Not comfortable...not aerodynamic...will cause splinters no matter what. Right. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? *eyes* Ella wasn't sure she was mentally prepared for this one. Not that she was about to leave or anything. Nope. She was determined to master this crazy medieval death trap. *nods* And when Ella was determined, there was no talking her out of something.

Did she have any questions? The only one that came to mind involved deaths related to medieval brooms so she simply shook her head, indicating that she had none.

Nigel knew that these broom would be uncomfortalbe the moment he offered to let us use cushions. But he did have a question. Nigel raised his hand and asked

"Professor Vindictus, how fast do these brooms go?"

As long as he could go fast it did not matter if he was uncomfortable.

Vickers, who was standing pretty near the Curly!Puff, turned to him to give him a subtle shake of his head, trying to send a message of not attempting to provoke his Head of House. Goodness knows how that freezing incident affected the man's sometimes questionable judgement.

He turned his attention back to the Professor and raised his hand "Professor.... what about steering left or right? Will these brooms still be able to do those too?" Because he can imagine they'd all be running out of room pretty quickly if they cant bank.

Grabbing a cushion and a broom, Kurumi began to attempt to tying it to the handle while she listened to Professor Vindictus speak. Wait...WHAT!? They were not easy to handle?! Kurumi had been struggling with regular brooms over the past few terms.

She was going to strangle Selina...assuming she survived this lesson.

Swallowing hard, Kurumi tied a few extra knots just to be triple sure that her cushion wouldn't go anywhere. Basic charms? One speed? Kurumi really did NOT like the sound of that...at all. "Professor...how fast is this...one speed?" she asked timidly. Snail's pace would be a fantastic answer.

'Wait not aerodynamically designed? Splinters? Only one speed??' Alyssa was appalled. They weren't going to be able to zoom around the place like they had been doing in the other lessons.

But it was going to be a challenge which was what Alyssa loved about Flying Lessons. Alyssa had a concern and so raised her hand.

"Uh...Professor. You mentioned something about splinters. Is there a spell later to remove them or will we have to remove them ourselves one by one?" 'Hey it was a logical question. ' Alyssa thought to herself

Medieval WHAT?!

o______O

Messer gulped as he grabbed one of that broomstick. It look really painful but maybe its not as painful as it look. Who know, right? Cushions. That's important too. He want to fly this broomstick as comfortable as possible and cushions might help that. Grabbing a cushion and tying it to the old broom. When he was done, the Hufflepuff went back to his spot.

Not comfortable to ride on? Yeah, they already knew that part alright. Wait a second. Did he said its not not aerodynamic? He was going to die!

These brooms were obviously primitive. But of course they're medieval brooms. Now, splinters? Jory definitely didn't need any of those and of course neither did the others.

The Badger was about to raise his hand to ask a question when Vickers asked what he wanted to know. Professor Vindictus hadn't mentioned that but who knows? Maybe the brooms were able to go left and right.

Kennedy eyed the broom as he tied the cushion on it. It didn't look comfortable nor safe, but it was a broom and he really wanted to try it. The idea of splinters also didn't well with him and THAT was what convinced him to put a cushion on this thing.

He didn't want any splinters were it would hurt the most. Gah!

Once he had the purple cushion tied on the broom, Kennedy looked up and shook his head. He didn't have any different questions than the ones that were already asked.

Yay, games on brooms, hopefully not dangerous ones.
Sarah loved old-fashioned things... even these brooms. These may be uncomfortable though - yet Sarah liked corsets even if they were uncomfortable. She decided to go for the real deal (and make her brothers proud of her -she was no sissy) and go without the cushions. She grabbed an old broomstick - splinters and all. Splinters were not painful right? She had never gotten one before. So if sh e did, it will be a new experience.

"Where did you get these brooms from? They look old." Said Sarah. Noting the texture of the broom, maybe she will add it to a future story. She could not wait for take off.

Gideon left the answers to the younger students, knowing the names and such of the older broom games having studied them in earlier classes. They needed to try themselves. Now having had flying lessons involving the various versions, the prefect hadn't been too worried if the class went in that direction. However the addition of the old-style brooms was another story.

Getting up from his seat on the grass with the rest of the class, he made his way over to the broom rack to get a broom to use. The sixth year had to fight back a cringe at the condition as well as what Vinidictus said about them. Not comfortable...bad maneuverability...so-so speed.

