Claudine felt guilty and saddened as she watched Aguilar taking in responses. Her own words plagued her. Unhappily, she folded her legs under her and propped her elbows on each thigh. On each hand, she rested her chin. Her eyes were averted from anyone. Even when Aguilar spoke after everyone had given their answer, her eyes never raised. It wasn't until the demonstration time came around that her eyes shifted. Even then, they remained fixed on the student's broomstick

Broom surfacing?

Maybe that’ll cheer her up a bit? The poor muggleborns though… they couldn’t even enjoy the lesson. Claudine arranged her face into neutrality and as best that she could manage it, an uncaring expression then got to her feet, broomstick in hand. Not looking at anyone, she mounted the broom and kicked off. Higher and higher, bit by tiny bit, she rose, the broomstick steady.

Claudine just couldn’t bring herself to stand yet though. She didn’t feel focused enough.

Violet was startled out of her glum reverie by the teacher's next instructions. Seriously?? STAND UP on a moving broom?!!!? Was he crazy???!!! Violet could barely sit on a broom and get it off the ground. She glanced at some of the Muggle-born students who were beginning to sweep and wished she were one of them today.

And---the teacher who was supposed to instruct them in flying wasn't even allowed to get a broom himself? Could no one running the school see how ridiculous that was?! It was like these people lived in an alternate universe or something.

Well, better get this over, get this whole class over, and go off somewhere she could be alone and not have to control her facial expressions for a little while. Violet stood up reluctantly and prepared to mount her broom and make what she was sure would be a very bad attempt at broom surfing.

Mamie tried not to listen to the other students' answers about how purebloods blah blah and Muggleborns blah blah were terrible. She was, however, watching Aguilar, and he looked so uncomfortable. Maybe she shouldn't have used the bad word for Muggleborn. She wanted to give him a hug and tell him it was going to be okay. Sure, that was probably a lie, but sometimes lying was okay. She thought this was one of those times.

Her sadness turned to i n d i g n a t i o n, however, when Aguilar announced he was teaching BROOM SURFING and everybody but the Muggleborns would get to try it. That! Was not! Fair!

She crossed her legs and pouted during the demonstration, but paid close attention so she could try it later. It was one thing to spout off the Muggleborns are worthless nonsense during class answers. She didn't have to be happy about missing out, though.

She clambered angrily off the ground and grabbed one of the ancient Muggle brooms. They looked like they belonged in a museum. She gave it a few jerky sweeps here and there, then looked longingly towards that little Gryffindor first year Atlas as he flew above the ground. It hurt her soul to have found something to replace swimming as her favorite activity, and then have it taken away like this. Watching the other students fly...they looked so happy on their little brooms. Her anger simmered away and she was left with sadness and a useless broom damp with tears.

Mamie glanced back at Aguilar, sniffling. Did...did they really have to sweep the ground? It was always going to be dirty because...the ground was made of dirt. Shocker.

After he finished setting up for the main activity, there was still some time left for the students to practise. He meant it when he said both sweepers and surfers needed practice in preparation for the next exercise. “Ten more minutes,” he called out wearily.

OOC: 14 hours left for the mini activity. ^_^

Quinn watched silently as the Professor showed him how to sweep properly, and then asked one of the older kids to help him. He thought this was pretty stupid, if you asked him. But he didn't want to say that to the Professor. It would be rude. "Professor, I'm sorry, but I really just don't see the point in this. I mean... what's the use? We're outside, so.... it's going to just be dirty. Outside is dirty."

Dahlia's focus was kept solely on the broom she was sat upon. Looking at anyone else wasn't going to happen. She was very much aware of those that were sweeping the ground and those on brooms also flying. Paying attention to any of them though wasn't going to do her any good right now. All her focus had to be on the broom and she couldn't afford to end up crying.

Slowly she angled her broom upwards to fly a little higher, also flying as far away from anyone else as she was able to. Crashing into anyone today was not an option. There was enough on her mind and she was distracted all on her own.

Lia spent a few minutes simply flying back and forth getting used to the broom. When she thought she was ready enough, she slid her hands forward on the handle of the broom. Very slowly she moved from sitting to trying to stand. Both feet had barely been on the broom before she was falling very ungracefully onto the cushioned ground beneath her, the broom landing close by.

Well that hadn't gone as planned at all. Sitting up, she grabbed the broom and got to feet. This was going to take awhile.

Hone their sweeping skills…..

