The trimming was out of the way and Candy could FINALLEHHHH move on to the next step. The firstie quickly put the clippers aside --- SCARRYYY clippers!! - and picked up the two rags and the polish.

She dipped the first rag in the polish and used a gentle circular motion of the former to apply the latter on the BROOMIIIEEE's handle. Then she waited about ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTYYY SECONNDSS - heeeeheeeeeee!! - before polishing it off. She did this one more time.

The handle looked so much better now!!

One more time and the handle would be all HAPPPY forr good! Candy CHUCKLED very lightly to herself again and then repeated what she had just done, for a THIRDD time.

Now the handle looked a HAPPPYYY and SHINNYY one.

YAYYY!!

Leaning back lazily on her elbows the broom carefully balanced on her knees Ivory let her mind drift to the shape of the clouds above. If she was careful and censored some of her thoughts the shapes didn't look like killer snakes or amputated limbs or anything disturbing like that. If she was careful, they were just fluffy bunnies and turtles and fishes.

Sighing she reached out her hand to touch the tail end of her broom surprised to find that already the soaked twigs were dry already. Thanking the afternoon sun, she brought out the silver twig clippers and looked over the twigs she'd already deemed as raggedy and obtrusions. Picking the nicest most even looking twig, she measured the rest against it and began to tedious project of trimming the tail end until it was nice and even.

Snip. Snip. Snip. Her cuts were as precise and straight as she could make them. She didn't want to leave the broom with jagged twigs or ones that were too short. Odds are they would be devastating to its flight ability.

As she continued, she found that some of the twigs were very delicate and had to be handled gently, only cutting on the damaged end or else she ran the risk of snapping the twig a couple centimeters above from where the cut was made.

Murmuring words of apology, for she was sure that the broom was a semi-sentient being, she found she felt horrible. Almost as if she was cutting its limbs...one at a time...leaving it with numerous stumps.

Shuddering at the image and putting it from her mind, she tried to empty her mind, concentrating on the task at hand. On giving the broom a make over. Of making it happy...happier than she was.

Turing it over she began to work on the other side, running her palm gently over it to feel for any stragglers.

Snip. Snip. Snip.

Righto!

Gold inspected Nyx, and was satisfied with the outcome of her work. Nyx looked shiny - glossy enough for a Minister to ride, rawwrrr! - and she could see her face reflected, there. A little hazily, yes, but she could still make out the red of her hair, very well.

It just looked a little brownish, in the Nyx!reflection.

She screwed the lid, on the container of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, collected all the other broom-care material, and organized it neatly. Because she was like that - organized and stuff.

Now, for the fun part!

Gold could already imagine herself in the air, imagine how nice the wind would feel, how nice everything would feel. It helped that she was a good flier, and certainly not scared of heights. Because that enabled her to enjoy the whole experience, live every second of it.

Truly live every second of it.

She did not even know that a smile had just made its way on to her face, at the thought of being airborne.

Once she had her broom and everything, she stuck her hand right over the handle and said, "Up!" She knew she need not have, but they were meant to "demonstrate proper taking off," and this was certainly a part of basic, 'take-off.' Well, when you were a beginning learner, anyway. But she was sure Professor V would not mind. Would he?

She gripped the broom handle, swung one leg over the broomstick itself, and mounted it. Then she gently pushed off, and was soon airborne. Leaning forward, she pulled the handle upwards, and shot up. One foot, two feet, five feet, ten -- she was rising through the air at a fairly good speed, and was soon at the height she wanted to be.

Gold pushed her broom handle down a bit, so that it was horizontal, and let herself hover in the air, then, just like that, for a minute or half, because the wind felt lovely, and she could hear whoosh by, and lots of other people were in the air, and it all reminded her of a match, a good, fiery match. Or maybe just a simple, joyful, really light-hearted ride through the other, on a breezy, midsummer afternoon.

It was beautiful, to think of.

