"Next step,'' Jory thought. He got one of the blue rags and as the Professor said, he patted the handle dry.

Afterwards, the Hufflepuff gently and carefully stuck the tail twigs into the bucket and stirred counter clockwise the seven times. After stopping, Jory kept the tail twigs below the water for two minutes- all the while consulting his watch.

Then she stirred clockwise seven times and submerged for another two minutes.

While he held the broom just above the bucket of water, drops continued to fall into the soapy bucket as August straightened out the used towel on the ground. After a few failed attempts he finally got it to lay flat on the floor and then he realized he hadn't gotten the second needed towel yet.

Quickly he sat the broom end-down back in the soapy water and then rushed over and got the second towel. Now that he had all he needed Auggie lifted the broom back out of the water and allowed it to drip over the first towel on the floor and used the second to begin dabbing the suds and water off of the wet twigs.

Now that the broom was no longer dripping water and looked actually quite clean, he placed it on the table and then turned to the wet mess of a cleaning station he would have to clean up.

Jory followed the next steps carefully. First, he placed the towel he used to dry the handle with on the floor next to the bucket. Then, he grabbed another towel. Next, he took the broom out of the sudsy water and held it directly over the towel on the floor. With the second towel, he patted the tail twigs dry and finally placed the broom on the table.

"Scourgify!'' Jory said pointing his wand at the bucket where the water immediately vanished. Afterwards, he placed the two towels into the towel bin and the sponge into basket placed next to the fireplace.

While waiting for the next instructions, Jory updated his notes.

Raven moved to the next step. She took another towel, then she took the broom out of the bucket and held it over the towel that she had put one on the floor, and gently pat the tail twigs until they're no longer dripping. After she had finished, she placed the broom on the table.

Finally, it's almost finish

Blushing just a bit from her slightly embarrassing mishap involving the sponge, Kurumi struggled with her bucket as she set it on the ground to make things easier to dip the tail twigs into it. Somehow not splashing the contents all over the floor of the broom shed, Kurumi reached for the clean handle and gently picked it up before slowly lowering the tail twigs into the bucket. As she began to stir counter clockwise, Kurumi was sort of reminded of an old movie she had seen once...wax on...wax off...wax on...wax off... Were they working with wax today? Kurumi's mind was wandering a bit and she had forgotten at the moment. She would check her parchment once she finished with this part.

Stirting seven times counter clockwise, Kurumi stopped and hugged the handle to her chest and began to hum a song to herself to pass the time. She figured that if she hummed it and got to the second chorus of the song, that that would be about two minutes - or at least close enough. Reaching that part in the song, Kurumi then stirred seven times clockwise and continued humming the song. As she did, she took out the parchment to look at what would come next.

She was going to need towels...lots and lots of towels....

Now that the broom was clean, Alyssa began cleaning up the mess she had created while she was cleaning the broom. First she needed to empty her bucket and clean it. Unholstering her wand, she pointed it inside the bucket and said, "Scourgify" to clean the bucket. A beam of light shot out from her wand and engulfed the bucket. The light disappeared leaving a very clean and empty bucket in its place. Alyssa then holstered her wand before bending down on her knees and kneeling down on the floor. Using both towels, she wiped the ground dry, soaking up any excess water that had dripped on the floor. Once the floor was dry, Alyssa got up off the floor and picked up the two towels and sponge. She walked over to the towel bin and dropped the wet towels into it, before walking over to the basket that was lying to the left of the fireplace, and dropping the sponge inside it.

She then returned to where she had left the broom she had cleaned and reviewed her journal, checking off the steps to make sure that she had completed them as directed by the Professor.



Alyssa was glad that she had successfully cleaned the broom without any mishap. She then sat down next to her broom and waited for the Professor to continue with the next part of the lesson.

With the clean broom up on the table safe and sound from getting dirty again, August turned to the small mess that was created during the cleaning process. "It doesn't look so bad." the fourth year said to himself as he moved forward to pick up the towels from the floor.

As he stepped forward to do this however, he accidentally kicked the bucket full of soapy water over onto the broomshed floor. "SHOOT!" Auggie quickly fell to his knees, using the towels still in his hand to stop the water from spreading too far into others' workspaces.