That was it. Minjae threw the ordinary broom beside him on the ground aggressively . He had complied with the Alliance’ all this time in the hope that it would put him in a bit of a good light. Show them that everyone here was worthy of magic but it never got any better. In fact, it all turned worse as each day passed by for the Muggleborns and he was done with the mistreatment. That’s because there is NO point to this” he finally snapped. The last time that had happened had been on the second school day in Schmoe’s office . The fact that he had stayed calm this long was impressive enough considering the emotional stress he had been under . ”Except for reminding us that our bloodline is nothing more than the dirt we have to sweep, am i right? ” His hands were trembling as he did his best to calm himself down. He got accepted to study MAGIC at Hogwarts NOT to sweep these bloody grounds like some house elf. He understood that it wasn't the man's fault but he needed someone to blame here.

It wasn’t Handsome Face's fault; he didn’t distract her. Maybe she needed to be jolted out of her thoughts to get back into the game. Because… who knew if there were Hoods lurking about and observing. Claudine’s head jerked in Aguilar’s direction and she gave him a half hearted thumbs up. She knew that there would be no danger if she fell because of the Cushioning Charm that covered the ground but it still didn’t make her any less nervous.

But this Slytherin wasn’t going to let a little fear get the best of her. She took a deep breath and shook her head briefly as though shaking off all her thoughts. Right. This could be done, all she needed to do was to focus. Claudine slowed the broomstick’s pace slightly then carefully moved it into a horizontal position; she averaged that as best as could be.

Here went nothing.

Claudine slowly started to climb to her feet, holding onto the broomstick’s handle before her briefly. As she stood more and more, the handle was released. Knees bent? Yes, they were. Arms out for balance? Also yes. Hey, she could actually do th---

Oh no. Oh no. Oh no no no no no.

Suddenly, her arms started to flail as she lost balance but it was useless. A second later Claudine tumbled from the broomstick, rolled a few feet then came to a halt on her back. The girl squeezed her eyes shut then opened them, looking up at the sky. There had been success at broom surfing for what? One second? Half a second?

Bernie did agree with the others like her who were pointing out the pointlessness of this activity. But also unlike them, she was a little bit off in Bernieland, humming a tune (more than likely it was from Cinderella, let's be honest) as she pretended to sweep.

She was no stranger to chore time, but she was very good at looking busy and yet not actually accomplishing anything at all.

Violet kicked off the ground again, after four or five failed attempts at broom surfing. She was tired of this lesson and very tired indeed of falling. Even with the cushioning charms on the ground, she had managed to whack her elbow on her broom once on her way down and it was beginning to throb. And flying, never all that easy for her at the best of times, was made more difficult by the distraction of seeing some of her classmates forced to do manual labor sweeping up the ground. Violet could not wait for this class to end.

She had got her broom straightened out and flying more or less steadily along the ground and tried yet once more to stand on it. This time she at least managed to get up into a sort of crouch and stayed there for a few minutes before falling off, so she guessed that was progress of a sort.

Aguilar wanted to give the broom surfers some more time to practise, but it was time to move on to the next part of the lesson. He blew his whistle and signalled for everyone to listen up. “Now that you have a basic idea of how to perform your broom skill, you are going to try it with some additional challenges.”

While the students were practising, he had set up miniature Quidditch goalposts at one end of the Training Grounds. A large and mean-looking(?) rubbish bin stood behind the hoops. The flying instructor opened the crate by his feet: in it were a number of bright red Quaffles. “Broom surfing is an interesting strategy often employed by chasers. Pure-bloods and half-bloods, you will start from the opposite end of the grounds, broom surf with a Quaffle and attempt to get it through one of the hoops. It will be more difficult to balance when you are holding a ball, so remember to look ahead, keep your knees bent and remain focused. If you were unsuccessful with your surfing practice earlier, you can stay seated on your broom while making your way down to the goalposts. At a few feet before the hoops, I will cast a braking charm on your broom, after which you can attempt to stand up and get the Quaffle through a hoop.”

He then flicked his wand at the rubbish bin behind the goalposts. It made a retching sound and vomited some “Muggle rubbish”, also known as perfectly normal balls used in Muggle sports. A basketball popped out of the bin, followed by a tennis ball, baseball, soccer ball, volleyball and so on so that the grounds were now littered with all kinds of balls. “Muggle-borns, you will apply your sweeping skill to clean up this, er, rubbish. Choose one of these balls and sweep it all the way across the field, through a hoop, into the bin.” A tiny bit like hockey … that was what he was aiming for, anyway.

They would find out that the rubbish bin was anti-Muggle too - it would swallow all Muggle sports balls and belch loudly, but cough out precious Quaffles.

“You are all encouraged, but not required, to work with a partner or in a group and pass the ball to one another while surfing or sweeping. The ones who score the most number of goals will receive a small prize!”

