Violet. That's right. Dahlia practically beamed when she had said her name. "After the flower or the color?" Both were lovely in her opinion. "That's alright, it's not a big deal." It only took seconds to return the unneeded Quaffle back to where it belonged. Oops? Maybe she should've waited for Violet before mounting her broom but she hadn't gone all that high and was only getting herself comfortable.

Dahlia nodded. "That sounds like a really good. After I toss it to you, then I'll attempt to stand and catch it when you toss it back to me." If she managed to even be able to stand up before that point. "I most likely will end up falling too so.. we can be bad at this together," she giggled softly.

"Are you ready, Violet?" This time Lia waited for a verbal confirmation from her new friend. When they were both ready she flew forward nice and steady, keeping her broom straight. "Get ready to catch..." Casting a quick glance over at Violet she made she the other girl was ready before tossing the Quaffle to her.

She couldn't wait to see whether or not it was actually caught because she was already adjusting her grasp on the broom handle and trying to stand up. Carefully. One foot and than too, feet further apart than earlier like Aguilar suggested. Keeping her knees bent she tried to stand up very slowly, arms out to the sides to help steady herself.

From the ground where she landed, Claudine felt the strong gusts and heard Aguilar’s voice over them. Great. Just great. Another challenge on top of the others. And still she was rubbish at this move. But was she going to give up? Not yet, but she had a feeling that if she didn’t do something properly soon, her frustration would make her start crying soon. It was frustrating being a frustration crier.

On her feet again and at the opposite end of the ground, Claudine lifted off again, ball under her arm, wind wind her eyes. She squinted, positive that some sort of dust or grain of soil from the ground was going to get into her eyes. Anyway.

Once again, she attempted to stand on the broomstick, her weight on her front foot. Was hse balancing using her hands? Yes. Closer and closer she got to the hoops… uh oh. The Snakette hastily threw the ball, aiming for the middle hoop. In throwing it, naturally Claudine lost her balance and went tumbling again.

But you know what?

At least the ball went through the hoop.

Progress!

Maybe Aguilar's encouragement helped.

Oh, dear, maybe she should have tried to stand after all--trying to catch a Quaffle while also trying to hold onto a broom was rather difficult. Her broom was travelling forward at a bit of a wobble, too.

And here it came--Violet veered to intercept it, nearly throwing herself off the boom, and quite unexpectedly actually caught the thing for once! She also overbalanced, however, and started sliding sideways around toward the underside of the broom. Desperate to free her hand, Violet managed to toss it back over to Dahlia, not bothering to look to see if the other girl was ready. But this was no time to be polite--Violet gripped her now-free hand back onto the broom handle, clamped hard with her legs, and tried with all her might to right herself before she slid right off.

Heath picked himself up, shaking his dark hair out of his eyes. He was about to mount his broom to try broom surfing again when Aguilar blew his whistle. What? They were moving on already? He stood in place, listening to the professor, and the first sentence may have gotten a slight smile from him. He wasn't sure if he'd call broom surfing "interesting", but he knew about its use for chasers, having seen his quidditch player brother perform the move before.

Broom in hand, he picked up a quaffle from the crate and made his way to the end of the grounds opposite the goal posts. His heart sank as he looked ahead. He had to broom surf all the way over there?! Merlin! He hadn't even succeeded at the first activity. Something told him he was going to be rubbish at this, more so than anything that came out of that bin, but he'd give it a go. It could be worse. At least it wasn't diving! This was something he could do from a height that wouldn't hurt him if he got blasted fell off his broom, and there were cushioning charms in place.

Heath mounted his broom and kicked off, rising a few feet. He'd use the braking charm method if he was still unsuccessful at broom surfing, but he wanted to try it himself first. Hovering steadily in place, he stood up on the broom, quaffle tucked snugly under his arm, and almost immediately wobbled and fell off. Aguilar was right! That was a lot harder with the quaffle, but he wasn't ready to give up just yet.

As he mounted his broom to try again, an idea occurred to him. Maybe if he tried holding the quaffle a different way, he'd be better able to hold his arms out for balance. He tried standing again, this time gripping the quaffle tightly in his right hand as he held both arms out on either side. Careful, don't drop it! Knees bent, look ahead, focus, and… the broom began to inch forward. He made it about halfway across the grounds before a gust of wind knocked him off his broom again. Oh, poodoo! He almost had it! Well, it wasn't perfect, but at least it was progress.