Once the water was stopped, he pointed his wand at the floor and bucket and performed the cleaning spell. "Scorgify." The bucket was clean again and the floor was relatively dry. Using the towels and sponge to finish the drying, they were all three deposited in the correct places when he was finished.

Now what?

Kennedy paid close attention to what the professor was saying. He looked up and...was Professor Vindictus winking? Strange. He went back to his note taking and when he was done he put the quill away.

He grabbed a bucket and poured a cap full of cleaner solution into it, and then stuck his wand inside the bucket. He was excited to be doing this. A year ago he had received a broom care book, but never actually had the opportunity to try it out on his own with a real broom.

Kennedy felt like a child in a candy store.

Coming back to the present, he began to fill the bucket with water. "Aguamenti," he said, doing his best to measure how much water he pouring in there. When the water level began to get near the half level mark he said, "Finite," stopping the gushing water.

When the prefect was done with that he put his wand away and went to the basket to get a sponge. Woot, how fun was this!

"Use Scourgify to rid the bucket of its watery contents and use the two towels to mop up any water. Place the towels in the towel bin and the sponges in the basket located to the left of the fireplace."

Finally, It's almost finish!

"Scourgify." She cleaned the bucket then she use the two towels to mop up any water.

"Mop.. Mop.. Mop.." Fiuh... She had finished all of the step. Then she put the towels in the towel bin and the sponges in the basket.

She waited for the next activity.

Without uttering a word, Beezus followed the instructions that was given by the Professor. She was just too tired to even open her mouth, given that she had to help in cleaning early that morning after the Sleepover Party but since that subject was one she was most looking forward to, she just couldn't let it pass without attending.

She already picked a broom and also grabbed a broom care kit. Merlin, they already did the same thing last term right? Was Vindi just not in the mood to give them something new? Oh well..the eaglette was still too tired to even protest. As she listened to him giving them new instructions, she took out a parchment and quill from her backpack and jotted down what he said so she won't forget to do anything.

With a yawn, she bent down and took out a bucket from under the table, and "Achooooo!" Beezus sneezed that she quickly moved her head away from the bucket's mouth. It was such a dusty bucket. Beezus pulled out her wand and scourgified it first. Carelessly scratching her nose and once again, owing the man no comments, she continued after resting her wand on the table. She picked a small cap from the kit and filled it with the concentrated cleaner and poured it into the bucket. Then she took hold of her wand and uttered, "Aguamenti," to fill it with water. Bubbles began to form from the bucket then, with the presence of the concentrated cleaner and the water. "Finite," she chirped afterwards to stop the jet of water from her wand.

Minerva listened to the directions and then got up. She went over to the buckets, then she turned and put a cap full of cleaner into the bucket. After doing this step she headed back to her seat thinking about how they cleaned brooms last term as well. Once she was back to her work area Minerva put her wand into the bucket "Aguamenti", once the water was into the bucket she said "Finite" and crossed off these steps before moving onto the next ones.

Having readied the cleaning solution, Beezus followed the succeeding steps which was to grab a sponge from one of the baskets, but first, she pocketed her wand first. She then took one sponge from the basket along with her classmates, she noticed that there were blue towels on the side and that got her smiling. THEIR color was just so good to the eyes.

She pressed the sponge into the cleaning solution, brought it back up and gave it a squeeze before she grabbed her broom with her left hand.

Then she wiped the handle clean of all the dirty little organisms that either stuck to it or just passed by it. She scrubbed every part of it carefully, occasionally sticking the sponge back on the bucket for another squeeze and out again to wipe the handle.

When she was satisfied with the handle, Beezus referred to her parchment for what would come next. Once again, she yawned before continuing. "Come here o, little tail twigs," she murmured as she held the twigs together and plunged it into the bucket of cleaning solution. Then she stirred the broom counter-clockwise seven times. "I feel like an old fat witch.." Because well..in some muggle stories, bad fat witches would make potion on large cauldrons and stir the mixture with large ladles. She felt like her cauldron was the bucket and the ladle was the broom.

She allowed the tail twigs to stay on the water. Gotta wait for two minutes.

