Flying!

Did Dahlia know how to fly? Absolutely. Was she incredibly great at it? Absolutely not. She was nowhere near the level of some of her fellow peers. Never been to a camp, not largely into playing Quidditch but she could fly. That was enough for her. Plus this lesson meant she wouldn't be sitting inside a classroom on a hard chair the entire time.

This had to be one of the very first times she arrived at a lesson, besides CoMC that she had a true smile on her face. Getting to pretty much wear what she wanted for this class had helped with that. Sporting some black athletic pants, her favorite pastel tie-die shirt with a pygmy puff on it and her comfiest sneakers was the way to go. Her hair was pulled back into pig-tails which she had french braided to keep her hair out of her eyes. Unfortunately being a firstie meant she hadn't been allowed her broom so a stop had to be made before the lesson to get one, which she was carrying in her hand.

Bright blue eyes took in the large pool first thing. Well that was curious. The next thing she noticed was the professor and the blackboard with the word 'Diving' written on it beside him. Maybe the pool had something to do with that? "Hello, Professor Aguilar. Is the pool to break our fall in case we slip off our brooms?" Couldn't hurt to ask! Plus she wasn't afraid to hit the water if anything went wrong.

“Alright, let’s get started.” Aguilar said loudly to get everyone’s attention.

“Welcome back to Flying class! A quick recap. We covered some basic techniques in the past month: broom summoning, mounting, liftoff and landing, as well as proper broom care and maintenance. Experienced flyers, you were given additional tasks to hone your reflexes and improve your flying skills. Today, you will be learning a more difficult manoeuvre.” He pointed at the word on the blackboard. “Diving! When would you ever need to dive? Think about flying as a method of transportation, as well as a component of sports like Quidditch. If you are not sure, then have a think and make a guess.”

Essentially, be creative!

OOC: The lesson has begun YAY! We will move on in 24 hours. If you are late, feel free to still jump in and pretend that you arrived on time.

See, the reason Ash couldn't be a QUidditch player was not her flying ability. She was well above average. She was just, very afraid of bludgers. So naturally, when the teacher said 'why would you need to dive', her mind went the immediately. "Ummm... if someone hit a bludger at you, or if they were trying to physically run into you, you would need to dodge it." Imagine someone trying to kill you like usual, but in THE AIR. Scary.

Lia grinned widely. Wicked! Knowing the pool of water was there for that very reason may have took the edge of broom 'Diving' in the air a little bit. Getting wet didn't faze her in the least. Not that she wanted to fall off her broom or anything like that.

"Well you could dive in order to catch something? Like the snitch during a Quidditch match," she answered, her hand raised in the air. It wasn't something she herself personally had ever done while playing with parents and siblings for fun but she had watched a few of them do so. Honestly she couldn't wait to give it a try herself! It looked like that scary sort of fun that gave you a super quick adrenaline rush.

Was she inwardly sighing when the class started and he jumped right into diving. She really didn't want to do any diving. She just wanted to go fly around and look at the clouds and the birds. You could watch birds so much easier in the air, but she certainly rather do it on the ground.

Staying where she was Gemma listened to the answers start and she wasn't shocked it was all quidditch. Quidditch, quidditch, quidditch, was that all people ever thought about? She was glad she wasn't all that into it and didn't care about teams or the obsession of the sport.

Lifting her hand she waited for the professor to call on her, "If you are flying to a destination you might dive to head back to the ground if it is a quick down before you land." With floo and apparation she didn't really understand why people would even use a broom, but she hoped her answer wasn't bad.

Quinn felt really good to be surrounded by his friends. He gave a wave to Eden as she sat, and then Atlas came and eagerly sat next to him as well. Both of them gave him the warm fuzzies. "Hey, Atlas! Oh, and, um..." Quinn gestured to Eden, "this is Eden. Eden, this is Atlas." Quinn hoped they would get along well. Quinn smiled a bit awkwardly at Atlas's description. He knew he was just trying to get Quinn excited, and Quinn did like rollercoasters, but... he liked his rollercoasters with the lap bar. "Sounds... exhilerating..!"

Quinn turned his attention back to Professor Aguilar. "Well, if you were flying somewhere and something were to get in your way—like, uh, a bludger in Quidditch or some birds in the sky—you would have to dive pretty quickly."

Valencia was going to say birds when someone beat her too it. She thought for another moment. "If you're using it for travel, you may be in a place with trees you may quickly need to avoid."

Of course, she couldn't imagine using a broom for travel. Cars existed. (Not that she'd mention anything muggle right now). And there was also aparation and floo.

