Bbboundaries? How was Fletcher supposed to obey some silly boundaries if he couldn't even control a broom? The boy bit his lip hard and swung one leg over the stick, too nervous to really sit down and enjoy the cushioning effect the Cleansweep carried.

At least they hadn't had to kick off yet. That was when he would surely be bucked from his broom and land on his bottom as it laughed at him and flew off to the forest.

Woo hoo! Carter was excited. He was really excited. Without quidditch this term, this lesson was his only opportunity to get in the air. He excitedly retrieved a broom and went back to his spot. He mounted the broom and held the handle firmly.

He then looked at the Professor awaiting the signal to kick off.

"You're restricted to flying only over this area of the school," Vindictus began and he knew that he was going to hear a bunch of groans. "Invisible barriers have been put in place for obvious reasons so that no one can fly into or over the castle nor sneak away to fly all over the school grounds or over the stadium. If you even dare to attempt to test the barriers, expect to be in for a nasty surprise."

He grinned. "You'll get thrown from your broom. It will feel like you slammed into a brick wall but without the obvious damage."

The grin disappeared and Vindictus gave them a hard stare. "It takes practice to control your flying to a restricted area. Stay over the grass and you'll be fine. Don't try any fancy moves or else the school nurse will let you suffer for a bit before she tends to your injuries."

"Fly and have some fun because I have something else planned in a bit," he winked. "Now kick off gently from the ground and start flying!"


OOC: Points will be rewarded for creative role playing (at least 5 posts). Remember that this is a class and don't clutter the thread with idle chit chat. Around 8pm EST tomorrow, I'll move on to part two of this lesson.

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Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Bbboundaries? How was Fletcher supposed to obey some silly boundaries if he couldn't even control a broom? The boy bit his lip hard and swung one leg over the stick, too nervous to really sit down and enjoy the cushioning effect the Cleansweep carried.

At least they hadn't had to kick off yet. That was when he would surely be bucked from his broom and land on his bottom as it laughed at him and flew off to the forest.

Sitting up from her lazy position on the grass, Ivory smiled at the Professor and made her way over to the row of brooms.

Hand trailing over the various ones, she finally came upon one that seemed sturdy and reliable. Whispering greetings to her soon to be airborne companion of the day, she took it with he, held firmly in her left hand, to a nice little patch of unoccupied grass next to Fletcher or should she say 'oh mighty Hufflepuff champion'? Said champion who looked a bit green?

Hiding her smile, she turned a bit to listen to the Professor. Boundaries? Height restrictions? Oh bully.

With a small sigh, she swung a leg over the trusty broom and centered herself preparing to push off. At the last second, she turned towards Fletcher.

"Don't worry, be happy! Its flying after all." Grinning, she kicked gently against the grassy area the motion sending her gliding forward until her feet were no longer anywhere near touching the grass. Whistling the song that went with the encouraging phrase, she went about her merry way flying low for now while she remembered all the rudimentary skills.

Jenny grew nervous. She was excited to learn how to ride for the first time, but not really as excited as her father was when he talked about how interesting Quidditch seemed compared to soccer and how he watched other people fly on brooms. Softly, she kicked off the ground. The Cleansweep was going higher and higher for a few inches...then it quickly went back down.

Huh. That was odd. She tried kicking off the ground again. Same thing happened, except she was a few inches higher. Maybe it had something to do with her nervous. Okay, calm down, Jenny. Calm down...

After she calmed down, Jenny kicked off, more firmly this time. Soon the broom eventually rose to a few feet in the air, and she slowly turned her broom to the left. The broom made a smooth, quick left turn. Wow. Maybe flying isn't so bad after all.

What? Like SERIOUSLY!? Only this part of the school?

Rolling her eyes just the slightest, glancing around the SMALL area (in her mind at least), the Slytherin stood quite still, listening to what would happen if they even tried to get out of the barrier. Huh. Why did he get all smiley when he said that? it was kinda creepy like.

Ignoring the part about the nurse not tending to wounds and blah blah, she was too anxious to get in the air to really pay attention. Stay in the area, don't try to get away, yea they got it! Could they get in the air now?

YUSH! Smiling in relief, she kicked off from the ground and flew UP instead of around. Well, if she could fly around the castle itself, might as well get as high as it. Mwaha! Finally feeling as if she was high enough, Evelyn paused and hovered in the air, looking at her surroundings. It was always the first thing to do. She had to look around the place first before having fun.

What did the professor mean by that anyways? Were they not going to be having later on?

