The quidditch season wasn't quite over, but Hufflepuff had played their last game of the year which meant that the next opportunity Toby had to play would be when he was a second year, if of course he made it back onto the team. But his dream of becoming a professional quidditch player was still strong, and he was still determined to get as much solo flying practice in as he possibly could. Plus it was exercise and stuff, which was like... homework or something.

Tobias collected one of the faster school brooms (he now knew which ones were the better ones to pick, he'd flown on nearly all of them) and headed to the pitch at a time when he was pretty sure there were no practices on.

Finding the pitch reasonably empty, Tobias mounted the broom and kicked off, but then merely hovered about 6ft or so from the ground, thinking of what kind of practice he was going to do. Simply flying back and forth was boring... maybe he could practice a few tricks. Even some dives! Hadn't he been reading about a few awesome quidditch moves recently?

Hmmmm... maybe he should have thought of this earlier and written something down.

Minerva made her way out to the pitch she was still on the game high. Yeah they lost, but she played a position she wasn't use to and thought she would just be horrible at and she wasn't. She didn't get hurt for the first time ever and she scored. It felt good to score a goal, not that it didn't feel good to hit that bludger because that was also an amazing feeling, but to actually score points for the team was amazing.

Picking up a school broom since obviously her's was still broken Minerva made her way onto the field. Looking up she waved at Tobias. She watched for awhile. It was fun watching him fly. He was so good. What a great season it was.


Getting on the broom she kicked off and went towards the first year. "Hey bud... What are you doing here? I figured I'd be alone with the season pretty much over." There was one last match, but she knew there wasn't practice at the time, so she sure didn't expect any of her team there. "Want to fly a bit with me?" She wondered if he would want to grab a quaffle to throw around or just fly...

Sarah nodded compationately, Laura was sweet after all. Getting back on the broom just so Sarah would have a race. That was awesome of her. Sarah did not have to wait long as Laura was soon back with her broom.

"We will start from the posts... okay?" Sarah did not wait for an answer as she whooshed off to the post. "I will fly away from you and you throw the quaffle to me. Then you will fly further along and I will throw the quaffle to you. We will throw it until we cover the length of the pitch. Does that sound right?"

She hoped her ball skills were good. The previous match she was beater so she was behind in dribbling practice

Hearing a familiar voice, Tobias turned towards the speaker, nudging his broom so he could face her. It was Min, and Toby gave her a smile.

"Hi! Ahh, just flying practice and stuff, I guess," he shrugged, and then figured he had better elaborate anyway. "I know we don't have games, but I won't be able to fly at home, and I don't want to wait 'til September to do it again. Plus, gotta practice to get better, right?"

He let his broom drift a teeny bit further forwards before sliding so he was clinging to it but upside down, like a sloth. Toby hung that way for a minute before he put on a burst of speed, pulled himself up closer to the broom and swung back the right way round before circling back to Minerva. "Sure, I'd love to fly with you! I need to practice broom control, and diving and turning and agility and stuff," Tobias explained, letting go of the broom so he was controlling it with his knees while he quickle stretched his arms and stuff.

"Avoiding bludgers, you know?"

Heh.

Minerva smiled as Toby turned, "You're such an awesome player. Great addition to the team this term." She was proud of the first years. They were an awesome bunch. "Why can't you fly at home? Are we still going to go broom shopping like we said when I broke mine?" It was him wasn't it that she said she would go with or was that Kace, either way she would go with both.

She watched as he flew away. He was so good, she wouldn't even fly upside down like that. No way, but at the moment she didn't have her broom and was still a bit shaky from that injury a few matches ago so she was jut there to take it easy. Oh he got injured didn't he, "How is the knee by the way?" He seemed to be doing alright, those bludgers did hurt. Her hand went to her head thinking about it. "Yeah I've been hit by them so many times. This past match is the first injury free match for me. It shocked me as much as the goal did."

What could they do first, "How about I go to the other end and we fly at each other you make sure you go left and I'll go right when we get close, but it will help with speed and not colliding into another player if you're going head first at them." That was important not to hit anyone so you wouldn't get hurt either.

