He was still doing that arduous loop towards his starting point, when the Professor continued explaining their next task. He blinked as the distortion over the Pitch cleared, revealing colorful little dots from the height of where he flew. Did the Professor say collect seven lollipops? Well that’s should be easier than trying to catch a bucket with a stick right?

He swooped a little lower just so he can have a good look at the candy they were supposed to collect. Alright, maybe it wont be that easy, they looked pretty small and the broom was already a challenge to fly properly as it is. He continued his controlled descent and stuck his arm out, trying to catch a lolly as his hand brushed against several of them, clasping on a handful. He leaned up expecting to get three-- he got ONE. And a small one at that.

So much for easy….

One lollipops. He only managed to grab only one lollipop from the ground. He need 7 of them.

Messer circled around the ground first before he turned his broom toward where the lollipops were. And like before turning the ancient broom was not an easy task. He thought after a few minutes flying on the medieval broom it would be more easier turning it but its not. And top of it as time goes by he feel more and more uncomfortable sitting on it.

Ignoring his discomfort, the Hufflepuff flied straight to the lollipops. He made sure that his broom go as slower as possible. He reached out his hand, grabbed one of the lollipops and picked it out from the ground. He got two! Go him!

After he securely put his second lollipops into his bucket, he went back in attempt to get his third lollipop. Keep your eyes on the prize. Eyes on the prize. As he was approaching his target, Messer removed one hand from the broom handle and grabbed the lollipop. He grinned widely when he noticed that he got his third lollipop.

Now that Alyssa had more or less figured out the easiest way of retrieving the lollipops...at least easier than her earlier attempts, she pointed her broom towards the next cluster of lollipops and flew towards it. She continued to concentrate on keeping the broom flying about 2 feet above the ground and slow enough for her to be able to reach down and grab the candy.

She spotted another cluster of lollipops sticking up above the ground, far away enough from where the other students were flying, and flew towards them. As she neared the cluster, Alyssa leaned back on her broom, pulling the broom handle slowly back to slow her broom even further. As she got closer, she did a quick check to see where the cluster was below her before glancing back up, and concentrating on keeping her hard to control broom flying in the direction she wanted it to.

She removed one hand from the broom handle and reached down and as she felt the lollipops brushing her fingertips, she blindly reached out and grabbed one of them. Alyssa quickly dropped it into her bucket before placing her hand back on the broom handle. 5 down 2 more to go.

Sarah watched as the lollipops appeared beneath her appeared and listened very closely to the instrructions. She smirked- great she had not climbed all 10 feet only to be told to come down. She spotted a purple striped lollipop beneath her an ddecided to get that one, she did a circle to make her lower down and her feet were soon dangling just above the ground. She stretched out her arm as far as it would go and picked up that lollipop, while she was there, she decided to pick up its neighbor, a pink lollipop – this way they could chat in her bucket. She deposited them inside her bucket. 2 down, 5 to go…

With an annoyed wince, Vickers raised the lollipop to have a better look at it. It was so small he could swallow it whole without the stick-- and to think he aimed to get a handful of them, but practically all ended up staying stuck on the ground. He raised it to his nose-- it smelled sweet, kinda strawberry-ish, and despite its size, looked really good to just pop in the mouth.

But he isnt popping this into his mouth anytime soon, because he needed seven of these.

He tossed the little lollipop into the bucket and made another ardous pass at the field of lollipops. Once again he stuck his arm out, aiming to clasp a large one. But just his luck the ancient broom decided to pick up some unwanted speed and he completely misses the candy, both his hands flying back onto the painful broom shaft just to regain control….

Sarah decided that in-order to stretch herself a bit more and to find better lollipops (she wanted them in her favorite colors you see) she climbed back up to five feet – that was what Sarah found a good median. Not too low (or maybe it was, hopefully no one would be walking on the pitch) or too high (not because she was scared of heights, just because the decent it hard on the old fashioned brooms). It was a bit hard to see from only 5 feet, yet she flew on that height anyway. Looking out for a blue lollipop.

There she found it, she sped over to it, only to realize that she needed to go slow in order to get it. She then made her way slowly down to the appropriate level and stuck out her wand hand and, latched onto the blue lollipop – yet missed. She went around the pitch and back to the blue lollipop and stretched out once more- she grabbed onto it, and did not let go until it was safely deposited in the pail – next to its pail pals.

They were meant to catch BUCKETS? Hm...That was different. Plus the whole thought of missing the bucket completely and tumbling off her broom again didn't seem too appealing. Was she going to try anyway? Yeah, course she was. The second year just didn't know how to say no to a challenge.