She resumed her flight, and did a few, good laps around the practice area. It was fun, like no other final ever could be - at least, never had been, none yet, not except flying - and it soothed her, made her forget of grading, and focus, only and only, on being up in the air.

On enjoying the experience.

But she couldn't stay here, forever. Gold knew she would have to go down, now. She half-frowned at the thought, then shook her head, directed her broom handle towards the ground, so that it was sort of pointing downwards, and leaned forward slightly.

She was headed towards the ground, now.

As it got closer, Gold sat up straighter, and pulled her broom handle towards her chest, to apply the brake. Then she extended her legs, aaannndddddddddd ... Whoa! Touchdown! Her shoes hit the ground at a run, and she came to a smooth halt.

Dismounting her broomstick, Gold beamed at her broomstick, and then wondered what they were going to do next. Hopefully, it would involve more flight, because flying was too awesome.

Rawwrrr!

Candy had ATTENDED that lesson. The one that had taught them how to TAKEE OFFF and LANNNDDD. She climbed on to her broom after she had lidded the polish container and everything and pointed the handle upwards to kick off.

YAYY!!

Once in the air she took a few laps of the place. It was a good feeling and Candy LIIIKEDD it. It made her feel warm and HAPPYY!!

After a while she pointed the handle towards the ground and leaned forward to zoom down. She hoped her broomie wouldn't go OUT OF CONTROLLLL!! It didn't either, so yay for that! Candy slowwwwly sat up and then pulled the handle towards herself a bit. Then she extenddeeddddddd her legs.

ANDDD SHE HAD LANDEDD!!!

She jumped off her broomstick and BEAMED at it!

Yayyy!!

Destiny learned all too soon that the next step was not nap time.

Obviously, since she didn't see anyone lying on the grass sleeping away. All these thoughts about sleep made her realize how tired she actually was. Yawning a bit, Destiny picked up a rag and put some of the broom polish on it. First her fingers almost fell off, now her arm would be lying right there next to them. 'Sorry arm..' she whispered before she started to rub the polish in the way she was taught. Small circular motion here, small circular motion there..

Wax on, wax off..

By the time she was finished with the handle, she was sure her arm had shifted in a way it was not supposed to. Great. Now she was going to have a nice wonky looking arm. At least it was still attached, so that was good.

Taking care of a broom is annoying. You are constantly waiting for the next step, and Destiny hated to wait. At least if her arm did fall off, she could occupy her time by poking people with it. But, since that had not happened, she had to kneel there and do absolutely nothing. Booooring. Who would have thought two minutes could last so long? It felt like FOREVER!

She decided to count to one hundred and twenty in her head. After the count, she picked up the other rag, and in the same circular motion, she buffed away the polish. Hmm, it was actually starting to look like a broom she would actually ride. Plus it was getting all shiny, and Destiny liked shiny things!

When she was finished, she placed the rag on the grass, stood up and admired her handiwork. Ehh, it wasn't too bad looking, but another coat of polish would make it look PERFECT! Kneeling back down next to the broom, she picked up the polish rag and dipped it into the jar.

Rinse and repeat.

Snip.

Snip.

Sniiiiiiiiiii...Oh this one was a tough one. It didn't want to be clipped off! Well she couldn't blame it. It was one ugly twig and it probably was there on purpose to make the broom's life miserable! Had a mind of it's own it did and it was screaming 'Don't hurt me!'

Pfft. Like she was going to listen to a twig.

SniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIPPPP! HA! Yea, she showed who was boss! Take THAT ugly twig. Well, it can't! Because it was dead! Hopefully that was the last one she needed to do. Turning the broom around in a circle, looking at all the sides of the tail, she found a few little things she had missed, but all in all, it was looking pretty good.

