Lexi BARELY kept herself from making a little EEP! when the Grey Lady decided tomake an appearance in... or on... her carpet. Clearing her throat she said, "Yes, ma'am, I heard the Professor when he said that. I am not trying to make it go any faster."

Then Lexi chuckled and nodded her head. "Yeah, I think that boy needs to be a bit more thankful that Professor Vindictus even let us fly them," she agreed whole heartedly.

"You're a wise Gryffindor," the Grey Lady commented and she floated away.

Wow...that was a great compliment coming from the Grey Lady of Ravenclaw! Lexi beamed at her and called out, "Thank you, Grey Lady!" Awesome lesson! Total win.

Oh goody another thing to add to his list of fears, the fear of magically enchanted carpets that only went so high and so fast. Yeah Jacob, your just the roughest toughest beater in town.

Jacob crawled back onto his carpet. Fine no helmet, but if Jacob died only a foot off the ground because his carpet had something against him, someone was going to pay.

"UP!" he said in a shaky unconfident voice. Brooms were so much better. Yup, Jacob sure as Hell won't forget this lesson, especially if he breaks his neck.

The carpet rose a foot in the air... Hey this wasn't so bad, in fact it was kinda pleasant to just sit in the air. But the next second the carpet rose another foot and another, and another. At around 5 or so feet off the ground, Jacob was getting very scared and felt like he was going to throw up.

By twelve feet Jacob had actually thrown up over the side of his carpet. "look out below!" Jacob called out to the people below.

You know that sort of made Jacob feel better, vomiting, Jacob decided to just lay still on the carpet a few seconds. The carpet seemed more stable at it's maximum height, which made Jacob feel much better. At least it wasnt bucking like a bull.

"Vroom vroom!" He exclaimed and set off! Eino could feel the wind on his face, blowing his hair, and the end of his robes flapping around. He was about two feet above ground and at a precise velocity of five miles per hour (it was a very windy day). In his imagination however, he was going much faster. He held onto the carpet as tightly as he could and tried to both speed up a little and turn at the same time, which he did so successfully, but in commemoration he lost balance and fell face down on the ground. He picked himself up, cleaned the dirt off of his face with his handkerchief, and returned to his carpet. He sat down and commanded "Up!" Once in the air and flying, Eino decided to master steering before attempting any new moves.

SPOILER!!: Lady Kay Hath Spoken

Quote:

Originally Posted by demented_death_eater

CLAP, CLAP!

"Time to put the lamps down and move on with the lesson. Did everyone get a carpet?" Vindictus inquired. He was already seated cross-legged on a rug.

"Sit two feet from the front edge of the carpet and make sure you're sitting cross-legged. Grab the front edge of the carpet with both hands and curl it up towards you."

Quote:

Originally Posted by demented_death_eater

"The controls for a magic carpet are identical to that of a broomstick - the only difference is that you steer with the edge of the carpet. Are there any questions?" Vindictus asked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by demented_death_eater

"Did I just hear a fearless Quidditch player request a helmet?" Vindictus asked incredulously. "You know my answer, Jacob, so don't go too far up in the air."

"These are so-called 'training carpets' and they'll only reach a height of twelve feet. Also, they won't go super fast like a racing broom."

"If you're comfortable enough, go ahead and have fun flying around. For the adventurous, you can actually get your carpet to hover in the air and stand on it! It's pretty awesome!"

To make his point, Vindictus took off on his magic carpet and reached the twelve foot mark in the air. He carefully stood up and put his hands on his hips.

"You can't do this on a broom without falling off! Now show me how you can fly on these carpets!"

Fletcher did NOT want to fly. Vindictus hadn't said anything to his suggestion to sit this one out, so it was with a sigh that the Hufflepuff stood up, tucked his lamp into his pocket, and went back to retrieve his carpet where he had left it. What's that, were they supposed to give them back? Oh no, not this Puff. Heh. He was taking it with him on this magic carpet ride. Speaking of which, Fletcher found himself sitting cross-legged about two feet from the edge of the rug.

