If this wasn't a final, the two minutes would have went by rather quickly, but since she was feeling a little bit nervous, these were seriously the longest two minutes of her life. It's like time was moving backwards instead of forwards!

To pass the time though, she decided to look over at what everyone else was doing. Some were clipping the twigs, others were polishing the handle...and then there was Kay. She may have spaced out during that second half of the quidditch match, but not before seeing Kay fall from her broom. Why Evelyn didn't pay more attention to the game after seeing that, she didn't know. For one, she could've seen Josh play, and two...who knows how many times players fell off their broom. Practically the best part of watching the game!!

Noticing she had been staring off into space again, she shook out of it and looked down to the tail end of the broom. It was still pretty wet, but it was drying which was good. Maneuvering the broom so the handle end was in her lap instead, she took the second rag from the ground and started to gently rub the polish off in another circular motion, taking her time so she didn't miss any spots.

Once she was done, she laid the rag back down on her other knee before picking the other rag back up and scooping out a tiny bit of polish before applying it to the handle again. Time for the second coat! Letting out a long breathe, she made sure she didn't miss any spots while polishing the handle before checking on the broom tail twigs again. They were drying rather quickly in the sunlight, which was good because she didn't want to be waiting there all day so she could clip a few twigs.

After the second two minutes were up, Evelyn started to rub off the polish again, glancing around to see what everyone else was doing before debating whether or not to put a third coat of polish on. It was pretty shiny as it was. It didn't look like it needed a third coat. Perhaps she didn't get the worst broom after all.

And huzzah! The broom tail twigs were starting to become dry enough to start clipping off! Just a few more minutes....

After the two minutes was over Chris grabbed a new rag and began to buff the broom handle again. He knew the polish helped the broom look nicer, but he wasn't completely sure if it did anything for the actual abilities of the broom. He might have missed that part of the lesson a few weeks ago.

He used the rag to go in hard, and tight circles on the wood of the broomstick. The prefect could tell it was working better this coat. The grain of the wood began to shine brightly in the sunlight. Now to wait for two more minutes and the final coat. Chris's eys drifted off towards the tops of the trees in the Forbidden Forest.

Finished the written part of his exam, Torin was ready to begin the practical part of the exam as the Professor assigned it. Seemed pretty easy to him, seeing as he knew how to care for brooms.

Getting up, he got a broom from the area they were kept and then went over to where the cleaning and maintenance supplies were and grabbed all that he would need. He then grabbed a bucket and headed to the area where he was supposed to do the task.

He added some water to his bucket using the Aguimenti spell. Next, he grabbed the bottle of the broom tail cleaner and looked at the instructions to see how much he was to add to the water. He poured the correct amount in, and carefully placed the broom inside so that the tail would get cleaned. Then he readied all of the other supplies before preparing the cutters for the twigs.

Then he took the broom out of the bucket and went to sit down in the grass, balancing the broom on his lap so that it would dry in the sunlight.

Jacob finished with putting on his third coat. Looking at all of the broom handle to check that he didn’t miss any spots. Then he put down the polishing cloth and started massaging his hand. It hurt more then the second coat and much more than the first. Alright, so time for a new song. Think, think…got one and started humming the minute and fifty some second song. This was so boring, why couldn’t they just fly, it was flying class after all. He kind of, sort of understood the broom care, but written test, that was just weird and not for flying class.

After he finished humming the song and rambling in his head. Jacob took the wiping cloth and started wiping in those same gentle small circles as he has been doing…Man Did His Hand Hurt! Jacob dropped the wiping cloth and started massaging his hand again. This was not fun, Not Fun!

His wrist and hand felt a little better. So Jacob started wiping the handle again. After a few minutes of resisting the pain in his hand he finished wiping. Phew… its over now. Right? Jacob thought back to see if there was anything else…nope that was it. he was good to go…He looked up at the board to see if he had missed any directions. Jacob decided not to look like he finished first. Instead He started fiddling with his silver clippers, making sure that the twigs really were straight. He realized that he could see his own reflection in the handle. Rather distorted and dull, but it was an improvement from how it looked before. Jacob wondered if he should tell Professor Vindictus that he was done. But he didn’t want to draw attention to himself. So he sat still waiting for the others to finish, now, instead of worrying if Vindictus was watching him, he started watching Vindictus. Which he had to admit was kind of ironic since Jacob didn’t like to be watched, Why would Vindictus. So he started to stare into the sun…Ow! Bad Idea. Then Jacob started staring at the chalkboard as though it might do something.

