Leaving behind the previous balloon-experience, he'll try to hit the next one like one would hit a tennis ball, right?

The only difference was that the balloon was not coming at him with the same force as the ball, and he wasn't holding a tennis racquet or anything, it was a bat...oh, but wait, he could hit it the same way as a baseball, no? Because JD had taught him how last year.

GRIN.

And so he went over the next ballon, which happened to be a yellow one and then did the same motion as if he was playing baseball, but with one hand, of course.

Wouldn't it be easier to hit them like Bludgers, though?

Bah, never mind.

The BIG yellow balloon was POPPED. Win.

"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down, don't look." Nika couldn't help it. She looked. Now she is hovering high up in the sky and it's all thanks to this stupid task. Ugh. Why couldn't they have practiced flying some more before they had to do this. Nika made her way to another balloon moving very slowly. "Don't fall, be careful, LOOK OUT! Don't fall, watch your surroundings, calm down." Nika almost ran into a bird, but the winged creature made a sudden turn before they collided. PHEW. That's a close one. Nika looked directly in front of her and saw a purple balloon sparkling in the daylight. "Bingo." Nika slowly made her way to it and tapped it lightly with her bat. When she noticed that it was going to take some more force she hit it again, but very strongly. And POP! Nika quickly grabbed her broom and took a few deep breaths. No harm done... yet.

Given the success of the yellow balloon, he'd decided to take a chance and try and hit the next one as he'd hit a Bludger.

He needed to put more strength in the movement, but he knew HOW, okay?

He may be a Keeper, but he knows plenty of Beater. And, there it was, the next victim, but Sierra was too close to it. He'd better not take a chance with that Slytherin girl around. If he'd been eleven, he'll be terrified of crossing her path.

But for now, it was best to avoid injury.

However, another balloon came close to him, and he smirked. The blue balloon was going DOWN. Hehe. Aiming, hitting, and the blue balloon went UP instead. Fail. But Treyen went up too, and then hit the thing once more. Haha. Got you! POP.

Blue balloon down.

Jacob looked towards a open red balloon.

Oh so exciting... cause Jacob would much rather hit balloons than Bludger.

Great Vindictus was starting to loose his touch. Jacob Blamed it on Herbology, ever since the man accepted the post, he'd been working harder on Herbology than anything else, which meant the man wouldn't think enough about Flying... It was that damn textbook that Vindictus had shown to himself and Bennett. The one that weighed a hundred pounds.

Where Were the Rabie infected animals, that jump out and eat your face off?!

Jacob Reached the lonley balloon and with a small swing...

POP!

The Balloon Shattered into its many elastic peices, as they fell to the ground

Vashti glanced around a couple times, looking for a good one to hit, and soon she spotted a nice purple one that was just asking to be popped. If balloons could talk, of course.

Once more she directed her broom towards it, raising her bat then bringing it down towards the balloon...

...

Where was the pop?

Blinking, Vashti looked around and spotted the same purple balloon a few feet away. What? Hadn't she hit it hard enough? Meh, apparently not.

So let's try this again.

She increased her broom speed, raised her bat arm, and brought it down on top of the balloon with all her might...

Pop!

YES! It had popped! Finally. That one was stubborn. Hopefully the next would be more like the first one.

Jacob was getting really bored now.

Oh Look... It was pink and floating down... down... down...

Jacob decided to let it float down, to give himself more of a challenge. Not That any of this Challenged Jacob. Maybe if there were small rabie infected animals inside that ballons tht he'd have to whack off as well, THEN It would be fun... but this... Nope!

Jacob went into a dive to get the pink balloon. As he passed it, Jacob quickly pulled out of the dive, and went into a lazy angled swing, as if he were going to hit someone diagnol from him... But instead the ballon simpley

POP!

And the little balloon peices fell... and they fell, and all around him they fell... What a boring practical Exam... What was this? it was like first year, basics lesson crud... this shouldn't be exam for all people stuff... GEEZ!

They had to pop the balloons? Well, that was certainly more fun than just letting them decorate the pitch.

To Spike, the best thing about balloons was the fact they could be popped...noisily. Unless they had helium in. And then he carefully made a hole so he could have the maximum squeaky voice effect.

...anyway. Back to action on the pitch...

Spike spotted a green balloon, and sped towards it. Taking his arm back, he built up some momentum, and went to hit it. Or not. Spike glared at the balloon, unsure if he'd missed, or the lucky thing had just floated on by unscathed. Heh.

