West looked up. "Yeah that's right soak it for a minute, and then stir clockwise gently ten times. Some say as low as seven but it depends how much care the brooms need and these ones... they need ten." He paused. "Then soak for another minute and stir counter-clockwise ten times."

Not so hard right?

West finished another and wrapped it in the heated towels, giving it a pat pat pat to absorb some of the excess liquid, and then flinched a little at what that small Ravenclaw Sophie kid said.

If little kids noticed...

"Hi." Was that handle dirt free now? Dusting it off a few more times, Alice decided it was clean enough and reached for the younger girl's polishing tin. She dipped her rag into the container, trying to get out a glob around the size of a Knut.

"Yeah. Best friends." The title was still hers. Ahem. Glancing idly toward West and being rewarded with a flinch, she refocused her attention on working the bit of polish into her rag. "I like dorks. Alice." The captain extended the hand which wasn't occupied with a rag towards the little Ravenclaw. "You're better than I was as a first year. Better than I am now, even. You'll probably be at Branxton level when you grow up."

She winked at Sophie, then peeked at her rag again. Polish warm yet?

Marigold skipped down to the Broomshed. She was planning on being the only one down there, so she was VEEEERY surprised when she found West, West's girlfriend, and some other girl down there as well. She flounced over, a slightly anxious smile on her face.

"... Are you guys cleaning the broomsticks too?" She crossed her fingers.

"Cutty Mordaunt. What's your name?" But he said this like, 'You on the floo, baby?' whilst looking Tyner up and down with his bag-heavy eyes and proving that they could all age to raisins and Cutty would not stop his playful yet somehow glib comments. In fact, he seemed not to mind his hair going all salt 'n pepper on him at all. At least, it made for a more harmonious match between his appearance and personality so that the bystander who was innocent would know what they'd be getting with Cutty Mordaunt.

His smile suggested naiveté as he waited for further instruction from the school's Quidditch Official.

Tiara was a bit surprised but not at all upset as a Hufflepuff arrived without greeting her or getting directions. The other students all had instructions, so she could just ask them.


This remark earned the boy a small head tilt and an eyebrow raise. Firstly because.. how did you go to this school for this long and not know one of the professors' names? But mostly because that seemed an inappropriate way to address an authority figure. "Well, Mr. Mordaunt, I'm quite sure I don't appreciate the tone with which you addressed me. But no matter. You may join any of your classmates and get instructions from them." No, she wouldn't dock points for his rudeness, but nor would she offer up much help in her instructions.

Adi noticed Ian avoided his question about how he lost the ten points and figured his friend did not want to speak about it. That was okay. He would respect that decision. For now. The beard? Adi did just what any sensible person would do. "I shaved it off. I hate beards.''

"Okay, I'm done with this broomstick, Ian. I'll go get a couple more of them for us to work on.'' In the meantime, what did he do with this one? Errr. In the end, Adi decided he would just have it lean it against the wall so that the polish would finish up drying. He did just that and hobbled off for more.

The Puffer finally returned with an armful of brooms and deposited them in front of Ian. "Here you go.'' He grabbed one for himself and set to work.

Yeah, the seventh year was late, yes. He had fell asleep in the common room, he had the time wrong in the place. Which didn't help much in the first place. He normally didn't go out to these clean up things. But it kind of had something to do with quidditch. Cleaning the school brooms. Or refurbishing them.

Plus West asked the team to be there.

Speaking of West, Asher seen him. grin and nod. When he seen him. Odessa seem to be the leader of the refurbishment brigade. "I'm here." Better late than never. "What do I need to do?" He asked his captain and the Professor both of them. You know in case the professor wanted to do something else. He was one of them older ones there.

YES. Her captain had told all of them to be here, even though Astrid was not in favour with the cleaning thing. Honestly, she would rather go and have a nap than to spend an hour or two cleaning and polishing school broomsticks. Oh well, at least she knew that joining in on this meant house points. That sounded really cool, so why not? Her efforts would not go to waste or anything. T'was a good thing.

Oh... uhm, was she late? Astrid awkwardly joined the group of people. "HI, Professor... am I late? Could I still join in?" WILL SHE BE LOSING HOUSE POINTS BECAUSE ERMERGESH THAT CANNOT HAPPEN. The sixth year looked at the others as they polished the brooms while waiting for the Quidditch Official to respond or something. Tell her she wasn't late and didn't lose point because that didn't seem like a nice thing, yeah? Eh... cleaning brooms was such a tough job. She will only be doing this once.

Once.

