Atlas was feeling PRETTY good about this lesson right now. Sure, it wasn't jumping off the roof with towel capes...but this was pretty fun. And, since he was a first year, none would be the wiser if he went splashing into the pool. Couldn't do things right the first time if you had no experience, right? Right. And if broomsticks turned out to be anything like his wand's behavior this term...well...Atlas wasn't going to have to try too hard at failing.

So Atlas, who was a natural swimmer and had learned at an early age thanks to one Minerva Darling, had taken his school broom and was waiting in the queue for the HIGHEST diving board when...they showed up.

The Hoods™

Suddenly all the joy and excitement the Gryffindor had had about this lesson was drained from his slender 11-year-old body, possibly making him appear thinner than he already was. Why...why did they have to be here? Why did they have to be in everything? IT WAS NOT CONDUCTIVE TO A PRODUCTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT! And they made him want to wet his trousers.

At least there was a pool ...

Atlas was still waiting when all the explosions started...and all he could see were flashes of green light. Green light and bodies falling...

...bodies falling....

...he nearly screamed though, thankfully, no sound came out as his mouth hung open in an attempt to do just that. "....Q-Q-Quinn...." He was literally holding his breath until his friend resurfaced and only then did Atlas realize he had been holding it in the first place. Bernie's splash into the pool...somehow...made him feel a little better too.

What did not make him feel much better was what the professor announced...though the blonde's head was spinning with WHY he may be doing that (unaware of the man's blood status). And, truth be told, if his own life were on the line and those men were pointing their wands at him like that...Atlas would very likely be spitting out the same lies. He just..he just could not red shirt. He had to find dad ... he had to keep Aries safe ... he had to see mum again ... he had to marry Minerva Darling ... and he had to have his heart broken by one Phoebe James by the end of term.

You know.. priorities.

Someone pushed him from behind, telling him to get a move on up the ladder and that it was his turn. Despite still having a broom in hand, Atlas had no real intention of trying and as soon as he mounted the broom and 'kicked off'... the first year was in a free fall that was ANYTHING but controlled. Really...it looked more like he was performing somersaults. Just, instead of a normal person, he was hugging the broom with his legs and arms. He did make a show of pulling up on the handle...but the end result was that Atlas made a big SPLASH into the pool, bum and broom bristles first.

Quinn hadn't seen Atlas's reaction to the Inquisitorial Squad—he was too busy being annoyed and falling annoyedly into the pool. Some of the others had jumped into the pool, and they seemed to be having a lot of fun with it, actually. That gave Quinn a smile, at least.

What took that smile off his face was his friend pretty much free-falling into the pool with a broom. Quinn shielded his face from the splash, then waded over to where Atlas landed. "Atlas? Are you alright?"

So that first attempt of hers... hadn't gone so well. While she hadn't ended up in the water, she also hadn't managed to grab a ping pong ball. It was okay though, she just had to keep trying. She had a set goal in mind, by the end of the lesson she wanted at least one successful Dive and Pull-Up that resulted in her holding a ping pong ball.

With her goal in mind and the idea of attempting the maneuver from a higher diving board, Dahlia climbed the ladder when it was her turn. Roughly halfway up, there was a flash of light and several explosions. It all had happened so quickly that by the time she realized what was going on, she also noticed she hadn't moved from her place on the ladder. Brooms were gone and classmates had fallen into the pool or on the ground. Even Aguilar's broom was gone?

It wasn't until she heard the Professor speak that she fully understood. All muggleborns had their brooms destroyed. She bit her lip when they were given the instructions to continue onward with the lesson. Anything she might be feeling didn't matter right now. Lia tried hard not to let her gaze settle on anything but the ping pong balls floating on the waters surface as she slowly made her way to the top of the diving board.

Mounting the broom and kicking off harder than was likely necessary, Lia gripped the broom tightly, angled it downwards and took off. This dive was different from the previous one, for one thing she was going a lot fast and the water was rushing up towards her quickly. Now wasn't the time to be afraid. Trust the broom, stay focused.

Blue eyes trained on the prize in the form of a small ball. Reaching her hand out she closed her fingers around it quickly, pulling up on the broom with a little more force than intended. The sudden upwards motion surprising her so much that as a result when she tried to even it out she ended up sideways. What was she doing?!

Dahlia twisted herself in the opposite direction trying to spin in a circle so she was upright. Spinning was NOT a good idea! How she didn't crash into the side of the pool and into the water she didn't know... so would've taken that over the ground, which is exactly where she ended up. Laying there on her back staring up at the sky, still holding onto the broom with one hand and the small ball in her other.

