Looking up at Kay, Marie gets the feeling that Kay thinks she doesn't know what she's doing. "I know what I'm doing, you don't have to talk to me like I'm stupid." Geez, did she think she was the only one who could trim a broom. This was not a way to show someone you wanted to be thier friend again, by talking to them like they are stupid.

Looking back at her broom Marie continued to trim it with confidence.

"You'd think he'd be happy for a nickname like that." she whispered back, smirking and snipping a few more uglier ends of the twigs off.

Snip Snip Snip.

"I mean, really." Snip. "His name is confusing enough as it is." Snip. "I'd rather be called Vinny than..." Snip snip. "Well, whatever his real name is." Which she should learn really soon considering she probably didn't want detention. Who knows what the flying instructor did to his victims...

Sidney places the school broom on the table. She then places the broom servicing kit close to the broom handle. Sidney only takes out the tail clippers. She examines them carefully. I've seen my dad cut the raggedy ends off his broom. He makes it look so simple. I guess that comes with experience and practice which I have none of. Not to mention I have Professor Vindictus breathing down my neck watching my every movement. No pressure what so ever. Sidny picks up the tail clippers. She holds them in her hands to get the feel of them. Then Sidney practices cutting the air with the clippers. Not much resistence. I bet that will all change when I put a piece of twig between the blades. Better start with the thinnest twig I can find. That way I can get my feet wet clipping without taking a whole twig out. Sounds like a plan. Sidney tries to visualize her dad clipping his broom's twigs. I usually help hold the handle down that way the broom doesn't move so much. Can't do that here. I've got to hold the handle down and cut the twig. Sidney decides to hold the broom down using the top of the twigs- the part that is tied together at the top, but first she examines the tail end of the broom. Over all, the tail doesn't look too bad. It just needs the very ends sheared. Sidney uses her left hand to hold the broom down. With her right hand, she cuts the very end off of one twig. Well, Sidney half cuts half tears. Not a very good start. She decides to use her left hand to hold the individual twig and then cut it. Sidney takes another twig, holds it in her left hand, and cuts it with twig clippers. This one cuts cleanly. Terrific, at the rate I'm going, I'll have this broom's twigs clipped in about two weeks.

SNIP!

Fia turned her head towards Miles, her eyes narrowly watching him. At this very moment, he was in trouble by her...play trouble that is and she could tell by the look on his face that he sooooo wanted to laugh at her and her rosy cheeks. She aimed the snippers for the exact spot she wanted to trim and then turned her head towards Miles as if to speak with the snips. She made sure to accent boldly as her fingers closed in together.

SNIP!

That was for his cheekiness ways that she loved so dearly. "I think it's best you don't have your broom here." Andddd her voice was a bit snippy just like the ones in her hand. "I would have trimmed it for you." She raised a brow with an evil smirk on her face as she was playing of course...keeping him in high spirits and his mind off of Dylan who was sitting on the other side of her.

"Hey, I didn't mean it like that. You just look a little unsure. I don't think you stupid at all. You smart then me. you get better grades too." Kay said looking back to the broom she was working on. "Have you gotten your charms homework done yet? Not me, I dont know that to use or where to do it." She said going back to clipping her broom.

"Well I'm not unsure, I can do this just fine without your help thank you very much." Marie really did not like being treated stupid. First Rex calls her stupid, now his girlfriend treats her like she is stupid. What is it with those two. Hearing Kay say Marie gets better grades than her was much better. "Yeah, I know I get good grades, tell me something I don't already know." 'Oh, now she wants to know if my homework is done, like I'm going to help her, HA' Marie thought. If she was going to help anyone with homework it was going to be Evan, not Kay.

"You could be nicer about it. I was only trying to help." Kay said getting mad again. "Why are you acting like this? I thought you wanted to work things out?" She said taking her broom and moved to the other table. She was done trying to be nice to people.

BROOMCARE! La la la la allallalalalaaaaaa!

Miranda grabbed a school broom (no way she was using her own for this. She'd practice more and THEN go clippity-clip on her own.) and grabbed the tools kit from Vindictus. Ready now, she started to inspect where the twigs needed to be clipped.

She put the broom on the table, and as instructed, also the broom-care kit and took out the silverly clippers. Aaah! She bent down to take a large sniff. It smelled like polish...sooooo nice.