"Aw, thank's Min!" Tobias grinned at the older girl. She was so nice... everyone was super nice. "I'm super glad I tried out. You guys are all so awesome." And friendly. And when he was feeling all homesick at the start of the year quidditch was a brilliant distraction. "I can't fly at home 'cause I live in a place where there's loads of muggles and loads of houses. There's nowhere I can really fly. And my parents probably wouldn't take me anywhere to fly, 'cause they can't do magic so they couldn't fly with me." And they wouldn't trust Tobias not to just fly off and make mischief. Hogwarts was perfect for Toby's energy and stuff... it was so big, but being all pent up at home was just a disaster waiting to happen. "My grandfather might take me though..."

Could his Grandfather Clock still fly? Had he ever been able to? Would even he take up the task of escorting Toby? Who knew.

"Yeah, we can still go broom shopping for sure!" Tobias said excitedly, bouncing on his broom. "I'm getting the money for one as an early birthday present, I can't WAIT." He grinned; Tobias had never even been in the quidditch shop before... it was bound to be awesome.

As for his knee... "Oh yeah, it's back to normal now. All better. Magic is so handy. But those bludgers... WOW. I don't know what I was expecting," Tobias gave a slight giggle and then listened to Min's suggestion for flying. Ooooh, that sounded FUN.

"That sounds like an awesome idea!" Tobias nodded. It was like doing a dive but horizontally. AND there was the thrill of almost flying into someone. Tobias smiled and rubbed his hands together, as though that would somehow help with gripping the broom or something.

Laura looked down at her broom, this was going to be crazy but well she had promised Sarah that she would work on this with her she just didn't realise that she would have to fly on a broom to do the challenge, but well she was going to give it a try.

Laura hadn't been on a broom since a big accident left her with a broken arm, she had been practicing on her broom when she turned to sharp and actually fell off.

Laura gingerly sat on her broom and then she gingerly kicked off the ground, she didn't go very high at first but then she saw Sarah was already at one of the post okay so this was going to be nervous, she had to go quiet high in the air to do this challenge, why couldn't they have stayed close to the ground.

Laura grabbed hold of her broom and decided it was going to have to been then or never, she raced up-towards the posts and then she stopped next to Sarah, she had got there and she had got there pretty fast, she thought. "Okay, then off you go and I'll throw the quaffle at you."

Minerva smiled at Toby, muggleborn she took it. [b] "I get that. My grandparents are muggles, so I can't fly there. I totally understand not being able to fly in the summer. "Wow...." she had just realized something. Toby was an amazing player.. Fantastic and it seems that was all pure talent. If he had never even been in a quidditch shop his amazing skills were just genetic maybe. He was going to be amazing through the years here. She kind of wish she would be around longer to see it, but she could come back and watch. Plus she had all next term...

"You hadn't been in a quidditch shop.. Well we are going to meet and go, alright?" She then got a bigger smile on her face. "When is your birthday Toby?" A thought crossed her mind, "When we go to the quidditch shop I'm buying you a birthday present there." She loved Birthdays.. So of course she would want to buy one of her newest little badger a present.


"I'm glad your knee is better... Those bludgers can be super dangerous." She would know that was for sure. Smiling as he said the flying was a good idea, Minerva leaned and headed down the pitch a bit. "ALL RIGHT.. ON THREE WE FLY TOWARDS EACH OTHER. JUST REMEMBER TO GO LEFT." She yelled from the other side of the pitch. Was he ready? She hoped he was and she hoped the eleven year old would know his left from his right by now.

"1...2...3" Minerva leaned to zoom quickly towards the other side of the pitch and towards Toby. She was at least experienced enough that if she felt he wasn't going to lean the way he was suppose to she could go above or below him quickly. As he got closer she waited until the last possible minute and moved right keeping out of his way.

Tobias didn't know what Minerva was saying 'wow' at, but he just left it and smiled at her. He vaguely considered explaining a little bit more about the whole flying and magic situation at home, but he'd been instructed not to go into it that much if he could help it, because apparently you never knew how people would react. Though Toby thought that EVERYONE so far was awesome and wouldn't care, but still.

