Right, taking off--Alex could do this. Just a small little push from his feet and he'd be airborne, he didn't need to go crazy here. The last thing he wanted was to shoot off into the sky like a bottle rocket. He took his broom and mounted it, making sure he was sitting comfortably on it before gripping the handle and lightly kicking off.

There, nothing to it, except...OH MY GOSH TOO HIGH TOO HIGH! He'd kicked off a bit harder than he'd intended and was hovering around 10 feet above the ground. That was nothing compared to others in the lesson but still, he hadn't expected to be that high that fast, and his knuckles turned white from gripping the broom handle so hard.

Right, deep breaths, he could do this...

As he was 20 metres high in the air, João believed it was enough height for now and remained there for a moment, scanning the ground for--

Not her, again.

Turning direction in the air as he forced his thoughts to turn direction as well, he changed the tip of the broom to the right so that now he was facing the castle itself, and leaned on to speed up. This felt wonderful, and it sure emptied his mind for a while until he stopped to turn back, since he didn't want to step over the limits of the field. Turning left this time, his eyes started scanning the air now.

He thought he heard someone speak to him and he turned his head. Oh! It was the girl from the Feast "Y-yes, I'm fine..." he responded a little self-conciously. Man he was a lousy flyer wasnt he? And before he knew what was happening he saw the girl spin around and go on a free-fall but pulled up quickly. Huh, she was either incredibly lucky or had incredible control on her broom "Y-you sure got pretty good flying skills..." well heck much better than his own thats for sure.

He continued trying to improve his left turns, and was able to do so with just a bit more ease , but any sort of “regular” paced turning would almost always jerk him off his broom. Sighing, he decided to just focus on getting back onto the ground properly, sighting a young Slytherin (Harlow) and her graceful landing. Oookay, so that’s how NOT to do it. He should be thanking the Slytherins. Learning so much from their mistakes so he doesn’t do it. Win!

He eyed the ground, nudging his broom for a careful descent, and following the Professor’s instructions he tilted his broom gently back into himself as he neared the greens, stretching his legs out then landing with a semi-graceful trot. It took him a while to realize that he had landed safely. A crooked grin curled in his lips. Guess that wasn’t such a bad attempt at all.

Harlow blinked a few times to clear away the tears. She pushed herself up onto her elbows to look around. Her head felt full of bubble gum and that thought made her giggle.

Making sure she wouldn't puke she slowly climbed to her feet and swayed a bit before steading herself.

Her broom was doing lazy loops a few feet from where she landed. She rubbed her bottom as she walked over to the broom. She was sure there was going to be a bruise back there when she got back to her room. A nice soak in the tub would soothe that right away.

Harlow swung her leg up and over the broom and gripped the handle. She pushed off the ground and rose back up into the air. Ok she had the take off down, the landing was going to be the problem.

Selina could not find Gideon for the life of her in the air. Usually the dark curly locks were easy to spot in the air, but with the multitude of other students in the air, it seemed more and more likely that she was not going to find him. It was probably for the best. She was highly competitive and if she found Gideon she would not doubt want to race him or turn the simple lesson into a competition.

Then she turned her attention back to flying and continued to fly away from the goal posts. She had spent the last several minutes circling the posts and needed to do something else. So with some ease she turned her broom to the right and made her way down toward the other end of the pitch. She picked up her pace just a hair and swerved in and out of the first years.

OK...he was getting used to this height. Deep breaths, deep breaths. After a few minutes of hovering in the air, he felt comfortable enough to try and move forward a bit. Keeping the iron-clad grip on his broom that he'd had before, he slowly moved the handle down to speed up. He only moved it about...a centimeter or two down, so his acceleration was very, veryyyy slow and gradual, but that was exactly how he liked it. He pushed down a bit more, going just a bit faster. This wasn't so bad, it was kind of nice actually, with the wind blowing in his hair and all. He slowly turned towards the left a bit to try steering. The more time went by, the more used to the broom Alex became.

