It seems to him that this whole exercise was not only a test on his endurance or his tolerance to pain but also his patience. For a boy who was patient enough to sit through tedious cataloging tasks he finds himself extremely annoyed with his situation, and has once again looked back at that grey horizon that was the thick of all flying and floating rocks. The draw to go back there was strong, and he recalled how quickly his pot filled up with the minute he was in there.

But as he leaned his broom towards that direction he could feel his body complain again, the sensation of constantly being stoned hitting him like phantom rocks. For a while he just hovered there, his mind wanting to forge ahead into that rock storm, his body wanting nothing else but to fly away from all this madness…

He was ALMOST done. Max did his best not to become discouraged at the mundane task at hand, knowing he just needed a few more to be done. That thought of being done was his only true motivation now - that and being able to return to the dorm and rest up for the upcoming championship game. This modified version of Creaothceann wasn't exactly tiring him, per se, but it was taking enough energy out of him that he felt like he could benefit from a nap. Naps were good.

Still keeping an eye on Emmaleigh every now and then, the Ravenclaw turned his eyes up to the sky once more to plan his next move. Hmm... was it his imagination, or were there less falling from the sky now? That was a clear sign that other people were finishing up and time had almost run out.

Great.

Max gripped the school broom with both hands in determination and sped after the first nearby falling stone he saw. He veered under it just in time, the rock emitting a CLUNK! noise as it hit the other rocks, and Max turned sharply in the direction of the next nearest rock. He wasn't paying as much attention to his peers as he had all along, but a lot of them had finished up, so he didn't have as many people to look out for...

...Or so he thought.

On his quest toward his twenty-second rock catch, Max sped up and started to make a wide turn so he would fly under the rock just as it fell to his current flight height. He caught the rock in his cauldron with ease, but as he continued his turn, he had to make an emergency swerve to narrowly miss hitting a blur of a student.

When he straightened himself out, he didn't have the guts to peek at who he had almost knocked out.

He wouldn't be doing that again. No more speedy Max.

Go, Mancini, go!

He had his eyes on a particularly large stone. He dove towards the ground, racing the acceleration due to gravity. He was closing in now. Twenty feet. Seventeen feet. Twelve feet... PLUNK. Wha..? There's no way that had been the rock he was aiming for. Bonus? Absolutely.

He re-doubled his concentration. Five feet. Three feet. He was right on top of it now! With a satisfying vibration, the Keeper caught his fourteenth rock. "YES!" he shouted, pumping his fist in the air. He now understood why Alec liked Seeking. There was definitely a rush in the dives.

As the internal battle went on between brain and body a stone zipped up from below, slamming against the end of his broom shaft before careening back into the air. Distracted he looked up. That stone will have to make its way back down doesn’t it? And this time he was going to make sure he gets it.

Body was willing to follow this time as it meant not having to go through the floating meat grinder. He circled the air as the stone zoomed upward, reaching the peak of its height before it seemingly hovering for a few seconds before it plummeted downwards…

This time he’s anticipated its trajectory with his own speed and direction. And with a tilt of his head stone and cauldron meets with a resounding KERPLUNK!

And for the first time, that ringing in his head was music to his ears.

Now going considerably slower than before, Max barely moved at all through the air on the school broom. He kept an eye on those nearby him, still not looking at whoever he had almost run into, and stole another glance down at Emmaleigh. She didn't see his almost-collision, so that was good - if she [i]had[i], he was sure he would have made her worry even more about her own safety.

Max peeked up at the sky, noting rocks falling that he could have caught if he sped up fast enough, but... he wasn't going to do that anymore. Nope. Too close to the finish line to mess something up for himself - or someone else.

Very cautiously, the seventh year moved around the pitch, staying away from everyone else as much as he could. When he felt that he had a comfortable amount of space around him, he stole another glance at the sky and waited only a moment until a rock started to fall from the sky near him. Max veered slightly to the right, planted himself under the falling rock, and with a triumphant CLUNK!, the rock landed inside his cauldron.

Only one to go.

So, he got that stone in… maybe with this technique he can secure a few more stones right?

Then again wasn’t that what he’s been doing all this time?

