Yay! Now they were allowed to fly on their own, and it was like having free time during class - the very thing Leah wanted. The girl was about to kick off and fly around the pitch when the boy she talked to before the start of the lesson caught her attention.

SPOILER!!: Kevin

Quote:

Originally Posted by DuckyLinJi

And then immediately kicked himself off from the ground the moment the Professor said they could fly on their own. He saw her wave her wand just as he flew up but he didn't bother to know what she was doing. When he had gotten a pretty good height, the Gryffindor hold his body still as he looked around. He would fly a round the pitch first and with this thought he sped off to the right. He used a normal speed for him by leaning forward a little bit to catch some speed but not completely forward to be racing to the other side. He was still learning after all. Now came the turn and he wanted to make a perfect half circle so he leaned to the left, the broom flew with him and.....that's when he lost his grip.

He yelped when he hung upside down, the sky above him and he grasped on to the handle above him, his body clutching around it in panic. He had no idea how to control a broomstick when he was flying upside down and the thing flew criss cross over the pitch. "HOW DO I STOOOOP?!" He shouted, hoping that someone would hear him. He wasn't athletic either so swinging himself back on the broom took a lot of effort and he failed a couple of times as well.

Leah was bending down laughing, watching the situation. She knew it was rude, but it indeed was funny watching him flying around upside down. Luckily the Professor helped him stop but she was still not sure what had happened to him. He did not seem to have great injury though.

"Are you okay? You don't need help, do you?" Leah said, walking over to him, not bothering to conceal her smile. Judging by the boy's behavior towards her just now he did not want to get her help, but she still offered it. "If you're okay d'you want to practice flying with me? I noticed that both of us are especially excited about this er.. lesson." *A small cough*

Altair gripped the handle of his broom and kept both feet firmly on the ground. He watched as others began to soar. Some were doing really well, others not so much. He was worried that he would be in that 'other' category. This was so embarrassing. He was able to get the broom off the ground, but he was still unsure himself. If he didn't leave the ground would he fail? Maybe no one would notice. He could always hide under the stands or maybe behind one of those hoop things during the duration of the lesson. He took it step by step, closer and closer by the tallest golden hoops. The professor seemed distracted with one of the students that was terrified to stop and then the other students were busy chasing each other.

The more he watched, the more his heart began to race with anxiety. Thoughts of his father being disappointed that his son wasn't a flyer began to fill his mind. Too much. Too much. Altair set the broom down in from of his and leaned against the pole. Maybe he wasn't cut out for being a wizard?

Still upside down, Kevin heard the Professor say an incantation he did not know but his mind was too busy with staying on his broom. Or more like clutching onto it in this case. He craned his neck as he looked down. He wasn't that high above the ground he noticed so when his broom slowly came to an halt he sighed in relief and let go of the handle.

He landed softly on the ground, like cushions had catched him and he looked up at the school broom stick falling down on the ground next to him. LAAAND! Oh how he had MISSED it! He was NEVER going to fly again! NEVER! He gave a thumbs up towards the Professor to tell her that he was alright when a girl suddenly stood near him.

It was the same girl who had talked to him before the class had started. "Of course i'm fine, that was just a Quidditch maneuver!" he lied...lamely. The offer to practise together made him think though. He looked at school broom. Remembered the panic sensation when he had nearly fallen off but at the same time the rush of excitement that came when flying freely through the air.

His bravery won over his fear and he nodded as he grabbed his broom and climbed on it again. "We can try and practise ...turning ...first" yeah, he needed to learn how to turn. No flips or rolls right now. It was then that his left hazel and right dark brown eyes caught the sight of a student not on his broom and...was he leaning against the pole? "PROFESSOOOOOOR?! Why is he not flying like us?!" He shouted and rudely pointed in the direction of the Hufflepuff boy.

As Robin worked on how to actually steer and stop without crash landing she noticed that one of the first years, a hufflepuff she thought, lean against the Quidditch pole goal thing (she didn't even know what it was called) He looked disappointed and a bit scared. Robin felt her heart sink - she knew how he felt, namely because she felt the same in most of her classes- not quite ready. She decided to go up to him and see if she could cheer him up.

She steadily rode toward him- stopping and starting occasionally and for a grand finale, fell right in front of him. Rubbing her back as she got up she thought bitterly to herself
well if I can't cheer him up he can always laugh at me...
She shook her head and put on a big grin
"Hi I'm Robin, I saw you in line, all I can do is kick off the dumb ground, but your hand technique is so good! Do you think you can show me how you're holding it?" No-one was allowed to feel left out on her watch. She smiled encouragingly at the boy, hoping he wouldn't be discouraged any more.