Travis stood there listening to Professor what's-his-face. Honestly, Why would anyone have such long, complicated names, it was like Vengictus... or Vederistic... Vinuctease.... Professor V. That was good enough.

Practice landing, and taking off? Was that the order, or had he heard wrong... he probably heard wrong, being more interested in pronouncing the man's name. But now people were starting to take off, which meant he'd just gotten the order wrong. Trav mounted the school broom, and kicked off. Travis had reached about 15 feet before stopping. It wasn't like Trav had never ridden a broom before, but he still felt extremely nervous... what if Professor V saw what the Academy people saw about his flying and denied him from EVER playing quidditch at the school.

Trav shrugged it off and leaned forward ever so slightly to get some momentum going. He started making a figure eight at his current altitude, while everyone else was flying up higher... maybe he should go further and join them, that way Professor V. wont call him out of any bad flying habits.

Back to normal flying, Gideon cruised for a bit enjoying just the fact of being up in the air. Classes had been a little overwhelming lately so he hadn't had much of a chance to do some flying on his own time and it felt good. After a while he caught himself from getting too carried away and forced himself to refocus on the lesson and the activity needed to be done.

Right....braking.

Pushing his broom and leaning forward, Gideon increased his speed a bit so he wasn't meandering so much. Then after going for a while, he pulled up the broom handle to break, careful not to angle himself upward in the process or cause himself to fall back. Shooting up higher or falling off his room were both not options he wanted to accomplish. THe boy let out a breath of relief as the braking charm was activated and he and the broom stopped as he had intended.
Whew...

Minerva watched some of the first years and smiled flying over to one of her new friends. "Hey Nate great job. Keep up the good work." she then leaned forward and took off straight ahead smiling knowing where she was headed. She pulled back and was in front of Harvey. "So I'm doing better this year don't you think?" she leaned right and headed to the side of the pitch laughing.

Harlow thought she was getting more and more comfortable up on the broom as she flew in slow circles around the pitch.

She leaned to the right and turned back around the other way. Harlow wasn't going very fast, she would save that for the quidditch tryouts. This was a time to get the basics down so she didn't kill herself or anyone else for that matter.

Harlow pulled up on the broom and rose a little higher than the 20 feet she had been flying. Most of the other students were flying at the maximum height allowed, but not Harlow. She only rose up another 20 feet. This was no time to be a hero.

"Y-yes." she said, smiling as Kennedy wiped the mud off her hands. "I'm fine." She smoothed down her robes, standing up straight as she did so. Dignity? Regained.

Aurora frowned, "I still fail to see why." she muttered as she lifted her leg over the broomstick. She watched Kennedy kick off and land again. He seemed to have picked it up so quickly! Hmph. So not fair. Aurora nodded, "Jog it off... kay." she said.

"Ready..." She copied the way everyone else was kicking off... it wasn't too bad this ti- woooaaaah! No need to get cocky about it Aurora... that was wobbly. She rose up slightly, holding tight. Okay, now, forwards! Aurora leant into her broom and it started moving forwards. "This is... working." she said in disbelief, then she leant to the left to see if she could turn... "Okay... I think... I can sort of do this." But she was NOT going any higher. Never ever ever. She tried turning left aaaaand... nearly fell off. She gripped the branch that suddenly felt very unstable very very hard until she had managed to stable herself again. "Maybe not. I'm getting off now." she said, and leant down slightly... okay, jog it off... As her feet hit the ground she tried to jog to stop herself falling but... she tripped and fell to her hands and knees... again. Brilliant. She just sat on the floor, her face still drained of colour, feeling a bit sick. Why oh why oh why did she have to come to this lesson? WHHYYY!!!!???? There was absolutely no way she was getting back on that thing today. Nuh-uh. She glared at the broom in her hand.