Oh what fun...not

Observation. Yes that would be all Ness came here for. No need to actually get involved in the lesson. She would come and just watch, maybe learn a few tricks or tips and that was about it.

The Hufflepuff made sure to stay near the back of all the students, to make sure she wasn't very noticeable. She listened carefully as the Professor asked questions and the class answered. Hmm..it was of course rather interesting, but Ness couldn't figure out what sort of thing the class would be doing today. She couldn't figure it out..untill she saw the brooms.

O___O

Medieval brooms? Yeah. Pshhhht! Like he would really make them all ride those broome?

Renesmee stared in disbelief for a few moments, until she actually realized he was serious. No...couldn't be. Was he mad? Was he trying to injure these students? Or maybe this could have been a trick to get the Quidditch teams injured before their match that coming weekend.

What was Vindictus up to? Ness wanted to know.

"Um..may I just observe, Professor?" she asked nervously as she raised her hand. You know she had only planned on doing so in the first place.

Laura really didn't want to take part in this but she decided it could be fun and she'd just pretend she was flying on a new broom, then the Professor asked if anyone had a question and she did. "Professor why did Medieval witches and Wizard not try and make their brooms better, surely they had the equipment to do it?"

Elijah noticed his Ravenclaw pal shaking his head. He assumed it was some kind of warning not to talk bad about the Professor. Elijah just couldn't work out if it was loyalty to his Head of House or if he was concerned about Elijah getting into trouble. "Don't worry Vee," he whispered, patting the boys shoulder for extra comfort.

The Professor then went on about how state of the art and super fast these brooms were... oh wait! They weren't. Elijah was PRETTY certain he was here to learn how to fly, not for a history lesson about how miserable the Hogwarts students were circa 1600 when their first flying lessons came about. And wait... what?!

SPLINTERS?

There was no way in hell that Elijah was having ANYTHING penetrating his beautiful skin. Nosireeeeee. Not for all the gold in the world. It took time and effort to remain this gorgeous, he wasn't about to jeopardise that for some stupid lesson on medieval games.

"Um, Professor... I wonder. Is there anything that I can do that does not involve riding on one of these..." battered old branches? "... broomsticks?"

Elijah was pretty certain that even the wood on the whomping willow was kept in better condition.

"When I said 'not fast', I'm not joking," Vindictus grinned. "Because these are technically early medieval broomsticks, they fly up to speeds of 12 miles per hour. Just beware of butterflies flying faster than you."

"Steering remains the same, Vickers, but the broom will react slower than what you're accustomed to. This will require you to think ahead while flying because it's impossible to make sharp turns on these babies."

"No spell, just tweezers for removal, and antiseptic and bandages for the wounds," he answered. "If the splinters are too deep or are, ahem, embedded in a rather sensitive area, you'll want to see Healer Tillstorm."

"Good question! I have a friend who specializes in reproducing historical broomsticks," Vindictus answered.

"If you observe, you won't earn points," he replied.

"They did try to make their broomsticks better. The technology had to evolve into what we have today. We're actually using brooms from around the late 10th century and these were advanced for that time."

"If you choose to observe the lesson with Ness, then you won't be earning points," Vindictus replied. "The choice is yours."

"Flying on these relics of the past is similar to how we control brooms today. Taking off is the same, as is turning. However, when you decide to land, you'll need to pull back on the broom as you descend so that you'll slow down. Why you ask?"

Pause.

"These early broomsticks did not have the Braking Charm on them, so you'll need to slow down on your descent so that you hit the ground in a light jog," Vindictus explained. "Height-wise, you can ascend to heights as great as thirty feet but if you want to feel safe, I'd suggest a flying altitude of no more than 10 feet."

"I want everyone who wishes to participate to start warming up in the air before we move on to a little game that we're going to play," he said and he brought his silver whistle up to his lips.

TWEET!

Well no, Keefer wasn't looking forward to having splinters and blisters all over. He double- and triple-checked that his cushion was secure before endeavoring to mount the broom. He kicked off hard from the ground, but warily; he wasn't sure he liked the sound of the crude controls. Once airborne, he had a brief vision of himself pitching head first over the handle while he tried to land. Shivers ran down the Captain's spine, and he focused as much as possible on the broom's maneuvering.

He rose steadily, but slowly, which was fine with him. Keefer followed the Professor's advice and kept to a low altitude. He swerved carefully: left, right, left, right. Vindictus wasn't kidding. I'm really going to have to anticipate my turns. He became ever more grateful for his own brown the longer he was on this one.