Bri smiled at Gwen. "I am Bri." Bri answered, realizing she hadn't introduced herself...she needs to remember that.

The young brunette's smile grew. "Yay!." Bri listened to Gwen's suggestion. "Sounds like a plan!" The girl said growing excited . She got into position.

Permission granted from the professor, plan lined out with Bri. Though she was pretty sure this girl was a Hufflepuff, Gwen could imagine them being friends. Maybe. Gwen wasn't outgoing enough to make friends easily, but Bri seemed nice. And a race was friendly, right? Gwen lined up the front of her broom with Bri's so they were exactly even. Give or take a centimeter in either direction. No holding back now.

On your mark, get set, GO!" Gwen shouted taking off as soon as the last word left her mouth. She pushed her grip to the very end of the broom, leaning forward so far she was practically laying flat on the broom. The incredible fly machine shot forward faster than Gwen could ever remember herself moving.

They were allowed to fly on their own? Well Caelen supposed she was getting the hang of not falling on her face -though her dust marks were a different story entirely- and wanted to go further. Not start racing people like other people in her class were doing, but maybe do some circles or just fly around near the ground? Was that okay? She wanted to make sure.

"Professor? Is it okay if I just fly around a bit?" She had kicked off from the ground halfway through the question. If it was a yes, she could work on steering, and if it was a no, then she could hover. Awkwardly. Because she still didn't understand how to fly well. But she was nothing if not a try hard. And try hard she was going to.

Good. Kevin seemed to be alright. At least, that's usually what a thumbs up indicated.

Crisis averted momentarily, she continued to scan the pitch to see how the others were doing. She spotted.. Al something... Albus.. Alto.. Altair, yes. Why was he lurking off on the side? Perhaps he was too afraid? He needed to be able to conquer his fear if he was going to be a part of the Wizarding world.

She set off towards the boy, but stopped quickly. It appeared that someone else was trying to help him do the same thing. Tiara decided to let her try first before possibly embarrassing Altair in front of his peers.


Her reverie was broken up by a voice that sounded familiar in its yelling... Ah yes, Kevin. Tiara made her way towards the Gryffindor, a serious look on her face.

"My dear, if you need to get my attention, please do not do it in such a brash manner unless there is an emergency, lest you seem disrespectful." Oh, first years.

"After your little mishap earlier, I would think you would understand how frightening this experience may be for some people, not to mention the possibility of failure. You need to learn the value of thinking before you speak, " or yell, for that matter, "so you do not accidentally offend or make fun of someone. We all learn and achieve at different paces, after all." Especially when it came to something as potentially harmful as flight. "Furthermore, it is extremely rude to point," she added as an afterthought.

"To help you remember this lesson, I am taking two points from Gryffindor House. Do not let me catch this happening again."


Oh, another voice. One that wasn't yelling! "Yes, dear, that is perfectly fine." Exactly what she wanted them to do, actually.

Bri gripped her broom as she prepared for the race with Gwen. As soon as she heard the word "GO!" she took off. The wind whipped through her hair and robes as she and Gwen raced to the Quidditch posts!

"WOOOOOO" Bri yelled loudly as they made it to the posts all most neck-and-neck. Looping around the posts with ease, Bri speed up to try to take the lead as they zoomed back to the middle of the pitch.

She hadn't counted on Bri being very daring. Which turned out to be a mistake. Bri was pretty much even with Gwen as they looped the goal posts and headed back. All sorts of things were running through Gwen's head about how to make herself more aerodynamic. She tucked her elbows in closer to her and bent her head down. Next time she would have to wear a ponytail or something. Her hair was surely slowing her down if only a little bit. Not daring to look to see where Bri was, Gwen focused singly on where she wanted to go. She crossed the finish line, and slowed down.

She looked over at the brunette girl. "Um, who won?" They should have asked someone to watch for them and determine the winner. Gwen hadn't even been paying attention to who was ahead. All she knew was that it was the fastest she'd ever gone in her whole life, cars included.

Bri crossed the finish line and slowed to a stop, but hovered above the ground, she was not ready to get off her broom just yet.

Bri smiled at Gwen. It took a few minutes to catch her breathe back from the race. "I have no idea, but that was real fun."She replied, giggling. The brunette glanced around at everyone else, maybe they saw who won.

