She was on a roll!... and she was flying! This was going to be EPIC.

Wondering what Professor Vindictus had in store for them next Emily shot after a white balloon.

Using the same tactic she'd been going with she swung her bat arm back, and gave it a good whack.

*POP* it went again.

The white balloon plumed down to the pitch.

Emily was enjoying going back to her beater roots.

Sooooo, on to balloon number four.

Spike zig-zagged across the pitch, getting used to having the bat in his hand at a bit more speed. And as his did so, a lone balloon tumbled into his path, sinking slowly from above. Unfortunately though, it was on the wrong side, and Spike was clueless as to using his other hand, or how to do a backhand shot. Instead, he swung a sharp turn round it and came back at it from the other direction.

Whack!

Huh? Where'd it goooo? No pop, and no balloon.

Twisting on his broom, Spike found it. It was sinking even further downwards. Apparently in his eagerness to pop it, he'd actually flown straight over the top of it. D'oh.

Diving down after it, Spike looked at it stubbornly as he gave it a good whack.

POP!

Only one to go...

Grinning broadly Emily decided to hunt a balloon a bit higher up.

Rocketting upwards she spotted the green balloon!
"I'm coming for ya... and I'm going to smash you", she whispered. Yes... beater did bring out the menacing side of Emily, which was probably why she didn't play that position anymore.

Bring down her beaters bat sharply over the balloon she heard it...

*BANG*

... send a shiver up her spine. Oh that felt good.

Upon hearing her name, Vashti looked around to see who it had come from. Catching a glimpse of movement, she turned and saw Spike waving at her, just in time to catch his next few words.

"Thanks," she replied, grinning and waving to him as well. She took a few moments to watch the awesome little first year take out a balloon of his own. He was quite handy with that bat. Perhaps he should try out for Beater on the Quidditch team next year. Hehe.

"Nice job yourself," she called, giving him a thumbs-up.

And now she just needed one more balloon... She would have to make sure it was a good one. Vashti glanced around a couple times before finally deciding on a good, medium-sized white balloon. She guided her broom in that direction and shot off, bat raised once more, poised to attack...

WHACK!!!

POP!

Woot! Another fairly loud pop, but totally worth it, because she was now done! Oh yeah!

Emily counted on her fingers... what?! she only needed to pop one more balloon?! Oh that was so unfair. She was having so much fun.

She looked down at the form of Vindictus on the pitch. ... was he... eating?... and drinking?.....
Oh that was appropriate... a professor having a picnic during a final exam!
Still it gave Emily hope. If Vindi felt he could lounge around for a while it must mean that they would have other things to pop soon. Which meant she could still hit things!!! yay!

Emily was hovering.. scouting her next balloon when...

"Aaarrrggghhh!!!" *SPAZZY ARMS*

....A balloon landed on her head.

She really hoped neither of her peers wanted to pop that one...

Emily, demonstrating her fine broom control descended a metre, and stopped abbruptly. The balloon was direnctly above her... hovering... sailing...

*ATTACK*................................

yep... that balloon didn't stand a chance. The wilted and frayed purple form fell to the ground.

Five balloons ... dead. Job well done, thought Emily.

Vashti had watched him? He gave her a crooked grin, hoping she'd just seen him pop the balloon, and not the miss before it. Either way, she'd given him the thumbs up, so that was promising.

He watched her go off after the white balloon, and looked round for his fifth and last target. He wanted to finish on an extra good'un, and in Spike's mind, that meant an extra loud BANG. And experience of other balloon popping told him for that he needed a well inflated balloon.

He flew round the pitch, looking for one that appeared just that little bit bigger than the others. With a little bit more air pressure inside. It wasn't looking hopeful, until he spotted an orange one. He gave himself a satisfied nod, and raised his bat.

TWACK!

POP!

Now that, that was gooooood.