Wait, what did Aguilar say? It was a bit hard to hear him over the wind! Keep your weight on your front foot? Okay, he'd try that. Heath picked himself up, but as he got back on his broom, a thought occurred to him. Did he have to go back to the starting point since he fell off halfway, or was he allowed to continue from where he was? Never mind, no time to ask! He'd go from here and hope he wasn't doing it wrong.

He hovered a few feet in the air, and when he felt confident that the broom was steady, he made one more attempt to stand on it. Arms out, quaffle in hand, weight on front foot… so far, so good! He kept his knees bent and his eyes ahead, trying to block out the wind and everything else going on around him as he carefully moved forward. The goal posts gradually came nearer into view until Heath stopped, hovering in place a few feet in front of them. He threw the quaffle at the middle hoop. It missed by a few inches, bouncing off the rim, but at least he finally made it to the goal posts. He was still calling that a win!

Maybe she should've been paying more attention to whether or not Violet had caught the quaffle. Or perhaps her feet should've been further apart when she began to straighten herself up a little more, keeping her knees bent only enough to help her balance. Then again it might've helped if she had been able to hear Aguilar shouting about 'putting their weight on their front foot'.

All of those things might've been able to prevent what was about to happen. That wind that was blowing directly at them was enough to take her off her feet on a good day. Now factor that she was on a broom... standing. Not the best combination for someone who was still learning.

The small brunette had barely made it up onto her feet when the wind began to blow. She tried to lean back slightly then forward and to the sides, arms still out stretched but almost flailing in an attemt to keep her from falling over. It sort of reminded her of the very first time she had ever put on roller skates. She had wanted to go one way but her feet had chosen a different path. Just like right now.

To make matters worse, her hair was a mess and all in her face and... was that a QUAFFLE?! Lia's eyes widened when she caught sight of the quaffle flying directly at her, there had been no warning. She knew that she could miss it and then just go get it but.. that wasn't the point in this activity. Reaching out her arms and leaning to the side she managed to catch the quaffle, pulling it in towards her chest. Her other arm remained out to the sides and she rocked back and forth trying to keep steady but it wasn't enough. Her feet slipped off the broom and down she went.

Dahlia did the only thing she could think before she hit the ground. She threw the quaffle as hard as she could in the direct of the goal posts. The throw was good but not enough, she had missed by a few feet.

He was right about Dahlia and Violet's excellent effort. Violet was improving in catching the Quaffle and Dahlia balanced well until the strong wind affected her. Aguilar smiled proudly at both of them, then looked up to see Claudine get her Quaffle through the middle hoop. Outstanding! She did it even with the unexpected challenge! The proud genuine smile was still on his face as he watched Heathcliff surf steadily through the wind and come to a stop in front of the goalposts.

Everyone was making much progress and the gust of wind was subsiding, so Camilo was able to end the lesson in a surprisingly good mood. With another sound of the whistle, he told the students (the few who were still in the air) to return to the ground. "Excellent work, everyone. The winner of today's activity is Miss Ashley Fox, who will receive the special prize, a healthy apple ...?" The prize was actually a coupon for Quality Quidditch Supplies - he would give it to her when he could be certain that the inquisitorial squad was not watching. "We will continue with broom surfing next week. Return non-magical broomsticks to me, the school's magical broomsticks to the broom shed on your way back to the castle. Have a good afternoon."

Lots of cleaning up to do here!

OOC: I will leave this thread open for another day if you want to catch up and/or leave the class. Thank you so much for coming! You guys are the best. <3

What? She had won? Well. That was certainly a little funny. Take that, pureblood supremacists. Take that. A muggleborn is absolutely RUINING your activity. She couldn't help but smile as Mr. professor dude said the prize was a healthy apple. First of all, she loved apples. Like a horse. Second of all, what was with this dude and fruit? She had never had an interaction with him that didn't involve fruit. Third of all, he seemed like he was lying, and the first thing he could think of to cover what the real prize was(nothing? magical stuff? who knew?) was AN APPLE. Hilarious. "Thanks for the cool lesson, professor. Here's my broom thingie." Was that what wizards thought muggle brooms were like? A lot of muggles would be caught dead with one of those in their house. In their defense, most people didn't keep brooms from the 1600s in their houses. This lesson had gone WAY better than she thought it would. No broken bones. No death threats. MUGGLE SPORTS WERE INVOLVED. Ash was actually in a good mood as she left the class.

