Vindictus listened and nodded. "Very thoughtful responses," he replied but hid his irritation that only two Ravenclaws bothered to respond. "However, it's time for another thoughtful question - why is it important to have school spirit and what are some appropriate ways at exhibiting it?"

Jayden raised her hand slowly, beaming at the professor. "It is important to have school spirit because it shows that we have pride and respect for our school, appropriate ways to exhibit that would be to show up to all school sponsored games and maybe wear school colors, and cheer on your school team appropriately."

Great, now that was over with and answered... where was Cael?

Definitely thought-provoking questions. Her hand rose again. "Professor...it is important to have school spirit as it provides a type of bond between students of a school. When you feel as though you belong to an institution or to a group, then you're more willing to participate in activities or push yourself to do well in school....essentially to show pride in your school." She paused. "As for activities....participating in cheering on a school team, like our house Quidditch team, during the games would be one way."

"Oh school spirit is like, whoa totally important," Tori popped up. "As a Quidditch player, I know that I feel better and fly better when I can hear my friends in the crowd or when I see their posters and Slytherin green taking over the stands. It's encouraging!"

And on that train of thought... "So making posters, yelling cheers, doing dances, waving banners, and decorating yourself in your team's colors are all great ways to show your school spirit!"

Kurumi thought for a moment about this one and took note that Professor Vindictus did NOT say house spirit but school spirit. That really made all the difference, didn't it. At least it did in the young Gryffindor's mind. There certainly had been house spirit this term, that much was clear on the Quidditch pitch, but as an overall school...well...Kurumi had been left feeling a bit lackluster.

"Professor Vindictus," Kurumi said, raising her hand. "I think that school spirit is important because it provides students with a sense of stability and belonging. Figuratively, it could be a shoulder to lean on. It also helps with ones moral. School spirit makes you like a school, appreciate it more, and that in turn encourages you to work hard to make yourself better or better the reputation of the school. It sort of all comes boiled down to pride and connection. The more you feel connected to something." She paused for a moment to think on the second half of his question. "That being said, you don't have to go screaming through the corridors how much you love Hogwarts to show that you have school pride. You can show school spirit at Hogwarts by playing on the Quidditch or Gobstones teams, supporting these teams, participating in clubs like the Yearbook or Dueling Club, wearing your Hogwarts uniform properly...," something that a lot of students took liberties to in recent terms. "While attending classes and doing homework also shows house spirit in that you earn points for your house, it is also showing school spirit in that you are taking advantage of what it is offering to you, a proper wizarding education."

She lowered her hand now and looked back at the brooms and...suspicious cardboard boxes. What in Merlin's socks did he have planned?

School spirit. After thinking about it for a minute, Auggie did see why Vindictus had asked them why it was important. All the students did it when they went to the matches and maybe they would all learn today just how to do it right. Come to think of it...something had just occured to him. The last question was so fitting for the moment, the one about good sportsmanship. Professor Vindictus seemed to be handling the Ravenclaw loss pretty well.

"Professor, it is important to have school spirit because you should always be supportive of your school and any atheletes or participants from your school in their game or match. It's the right thing to do and it shows that you are a team player." No pun intended.

Alyssa raised her hand and said,"Professor it is important to have school spirit, because school spirit brings everybody together. People who normally wouldn't even talk with each other or hang out together. Everybody shares the same school pride and will lay aside all differences to make sure that the school wins. Some of the ways to exhibit school spirit, is wearing the school colors at a competition, organizing cheer leading squad, decorating the school with banners encouraging the team representing the school and even organizing events like pep rallies to boost morale and team spirit."

William raised his hand. " yo ucan have school spirit by watching the Quidditch matches" Willaim told him. " I painted my face red and yellow when I rooted for my house Gryffindor" William said to the professor. " You can help out around school like I helped clean our the Herbalogy garden after it had beeen destroyed plus get good grases in schiil, too" Willaim explained to the professor.

Selina rose her hand, "It's important to have school spirit because by having pride in your school it keeps the moral up. Low school spirit, low school moral. Kind of works hand-in-hand, sir. And some appropriate ways of displaying it is attending school events, from Quidditch to Prefect events. We work together as a student body to keep things working, sir."