Don't mind her. She was just going to lay here for a second and catch her breath.

As soon as the wands were lifted away from him, Aguilar rushed toward the students, stepping on what used to be his broomstick in his haste. He was disgusted with himself for what he said, and could feel the children staring at him in shock. They would think of him as a traitor, but he would still do everything within his power to protect them. A quick survey of the students' injuries told him there was one broken arm, many stinging hands, many more hurt feelings. Many crashes, all of whom managed to recover except one, who lay on her back on the ground. He pulled out his wand with the unaffected hand and sent a silver, translucent Nebelung back to the castle. "Don't be foolish, Miss Fox. Stay here and wait for the healer," he said in a low voice as he pulled Ashley away from the pool gingerly, then went over to kneel beside Dahlia. "Miss Donovan, are you alright?"

. . .

After tending to the injured, he had a few more minutes to observe variations of diving that not even D'Orazio could have imagined. There were some more outstanding dive & pull ups, while some pulled up too soon to catch a ping pong ball and others waited too long and plunged into the pool. Also, y'know ... many kids were now diving without a broom. And somehow, free falling even with a broom. "Stay focused, Mr Flamsteed," he said, unaware of the first year's true intention.

When it was time to move on, the flying instructor vanished the ping pong balls and summoned the wooden crate that had been standing by the blackboard. "Everyone feeling alright? Let's see if you can apply your dive & pull up skill to Quidditch." With a sigh, he opened the crate to reveal the standard Quidditch balls: a Quaffle, two Bludgers and not one but FIVE Golden Snitches. "Spread out and form a circle over the pool. First, pass the Quaffle to one another. Not too hard, it's just for you to warm up. Every few minutes, you will hear the sound of a whistle and these five Snitches will appear near the water surface. You will need to dive & pull up to catch any of the five balls. It will be more challenging than the practice you just had, because this ball moves quickly and you will have competitors, just like in a Quidditch match. Note that some Snitches will be visibly easier to catch than others, so if you don't yet feel confident performing the manoeuvre, I advise you to aim for those."

"You guys," he turned to the broom-less children clambering out of the pool and felt a pang of guilt, "will continue to dive the Muggle way and swim over to catch a Snitch. You can make your way to the diving board - the lowest one - and get ready while the others are passing the Quaffle."

Ignoring the Bludgers straining to escape their straps (they didn't need any more injuries in this lesson), Aguilar took out the bright red Quaffle and tossed it to the nearest student still with a broom. "You may begin."

OOC: I will release the first round of Snitches in 24 hours or slightly earlier. For now, have your characters pass the Quaffle to one another and wait to dive in!

Ash sighed. Stupid bones. Of course, it was not their fault that her arm was broken. But if her bones were titanium, she wouldn't break them as much. And at the rate she was going, they would NEED to replace her bones with titanium. THANK YOU professor, for pulling Ash away from the pool, because otherwise she would have an even worse break. On the other hand, if she wasn't jumping, that made her a target. So Ash stood there, the picture of unease, her arm hanging by her side. This sucked. She didn't get to use a broom, she didn't get to go swimming, and she had to stand here and hope nobody killed her before the healer showed up. LAMEEEE. Ash would not be so calm though, if the adrenaline wore off.

Quinn was not a fan of being in his wet clothes. While it hadn't yet reached the freezing temperatures of winter, the fall weather was still brisk and not that good if your clothes were waterlogged. He clambered back onto the diving board, hugging himself for a bit of warmth and waiting for the Snitches to be released. He didn't even dream of catching one, though.

At this point, Gabriela was expecting a patronus at her office...well, pretty much every time class was in session. Which was every day. So when Aguliar's patronus showed up - she wasn't exactly surprised.

Why were there no more time turners? If anyone needed one, it was her!

"Camilo...where do you need me?" she asked as she approached the class, bundled up in her best pea coat with the boots she'd thrown on when she realized she'd be going OUTSIDE because you could be fashionable while saving lives. No nonsense, straight to the point as always.

Turns out, she didn't need him to answer. Her eyes fell first upon Ashley, whose arm was...not right. Definitely broken. Welp, better start there. "Miss Fox! Why are you just standing there waiting to get hurt MORE?" she called out to her, beckoning for her to come over to her. "Come here, let's fix that arm up," she told her.

Honestly, she didn't notice anyone had come up behind her until she heard her name. The little Gryffindor startled at Cece's words before turning to face her. Slowly, then all at once and quickly, Emm shook her head. "I can't. I can't." She didn't want to and felt pretty invisible right now with the Professor moving the class without requiring her to do anything.