Alright, so this was actually going a lot slower than Sierra had hoped. She thought all she'd need to do was to smack the bat around a few times, and she'd be done with this in about two minutes tops.

Wrong.

She blamed all the people currently zooming around the pitch, though. It seemed that every time she made a turn, someone was pounding away at a balloon right in front of her face. Speaking of which, she ducked a little as someone swung a bat a foot or two from her face.

Merlin!!!

Spotting a nearby orange balloon, Sierra raised her bat into the air and swung hard. For some odd reason (again she blamed all the people crowded around), she missed the orange balloon and hit a green one instead. Ahh, well. Balloon three was down!

The fourth year was still holding that big smile from finally winning against that green balloon...and now it was time to search for the other...victim balloon.

You know, he'd expected Vindictus not to be so soft about the objects they'll be popping, seriously.

And there he saw it! A red or was it a blue balloon? BLINK. It was a PURPLE balloooooon! And he loved the color! He didn't want to make that particular balloon be gone. Should he...protect it? Nah, it was only a balloon.

Soon after he thought that, he was already aiming at the purple balloon and with a very LOUD POP whatever was left of it started to fall.

Bye-bye purple balloon.

Kurumi look over her shoulder hoping to spot a nearby ballon and instead found herself temporarily blinded by a certain Hulfflepuff's smile as it caught the sun's light. Shutting her eyes tight, Kurumi gripped the handle of her broom and pulled down to try and resist the glare. She should have brought sunglasses with her to class today.


Having safely removed herself from the immediate danger, she used the sleeve of her robes to try and dry her watering eyes.

It was then that she noticed a nearby pink balloon. Quickly, she whacked it with her bat. One less balloon to worry about.

As more and more flyers got into the balloon popping and got more energetic about things, the more complicated everything became. But really it only made things more interesting and fun. Flying past a classmate as they took their own swing at a target, Simon spotted a well placed balloon that he himself could take out. With a wind up he smacked the balloon into submission just before needing to duck out of the way of another passerby.

Three down, two to go.

...at least they only had to hunt down and maim five balloons. Professor Vindictus usually had long lists of things for them to do. Things with ten or fifteen steps. Popping only five balloons was a welcome change. Then again, this was only task two. For all she knew there could be a task three, four, five...eleven...nineteen...forty.

Sierra drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Now, time to find another victim balloon! On that note, another orange balloon drifted by, and Sierra idly reached out and smacked it with all her might.

...wait. Whaa?! She'd actually popped it, despite the fact that she'd barely even tried?! Mwah haha! This was getting easier! Balloon number five, look out!

One more balloon to go...Kurumi's eyes flicked around the area looking for one that no one else was foing for, but it was hard to see with everyone flying around on the brooms and zooming this way and that. First she had been blinded by Treyen's smile, now her eyes were spilling due to all the zooming.

Just then, Kurumi saw a yellow ballon and angled her broom accordingly. Now within hitting distance, she took her bat and hit the balloon...but it didn't pop. Instead it went zooming off in the opposite direction and smack SIERRA right in the back of the head.


Kurumi squeaked and nearly fell off her broom. The balloon came zooming back and Kurumi swung at it like she would if she was playing baseball. There was another loud pop and Kurumi's fifth balloon was popped.

The time for this task was surely coming to an end soon, so Sierra figured she better locate a fifth balloon--and smack it, burst it, and reduce it to nothingness really, really quickly. As two of her classmates came zooming by, bats in hand, Sierra pulled her broom's handle to the side and darted quickly to the right.

There was a pretty large cluster of balloons in that area, so Sierra figured her best bet was to aim for one of those. Surely she could hit at least one balloon grouped with what looked to be twenty others! Flying right into the group of balloons, Sierra aimed at a yellow one, swung hard, and...

...missed. She glared at the still-floating balloon, pulled her arm back, and then thrust it forward with a speed even she didn't realize she was capable of. The balloon burst with a loud

*POP*

...completing task two for her. She grinned as she watched the pieces flutter to the ground.

