Oooh. They could go now. Opps. He was a bit late on that approach wasn't he? Pulling out his wand he glanced at the horse thingy...Savannah....yes. That was a good name. Well. He needed to hurry up and get in the air, otherwise he wasn't going to win and that wouldn't really be fun. "Wingardium Leviosa" He said in a strong voice, as he pointed his wand in the general direction of the horse, whilst swishing and flicking it. Well it obviously worked because he was now floating in the air. Pretty epic if he did say so himself.

Now he had to fixate it, because well he didn't really want to float too high and away from the track that wouldn't do so good. With one hand holding onto the ropes, he pointed his wand at the horse. "Fixate." Now that was all good, and he wasn't going to float off or end up on his bum on the floor. That would be pretty tragic and he'd look a little silly. He mused for a second glancing around. He was being pretty slow, so he really hoped that his horse would move quickkly. "Locomotor Wooden Horse?" He thought that might work...he wasn't too sure. But the horse did jolt forward a little. So he assumed he was doing something right?

Now if he ended up diving towards the floor that wouldn't have been so good....

Ready..Set..Go?

There were off? Oh crumbs, Trixie was a little bit distracted at that moment. The Blonde looked over at her wooden horse type thing and then back at the Professor. Right. What was it they were supposed to be doing again? Oh yes, Horse Racing...Sort of.

"Wingardium Leviosa" the Slytherin did a swish and flick movement over at her horse and watched as it levitated around 4 feet off of the floor. She wasn't prepared for another Hospital Visit just yet so keeping safe was good. The sixth year hopped on the stick thing and grinned like mad. Although she DID look a bit of an idiot sat there, still it was all in good fun right?

What was next? Oh yes, the Horsey thing needed to be fixed. Once again directing her wand down at said "horse" Trixie spoke clearly "Fixate" and the object stayed where it was, without her having to levitate it any more. So she was sat on a horse, about 4 feet off of the ground, floating, and it wasn't even a real one....

"Locomoter Wooden Horse on a stick..." That was what it was right? Well that was exactly what it appeared to be so surely those words would have been enough. The Horse moved forward with a bit of a start, which forced Trix to quickly have to grab hold of the reins.

Keeley was stoked. Horsie riding! And even better, they were wood, so she wouldn't get killed! (Probably.) Then again, her track record with floating things certainly wasn't the best... but oh well. There were costumes involved in this lesson, which also made it awesome. And of course, Keeley had come decked out in her best Western fashion. Whch, of course, included a black cowgirl hat. Her wooden horsie, who was a purty redish brown, who had been dubbed Biscuit, was all ready to go. Giggling at the sheer amazingness of this situation, she situated herself on the track. With a good 'ol Wingardium Leviosa charm, Biscuit sat at a pretty good height, nd fixated pretty well. Hopping on, Keeley almost slid off, and her Locomoter Buiscut charm set them off at a wobbly, clumsy start. But who cares? Horsie riding= funn! Wheeee!!

Oh, good god. This was going to be interesting... and Viky had a feeling she'd fall off. Perhaps more than once... yeah. But at least they weren't allowed to go too high, because she was afraid of heights. Yeah, how stupid was she? Tapping her horse-thing, she muttered the incantation; 'Wingardium Leviosa!' and frowned as it didn't even get up off the ground 'Wingardium Leviosa!' she repeated, and this time it worked, thank goodness. 'Fixate!' she added hastily, when the horse began to climb steadily higher. Swinging her leg over the top, she held on tight to the horse's handle thing 'Locomotor horse!'

The horse began to zoom around the track and she held on as tight as possible. Here we go.....

Sophia pointed her wand at her wooden horse and said "Wingardium Leviosa!" The horse rose five feet off the ground. She utered a little shreik as she watched herself grow father and farther away from the ground. "Fixate!" she said, not wanting to go up any higher. "Locomotor wooden horse!" she screamed, as her horse took off around the track. Sophia smiled widely. This was such a fun lesson.

Whoo hoo, horse racin' time! This was going to be fuuuun!

Once Professor Carlton had told them to go, Vashti moved her wand in a swish and flick motion and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!" And yay! Her horse floated a foot or two (or three) into the air (though she would've preferred it to go a lot higher than that). Then, wand still aimed at the stick horsey, she cast, "Fixate!" and the horse remained at that height. She then hopped on, held on with one hand, and cast the third charm. "Locomotor stick horsey!"

The horse began to move down the track and, with a giggle, Vashti said, "Let's go, Secretariat!"

Yeah, she'd named her stick horse after an actual horse. She was just that creative.

Destiny ignored Marie.