That was what she would continue to do. Nothing.

"What if I fall?" Like some had. She didn't CARE there was a pool, she didn't wanna fall at all. "I feel sick." Nauseous. Lightheaded. Brooms were not her friend.

Emm listened to the Professor give his new instructions then she looked back at her older friend. "Can I ride yours with you? Please? I don't weigh much and I won't fidget much--I'll hang on tight and everything."[/b]

Cece looked to Professor Aguilar, nervous for him and for her classmates and now for Emm, who was hesitating. It was worse now that they were moving on, and the blonde didn't want to be caught up here like this by the hooded minion guys. That wasn't an option.

"You're okay," She paused, debating for only a moment before making her decision. "Yeah, alright. Just-just hand me your broom and get on, okay?" Cece scooted forward some to make room for the younger girl. "Whatever you do, don't let go. I'll get us to the ground safely." It was a promise.

Ash limped/walked over to the healer, one hand in her pocket, and the other one... definitely not in her pocket. Just like limp. "The other option was diving into a pool with a broken arm, and I liked this option better." She presented her right arm. First of all there were random bruises on it. Also, there was a stinging thing on her hand. And also, her arm was broken. Happens when somebody uses the wizard equivalent of an anti-aircraft on your broom in mid-flight, causing you to fall from more than ten feet and land on your arm. This was honestly ridiculous. The gash on her arm from over the summer had just healed, leaving a big scar. Her bruises from the first day of school had just faded. And now this.

THis was predictable though. Ash should have gone to the hospital wing wayyyy before today. She should have gone on the first day. But, well, she was here now. Could Ash go a whole month without ending up in an emergency? Nope.

You know how Claudine said she even felt sorry for Bernadette? Well, watching the Gryffindor out of the corner of her eyes, she felt even more so {even if Bernadette seemed to be happy to paddle about}. “Should I offer to help her dry off?” she wondered but then quickly dismissed the thought. The Hoods were likely to dispose of her the way they did the broomsticks. She averted her eyes to Professor Handsome Face instead. Just look at him caring for the students. He was awfully kind, wasn’t he?

After what seemed like hours of her watching the other students do their things, the lesson was moving on. Bye bye, ping pong balls. Was she feeling alright. In a manner of speaking. Anyway. As for those instructions? Claudine understood them. Oh, oh oh! Mr. handsome Face threw the Quaffle to her. Smirking slightly, and on her broomstick again, she took up a position over the pool.

The fifth year used her right hand to throw the Quaffle randomly to the student directly opposite to her.

Passing the Quaffle and diving to catch Snitches sounded like an awful lot of fun for those lucky students whom the Hood Squad hadn't robbed of the opportunity to learn to fly better. If they had been less scary, Mamie would have put up a fight about being here to learn and equal opportunities and all.

But, they were scary, so she contented herself to some huffing and puffing as she climbed back to the top of the 10 foot diving board, still favoring her stingy palm that was holding the broom earlier.

And now she waited behind Quinn, ready to dive into the pool for the snitch as soon as Aguilar blew his whistle. She shivered, still damp from her previous broom-less dive. It was windier 10 feet up than on the ground. Was that normal?

Oh. So. That was how it was gonna be? Blinking water out of her eyelashes, Bernie was JUST getting herself psyched up to learn more about Quidditch, because she had never, in all her life, even TOUCHED one of those balls, when the professor announced that the Muggleborn kids... got to go stand around the pool.

Wow. Awesome.

She tried to hide the look of disappointment and hurt as she shuffled back to the pool, reluctantly climbing up to stand behind Mamie. Oh, Mamie! Why did Bernie suddenly think about swimming with her in Hogwarts' new pool last year? Something was coming to mind.....

Eh, no, she couldn't remember it. Musta been from The Time She Was Possessed.

Charlie hated this. Honestly she wasn't too sure what would be worse at this point, diving form the diving board or continuing on the broom. Both were her least favorite choice of either activity but here she was. Floating in the air with the other students still with a broom she watched as the Quaffle was caught by Claudine. Oh boy, it was coming at her, why her? Couldn't she have just been skipped over? Trying to stay upright and in the air she took a deep breath..... Hey it was in her arms against her chest, she didn't drop it, didn't fall, maybe she wasn't so bad at this after all.

Taking the quaffle in her right hand she tried to get the ball to the next person and hoped that she wouldn't have to make them dive

"Those who need to see Healer Recard, please form an orderly line here," he called out, hoping no one's injury was too serious.

OOC: Feel free to RP your character seeing the healer. Keep in mind that timeline-wise, they would have been treated before beginning the main activity.