Four down only one left to go before he was done with the task at hand. Not hesitating to get it over with, Simon zeroed in on a lime green balloon and aimed himsekf towards it his bat raised in his hold. The sixth year narrowed the distance as he flew towards it, giving the balloon a good solid whack.

Pop...

As the resounding pop hit his ears, Simon smiled and headed off to linger off to the side till they moved on. The boy allowing his classmates the room to finish as he absently flew around the outskirts of the field.

Salander was riding the broom a little ways off the ground. So all they need to do was pop the balloons with the bat? Sounds easy enough.

Then again does that mean he should start chasing these things? Not on his young precious life!

He cruised on his broom and actually waited for one of the balloons bounce off one of the more overeager students. Then....

*WHACK!!*

*POP*

One down....

Vindictus pointed his wand at the sky and all of the balloons vanished. With a few flicks of his wand, several abnormally large pinatas appeared.




"Now you've gotta whack each of these pinatas in this order - butterfly, pig, spider. But let me warn you - these babies are constantly moving," he shouted at the students from his comfy chair on the grass below. "After you hit them, then you need to get rid of the bat and get a Quaffle. You need to hit the target with the Quaffle - it will make a loud DING! sound when struck. Then you return the Quaffle and get a small bag and wait by the north goal hoops."


With a final wave of his wand the target appeared.


TWEET!

Now that he was out of popcorn and juice, he put his wand away and pulled out a sucker. Watching the students was really making him hungry.

The Task
[x]Title each post with what you're doing (e.g. Butterfly, Target, Quaffle, etc.)
[x]Using the bat, hit the following in this order: butterfly, pig, spider
[x]Swoop down and drop the bat in the box
[x]Circle the pitch
[x]Swoop down and grab a Quaffle from the other box without touching the ground
[x]Zoom towards the target and throw the Quaffle as hard as you can at it (target will go DING! if you hit it)
[x]Retrieve Quaffle and return to the box
[x]Fly to the north goal posts and retrieve one of the small purple bags tied to the hoops
[x]Hover by the goal hoops and await for the final instructions
[x]Final instructions will appear by 6pm EST on 31 MAR (tomorrow)

*This should take you at least 9 separate RP posts

**If you are now just joining the final, you must start at this task

Emily hovered high in the air as she listened to Professor Vindictus shout out the next task. This sounded fun... sort of like drill practice. Emily was good at multitasking so she would enjoy this.

Emily looked up to see three incredibly large pinata... the clostest one to her was a Butterfly. Would she feel guilty whacking a butterfly?. Nope.
Emily was feeling somewhat violent now... the beaters bat had that effect on her. Crouching low on her broom handle she shot forward like a canon, bat raised in hand. The butterly was thrashing about... flying?... constantly moving, almost teasing her.

Oh it was gonna get it.

Keeping in line with its movement Emily gained on it and......

*THWACK*

She whacked the pinata. Oh it felt good!... if only Emily could have done that tos ome other people... a mischevious grin appeared on her face.

Pinatas. That means stuff that breaks.

Awesome!

But they move.... eh. Cant win them all.

Salander leaned forward ever so slightly and got the broom to fly by the butterfly pinata. He raised his arm, swung his bat and....

*CRACK!*

Buh-bye butterfly.

Onto the next one. Here piggy, piggy, piggy....

Oh no. Not done yet. Nika sighed and looked at her professor with worry. She listened as he gave them the next pair of instructions. Wait huh?!?! That sounds like a lot of flying. Flying that Nika didn't want to do. Nika watched as the pinatas moved around the pitch. "And I thought the balloons were hard." Nika wrapped her hand around the butterfly necklace that Elyon had given her. Why did she have to smack a butterfly. Anything but a butterfly. Nika chased a butterfly pinata around the pitch and when it finally stopped running away she whacked it with her eyes closed. It wasn't that bad... And hey her flying is improving!