And nooooow, it was time to clippety the poor end of the twigs that didn't look so good. Clip.
Clipclipclipclip.

Ah, it was looking so much better already. Hehe.

Vindictus was pleased with the work the students were doing and noticed that many were finishing up with the much-needed trimming of the twigs.

Suddenly, he clapped his hands to get their attention. "Alrighty class! Now that you know how to trim the tail twigs, we're going to move on to another important aspect of caring for a broom - polishing the handle. Return the clippers to the kit and remove the two rags and the container of polish."

He gave them a few minutes to make the transition before continuing.

"One rag will be used to apply the polish and the other is for buffing the polish off of the handle. But before we start, let me show you a few brooms." He walked over to the broom rack and removed a broom who's handle appeared to be in good shape. Then he held it so that the students could really see it. "This broom handle hasn't been properly waxed in a very, very long time. Can you see the faint sheen? That's what's left of the magical varnish. See, the magical varnish helps hold the charms placed on a broom. When the varnish gets worn down, so does the strength of the charms. Unfortunately, this broom can no longer be flown."

And he placed it in the corner of the shed for anyone who wanted to examine the effects of an uncared for broom. He grabbed another one.

"This broom has a nice sheen to it, but it should be shinier. This is what happens when you apply one coat of polish every year or so. Still, the life of this broom has been shortened thanks to the lack of maintenance." He, too, placed it in the corner next to the other broom. Then he grabbed a third broom.

The handle on this broom was glossy, as if it had been dipped in a high gloss laquer. It was so shiny that you could see a reflection in the handle. It looked like Vindictus had just purchased the broom that day and had taken it out of the box prior to the start of class.

"This broom is twenty years old, and it still looks and flies as if it were purchased yesterday. See the glossy finish, almost like a mirror? Now that's what happens when you take the time to correctly polish a broom handle." This broom he placed over the fireplace mantle so that everyone could look up and see it while they worked.

"Open the polish container and using one rag, scoop out a small amount of polish - about the size of a Knut. In a gentle circular motion, wipe the polish onto the handle of the broom. When you've covered the entire handle, wait two minutes before polishing it off with the other rag using a gentle circular motion. Do this three times."

Then he hesitated.

"There's something else I needed to say...."

And Vindictus paused for dramaitc effect.

"In addition to group House Points for this lesson, I'm also going to reward the hardest workers with some fantastic prizes. Let's get started!"


OOC: If you come in late, please find my post about trimming the tail twigs and complete that task first. Then it's okay to start polishing the broom. I'll be online in another 9 or 10 hours, so don't think I've abandoned y'all (will be at work). Also, just a reminder that the lesson will end at 11:59pm EST tonight.

Everyone has permission to talk while working, just try not to start a fight or blow things up.

As Sabel listened to the Professor give further instructions on how to polish the broom handles, he finished up triming the tail end of the flying device, running his hand, palm down, once over the anterior surface of the twigs to make sure they had all been cut clean. He wondered what would happen if you cut them too short and figured it might be akin to shortening the wings of a plane. A bad idea in general.

He frowned a little as he carefuly, and pointedly, put the clippers back in the box; half to reassure Kellen that the danger was over, and half make sure he wouldn't jinx himself with a sudden stab or scratch at the last minute. Drawing out the cloths and polish container, Sabel set them on the bench beside himself and turned the broom slowly so that it was 'belly up'.

Leaning in a little he peered at a few of the small nicks and blemishes carved into the surface of the handle near the tail. Running a finger along a few of them he frowned a little. They were probably due to his hard landing where he had succeeded in littering part of the Quiddich pitch with twigs...and apparently fine wood shavings.

Turning slightly in his bench he caught sight of the Professor. "Sir, is there any way to patch up small dents or nicks?" Perhaps a puddy or something? He didn't think a polished 'Hello Kitty' bandage would be greeted well by the Professor or Horus. Not that he knew where to find one, but it was the first thing that came to mind with the words 'patch up'.

Wha -?

This stuff was rather basic. Gold grabbed a pair of shiny, silver tail twig clippers, and straightened up a bit to listen to Professor V. Even though she was pretty sure this wouldn't be so hard.

She picked up a broom, all gently because she did not want to hurt it - she loved broomsticks - and then took up her clippers. Which were actually kind of distracting, because they were all shinyyy.

At least they weren't pink.