He eyeballed another set of rocks zooming back up into the air, then tailed them as closely as he could. As soon as one started to peak and makes its descent he zoomed forward and tilted his head, scooping the stone in mid-air with the cauldron on his head.

Another sweet ringing echoed in his ears. See all that ringing wasn’t so bad now was it?

So far so good. She was getting the rock count up and she managed to NOT be thrown off her broom by idiots. Despite the annoying fact that the rocks hitting her cauldron were giving her a headache she was beginning to consider this all a success.

That is...

Until someone flew right at her. The 11 year old pulled away so suddenly that she nearly lost both balance and control and ended up doing a spin that sent all her stones crashing towards the ground.

JDVSUKSDSNJDS!!!!

"NOOOOOO!!!"

This was not happening. It wouldn't work!!!! No. No. No. NO!!!!

Lex sped towards the ground right after the rocks. She'd worked hard on those, she wasn't going to lose them that easily!!!

His hand crept up the side of the pot and tried to feel the stones that were inside. Well they about halfway filled wasn’t it? Although he tried quell that whining in his head that with the pain he’s feeling all over that pot should be overflowing with stones at this point.

Oh look there goes another rock. And off he follows this one.

But just as he was tailing this several students in pursuit of their own rocks flew right across his path! He dodged sharply to the side just to avoid a mid-air collision, and could feel that pot slipping to the side with the suddenness of his turning…

Although he was eager to finish, Max kept a cool head about only needing to catch one more rock to fulfill Vindictus' requirement for the final. As the minutes went by, the rocks falling from the sky became less and less; he wondered if time was going to be up within the next few minutes. Knowing he needed to finish in time but also not run into anyone in the process, Max set out very slowly to catch one last rock.

He inched along, his eyes on the sky. He was focused, determined... until he heard little Lex yell out. He didn't see who had caused it - or if anyone had, really - but the young Gryffindor had lost all her rocks.

Poor kid. He felt just as bad for her as he had for little Alec Summers.

There was nothing he could do about it, though, so Max tilted his gaze upward once more, waiting for a rock to fall near him... soon... any second... THERE! Max straightened his posture on the school broomstick as a rock began to fall a few feet to his left. Easily, the Ravenclaw turned and sat right where the rock was aimed to fall.

CLUNK!

Success. Unless he had lost track of counting along the way... he was done!

She did a kind of crash landing on the pitch and clumsily tripped off her broom in her hurry to grab the stones before they went back up. Catching them again was NOT an option. The headache was bad enough the first time thank you very much!

Lex hopped and pounced and hit the floor with a thud a couple times but in the end each stone had managed to float right back up.

"NO! Stupid rocks! Stupid student!! Stupid stupid stupid!!" She kicked at the ground and continued muttering angrily under her breath but then she felt something whack her on the SAME BLOODY SHOULDER.

O___O

In a fit of frustration she screamed at the rock that fell to the floor but it only seemed to ignore her as it climbed back into the sky. SCOWL. After taking another minute to let out another scream of childish tantrum she got back on her broom and zoomed towards the sky again. This was ridiculous.

Pao felt like he was starting to hit a bit of a lucky streak. There was that rock that split in two... Then the one that randomly fell in when he was going for another... Maybe it was the luck of the Italians kicking in? If that even existed, at least.

For several minutes, he raced around the pitch. Back and forth, forth and back. Zig and zag, zag and zig. Whoooooosh, zoooom, diiiiive, tuuuuuurn. There were even two catches in there, too.

The first had once again been a happy accident. Pao hadn't been hunting it down, it had just conveniently fallen into his lap. Well, cauldron, rather.

The second one he'd had to work for, and he had the bruises to show it. After taking a blow to the knee, he'd raced a stone to ground level, only to overestimate the school broom's abilities and pull out of the dive rather sloppily. The resulting bruises on his toes would undoubtedly be a most excellent shade of fuchsia by morning. In the end, he'd picked out another rock and caught it without further incident.