She was trying to play it cool. He got that. Except he so, soooo didn't. He did not understand a THING of the recent interaction with the Professor. Mostly, because he was an arrogant little terd. M'mm-h'mm! So Cutty followed Tyner's suggestion to find somewhere to be and something to do, moving over to were the Slytherins were. In their wee-tiny numbers.




Cutty watched for a moment as the cat-eyed Slytherin Captain seemed to be giving detailed instructions on the tail-twig washing process. Very specific. Not unlike potions brewing with having to watch just how many times a broom could be turned inside of a bucket of water. Cutty presumed there was some sort of magical property to this as he pulled up alongside some Gryffindor kid (Ben) to get a closer look.

Of course it was excellent. Sophie was just made of excellence, after all. Wait a minute...West? Why was West teaching the class? Sophie glanced around. She noted West giving out some instructions and sort of nodded to herself. Right. West teaching the class.

Did this mean she could get more house points?!

Sophie had already started polishing a broom, so she needed to finish that first. She continued rubbing down the broom with polish, making sure to reach every possible angle. She remembered that she was supposed to let it dry before applying a second coat, so she did that, too. Finally, she was ready to add that second coat. She repeated everything she'd done before, and pretty soon, the broom was all polished and new. She rinsed it off then laid it out to dry.



Sophie moved a little closer to where West was giving out instructions then took a seat. Right. A chain. She could handle that. That meant she'd sort of always know what was going on, and no confusion was what Sophie was all about. Sophie followed West's lead and submerged the twigs of a broom in water. After a minute, she gently stirred the broom in the solution ten times in a clockwise direction.

She wondered what would happen if she stirred in the other direction...

She let the broom sit for another minute then stirred again in the opposite direction. She guessed this just made sure all the dirt came off. She lifted the broom and let it drip back into the bucket. She followed that with wrapping a towel around the twigs.

Then she passed it on down the line.

Originally she had thought that no Slytherins besides West were going to show up, but it appeared that they were simply deciding to be fashionably late. And unnecessarily announcing their presence. "That you are." She glanced around. "It looks like the broom polishing brigade could use a few more people." She was going to join them herself now that the soaking crew had several done.


She had been right. They were simply being fashionably late. Not a trait I particularly care for. But help was help, so she did not mind as much as she would have had it been a lesson. "Hello there, dear. You're a touch late, but not to worry. There are still plenty of brooms that could use some care." She had just sent someone to the polishing crew, so... "Why don't you grab a pair of clippers from the box here and get to trimming the tails."

On second thought, Tiara decided that the tail-twig clippers probably needed more supervision. She discarded her polishing rag and traded it for a pair of clippers. Then she grabbed the nearest broom that was ready and set to work, streamlining the tail into a perfect-for-flying masterpiece.

Caleb didn't mind a bit of muggle work here and there, so he was willing to sacrifice some hours getting the brooms all nice and clean. Grabbing one of the ones that hadn't been taken yet, he decided to start with the clippers.

He walked over to the bin and grabbed a pair of twig clippers and sat down cross-legged. UGH. He should have thought this through a bit...he had a really gnarly broom in front of him. LOTS of twigs that needed clipping. Ah well, that was why he was here, wasn't it?

So he slowly got to it, clipping them at the spots where they'd bent and cracked.

Ian noticed that Adi seem to let the question go about the lost house points. How it had happened was a little embarrassing, especially since it involved another incident with Bart. Ian looked a little surprised about the shaving part. Really? How come you hate beards? It seemed like a legit question. Ian absent-mindedly scratched the stubble on his cheek.

Ian looked at the broom he was working on as Adi got up and he was about done. Just needed to buff it a little more to get a nice shine on it. As Adi set down the handful of brooms, Ian set his against the wall next to Adi's and grabbed another one.

He began to examine it for scratches and got some polish on his rag and began to fill the scratches in. He looked over to Adi and asked, So what else is going on with you? Meet anyone interesting around the school?

Sander first worked the polish until it warmed up and then applied it on to the broom handle. Then like he had done with the first broom, he gently rubbed the polish into the broom handle and when that was done, he picked up the clean towel and buffed off the dried polish, before applying a second coat of polish, and repeating the steps again, until the broom handle began to get glossy and shiny, and he could see his reflection on it.

Lifting up the broom he raised his hand to get the Professor's attention.

"Professor can you come over here and take a look? I want to make sure this is up to your standards. If not, I'll add another layer of polish." Sander told Professor Tyner.