. . .

With the ones on brooms focusing on the Quaffle pass and the Muggle-borns waiting on the diving board, he thought it was time to release the Snitches. He blew his whistle and waved his wand, so that the five small golden balls popped up in different areas over the pool.

Snitch #1 appeared a few feet above water and simply hovered in place.

Snitch #2, also a couple feet above water, did a series of loop-the-loops in the same position.

Snitch #3 zooooomed across the water at high speed.

Snitch #4 went bouncing off the water like a skipping stone.

Snitch #5 seemed to hover above the pool, then flew under the water playfully. Will you dive in to catch it?

OOC: Your character can dive to catch any of these, but please do not RP the outcome. I will use a random generator to determine who catches each Snitch - all characters who are described as diving (or swimming) successfully will have equal chance of catching it, so it's fair for everyone!

It took FOREVER for it to be Aries' turn - though it was mostly because he had seen Atlas free falling into the pool and had fallen on the ground laughing. It was quite the sight - and everything was FUN --- until brooms started exploding and everyone looked like dementors were sucking the life out of them.

ABYSMAL.

All of it.

Regardless, he had made the dive - and while it had not been as chaotic as Atlas' - it was still messy, though he had managed to stay on his broom and then also managed to catch the quaffle as it came his way. This was supposed to be fun. Why was nothing at hogwarts fun at alll?????

Passing the quaffle to the next person a little too aggressively - Aries TRIED to focus on the task at hand - and as soon as the professor's whistle blew - he zoooomed, and then abruptly made a dive - aiming to catch the snitch that was bouncing off the water like a skipping stone.

Though ....... obviously almost at once he found himself crashing into the first person that came his way.

Huh?

Dahlia stared up into the face of Aguilar who had knelt down beside her. "I'm okay, Professor. I got one of the ping pong balls," she held up the ball that was clutched tightly in the palm of her hand. "I should really work on my landings though." This was meant to lighten the mood just a tad bit and was said with a tiny smile. "I don't recommend landing on your back at all." Good thing she hadn't been all that high off the ground and only had the wind knocked out of her.

It was time to get moving, laying on the ground like a target couldn't happen. Dahlia sat up and than rose to her feet, grabbing the broom that had landed beside her. Shaking off the bad landing, she once again mounted the broom, kicked off and joined the rest of the class... well those that could anyhow.

Watching the Quaffle got tossed around, Lia caught it as best she could, only wobbling a tiny bit on her broom. It was then tossed towards to the person next to her in the circle.

The sound of a whistle caught her attention and blue eyes instantly began looking for one of the snitches she knew were just released. There was one bouncing across the surface of the water, that's the one she wanted. Not seeing anyone else going for it, Lia angled her broom downwards and held on tightly as she dove for it. Keeping her eyes trained on the snitch she watched it bounce off the water once, twice...

There it was, not to far now. The water rose up to meet her faster and faster. Dahlia reached out her hand to grab the snitch just as it hit the waters surface to hop across it once again. This was also the same time she gave a small upwards pull on the broom to level out and not crash into the water.

This would have worked had it not been for the simple fact that as she pulled up on the broom, someone else was coming downwards on theirs. Her eyes widened as she collided with Aries, the water breaking her fall.

Quinn, standing atop the diving board, looked down at the Snitches in the water. He figured, well, since he was already wet and was going to be diving into the pool anyway... might as well try for the Snitch who was underwater, right?

Quinn watched as it swam around, waited for it to get relatively close, and then jumped into the pool, arms outstretched to grab it.

Cecelia Summers was officially her hero and all Emmerson could do was wibble her appreciation before nodding along.She could do that, yeah. "Thanks Cece." Emm extended her broom and got ready to hop on the back of her friend's when she heard her name.

...Dangit.

The Gryffindor felt sure it was time to panic. Any minute now, Professor Aguilar was going to ask her to dive like she was meant and not waste his time. The 12-year-old braced for it, already ready with an excuse...but then he said she could come down. Mind you, this still could've meant she needed to start over but he told Cece to join the circle...not her.

So....she didn't have to join the circle????

"I'm glad you would've." Emm muttered to the older girl, unexpectedly relieved to know she COULD have counted on someone. Cecelia got a hug before the girl slung the broom over her shoulder and proceeded to climb down. She walked meekly over to the Professor, big green eyes apologetic before she even spoke. "I'm sorry, Sir."

After Charlotte took possession of the Quaffle, Claudine watched it being passed back and forth among the others. A few times it returned to her and she caught it, though in one instance, she almost dropped it. However, there was a nice save with her catching the ball with just the tips of her fingers and was able to throw it off to someone else.