Gently, quite gently, she began to clip away. Raggedy-daggedy ends, those were certainly not needed. "You'll have to go," she told them, as she trimmed away.

Satine was in a trance listening to the Professor talk about caring for a broom. She had no idea that it required this much work. She kept glancing at him and then back at the broom and then back and him and repeating the process. She really wasn't letting all the information sink in, but she couldn't believe that something would require this much work. After being in the trance for a good fifteen minutes, she realized she had missed a step and looked frantically around at everyone else for guidance.

She realized that she needed to trim the bottom of her broom. She took out the scissor thingies and glanced at the bottom of her broom. She could only imagine that this small step would hurt the broom immensely I mean imagine if someone clipped your feet off to keep everything maintained and perfect on you.

Satine pushed these worries into the back of her mind and decided that this was like giving her broom a hair cut or a toe nail trim and slowly and very meticulously began trimming the bottom. Once she was done, she glanced around realizing that the professor was done talking about the millions of things to do to care for you broom.

She grabbed two rags and then glanced around again with a lost look on her face....okay now what was she supposed to do again?

*clap-clap*

Gold looked up from her work, and saw that it was Professor V. Apparently, the flying instructor needed their attention back. She glanced at her broom, to let it know she would have to leave it alone, for a moment or two, and turned her gaze on their teacher.

Oh wow, polish! That would be all shiny, and awesome-scented! Gold grinned at the thought, alone - this would be really wonderful, and she honestly could not wait to get started on the new task.

Quickly but gently, she picked up the tail twig clippers, and placed them back in the broom-care kit. That done, she grabbed the rags they had just been told to, as well as a container of polish. Another good lesson, this one. Gold actually really loved broom-care.

Well...

What next?!

Having finished her triming she placed the clippers back into her box. This was relaxing for her. Doing a little hard work was good for a person, she would have to ask the Professor would need help with this during the semester since she enjoyed it so much. replacing her stale gum with a fresh piece she turned to Vindictus.

She looked at the brooms as Vindictus held them up, studying each one closily. So that's how they fly...charms.Pulling out her polish and two rags. She opened the polish and placed it beside the broom along with the rags. The polish wasn't all that appealing to her and gave off a wierd scent, but it didn't bother her since she had worked with diffrent polishes before.

Taking her rag she diped it into the polish, rubbing a small amount onto her rag. Pulling the broom handle infront of her she began to slowly apply the polish in small circular motions. Instead of wistling like she was before she decided to sing softly to herself, her legs resting on the legs of her stool. "I love the mountains, I love the clear blue sky.I love big bridges, I love when great whites fly..."She wasn't a particuarly good singer but that didn't stop her. She was joying caring for the broom just as much as flying on them. "I love the whole world, and all it's sights and sounds. Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada, Boomdeyada..."She continued this until she completed polishing the whole handle, and waited her two minutes.

"Good, go over there, I don't care. Find someone else who might want your help," Marie said as she watched Kay move to another table. 'Stupid Huffie, who needs a friend like her anyway, ' she thought as she finished trimming the tail twigs on her broom.

Not finding any more twigs that needed to be trimmed she put the clippers back in the box and listened to the professor give directions on polishing the handle.

Looking the handle over Marie notices that this broom really was not in the good shape she thought it was. This broom definately needed to be polished, there was no shine to it al all. Taking out the two rags she put one of them on the table, the other one she used to scoop the polish out of the container. Starting near the tail she she applied the polish using the gentle, circular motion the professor had told them to use. It didn't take long to cover the entire handle with the polish. Putting the rag down Marie waited te required two minutes before she started to remove the polish.

After looking the handle over and feeling satisfied that she had removed all the polish, she looked up at Kay and gave her a 'See, I don't need your help, I can do this myself' look. The broom was already starting to look a whole lot shinier. Yes, she was not stupid, she could do this on her own.

Grabbing the first rag again she scoops out some more polish and starts applying the second coat. Looking around she was glad to be working by herself. She didn't have anyone bugging her and trying to tell her how to work and that suited her just fine. Less distractions meant she would be able to get the job done faster and not make any mistakes.

Kellen couldn't help but smile at Sabel as the boy very clearly pointed out that the pointy sharp objects were going away. Yes, he knew that Sabel was gently mocking his paranoia of someone getting stabbed, but that didn't make him any less genuinely relieved that they were now using polish and rags.