Oh heck no! He wasn’t about to lose all these stones after all he went through…

He gripped the pot on his head just to keep it from tilting over completely and throwing out all its contents. But because of that he was only half paying attention to his broom, which was now wavering towards the ominous grey haze where rocks zipped and zoomed mercilessly. Finding no other way to free his other hand he pressed his knees against the broom shaft then shifted his hand to the strap, trying to adjust it so the cauldron can sit properly back on his head.

--PING!

-- PING!

PING! PING! PING! PING! PING!

Oh no! He’s back in the midst of the rock storm!

Alex thought that this was the most ludicrous game ever. Did ancient wizards seriously have no brain cells or something? Because only an insane person would think this was a good idea.

Still, the fact that this game was AWFUL did not stop him from having to pay attention to the rocks falling all around him! He could care less how many rocks he caught--he just wanted to not DIE in the process! "Ouch! Eek!" he yelled as the rocks hit his wrists and knuckles, making it hard to grip the broom properly. He did hear one or two pebbles fall in to his cauldron, however...he tried to pay attention as they rained down on him. Yes, he heard two. He hoped he wasn't going crazy already and imaging things!

Both hands now fly towards the broom shaft, seizing control of his errant broom. But not before his shoulders take another fresh blow from the rain of stones. Gah! He has got to get out of here!

He turns his broom around but he can feel his pot getting knocked this way and that, ringing in his ears as flying stones collide against it. Well if he was gonna get turned into mincemeat again the least he could do was scoop up a few extra stones along the way innit?

Tilting his head slightly he zoomed through the rock storm as he aimed towards the clearer horizon. More pinging and kerplunking ensued which as soon as he cleared the haze, it stopped all of a sudden.

And just in time too, because his shoulders have completely grown numb and he could barely lift his arms to count rocks anymore…

This really was a lot harder than Alex had anticipated. There was actually some...shifting and swerving required to catch the most amount of stones. This was even harder than being Keeper, and that had taken a LOT of practice in order for him to get good at that.

"Ouch!" he cried continuously as they rained down on his hands. He started alternating hands back and forth, gripping the broom only one handed, so he could wave off some of the pain in the air as he tried to get rid of it and concentrate on the task at hand...catching more stones!

Clink clink clink...he was up to 5 now. Yup.

As Nerida continued her stone battle, she held a death grip onto her broom...She had seen so many of her friends and fellow students crash she didn't want to too! Unexpectedly a stone zoomed down, slamming against the end of her broom shaft before continuing its flight down. She felt herself losing balance and swerving uncontrollably, she quickly started to regain control of her broom

See this is why this game was BANNED! After regaining control of her broom Nerida heard an annoyingly familiar sound. "Thud!" She smiled those stones really knew how to make her happy...Sometimes...

She circled the air looking for a falling rock. It shouldn't be this hard to find one to catch they were falling all over the place! Seeing one within range she zoomed over just to have it snatch up by a stupid lion! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!! She turned around...Goodness the stupid lion had to snatch her rock!! The rock obviously wanted to end up in Nerida's cauldron not theres. She circled the air for a second determined to take a rock.

Seeing another one within range she flew fast to it faster than the last time. And with a slight move of her head stone and cauldron meet with a clang sound. "BANG!" That was a loud one...

There was a ringing in Alex's ears as the rocks continued to make a long BANGING noise as they fell in to the cauldron on his head. It was starting to give him a MAJOR headache and he was not at all a fan of this. He was starting to get nauseous as well. He needed to fix this and fast.

He decided to fly up higher towards the pebbles, hoping that when they fell in to the cauldron on his head, there would be less force crushing down on them and they'd be less...hurtful. CLING CLING CLING. Three more rocks. Gahhhhhh. It hurt...was the final over yet???

Vindictus watched as the students attempted to catch the rocks and occasionally checked his wristwatch as he kept time. As the final seconds ticked away, he brought his silver whistle up to his lips.

TWEET!

He lowered the whistle and pulled out his wand, pointing it at the rocks in the sky. Vindictus drew a small counterclockwise circle in the air and gave his wand a flick. The rocks suddenly burst into magenta stars and faded away.

"Make sure that you stack your cauldrons neatly next to the broom rack," he instructed. "It's okay if you leave the rocks in there. However, if you wish to keep your rocks then grab one of the small purple bags in the box located to the left of the broom rack." He pointed to the box full of purple velvet bags with golden strings.