Positioning herself on the medieval broom again, Ella kicked off from the ground and headed towards the far end of the pitch, turning gradually so that she began to circle towards the other end. That's what Vindictus had suggested, yeah? A wide circle?

Once she was facing the buckets again, Ella began to slowly approach the ground below, trying not to descend too fast. Merlin knew she didn't want to end up sprawled out on the grass like a lawn pancake. No way, Jose. And she she was both relieved and impressed when she found herself flying very slowly, right at the bucket. EEP! But how was she meant to get her broom handle through the handle of the bucket?! She was too close now...so when she went to try and get the bucket, she only knocked it over with a loud THUD. Ugh. Fail. Fail. Fail. This was impossible.

He gripped the handle tightly, feeling its sharp angles pressing painfully against his skin. This museum piece needs to slow back down to the speed it was earlier.

Halfway across the pitch later he finally got it back to the right speed, then focused his attention on the lollipops in the field. Extending his hand he seized one and nearly stalled his broom when the candy wouldn’t let go for a split second. But his hand jerked back to reveal a good sized lollipop.

Finally! A lollipop he wouldn’t mind showing off.

With a Kerplunk! he dropped the candy into the bucket and started to lean his broom to turn back around the pitch.

Buckets...

They each had to collect a bucket from up from the ground...not too bad. Oh wait, they had to do it without hands which meant they had to loop the handle of the bucket around the handle of the broom. All while flying and all while keeping low and balanced AND on a broom that wasn't the most easiest to fly in the first place. Not to mention currently at risk of giving him blisters around every turn. Gideon was seriously begining to think this class was going to outdue the roughest quidditch practice he'd been involved in.

Taking a deep breath, Gideon tried to plan out a design of attack for the task at hand. Slow and steady seemed the best bet even without the difficulty of the low flying. The Gryffindor quidditch player guided his broom into a descent, careful to not come in too fast seeing as he didn't have breaks. Then making his first attempt, he leaning forward as he flew towards a bucket. However he was just a little too high and so he overshot his target.

Darn...next time.

The sixth year pulling up and out of the way of others.

Finishing her U-turn, Kurumi attempted to steer herself back towards the somewhat elusive strawberry lollipop. She needed to figure out how to do this without leaning too far to one side since it seemed this broom translated that movement as her wanting to go in that direction.

As she continued her slugging approached, Kurumi decided to attempt something and flatted herself against the handle of the broom and foolishly rested her chin on it to keep herself centered. Ouch. Both her arms dangled over the sides of her broom and were close enough to the ground that she could reach out with her fingers and brush over the surface of the grass.

Ah yes, ground, so close. It was a comforting reminder.

Eyes honed in on the strawberry lollipop, Kurumi reached out with her right hand and.... GOT IT!

Kurumi sat up so quickly that her broom ended up veering way off course and her foot accidentally kicked a lollipop, breaking off a rather large piece of it. Only Kurumi didn't really notice this. She was too focused on trying to regain her balance long enough to add her lollipop to her bucket.

The whistle tweeted as the Captain swooped low and got his bucket. Now lollipops...? I hope they're not those Blood Flavored ones from Honeydukes... Because yes, he fully intended to eat them once this lesson was done.

Keefer took off toward a semi-deserted part of the pitch. It wouldn't do to be running into everyone else going after the same suckers. He spotted one that looked as if it were particularly long-stemmed and began his approach. Right arm fully stretched out, he wrapped his fingers around the slightly sticky candy and tugged. "Woah! I got it!" He gaped at the sweet in his hand, amazed he had gotten one on his first try. Looking around, he noticed that not everyone had the same luck, so he was especially grateful. Now let's just hope it wasn't beginner's luck...

Now that Alyssa had more or less got her strategy working fine, she flew low flying at least 2 feet above the ground, headed for the next cluster of lollipop sticking out of the pitch. She spotted a bunch of brightly multi-colored ones midway in the middle of the Quidditch pitch.

She leaned forward on her broom and flew towards it and once she got nearer to them, she leaned back on her broom, slowly pulling on the broom handle, until the broom began to slow down a little. Now that she had the broom slowing down to the speed she wanted, Alyssa concentrated on keeping it flying straight towards the cluster of lollipops.

Once she was almost over it, while concentrating really hard to keep her broom flying steady, Alyssa took one hand off her broom handle, and reached down until she felt the tips of the lollipops brush by her fingertips. She waited and waited...and then grabbed hold of one. She brought it up and saw that it was a nice rainbow round shaped lollipop which she quickly dropped into her bucket. 6 down, 1 more to go.