The professor's scary comments took a lot of the spark out of Kurumi as she mounted her broom. Flying was one of the classes she had been looking forward to the most, but not she was so scared that she was probably going to fall off her broom from all the shaking her body was doing. She did as the instructor said and kicked off from the ground only to find that she had essentially jumped a foot forward. She blushed and looked around hoping that others were having some trouble as well. Confidence...come on now... she told herself as she kicked off once more. This time, the broom seemed to take on a mind of its own and had a rocket start as it flew up into the air. Kurumi was able to hold on and, thankfully, did not fall off. "Wahooooooooo!" she screamed as wind pushed her cheeks back and she felt tears forming in her eye due to the speed. "B-b-b-broom...slow down..." she pleaded and it listened. Her speed slowed down and her accent into the air evened out. She was now in control, besides a few sudden ups and down, of her broom. She waved down to her classmates on the ground. She looked over a few yards away and saw Jenny. "Hi, Jenny!" she waved flailing her arms and almost falling off because of it. Composing herself, she sat up straight and tried to keep her giggles down.

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"Don't worry, be happy! Its flying after all." Grinning, she kicked gently against the grassy area the motion sending her gliding forward until her feet were no longer anywhere near touching the grass. Whistling the song that went with the encouraging phrase, she went about her merry way flying low for now while she remembered all the rudimentary skills.

"Yeah and that's supposed to be comforting?!" Fletcher watched as the Ravenclaw girl took off beside him, looking perfectly content and happy to whistle along the ground. Well. She sure made it look easy. How hard could it really be then? It's not like he had to fly up to the highest tower of the castle.....

Gripping his broom still very, very tightly, Fletcher kicked off from the ground and went ZOOOOOOMing up into the air like a rocket. "AHH AHH AHHHHHHH AIIIIYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he screamed like a little girl, kicking his legs about in the open air so wildly that he just about fell off. "DOWN BOY, DOWN DOWN DOWN!"

The broom obediently went careening straight down now and he thumped, face first, flat to the handle as it sped forth.

Fletcher's cheeks were puffed out with concentration as he managed to regain control of the situation and level the broom out. He slowed down and descended more smoothly so that he was now barely a foot off the ground. The boy's face was definitely green as he turned his head to the side of the broom and upchucked a few questionable orange bits on to the grass.

"Pffffaghurlah. Yuck. Bbbee happpy?? Real happy. UHhuh."

Adam did as instructed and the broom flew off the ground for a few seconds. Taking his chances he took a seat over the edge and hovered a few feet above the grass field. The broom was leveled as he looked around. He always imagined flying a broom like a witch and now that was true. He tried to hide his smiling happiness but it was useless, he punched the air like a little kid.

Kurumi giggled at Adam's glee. She would punch the air too...but she nearly killed herself waving at Jenny and she dare not take her hands off her broom again. "Hi Adam!" she called from her broom that was a few feet above where Adam was now flying.

"Oh hey."He greeted her with waving arms. He was quite surprised to see Kurumi at the smae flying level as him, He had always imagined her to be a bit slower at flying ,but she never seemed to amaze him. She was a package of surprising goodies.He didn't want to talk much he wanted to keep his concentration the strongest he could.

Jenny was doing a few more turns when she heard someone calling her name. It was Kurumi! And it looked like she was about to fall off at any second. "Hi Kurumi!" Jenny yelled as she tried to grab onto her broom super tight while she waved back. "Be careful next time!"

That was when Jenny suddenly turned upside down on her broom. "Whoooaa!!" Jenny was frightened but she turned so quickly that she didn't have enough time to start holding her broom tightly. Whoa. That was scary...yet it felt amazing at the same time. Jenny moved her broom forward and spun upside down again a few times before going back to flying normally.

"Of course it is!" Ivory faux lectured vehemently as she dipped down nearby, her eyes sparkling with good intent but mischief nevertheless. "It's all about the attitude...you're never gonna get anywhere with that...." But then there was nothing to say, because the next thing she knew he was up in the air alright....if one were being judgmental and spiteful it might just be called crashing through the air haphazardly but since those words were so not ones that would describe her personality she'd call it more of a falling upwards. Yes that was pretty much how it appeared to her..."Her" who was flying figure eight patterns to try to distract herself from giggling mercilessly. Try being the key word here.....Oh oh...but there he was again...this time falling... the right way?

Smiling in encouragement as it seemed he found the balance to level it out at the last second, her smile slowly dwindled down into wince as he began to throw up muttering about being happy.

Smothering her chuckle at the situational irony of the moment, Ivory racked her brain for something inspirational as she practiced pulling up and diving down."Well....on the bright side....they say the first time's the hardest, so the worst should technically be behind you and it can only get better" Right? She'd have to reserve judgement on what "they" said since objectively speaking she only knew "they" meant the general masses and not professionals, who knew if it applied to Fletcher upward faller extraordinaire.