"No, my grandfather wouldn't let me when I went to get my school stuff. He said we could only go in the shops for the things on the list, and afterwards he said it was because he knew I'd want a broom." And then he wouldn't be able to fly it anywhere OR bring it to Hogwarts and would be left until the start of his second year... so that was fair enough. "My birthday is at the end of September, but my family are giving me my presents in advance." Because he liked being with his family to celebrate.

At Minerva's offer he kind of looked a bit surprised and stammered slightly. "Oh... oh n-no, you... you don't ha-" But Minnie was already getting into position and suddenly all Tobias' was thinking about was flying. Right here. Right now.

Just remember to go left. Right. No, left. Left, right? Right. LEFT.

Toby was still getting confused as Minerva counted town, and he'd not yet worked it out by the time she counted down. Yet he still accelerated immediately like a cork from a bottle. He watched her as they both sped towards each other, analysing her body language in a way that he was never able to do when on the ground. She was leaning towards his right, so as soon as it was time Tobias SWERVED to the left and away from Minnie, circling round and heading back to the middle of the pitch.

That was EXHILERATING.

"SWEET."

Tucking end of September in her memory she was going to try to remember that next term. Make it special for him, she loved making Birthdays special. They all should be, well except her own. She didn't care to celebrate her own. Though a smile came across her face thinking about this past year. Ethan getting her Liesel. That owl was the best gift she had ever gotten. Her smile grew just thinking about that. So maybe her birthday wasn't so horrible.


She only caught a bit of him trying to tell her no to a present, but she ignored, because she loved giving gifts. It wasn't going to do any good saying no to her. She chuckled as he lifted and went to the other end of the pitch. Thankful he went the right way she laughed. This was fun even if they were on school brooms. "Toby you are a great flyer. I can't wait to see you on your own broom. Not that these school brooms are horrible, but your own broom is much better." She missed her own broom and couldn't wait to go shopping for a new one. It just stunk that a gift from Ethan ended up broken like that.

As Tobias came back to the middle she smiled, "Now what do you want to do bud?" They could pretty much do whatever she could even charm a quaffle if he wanted some dodging practice.

Dressed in his gear, Dylan was ready for some conditioning. For him, it couldn't have came at a better time considering QUIDDITCH coming up. In fact, because of Quidditch things and all that they entailed, he'd invited Alice to join him for some exercise. Captain to Captain. It didn't matter that they were on opposing sides, either. It was common knowledge that among all the school's team, Slytherin and Gryffindor got on the best. How very against history that went...

While waiting for the Gryffindor to join him, Dylan went ahead and did some laps around the pitch. He started off going rather slow...and then kept speeding up as he bent down over the handle of his broom. He could feel its power as he shot down the pitch...and then coming up on the curve. The Captain used his Seeker-agility to do a reverse, throwing his natural weight to help him along. As he sped back towards where he'd started, he leaned even closer to his broomstick handle...

SPEEEEED.

He loved speed.

One of the things he'd missed the most about being at the school. Coming out here to fly whenever he wanted to...

Well, if he got picked up professionally...

He tried not to think on that too much as he switched it up again, but instead of keeping it to one lane to the side, Dylan shot across the pitch diagonally. The muscles in his stomach were contracting noticeably as he held on to the handle with a vice grip. He could feel sweat on his face...Even with the breeze, being as hot as it was, it didn't help.

That was a good thing, though. Sweating was a natural way to shed pounds. Not that he needed to shed too many himself...

Just to challenge himself and switch it up, Dylan fell into a hard dive...now, laying almost flat against his broomstick. Holding on like a Slytherin leech...Would he pull out in time? WOULD HE?

Dylan was already up in the air when Alice arrived at the locker room, so as soon as she was dressed in her gear, she was running out onto the grass as fast as she could. He was supposed to wait, didn't he know? Polite. Even though she wouldn't have waited for him either.

The fifth year mounted her broom quickly, relishing the feel of it again. It had been ages since she'd ridden it instead of a school one, what with Ascanius nicking it from her and all. At least it didn't take her too long to get back in the feel of it, and soon she was up in the air and zooming along after the Slytherin. Was he just doing laps? Alice could do laps. She quietly tagged along behind him as he made rounds, going just fast enough to be on his tail, but slow enough to stay unnoticed.