Gritting his teeth, Spike tried again.

POP!

Resulttttt.

So far, he hadn't been able to pop one of the green balloons, that's why he went on a hunting spree to get one of those.

There were three of them. Lining up. And there was a smirk on his face as he noticed them. He had three chances of making one of those disappear forever. Not that he was the aggressive type or anything, but anything Quidditch related seemed to get him on that mood. The destroy-everything-on-your-way kind of mood.

ACTUALLY.

That was all lies.

He just had a personal vendetta with the green balloons.

The boy zoomed towards them and as soon as he was at a hitting distance, he hit the green balloon that was standing in the middle, and then....POP.

He'd done it. Green balloon down.

Two balloons down, three to go and plenty of remaining balloons whole and up in the air to use as targets. He just had to choose his next targets and give them his hardest swing and they would be gone and he'd have all he needed for this part of the final. Zeroing in on a red balloon he took off after it not wanting to just take the easy ones and in passing pulled his arm back before smacking the balloon with a pop.

Now two more to go...

This...was making it easy?

With the coordination of a kitten walking around in a soggy paper bag, Kurumi tooted around holding her bat in her right hand and holding onto her broom with her left.

She had been hoping to be able to use her customized broom for the final. She looked down to see it resting on the pitch and frowned. Poor broom...

Kurumi putting along, avoiding going any faster than a light jog for now, until she came across and purple balloon. Hitting things, she was good at this. She swung her bat and POP! one balloon down.

A bright red one caught Vashti's eye next. This one was just asking for it too, as bright as it was. It better not be as stubborn as the last one though. She didn't like those.

So she decided to come from another angle this time. Diving down a foot or so, she then turned and directed her broom up, aiming at the balloons underside. She stretched out her bat arm behind her, gripping it tightly, waiting until she was close enough... Then...

WHACK!!

POP!

Oh yeah! Three down. Two more to go.

After doing a mini celebratory dance (which merely resembled wiggle, as the bat was making feel a tad unbalanced on his broom), Spike eyed up his next target. A yellow balloon, that was gently wafting past him.

He narrowed his eyes at it (because obviously that would help) and carefully turned his broom so that it was on the side of his bat-carrying hand. Speeding up slightly, he took a big swing at the balloon.

...and somehow ended up spinning.

Huh?

Spike shook his head, curls bouncing as he tried to rid himself of the dizziness. A little too much momentum from the firstie, perhaps? He was only trying to pop a balloon afterall. Not hit a heavy bludger.

Facing the balloon once more, Spike took a more measured hit.

Pop!

Jacob couldn't belive it... 3 whole balloons and not one of them had a wild rabie infected Raccoon? Not even a squirrel... This was so not living up to Jacobs expectations.

At least it's better than last time, where they had to do an actual writting Portion to their FLYING Exam.

OH Look, a blue one with his name on it... Another silly balloon that was gonna be poped

Jacob flew over to it and gave another lazy swings, but this one didn't pop, instead his hit it ans it just started floating in that direction...

"Get Back Here, You!" he called at the balloon.

He Flew over towards it again, And Swing a little harder.

POP!

Yeah, don't be difficult or there'll be pain before you go boom.

Sierra steered her broom around and headed off in the opposite direction. The pitch was covered in balloons, so it wasn't all that difficult to find a second balloon to aim at. This balloon was blue, and Sierra chased after it with her bat held high in the air.

She decided, at that moment, that if she ever decided to not play Keeper anymore, Beater wouldn't be a bad position to set her sights on. She actually enjoyed flying around the pitch with the bat, and she almost wished she had a quaffle to knock around rather than a balloon.

Coming up upon the blue balloon, Sierra pulled her arm back, and with an "Argh!" she hit her target with all her might. This time, she must have hit the balloon hard enough, because it popped and descended to the ground after just one hit with the bat.

Two down, three to go...

So now, which one was just "asking" to be next? Looking around, Vashti decided on a rather large, orange-colored balloon. Deciding once more to try whacking it from a different angle, she shot upwards in a diagonal fashion, slowing when she was a couple feet above and a little to the left of the orange balloon. Then she pointed her broom down into a dive and shot off quickly.

Her arm extended out to her side and a little behind her, her hand gripped the bat, and the balloon was fast approaching...