After a few minutes she checked the broom tail to make sure it was dry. Running her fingers over it in satisfaction she moved the tail end of the broom directly infront of her and picked up her clippers. Carefully she bagan to clip ragged ends.

This wasn't like the last time she cared for a broom, there was no feet swinging nor soft whistling or even the faintest hint of a smile. She just sat on her stool with a solemn expression, focused on triming her broom. But dispite her lack of enthusiasm, she was enjoying herself. All this manual labor had taken her mind off of the past battle. As a soft breeze blew threw hair, she continued to trim the broom's tail.

Herminny felt relieved as the exam disapeared and she was hoping to have some fun with th practical portion like previous years. She got the next instructions and realized no such luck. She grabbed a broom and bucket and started her broom maitenance. 'Oh Joy' She conjured some water with the augmenti charm and then added the bit of solution reccomended on container and gently dipped the tail twigs into the solution and waited for the slution to sink in nicely.

Torin was getting bored waiting for the broom to dry. And when he got bored, he got tired. So it was really hard to stay awake. But he somehow managed, which was good because he didn't want to get in trouble and fail this.

Stretching, he got up with the broom in hand, and headed over to where he put the clippers. Then he took a seat on a stool and started looking over the tail of his broom to see where all the twigs that needed work on were.

He began to trim them while humming a song in his head.

Fred was glad the written test was over but the practical portion was cleaning a broom and taking off, atleast there was one fun part about it. He picked out a broom and got the cleaning supplies. He used a uick augmenti charm to put some water in a bucket and then added just the right amount of solution. He then dipped the tail twigs of his broom in solution and let it soak in.

Mina had just finished the written portion of the final and was looking over her answers when the sign instructed them to head to the roped-off portion of the practice pitch. Yes, it looked like it was time for them to actually get in the air again. That thought really put a smile on her face.

Walking toward the area with a smile, she first spotted the brooms and then the blackboard. It appeared she had gotten her hopes a bit prematurely, but broom maintenance wasn't all that difficult and it was vital after all. She understood its importance and just surrender to the fact she would just have to do this and she would be one step closer to flying.

Walking up to the broom rack, she grabbed one and made her way to the crates. She looked in each and pondered what she would need. Broom, check...rags, polish, clippers, bucket, tail cleaner. Was there anything else she needed? Thinking as she pulled out a bucket, she added her needed supplies in it and moved to find a spot to start her maintenance.

Finding a nice open spot within the roped-in area, she sat down crossed leg and set all her supplies out before her. Now, did she want to first polish the broom or work on the tail? Thinking it over briefly, she pulled her wand from its home and used aguimenti to fill her bucket. Taking the broom tail cleaner, she read the instructions and added the needed amount of cleaner to the water. Looking back to the instructions, she reread them before setting the bottle back with her other supplies.

Taking the broom, she dipped the tail into the solution and allowed it to sit. The broom had seriously seen better day and was in serious need of a soak for a bit. Allowing it enough time to fully soak, she turned her attention back to her other supplies.

Herminny removed the tail of her broom from the solution when she saw it ready and then gave it time to dry. Once thoroughly dry Herminny began to get the rest of the supplies she needed to properly groom her broom. She then picked up the clippers from the group of supplies she gathered and clipped the stray tail twigs till she felt she had satisfactorilly completed the job.

Fred rmoved the broom from solution after a bit of soaking and the waited for his broom to dry as he got the rest of the broom grooming supplies ready. Once his broom was dry he picked up som chippers and trimmed the uneven tail twigs till he felt he had done the job the best he could.

Having finished clipping her broom she put all the clipped twigs in a bucket and mpved onto the polish. Herminny picked up her rag and carefully only put a little bit of polish. She then firmly rubbed her rag in small circles aound the handle of her broom as she had remembered learning to do in a previous class.
She did the same process once more and saw the broom handle had been polished quite nicely.