.. was he doing a Wronski Feint now?

She wasn't fond of those. At all. For reasons. They weren't something she was too keen on trying, but it was kind of fun to watch Dylan attempt one. Alice stayed put and continued doing laps above him while he dove, leaning closer to her broom handle and trying to keep as low as possible, braid zooming behind her head.

Had he seen her yet?

Toby beamed, pretty proud of himself. He never quite got over the way students much older than him would compliment his flying, and he was also never quite sure how to take a compliment without sounding either rude and arrogant or dismissive.

"Thanks! I'm totally looking forward to my own broom. I've only really tried the school brooms, so I don't know what other ones are like... it should be fun!" Tobias nodded. He was slightly nervous that another broom might be too fast or sensitive or otherwise different and he wouldn't be able to control it very well, but there would be plenty of time to get used to it on the practice next year, right?

Hmm, next... "Can we practice diving? And then maybe do a bunch of laps flying around the pitch?" When playing as Keeper there wasn't much actual flying around other than maybe circling the hoops, so Tobias liked to have a little while to just... fly.

Really fast.

Maybe.

Minerva chuckled, "Well they all have different things about them, but I think you will love it. She balanced on her broom. It was so fun to be up in the air. She loved the feeling.. Oh it would be so nice to have her own broom again. "You will find it faster than these, but I know you can handle it." He was a natural it wouldn't be hard for him at all.

Minerva's smile towards Toby grew as she thought about what they could do. She couldn't help think about Flying classes with Vindy and some of the things that went on in them. There wasn't even one flying class this term, was there? Maybe the sixth year just didn't realize with everything else going on. "Well I want to fly up further before we start a dive. I don't want you to close to the ground and then not pull up in time." She thought about putting a cushion charm on the ground for him, but figured he would be alright.


[b] "Alright let's head up." Minerva pulled up on her broom and started flying higher in the air. Once she was high enough she leveled out and looked down. Yes she was super high, maybe higher than she needed, but it was fun. So she waited for Toby. "Alright.. be careful and pull up on the front in time to you don't end up on the ground hurt." Yes Toby do you remember what happens when you hit that ground, because it would be nice to tell Minerva since she had to memory of the time she did.

"Count of three. 1....2......3.. Go Now" Minerva pointed her broom down and headed into the dive.

Dylan was still free falling, broom safely tucked beneath his body as he raced towards the ground...This had always been one of his favorite moves during his Seeker career. It really tested ones agility and pure nerve. Both things they the Captain obviously had in abundance. Just sayin'.

He barreled on, getting closer and closer to the grass below, almost playing chicken with the ground...but at the last second, he'd pulled out of it, leveling and steadying his broom. Exhilaration. That's what he felt...Sweat was still pouring down his face and body...but it was the furthest thing from his mind. Flying.................SIGH. Dylan loved it.

...and there was an Alice. How long had she been there...

"YO!" He shouted out to her as he, once again, took his broom higher. "Thanks for joining me." Wide grins all around for everyone...Even if he only seen them out there. "Wanna race...?" While waiting for an answer, Dylan began circling her, lazily hanging onto his broom.

Do ya?

Laps were her favorite. While Dylan tested his agility and pure nerve, Alice was going from one end of the pitch to the other, trying to imagine how Slytherin Chasers would try to block her from scoring, zig-zagging around the imaginary players. She's watched the Terror Twins and Ascanius enough to be able to predict a couple of their moves, but not all. And Kat, it was pretty hard to anticipate how she'd dive.

At least watching them play for years gave her some kind of confidence.

Oh, was Dylan back up now?

"You're sweaty already?" she asked skeptically, wrinkling her nose. Even though she'd been zooming around overhead for a while, Alice wasn't that drippy. He needed a shower soon, she could tell. Nevertheless, he got big grins back. "Yeah. I'll beat you, too. Five laps?" She stuck her tongue out at him and started going around before he got a chance to answer. What? Head starts were allowed, right?