Laura looked at the Professor and took off into the air, she wanted to go high but decided she would stay at 15 feet in the air, hopefully the Professor wouldn't mind her being that high up being 10ft in the air well that was too close to the ground for Laura.

Alyssa hoped that her skin was tough enough to withstand the splinters that she was going to get just by sitting on the broom despite the fact that she would be sitting on a cushion. Standing up she placed her broom on the ground and placing her right hand over it palm facing downwards, she said, "UP".

The broomstick slowly flew up into her hand. Alyssa then mounted her broom, trying to position her bottom right in the middle of the cushion, and then kicked off. She leaned forward on her broom, trying to keep herself from falling off the cushion and pulled the handle up to make it fly upwards.

That was when she realized how awkward it was to fly this broom. She kept wobbling back and forth on the broom....and she was starting to feel the splinters on the inside of her thighs where they were gripping the sides of the broom.

Alyssa practiced flying forward by leaning forward and then stopping by slowly pulling back on the handle. Then she tried flying in a circle. She leaned to the right and that's when the cushion shifted. Alyssa could feel herself sliding off.

She did what any normal girl would do. She screamed. "EEEEEEKKKKK!!!". Alyssa quickly pointed her broom handle down and leaned forward to make the broom descend. As the broom slowly descended, she tried shifting her bottom back and forth, to stop the cushion from sliding even more, and once she was close enough to the ground, she slowly pulled back on the broom and quickly dismounted.

Rubbing her thighs and her hands, Alyssa walked over to her broom and picked it up. She then untied the rope around the cushion, then repositioned the cushion, before tying the rope across and around it several times, reattaching it back to the broom. Once she was sure that the cushion was tightly secured this time, Alyssa stood up and placed her right hand over the broom and said,"UP".

When the broom rose in her hand, Alyssa mounted it and kicked off to join the students back in the air again.

Alec ruffled his hair, blinking between the Professor and the medieval broom he was holding. Splinters?! Really?! So he was going to get bruised no matter what happened? And... the purple pillow wasn't going to help wit the non-spliteringness?

... At least they were going to play a game! Games were always fun!

The Hufflepuff looked at the broom handle of the broom carefully. It wasn't as... sleek as his own broom was. His broom practically glistened and, without even touching it, you can tell it was smooth. This one however... He reached out and touched the broom handle before shaking the cushion gently. Good. It was secure. If that fell off and he got more splinters, he might be needing a lot of ice cream.

Alec swung his leg over the broom and took off into the air. He levelled out once he was approximately ten feet away from the ground. It was probably a good thing that Vindictus hadn't told them to fly any higher than that. Imagine if they flew higher and the splintering action became worse? ... Not good, not good.

He shook his head and started directing the broom to the left... and then to the right. He tried to move back and forth but, for some reason, the broom didn't seem to register his direction changes as well as his own broom did. His broom seemed to understand him when he tried to change directions. This one seemed to require more force.

He really was going to need a lot of ice cream, wasn't he?

Bahaha. Butterflies flying faster than the brooms! Professor Vindictus was quite funny when he wanted to be...Wait. He was only joking, yeah? Hmm...

All the splinter talk was making Ella uncomfortable so she tuned it out by humming very softly to herself. She was going to be fine. Totally fine. She would fly the heck out of this medieval broom and live to tell the tale. Mhmm. Oh, right. Now to practice a bit.

Positioning herself on the broom so she would be seated properly on the cushion, the second year gripped the handle and kicked off from the ground, hard. EEP! This felt a bit weird AND definitely uncomfortable. Though she wasn't falling or anything...not yet anyway. Brightside, yeah? And as she slowly felt out the brooms capabilities, she found that she was able to move forward, albeit a little unsteadily. It would definitely take getting used to, but she could manage. As for turning, Vindictus wasn't lying. The second year found that she had to move into a turn WAY before she actually had to make it. She also found that it was a bit scary to think of what might happen if she didn't move her broom handle at the right time. Yikes. She would definitely be staying closer to the ground during the game...Mhm!

Okay, okay...Dylan had actually decided to attend the flying lesson. Why? Simply because he was a Quidditch player and wanted to show support. The poor professor hadn't been back too long...Poor old guy. He was probably going to kill himself will the excitement of flying...but it wasn't Dylan's place to say anything.

It was ultimately his decision how he decided to kick the bucket...In the air seemed like a good enough way to go.