No, not pretty good. It was amazing. Probably her best work as of yet. Handle nice and shiny, tail was smooth and clean, which meant only one thing. It was time to fly!! Clearing out the bucket of cleaning stuff for the broom, she gathered the tail twigs she had cut off and placed them into the empty bucket, tossing the two rags, clippers, and cleaning solution into there as well before standing up and stretching. It felt good to stretch and get up off the ground. Woke her up, that's for sure.

Taking a deep breathe, a small smile on her lips now, she grabbed her broom and went over to put the bucket of cleaning and broom care stuff over by the crates, though placing it beside them so people know it was already used.

Now the fun part! Really smiling now, she mounted the broom before kicking off. Aw the open air! Freedom! Peace! And...Kay already dismounted so she had clear range of the air. Mwaha!

YES!

Now that she had applied the two coats of polish, Destiny's broom was looking FABULOUS! It was newly clipped, freshly polished, but the best part; it was SHINY! Oh yeah, shiny was good. She had almost forgot about the next part of the final even though it was the best part. Well, not really, since she couldn't really fly around a lot, just take off and landing. Would she get in trouble for flying around the pitch like six times? Yes. That question was easily answered by the thought of who the Professor is.

Destiny didn't think he would like that too much.

Pulling out her wand, she cleaned the water/solution stuff out of the bucket and all the little pieces of twigs that she clipped. Once they were both gone, she filled the bucket with the dirty rags, clippers, cleaning solution and polish. It looked like a gift basket! But now was not the time to make the used bucket look pretty. Holding the broom in one hand and the bucket in the other, Destiny walked back over to the crates. She placed the bucket down, and hopefully everyone knew it was all used. Who would want to polish a broom with an already used rag? It was gross!

Bahaha!

Now the fun part! This would surely cheer her up, even if only for a minute. Mounting the broom, Destiny kicked off of the ground, and like always, she sloooowly made her way higher and higher. It was more relaxing going slow, and she could stay up for longer. How far were they allowed to go up? She didn't know..but at the last class it was ten feet, so it would be ten feet for her today. When she reached ten feet, she hovered there for a bit before slooooowly descending back towards the ground. When she was close enough to the ground, she pulled back on the handle and extended her legs.

Now on the ground, Destiny unmounted the broom and sat back down on the grass.

Was it nap time now?

It was now time to polish the handle. She opened the polish and scooped out a small dab, about the size of a knut, then started wiping it on the handle of the broom in a gentle circular motion. Once the entire handle was covered she stood it up and waited. After two minutes she grabbed the other rag and using the same gentle circular motion she began to remove the polish.

Once that was finished she grabbed the other rag again and covered the handle with polish again. After two minutes she again removed the polish with the other rag. The handle was looking pretty darn shiny but not shiny enough. She still needed to add one more coat of polish before she could say she was finished.

For the final time she grabbed the first rag and covered the handle with polish using the same gentle circular motion as the other times. She waited the two minutes again, which now seemed like two hours, then for the last time took the second rag and removed the polish. Looking the handle over she was satisfied with her work. She quickly cleandd up her area and put all the supplies in the bucket with the trimmed tail twigs.

Finally, it was going to be time to fly soon.

Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. It'll do magic believe it or not
bippity-boppity-boo

Silently singing to herself, Mina waited for the last few seconds before she could continue with her polishing. Just looking at the broom, it wasn't hard to tell that the second coat had really set into the wood. The color was looking better, but she still had a lot to do with it. With the two minutes wait over, she reached for her wiping rag and removed the excess polish. Yes, the color was looking so much better now. She was getting closer to what she wanted.

Working from the handle downward, she carefully removed all the excess and grabbed her buffing rag. Now it was time for that extra elbow grease. Starting from the tail end, she would in smooth circular stokes up the broom, applying a firm pressure as she buffed it. She knew the broom could shimmer again, it wouldn't be a brilliant shimmer or anything, but it wouldn't be dull either. She was aiming for a full shimmer at least.