Witsy promised herself if she finished the day catching at least one lollipop, she was going to keep it. It's the least this sugary substance could do for all these blisters they're going to cause tomorrow. Once she reached high enough into the air, she spotted the colorful substance. After the aiming, balancing, slowing down, and coordinating, she missed once again buy a fraction of a centimeter. She flew back up and observed some of the other students. Do they know something she doesn't? she began to doubt.

Laura looked at this broom and realised it was going to be difficult to catch the bucket with this broom, she was used to being excellent on a broom, but well she knew Vindictus was an ex professonal player and well this must have been the broom he used, that was why he had loads of them handed.

Laura tried to get the broom to do what she wanted it to but she could even get it near enough to catch a bucket it was too slow and when she wanted it to move it took ages, seemed like it took hours for it to move, she hated this broom.

After three more unsuccessful tries, Ella finally had a bucket hanging from the end of her broom handle. She was smiling too, because it had proved to be quite a hard task and she was pleased to have finally completed it. At the mention of Lollipops, the second year whipped her head in the direction of Vindictus, her eyes giving away how excited she was. SWEETS AND FLYING! This was amazing! ...Like truly the best thing ever! Too bad the second year was covered in splinters...that was really the only down side. Ehh.

Once she was airborne again, Ella flew towards the far end of the pitch, hoping to avoid any collisions with her classmates. These brooms were sketchy at best and Ella didn't want to hurt herself or anyone around her by going for the same lollipop as her school mates. Spotting a cluster of pops on the ground, the second year began slowly descending, making sure that she wasn't going too fast or anything. With her left hand, she gripped the broom handle tighter, aware of the splinters that were now digging into her palm again. Ugh. They were not going to be fun to remove. Frown....But she needed to focus, and lean to the right. So the blonde reached with her right hand, stretching it towards the ground, and fingertips met a lone lollipop. She reached even further and pulled on the candy, closing her fingers tightly around it. EEEP! She had done it! WAHOOO!

Dropping it into her bucket, the second year grinned. She was one lollipop down and feeling okay about this little game.

VICTORY!

Kurumi was practically beaming at having retrieved a single strawberry lollipop that she would be perfectly fine not collecting anymore. Of course, she would rather like to grab all the strawberry ones since they were her favorite, but she knew that getting seven was going to be a struggle. She was lucky that she even had one at the moment.

Her broom continued to veer off course, heading towards the stands instead of the field of lollipops. Kurumi tugged on the handle, encouraging it to turn...only her broom seemed to not want to listen...at all. And she was going to collide with a wall at this point.

Not seeing any other choice since she really was incapable of controlling her broom at the moment, Kurumi allowed her feet to dangle and began to move them as if she were running on the air as she continued to lower her broom more towards the ground. *THUD* It was not the most graceful of landings, and she stumbled a bit as her legs caught up with her forward movements. She did manage to find a steady jog and eventually came to a stop so she could physically turn herself around.

Here we go again.

Kicking off the ground, Kurumi managed to get to a comfortable 10 feet and began gliding back towards the lollipops...since she was waaaaaaay off course now and had practically had her nose touching the stands when she had stopped.

Laura looked at the broom she hated it with a passion now and wanted to land this annoying thing and grab her own broom but she knew she'd be in trouble if she did that, but seriously just because he had to use them when he was a pro didn't mean he had to make them see what he had to use, times change and so do brooms which was good, this broom also seemed to want to take ages to move which is what she was finding everytime she tried to change direction.

On to plan B.

Gideon circled around figuring it best to keep the original flow seeing as his fellow students seemed to all be going at once in that direction. And he himself didn't want to wind up playing chicken and going up head to head against one of them. They would likely both fall and on top of the very items they were hoping to grab in the process.

This time as he headed towards the bucket he kept his feet , knees and legs as close to the tail of the broom as possible. That way he could be able to avoid hitting the ground with them as he flew close to it. The movements caused discomfort and reminded him the cushion might have been a good idea but it was too late now. He was just going to have to pay for it later.

Slowly but surely Gideon flew towards the bucket almost closing his eyes as he neared but just as his eyes were half-squinted jackpot was acquired...bucket caught on handle. He was afraid to lose it so he was extra careful when flying away to regroup for the next step.

Alyssa just needed to get one more lollipop in order to finish her task. She looked around until she found a cluster of large sized lollipops. Alyssa quickly leaned forward on her broom and made her way to it. As far as she could see, there were no students flying anywhere nearby, so there was no danger of her colliding with anyone of them.

Once she got nearer to the lollipops, Alyssa slowed down her broom by leaning back on her broom and pulling slowly on the broom handle. Once she got down to speed she wanted, she stopped pulling on it, and concentrated on keeping the broom flying straight and at the speed she wanted.