Obviously she HAD named the horse if she had called it Renaldo. Besides, nothing was wrong with that name. It was a very noble name for a very noble..wooden horse. Instead of answering her friend, she kept her eyes on the race track, and only when Professor Carlton came hovering on an umbrella did she move her gaze. Hehe, an umbrella would probably be more fun to ride, but you can not name an umbrella Renaldo.

Listening to the directions, Destiny occasionally nodded her head when she felt like she should.

And then they could start!

Pulling out her wand, she gave a swish and flick, "Wingardium Leviosa." she said, watching as the horse started to rise. When the end of the stick was at eye level, she gave a small tap with her wand. "Fixate!" Using the reins, she pulled herself onto the horse. Meh, there should be a seat-belt or something..perhaps instead of a cowboy hat, she should have gotten a helmet. Knee pads, too. "Locomotor horse..thing." Hopefully that worked..

..and it did!

"Ride like the wind..Renaldo."

Obstacles? So this wasn't just simple horse racing after all, it was steeplechase. Wizard steeplechase. Kellen took Nag off his shoulders and swung a leg over the stick.

He pointed his wand at the back of Nag's head, "Wingardium Leviosa!" It felt strange, to say the least, to be levitating something while he was on it, but it wasn't like he was going all that high, "Fixate!"

And now... time to ride this ridiculous thing, "Locomotor horse on a stick!" Also known as sheath your wand and hang on tight! Kellen grabbed the reins and he was off, more than a little glad that he'd picked a cowboy hat with a string. Now he wouldn't have to worry about the thing blowing off in the wind.

Iris giggled at Professor Carlton. She looked like Mary Poppins! Listening to her talk and explain what they were going to do, Iris took out her wand unconsciously, ready for the race.

Although... Obsticals AND five laps? It was going to be TOUGH. But Iris was ready for it.

When the professor yelled "Go!", Iris held the wooden horse in her right hand, and her wand in her left. She pointed her wand at the horse, giving it the appropriate swish and flick, "Wingardium Levisa!" She watched as the wooden horse rose into the air, and then aimed her wand again at the horse, when it's tail was a few feet off the ground. "Fixate!"

She looked at it uneasily. It was essentially a broomstick with a horses head on the top.

Not good.

Iris took a couple of deep breaths, reassuring herself that it would be safe to ride around the track. She didn't even have to keep it moving!

Climbing on the horse, She pointed her wand at the horse and muttered the next spell. "Locomotor Wooden Horse." Aaaaand... the Horse (Who Iris had forgotten to name) was moving.

Being able to remember the charms to move obstacles MAY be a bit of a challenge for Iris... And so would manoeuvring the Wooden Horse; she'd never been on a broomstick properly before, after all!

She looked towards Evan with a half confident smile on her face.

Oh aye, that was why she was even participating in this craziness - To beat Evan Cartwright!

As the students began to race around the track, music--coming from somewhere--began to play:

Quote:

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from where did you go
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from where did you go
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

Oh no.

Not only had she been singing this song all the way through charms but now it was PLAYING. Whilst they were racing their way around the track. This was not good. It made her want to Line Dance and she didn't even DO line dancing. Besides it was kinda difficult when she was floating 4 feet off of the ground.

O_O

Oh what the heck "Where did you come from where did you go...." Trixie joined in with the music as she sang and floated along.

Whaaaaat was the professor doing!? Evelyn could barely concentrate on the instructions! Carlton was like, floating in the air by an umbrella with no wind! It was too distracting.

She did however, hear snippets of what was being said. Something about obstacles, no going higher then five feet off the ground, use spells, umbrella...flying...in air... Something of the sort. It seemed simple enough to her. What she wasn't ready for was the sudden start of the task. ACK! Her wand! She brought it right!?

With her hand immediately going to her wrist, the girl sighed in relief before quickly taking the wand out of the holster and pointing it at the horse stick thing. Alright, swish and flick..."Wingardium Leviosa!" she said, and of course the horse started to hover. Higher and higher until, "Fixate."

That seemed like five feet from the count right? Hehe, broomstick horse. Oh that was actually great, no matter how ridiculous the situation was or how ridiculous they looked riding it. "Locomotor wooden horse!"

FLY! Fly like the wind bu- Whaaaa? Oh gah...Horrible music!

HER EARS! They were going to explode! ACK! Fly faster horse! She needed to finish so she could get away from the terrible thing!

It was official: you weren't allowed to have any type of dignity while participating in this class. There had been hints of it all along, but in case anyone hadn't caught them, that song absolutely confirmed it.

...and now it was stuck in his head, probably for the next five hours. Thanks, Professor.