Holding up the broom to assess her work, she nodded. It was getting there, the broom had a slight shimmer and she still needed the final coat and then she would truly know if it would shimmer. Grabbing the polishing rag and the can of polish again, she started again. Placing the knut-sized amount on the rag again, she started at the broom again, applying a thick and even final coat of the polish in that circular motion she was getting accustom to using.

Continuing to silently sing to herself, she added some extra energy to the polishing. It needed to shiny and she wasn't about to start slacking now. Turning the broom, she looked it over to see if she missed a spot. Finding she had covered the whole thing evenly, she set it back a top her knees and waited. Another two minutes and she would be back to buffing it.

With a glance at the tail, she grabbed her twig clippers and started to trim the most obvious twigs. She had to occupy herself for those two minutes and she was always one to try to multitask. She would work on the obvious trimming now while she waited for the polish to set and then go back and trim the tail thoroughly once she was done with the final buffing.

Yes, that was what she would do and then she would be able to get back up in the air.

Fred noticed some people who felt they were done were already taking to the skies which meant he misread something and was gonna go go for his take off a little sooner then he planned. Fred mounted his broom and put his right hand over his left on the broom handle. With no further adue Fred kicked off th ground leaning into his broom and and he was airborn. It felt so good to finally get up there again, it felt to him like he was taking abreak from everything just to have a good time even if it only lasted a little while. He knew not to deviate from the rules so he just flew upward for about a minute and then leaned into his broom and made his ascent toward the ground and landed nicely. He dismounted his broom and took a seat on the grass and waited to see what may come next.

Herminny really wantedd to take to the skies already and when she saw a couple of students going for it alrady she realized she may have read something wrong and it seemed to be up to the students when they felt ready. Her broom was dry and glossy shiny and she felt she had done a fine job thus she grabbed her broom and mounted it. She put her right hand over left on the handle and kicked off and took to the skies. It felt great to up there again. She had missed the years she had played quiddich whether she was good at it or not she just loved being able to take to the skies every other day or so. It had been a good year since she properly flew so this was a treat. She really did not want to come back down even though she knew she had to. She flew all around the pitch for about a minute and then leaned into her broom for a touch down back on the ground. She then sat in the grass hoping there may be more flying in whatever was to come next in this exam.

Alas, she was finally in the air! Deciding to make the most of her time, or what little time she probably had in the air considering the Professor didn't really say they had a time limit, she hovered there for a moment, watching the others continue on with their final before deciding to fly a little.

She didn't go very far, or very fast for that matter, but still, it was nice to just move and feel the breeze that definitely fit the nice day they were having. After a minute or so though, she glanced back down to where the Professor was a sighed. She didn't want to stay in the air too long for fear of either being yelled at, or having points taken off. Like a certain other redheaded Professor. And it wasn't Bunz...Pfft. She didn't even do anything wrong in that class...

Before she could make herself angry though and ruin the somewhat good mood she has been in since, well forever, Evelyn slowly descended to the ground, raising the broom handle up just the slightest so she would stop and hover low enough where she could touch the ground with her feet.

It was over. Fixing up a broom that took forever in the heat of the sun, fighting to stay awake the entire time and not pass out, only to fly for a minute or so...was totally worth it. Just the thought of that put another smile on her face.

Hmm, so what now? Do they leave? Where do they put the finished brooms?

Snip, snip, snip

Apparently the broom had a lot of obvious twigs that needed attending to and the two minute wait seemed to fly by for Mina. Setting the clippers down, she reached for her wiping rag and started to remove the polish again. The handle was looking shinier than before, but she would seriously have to double time it with her buffing if she wanted it to truly shimmer. Wiping all the excess polish off, she smiled. The polish had really taken during the last coat and she was sure that it would shine now. Grabbing her buffing rag, she attacked the broom with a new sense of purpose.