As she neared the lollipops, Alyssa took one hand off the broom handle and reached down until her fingers brushed the tops of the lollipops. She waited and waited and then grabbed hold of one with her fingertips. She quickly brought it up before she dropped it. It was a large oval shaped gold colored lollipop. "Hufflepuff colored" Alyssa said to herself triumphantly. She had all 7 lollipops.

She dropped her last lollipop into the bucket, leaned forward on the broom while pointing the broom handle upwards and she flew up slowly leaving the ground behind her. Once she had ascended to a safe height, Alyssa straightened the broom handle before leaning to the left, turning her broom and making her way back to where the Professor was waiting for them.

Laura had somehow managed to get around the quidditch pitch three time and now this would be her third lap and then she'd land and refuse to catch a bucket, this sort of broom would take ages to catch a bucket, it was slow, useless and even though she was a talented ridder, even more talented than Professor Vindictus, it would take her days to catch a bucket as this broom was rubbish.

Laura flew around the pitch the third time and thought about landing but then decided against it as she knew that she needed the points as she had promised Professor Hadley she'd behave.

So now she had to get one of those buckets. Sounded easy enough. Really, how hard was it to fly low and simply hook the broom handle through the bucket handle?

Penelope began directing her broom to get lower and lower, her eyes on the bucket she was going to retrieve. She went down quickly, too impatient to let her broom go at a lame, slow pace, but tried slowing down as she got closer to the ground and the bucket. Just a little bit lower now...little bit more...little bit...now closer...closer...this broom was so slow.

And so she sped up a bit as she neared the bucket - and wound up missing it completely.

Crud.

Frowning, she slowed, rising up again and making a small half circle to turn herself around, and prepared for another shot at the bucket.

Now back on her broom and flying towards the field of lollipops, Kurumi looked around for another strawberry lollipop and tried not to get distracted by the butterflies that managed to pass her as she did. Spotting another one, Kurumi steered her broom as best she could without stabbing her hands too much with splinters.

Wiggling her rear a bit, Kurumi began wishing that she had used two cushions since one was...just not being enough. Or maybe she should have just covered her entire broom with them to help avoid splinters...the thought was tempting, but not as tempting as grabbing another strawberry lollipop or two.

Turning to the right, her broom once again responded by turning too slowly for her to be able to snatch the lollipop she had been eyeing and the sixth year let out a low frustrated groan. THIS WAS SO ANNOYING! Not to mention this was just making her dislike of brooms grow to hate...or something close to it anyway since hate was such a strong word.

Eyes focusing on a different lollipop this time, Kurumi repeated her lying flat maneuver and drooped both hands over each side while she continued to glide and occasionally jolt to one side and somehow managed to snatch lollipop number two before her broom once again veered in the non-desired direction.

Which actually turned out to be a somewhat favorable direction since she was now hovering over yet another strawberry lollipop. Dragging her hands along the grass, Kurumi's fist closed around it and she allowed the broom's momentum to help her pull it out of the ground and added it to her bucket for number 3.

Maybe she could share her lollipops with Lewis later - assuming they got to keep them that is.

Lollipop Files. Capture Attempt Number One: Success. Capture Attempt Number Two: Commencing Now.

The Captain popped the first treat into his mouth, hoping Vindictus wouldn't mind. After all, he'd had his hand all over it. No one else would want it now. Then Keefer set his sights on a bright blue orb about 20 feet away. He urged his broom to veer left and aligned himself with the treat.

Picking up speed slowly, Keefer extended his arm toward the sugary ball. Lower, lower... Tongue stuck out in concentration and feet skimming the grass, he made a wild grab for the sucker. Instead of latching onto the lollipop as hoped, Keefer did a sort of barrel roll, hitting the ground and letting go of the broom with a loud "OOF!!"

Blushing like mad, Keefer lay on the ground for several moments, stunned. Had he just...? Yes, he had. In front of plenty of people, including several of his team members. Brilliant. He picked himself up and knocked some stray blades from his robes before mounting his broom once more. He was going to get that lollipop if it was the last thing he did in this class.

Okay now that Nigel was finally uncomfortable on the broom. He had to try out the steering on it. He tried to make the easiest turns he could and see if the broom could handle it.

He was making some good progress and wondered it this could be any easier. But he still wanted to try to go into some big dives and see what these medieval brooms could really do. But Nigel has unsure because he did not want to loss points when he just earned some before.

Making her fourth attempt, Wisteria glides in the direction of the wind. It was way more easier to work with it than against it. She spots a lollipop and courses in its direction. 30 feet away, 25, feet away, 10 feet away, getting closer, if I could just reach...YES! Finally and a BUCKET! That was more luck but the real prize was the candy. She set the bucket back down and went back to really try.