WHACK!

POP!

Whoa, that one was a little loud! But she'd popped it, and that was all that mattered.

Kurumi veered her broom upwards a bit as she began her snail's pace pursuit of an orange balloon. If she could manage to stay on her broom and not fall off, she would consider herself a decent flyer.

She just didn't want to repeat the events of the giant cupcake...or any other Flying lesson really.

Kurumi swung and....missed the balloon that then sailed off a little higher into the air. She adjusted her broom and glided up a bit higher....missed... Now the balloon had gone lower.

Kurumi continued her strange zigzag flying patter for a while until POP!

Two balloons down!

Rex weant after a green ballon wafting away from everyone, He took his bat and finally popped it. "Whew" Rex sighed.

Nika slightly relaxed her grip knowing that she only had two more to go and then she could hopefully return to safety on the ground. She took a few deep breaths and looked around for another balloon. She spotted a pretty sky blue one and flew towards it. "HIYA!" Nika held the bat and swung and luckily the balloon popped on the first try. "YAY! For down, one to go!"

Regaining her balance a bit from all the zigging and zagging, Kurumi looked around for her next rubbery victim. This exercise was surprisingly becoming somewhat therapeutic in its own way. She could focus some of her stress and negative thoughts on a balloon and then smack it and make it go away.

She closed her eyes and tried to think of something that had been bothering her - besides the obvious - and remembered rumors she had heard and then witness. SOMEONE had been trying to take over her title as a baking goods queen. This change had been sudden, and had made no sense.

Kurumi eyed a green balloon and took of after it, leaning forward on her broom to increase her speed. It may have been the fastest she had ever flown, and it felt fantastic.

When she was within whacking distance, she readied her bat, visualized the blond girl's face, swung her bat, and....

POP!

The balloon burst and its little green bits went all over the place. One bit even landed on her broom, but she flicked it off.

Now...which balloon to pop next...

Rex saw a yellow broom above his head. Rex zoomed around the balloon and then upwards. He took his bat and pop, the yellow balloon is gone. " One more to go" Rex said to the profesor.

Spike jumped at a loud POP! nearby. The remnants of the orange balloon fell sadly to the floor, and Spike looked up to see who'd gotten it. "Hai Vashti!" he said with a little wave. "Nice job!"

Now, which balloon was he gonna go for next?

A purple one caught his eye, and he aimed his broom towards it. Leaning into a slight dive, he held his arm above his head, ready to bring the bat straight down on to the balloon when he got alongside it.

Three. Two. One.

POP!

Booyah. First time!

Rex saw a black baloon floating around just so lazily. " Rex took his broom, snuck up behind the balloon and used his bat to pop it. " Finished sir" Rex said to the professor. "Are we coming down sir?" Rex asked the professor.

Just one more... He Quickly searched for a lone Balloon, and there it was... a blue balloon floating with the breeze... It was moving towards him, like it wanted to be smashed.

Here little Raccoon inside the Balloon.

He took a swing at the Balloon and

POP!

But there was nothing clawing at his face. No Raccoon... No Squirrell, not even a cat... not Even A Snail!

What disappointment.

Jacob had popped 5, so now it was just lapps around the Pitch... The Pitch That Is HIS! Jacob Owned this pitch, He Owned This Pitch, and The Cup That Came Along With It!

After popping her first balloon- at long last, Emily targeted her second. A shiny, pretty blue one. Switching the bat from her right hand to her left Emily charged forward, not too fast- but fast enough to possible alarm an inexperienced flyer. She tried to keep her distance from students she knew weren't quidditch players, this way she wouldn't distract them from the task.

Closing in on the balloon in seconds Emily brought down the bat hard, using her wrist-flicking action.

*CRACK*

There was a noise like a whip crack, and suddenly to balloon disappeared.
No doubt hurtling down to the pitch, accompanying the red one she had already burst.

Feeling her confidence rising now that she knew how to pop the balloons she did a quick lap of the pitch before selecting her next target.

Nika looked at the closest balloon and quickly whipped out the bat. She wanted to get this over with, she needed to. She eyed the orange balloon and with a POP it burst causing pieces to fly every where. Nika shook herself to get the bits of rubber off of her robes and then she looked towards her professor. Nika flew down closer to the ground. She just wanted to get off. Please be done, please be done, please be done. Nika crossed her fingers and held them to her chest.