Limited area. Salander had no problem with that. He didnt plan to go zooming around, lest he lose control of his broom and look like a complete neophyte next to the young'uns who obviously can handle a broom better than he can. No all he was gonna do was fly real nice and casual... a sunday drive-- errr flight.

He kicked off gently, and soared gradually into the air. Thats more like it he grinned as he flew about the expanse of the green. He could feel the other more experienced fliers whizzing and zooming about, and initially didnt bother him.

Until he could feel like the equivalent of a car being overtaken by vehicles on the right side of the road (or the left depending on where you're from).

Yeah it was like Driving Miss Daisy. Except that he was the driver. And Miss Daisy. Huh.

He began to pick up a bit more speed as he turned for another round and followed the same route. And picked up a bit more speed.... and a bit more. Before he knew it he was speeding along like an average flier-- which was way more speed than his skills could handle. But hey is he gonna slow down? Heeeck no, unless he wanted to be jeered at by the young'uns. Nah he was gonna maintain this speed and keep his eyes where he's going. That should be enough.

Until he felt someone shoot up like a rocket just below him, screaming like a child....

"Heyyyyy!!!! I'm flyin' here, I'm flyin' here! " he yelled waving his fist as he looked up at the careening fool up in the air. And then said fool went zooming back down. But Salander got a good look at him this time. "Fletcher?!? You crazy RocketPuff! You nearly hit me!" he yelled at the speeding Huffie below. "Why dont you watch out where you're--- "



SMACK!


Salander. Meet Flying Boundaries.

And flat on his back he fell, the wind completely knocked out of him.

Invisible Wall 1 : Salander 0

Oh great. A Cleansweep. It sounded like a Muggle TV commercial. Once she got hold of the broom, Annie couldn't help but tremble, really tremble and maybe forgetting what hand she was to use when getting a tight grip of it. Was it the right or the left? Then Professor Vindictus started to speak again, a few seconds after she joined the line for flying.

And there were boundaries. Annie didn't even mean to come to this class due to her panic towards heights, but she was to go over this, because she couldn't be afraid of something she was to be natural at, flying!! She took a deep breath, and looked around to where really those boundaries existed. It all looked logical, since no one could actually aparate except in the times of examinations.

Then again, she kind of buzzed again to herself, trying to remember which hand was to be held tight, and and...and...what to do next. But it was her left, it came kind of natural, normal...she wasn't ready for this. NO NO!! Slowly, and carefully, she mounted her broom, and with the signal to kick the ground with her foot, the broom started to move upwards, all...all...all...weirdly. "Ay...ay ayyy..." She was that nervous, words in mixed languages started to blurt out of her mouth, her head was probably twisting along her stomach. "Careful...careful. Come on, this has to be like riding a horse. I just have to calm down...right?" She asked to herself in a whisper, then tried to smile. The front end of the broom was this close to turn all the way down, although Annie just started to move backwards and her feet to an almost straight level, so the broom continued to move, though this time forward and giving the terrified girl a chance to breathe.

This was too much, too much for her heart. But she had to learn...or else her life at Hogwarts would mean like nothing, just because she didn't learn how to ride a simple Cleansweep!!

Kurumi smiled as the soared through the air, she felt like spreading her arms out like a bird, but was far too afraid to try after the near disaster at waving at Jenny. She turned her head to say something to him, but ended up losing her balance and did a complete circle around her broom three times before regaining control back on top. To everyone else, it probably looked pretty cool...but to her, it had been terrifying and she had a few splinters in her hands from holding on too tight.

Oooh...that looked like a fun trick that Jenny had just done. Kurumi, feeling a little more adventurous than was probably healthy, tried doing a few corkscrews in the air. it felt great to have the wind blow against her face and she started giggling as she spun in circles. When she finally came to a stop, she felt all the blood rushing to her head. Must have been that she spun too much. After flying for a few more yards, she looked up only to see that the ground was below her. "Oh...." she blushed and did one more loop to bring herself upright.

Jenny noticed that Kurumi was also doing a few spins. Hm, nice. Jenny dived down a bit then slowly pulled back so that she was barely hovering a few feet above the ground.

That's when she noticed how close she was to the Quidditch stadium that the Professor was talking about, and since that was out of bounds...

"Ouch!" Jenny yelped as her broom suddenly stopped and launched Jenny out onto the ground. Fortunately, she landed on her butt (quite painfully) and didn't break or sprain any other limb or muscle. Quite lucky she didn't get hurt that fast, considering her small frame.