"School spirit is a great thing to have. It shows your loyalty and respect for your school and in this case even for your respected houses. Showing school spirit doesn't have to be just at games, but is great for games. Wearing school colors/house colors around the school, going to anything that supports your school shows that you have school spirit. At games cheer and be respectful.

Oh. Professor Vindictus was surely on a roll right now. He's asking some weird unique questions again. But then, as their subject is flying then it was still related.

Hmm..Maybe she should give out her answer? Vindi sure doesn't seem too happy with the few numbers of Eagles participating in his class. Raising her hand, she said, "Professor..I think that having school spirit is considered important for it boosts up the students confidence and gives them more courage to do better." Short answer. "And one way of exhibiting it is through giving our support to our houses during Quidditch matches." See? It all goes down to their subject.

Louisa raised her hand, slowly, "It is important because it's the pride that combines us all together and sees the bigger picture which's about the school rather than the house or the person. It sometimes helps ignoring someone's idiocy. Having really high school spirit makes you forgive the clumsy teammates," and classmates in general but since this was flying teammates made more sense. "That'd be a way to exhibit it. More simpler ways would be having no hard feelings over other houses or other classmates. Smiling, shaking hands and the like."

"I think it is very important to make the game fair. Beside that showing sportmanship shows that you are respect to your opponent."

"I think it is very important to because.. Hmm.. I think have school spirit can make unity for us, althought we are in different house, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Hufflepuff but when one of Hogwarts student or them represent school in a champion, we support him very much. In order to make a victory for Hogwarts." said her proud.

"Um.. I guess it shows the loyalty and respect that you have not just for your team, but the players, your house and other houses and also for your housemates." he said as he finished.

Violet raised her hand. "School spirit is important because that's what binds us all together--our loyalty and pride for Hogwarts is bigger than the individual Houses or teams, and it's the kind of thing that can continue to help us all through life, even after we leave school. Ways we can show school spirit...I guess wearing school colours and our uniforms, and attending school events to support the people playing the sport or game or whatever activity it is, even if it's not something you're particularly interested in yourself. And helping out when the school needs you, the way students helped clean up Greenhouse No. 3 this semester. And also we should remember that we represent our school when we are not here and act accordingly, so that we will bring honor to the school and not disgrace."

Violet was relieved they were starting out with a class discussion. She had been dreading her Flying Final for weeks now, because she knew she still didn't have any great skill flying. She could only hope that she would manage to pass it.

Ira raised her hand and answered, "Sportsmanship is the sign of a good sportsman. Whoever loses or wins a game, has to conduct himself properly and show respect to the opposite team too... It helps to lighten the competitive atmoosphere and little calm the nerves."

First, sportmanship and then school spirit now? Well, professor Vindictus certainly was in a mood to raise some thought provoking questions! School Spirit...Since Ira had come to Hogwarts this year, she had seen what could only be described as house spirit. Hearing some other answers too confirmed her thoughts so.

Ira raised her hand and answered, "Sir, school spirit is symbolic of our pride of our school. School spirit is what sets some schools apart, its what will always remain in our mind as a precious memory."

Exhibiting school spirit? "There can be many ways to exhibit school spirit, like having a mascot, a common mascot for the whole school, instead of a house." Her old muggle school had one..."Also, having a unique song or a cheering chant would be great."

Victoria wondered how long this will go on. Are they ever going to play in this flying final? "Having school pride lifts everyone's spirit up. It's making everyone having a good time and forget all the worries." Victoria replied in only just a few sentences. There are too many things to say about school spirits.

"Well...we can make posters and mascots...shouting out cheers...and those made-up songs are really cool too!" Victoria continued to say. "Clothes, of course. What you wear shows who you are."

No school spirit?! Elise was full of spirit! School spirit among the lot!

Aaaanyway, Professor asked a question, and Elise being Elise, felt the compulsion to raise her hand.

"Good sportsmanship is manners and is also known as the 'Golden Rule'," she said, cheerfully. "You'd demonstrate it by respecting your opponent and the rules of the game. It's also really important, because your attitude represents the way you were trained. It'll reflect back to your coach, your team and your school. Sometimes even the country."

Content with her answer, she lowered her hand, listening intently for the next question.