This was... probably by far the most pleasurable final exam Emily has had in her seven years at Hogwarts. She could carely stop grinning.
FOCUS! yelled that annoying voice in her head. Was everyones subconscious so loud?... and irritating?

Back to business.

Emily dipped a bit lower, the large pink pig (wearing sunglasses?) was in sight.
Oh yes... this little piggy was going to go wee wee wee weeeee....... down the the grass below.

The pig was moving a fair bit, getting a good aim on it would be difficult. But still Emily raised her bat and brought it down hard.

*CRUNCH*......... oh yeah... she did that.

The poor piggy descended at a rapid pace. Still she didn't stop to think about it, zooming off up the pitch towards the spider.. ugh she hated spiders.

Leave it to Vindictus to not let things be too easy for it seemed the exercise with the balloons was a meer warm up as they disappeared. In their place was three far larger targets that moved each with their unique shape. Simon listened as carefully as he could as the professor revealed the steps for this latest task, the boy wishing he had a way to take notes beside mental ones.

As the man settled back to watch Simon looked around for his first target...the butterfly. It was an easy enough thing to spot but its movement plus the fact that all students would be aiming for it in succession made it more complicated. Finding it on the other side of the pitch, the captain took off swiftly towards it, his bat close to him unlike before to avoid hitting anyone also heading towards it. He only swung when he was close enough, getting a hit on one of the wings as it shifted as he smacked it. A wack was a wack though.

One done...

Spiders....
Spiders!...........
SPIDERS!!!....

Did Vindictus know they were Emily's greatest fear? Was this a joke?! A nasty horrible joke?!...

Feeling a cold sweat coming on, Emily took a deep breath.

Don't let it affect you!... this is an EXAM!.... FOCUS!

Her subconscious was murmuring encouragement in her head... it helped slightly.
Imagining that this was quidditch practice Emily mustered up all her courage and went to tackly th spider. Well not literally tackle it... but she would what the Merlin out of it for sure.

The creepy spider pinata looked as if it was walking on air as it moved about, occasionaly jumping toward her menacingly as she approached.

Emily raised her bat again... this time shutting her eyes... she would have crossed her fingers but would have been a bit too distracting at the moment.

*THUMP-TWACK-CRACK*

Well... she didn't miss. The spider was squashed and mutilated as Emily dominated it with her bat. It made her feel loads better. She had conquered her fear... sort of.

Nika felt impressed with herself as she did an instant replay of the butterfly whacking in her mind. So far everything is going smoothly. Now to find a pig. Nika looked around and found a nice plump looking pig pinata. "Perfect." She tried using the element of surprise on this one and snuck up behind it. and WHAM! "Sorry piggy. I hope it didn't hurt. I just want the house points. I really do love all animals though." Nika tried to reason with the pig, but it just refused to talk to her. Maybe it is because it's a pinata.... Either way Nika had two of the pinatas done.

Emily had successfuly hit all three pinatas... now she dived towards the pitch... she was going as fast as the old school brooms would allow...

Even though Professor Vindictus didn't say anything about the task being a time trial, she felt it should be. Especially because she was in the mind set that this was like quidditch practice she wanted to give it 110%... or more.

Pulling out of her dive in time, she zoomed across the pitch, the bat which hung in her hand elevated just inches above the ground.

*THUD*

She dropped the beaters bat in the box not far from Vindictus, then zoomed off, steadily inclining.

Salander can see other students enjoying the flying pinata game as much as he was. So much so that their swinging and thwacking were causing the other floating pinatas to come towards him.

Which is starting to get a little dangerous. For him anyway, since he's really more of a sitting duck than a flying one.

He started to lean back and the broom actually started to slow down and descend. A pinata pig floated by and bumped up against him.

*CRACK*

Well that piggy wont be going to any market anytime soon.