"Up," he grunted, watching as the carpet merely flapped a corner in response. Great. "UP. UP UP UP UP UP!"

BAM! The carpet responded appropriately with the back half of it flying up and smacking Fletcher in the back of the head. The boy's head whipped forward painfully in response, but when he managed to recover, rubbing the back of his sore head, he saw that at least now they were hovering in midair.

So now they were supposed to... fly?

"Myrtle?" he called out timidly, clutching the edges of his hovering carpet like it was a life raft. "Myrrrrrrrtle???! Can you help me fly? PLEEEEASEEEE?!"

It was worth a try.

Emmy, who was still zooming around the pitch upside-down, yelled,
"PROFESSOR!!! How do I brake?!?!"
Steering was fine, but her neck was starting to ache from holding her head on!
She leaned sideways, to see if she could flip over, but all she did was wobble.
Then, someone whizzed past her left ear, so fast that, combined with her straining to see the culprit, the air current flipped her carpet over.
Feeling slightly dizzy and light-headed, she resumed chasing Treyen, whom she was sure had laughed at her upside-downness... In a nice way, of course, but even so, he needed to be chased...

Salander glanced at the more capable fliers zooming around, unable to keep that familiar feeling of envy from creeping in. "We gotta get some altitude" he muttered frustrated, more to himself than to Kurumi. Grasping the edge of the carpet, he hefted it up, like he was lifting them together. "UUUUUP!!!" he growled, and only then did the carpet climb a few more feet. "Hah! So thats how to get to you you loopy doormat..." He repeated the hefting and the growling command, until they have reached a little over 9 feet in the air. Peeking back down, the lad finally smiled "Yes much better." He turned back to Kurumi. "Well, we got all the way up here without falling, not bad eh?" Then his eyes fell on her hand, which now looks to be an extension of the lamp "Hey you need help getting--"

He didnt finish. Or rather he couldnt, because the sky was falling. Something slimy landed on him and was sliding down his back.

"What the--" his eyes widening in alarm. He reached over, swiped whatever wet stuff he could touch and looked at his hand. "What is this?..." he wondered as he drew his hand close to his face. And then the stench hit him. "ARRGGH! NASTEHHH!!!" he recoiled, realizing that someone's (Jacob) puke landed on him. "This is disgusting! Get this off me!" he whined as he shifted backwards on their carpet-- and promptly fell off.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

Down, down he went, flailing his arms like a flightless bird, slamming part of the way onto Fletcher's carpet and continuing downwards, then bouncing off Diggy's low rider before landing onto the grass with an ungainly PLOP.


Owww....

What was that he was hearing? Sir Fletcher? Waaaaait a minute...

...was Fletcher afraid of heights? Or flying? The boy frowned, he couldn't believe that Sir Awesome could have such a weakness, because in his eyes he had none, that was simple to understand, Champion and all.

But it couldn't be that.

That's it! It was all part of his master plan. Oooooh, Sir Fletcher was a clever one indeed. Very clever.

And then someone was asking how to brake...Emmy! He was about to go help but then she no longer had the sky and the ground flipped over, she was flying the normal way. It couldn't have been that fun if she was asking how to brake, right?

Treyen slowed down, "Do you still need to know how to brake?" the trick was in how you pulled the carpet, of course...but if Vindictus couldn't hear her...

Simon looked at the Professor, twelve feet high wasn't that high and Simon wasn't happy. "Surely you could have got one that could have gone a bit higher." Simon hoped that the Professor wasn't mad with him, he just wanted to fly higher than twelve feet.

Okay, so no genie. Huffing, Sarah discarded her lamp on the grass and grabbed the front edge of the carpet. Turning her head to listen to the instructions, she wrinkled her nose at the twelve feet, not as fast as a racing broom part. Surprisingly she wouldn't have minded going higher and faster, now she was completely over her fear of heights. Flying class was brilliant therapy.