He listened to professor Vindictus explain about polish, and as the man went on Kellen realized how obsessed his Head of House was about brooms. Yes, he was the flying instructor, but this wasn't just a profession; this was a lifestyle. Which made him a little more guilty that he didn't particularly care which broom he was working on.

Kellen uncapped his polish, removed a small amount on a rag and sealed the jar again; no accidental knocking of the supplies, thank you. He began to work, and as he went he continued to wonder about the big deal with brooms. Sabel hadn't wanted to fly, but now he'd gone and named a broom, and seemed insistent that he get it back to fresh-from-the-manufacturer quality. But then again... he turned his broom to polish the underside of the handle... then again maybe it didn't matter that he, Kellen, wasn't bonded to one broom specifically. Because he was still working on one, wasn't he?

He finished up the first coat and set the broom back on the work bench, careful to prop the tip on his closed jar of polish so the handle would dry evenly, and listened to the students around him working. Quite a few were talking to their brooms; Arya appeared to be singing to hers.

Sidney looks up from her twig clipping and listens closely to what Professor Vindictus says. She had no idea broom maintenance not only helped prolonge the life of a broom, but also helps the broom's charms. Sidney just thought her dad maintained his brooms because it made them look better. She sees this lesson in a new light.

Sidney finishes cutting the broom's damaged twigs before starting polishing the handle. She places the clippers back into the box, takes out the jar of polish, and only one of the two rags. Don't want to get the clean rag dirty before I need it. Sidney opens the jar of polish and smells it. It has a hearty smell like freshly cut wood mixed with musk, and a faint smell of lemon and wax. She dips the rag in and removes a small amount. Sidney then rubs the polish on the top of the broom handle. The polish turns white the moment she starts rubbing it in. She dips her rag into the polish again and continues the process moving down the handle in a circular motion. Sidney accidently rubs over an area she's already done. The polish just becomes thicker on that area. Using her rag, she moves the polish further down the broom thinning it out in places it has become thick.

When Sidney has covered the whole area of the handle, she lets the broom sit for a few minutes. Her hands sting now. The polish seems to have a negative effect on skin. Her hands also now look dark brown. It's almost as if part of the broom's orignal finsh has rubbed off on them. Sidney goes over to the sink and washes her hands thoroughly. She doesn't want to get the clean cloth dirty with her soiled hands. When the time is up, Sidney starts rubbing the polish off. It is hard work. The polish has dried onto the handle. The dried polish wants to adhere to the handle like glue. Obviously I'm going to have to take this stuff off layer by layer. The white layer must be rubbed off first, then I can continue buffing until the polish is all gone at least the excess polish. I want to leave some of it on as a protective layer. I need to build the layers of protection up. Sidney rubs the top of the broom as hard as she can. Little by litte the color changes from white to bone to finally a deep brown color. She then works her way down the broom following the same process. When all the white polish is gone, Sidney looks at the broom closely. There's a little shine to the handle, but it's not nearly as shiny as the one on the mantle. Back to work. Sidney puts down her now brown buffing cloth and grabs the black rubbing cloth. She dips into the jar and removes some more polish. Then Sidney starts spreading the polish from the bottom of the handle up continuing to use a circular motion.

Looking up to listen to the intructions of the professor, Mina set her clippers down. She didn't want to possibly stab herself or anything. Getting her hands dirty was one thing, hurting herself was a different thing all together. Besides, blood and her did not go well together at all.

After listening carefully to what her Head of House was saying about polish, she looked back down to her broom. Maybe another pass through to see if she got all the twigs cut was called for before moving to the polish. Picking up the clippers again, she carefully went through the tail again. Oh there was one she missed before and another. Gently, she isolated the twig and snipped it and move to the next twig.

Giving the tail one last look through, she smiled and set the clippers down. The tail definitely looked better than before and not it was time for the polish. Pulling the two rags and the canister of polish from the box, she set them before her. The broom handle didn't look all that bad, there was still a slight sheen to it but it wasn't a shiny as the one above the mantle at all. It looked like she had some work ahead of her with this one, but she didn't mind.

Taking one rag, she opened the canister and pulled out the appropriate amount of polish. Really broom maintenance didn't seem as hard as some people made it out to be, she thought as she closed the canister and set it aside with her clippers. Taking the polish and the rag to the handle, she started applying it in the circular motion as she was instructed in a gentle manner. She didn't want to harm the handle or anything by wiping it on too hard. Bippity-boppity bippity-boppity bippity-boppity-boo, she hummed to herself as she worked her way over the entire handle.