Oh how pretty and shiny the broom handle was now. Holding the broom in front of her, she smiled as she assessed her work. She had done a really good job, if you asked her. The dullness was gone and now the broom actually had a nice sparkle and shiny shimmer to it. She was rather proud of her work, but she wasn't done. There was still the rest of the tail twigs to trim. She had gotten some of the trimming done while she waited for her polish to set, but the broom did still need some help and she wanted to do her best on the maintenance.

Pulling the broom tail into her lap, she picked up the clippers again and carefully started to work on the trimming again. All the obvious trimming was done, but she knew there was still some trimming that was needed under the first layer of twigs. The tail didn't look like it was all smooth and she was going to make sure it looked as close to perfect as she could possible make it. Those twigs were the only thing between her and being in the sky right now.

Snip, snip, snip

Jacob still sat quietly in his soft spot of grass. Then he looked around see others finishing. So now it felt safe to put stuff away. Jacob got up, and put the broom softly on the ground. He tightly put the lid back on the polish and carried his silver clippers and rags towards the crates. Putting each in their appropriate place, he walked back towards his broom. Then he saw that the others were on their brooms. Jacob Looked back at the chalkboard and saw that there was something else to do. He must have missed that part. He was never any good with reading instructions. Reaching the broom, he picked it up and his feet sunk into the ground.

That was a good spot to sit in and work on his broom. But it was most obviously not a good place to kick off of. So he shouldered the broom and walked to try and find a better spot. He walked, stopped and stomped the ground every so often. And finally found a perfect spot. Jacob looked at the board one more time in case he missed anything else. Then he swung one leg over the broom. Pushing himself up to a tip-toe he kicked off the ground softly. He didn’t want to go too high but he didn’t want to be deducted points for not kicking off at all. He reached around three feet then shot into the are a few more feet by pulling up his handle. Now he had to go back. But before he did he flew in small tight circles as though he were the rag. Which just shows that three coats is too much, it was getting to him.

Jacob stopped his circles and…Whoa…everything was spinning. Fast small circles equal a bad idea. Now descending slowly he felt as though he was about to vomit. And he looked it too. STOP SPINNING! He demanded from his head. And tried to swing his leg over to broom to dismount. But he tripped and almost fell on to his face. At the last minute he steadied him self and the dizziness was wearing off. Finally he was able to swing his leg over the broom and properly dismount.

Standing there with the broom in his right hand he started wondering what would come next. Hopefully something fun

Once she joined the others, Cela collected everything she needed and started by staring at the bucket. Not the most productive of things to be doing and soon enough she shook herself off and filled the bucket with water using her wand and a non-verbal ‘Aguamenti’. She put her wand away and added the correct amount of cleaning solution , mixed it up and carefully placed the broom in the bucket to soak a bit, letting the handle lean against her shoulder while she examined the clippers and waited for enough of the solution to soak in.

The broom was a bit of a mess, all ragged looking and much like Cela had been feeling since she’d come back. She stayed quiet, subdued. The written part had kind of reminded her of herself again but as soon as she wasn’t submerging herself in academic stuff, she felt a bit lost.

After the broom had been soaking for the required length of time, Cela peeked at her head of house, and then busied herself with the broom again. She carefully let the solution drip off the twigs, which were still damp, and balanced it across her knee. She needed to let it dry but didn’t want to run out of time so she very carefully dried the twigs with another non-verbal, this time the drying charm they’d had to use in herbology. Might as well use it for something other than drying out tea, right?

Tiberius gingerly ran his hand down the tail of the broom. Stray twigs caught against his fingers as he tried to see if the tail was ready to be clipped.

"Ow," he muttered, a twig catching the inside of his knuckle and breaking the skin there. A small bead of blood gathered as he stuck it to his mouth.

Pulling his hand away and pressing it against his robes, trying to ignore the sting, he held the clippers in his other hand. Time to tackle the tail!

Tiberius leaned over so that he was eye level with the twigs, looking for anything sticking out erratically. He wiggled the clippers in to a broken twig, caught between others that were fine. Squinting, he tried to hold his hand steady. Snip.