“Oh, and expect another obstacle in about twenty minutes, when you get used to the activity.”

OOC: You can RP your own outcomes according to your character’s ability and effort + the chosen ball’s weight etc. This main activity will end on February 10 (Wednesday).

SPOILER!!: question 2 catch-up

Heath nodded in reply to the professor. Despite his fear of actual flying, he found the topic of broom design rather interesting. Maybe this would turn out okay after all… or not. Just when he was beginning to enjoy this lesson, Aguilar asked that question, the kind of question that made his blood run cold and his heart race. He didn’t like insulting his classmates. He’d been bullied too many times in his life to want to do that to anyone else, especially not for something as petty as their blood status. It wasn’t in him to judge others for their blood status. “Others” being the key word in that sentence, as he’d grown to genuinely hate his own halfblood roots over the past few months.

He really did not want to answer that question! He had a nasty habit of saying the wrong thing when he tried to force himself to go against his nature, and he was afraid of what the consequences of misspeaking would be. But he was even more afraid of the consequences of staying silent, and emotional distress made him even more likely to misspeak. It was a vicious cycle. Ugh, why did he have such a hard time playing the part of a “real” wizard?! He was supposed to be an actor, for Merlin’s sake! Taking a deep breath, he finally raised his hand and said flatly, “Real wizards invented flying and have perfected it over the centuries. We can’t continue inventing and improving flying techniques if we don’t learn about them.”

Heath kept his head down, so as not to accidentally lock eyes with anyone his words may have insulted and so his eyes wouldn’t betray his true feelings. If anyone were to look into his eyes right now, they would see a frightened boy doing what he had to do to keep himself and his girlfriend safe. With his eyes locked firmly on the ground in front of him, he didn’t notice Aguilar struggling not to cry, and it was a good thing that he didn’t. If he had, it probably would’ve made him cry too!

It was only when he heard the topic of the lesson that Heath reluctantly looked up. Wait, why did Aguilar need a-? Oh. He had no idea that the professor was muggleborn, and now he felt even worse about the things he said. As terrified as he was of broom surfing (and flying in general), he felt he needed to do something to apologize to the professor, so he volunteered for the demonstration. His heart was practically pounding out of his chest the entire time, but he followed Aguilar’s instructions to the letter and somehow managed to complete the demonstration without falling off his broom. Whew!

Okay, that was… not as scary as he thought it would be. He felt a little more confident about practicing broom surfing now that he (sort of) already did it. Now he just had to do it again without the professor’s help. Mounting his school broom, he kicked off from the ground and flew a few feet into the air… not too high, just in case he fell off his broom. He hovered in place for a few minutes, attempting to both steady his broom and pluck up the courage to try standing.

Heath slowly got to his feet, knees bent, and almost immediately wobbled. He held his arms out to the sides, just as Aguilar had shown him in the demonstration, and managed to steady himself just in time. Whoa, he was actually doing it! Or not… His arms waved about wildly as he wobbled again, but this time it wasn’t enough to help him regain his balance. He slipped off the broom, landing on the cushioned ground below. Let’s try that again!

OOC: I don't think anybody else already claimed to be the demonstration volunteer. Let me know if I missed anything!

Keep her feet further apart. Aguilar might not have seen it but Dahlia did nod her head and give a very quick 'thumbs up' at the tip. Whether or not it would work, well that simply depended on her ability to get BOTH of her feet planted down onto the broom before she fell. It was all about balance. With enough pra-

Nuuuuuuuuu!

How could they be moving on to an activity already? She hadn't even been able to stand up on her broom yet. How was she expected to broom surf ALL the way across the grounds while holding onto a Quaffle AND toss it through one of those goalposts? Yes, she heard the part about flying sat down but... that just defeated the entire purpose of the lesson, didn't it?

Alright. Whatever happened, happened. It was at least worth trying. Dahlia went to get a red Quaffle before doing anything else. "Anyone want to work together?" She wasn't the best flier around or the worse...and she hadn't been able to broom surf yet but the determination was there.

Ohhhh. So they were supposed to sweep the sports balls into the trash. Why do that when you could do it cooler. She kicked one ball into the air and used the broom handle to smack it into the goal. Mad skillz. She used the handle of her broom to make another ball go closer to the goal, where she lined up another shot. She really wanted to score the most goals here. As a muggleborn with no broom. It would make a point.

Neo Alliance ideals....

Minjae stared right back at the Professor. His own eyes were raging with anger before they changed to disappointment and then sadness. He didn’t comply with picking up the broom immediately because he wanted to do nothing more than to leave class, go to an empty classroom and either cry or trash the place (and repair it afterwards cause he wasn't like SOMEONE) until he felt better. But he also didn’t want the professor to get in to trouble with the Alliance. He stared back for a couple seconds longer before his eyes wavered and he looked away.