Setting the the polishing rag down, she allowed the broom to dry. Her hands looked a mess, good thing it didn't really bother her. Getting her hands dirty was part of the lesson after all. This wasn't really the lesson to be prissy in. Seeing that the two minutes had passed for the drying, she reached for the clean rag and took the handle in hand. Using the same gentle circular motions as before, she worked on polishing the handle once again.

One layer was down, she just needed to do two more. The handle was a bit more shiny, but no where near as shiny as it could be. She have to work a little harder the next two goes to possibly achieve some level of shininess she was hoping for. Reaching for the canister again, she opened it and using the dirty rag pulled a small amount out. Closing the canister once again, she turned back to the broom and went to work with her gentle circular motions.

So Jake, who usually was pretty distracted in classes, was in the ZONE today. Flying lessons, even though this technically wasn't flying, were what he always looked forward to. Right now he had a broom and he was in his place at the faaaaaaar end of one of the workbenches, as far away from everyone else as he could possibly be, staring at said broom.

Ohhhh, how he just wanted to make it better. This was torrrrture. Poor broom.

The boy had run one finger along the broomcare kit, just itching to start already when Vindictus was talking, twirling the tail twig clippers in his fingers. Brooms and flying were his thing, he thought.

When it was time to get started, Jake took a moment and stared over at the poor massacred broom that someone had totally messed up on. Poor thing. It almost brought a tear to Jakey's eye.

Almost.

Keeping to himself as he got started, Jake chose to stand so he could bend over the broom properly, so it was less likely that he'd make a mistake. Jake had a contented little smile on his face as he ran a hand over the broom handle, following the smooth lines until he got to the tail. The first bent twig he came across was deftly snipped off in a way that showed he was a little experienced but no expert.

Again and again Jake cut off the twigs that poked out, until he bent down and looked straight over the broom. The line of the tail was smoother now, not AMAZINGLY so, since he wasn't brilliant. But enough. And anyway, cutting off not enough when he was inexperienced was better than cutting too much off and thinking it was the right thing.

Unfortunately, he'd spent all that time on doing just the accessible fraction of the broom, and as most moved on to polishing, Jake continued to take his time and start on the next third. He rotated to broom so he could see a little of what he'd already done and the next twiggy part. That way, the tail wouldn't be all square.

With this method, it took two more rotations after this, and a loooong concentrated effort. Eventually, Jake held up the broom before his eyes and held the handle so it was held out horizontally in front of him, and he could look left to right and see the whole length. Twirling it round slowly, Jake saw a few twigs that he appeared to have missed, and deftly snipped them off. Again, the result wasn't perfect, but it was good, and Jake was proud of all his effort.

Luckily (it was lucky because he'd been so obsessed with getting the tail right that he couldn't afford to pay attention to anything else) Jake knew the right polishing procedure. It was more or less like polishing boots, so it was.

Setting the broom back down carefully, Jake stretched up as he stood (all the leaning over the broom took its toll) and then twisted from left to right, popping his back in the process.

He put the clippers back and reached for the polish and the rags, checking them to see if they'd been used, because that would influence which rag was used for which function. Mhmm. So it would.

It was easy enough to make a decision, and with one glance up at the really neat broom that was on the mantle as a way of setting himself a goal, Jake began to get to work, starting, naturally, with scooping up a small amount of polish with the rag. As if to brace himself, Jake took a deep breath and began to apply the polish.

Logic dictated that, on a broom, there were certain places that needed polishing more than others, since contact with the broom made it so the shine was rubbed off, such as where the hands held tight and the general area where the body made contact with a broom. On Jake's broom, that tended to be the whole thing, from the footholds to where his hands gripped it, since he was usually pressed down against the broom to gather speed.

Sooooo, because of this, Jake subconsciously focused on these areas, spreading on the polish and hoping he was putting the right amount on. The problem with doing this was that you could spread it too thick or too thin, and Jake usually had trouble. Even this time, as he started from the top of the broom towards the tail, he found himself realising that he'd not have enough to do the whole handle.

Still, not wanting to be one to use up all the polish, Jake began to spread the polish out from the top some more, so that he had some to apply at the bottom, even if it was kind of thin. He didn't want to leave the broom, lest it was sabotaged, and anyway, it had been at least two minutes since he had started at the top of the broom. Sooooo, Jake switched rags and went through the routine actions of polishing it off.

