like flimsy toothpicks made Vindictus's stomach sink. He rolled over and he couldn't comprehend the site directly before his eyes. "Muh . . . . Muh . . . ," he stammered and crawled over to the now-fit for kindling brooms. "MY BROOMS!" He picked up a few pieces in both fists and looked over at Aden who lay like a ragdoll on the grass. A few broken twigs fell from his clenched fists to the soft grass.

Dani stopped laughing when the professor saw the brooms. He looked close to tears. Walking over to him she placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't cry, it will be okay. It could be worse." She counted the amount of students. "You still have about twelve left." She tried to make her voice sound optimistic.

While Professor Vindictus has screamed loudly about his brooms, what Broccoli heard was more like "KA BOOMMM!!" This lead him to think that Vindictus thought the entire thing to be funny. It also didn't encourage Broccoli to get up. Too bad for him to really, because a few hours later, he would have wished he had moved much faster.

A piece of broken broom handle came flying out of the sky where it landed with a loud thunk right on Broccoli's head. If he hadn't a broken nose before the piece hit him in the face, he probably did now.

"Ouch..."

He slowly rolled over only to find Professor Vindictus with a mixed look of terror, dread, heartbreak, hopelessness, and anger on his face. I didn'tk now someone could experience all those emotions at once...

"Umm....sorry...?" he muttered as he tried to stand up.

"Three left," Vindictus corrected Dani and dropped the broken pieces onto the grass. "Can you take the surviving brooms back to the Broomshed for me, Dani?" He hoped she'd say yes. There's gotta be a curse on the brooms this term. Lost a few in the dungeon fiasco and now nine in one lesson. It has to be a curse.... He then walked over to Aden who was now nursing a bloody nose.


He took a deep breath. And then another. Remember, he's not an expert flyer - just a kid needing to work on his flying skills. "You need to work on your landing skills, Aden," Vindictus finally said. "But I think you need to go see Nurse Avalon for that bloody nose of yours."

"Padding?" He sniffled then coughed and hacked up some flaem. Spit off to the side. "No no, sir, the padding was fine. This was from a piece smacking me in the face." He sniffled then rubbed his bloody nose with the sleeve of his robe.

"What about a Ruddy hose?" He coughed again and then realized that his left hand pinky was turning a bit purple. Ouch, that was going to hurt a lot tomorrow. "Why do I need to find you a hose?"

Dani nodded. "Okay." She grabbed the three brooms and headed toward the broomshed. Thinking about the lesson, she smiled. She had done it! She wondered if she had earned any more points just for zooming around.

"NURSE. HOSPITAL. NOW." Vindictus had no choice but to shout loudly at Aden who was clearly not listening to him. "Do I need to write it down for you?"

"Purse?!" Broccoli sat there on his haunches blinking confusedly at Vindictus. Did the professor moonlight as something - um...not a good idea to go there he decided to not ask that question. "Popsicle...." he stopped his next question as his pinky started throbbing.

He responded loudly, like a boy that couldn't hear properly (because he couldn't). "Sir! I'm going to go to see the nurse. Maybe Dani can help you find a purse. She's a girl after all."

Vindictus slapped his own forehead. "Go. Now. Please." He bent over and retrieved his clipboard. The parchment on which he had been writing comments was crumpled and he ripped a corner from it. Even his quill was bent in half, but he somehow managed to hold the tip between his fingers to scribble the words Aden B. to Hospital and his signature. He shoved the scrap of paper into the Ravenclaw boy's hand. "Here you go, Aden. Now off with you!"

Professor Vindictus was smacking himself. He wondered why. Had he hit something on the nail with the purse thing or was he really looking for a male's opinion. He watched the professor gather his clip board and scribble something before handing it to him.

"NURSE! RIGHT!" He yelled loudly without realizing it. "I'll Go NOW! If you still want help with the purse later - Um...I can come BACK!"

He tucked the note into his pocket handed over his rather sad looking broom to Professor Vindictus and slowly limped back up the castle.

Now that the flying disaster was leaving the scene of the crime, Vindictus looked around the pitch and saw that all of the students had left, including the ones who crashed. The House Elves are going to gripe again over the grass stains and ripped robes. Too bad. They didn't lose nine brooms today. The Flying professor was in deep thought as he left the practice area clutching a broken clipboard and ripped class record.

The gates to the practice pitch were opened despite the ground being a tad squidgy from the water that was mysteriously leaking into the school. A sign was stuck to the left gate and it read:

Flying Lesson #2 - Quidditch Basics

Begins: Tuesday, July 7 @ 9pm EST
Ends: Thursday, July 9 @ 11:59pm EST
Where: The Practice Pitch
Who Can Attend: All students, regardless of year

After passing through the open gates, you will notice a row of wooden benches, a broom rack and a crate full of bats. Come on in and have a seat. But don't touch a bat or broom!

Overly excited about flying class, Anna Greingoth headed out to the practice pitch. Gryffindor hadn't been able to play their first Quidditch game of the season, so she'd been missing the opportunity to climb aboard a broom and take to the skies. No doubt Professor Vindictus would have a really awesome lesson planned for them today. She stopped just outside the pitch to read the sign that had been stuck to the gate. Quidditch Basics...ohhh, this was going to be a treat for sure! Anna made her through the gates and out towards the rows of wooden benches. She took a seat and waited for the lesson to begin.

Reese skipped down to the practice pitch with a smile on her face. She's been waiting for this flying class for AGES. Well, not ages, but you get the idea. She stopped at the opened gate and looked at the sign that was stuck to the left gate. She read it and then headed into the practice pitch. She took a seat on one of the wooden benches and waited for class to begin.

QUIDDITCHHH. The most awesomest sport ever--wayyy better than the muggle sports and well... it was the BESTTT, 'nuff said. He'd only found out last term and he fell in love with it. He headed past the gates, curiously looking at the bats and brooms. Why couldn't students just ride on their brooms whenever they wanted tooooo? Oh it would've been just crazily awesome if he flew on a broom everyday outside and all. Taking a seat next to Reese on the bench, he sighed and waited for the lesson to begin.

Flying lesson? Hah. Clifford wouldn't miss this for the world. Nuh uh. THIS was what ALL classes should be like.. and ALL teachers shoulda been like Professor V. Yup!

Resisting the urge to grab himself a broom and a bat and get the fun started already, the Head Boy squidged through the muddiness towards the benches ... and took a seat the OPPOSITE end of Greingoth.

Ignoring -or at least trying to- how weird the ground felt beneat her feet, Willow made her way towards the practice pitch for the flying lesson. Not that she needed to learn how to fly as she was obviously very familiar with that, already, but taking Flying as a class was always nice.

Especially when it involves bats.

Cackle.

Mental cackle, that is.

Taking seat quietly, the girl watched the bats with the corner of one of her forest green eyes with an expression that was both a mixture of longing and excitment.

Would Professor Vindictus be annoyed if she took one? Most likely. Well, she wouldn't touch them. Nope, not at all. Not yet anyway. She could do that. She could totally control herself, that was for sure; no one was better than Willow Kovac when it came to self-control after all.

Fidgeting a little on her seat, the girl clasped her hands tightly, and put them on her lap.

She was not touching those bats!