Then came the shrill, piercing sound of Professor Handsome Face’s whistle and the snitches were off.

Speaking of off… the classmates were too, starting off with a collision. Ouch. A quick survey told her that Quinn was headed for the ball that had gone underwater. Claudine decided to go after the one showing off its loop-the loop skills.

Down, down, down she went, eyes completely focused on the targeted snitch and her hand outstretched.

The healer there did not make them happy. This was not some empathy for muggles class and these children should not be showed any mercy. The one with the quill started taking more notes while the other holding his wand (cherry and dragon heartstring, 9 inches) moved closer to the healer to watch that she wasn't getting out of line. His wand pointed to not try anything funny.

Hearing the professor's words there was a grunt from the quilled figure and soon his wand was back out. With a flick the pool was deflating and water going everywhere, most likely students floating out of the pool as well. "Mudbloods don't play quidditch, they don't need snitches." Plus in his notes there was marks of using muggle objects in a magical class.

This was, in a word, unfortunate.

When Quinn started his dive, he had a nice, deep pool of water to break his fall.

In the blink of an eye, the pool was rapidly deflating, water spilling out the sides. Suddenly the nice, deep pool that would break his fall wasn't so nice and deep.

Quinn twisted in the air, evidently less worried about catching a Snitch than he was about not swan diving into the ground; now he would be bracing the fall with his shoulder rather than his face. He hit the maybe-foot of water left first and the ground almost immediately after with a nice splash-thud and an "Agh!" He hissed with pain and clutched his right shoulder as tears stung his eyes.

He had some choice words he was using in his head for the injury and the hooded people that he'd heard his parents use on occasion.

Honestly, Cece was pretty relieved when Aguilar asked Emmerson to come down on her own. Not that she thought she couldn't have managed to fly them both down, it was just she was nervous about being called out for it in front of the wand-happy hooded peeps. Who knew what kinds of things they were reporting back to Rosier and which things would make the guy go all hex-happy on them. It felt like the littlest thing might set that guy off and Cece had made a promise not to get herself hurt if she could help it.

Emmerson got a squeeze and as soon as she was sure the younger girl was safely on her way down from the diving board, Cece kicked off and started her descent...only to see the pool being deflated. UHHH...

She pulled up, looking to Professor A to see what he was going to do next. She hadn't needed the water as a cushion, but some of her classmates clearly had, and now the muggleborns wouldn't even be able to participate at all. And that word had been said again. It made her frown. Yikes.

Violet had been brooding as she (mostly) caught and threw the Quaffle. These hooded people were a bunch of cowards, attacking a bunch of untrained school children--did they think that made them look big? Because it didn't. And that nonsense about Muggles stealing magic from wizards and witches was ridiculous--unscientific, as Miss Howard used to call it. If Muggles didn't have magic, then how could they possibly steal someone else's magic? Muggleborns were a result of complicated genetics--Miss Howard had explained it to her once, but it was too detailed for Violet to remember it all. But Miss Howard knew what she was talking about--she always did. Violet became angrier and angrier the more she thought about all this until she suddenly realized she'd been throwing the Quaffle harder and harder and nearly hit a student across the pool from her in the head. Unnerved, she stepped back slightly, to avoid catching the Quaffle for a few turns--they certainly didn't need any more injuries! Violet needed to get herself under control.

Suddenly, there was the whistle, and there were the Snitches. Great, Violet couldn't even properly dive and catch a ping pong ball yet, she doubted very much she would be able to catch a Snitch. She saw that some of them were just hovering above the water and determined to make a try at one of those--no sense in making things more complicated for herself.

Violet kicked off from the pool and flew into the air about twelve feet, then tilted her broom down at what she hoped was the correct angle this time, and made her dive toward one of the easier Snitches, hoping she would not end up in the water again.

Bernie getting in line behind her on the diving board was enough distraction for Mamie to miss the whistle from Aguilar. Did she really have to be in the pool at the same time as this girl who had tried to drown her less than a year ago? She looked distrustingly at the Gryffindor, a look that was very out of place on Mamie's face. Maybe she should let Bernie go first...

Then a whole bunch was happening.

The pool was deflating, and Quinn was falling toward it, and then- he landed and it looked like it hurt and Mamie shrieked involuntarily. She quickly clapped her hands over her mouth, trying not to draw any extra attention to herself from the Hood Squad. Good thing Recard was here already, she supposed. She took a few steps away from the edge of the diving board, right onto Bernie's feet. Could she climb down now? Flying Class wasn't fun with no brooms.