Wiggling her bum back a bit, to make sure she was far enough away from the sides, Sarah gripped firmly and said the magic word - "UP!" Immediately she shot straight up into the air, jerking slightly as she hit the maximum twelve feet. Now for the fun. Grin spreading out across her face, Sarah pulled the right side of the carpet, and banked that way, around a few of the other hovering students, and shot off around the pitch. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!"

Kurumi continued to hold on for dear life as the pair of them went up a little higher - still not very high, but much better than flying on mops. Once again, Kurumi found herself unable to respond to Salander's questions as something wet and smelly splattered on the front of her robes and a little in her face. She took out her wand and used it on her robes after using her sleeve to get some of it off her face. She turned to the other boy to help him out with the gross stuff when ... Salander was gone?

?!?!?!

Where had he gone? Did he have an invisibility clock and had thrown it over himself? Kurumi reached her hand out in the space where he had been sitting...nope, nothing.

Then she heard a flailing scream of a falling snake. Kurumi peered over to see her hero falling towards the ground. Kurumi quickly summoned a giant cushion for him to land on, but she was a little too slow so instead of him landing on it...it landed on him instead.

Emmy breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Treyen flying towards her - help was at hand, finally!
"Oh, yes please! I suspect I should have listened more carefully..." she said, smiling gratefully.

"So, how do carpets compare to brooms in your opinion?" she couldn't make up her mind which was best - although she was certainly leaning a little more towards brooms...

*Groan*

Salander started to shift his arms and legs, feeling the strange sensation against his face Grass? I'm back on the ground? After all that effort.... He managed to prop himself up on his elbows when suddenly--

PLOP

Something else landed on him, and he was back cheek to cheek with the earth.

Worse he could feel the vomit sticking onto his back and his shirt

Arrgh!! he grumbled struggling to get up again, the giant cushion falling off to his side. If only he could run for the showers right that instant, he desperately wanted to get the sick off his back. He reached out for his wand in his back pocket and...

..... realized it wasnt there.

"Oh just perfect! What else can go wrong?!?" he fumed as he searched the ground for his wand. It didn't seem to be anywhere on the grass. The Slytherin lad looked up at the floating carpets above him and called out "Kurumi?" he called up to the young Gryffindor "My wand.... is my wand on the carpet?" Oh please oh please oh please say yes.

Gripping the edge of the carpet tightly, Kurumi looked over to see Salander lying spread eagle on the ground - well, technically she could only see his arms and legs due to her delayed cushion. Oh, wait, there he was! Kurumi finally found herself able to breath again when she saw him move. Looked like the ghosts were going to have to wait a little longer for them to find a new friend.

"A-A-are you alright?" she called down. The older Slytherin seemed to be too distracted looking for something to hear her let alone answer back.

Wait...he was saying something to her. Kurumi leaned forward a little bit more, nearly falling off herself, and just barely made out the word "wand." At least, that is what she thought he was saying. Kurumi then looked over her shoulder and found something wand-like lying right behind her. Keeping one hand on the carpet, she slowly reached backward and grabbed it. "You mean this?" she asked waving it in the air as if there were a flag attached to the end of it.

Vindictus had been on the ground for nearly an hour and watched the students fly around. The next thing he realized, it was time to end the lesson.

TWEET!


"Okay everyone - time's up! Please land, roll your carpets up and place them in a neat pile before you leave. Oh, and leave the lamps!" he called out.

Lexi heard Vindi's shouts and headed back toward the ground slowly. SHe wasn't sure how to land this thing... Biting her lower lip she tried to go in for a soft landing but it just didnt work out like that. She skidded a few times on the pitch and then went flying off where she landed on the ground and rrrrroooooollllllleeeedddd a few times. Laying on her face with grass in her mouth she began to giggle. Jumping up she grabbed the carpet and began to roll it up.

She grabbed her lamp off of the ground and ran to Vindi. "That was totally worth the grass mouth, Professor. Amazing lesson!" she exclaimed and ran off to put her things away as directed.