They were necessary when she was racing the top Seeker in the school, weren't they?

The Slytherin eyed her eyeing him. "It's so hot out..." It totally was. Didn't Alice felt how intense the sun was today...? "Sweating is good, anyway.....Getting the bad chemicals out of my body through my sweat glands." He'd read that in a book...Couldn't remember which one exactly...but that was a thing.

"How about we'll do some flying laps...and then some on the ground...You down...?"...but before he could finish the sentence, Alice had taken off. "YOU CHEAT!" He chuckled at her dirty trick, swinging his broom around and getting in the zone. How very Slytherin of her. Had she learned that from West...?

He darted forward, trying the best he could to catch up with the Gryffindor Captain by flattening himself against his broom handle. It was kinda difficult considering her head start, though...Dylan was a bawss, yes...but not a miracle worker. Soon enough they'd both reached the bend and he'd almost pulled neck and neck with Alice...

Almost...

Just a little bit more...

Dylan pushed, urging his broom to go faster...

"Bad chemicals?" Was he a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin? She raised her eyebrows skeptically and surveyed his sweaty form again, but didn't comment further, just dusted off her own fairly dry Quidditch robes. Alice didn't want to be that drenched at the end of this, okay? There were appearance standards, see?

Maybe Dylan didn't have them, but she did.

Which was weird, considering who was more vain out of the pair of them.

Cheating? Psh. "It's not cheating, it's being creative with the rules," the Gryffindor called, peeking over at her fellow captain to see how close he was. Merlin's beard, he was fast, were they almost neck and neck already? She could have sworn her head start was big enough. Trying to imitate his position, Alice flattened herself against her own broom handle and urged it to go faster as she started her second lap.

C'mon broom.. custom ones could go faster than this, come onnnn.

"CHEATEEEEEEER." He continued to call her out...chasing the tail of her broom with ferocity. Dylan recognized that her broom was a custom job...but he didn't need the flash and fanciness. He was a seeker for a reason...He just needed to push and focus harder than he currently was. That's what it would take...but it was so bloody HOT.

ARGH.

The Slytherin swung around, pushing harder than he previously was...Was he losing it or something because Dylan could not for the life of him catch the Gryffindor...

"Oi!"...Taking a deep breath, he pushed even HARDER still...using his natural agility again to take the opposing bend with ease and grace...Guys could be graceful. It was a thing...There was no more talking coming from him, though...The heat was making it hard to breath...and he didn't want to risk passing out. It wasn't that he was out of shape...It definitely was NOT because of that. He was the one that had his entire team on a diet...

Finally, he was neck and neck with the Gryffindor Captain...Dylan glanced over with a smile on his face...but ONLY FOR A MOMENT. Maintaining this level of momentum required FOCUS!

Alice would have retorted back with something clever- hopefully- but all of her energy was going into staying ahead of Dylan, so she shut up and tried to flatten herself against the broom handle some more. She could see why he'd been sweating so much before she'd arrived on the pitch. It was so bloody hot outside, a couple of drops of perspiration were already trickling down her forehead.

They were neck and neck now, weren't they? The fifth year glanced over at her fellow captain just long enough to see that smug smile on his face. She was going to wipe that right off, she was.

Alice tried to consider strategy as she started her third lap. The Slytherin was definitely going to overtake her if they kept going side by side like this, there was no way she could match his speed. Seeker, y'know? But there were still ways to beat him, surely. She ducked down a little lower and tried to gain enough space on him before swerving her broom sharply and cutting him off, in front of him once more..

Dylan got a cheeky grin shot backwards at him before she focused on laps again. Who was winning now, huh?

Dylan wasn't giving up. Nope, that was NOT happening...but he needed to rework how he was approaching this match up. Alice was fierce on her broom...but he was baffled at how she was getting the jump on him. What was she doing differently? It could not have been the broom. That wouldn't have made that much of a difference...Not against his skill alone.

They were nearing another bend in the pitch and the Slytherin used it to his advantage, as he swung his broom around for the umpteenth time...working the muscles in his stomach to guide his body forward. While sweat was just dribbling before...it was POURING now...