Leaning back on her hands, Evelyn continued to stare around at everyone and seeing what they were doing. The sun beating down on them was starting to make her feel tired and lazy. Well, more tired and lazy than usual lately.

Closing her eyes for a moment, she debated whether or not to lay down for a moment or so. The tail twigs still weren't all that dry enough, and the grass was really comfy. Or so it felt, she was pretty much only half awake to really form any thoughts or to remember that she was in a final at the moment. For now though, just having her eyes closed was nice. It was not a smart move to do though. Sleep came at just the wrong moment for her.

Forcing her eyes open after several minutes, she took a deep breathe and sat up straight, wiping the dirt and grass off of her hands. Hmm, the broom tail twigs seemed to be dry enough now. Taking the clippers, she scooted the end of the broom so it was sitting in her lap before turning it around to show the worst side she needed to work on first.

And THAT was the side she needed to work on first. Yeeesh. Shaking her head slightly, hating to see a broom in such bad shape, she started to trim the tail end, looking for the worst parts and shaping the twigs back to their original state. Snip. Sniip. Sniiiiiip.

This was too relaxing and stress relieving. Couldn't they have done this inside where it was cooler? She was seriously about to fall asleep.

Torin was sat clipping away the twigs. This was taking a little while, and he was bored. He wished Brody was there, but then if she was, he would be too distracted by her to concentrate. He wanted Reese there. Yep, he could still focus with her around.

Okay, that was done and the tail of his broom looked amazing. So he could move on.

YAY!

He grabbed the handle polish and looked at the instructions. Then he opened the lid and grabbed a rag. He squeezed out enough of the polish to be the size of a knut, placing it on the rag.

He started polishing the handle now in smooth circles with slight pressure applied, covering everything. It was boring rubbing the broom with a rag, but then he was just bored today, so that was expected.

When he was done, he went to wait two minutes to do the next coat.

Fred quickly gathered the trimmed tail twigs and moved onto the polish. He picked up a wrag and dabbed it lightly in the polish careful to only get a little on the rag. He then rubbed the rag over the handle in small circles as he remembered was proper. Once finished with first coat he saw it could use a seccond and applied it after a minute or so. Once done with that he thought it looked just fine.

Herminny felt she had satisfactorilly finshed her broom maitenance and hoped Vindictus would gree so she could move onto the fun part, taking off and landing. As she looked up at the sky her excitement grew as she waited for her chance to get up there.

He was done with preparing his broom, or so he thought. Though he knew he would have to wait for the poffessor to judge before he could move on to the best part. Taking to the skys, he could not wait.

Checking to see if all the twigs were soaked, Mina gave the broom tail a through look. Every twig seemed to have soaked in the solution and it was time to remove it from the solution. Lifting the broom slowly from the solution, she shook off the excess solution before removing the broom from the bucket completely.

Balancing her broom on her crossed legs, she let the tail dry in the sun. She had some time before it would be dry enough to trim the twigs and she wasn't about to just sit around and waste time. She was going to multitask. Reaching for one of the rags she had and the can of polish, she decided to start on her polishing. The broom was considerably dull and would need as much polishing as possible.

Opening the can, she retrieved a good amount of the polish and started to polish with smooth circular motions from the top of the handle down to where the broom tail began. She was positive she would ruin her robes, but she didn't really care. She needed to focus on getting this broom back to some kind of presentable state and she didn't have all day to do so.

Working from the handle down, she managed to get a good coat on. Closing the can of polish, she sit her rag a top it and turned her attention to the tail again. It wasn't quite dry yet and now she had to wait two minutes for her first coat to dry before she could wipe off the excess and buff it, then apply the next two coats.

Boy, this really a time consuming things.

Done.

Gold laid down her quill, and resisted the urge to inhale deeply, once more. The scent of dust and old wood in the air was mighty thick and pleasant, and it took all her will not to grab her quill and start writing again, just to have an excuse to linger in the beautiful scent, a little longer.

There's a reason wishes aren't thestrals.