Pulling the now severed piece away, he tossed it on the ground. Snip. Snip snip snip. He worked decisively with the clippers, stepping back every few snips to check on the shape of the tail from a different perspective.

Leaning back in, Tiberius chewed on his lip, eying the one last twig that jutted out unnaturally. It was tangled. One wrong snip and Tiberius would cut several perfectly fine twigs. Hand shaking ever so slightly, he closed the clippers around the end, closed his eyes, and pressed.

Snip.

Opening his eyes, Tibi breathed a sigh of relief. The offending twig had been trimmed. And the tail was intact.

Whew.

Once the broom was dry, Cela got to work with the clippers, carefully trimming the nasty crooked and ragged edges. She paused every now and then to examine the broom, checking to see that she was keeping its natural shape and not over trimming it. It wasn’t so hard and it was kind of relaxing. Cela got herself in a bit of a zen-like state and occasionally she paused to run her fingers over the tail twigs, working as much by feel as by sight.

She might have earned herself a tiny splinter from the tail twigs, but Cela took no notice of it. A splinter was nothing compared to everything else that had happened. The little throb of it in her fingertip just reminded that she was real and she was back and even if everything wasn’t okay yet, just like when the splinter got removed, it’d heal and be alright eventually.

And maybe she’d get boo-boo kisses along the way.

She stopped trimming and examined the broom, checking her work and finding it was up to scratch. Even if she had gone crazy last time they’d been shown how to do this, she had done it before and she did always listen to Professor Vindictus and his instructions as carefully as she could. Cela carefully put the broom to one side and vanished the water and solution from her bucket, then returned her bucket to the pile, along with the clippers.

She went to fetch the polish and the rags for polishing.

Mina set the clippers down and ran her hand over the broom tail. It looked smooth and felt pretty smooth as well. There wasn't any sign of a twig out of place, they all looked rather uniform and nice. She was rather pleased with it. Setting the broom safely on her lap, she tidied up a bit. Placing all her rags, the closed can of polish, the twig clippers, and bottle of tail cleaner in the bucket; after she of course emptied and scourified it properly. Picking up all her twig tail trimmings, she added them to the bucket as well.

Standing up, she held the broom and assessed her work again. It really did like a lot better than when she had first started. To be honest, she had concerns that she wouldn't do well in the maintenance, but it was just nerves. Looking around for a spot to take off, she frowned. There were students all around and she didn't want to risk hurting anyone. Walking over to a fairly empty spot in the enclosed area, she set the broom down and called for it to hover. With in seconds, it was hovering as it should at a pretty good height. Nice, a broom that wasn't difficult. Gripping the handle with left hand, she swung her leg over and mounted it.

Now it was time for the fun, she had been so looking forward to this part since she walked into the final. Gripping the broom firmly in her hands, she kicked off and slowly ascended into the air. She didn't want to race off and get ahead of herself. No, that would just get her in trouble and she had seriously have enough of that for one term.

Flying over the pitch, she smiled and felt the slight June breeze in her hair. This was just what she had needed today. Her spirit was feeling so much better and she was somewhat at peace with things whilst in the air. Flying was kind of therapeutic for her now. Steering around the pitch, she descended slightly and turned to loop around once more. She didn't want to land just yet. She was enjoying herself too much.

After looping back around a third time, she figured it was time to land. There was still more to do for the final and she would just fly again later. Slowly, she leaned forward on the handle and descended back toward the ground. Unlike last term, she had learned that it was best to just lean forward slightly and gentle, not quickly. She wanted to have control of her speed and not end up in a ball on collision. Seeing that she was nearing her landing spot, she pulled up ever so slightly on the handle and coasted to a nice distance above the ground.

Hovering just about 2 ft off the ground, she swung her leg over the broom and planted her feet firmly on the ground again. She had managed to do it and not hurt herself or anyone else in the process. Smiling to herself, she grabbed the broom and hurried off to her previous spot on the pitch. Maintenance - check. Take off - check. Landing - check.