Bri was definitely going to go flying as often as she can. She may have found her new favorite thing. Bri brushed a few loose hair strands behind her hair.

Gwen grinned at Bri, not even winded. But Gwen was a sports kid. She had grown up on soccer and had tried a new sport nearly every year. "That was really fun," she agreed. Now what? Suddenly she felt awkward. What was she supposed to say? Annora would be really good at this, she always was good in the friends department. Gwen, not so much. "Um...you're in Hufflepuff, right?" she asked, not knowing what she should say.

Maybe she should touch down and put the broom away. The class was nearly over and she could go any time after all. She resisted though. Even at a standstill, the feeling of being up in the air was incredible. Gwen thought about Quidditch trials. She'd been pretty awful while practicing by herself. Something about flying while carrying a ball had just been pretty difficult. Still, she loved being in the air. If only there was a sport all about racing and maneuvering on brooms. Sign her up for that because she had only known about flying for a few weeks, and she loved it so much already.

Altair heard a screaming kid call him out and he just sunk a little lower against the pole. Why can't I just be invisible, he thought. He didn't know what the big deal was to fly or not. He was perfectly fine with flying in an airplane, that's how he was raised after all with his father being a pilot. A sinking feeling hit his stomach like a rock. The thought of not writing home to his father about his flying experience wouldn't be a pleasant one. He certainly didn't want to disappoint, but he also didn't want to die trying either.

His concern only heightened with a girl came crashing down in front of him. He immediately started to rush over to her and see if she needed any assistance, but she was up after a rub of her back and was smiling and appeared so happy. Altair found the behavior rather odd, she just crashed and seemed happy. Maybe she hit her head during the fall? "Um...actually, I'm feeling pretty good on the ground right now." A forced smile stretched across his face. "But, are you alright? That looked like a nasty fall."

Oooooh. They got to fly now. That was so cool. Grace already knew how to fly of course, but she hadn't ever flown on a proper quidditch pitch. So this was pretty cool. She got onto the broom, carefully holding onto it. She didn't want to slide right off the end, because that would really not be any good at all. She took a few minutes to watch the others. Oh. That gryffindor boy wasn't very nice. After deciding she'd done enough people watching, and wanting to get going, Grace turned her attention back to her own broom. Beaming, she kicked off, and went up into the air.

"eeep." The giggled, pointing her broom, so that she went flying off. She didn't fly too high. She didn't want to fall off, that would be rather embarrassing.

Robin was not deterred by the boys request to stay on the ground. After all if he didn't want to fly she didn't want to push him and make him feel uncomfortable. She flushed when he mentioned her fall- so it was that bad...she had been hoping to pass it off for a stumble but she shrugged it of, she wasn't hurt.
"I'm fine! I wasn't that high off the ground and the grass makes a really soft landing" She grinned, kicking the ground to prove her point. "Thanks for asking though! I don't know if I'm really comfortable with the whole broomstick thing yet" She stopped short, she realized she had basically just told him she was muggleborn. Not that it was a bad thing, but she was terrified that she'd be classified as a 'clueless muggle' if people knew. Deciding it was too late now she decided to go on, giving him a look she decided he was trustworthy.
"I'm much more used to flying on planes since I visit my grandparents a lot- and I think their a lot more efficient like yeah they can't go as fast but they can hold more people and luggage, and i think it's much less scary and maybe more safe too." She kicked the ground again.
"Don't you think brooms are just for sports really? I'm not sporty at all, well that's obvious, but to travel with i don't think they're that great..." she realized she was rambling, but she didn't really mind too much. She had thought that at the beginning of class.- Why would anyone travel on this thing? It made no sense to her.

"Yeah, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the whole magic thing," Altair sighed. It was a weird concept in itself, but the idea that something your swept floor with could keep you up in the air was absolutely mind-boggling. He felt like he was in a dream and was waiting for someone to pinch him or something to wake him up. He hadn't even cast a spell yet. The only homework he did was things that he wrote. And the only magical activity he partook in was the skating rink, but that was only because skating was something that came very natural to him.

Planes, finally a word that Altair recognized. This immediately caught his attention. At first her lack of confidence he took as being a first year like him, but then when she spoke of her way of travel, Altair realized she was like him. "How do you even know all this?" he asked. She seemed so comfortable on a broom despite he fall. Didn't she know how dangerous they could be too. It was just a weird adjustment to live an entire life without magic and then to be thrown into this world that could be both good and evil. But, he was mostly struggling with: If he never used magic than he would never have to choose.