Salander half stumbled onto the racetrack as he struggled to keep up with the rest of the class. Fletcher FIXATING that headdress back onto his head caused it to get stuck over his eyes. As he finally lifted it enough to see he found himself in the company of cowboys and cowgirls on stick horses. Huh. He looked into the box and grabbed a horse at random, and found to be staring at a stuffed pony head with little flowery ribbons in red,white and blue. That got him to smile. It was kinda appropriate for him.

And just because he is who he is, he decided to KEEP the PINK!Chieftain headdress. In his head you need a few Geronimos in a world full of Buffallo Bills.

Speaking of which, now he has a name for his horse!



He mounted his wooden steed and cast the charm Wingardium Leviosa! onto the horse's head. It began floating upward as Salander tapped its head again Fixate!. Now he was a good head above everybody else. He kinda wanted to know what those feathers would feel on his head as he sped along heh.

Then the moment he's been waiting for..... Locomotor horse he tapped the stuffed head as it giddyuped along. "Go Go Geronimoooo!" he urged it as he floated along the racetrack

Iris looked around slightly as she heard a really old, REALLY CATCHY muggle song started playing.

WTFFF?!!?!

Was THIS one of the obstacles?! It was CATCHY! And Iris wanted to SING it!

But NO... she had to concentrate on what she was doing. It was really bloody difficult, controlling a floating wooden horse... Singing would only distract her and make her FALL FROM THE HORSE!! and Jimbo wouldn't be here to save her if she fell...

Iris tried her best to ignore the music, as she carried on fly riding around the track.

Things were progressing just fine (save for the catchy!folktale music that was constantly playing over and over), until...

Balloons that had been deflated and just lying harmlessly along the tracks began to inflate. First, there were only a few blowing themselves up and passing right over the students' lines of vision.

Then...there were many. Not only that, but as soon as they got just at eye-level, they began popping and releasing shaving cream into the air--and onto whoever happened to be unfortunate enough to be floating nearby.

Meanwhile...

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from where did you go
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

If it hadn't been for Cotton-Eye Joe
I'd been married long time ago
Where did you come from where did you go
Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe

Evan watched the professor fly hanging from an umbrella. Huh? He barely heard the instructions while watching her. It was catchy... definitely hard to take his eyes off from. He jumped slightly when they were told to go. Drawing his wand quickly, he swished it and flicked on the horse--which he forgot to name--while saying "Wingardium Leviosa!" He smiled as it took off a few feet from the ground. Then, "Fixate!"ing it, he stole a glance at Iris. She was having her time with examining her horse. Good. That meant she was wasting time. He could sooo win this. Or, at least. beat Iris. Mwaha!

"Locomotor wooden horse!" he said, wasting no time unlike Iris and the horse leapt forward. He thanked silently for having ridden a broomstick once in his life. It definitely gave him a plus.

He was enjoying his advance on Iris when he jumped with the sudden music and almost fell off. He managed to stay on, though, and the horse kept its pace. Which was good.

Looking ahead, he tried to guess the first obstacle. A kind of solid stuff, probably?

No, scratch that. They were balloons. LOTS of them! He raised his arm as an instinct, but then his sense worked and he could think of casting "Protego!" to refrain from the shaving cream. He could do nothing about the balloons though, as there were too many. He hoped his protego could hold on until he passed from the chaos.

Okay.... So... This fly-riding thing wasn't so bad. Iris was even getting the hang of it slightly!

Eh, so she stumbled a lot as she flew, and found the urge to put her feet on the ground and just RUN with the stick between her legs, she just carried on, holding on to the reigns tightly, trying her best not to fall off the horse.

What the heck?!

Iris frowned as a lot of balloons (Very BRIGHTLY coloured balloons, they looked like an inflating rainbow! hehehehe) started to inflate from off the ground.

Still with her wand in her left hand, Iris carried on with her fly-riding. Maybe she'd just be able to fly through the balloons? But then, Evan overtook her. OH NOES!!! He wasn't allowed to do that!!! She was meant to beat him!

Teehee.

At least with him being ahead of her, Iris learned that it was NOT helium in those balloons... It was... Well, Iris wasn't sure. Some kind of foam. But she didn't want to get covered in it to find out.

Pulling the reigns back, to try and slow the wooden horse down, Iris lifted her wand "Protego!"

WOOOO! She just missed getting an exploding balloon to her face. Good job, too... because she didn't really want her lovely PINK cow girl hat getting ruined by what ever it is inside the balloons.

Somehow, Iris knew that that one there was just a bit of luck. No way would she get past ALL the obstacles.