Once Messer filled his bucket with the water, he put his wand away like the Professor said and went to retrieve a sponge out of the basket before went back to his table. His eyes were glued to the broom and wondering how did it get SO dirty? It'd take all day to clean this thing.

He dipped the sponge into the soapy water and once it felt heavy with water, he gave it a squeeze. Then the young badger began to rub the dirt off of the broom handle. After he made sure that all the dirt and grime were gone, he grabbed a blue towel and gently pat the handle dry.

What came next? Oh...right...Kurumi looked at the parchment and remembered a frightening grin on Professor Vindictus' face when he had described this part of the task. Anything that made Professor Vindictus smile was something that everyone should be nervous about. Seriously.

Setting her broom to the side for now, Kurumi went off to retrieve the proper number of towels...plus a few more just in case...and went back to her station and set one on the ground beside her bucket. Some of the water had already dripped off the bristles and onto the floor, but setting the towel over it fixed that problem. Balancing the handle of the broom on the table with the tail over the towel on the floor. Gently, Kurumi began to pat the tail twigs with her second towel.

Pat...pat...pat...pat...

Well...towel number two was now soaking wet. Setting that one to the side, Kurumi reached for another towel and continued to pat, noticing that there was significantly less drippage coming off the twigs now. When no more fluid was dripping and patting it with a dry towel showed that there was no more solution on it, Kurumi set all the towels to the side and left the broom on the table.

Kurumi pointed her wand at her bucket. "Scourgify." Bye bye smelly solution. Next to go were the towels she had borrowed and the sponge. Making sure that there was not an excess of water in any of them, the prefect carried the towels over to the bin and the sponge to the basket by the...fireplace? There was a fireplace in the broom shed?! How come she had never noticed before!?

Kurumi looked down at her hands...her wrinkly and pruny hands and sighed softly. Not that she didn't expect this. Ones hands did tend to look this way when working with water.

All finished, Kurumi returned to her broom and waited for whatever was coming next...and hopefully it was something that didn't make Professor Vindictus' grin too wide...

Onto the next steps, plunge the tail twigs into the bucket. Once the tail was in the bucket, Messer slowly stirred it counter-clockwise seven times, then he hold it in the sudsy water for two minutes. Then he stirred it seven times again but this time clockwise and hold it for two minutes.

He grabbed the towel that he used to dry off the handle first and laid it on the floor before he took out the broom from the water. He hold the broom over the towel that's on the floor. Messer grabbed a new towel and pat the tail twigs gently with it till the water no longer dripping.

Minerva went to the sponges and picked one up as well as grabbing two towels. She went back to her bucket and put the sponge into the water. Picking up her broom she moved the sponge around the broom making sure to get all the dirt and grim off. Minerva didn't feel like the broom got clean enough so she moved the sponged scrubbing harder to get all the hard to clean places.

Monica had arrived just in time to hear the professor's instructions.She retrieved a broom along with a kit. She took a bucket and poured in some cleaning solution. She pointed and the bucket. "Aguamenti," she casted. She waited until it was half full and then said, "Finite." The bucket was full of bubbles and Monica went to go retrieve a sponge.

Elise nodded, staring at her broom and kit for a moment before digesting the fact that they had to clean it. Clean. It. Joy of all joys, cleaning. Never quite Elise's forte, but... there'll be a first time for everything, right?

Scribbling the instructions onto a slip of parchment with a pen, she allowed the ink to dry before slipping it into her pocket. Right, step one: Fill the Bucket.

Taking out the bucket from under her table, she put it on the floor because she didn't want to carry it down when it was heavy. Taking the concentrated cleaner, she poured it into the cap generously and tilted the full cap into the bucket so that all the cleaner got in. Pulling her wand out of her left robe pocket, she pointed it into the bucket. "Aguamenti," she whispered, willing the water to flow.

Once the water had reached the halfway mark, she stopped the flow with a quiet "Finite," and pocketed her wand. Eyeing the bubbly water, she checked her parchment slip for the next step.

Once she had a sponge in hand, Monica dipped it into the bubbles and squeezed out the excess liquid. She lathered the dirty broomstick with suds and vigorously scrubbed the dirt off. The broomstick glistened in the glowing firelight. She wandered over to grab a blue towel and dry off the broom handle.