Without a word, the hufflepuff picked up the broom and stomped away. Let the world know that he was very emotional right now. He also wasn’t in the mood to help a little first year how to sweep the ground. Five year olds could do that. Sorry Quinn.

He wasn't sweep the ground either. He refused to. Instead, he looked up at the halfblood and pureblood students as they attempted to surf on their brooms. He was proud to be muggleborn but times like these he envied the rest. Broom surfing had been on his wanted to learn list and now that he finally had a chance it had been taken away from him. It was unfair!

At sound of the whistle, Minjae looked over as the Professor signaled them together. Holding the non-magical broom in his hand, the hufflepuff looked over at the miniature quidditch goal posts and at the rubbish bin behind it. The sound that the bin made was disgusting and he hated it. Must be another IDEAL idea of that stupid cult leader.

The activity for the muggleborns wasn’t…..it wasn’t THAT bad. Of course he preferred to fly on a broom than playing ordinary hockey but this way he could target his anger at the balls. He didn’t play hockey but how hard was it to sweep a ball to the other side of the field?

Claudine didn’t think that Aguilar would think too much of her flying skills when he saw her bounce and roll. Not that she had much in that department. Oh Well. The main thing was, she wasn’t hurt; physically nor egotistically. Claudine scrambled to her feet, retrieved the broomstick which had been a few feet away from her before padding over to the sound of the whistle.

What?

Aguilar wanted them to go ahead with additional challenges? Like broom surfing hadn’t been enough. Claudine glanced down at the Quaffles then over to the goalposts, taking in all the instructions. Oh man. Why did the Snakette suddenly envision herself with a Quaffle under an arm, barely broom surfing and not at all being able to aim for a hoop?

Could she just join the Muggleborns with their activity? Then again,that wouldn’t be a good idea. The Hoods might be watching. So Claudine grabbed a Quaffle and started down towards the opposite end of the grounds.

Mamie had watched quietly, barely moving her own broom but still technically sweeping, as Minjae and Quinn complained about their task. Alllll her feelings, they had nailed them. She found it interesting to see who spoke up and who kept their head down nowadays. It had been a long first half of the term.

She perked up somewhat as Aguilar explained they were going to be scoring goals, the "clean" wizards Quidditch-style, and the Muggleborns via sweeping. She had seen sports like this at the Muggle Olympics, so she thought she could do it pretty well.

She corralled a basketball with her broom and swept it a little ways down the field. They were supposed to work together, so...she glanced around for another Muggleborn she could pass it to. "Minjae, here!" she called, giving the ball a biiiiig push in his direction with her broom. Teamwork, right?

"I'll work with you, if you like, though I'm not very good," replied Violet. But she had noticed that Dahlia wasn't much better, so she figured that at least she wouldn't be embarrassed in front of the other girl. Violet bent down to pick up on of the Quaffles and walked back over to the other girl.

Lia was just about to mount the broom she was holding again when the slightly older girl offered to be partners. "That's okay, 'cause I'm not all that great either," she answered with a tiny giggle. If Violet had seen her failed attempts earlier she would already know that. "I'm Dahlia." Just in case she didn't know.

Now sitting on the broom, she kicked off and hovered a couple of feet off of the ground. "Do we both need one of these?," she gave a quick nod of her head at the Quaffle she was also holding in the crook of her arm, held against her chest. If they were working as a team why would they need two? Unless...

A thought fluttered into her head right then. Oh, dear Merlin... Wait... Nope, she vaguely recalled Aguilar only mentioned 'the ball'. As in one. So they really didn't need two. Unless they felt like challenging themselves. "I'm willing to give it a go with two though, if you want. We can pass them to each other at the same time." Not only would they be working on their flying skills but also catching and tossing.

"Ready?" Lia flew up a little higher, waiting for Violet to join her up in the air. "Are you going to surf or sit? I think I'm going to attempt surfing again." She really wanted to learn how before the lesson was over.

It was difficult...

The twigs on the broom were falling off with each hit against a ball and the Hufflepuff even felt a splinter get in to his hand. He winced at the feeling, momentarily stopping the activity to find the splinter and to pull it out. Stupid broom. Stupid Alliance. Stupid school. Stupid everything! He was so glad to graduate soon, just had to survive until that time came. Which proved to be quite difficult considering his temper lately.

Minjae spun around when he heard his name, trying to find whoever was calling him when he saw a basketball roll toward him. Readying himself, the Hufflepuff swept the broom backwards and when it was close he gave it a big push forward in the direction of Mamie but a bit in front of her which meant that she had to run if she wanted to get it. ”Pass it back!” He called out as he moved closer to the goal posts.