"Before you dump the rocks out of the cauldron, take out your wand and give it a wave from right to left while saying 'Dulcia Apparere' in a firm voice."

He grinned and there was a sparkle in his blue eyes.

"Your rocks will shrink into bite-sized chocolate and marshmallow candies! Do you think I'd really drop real rocks on you?"

Vindictus laughed. "You've been catching enlarged candy rocks this entire time! I hope that everyone had a wonderful time and class is dismissed!"




OOC: This thread will be closed after the Quidditch Cup final game is finished.

They were... not real rocks?

Heck they sure hurt like real rocks, specially if they come at you with velocity and at a height and....

... why is he whining? They were just told to get their candies and leave. Yay!

Vickers zoomed back down towards the pitch, having never felt more relieved in his entire time of taking Flying classes.... which reminds him now, this was his last Flying wasnt it?

Candies as a goodbye present? He'll take what he can get.

He unstrapped the cauldron off his head and looked at the dozen or so rocks inside it. Taking his wand out he moved it in the wandstroke and uttered "'Dulcia Apparere! " And there the stones started to swirl and shrink into the bite sized confectioneries. They dont look that bad do they?

Something to console himself with when he examines his bruises tonight.

He slips those dozen sweets in the bag as suggested then stood to set the cauldron aside, right next to the rack, then lipped the broom back into place. Turning around he tried to smile brightly thorough his soreness at his Head of House and replied "Thanks for... " not killing me "... that challenging task Professor. And for the other flying lessons over the years, its helped me a good deal." One way or another it did improve his balance on the broom, even if he was unlikely to be using this mode of transport regularly.

At the sound of Professor Vindictus' whistle Kurumi nearly fell off her broom in surprise but instead merely lunged forward and smacked her cauldron on the handle instead. OH...it was over.

It....was OOOOOOOOOOVER! THANK MERLIN SHE HAD SURVIVED!

Guiding herself back down to the pitch, Kurumi managed a somewhat graceful landing and then made her way over towards Professor Vindictus. Actually, professor, that was exactly what she thought the man had done. He had done crazier things in previous lessons. She seemed to remember one where they had actually flown THROUGH flaming rings and stuff. Small rocks seemed tame compared to that sort of thing. Wand out, Kurumi unstrapped the cauldron from her head and set it on the ground, waving her wand over it and saying the incantation. She had only managed to collect 12 stones during the activity, but that was still an accomplishment in her eyes. This girl was no Quidditch player after all.

Candies out of her cauldron and in her bag, Kurumi reached for a special bag and then hurried back towards the man. "Thank you for seven terms of Flying, professor," Kurumi said as she handed over the bag of cookies ONE last time. "I'm, um, sorry that I didn't improve more over the terms...especially after playing Seeker for two terms, but I learned a lot." One of those lessons being that brooms were NOT her thing. "I hope your book does well, professor." The one he had asked them to pick a photograph for. "And..um...thank you again for the lessons and for allowing me to be an announcer this term."

Cauldron and broom back in their proper place, Kurumi offered the man one last bow and then left the pitch. Probably the last time she would be on a Quidditch pitch unless Selina dragged her.

Once he'd heard the familiar tweet, Theodore touched to the ground, after hovering just above it for about five minutes. It was kind of tricky to just hover for a long period of time, so the second year patted himself on the back. Quite literally.

Wait, what?

Spells? Theo pulled out his wand and... "Dul-cia Appa-rere" He just had to mouth out the words first. He couldn't just LEARN one just like that, you know.

"Dulcia Apparere." Turns out, it wasn't that hard. The boy watched his rocks transform into small candy. So... they'd been catching CANDY. CANDY had been hitting him across the head left, right and center? Sheeeeesh, now he knew that he really WAS a drama queen. He nodded at the purple bags on the broom rack. Obviously, he would take the candy.

"Thanks professor. Today was... fun." Fun? Yeah, maybe.

Theodore plopped his broom back on the rack, took a bag and emptied his cauldron contents inside. Now back to the common room, JUST as soon as he knew that Ella was okay.