She half-smiled, then shook herself out of thoughts of old libraries and dust-filled places and ancient scrolls, to get started on the second task. She could not wait to be in the air - every bone her body was probably shouting "FlyFlyFlyyy!" by now - but she knew that she would have to take this methodically, begin with the first task.

Which was broom care.

She was thankful, now, that she had attended that shiny!lesson on broom care, earlier this year, because that meant she knew exactly how to go about this. The proper steps and all, that is. Otherwise, she might not have been able to manage this task, the way Professor V wanted them to. There was a better chance she could do that now, though.

Rising to her feet, and straightening up, the fifth year pushed back the red hair that had managed to escaped from her French braid - it was the hair at the front, of course, because it was cut so short - and headed over to the broom rack, to select a broom.

Not that she had much 'choice,' during the selection - all the brooms needed a good bit of care. Looked like Professor V had made sure that, no matter what broom they decided to pick up from here, none of them would be the worse or better off.

That was fair!

Closing her green eyes, for a second or half, and letting her mind wander across the pitch and across the skies, she gave a little nod of her head; and, finally opening them wide, reached out for a school-broom, at random. Now, to collect the necessary broomcare materials.

Rawwrr for getting to work with shinyyyyyy polish!

Hehe.

As Torin waited his two minutes, he noticed that Gold had finished her written part. And her hair was shining in the sunlight, making it really bright. It actually started hurting his eyes, so he had to look away. But of course now he had spots in his vision. He would have to tell her to have hair that wasn't so bright later on.

Turning back to his broom, he knew that he needed to put another coat of polish on. He just wished that there wasn't multi-coloured dots swimming around in his eyes. Gold was trying to sabotage him with her hair.

But there he was, rubbing the broom handle over with a new rag and humming along as he went. This time he was humming his theme song, Paparazzi.

And then he waited.

Tiberius considered the task with some interest. This was perfect!! He'd been taking care of his own broom all term, so this should be easy!

Making his way over to the rack, he considered the broom there. None were particularly terrible, but they could all use some attention. He looked back at Vindictus, smiling. Brilliant. Assign this as a final, and the student would, for the most part, take care of the school brooms. No need for volunteers or to do it himself. Brilliant. Tiberius smiled at the man, before turning back to the brooms.

Selecting one, he held it in his hands and considered it. Flying. What a disaster he'd been on a broom this term. Frowning, he made his way to the crates, picking up clippers for the tail twigs, polish and two rags.

When Tiberius was done, this broom was going to shine. Oh yes it was.

Making his way back to a work bench, Tiberius pushed up his sleeves.

SHINYYY!

Well, the crates were certainly not shiny, but Gold knew that the tin of polish would be. On the inside, at any rate.

Now, where was it? She spotted it, the words "Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish" written across it in crisp, rather official-looking lettering and, reaching for it, placed it to one side.

Then she hunted down a pair of silver tail-twig clippers - they were shiny, too! Rawrr - and picked up two, clean rags. That was all, right? -- Sure did not feel that way. Gold frowned, wondering what she was missing. Handle Polish, clippers, rags - surely, that was all?

It would have been much better for her, if she had let her natural instincts, regarding brooms and flying, take over. Those would have guided her. But she was thinking back to the lesson, now; and had, hence, forgotten that they had not had to clean the tail twigs, back then, because Professor V had already done it for them, beforehand.

They would have to now, though.

It was half a minute of thought before she remembered and, when she did, she decided that she was not going to think back to the lesson this way, again. Professor V had drilled this into their minds in a fun way, with a proper - and, of course, shinyyy! - lesson, and she was just going to let her instincts guide her. Let herself - in a way - be on auto-pilot. That would make this task much easier. --- Or so she hoped.

ANDD! She needed to stay calm. No need to get worked up about this final. She was a good flier; had studied and gone through the notes; and Professor V had been an excellent teacher, all term - certainly, she could do this quite well, if she did not think about what could go wrong. Brooms were, after all, supposed to be one's friends. Buddy-like and all, right?

-- Well, they were her friends, at any rate!

Having decided that, she let her mind wander to the things she loved best, in order to calm herself, and soothe her mind. Things such as books, and the scent of roads and mud after a good shower of rain, and her favourite Parisian perfume, and walking barefoot along beaches, and her hair, and pretty groups of fireflies, in dark nights.