Eyeing the handle, which didn't look anywhere near finished, Jake began again, knowing that you had to repeat this a couple of times to do it right. And hey, at least this time he got the polish amount right. This time, when he started to polish it back off (after admiring the broom for a couple of minutes) the broom was looking noticeably different. Nothing like the one up on the mantle, but hey... his own broom was in pretty good shape... errr... wherever it was.

Starting to get pretty tired, but quite willing to repeat this procedure over and over again, Jake began the third and final round of this, tuning out everyone else, but keeping his ears open for Vindictus. Since this was the last time he did this on this broom, Jake made sure to be extra careful and precise and keep the polish even. When Jake finally got around to using the rag to buff the polish off, he gave a tired smile. All over the broom, he felt he'd done a pretty good job.

Fiiiiiiinally finished, Jake set the polish and rags to one side (he didn't put them away in case he was asked to go over the last coat) and sat back down in his seat, giving the broom a last cursory look, making sure he hadn't missed any polish that needed wiping off. He WANTED to carry on, but Vindictus said THREE times. No more. So he'd only do four.

Plus, the polish smelled bad after a while.

Sooooo, Jake let himself stare up at the broom on the mantle. Yeah, his broom would still be in good condition when he was as old as Vindictus.

... Best not think about getting old.

Emily put away her twig trimmy thingies... but doing so she pricked her finger... he wasn't kidding those things are sharp! Emily pulled a small round tin out of her satchel that was around her waist and popped it open, it was a sewing kit but it also had some bandaids which she applied to her finger.

Emily opened the polish and began to do small circular motions on the broom handle she was working on, it was pretty old and in a poor condition. She felt kind of sad for the brooms. she had just bought her own broom and planned on working hard to keep it beautiful for twenty years just like the ones in the corner.

As Emily worked a thought came to mind, "Professor, would it be possible for me to come in sometime and clip and polish the brooms that didn't get attended to today? It's so sad seeing them so grubby" Emily said.

Barry was SLOW, really slow. He had just stood there and listned to what they were supposed to do and everyone had already finished the tail trimmings. Barry quickly reached into the broom repair kit and withdrew a tail trimmer.

Barry then looked to his broom, it was fairly neat with only two or three twigs which needed trimming. Barry carefully reached forward with his twig getting closer and closer to the twig and.. it just came out easily. Then he leaned forward and did the same with the second and the third.

Now onto polishing. This was....torture. Barry didn`t really care. He could ride a broom, break it and then get a new one. But he sighed and decided to go with it anyway. He oppened up the polish put in the rag trying to take out just a little bit of it.

He then vigourusly rubbed on the polish but then he stopped remembering it was supposed to be slow and circular. He then started doing it in quick circular motions. When he finished he waited two minutes. In these two minutes he wondered how brooms could ever help you out and was supprised that he had though of many.

Then he wiped the polish off and started again. This time slowly. When he finished he started yet again same as the last time.

Then he just stood there waiting for the professer to say something

'You would think he would be happy with any nickname.' Did any other his other fine students give him a name like that? Destiny doubted it. She already forgot how to pronounce it. 'I don't know what his name is.' And she had only said it a few minutes ago. Destiny now knows what Evelyn feels like when she forgets Bunbury's name..

After clipping the last few crazy looking twigs, without hurting herself!, Destiny pulled out the rags and polish. Hopefully the polish doesn't stink..yes, it does stink. She better get this done fast then. She glanced up at Vinny when he walked around with the broom. Now she could get poked in the eye with a broom handle, that would hurt worse than the twigs. She knew what her broom was supposed to look like so she got to work.

Destiny stuck one of the rags into the polish and scooped out a small amount of polish. She hoped none of it got on her, she didn't want to walk around smelling like a broom shop. After scooping what she thought was the right amount, Destiny starting polishing the broom..to make it shinyyyyyy!!

"Isn't it like...Vindilly? Or something..." she muttered, taking extra care of clipping the broom's tail twigs. It was looking better and better already! Woooot!

So they had to polish the broom handle now? But she wasn't even done clipping the tail yet! She was close though, but not thoroughly done like she wanted to be. Stopping with the snip snip snipping of the twigs, she watched the professor show them three examples of polished and unpolished broomsticks. Well, this didn't seem so hard like she expected it to be. It was kinda stress relieving too...at least just for a little while.