School spirit. Elise could do this. Yeah!

Err... Scratching her head, she tried to come up with something that made sense.

"School spirit's just as important as good sportsmanship," she said, hand high in the air. "It's what holds us all together and keeps the school strong. It's being proud of your school and the people who make it the way it is. School spirit's something everyone should have, to be certain that you love your school and are taking full advantage of everything offered to you."

"We could show School Spirit by being nice to your schoolmates," she said, grinning. "You could also help out, like how a lot of us helped re-furbish Greenhouse 3. Wearing your uniform neatly and wearing house colors proves how much you appreciate what you've been offered. An amazing opportunity at Wizarding Education."

Yeah! Oh. and one last thing before she lowered her hand. "Knowing the school song'd help too!"

Ta dah! Putting her hand down, Elise felt kinda proud of her answers. They's taken quite a bit of brain power to come up with.

Ahh, school spirit. Now this was something Sierra knew all about. As a Slytherin, she was quite familiar with the concept (and the reality) of winning; therefore she was also very familiar with how important school spirit was to those aiming to win. Her hand rose into the air.

"It's important to have school spirit, because it gives yourself and others pride in your school and in your house. When you have pride, you're more likely to try harder and aim to be the best you can be," she explained. "To show school spirit, you can wear your school or house colors, make signs for your school and house, or give cheers at the matches, ..." She paused, giving the question a little more thought. "Oh, and I also think showing school and house spirit means acting appropriately at all times--not showing up late to class, not disrespecting the professors...things like that."

Well. This was an interesting question. Indiana tilted her head to the side for a moment, thinking. School spirit was very important in her opinion, especially when it came to quidditch. "I think it's important, especially in quidditch, to show support to your house and your team. It wouldn't be a very nice feeling to know that people didn't support you." Indy was sure that the quidditch team wouldn't do so well without they're supporters. "And...you can show it by wearing team colors, ooh and wearing face paint. That's fun." Blue though of course. Blue face paint was the best.

Justin walked Out to take his Flying finals and greeted the professor, " Good afternoon Professor Vindictus. I'm here for my final. "

Kennedy was wondering why they weren't already up in the air, instead they were answering questions. Was that normal in a flying final? Hmm... odd. He raised his hand to order the second question. "It's important to have school spirit because it demonstrates your pride for your school or house like here at Hogwarts. Also because it shows the team you are supporting that you are there encouraging them all the way," he said. Yep, like him, he supports Slytherin all the way! "There are many ways to show this in an appropriate manner. For example, there are people that wear huge masks representing their team, some paint their faces in the colors of their house, wear apparel that supports your team, even making posters that have encouraging comments. There are many, many more ways to show you support for your team in a positive way," he explained. There was much more he wanted to say, but that would take up more time of the class and he wanted to fly.

Now, why was school spirit important? Hmm... Vashti raised her hand after a few seconds of thought. "I'd say it's important because it's sort of what unites us at the end of the day. House spirit and pride is great, but it also divides us." Like during Quidditch games. Especially during Quidditch games, actually. "It's when we remember that we're still one school and that we all have our love of it in common that we get along better." And getting along was very important. Now for ways at showing it? Vashti kept her hand in the air. "I guess you could show your school spirit by wearing the school colors, which I guess would be all four houses' colors?" It would make sense for those to be Hogwarts's school colors, but Vashti wasn't sure whether it actually was or not. "You could also show it by respecting your fellow students and the professors, as well as school property, and making sure the school rules are followed."

" School spirit is very important because while we're at school everyone here becomes a kind of surrogate family. and we all take pride in our real families and so we should with our school family. As for pride in our Houses it's basically the same thing with one very important variation. And that is we live closely with like minded peers and the connections made in our Houses bond us even closer. Being a member of one of the House Teams is a great honor because you become somewhat of an ambassador for the rest of your House so you're held to somewhat of a higher standard" Justin rattled off.

"It is important to have school spirit because it shows that you are enthusiastic and that you love your school. It also helps pump up the Quidditch teams; if you have house spirit. If you cheer if makes them happier and more likely to win." Sometimes. ANYWAY..."You can show it by wearing your h house colors, cheering for your team and just being an all around cheerful person." Hmm, that sounded like her.