Little did Claudine know that the ex best friend was thinking along the same line as her in terms of Aguilar’s exotic, sizzling looks. Such a nice face it was to look at. What a side profile to look at Ahem. Right. She shouldn’t daydream. Instead, there was another friend beside her now. Hi again, Fiona. Naturally, the two had seen each other many times the entire day. As for Heath… she pretended not to see him though she didn’t really want to. Then again, she had suggested they stay away from each other for now because of the whole blood status issue. It was a decision she was starting to regret.

Thankfully, the lesson was starting. This meant a welcome distraction as well as finding out what the lesson would entail. Ah, diving. The Snakette listened to some of her peers’ answers in amusement. Birds, like Quinn had mentioned, was the first thing that had come to mind. Her Hand went up a moment later. “If you dropped something fragile, like glass mugs, and you really don’t want them to break then a dive would be useful.”

Violet looked up as she heard the teacher call out to her. Drat, she had probably been rude to him by just walking by. She didn't mean to, she just felt so clumsy and stupid when she flew and she hated to feel that way in front of others. And as she looked back, wondering if it was too late to greet him, she was suddenly struck still in her tracks. Wow, the man was really good looking--like, really, really good looking! She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before.

And while she was standing there thinking that, he started the class and it was too late, and--gosh, even his voice was good looking. Maybe Flying wouldn't be so bad after all this term.

Violet felt she needed to make up for her surly entrance right away by saying something. "If you were flying and ran into turbulent weather, you might need to dive down out of it." She really hoped that didn't sound too stupid.

Bernie couldn't help the faint pinkness that spread on her cheeks from Aguilar's greeting; he had such a cute little wave. But if anyone asked, she'd just be like...it's cold outside, with a faint wind.... or some other lame excuse.

Her first thought about diving? Why would you be traveling by broom when they are so many easier methods of transportation? Her second thought? You dropped something you were traveling with and had to go pick it up. Her third thought? You have to duck to avoid something. But she didn't want to repeat anyone's answer, so her mouth tightened into a thin hard line as she thought up a different response.

"Maybe you're in an exhibition flying match demo thingy," Bernie offered after a long think, "so you're showing off a new broom with.... great brakes, or something, and you wanna do a woooooo." She made a whistling sound and drew a tornado-like looooooop-de-looop spiral in the air with her finger.

Yeah, great answer, Grantham. That was sure to impress the adorable professor.

Diving? Cece’s face lit up. Diving was the best! The thrill of it, the wind in your hair, the little somersault your stomach did. She was a fan, okay? And with this in mind, she came up with her answer. ”Maybe you just want to have a bit of fun while you’re flying to wherever you’re flying.” No one said traveling by broom had to be boring.

Class had begun and Faye was very attentively honed in on the Professor immediately as he addressed the class. He was mentioning almost immediately what was written on the blackboard and asked his question in regards to what might diving be used for in terms of flying. Students began answering left and right, so she patiently waited for her to have a chance to answer raising her hand until it was her turn.

When her turn had arrived she answered, "Well Professor, in terms of diving, might it be useful to use this technique where perhaps a certain scenario there could be a flying creature attempting an attack?" Defensive maneuvers, you never knew what could be waiting to strike, always best to be on your guard. "As someone mentioned, certainly diving into some trees would be extremely helpful.."

Diving?

They were learning to dive on a broom? Aboli regretted coming immediately. She knew had to apparate and had her license, thank you, so why had she even considered this class necessary?! Her heart was beating so rapidly from the nerves of even THINKING about diving on a broom.

Um.

She raised her hand. "To scare unsuspecting muggles. Sounds fun," she said with a firm nod. IF anyone were listening, that would sound good and ALSO ALSO it was neutral enough that in her heart of hearts, she didn't feel completely guilty about saying it aloud. Thirdly, though, it actually did sound kinda' fun. "You know, if the statute wasn't a thing." Which...if their new LEADERS of this school had anything to say about it, she was sure they did not believe in the statute.

Hadn't she really YELLED at Cambridge for saying anti-muggle stuff last term? Sure. But things had changed. And this wasn't necessarily ant-muggle, more...it could be TWISTED that way if she needed it to be for the sake of her survival.

Hah. That was a joke, right? OF COURSE Emm was ready and rearing to let the Professor know the MOMENT her "allergies" got worse. They would get worst, too. If Mr. Aguilar thought the little girl was placated by the false concern, he had not been paying attention thus far.