Hannah felt like she would never tire from flying. She couldn't get over how natural it felt to her. She leaned to the left and made a perfect circle. She then went to the right and made another perfect circle. She sat up straight and brought the broom towards her and just hovered for a moment. She looked around at her classmates flying beside her. She leaned forward again a made two more circles. She decided to give landing another go so she gently nudged the her broom handle to the ground. When she was close to touching she brought the broom slightly back towards her and once again jogged to a complete stop. She landed even more gracefully this time she thought.

That was it! Selina was tired of just hanging out in the air and flying nice and easy. She was a Quidditch player and flying was her thing. There was so much she could do with flying but if she did she was terrified points would get taken away. But Vindictus would not notice if she pushed the boundaries of the directions just a tad. So with a slight smirk on her lips she went a llittle faster leaning into the broom to push the speed. As she got a little faster Selina made a sharp turn to the left. Amazing!!!! This was how you flew.

"That's good cuz." She circled him once more flying. Taylor flew away to go wander around the pitch.
Taylor flew next to another student, "Hey." She nodded to him. Taylor did a few more quick turns and then came back to the boy. She flew up a few feets higher since she didn't like being only 20 feet up, but not enough so that the boy can still talk if he feels like talking.

Kennedy nodded and readied himself to go into the air. He waited for Aurora to kick off first and when she did it was wobbly. That was okay, he started wobbly at first too.

At her ready, Kennedy kicked off and leaned forward as rose up higher and higher. He really enjoyed the wind rustling his hair and shaking his glasses. He glanced down and noticed that Aurora was still having difficulties. He leaned forward then right and got to her level. "But..." He was going to protest her getting down, but if she didn't feel comfortable with flying he wasn't going to force her to do it.

As he got lower to the ground he made a smooth landing with a bit jogging. "You'll get it soon," he said, following her to her seating spot. Maybe if she saw other students practice then she'll get the hang of it? "I'll show you how to," he said, suddenly thinking of something.

He mounted his broom and kicked off. Maybe if he showed her how to control the broom and do turns and stuff she'd feel better toward flying. Hopefully.

He leaned forward, but not too much and then looked down at her. Eh, eh. Then he leaned left and the broom went left as well. Eh, eh. Then right and the broom followed, moving him right.

Eeehhh? He wasn't a professor, but he wasn't bad at flying either.

Now that Hannah had her feet placed firmly on the ground she decided to take off again. As she stood mounted she gently pushed off the ground and hovered. She leaned towards her broom and sped up as she did circles around her classmates. She breathed in the earth smells through her nostrils and smiled. She wished she would have signed up to try out for the Quidditch team this year. She veered to the right and went as far as could without going further than the professor said to go. She wouldn't want to lose any house points for her team.

Taylor finished one last turn in the air. She went up as far as she could, as fast as she could. Then she slowly went down in big circles, having fun flying. Taylor landed without almost tripping this time. She waited for the professor to tell what the next part of the lesson was.

Harvey was flying around at the speed he was comfortable with.. but he decided to be bolder and fly faster .. so that is what he did.. he sped up again and flew around the field at this speed for a little while longer but soon he was starting to feel sick again.. so he pulled back on his broom to slow down.

But even the slower speed did not help and he decided to stop completely so he did.. just then someone spoke to him in their sweetest voice he looked around and sure enough it was Minnie.. she asked him whether he was doing better this year "Of course you are Mins.. much better" he said beaming before she flew off in another direction.

This made him smile as she flew off laughing as she flew away... he then leaned left and flew off in that direction but he would keep looking over to Mins every so often as he flew around the pitch.. he could imagine them both flying around on the pitch.. as they had discussed during the summer..

Eino remained suspended in the air for several minutes overlooking the younger students take off. Some of them did surprisingly well, much better, in fact, than he had done during his third year of flying. Slowly tipping his broomstick's handle to the left, Eino began to circle the practice area for a better view of the students. He was only about ten feet high, but after nearly hitting a student in the back of the head he pulled the handle to gain some altitude. Now at about twenty feet in the air, Eino continued to steer the broomstick to the left. He leaned forward just a little more, because the cool breeze against his face was very refreshing, and the sun was hot. It was much easier to steer the broomstick with relaxed arms as opposed to stiffening them and holding onto the broomstick for dear life. It also made turning easier, and the entire flying experience much smoother.