The little redhead almost clapped with joy, had she not remembered she was a few feet in the air. Caelen got the okay. That's what she wanted after all. And she wasn't comfortable with racing or going wild like the more experienced students. Not here. She had to ease into something like flying. Though she loved to jump into things and catch up, these things were usually things she could learn without breaking bones and did not involve being alone a certain number of feet above the ground.

She gently tugged the broom towards the left, heading that way in a loose spiral. Okay, she got that motion down. The redhead took a break and let herself breathe before trying it again. She was trying to stall the act of landing for as long as the professor let them. She still wasn't sure she had that down. And she liked to play in the dirt, not get her teeth into it.

After she had spun herself on several spirals and practiced moving up and down -all things Nate had taught her how to do, luckily she could catch on fairly quickly- the eleven year old decided that she was going to just fly about for a while.

And so she did. It actually felt quite free up here, the air lapping her face. She allowed herself to lean back a smidge and get into the sunlight more, hoping to get a slight tan. This was actually quite fun. It was like it's own little adventure!

Digging in her robe pocket, Tiara found what she was looking for: a small, brass whistle. She raised it to her lips and blew three sharp sounds. TWEET, TWEET, TWEET! Raising both hands, she motioned that she wanted them to land.

"That's all we have time for today. I encourage you to continue practicing. You may always feel free to borrow a school broom from the broomshed." She glanced around to see if there were any questions. "Class dismissed! Make sure you return your broom to the broomshed before making your way back up to the castle."

"Yeah tell me about it, one day I'm learning what a noun is and the next I'm asked to read Latin." Not to mention she still couldn't turn a vine into a rope and the only class she was any good at was Herbology she wasn't even 'good' at it- she just knew how to grow plants, it seemed the thing most in common with the non magic world- plants were plants and needed proper care. Sure, magic plants were way different- but the principal was still there.
"But me not knowing anything- I guess it makes me want to work harder to catch up- that's probably why I'm not so scared of flying on a broom, well I am, I'm just have a bigger ego" she wasn't about to slack and be considered clueless. Nope not for her.
"How do I know about what? Planes?" She tilted her head, was he into planes- that was cool! "Well I spend a lot of time on them visiting my grandparents, I needed something to do on the, what 14 hour flights? So I started learning about planes" she smiled, maybe they had something in common? Planes weren't an interest of hers but when you spent so many hours on then you had to learn something.
Just then the coach whistled class dismissed and robins head whipped around
"Oh hey want to walk back and put our brooms away? What house are you in anyway?"

Altair sighed in relief. Somehow he managed to keep his feet on the ground the entire lesson. He was saved by the tweeting! Finally, some color returned to his face and a huge weight seemed to be lifted.

He picked up his broom and started to head out like everyone else, but continued to listen to the fallen girl. "Just you come from muggles right?" Altair was pretty sure about his assumption. "You just seem to be willing to jump right into things. How are you so sure any of this is safe?"

Altair nodded about her talk about planes. He of course knew everything about them. His papa was a pilot after all. He walked along side her as they headed back to the broomshed. "I'm in Hufflepuff," he answered. "It's just, well, I'm not completely understanding all of this. I had no signs of having magic and then one day I get this letter telling me I'm a wizard and my whole world is turned upside down." It was obvious that Altair wasn't the first one to go through this unknown capability, but he was struggling with understanding and accepting it. Why was he chosen? It was kind of like some of the superheroes he read about, but the troubles they faced along the way was terrifying. He wasn't ready for such a path. So far, the discovery seemed more of a burden than a blessing.

Bri grinned at Gwen. "That was tons of fun!" She agreed " Yup. I am a Hufflepuff, and you are a Ravenclaw right?"She asked. Bri was about to say something else when she heard the professor's whistle. The young brunette groaned "I guess it is time to go in." She said a bit disappointed. "Well it was nice meeting and racing with you, Gwen Maybe we can hang out again!" The young girl said as she fly down to the ground, and climbed off the broom. She picked it up, and started to head off the put the broom back in the shed. As she walked by Professor Tyner, Bri grinned up at her and said "Thank you for the lesson, Professor. It was real fun"

It was nice to know that at least one student had the common courtesy to say thank you. "You are most welcome, Miss Granger. I'm glad you enjoyed it."