For now, Emmerson nodded. "Will do, Sir."

Green eyes moved back to the large pool momentarily. Diving. Broom tricks. A pool of water. She already had a bad feeling about this but DID have an answer. When did they need to dive? Her hand shot up nearly immediately.

"When you happen to be sitting next to an idiot who actually thinks it's a good idea to provoke the hoodie wand slinging squad. You gotta get ready to dive real quick so you don't end up in the line of fire of the hex that everyone KNOWS is coming."

It was a pattern and she was a fast learner. It was why she no longer stood too close to certain people. She would survive this term.

Mamie was not really that concerned about her school broom, she truthfully grateful she could always use it as a scapegoat if she embarrassed herself flying in front of everybody. She wasn't sure why you'd need to dive outside of Quidditch, but she did some thinking, trying to get some ideas from other students' answers.

They all had very good ideas and Mamie had none.

Oh! She had it!

Mamie raised her hand. "Professor, if you're flying and there's a surprise bridge or a...Muggle communication wire that you didn't see soon enough, you might have to dive to avoid it," she said.

Any and all disappointment (which was quite a lot at first) that Kinsay had felt over the prospect that they would not, in fact, be swimming today had quickly evaporated the moment their professor declared her talent to be impressive. She nodded her head vigorously because YES, REALLY! And smiled bashfully. ”Thanks.” Before scurrying off to find a place to stand.

Diving!

Kinsay raised her hand in the air.... Just before lowering it again. And then raising it again! ... And then lowering it again. And then raising again! ... And then lowering again. Everyone else had stolen ALL the answers her answers!! So she thought that maybe she'd keep her answers to herself this round.

Except. Actually maybe she did have an answer. So for what must have been the fifth or sixth time now, Kiz raised her hand again. Um. "Maybe if you're in a contest and need to show how well you can control your broom when you're flying." Kinsay wasn't so sure, but she offered her answer confidently anyway. That's half the battle.

As the class began, Heath looked to Aguilar, hanging on to the man's every word with rapt attention. Not because he was particularly interested in the subject but because the lecture kept his mind off… other things going on in his life. So anyway, they were talking about diving, in the flying sense at least. That still didn't explain the diving boards or the pool, but whatever. If the professor didn't say, he probably didn't need to know what they were for yet.

There was only one reason Heath could think of in which he'd ever use diving: avoidance. Animals, objects, other people, you name it! Apparently he wasn't the only person who thought along those lines, as a lot of his classmates' scenarios were basically avoidance in one form or another. Was saying essentially the same thing really necessary? He didn't feel much like talking now. He didn't feel like getting injured or disfigured either, and he didn't trust those hooded guys not to appear out of nowhere and hex him for not speaking! So he raised his hand and kept his answer as short and to the point as possible. "Birds," he said. "You could dive to avoid them."

Surely no one will die in this class.

Aries had hope.

And despite the dismay, he was very excited about this class. Something about being in the air made Aries very happy.

Naturally then he had lots to say about flying and all things related when the professor posed his first question. His hands went up in the air and he could barely wait his turn before giving his answer, "this one time, I was up in the air, and I got into a fight with a bird, and he wouldn't move away from my face, so I tried diving toward the ground to dodge him but then I fell really hard" His life was really interesting outside of Hogwarts.

Time to move on!

“You all have a good understanding of when it is necessary to dive while flying. Diving is, in a nutshell, the technique used to descend sharply. Easy definition, not so easy to accomplish. You can dive to avoid an object, creature, person or turbulent weather. You can dive to catch something, such as the Golden Snitch in a Quidditch match. Or you can dive just for the fun of it and show off your awesome broom handling skills at the same time. The Wronski Feint is a Quidditch tactic where a seeker dives suddenly to deceive the opposing seeker into following, then pulling up at the last second and leaving the unprepared seeker to crash.” He was surprised no one mentioned this - it was a popular, but controversial, seeker move.

“Other variations of diving include the D’Orazio dive and Dionysus dive, which involve jumping off of brooms and doing somersaults. They are performed by chasers to steal the Quaffle and score a goal respectively.” He tapped the blackboard with his wand as he spoke - the word “DIVING” was erased and multi-coloured lines and arrows appeared instead. They wiggled over the diagram to demonstrate each tactic that he described. “We will be focusing on the ah, normal diving manoeuvre in this lesson, known as ‘dive and pull up’. Some more questions before we begin practising: What are the risks associated with the dive and pull up? How can we perform this manoeuvre safely?”

OOC: We will move on in 24 hours!