Silvia circled the entire pitch, speeding up a little and flying higher. She wasn’t afraid of heights, and flying seemed so much more fun now that she was moving faster, though not too fast just yet.

When she was finished with her lap, she turned her broom right and directed it towards the center of the pitch. She wanted to get some practice landing. When she got there a few moments later, she tipped the handle downward and began to descend. She slowed down bit by bit as she got closer, probably slowing a bit sooner than she really needed to, but Silvia wanted to be careful and get the landing right. She pulled the handle of the broom back and sat upright as she neared the ground. Extending her legs, her feet touched the ground moments later and she walked forward slightly from the momentum before she came to a stop. That wasn’t too difficult, Silvia thought, though her broom had already been very close to a stop by the time she reached the ground; she was sure more experienced flyers probably landed a bit faster, but she knew it was best she take her time for now.

The professor hadn’t called them down yet to give his next instructions, so Silvia pushed off once again and rose into the air; this time flying a little higher than she had before. She didn’t want to miss a single moment of flying while she had the chance to.

After having gotten Dizzy for taking a few laps around the class Oakey stopped his broom again. Taking a quick breather he descened his broom til his feet were barely touching the ground. He looked for a moment to see that all the other students were still flying around. So he took another deep breath and took a steep climb to about 90 ft. in the air, then a steep dive just with about 30 ft. left to the ground.

Violet called the the broom up, and instantly the broom went up into her hand. Violet smiled brightly and mounted her broom. It felt very familiar since she had once used a toy broom at home when she was younger. She kicked off the ground and up and away she went. Violet was already 20 feet up in the air the and the feeling was exhilarating. She stopped midway on her way up and looked around to see if she could talk to anyone while in the air.

Harlow had the concept of taking off and turning down. That much was obvious as she flew around in circles 40 feet from the ground.

She practiced going up and down as well, but she wasn't going as high up as the rest of the students. If they wanted to play hop-scotch with their lives, that was fine by Harlow, but she liked her nose right where it was.

Now it was time to land and her heart started racing. "Get a grip Riddle," she told herself and she stopped to hover over the spot to wanted to land on.

She took a deep breath and slowly pointed her broom down towards the ground. The ground wasn't coming up too fast, but she wasn't sure how to stop the broom and in a panic she let go of the handle and tumbled off. Harlow bounced once before stopping.

Hannah started thinking that maybe she should start wrapping up her flying. It had to be getting close to the end of the lesson. It looked like her fellow classmates were starting to dismount. She veered to the right and did one last full circle. She then sat up straight and pulled the broom towards her. She hovered for a minute and took in the beauty around here. Life sure looked great from up here she thought. Time to park! She nudged the broom towards the ground once more and when she was closer she leveled out and was able to slow to a jog and then came to a complete stop. She waited for further instruction from the professor.

Vashti was attending this Flying Basics Lesson more for sentimental reasons than because she actually needed to learn the basics. This was her last year at Hogwarts, after all, and she wanted to experience as much as she possibly could in her final year, including this lesson. Besides, she could, if only briefly, pretend she was a little firstie again instead of a scary-old seventh year, just without the nervousness and lack of experience on a broom. She'd even "accidentally" forgotten to bring her own broom so that she could use a school broom. The school brooms were pretty good anyway, so it wasn't like it was a huge loss.

And now it was time to practice. YES. Vashti mounted the broom and kicked off the ground effortlessly, grinning as she rose in the air and the rush of wind blew in her face. That feeling would never get old, she was sure of it. Even after all these years, she was sure this was how she'd felt when she had first ridden a broom. Absolutely amazing, it was.