Doing as the older man said, Dylan mounted his relic and kicked off the ground. There was an immediate difference as his personal broom was much more...er...graceful...but that was not to be worried about. He could fly on anything, the Slytherin was convinced. 10 feet was suggested for those wishing to be safe...but he was a Quidditch player...And if he couldn't feel safe at 30 feet then something was wrong.

Now, to do some laps...

So much for flying up high like he usually did during the lesson. Even if Vindictus hadn't mention a height that would be the best bet for them to stay at, the prefect heard no breaking charm and figured it was best NOT to get too high and then fall really fast towards injury. That would be a major no-no...even if his participation in the class was earning points for his house.

Finally opting for no cushion in preference of not causing any resistance on a broom already going to be less reactive, Gideon straddled his choice of broom and prepared to take off. It did take a bit getting used to, the roughness of the wood that is after dealing with smooth and polished brooms in class and in quidditch. Hopefully there was enough between him and the broom to keep splinters to a minimum in his case. He then kicked off when he was ready, taking to the air and being mindful of just how high he was going.

5 feet....10 feet....there.

Now to see how to fly with these old brooms. The sixth year guiding his ride slowly away from his take-off point.

"Good job! Keep on trying!" Vindictus called out to those who were already warming up on the medieval brooms.


OOC: You should have at least 3 posts warming up. The next step will happen in 4 hours.

While Kurumi could almost feel her classmates groan at these words, Kurumi felt the complete opposite. She actually felt better about getting on one of these brooms knowing that butterflies were going to be out flying her. It actually brought a faint smile to her lips, but she tried her best to keep her expression neutral while her insides were bouncing with JOY on the inside.

The mention of butterflies did remind her of Kennedy and HER butterfly from though...

Attention back on Professor Vindictus when he gave further instructions, Kurumi leaned a bit on her broom and tried not to look too happy about all this - minus the whole landing bit. Landings were never really one of those things she was very good at and had only gotten worse since her bit fall several terms ago.

No more than 10 feet? Noooooot a problem. Kurumi would comfortable hover somewhere around five feet and have no issues with that. None at all.

Mounting her broom after the whistle, Kurumi bent her knees and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing... Kicking off the ground halfheartedly, Kurumi immediately noticed that this broom was...difficult. It didn't exactly cooperate with the whole notion of being air born, shaking and wobbling as it hovered no more than a foot or two off the ground. At least her cushion was secure, having tied probably five more knots that was really necessary. The only problem was that, well, the cushion didn't exactly fit the broom's handle...so things were getting pushed up places that they really shouldn't.

At least she had no splinters...

"Ouch..." Spoke too soon. As Kurumi lifted the handle of the broom to rise into the air, a splinter or two...or three... dug into her hands and she removed one of her hands to attempt to pull it out before returning both hands to her broom and rising to a nice six feet in the air.

Penelope had originally planned to just sit on the broom as it was - she didn't really mind a little discomfort - but hearing that they were definitely going to get splinters from these brooms, she decided to get a cushion as well. She could handle splinters, but she didn't really want them on her bum if she could avoid it.

Once that was done and they were finally allowed to start flying, the Gryffindor mounted her broom and kicked off the ground. She didn't rise as fast as she was used to on the regular school brooms, but eventually she reached the height she wanted - thirty feet. Because even if she wanted to try to be safe from splinters, she didn't much care about staying low to the ground. Thirty feet was lots more fun than ten feet.

Now to see how fast 12 miles per hour actually was.

The second year heard Vindictus call out that everyone seemed to be doing a good job and felt a little better about the whole flying on a medieval death trap thing. As she was already up in the air, she decided it might be a good idea to practice landing, especially since she figured it was gonna be one of the more difficult aspects of this whole weird old broom flying experience. She continued flying forward for a bit longer and then slowly, headed for the ground.

O___O

EEK! This felt weird, and not as controlled as landing on her Cleansweep. She was trying her very best to slow down but the ground was still approaching much faster than she was comfortable with. When her feet hit the grass, she was going at more of a run that jog, causing her to stumble over her feet and roll a bit.

O__o

Well she wasn't hurt! BRIGHT SIDE. Though she probably looked like a complete nutter rolling about like that...Like Barnabus during pygmy puff bowling! Yup, the resemblance was probably identical.

Standing up, the second year rubbed her bottom before positioning herself back on the broom. Time to try again, right?