Why was everyone staring at the professor.... ohhhhhhhhh. Was the professor ATTRACTIVE???? Ash thought that was really funny. She smirked a little, and said nothing.

"You could crash into the ground. Also, if you pull up, that only affects the broom, so you could also smack your face into the broom on your way up. Objects in motion remain in motion or whatever." Physics and stuff. Diving could be dangerous. "I guess to dive safely, you shouldn't come in too steep or fast."Ash had a question and raised her hand. "How many seekers get hurt after getting tricked by a Wronski Feint?"

So he had been right and this was Eden. He really did not have time to react otherwise, however, as class began and Atlas was taking a moment to ponder over the question about diving...until he heard his brother bring up THAT story. Was it bad that the younger twin laughed at the memory? He couldn't really help himself and then it reminded him of the time Aries had convinced him to tie a towel around his neck like a cape so the could fly. They just needed to get high enough before they jumped.

Thankfully Andromeda had found them before they followed through with the master plan.

But his little trip down memory lane cost him the opportunity to answer, though he really did not have anything particularly insightful to add that was relevant to the topic of flying. When he thought about diving, his thoughts went to whale and dolphins...maybe a few species of birds who would dive into the water to catch fish. Penguins.

But...right. Diving. Controlled falling, was basically the definition Atlas was going to stick with. He was also feeling particularly pleased with himself for coming to the correct conclusion for today's training - though it was a bit of a bummer that the technique did not have an alliteration for a name like the other two. The inconsistency with names was a bit annoying. And, well, there was the obvious answer in that you did not pull up in time and went crashing into the ground, breaking both broom handle and bone in the process. Which is where he assumed the swimming pool came into play.

"Newton's first law of motion," he muttered under his breath at the Ravenclaw's ~whatever~. This was the wrong Gryffindor to ask about performing the maneuver safely and without injury...because his initial thought was simple: don't do it.

Dahlia's blue eyes were trained on the blackboard as Aguilar spoke. She was watching the different colors arrows perform the stunts that were currently being described to them. They looked like fun! Heart stopping, stomach in your throat, 'I might go SPLAT!'.. kind of fun. Even so, Lia knew better then to attempt something she wasn't ready for. Which unfortunately were those.

At this current point in time, given her current flying abilities, she would be more than happy to pull off a successful Dive and Pull Up. Back to the questions at hand though. Lia raised her hand. "It might also help to trust yourself and your broom. If you're working with a much older broom or a brand new broom that you're not used to it might react differently than you'd expect it to." Which could cause potential issues for those involved.

Ah, suddenly the diving boards made sense. Avalon had never attempted an actual dive into a pool, but she figured she'd be up for it if she was on her broomstick. She raised her hand to answer the first question. "In Quidditch, chasers can use a dive to quickly get away from the opposing team. Or to get an opponent off their tail." One of Avalon's personal favorites was a fake dive, where she made the motions as if she were going to plunge, but then pulled up on her broom at the last minute. It was a great tactic for confusing the opponent.

But she had her fair share of failed dives, too. Plenty that ended in bruised bones and whoozy heads. "Whiplash, Professor. Any sudden jerks or changes in direction can be really disorienting," she answered to the second question. And it was quite difficult to fly properly if you were dizzy.

Quinn was not happy about this lesson. When given what the lesson would be about, he figured out why there was a pool full of ping pong balls, and he let out a defeated sigh. Quinn knew he would be getting wet this lesson. While he now did know the first thing about flying, he was not prepared to dive—he was finding it hard enough as is to get in the air without falling off his broom. Quinn wouldn't be surprised if he managed to crash into the ground instead of even in the pool, so he didn't think he could properly answer the Professor's question.

Devin was more than ready to throw off his outer layers of robes and cannonball into the pool whenever the professor said it was time to use the pool. That’s what it was there for, right? Surely there wouldn’t be a pool here if they weren’t going to be allowed to swim in it. Unless the pool was acting as a sort of a safety net so people didn’t run their brooms straight into the ground. Either way, Dev was ready to get to the fun stuff. Enough of sitting around and talking about diving, he was ready to get practical experience!

Admittedly Devin understood more about the mechanics of flying of dragons than how the principles of flight applied to broomsticks, but the risk of hitting the ground in a dive was an obvious one here. ”To safely perform the dive and pull up, it’s important to understand how fast your broom is going, how close to the ground you are, and how quickly your broom can respond to changes in direction so you can pull up before hitting the ground.” Wouldn’t want to wait too long to pull up on some janky old broom that took forever to respond.