He was gaining on her some...The bends were his strongest point since he didn't need to really slow down for them...In fact, as they neared the next, Dylan took it WIDE...not even slowing a smidgen...He WOULD catch up...The fierce determination was there, painted all over his expression. If it were at all possible to flatten himself against his broom handle even more, he did so...To onlookers, they probably seemed like two colorful bullets up in the sky...

PURE FOCUS.

EYES ON THE PRIZE.

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

How was he flying so fast? Alice eyed his broom warily, and then her own. Was it just his pure skill that made him so speedy? Whatever it was, she had no intention of losing a race to Dylan, so she leaned down again and tried to speed up more. Her vision was mostly a blur, and her braid was whipping backwards so hard it was almost painful, but she didn't stop. Not happening. Not now. She had plans to win, okay?

As they went around the bend, she could see how much he'd gained on her. Was that her issue? That was where she was losing speed? Alice kept going with a new determination, and when she rounded the next bend, she tried her best to maintain her speed and not let him gain on her. And no more looking back either, too distracting.

Fifth lap now.

CONCENTRATION.

Alice had it.

Sarah watched with concern as the older girl took off. She did not want anyone to get hurt on her behalf. "Okay! Throw when you want, maybe give me a bit of time, that way you can work on longer distance" Just a suggestion you know. Sarah then began to fly off down the pitch, out of the corner of her eye keeping an eye on the ball.

It was coming closer. The ball went too fast and began to drop to the floor. This required a dive on Sarah's behalf so she tipped her broom forward and positioned herself a few feet below. The ball was landing.. she stretched out her arm and plop, she had the ball.

"So how do you like that method?" she asked Laura as she began to ascend again. "or do you want it thrown in shorter distances?" Whatever Laura wanted would be fine. Now it was Laura's turn to fly ahead and Sarah would throw it to her.

Minerva had confidence in him, and that made Toby smile. Oh he was SO looking forward to a new broom, but hoped they weren't too expensive. His parents were giving him the equivalent of £50 in galleons to get a broom, and his grandparents were treating him to other things too, seeing as he was going to be thirteen. A teenager.

... NOPE NOT THINKING ABOUT IT.

Hmmm, a little higher up? That was perfectly fine with Toby. The games were generally played a LOT higher than Tobias had expected them to be and he'd soon gotten used to being way up and trusting that the broom would hold him. He was SLIGHTLY disappointed that he couldn't be more daring but it was fair enough. They were only practicing and if there was an injury there weren't healers or officials on hand.

Sooooooooooooo Tobias did shoot up into the air right after Minerva and stopped went back to horizontal as she did. He glanced down. "Wow, this is awesome," he marvelled, grinning and staring down. They were up way higher than the hoops and everything.

RIGHT YES DIVING OKAY.

As soon as she said go, Tobias pulled his broom handle up a little bit so it was easier to then push it vertically down, and he gained speed a lot faster. He knew a dive would only work when you were going super fast, because otherwise the balance would be off, so he pressed his body as flat to the broom handle as he could.

Sooner than he he'd wanted it to happen, Tobias saw the ground loom closer and closer, super fast, so he pulled up on the broom handle and out of the dive shooting back into the air again. It WAS AWESOME. Like a roller coaster but HE was in control. As if to prove this Tobias did a couple of super fast and tight loop-the-loops. "WOOOOOOOOOO!" he cried out in glee as he did.

When he was done, Tobias, now very much exhilerated, circled back to meet Minerva again. He was grinning. "A few laps of the pitch now, yeah?" Yeah? YEAH?

FLYING WOOOOO.

And BREATHE.

A good few laps would be enough to tired him out, surely.

So...Ella had her mock quaffle and knew what she had to do. She was meant to dribble this thing from here to the lake and back, yeah? She even had her watch so she could try and get back in under seven minutes. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty tricky task but she was up for the challenge.

Deciding it was best to stretch a bit before she started, the sixteen year old placed the quaffle on the pitch and slowly began to loosen her legs up, not wanting to pull a muscle. Merlin knew she didn't want to fall over in pain while she was dribbling the thing across the grounds. Now that would be embarrassing.