Sitting back down, she folded her legs behind her and set the broom on her knees. That whole thing wasn't at all that bad and she was a little excited to see what was next.

Cela returned to her seat and the broom she was working on with two rags and some polish in hand. She sat down and took a knut sized dollop of polish with one of the rags, the other she draped over her shoulder for the meantime. With a practiced, circular motion, she began to rhythmically coat the broomstick with polish, rubbing it into the wood , her mind still wandering as she worked, the smell of the polish drifting in and out of her senses.

After a few moments she’d covered the entire length of the handle, and now she had to let it sit for a few minutes. She had a staring contest with a bug, tried to hold her breath and mentally transcribe all of the Laws of Transfiguration into runic to keep herself entertained for those two minutes. Once the time was up, Cela put aside the rag with the polish all over it and began to carefully rub it off with the clean rag, using that circular motion again and gently removing the polish for the first of three times.

She put the cleaner rag aside again and got started with another blob of polish, rubbing it into the wood and sighing to herself silently.

There. The tail was as it should be. Tibi ran his hand along it again, satisfied with its shape. Not a twig out of place!

Placing the clippers down, Tiberius picked up two rags, one for polish-on, the other for polish-off. Sitting with his legs curled underneath him, Tibi placed one rag over each leg, polish-on right, polish-off left. Unscrewing the lip of the polish, he grabbed the polish-on rag and scooped out about a knuts-worth. Cradling the broom in one hand, Tiberius rubbed the polish into the handle in small, precise circles, up one side of the handle and then down the other.

Now to wait two minutes. What had he done to mark time in lesson… Smiling to himself, Tiberius remembered that he had sung Happy Birthday in his head four times to mark two minutes.

And so the small boy began to sing in his head, eyes closed, head bopping slightly. Happy Birthday day to youuuuuu, Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuu… Once the fourth round was done, Tiberius picked up the polish-off rag and carefully buffed the polish off the entire handle. The circular motion was almost soothing. For reasons he wasn’t entirely sure of, taking care of his own broom this term had provided an escape from all the craziness of the term. It was the same today.

Coat one, DONE!

Feeling a little better, Tiberius switched rags again and scooped out another knut’s worth with the polish-on rag. Tiberius squinted at the broom as he polished up one side of the handle and down the other, his movements precise and intentional. And then, it was time to sing again.

Placing the rag down, Tiberius bounced. Happy Birthday day to you, you live in a zooooooo, you look like erumpets and you smell like them toooooo. Happy Birthday to youuuuu, do you have the flu? You look like a flobberworm, all covered in goooo. And twice more. Snickering to himself a little, Tiberius found himself in much better spirits already as he buffed the polish off again.

Coat two, DONE!

Applying the polish wasn’t as fun as buffing it off, though both steps required that same, gentle, circular motion. A little of the polish worked its way into her skin around the splinter, but even the little sting of that didn’t cause Celandine to flinch. She simply continued her ministrations, grip sure but gentle.

She went back to her mental transcribing of Gamp’s Laws into runic to pass the two minutes, occasionally glancing around at the other students, her eyes resting on those who she’d watched in the forest for slightly longer than the others. She felt sort of apart from all of it now, both sides. She had nobody who had shared her experience and yet she’d shared all of theirs.

With a slight frown she peeked at Tibi. She’d write to him. She would.
2 minutes up, Cela switched rags again and went back to work, buffing the polish off. Already she could see the shine starting to come through, the wood was getting glossy and almost reflective. It was repetitive work but Cela barely noticed.

For the third time she used the polish rag to get a globule of polish and smeared it on the broom, rubbing it carefully until the whole handle was covered.

More transcribing…. Two more minutes....

Marie gathered up all the clenaing supplies and took them back to the crates. It was finally time to do what she had been waiting for.....FLYING.