As the older boy confirmed his thoughts, giving further instructions on the matter, Ben finished lowering the broom in his hands into the water as he listened. Right...one minute in the water, he mused to himself, counting the seconds out in his head as he stood there. When he had reached 60 he switched tasks as instructed to do, moving to gingerly turn the broom clockwise, the boy not really caring about the logic in the number of times to do so in the process.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...ei ght...nine...ten.

Simple enough, it almost felt like he was stirring some sort of cauldron. Ben bit back a groan at that revelation, turning his focus instead to remember the next step to avoid thinking of the dreaded potions reference. It was a repeat of the previous two steps, he registered, noticing them being joined by two more would-be broom wetters. Soak for a minute and then stir for ten times. The second year fully submerged the broom tail in the pail once more and then stirred the branches within the water mixture another succession of clockwise movements.

One...two...three...four...five...six...seven...ei ght...nine...ten.

Finished, Benjamin took one of the heated towels himself, lightly wrapping it around the area he had finished dampening before passing it one to the next step in the working chain. One down...however many more to go.

After Caelen was told she could do whatever she felt comfortable doing, she nodded and immediately picked polishing the brooms. It was something she knew well. Mostly because it was her job to polish all of the silverware in the kitchen. Her brother was a ratfink who never helped and she got stuck with HIS chores. Maybe the redhead could think of that so she could get the work done harder.

Watching someone else, she decided to follow them until she got a little more comfortable. Because polishing silverware was nothing like polishing a broom. Or at least she thought not.

So she sat like the other person and placed the broom on her lap. Lucky that Caelen didn't mind getting dirty. Although, she supposed she wouldn't be here if she did, would she?

Then, she took a small amount of polish in her fingers and put it on the broom, using the rag she grabbed to spread it around and rub it in. Because she was HELPFUL today.

Waiting for the polish to dry, she looked around at what the other kids were doing. A lot of them seemed to be actual quidditch players, though she wasn't alone with being a spectator and helping. Which was nice. Especially since Nate played Quidditch. And Spencer wanted to. And her brother was so obsessed with the sport, the little redhead was surprised she still was interested in it.

After spacing out for about five minutes, Caelen looked back down at her broom, noticing that the polish was drying. And it was leaving streaks. At this point, the girl was fine on her own, and she used another cloth that she thankfully knew how to grab in order to buff out the polish.

Nice broom looked nice.

Then the blue-eyed girl stood up, cracked her back, and found another broom to polish, continuing the process over again. She had a better.... HANDLE on it this time! Get it. handle? Lame joke was lame.

He nodded to captain as she said sure thing, well at least he knew he was going in the right direction to with what to work on. "Aight I'll jump right on that." He turned and grabbed a broom. Not as great as his own, but they would get better with some work. He looked over the twigs and shook his head. He hadn't seen a broom this bad well ever. His brooms at home were in the best shape, his dad had bought him a brand new one a few years ago and Charely just bought him a new one last Christmas.

He twirled the boom around looking at the twigs. Horrible mess this one. Pulling his wand Bart started to trim the uneven twigs with a spell he learned at his old school, " Flipnsnipwitit" He worked on a few of the twigs making sure they were even. See he could do a good job at something as long as book weren't involved. Did captain notice? No more laps...
:



As he started to look at another broom he heard the puff boy say sup he grinned, "Not much, just glad to be with brooms instead of those horrid classes." This was where he should be in his eyes at least. If everything was as exciting as quidditch and flying maybe he could follow it better.

Starting to trim the twigs from this one he glanced at the boy, "So do you play?" He didn't know him much or even what year he was in just seeing him in classes. Bart took a moment to scratch his fuzzy chin. It was still epic he was growing hair, but did it have to itch so much.



He couldn't help but grin proudly and stand a little taller in front of Sophie. Not just because she said something about his epic facial hair but she noticed his awesomeness around the castle. "There are great places to explore and have fun around here." He still had so much to look at and figure out too. Never a dull moment in this place now was there.

Taking his hand to his facial hair, he grinned more. "Thanks I wasn't expecting it so soon, but it's awesome. I want to show up my step brother and have an awesome beard too." Because Wade's was awesome and now he could have one too.

Really it was all down to personal preference, which part you wanted to do first, but the way this assembly line sort of thing was going, that was the order Toby always did things. He also believed Tyner's professional opinion though. Well, of course he did.

Polishing the broom was fun and good physical work that kept Tobias' brain organised, but he couldn't do even the same physical activity for too long. At Sander's question, the Hufflepuff looked around, distracted, but grinned and said "Great!" as enthusiastically as ever. "How about with you?"