Ash picked up an football and threw it into the goals hard, imparting a nice spin on it. Did they KNOW how fun this was? It was great. This was going way better than she thought it would. She paused to do some cool soccer ball tricks. She kept it going for a good thirty seconds before she got bored and kicked it in the direction of the nearest muggleborn. Might as well let them have fun too. She gave the professor a smile and a thumbs up. Was this game his idea? If so, he was smart. If the alliance picked it, then they were pretty stupid. Muggle sports were AWESOME.

She was about to make herself look foolish, Claudine just sensed it. But what the heck? She was a quitter kinda gal. Already she was airborne, the red ball under her right arm. All the while as she was zooming towards the goalposts, the thought running through her mind was, “Why would anyone want to broom surf? To show off? For attention? Wouldn’t it just be easier to just sit on the broomstick like normal? Tricks on broomsticks were so stupid."

Claudine wasn’t about to let Aguilar cast a Braking Charm for her. No, she was determined to try this by herself even if she failed. And so very slowly, the girl began to stand, arms out on either sides of her to keep balance and knees bent. Still, nothing was enough. Claudine felt herself unbalancing and her arms started to flail until…

She fell right off the broomstick, tucking and rolling a few feet.

Yep. That Broom Surfing move was definitely more difficult with the ball in hand.

"Violet Blackthorne," Violet replied. "Oh, no, you're right," she said, looking down at her Quaffle, "I wasn't thinking, we only need the one." Violet tossed her Quaffle back in the box nearby and finished walking over to her new partner.

She was going to say more, but saw the girl--Dahlia, she said her name was--had already taken off. Sighing, Violet kicked off and rose in the air to meet her.

"Uh, I think I'm just going to sit for the first pass," Violet replied. She could neither pass a Quaffle nor broom surf properly at this point, she was not ready to try both of them together. She was tired of practicing Quidditch maneuvers, because it was very unlikely she would ever play the game. "And just a warning--when I do try to surf, I'll probably be falling off a lot."

Mamie felt vindicated when the older Hufflepuff was able to handle the basketball with his broom. If she could make a good pass with this 200-year-old-or-so Muggle broomstick, she decided she must have some innate broom skills. Maybe Aguilar was right and she really did just need to practice to become an excellent flier. It was too bad she was apparently no longer allowed to practice flying in flying class.

She scurried forward when she was Minjae passing the ball back to her, and pushed it ahead of her for a few steps with her broomstick. This was really difficult to do without tripping, though, so she swung the broom back and shoved it between Minjae and the trash bin. A whole bunch of bristles from the broom went flying with the basketball. "Okay, go!" she shouted, lifting her broom in the air once the basketball was clear. This was...still kind of fun, even if it wasn't flying. She'd still have preferred flying.

He briefly considered joining the Muggle-born students’ hockey game - since he could not fly, he might as well enjoy a game disguised as punishment! - but thought that the Neo-Alliance would get suspicious if he did. So he stood by the side and observed the students. It was quite chaotic with two completely different activities going on at the same time. Technically, it was nothing new, because students were always given multiple options of activities to choose from based on their experience and preference. But blood status being a factor that limited choice? That was exasperating.

Pacing back and forth, Aguilar nodded in encouragement at Heathcliff and Claudine who were concentrating on getting the manoeuvre right despite some unsuccessful attempts. His eyes next landed on Dahlia and Violet working together; he was interested in seeing how they would do, though he trusted that they would both put in real effort regardless of the outcome. He did a double take when he saw Ashley showing off some mad broom smacking skillz, followed by soccer ball tricks. Those were certainly not what he expected to see in this lesson! He was impressed and glad that she was making the most of this situation. Same with Minjae and Mamie, who were showing good cooperation with the basketball, though of course he would have loved to see them up in the air with everyone else. He was still bothered by what he said to the seventh year earlier about Neo-Alliance ideals … he could not forget his look of disappointment and sadness. Merlin, he shouldn’t have said that.

Back to his lesson plan. He had planned to introduce an additional obstacle at this point, but decided to simply give the broom surfers more time to practise instead.

Just then, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew from the end of the Training Grounds where the goalposts were. Oh well. THIS would be their extra challenge.

“You’re all doing a great job! Surfers, keep your weight on your front foot when you stand so that you don’t get blown away by the wind. Sweepers, make sure you remain in control of the ball, uh, the rubbish. You have ten minutes left!” He had to yell to be heard over the roaring wind.

OOC: The lesson will end in 24 hours!