Minjae waited for Mamie to pass the basketball back to him, holding the old and broken broom ready in his hands and he was about to swing it to hit the ball again when a strong gust of wind made the ball change direction and the Hufflepuff hit a miss. ”Oh come on!” stupid wind. This was also Rosier and his stupid goons fault.

But despite the terrible broomsticks, the weather against their favor and the fact that he couldn’t even fly , Minjae was actually having a bit of fun? It had been a long time since he had enjoyed a lesson as a muggleborn. Sure, the feeling of being watched from somewhere (he was positive that The Hoods were somewhere close by, watching and reporting) was not something he could shake off but still. A good lesson this had been.

He wasn’t sweating that much because he was in decent condition but his cheeks were flushed red from running and the unexpected wind earlier. The seventh year looked healthy and happy for a change.

Jogging back to the professor when he called for them, Minjae looked at Ash and softly clapped his hands for her for winning a …apple? That was a load of , stay calm Minjae, stay calm. ”Here Professor” he said while handing him the non-magical broom. ”I’m sorry for lashing out earlier, i shouldn’t have done that” he admitted, looking down at the ground because he was embarrassed. The activity had calmed him down a bit …for now… ”…Is there a way i can learn broom surfing though? “ he asked quietly though he wasn’t keeping his hopes up. ”I mean, i’ve been wanting to learn that for forever now and…” he bit the inside of his cheek before he sighed. ”Nevermind, i’ll get a chance after i graduate”

Siiiiiigh

Violet had not managed to stay up straight on her broom even with both hands, and then a sudden gust of wind pushed her off balance and she suddenly found herself hanging from her broomstick upside down, still heading toward the goal. She vaguely remembered hearing of some Quidditch technique like this, but was pretty sure that you were supposed to intend to do it, not just nearly fall off your broom. Unable to steer effectively upside-down, Violet collided with the goal post and fell to the ground, while the broom she'd been riding continued on a short way before being blown to the ground by another gust of wind.

Violet lay still on her back for a few minutes, the air having been knocked out of her lungs. Thanks to the cushioning charms, though, she didn't think she'd sustained any real injuries. When she caught her breath, she slowly sat up, gingerly feeling her arms and legs--no, nothing seemed amiss. Shakily, she slowly got to her feet and walked stiffly over to retrieve her broom. This was why Violet had no desire to ever play Quidditch.

Looking around, she tried to find Dahlia before the class broke up, and finally spotted her in the distance. She walked over to her as fast as she was able after her fall and said, "Dahlia, I'm so, so sorry for nearly hitting you with that Quaffle--I was falling off my broom and I couldn't hold onto it. But you managed to get off a shot anyway, that was really good!"

Mamie was disappointed that she and Minjae hadn't scored a single goal gotten a single piece of "rubbish" in the bin. Thank you, strong gust of wind. At least Ashley had done well, though, fancy skills and all. She trudged over to Aguilar with her Muggle broom and surrendered it (really, what was she going to do with a Muggle broom?). She hesitated, fidgeting with her hair. If she wasn't going to be allowed to fly in class...did that mean her extra practice was going to be canceled, too?

She sure hoped not.

"See you soon, Professor Aguilar," she murmured before hurrying away. She didn't want to hear that she couldn't practice outside of class. Not today.

Dahlia was only just getting up from the ground when she saw Violet collide with one of the goalposts. Ouch. That would've really hurt if those cushioning charms hadn't been placed on the ground. Still though, that wasn't a collision she herself would've wanted to have.

Hearing Aguilar call the lesson to an end, Lia grabbed her borrowed broom and headed towards her partner meeting the girl half-way. "That's alright, being up on those brooms with that wind... it wasn't hard." She didn't blame her friend for losing her balance. "Thanks! I'm actually surprised I even got that close," she smiled a little bit. "Are you alright? You hit that pole pretty hard."

Ooh, Ashley won?! Awesome! Lia tried to catch Ash's eye and gave her a quick thumbs-up. She had seen a little bit of what she was doing on the ground and it had been really cool. Her fellow Ravenclaw had some skills.

On her way off the pitch she made sure to pass Aguilar. "Good lesson, professor," she hummed softly. "Thank you." Really. She might only be a first year but she could see how hard he was trying. Not just him either, all of their professors.