Wax on, wax off. Except it wasn't really wax. It was broom polish. Tobias had been working for ages on this broom handle, and he could feel his energy building up.

Suddenly, Tobias got up out of his seat so suddenly he was almost like a jack-in-the-box.

"Nobody minds if I just stick with one broom and do all the station-type-thingies or whatever, do they?" he asked the occupants of the broomshed at large, even the ones he didn't recognise. "It's just that if I do the same thing for too long I get all antsy and stuff." Plus, more opportunity to see more people, right? But he wasn't gonna say that 'cause technically this wasn't a social thing.

The broom he'd been working on had a pretty decently polished handle now, but Tobias figured he'd probably end up redoing it afterwards anyway, and took that same broom over to the section where West and the twig-washers were. He managed to find a bucket that wasn't being used, and put in the cleaning solution and water up to a decent enough level that the twigs would be submerged but the water wouldn't overflow.

Once the tail end of the broom was in the water, Tobias heard Bart talk to him, and he looked over to the kid with a grin.

"I sure do!" Toby replied with enthusiasm. But he didn't need to return the question becaaauuuseee... "I know you do. I watched the tryouts." All of them. Every tryout. Every house.

The twigs had soaked long enough by this point, so Tobias looked down at bucket, giving the job his full focus, and gently stirred the tail twigs ten times.

Another minute's wait, followed by stirring it ten times the opposite direction, and then lifting the broom so that the excess solution would drip off.

Glancing around to see if there was a towel within reach so that he could do the next steps, Tobias spoke again. "Uh... West? How many brooms d'you think can be cleaned in one bucket before the solution and water needs refreshing? Only one, or maybe a whole bunch? I only ever clean and service one broom at a time, so I've never thought about it before." Tobias could see many methods of reasoning all at once, which made it much harder to come to a conclusion on this particular thought.

Alexa could read, she just didn't make a habit of it. Coincidentally though, she happened to be passing the noticeboard and took a glance. There was a notice to help the Professor with the brooms in the broomshed and she happened to be free at the moment. With her kneazle slung over her shoulder Lex made her way toward the broomshed.

Sweet Circe, so many people'd gotten there already, she didn't think anymore could fit in that rickety place. The Gryffindor had half a mind to turn around and head for the Great Hall instead but then she figured she'd already made the long walk and might as well.

Okay, some squeezing in would be required. Lex grabbed Felix off her shoulder so he wouldn't get knocked off while she was shoving her way inside. "Hey guys." She said, already looking around for something she can get involved in. "Sup Professor? Ready to start helping." She announced but she wasn't gonna wait to be told what to clean. The notice was pretty clear. The kneazle climbed back onto her shoulder as she grabbed her first broom. Polishing would be first, definitely.

Polish, polish, polish. Must make the broomstick all nice and shiny! Yep! As he worked, Adi addressed the beard question. "I dunno, man. It's so itchy and useless. I'm going to be beardless all my life.'' He had made that decision since last term after that lesson with Professor French. Adi saw Ian scratching at something. "Ian! You're on the verge of getting a beard yourself!'' He hadn't noticed that before. He wondered if Ian liked beards.

Adi continued taking his time to polish the second broomstick. Thankfully this one had no stubborn stains so it was coming along just fine. He dipped the cloth into the polish for what seemed to be the millionth time and added another coat to the first half of the handle.

"Other than gray hairs, some grumpiness, feeling like a snail and growing a beard at top speed, nothing. I'm just the same old me.'' Adi grinned. Anyone interesting? "Come to think of it, yes.'' He inclined his head towards Sander. "He's different from those Durmstrang people that were here last term,'' the Puffer muttered. Sander was loads friendlier but there was nothing wrong with that.

Alright. Time to give the second half of the handle another coat of polish.

If she was going to get this broom looking in tip top shape she was going to need some polish. Lex could have been sure she saw a few of them using polish and twisted in a couple directions trying to locate their source. That's when she saw the box just a little ways off...if she was willing to go through all those people. Not gonna happen.

"Hey Felix?" She side eyed the kneazle who was making a determined effort to get comfy. "Wanna go grab me some of that polish?" He knew what she wanted, he'd seen hers enough and been told not to mess with it. The girl watched him slink to the floor in one fluid movement then disappear behind all those feet. While she waited she cast a quick scourgify on the broom to get the excess dirt off before the polishing. That'd make it easier and cleaner, yeah?