She found an area that looked like a good spot to take off. She mounted her broom then stood there for a few seconds looking around. This was a perfect day for flying. She gently kicked off using all the self comtrol she had not to go zooming around the pitch. The professor only said to demonstrate taking off and landing but surely he wouldn't object to just a little bit of flying.....I mean since they were in the air already.

She hovered about 10 feet from the ground and watched the others that were in the air too. She then looked down and seen that the professor didn't seem to be watching what was going on in the air at the moment. Taking the opportunity she flew in small circles around the roped off area of the pitch. It wasn't as fun as zooming around the whole pitch but at least she ws flying.

Wonder how long she can stay up there before she knows she better land.

The final two minutes up, Cela finished buffing the polish from the broom handle, eyeing her distorted reflection in the wood. Surely something so smoothly polished should be slippery? Celandine ran her hands along the length of the wood, almost surprised at how easy it was to grip. It was strange seeing a blurred reflection of herself in the grain of the wood but she kind of felt like that was how she was right now anyway. Blurred. Indistinct.

She checked the instructions again and stood up, banishing the rags and the polish to where they belonged. Flying now? Well she could take off well enough, probably land too if she reaaally tried. It still wasn’t her strong point though, no matter how hard Professor Vindictus tried to get her to do it.

Still, she moved out of the way of the cleaning stuff and joined the others doing the flying bit. She placed the broom on the ground and quite cheerfully commanded it UP. Mostly for the fun of it. It flew into her hand almost eagerly, Cela rather thought it was thankful for all the special attention it had gotten from her. She cracked a smile, swung her leg over the broom and pushed off the ground. Her hands carefully gripped the handle, one over the other and she did a small loop before pulling up and descending smoothly.

Okay. This was the part where STUFF tended to happen. Stuff like her face hitting the ground. She preferred to just jump off…. So she sorta did. Though what Cela didn’t realise was that she’d slowed up enough so that a dismount was possible. She slipped herself off the broomstick as if she was about to break into a run, the momentum carried her forward on her feet and Celandine returned to her seat, feeling just a little better.

After flying around the little roped off area for what seemed like only a couple of minutes, Marie decided she better go back to the ground. She didn't want Professor Vinny getting mad at her for being in the air too long, that would be bad.

She sloooowwwllllyyyy made her way towards the ground . She really wasn't in a big hurry to get off her broom just yet. She had taken all that time to care for it so she wanted to fly on it as much as she could before someone else got it and ruined all her hard work.

When she was just a couple of feet from the ground she pulled up and came to a stop and hovered there. Knowing she couldn't just sit there all day she put her feet down and got off the broom.

Now what were they suppsed to do?

Taking her broom she went over and sat on the grass by Destiny. She would just sit there and enjoy the sun until the professor dismissed them or let them fly again. She voted for flying again.

Miles walked over toward the roped off practice ring drumming his hands on his thighs uncontrollably. The medicine still hadn't worn off and he was wondering now how much he'd actually been given. Looking around he spotted the broom rack and walked over. As his attention wavered he simply grabbed a random broom from the rack without looking at its condition and then headed to get what he needed from the three crates. Handle polish...check...tail twig clippers...check...rags...check and a bucket....check. Feeling certain he had everything he sat on a lovely patch of grass. His eyes landed on the broom and he groaned at it's state. Who would leave a broom this way? And why did I have to choose it? Blah.

Pulling out his wand he cast a wordless "Aguamenti" charm and watched as the bucket filled with water. Finding it filled to his licking he poured some solution into the water and placed the broom into it to soak in the stuff. With time to kill he watched everyone else wondering if this was as entertaining to them as it was to him. He missed Quidditch. Catching Vindictus looking around he cleared his throat and pulled the broom out of the solution. Had to be enough time right? Shaking the solution from the twigs he grabbed a rag and the handle polish. Might as well do something useful until the twigs dried. dipping the rag in the polish he ran it lovingly up and down the handle with a smile