Arggghhh, that music was driving Vashti crazyer. But she didn't have too much time to dwell on it, thankfully, when a whole bunch of balloons suddenly floated up into the air. Right up on her level. Uh oh. Something bad was gonna-

POP!

As soon as she heard the first balloon burst, Vashti tried to use her wand to cast the Shield Charm but only got as far as, "Prote-" before being splattered in the face with...shaving cream? "Protego!" she tried again, hoping to prevent herself from any further shaving cream coming her way. And it seemed to have worked because she felt no further attack from the balloon!shaving cream. At least for now.

Finally, it was time to fly these things. Marie was just going to pretend she was on a broom, not a wooden horse stick thing. Then she would have more fun. It would be like flying class... without grouchy Professor Vinny.

After mounting the horse, stick, thingy she flicked her wand into her hand and pointed it at the horsestick. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said. Feeling herself floating off the ground she waited until she was about five feet off the ground. "Fixate!" Okay so they didn't get to go very far off the ground but at least she was off the ground. Taking a quick look around she laughed a little at the site of Professor Carlton floating around on an umbrella.

Okay, time for her to move. "Locomotor horse... stick... thing" she said as she waved her wand forward. And she was off... and so was that music, if that's what you wanted to call that sound that was coming from... where was that sound coming from anyway?

Eh, it didn't matter, she had a race to win.

Seeing the balloons starting to float up in front of him, Simon almost pulled back on the reins to stop then realised that it might not work to well on the spelled horse. He realised it too late catching some shaving cream on his left shoulder from one of the first balloons.

Great just great he mused acting quicker the next time.

"Protego!" he added before turning to continue on on the edge of track to avoid as much as he could even if he hadn't had the spell up.

Wait...was she playing Cotton Eye Joe? Alice burst out laughing. She hadn't heard this song since gym class at her muggle school. If she was on the ground and not in the air, she probably could have started doing the dance for it. Instead she just chose to hum along with the music.

That is until she spotted balloons inflating themselves...well inflated balloons aren't too bad...although wait....

Alice's eyes widened slightly as a balloon near her popped, nearly spraying her entire body with shaving cream. Well...wasn't this something? Alice carefully steered her horse over, dodging another balloon that had just popped.

"Protego!" Alice yelled, a small shield forming around her and Anna Bell. Keeping her shield up and steering was going to take some effort.

The music.

It was everywhere. It didn't stop. Must. Resist. Urge. To. Line. Dance.

But it was so firmly implanted in her mind now she found herself simply moving to the tune. Whilst singing it of course. Fairly loudly. Good job she wasn't TOO bad at singing at all. But her attention was soon switched towards something completely different.

There were balloons popping up here and there and well...everywhere. The Blonde managed to dodge the slower and lesser ones, swerving her horsey around them but then they came in packs and there wasn't a lot she could do but to use the banishing charm on them.

Thankfully she wasn't in close enough proximity to be covered in the shaving foam.

"Where did you come from where did you go?" the Blonde kept on going singing along.

Well, this wasn't so bad... no, she'd spoken too soon. Random balloons were in the air in front of her! Nooo! Viky frowned and tried to manouver her horse around them by moving her wand around, but by the time she figured out how to make it work properly, it was to late. She winced as a balloon directly above her exploded with a loud popping sound... and then she was covered in shaving foam. How wonderful. Wiping it from her eyes, she squinted a little as she kept flying on.

It was kinda hard to see, but she didn't want to try and cast another spell. Viky wasn't sure, but she thought it might affect the Locomotor spell that was keeping her up in the air. And then she'd fall and ... yeah. She'd rather just squint than fall to the floor.

Oh sweet Merlin!

What was that horrible music?

And, who was this Joe they were singing about and WHY did he have cotton in his eyes? If he was smart, which he probably wasn't, he would have shoved the cotton in his ears to drown out the horrible song.

Ehh, the song was kinda catchy. She wanted to sing along, even though she knew none of the words. She'd just sing it in her head, that way she could make up her own words. Bobbing her head to the beat of the song, she continued on the track, not really paying attention to what was going on. That song..what a good distraction. She didn't even think about any of the obstacles that would be coming up, since she had thought they'd be obstacles like the ones on the muggle box.

A simple hop over the bar type of thing. It would be simple.

But, she was not on the muggle box, and it had taken a face full of shaving cream for her to realise this was not going to be simple. Whyyyy couldn't the balloons be filled with whipped cream? At least that stuff was edible. After using the sleeve of her robes to wipe her face off, she pulled out her wand. There were definitely too many balloons to steer clear of, she she needed magic to protect her!

"Protego!" she said, and continued on her merry way..

..once again bobbing her head to that blasted song.