When Professor Vinny gave them the green light to go back to work, she quickly finished clipping the tail twigs until she was satisfied with her work before putting the clippers away and taking out the polish along with the two rags.

So, one rag was for polishing and the other was for...buffing the polish off? Well, that made sense. Moving the broom so the handle laid in front of her, she looked closely at it, seeing what the 'damage' was. It wasn't very shiny, actually, it was pretty dull. No shine to it whatsoever. Scoffing, Evelyn opened the polish and took a moment to decide with rag she would use for the polishing. Stupid decision, but she decided the prettier looking one should be for polishing. Duh!

Taking some polish on the rag, she started to gently apply it to the handle, making sure to get every spot, on the side, the bottom, and especially the extremely dull top. Once the handle looked covered enough, she picked up the second rag and start to slowly take the polish off. It was a sloooow process, but she wanted to do this right.

Sighing, she looked up for a moment to look around at everyone else, her eyes landing on Marie. Where was Kay? She knew that she had seen them working together before but...Oh. There was Kay. Different table? Well, good. Marie shouldn't be hanging around that Hufflepuff anyways.

Smirking, Evelyn looked back down to her work, deciding that the handle had been shined as much as it could from the first coat, she went on to the second, trying to be as thorough and gentle as possible. She definitely didn't want to have to do the whole process over again a second time anytime soon, so doing it right the first time would really, really, reeeaaallly be good.

Chris was really enjoying this class so far. Broom care really was a useful and important lesson. He would definately be using these tips and rules forever on his broom at home and after he graduates. He listened as Professor Vindictus walked around them all and told them that they were going to be clipping the bad twigs in the tail of their brooms.

He picked up the trimmers, when the Porfessor had finished instructions and then layed the broomstick across his knees and then began to examine it's tail. He twirled the handle until he spotted the first of many twisted and bent twigs. He grabbed the end of the sticking out twig and placed the teeth of the clippers onto the right length of the others and cut it off. One down.

Over and over he did this. Search and destroy, the snapped twig that is. His head slowly moved closer and closer to the broom as he searched for them. It began to get harder as the floor beneath him was beginning to have a pile of cut twigs on it. He made sure they were in a neat pile before continuing. He then found a long twig that stuck out above the others and not knowing how he had missed it, cut it off.

Finally he was finished. He then looked up towards Professor Vindictus for more instruction.

Yay, polishing brooms. This was by far, Chris's favorite part of broom care. He had always enjoyed polishing his broom. He was kind of a clean freak when it came to things on his broom. He watched as Vindictus showed them the various damage that the non-polished brooms had recieved and then the flawless broom at the end. Twenty years old? That was a good polish job, probably his own. Chris though to himself.

Ok so now they had the go to begin polishing? He took the first rag and dipped it into the polish until he had a small bit the size of a Bronze Knut. He took the rag with the polish on it and began to move it over the handle of the broom. He worked the polish into the groves of the wood and used a little elbow grease to get the job done. After he was finished with his first time, Chris began the 2 minute waiting period by looking at how everyone else was doing.

After the two minutes was up, the Prefect took the second rag and began to rub it over the polished broom in a circular motion to get the excess polish off and watched as it was a tad shiny.

He took the polish rag again and began to rub more polish onto it. He rubbed and scrubbed the broom and then waited two minutes, glancing back up to the perfect broom above the fireplace mantle. Other rag again. He picked it up and with the circular motion wiped it again. This time the broom was notciably shinier.

With an excited grin Chris eagerly grabbed the polish again and began to rubbed it on the broom handle. He was so excited to see what the broom would look like when he was through with it. He had finished the last polishing and waited the two minutes, practically counting away each second. Then finally he grabbed the second rag again and rubbed the handle with the covented circular motion and finsihed. There on his lap was a nice shiny broom.

It was no Vindictus broom, but it was definately good he thought. He smiled and looked around the room. He wondered what they were going to do next.

Nina looked up with a slight jump when the professor clapped his hands.

Okay, that was easy, she thought.

She replaced the clippers as instructed and took out the next three instruments. She looked at the professor as he spoke concentrating so she wouldn't mess up.

"Professor? How often should one polish their broom?" she asked as she dipped one rag into the polish and began rubbing it. In a circular motion, of course.