Ella turned her attention to the basket with the sponges. She reached towards the middle basket, finding a sponge and bringing it back to her space. She plunged the sponge into the bucket and brought it back to the surface, ringing it out. It sure did collect a lot of water! She then grabbed her broom, which was ridiculously dirty, and began to scrub the handle. "Why in the name of Merlin isn't this coming off?" she asked after a few minutes. It seemed as if these brooms hadn't been cleaned in quite a long time. Had they sat like that since last term just waiting for this class so they could be cleaned? It was possible. Ella continued to scrub, finally seeing some of the actual handle emerge from the grimy mess that covered it. "Finally!" She finished scrubbing the handle and was quite satisfied with the job she had done. She reached for a blue towel and patted the handle dry. "All clean...well the handle at least."

When Messer was finished patting the tail twigs, he put the broom back on his table. He took out his wand from its holster and pointed to the bucket "Scourgify!" and the water instantly the dirty water was gone. Poof! But the young badger saw that there're still water around, so he used both towels to mop it. When he was sure that there're no water around, he put the towels in the towel bin and the sponges in the basket by the fireplace.

Messer went back to his table and eyeing his now clean broom. And now he need to wait Professor Vindictus next instructions.

Now that the broom handle was shiny and beautiful, Ella had to move on to the tail twigs. She picked the broom up and carefully submerged the twigs into the water. She looked at her notes, wondering what she was supposed to do next. Ohhh yeah, stir counter-clockwise seven times. She held the handle and began to stir slowly, counting as she want. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." Now she had to wait for two minutes while she continued to let the twigs soak. She looked down at her watch, noting the time, and began to hum, tapping her toes on the floor. If she had to wait two minutes, she might as well entertain herself with some music.

After checking her watch to make sure two minutes had gone by, she started stirring the broom clockwise seven times, counting as she went. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven." Looking down at her watch again, she noted the time and waited another two minutes. More humming and toe tapping ensued until the time had passed. She looked down at her notes again, wondering what was next. In her notes she had written the word MESSY next to the next steps. Wonderful, she thought.

With the handle properly and thoroughly cleaned, Jacques prepared for the next step now, which would be to dip the tail into the water. Hoisting the broom he placed the tail into the water and waited for a moment before stirring counter-clockwise seven times as instructed then stopped. He didn't want to be holding the broom for two minutes, it seemed excessive but he would do as instructed and instead let it lean against the edge of the bucket. To time he checked his watch and tapped his foot to the movement of the second hand on the watch. He looked around at his classmates who were blazing away at their brooms. He wasn't a blazer, he felt that slow and steady won the race and that doing something carefully meant you would only need to do it once.

The two minutes were up and Jacques brought the broom out of the water before re-submerging it and stirring it clockwise seven times then leaving it again for the other two minutes. While it was in the water he laid the first towel out on the floor and collected a second which he placed over his shoulder. When the two minutes were up, he pulled the broom from the bucket and held it, dripping, over the towel and with the one on his shoulder gently patted the twigs.

After checking her parchment slip and confirming that the next step was cleaning the handle, Elise bounced over to retrieve a sponge before soaking it into the sudsy water. She pulled it out and almost brought it over towards one of the school brooms. Nonono. Squeezing the excess water out, Elise brought the non-dripping sponge back to her workstation.

Now, for the hard part. Cleaning. Elise was a rather petite person, and really barely had enough strength to do it, but she tried anyway. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. Come off, already, silly grime.

Scrub. Scrub. Scrubbing, and more scrubbing. Joy.

Then she sensed rather than felt the grime coming off the handle. Yay, it worked! Running over to the front, she picked a nice RAVENCLAW! blue towel before bouncing back to her broom. Patting it gently, she allowed the cloth to absorb all the moisture.

Once that was over and done with, Elise checked off her parchment slip. Now, what was next?

Once the handle was cleaned, Monica flipped her broom around and submerged the twigs in the soapy water. She counted slowly seven counter-clockwise turns and waited for two minutes to pass. She repeated this the other way and waited for the twigs to finish soaking. Once they were done, she grabbed another blue towel and began to dry off the end of the broom.