There goes Vindictus' ever-so famous blow of the whistle. Oh finally they were done. Kat touched down slowly, hoping her rocks don't fly up from her cauldron. But they didn't. Good good. And then...

WHAT?!

Kat blinked a couple of times. She had to let what she heard sink in. Those rocks were all CHARMED? Vindictus just tried to kill them by letting it rain rocks and... UGH okay. Kat was actually thinking twice if Vindictus was in the right mind. But oh wells, it turned out they were chocolates and candies. WHICH IS A GOOD THING. The girl needed those chocolates to feel a wee bit better. That's what West said right? Heh.

"Dulcia Apparere," Kat said and moved her wand from the right to left. There it was, bite-size chocolate and marshmallows. Hmmm... at least she didn't have to be sad all the time anymore. Or would she ask from West. The dude gave her chocolate all the time. It was weird.

Or not. Hehe. Before leaving, Kat returned the cauldron back to the broom rack after she placed the candies into the paper bag Vindictus offered them. She also returned the broom she used to its place. Now... it was goodbye for Flying class. "Thank you for the lesson, Professor," she said. She didn't want to say that the lesson nearly KILLED her. "Have a great summer!"

Minerva heard the whistle and flew to the ground. The lesson was over well she wasn't sad that it was. This was hard and those rocks hurt falling. She listened as Vindi spoke and then Minerva did a double take. Enlarged candies??? Are you kidding me!! She couldn't help but laugh about it. That was an interesting twist to this lesson now wasn't it. If nothing else he always knew how to keep them entertained in the air.

Going towards the broom rack Minerva put her broom away and then slipped the cauldron off. The weight of the pretend rocks lightened as she removed the cauldron from her head. That felt better she thought to herself. Pulling her wand out she said the spell Vindi told them to do.. "Dulcia Apparere" she saw the rocks turn into chocolate and smiled. Minerva never passed up chocolate. Finding the purple bag she put the chocolate into it. Then went towards the professor, she knew the seventh years would want to swarm him and say their goodbyes, but she had some things she wanted to say as well.

Minerva walked over to Professor Vindictus and waited her turn. "Professor, I just wanted to thank you for the well... ummm.. interesting lesson." Yeah that was the best way of putting what that was today. "But, I know your busy with qudditch and the seventh years will want to speak with you, but I just wanted to thank you for the opportunities this term. Announcing the matches have been so much fun and I learned so many things. I really hope we do it again next term, because I will be trying out again for it! I think I'm better behind the mic then with my beaters bat.." She gave a small smile, "Well that's all I wanted Professor, thank you again. Have a great day!"

Laura was a bit sad that the lesson was at the end, she had enjoyed flying the broom, she raced off down to the ground and landed then she listed to the Professor and looked wide high. "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!" Laura was in shock the rocks weren't real they were what? Laura did what the Professor said and using her wand she did the spell. "Dulcia Apparere." Laura looked down and saw the rocks turned into chocolate. "This is awesome!" Laura really liked this Professor, she put everything away like she was told and then smiled at the Professor "Thanks for an awesome Lesson Professor and see you next year." Laura really couldn't wait to see what the Professor had in store next year.

At the sound of the whistle, Sierra pulled back on her broom and came to a stop. Merlin, that had been in the nick of time, hmm? She'd managed to catch her twenty-fourth rock moments before Vindictus blew his whistle. Sierra made her landing and then listened to Vindictus give the final set of instructions. Keep the rocks?! ...but why would they want to keep the rocks?!

He had a certain look in his eye, though, so Sierra decided to follow through and see what happened. She took the cauldron off her head and placed it gently on the ground in front of her. She glanced at the rocks inside. Yup. Twenty-four. She selected a purple bag then withdrew her wand. She gave it a wave from right to left and said, "Dulcia Apparere!"

Her eyes got larger as she saw the rocks change into candy, which she immediately scooped up and placed in her bag. Yeah, come to think of it, would a professor really let rocks rain down on them? ...hmm. She returned her cauldron then passed by Vindictus on her way out. "Thanks for a cool lesson, Professor," she said, then she passed him a grin. Yeah, he could be a cool guy.