The Cleansweep still kept going forward at the same level Jenny was riding on, so Jenny ran up to the broom to catch up to it (fast because her bottom was burning) and mounted on it. It was quite painful to sit on it now, so Jenny leaned forward a bit to make herself more comfortable. The broom went a bit faster than usual, but it was going away from the barrier, so that was a good thing.

Emmy swung her leg over the Cleansweep, and kicked off firmly, zooming up around fifty feet. Looking at the other students, she watched as one boy sped towards the boundary. "Slow down, you wombat - didn't you hear what Professor V said?!" unfortunately, he didn't hear her either, and crashed straight into the wall, head first, and bounced back. "Ouch!" Emmy cringed, but couldn't watch anymore - she simply had to fly! Turning in the opposite direction, she raced from one set of goalposts to the other, and back again. Exhilirated, she wondered if anyone would like to race her...

Carin kicked off the ground, frowning at the handle of her Cleansweep. She was perfectly aware of the fact that it was nowhere near the fastest broom, but it was still much too fast for her, not to mention crazy dangerous and uncomfortable and unstable and....

"Hey!" Carin exclaimed as a girl zoomed past her at breakneck speed. Way too fast, way too close for comfort.

And she looked as if she wanted to go faster, too.

"How do you do that?" the second year couldn't help but exclaim as she saw the ease with which the girl handled her Cleansweep. That was just so incredibly unfair. Why couldn't she do that, too?

Emmy braked sharply, hearing a reproachful voice. She turned to see a young Ravenclaw girl wobnling behing her.
"Sorry! Are you ok?" Emmy asked, hoping the girl wouldn't knock her off her broom.
"Um, well, it's mostly practice - but for starters, lean forwards, right along the length of your broom - like Muggle cyclists do, when they're racing!" she hoped it would help - she wasn't quite sure how she flew so fast, she was just pleased that she did!

Aww rats. They were only allowed to fly over this little area. Why couldn't he let them take a spin around the castle. Now that would be fun.

Oh well, at least she was going to get to fly today, even if they were confined to a small area. Once Professor V said they could fly she kicked off as hard as she could and shot up in the air like a rocket. After making a complete lap around the intended flying area she pulled up and hovered in the air. Ahh the joy of flying and being off the ground.

Spotting Evelyn she flew over to her. "Hey, how long you think it will take Destiny to get off the ground?" she asked looking down at her friend who had yet to kick off. "Maybe we should go down there and get her." You know just in case she chickens out or something like that.

K-Lee tried to control the broom, but was having trouble as she swerved to the left slightly.

"Woah!" she muttered as she finally gained some control over the magical item. She lightly leant forward and the broom sped up. She smiled and giggled slightly.

She swerved in circles, trying to avoid hitting the barriers. She relaxed slightly as she got the hang of it, leaning backwards slightly and noticeing it slowed down. Her eyes widened in surprise. So that was how she slowed down and stopped!

She leant forward again, not noticing the forthcoming barrier and hit it hard, flying off the broom into the ground. She groaned, sitting up from her position on her back, rubbing her head.

She had no injuries for which she was glad, and the pain was slowly numbing. She grabbed the broom again, zooming up again, this time not going so fast.

Emmy careered up and down the pitch, enjoying the ecstasy of flight as she sped round the goalposts at each end of the pitch. Being up here had another advantage, too - it was the only place in the entire school where she would never bump into Mr Chang. She slowed after a while, just thinking about things, wondering if Mark would turn up, and she wasn't really paying attention to where she was flying.

SPLAT!!!!



She crashed headlong into the boundary wall. Luckily, she'd not been going very fast by that time, so she was shaken, but not injured. Dscending slightly, she turned away, and sped off.
See where thinking gets you, Emmy!

Destiny was not deaf! No she was not!

In fact, she had just cleaned her ears THAT very morning, meaning she could hear every single word that came out of Marie's mouth. So what, Destiny was a slow flyer? If Marie had parents like hers, she'd be flying just as slow.

If Marie saw the bubble suit, she'd be flying even slower..if that was even possible.

Kicking off the ground, she slooooowly made her way over to the spot her friends were. "You know I can hear what you say, and I don't care that I fly slow. At least I'll be safe."

Unlike those other people, crashing into the boundary wall..

Kurumi, now not doing the whole bouncing in the air bit, was trying to think about what other tricks she could attempt. She took her wand out of her pocketa and smiled as an idea came to her mind. "Fumos," she giggled as a stead stream of smoke began billowing from her wand. She then flew around for a little spelling out something with the smoke trail she was making. Having completed her smoke trail, she aimed her wand and said "PINGO RED," and red paint covered her smoke trail to create a "Go Gryffindor!" red cloud in the sky. She smiled, rather pleased with what she had been able to accomplish with the magic she had learned thus far.