Moments later the kneazle reappeared with a small tub of broom polish that he deposited into her outstretched hand before scaling her back and making his way onto her shoulder again. Had to appreciate the balance this feline had. Staying on her shoulder required it.

Alright. Polishing....yeah....she forgot to tell Felix to get her a cloth while he was by the box. No matter, she found one someone must have dropped and got straight to applying the polish and giving circular motioned wipes. Not too hard, but at the same time with enough force to work the polish in.

West kept an eye on the younger kids what were helping out with cleaning and soaking tail twigs, in case any of them had any questions. But so far so good and all that. He noticed Astrid and Asher arrive... late, but at least they were here. Did the others know they would be running laps AND cleaning brooms anyways? Because they would. Anyone on his team that wasn't here would be charged with cleaning and servicing the team brooms. And hand laundering all their uniforms while they were at it - match and practice robes. When West said to come help he'd been serious about it, it wasn't just a casual request and even if the people that were no shows happened to be his friends well they'd see.

He wasn't going to make exceptions for any of them, not if they wanted to play in the first match.

Oh huh? West looked up at Toby when he addressed him. "You can do a couple brooms... really no more than three though, since the solution will get kinda grey after a while. And it sorta depends how grubby the brooms are to start with. Best way to tell is if your bucket of solution -see how it has a sort of gleam to it?- when it looks a little more dull, that's when you'll wanna switch the water and solution out." Cool? Did he get it?

West glanced around, blue eyes coming to rest on Tyner for a moment before he returned to his work.

Tiara decided it was probably a good idea to check on how some of the students were doing. First she saw Ian. Scrutinizing his work, she gave a nod of approval. "Well done Ian. And you too, Adi." Who else was facing in a direction that made it easy for her to survey without having to twist, stretch, or move in any discernible way? She wasn't feeling too.. limber at the moment. "Mr. Newell, good work, good work."


She turned towards the sound of someone addressing her. Come over? Really? She.. wasn't exactly 'feeling it,' as the young ones would say. She craned her neck and left it at that. "Yes, Mr. Strand, that is quite satisfactory. Carry on."

More students, then? "Ben. Caelen. Keep up the high quality work." She was going to say more, but then she heard something.


Was that someone performing MAGIC on HER brooms? She certainly had not sanctioned that! "Mr. Maroon, I appreciate your enthusiasm. However, I would request that you perform the tasks manually rather than magically." She had found over the years -- many years -- that the lines were more in tune with each other and created a more pinpoint turn when done by hand. "Thank you."


Excellent, Tobias seemed to have found a way to release his energy and still be productive. Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of the Gryffindor Prefect. From most people, greeting her with 'sup' would have earned them a talking to. But.. something about Alexa Cambridge made Tiara loosen up a bit. "Sup yourself, Miss Cambridge," she said with a nod. She was about to tell her to jump right in, but that was apparently not needed. No surprise there.

Tyner listened curiously to how West would reply to Toby's question. When he had finished, she nodded in agreement. She really had nothing to add.

Lex noted the use of the 'Sup' in response to her own and stored it for later reference. Professors that weren't sticks in the mud went high on her list simply for the fact that they didn't let every little thing bother them. Merlin, imagine her slipping and saying 'sup' to Bellaire. The subsequent point loss would scar her for sure. Not a nice thought so she'd get back to the circular motions for the broom. It was important to get every inch shining like she didn't know what.

Alexa had gotten through shining it up nice and impressive like and was ready to start on the other before moving over to deal with the twig end but then she heard the Professor saying something about no magic....ooops?

The next broom couldn't have a quick scourgify done on it then but look at all this dust!! You couldn't just polish a dusty broom--or well you could in theory but it wouldn't much be the same now would it? The shine would be different and that was a lazy man's way of work. If she wasn't gonna do something then it was worth doing right the first time.

So putting the kneazle to work again. She shrugged a shoulder to get his attention. "Get me another cloth from the box over there, will you?" One to get the dust off first. It would drive her mad if she let it stay. In the mean time she went back to the first broom, giving it a few more rubs for good measure.

Tessa stepped into the broomshed and took a deep breath. These were all the smells she loved- besides the dust. The smell of leather from Qudditch gear, polish of the brooms... she loved it all. She lived it, taking care of her own equipment. So, helping take care of the school's was the least she could do.

"Hello Professor, I'm Tessa Hedge," she said with a warm smile to the woman. "I've been meaning to speak with you about some flying tips- I'm hoping to try-out for a few of the professional teams this summer," she explained with an excited smile. But, that was for later. "Anyway, how can I help here?" she asked, looking around.