You would not believe your eyes,
If ten million fireflies,
Lit up the world as I fell asleep.

Thinking of the warm!pretty song, Gold picked a container of the solution she would require to clean the tail-twigs, and set that aside. Then, quite sure that she really had everything she needed now, she placed all the broom-care materials in a silver pail, and grabbed its handle. Now to choose a pretty spot of grass for herself!

You would not believe your eyes,
If ten million fireflies,
Lit up the world as I fell asleep.

Rawrr!

Two minutes had finally come and Mina was able to wipe the excess polish off and work on her buffing. With the same smooth circular motions she applied firm pressure to the rag and broom as she buffed the whole length of the broom. There was not luster at all to it, but it was still in some serious need of more coats. This was only the first coat anyway and she had a lot of work ahead of her.

Grabbing her polishing rag again, she moved to open her polish and apply that small knut-sized amount to it. Time for the second coat. Shifting slightly, she moved the broom a top her lap and went to work with smooth circular motions up and down the broom. If she wanted to get some kind of luster back to the broom, she needed to put a little more elbow grease into it.

Applying a generous second coat to the broom, she set her polishing rag back a top the can of polish. She was seriously starting to work up a sweat and her arms was starting to burn from the polishing and what not. On the bright side, she was almost done with the polishing. Another two minutes and she could remove and buff again. That just meant she was one or maybe two coasts at max away from being done with it all.

Looking back to the tail, she smiled. It was almost dry, but she would give it just a little more time before she would start her trimming. Maybe after the last polish, she could really focus on the twig trimming. Merlin knew this broom needed it.

Arya silently cliped away until her broom's tail looked brand new. Putting down her clippers, she placed all the cliping into an empty bucket before turning back to her broom. positioning the broom so that the handle was now infront of her, she picked up a rag and polish.

Running her fingers through her hair, she pulled it back into a ponytail so not to get any polish in it. Once that task was complete she picked back up her polish and rag. Using the rag she scooped out a small amount of polish and gently rubed it into the handle, moving in a circular motion.

It hadn't taken her to long to cover the broom handle with its first coat of polish. Placing her rag beside the broom, she began to wait two minutes, fiddling a piece of tail cliping while she did.

After roughly two minutes had passed she picked up her other rag and began to buff away some of the first coat. She faught back a yawn as she moved the rag in a circular motion. Running on zero hours of sleep and doing hard work was not a good combo.

Sidney turns in her written exam. She goes back to her desk and puts away her quills and ink. Then Sidney walks over to the broom rack and selects a broom to do maintenance on. These are some of the worse brooms she's every seen. They really are in need of proper cleaning and other maintenance. She places the broom on her desk. Sidney examines the tail of the broom. She assumes Professor Vindictus has already cleaned the tail twigs in a bucket of solution. The tail twigs not only look clean; they are dry to the bone. The twigs must be dry for you to clip them. Sidney walks over to the boxes and looks inside. She bend down and chooses a pair of tail twig clippers. Sidney is careful to handle the clippers by the handles. They are very sharp. She takes the clippers over to her desk. Sidney walks back and looks for the Fleetwood's Handle Polish. She finds the cans in the second box. Sidney picks up a can and opens it. The can is full perfect for the job. Judging by the condition of the handle, it is going to take the three coats of wax plus buffing. Sidney moves on to box three. In the broom servicing kit they used in class, there were two clothes for polishing: the first to apply the wax, and the second to buff off the excess wax. Sidney squats down and goes through the clothes. She find two that look practically new. They are the best of the group. Sidney stands up, picks up her can of polishing wax and clothes, and heads back to her desk.

Sidney borrows an empty desk, so there is enough room to lay the broom out properly. She moves down to the tail's end and examines it. With her twig clippers in her right hand, she runs her hands through the tail pulling the twigs as far apart as she dare. Sidney finds the broken ones and gently clips the twigs an inch above the break point. She clips while trying to maintain the pointed shape of the tail. This broom requires a lot of clipping. It's really has been abused. When she finishes with the tail, Sidney picks up her silver tail twig clippers and puts them back in the appropriate crate.