Nooooooo, not so soon! Eino really enjoyed flying the carpet, even thought it was harder than it looked, he found it easier to maneuver than a broomstick, plus at least when he fell there was something in between him and the ground to break the fall. After a safe landing he stood up and stretched, then he took out his handkerchief to clean any dirt off of the carpet before rolling it and returning it. "Thank you, Professor Vindictus, that was a lot of fun!" He said as he placed the carpet neatly on the pile and returned the lamp with it.

She suspects? Haha, yes, she should have. Though, it wasn't an issue, he didn't mind helping out a bit, and this was a class, after all. "Just pull it...slowly, with both hands and then venture down" he said sort of demonstrating how it was done.

And then he nodded, but was rather confused by her question. That was a question he did not expect right now. Treyen chuckled, "It depends on what you want them for, but since they're illegal in Britain, then I prefer brooms" there, enough said, even if he did preferred Portkeys and the Floo Network as transportation. Apparition...not good, really, not at all good.

TWEEEET. That was the cue he needed in order to make the flying carpet stop. This class went by so fast he didn't even notice!

The boy nodded at Vindictus and then proceeded to do as told. Carpet rolled and placed where they were supposed to and lamp at hand, the boy walked towards the Professor and left the lamp...with the other lamps. "See you around, Sir!" he said, with a polite nod towards Vindictus.

He had to squint and held his hand over his eyes to see Kurumi and the carpet silhouette against the sun behind them. She was waving something "Hey thats it Kurumi, thats my wand!"he calls out relieved. He didnt want to imagine how he would get by with the rest of the term without a wand. Or how the Wandmaker from Diagon Alley would react seeing the troublesome lad show up in his shop again.

He spins his head towards the Professor when he let out the whistle. Just in time too! "Hey Kurumi, can you fly down from there? Just use the edges of the carpet to steer." And hope she doesnt drop his wand in the process.

Hearing the whistle, Kurumi's attention wavered for a moment and she nearly went tumbling off her rug. She heard Salander calling up to her. Fly down...right...grab the edges and steer...that shouldn't be too hard now, should it. Kurumi tucked the boy's wand in her pocket for safe keeping and took a hold of the edges. How am I going to do this with a lamp still stuck to my finger?!

"I-I-I-I'll be right down," she said in as brave a voice as she could muster. OK...time to take this nice and slow. Kurumi tugged the front end of the rug and pushed it downwards as the rug began making its sluggish decent. Phew, so far so good. She wasn't that far off the ground to begin with, so she probably could have jumped and been fine.

Making smooth contact with the ground, Kurumi hopped off the rug in her own little tada! sort of pose.

"Alright nice landing!" Salander clapped for the young Gryff. It looked like she was better flying the carpet than he did. Maybe he should've let her done the steering earlier? Seemed that the carpet reacts better to a girl's command. He walked up to her and started to ask "You got my wand?--" then took notice of the lamp attached to her finger again "I wonder if the Professor would let you keep that?" he joked.

Kurumi was beaming and feel particularly proud of herself. She smiled a bit more and batted her eyelashes a bit. Oh right, wand. She reached into her pocket, dusted off a bit of lint, and then handed it to him. "Here you go," she said offering him his wand back.

She then looked at her finger, still with the stupid lamp attached to it. Her arm sure was getting sore from the weight. "I-I-I don't really want it," she pouted not understanding Salander's sense of humor.

Yeah I got my wand back!!!!!11! "Thanks" he replied, relief evident on his face as he took his wand from Kurumi. He made the awww shucks look as it was clear that Kurumi have had enough of the lamp "Ok, let me see if I can try to get it off you." He stared at it for a few seconds before deciding on a spell. With one hand he grabbed the lamp handle, then tapped his wand on the metal surface "Engorgio!" The lamp grew very large-- and very heavy-- very quickly, slamming it weight into the soil, and dragging Salander arm down with it. Oops. At least the little Gryff is free now right?

Aw, he looked like a little kid on Christmas morning the way he was celebrating having his wand back. Next thing she knew, Salander was on the ground again. She reached down to help him up and was relieved to see that her finger had finally been set free! "T-T-Thank you," she squeaked looking at her finger for the first time since class began. "Reducio!" There, now it wasn't crushing his arm.