Alfie knew all about the importance of landing. Once he had managed to stay on his broom for more than five minutes he still hadn't learned right away about the best way to land. That had ended in some minor injuries but it was fine. It was fine! A little bruising never hurt anyone and there had been no lasting damage, see?

A lot of people were talking about the potential of getting hurt, or damaging the broom if you didn't land properly. He definitely agreed, but he didn't want to say the same thing everyone else was saying. So he raised his hand. "You also have to make sure you're landing in the right place too. What if you ended up falling in a lake or something?" That had never happened to him but honestly he wouldn't be surprised if it did at some point.

Everyone so far was sharing pretty good reasons it was important to have a good form for landing. A few of them were thoughts that had also popped into her head, but there was also a memory that jumped to the forefront too. And Professor Kazmi had said they could offer an anecdote for an answer as well. So she was going to go with it.

"Well, there was this one time when I was really young," she began, raising her hand, "and I stole my mum's broom and tried to fly it in our backyard. And I wasn't a good flier yet, and I almost crashed into the ground at one point, but luckily Mum had found me by that point and saved me with magic." She paused for a second, a recent conversation with her dad rising unwelcome to the surface before being shoved back down. "So, um, the moral of the story is to be careful with landing because you might not always have someone there to save you from getting hurt."

Although now she was feeling...a little deflated, so she was going to focus on listening to the rest of the answers. That would distract her and she'd be fine. Probably.

Lisa gave Professor Kazmi a smile as he said it was good to see her. Huh. Had he known that she was thinking of dipping out of class....? She wanted to be GOOD at flying and didn’t want to be embarrassingly BAD at it. Besides who’d be friends with her if she couldn’t fly?

She appreciated Claudine’s smile and the offer to stretch. She nodded to the older girl and began stretching as she tried to take her mind of things. She did offer a smile to the two others that joined her. She even learned one of them was Claudine’s SPECIAL friend - she had all the questions later for him. All the questions.

She really, really, really didn’t want to fly. She had so many bad experiences with crashing, tumbling, and more. She had done several questionable crash landings because she had misjudged the distance for landing and the speed at which she had been going at. V’s comment made her raise her hand. “That was Sir Isaac Newton’s first law of motion. An object will not change its motion unless acted upon by a force.”

And as for crash landings, she flushed. “I... have had several ... landings of such nature cause I misjudged the distance from the ground and the speed of force... to which I was traveling at..”

Returning Remy's smile, Atlas tried to curb his focus back towards the professor...but it was kind of distracting when there was already a broom in his hands and he had the urge to bat it back and forth like the pendulum on a grandfather clock. Left hand, right hand, left hand, right hand, almost whacking himself right in the nose, left hand. It wasn't distracting enough that he couldn't hear what the professor was saying at least...mostly because it FELT like the man was addressing him directly with this whole crash landing angle because, well, that had been mostly working for him once he had sorted out the timing to jump OFF his broom before it his the pitch. That is during those handful of times he hadn't been thrown off his broom. He hadn't broken any bones OR brooms so...that was already an accomplishment on it's own according to most of the answers regarding the importance of a good landing. Sure, the pitch had charms in place typically so they WOULDN'T break anything but...why bother if no matter what it was going to be 'safe', right?

"Newton," he chimed in after the not-a-crybaby first year Slytherin had mentioned 'some guy'. He had also mentioned him in Ancient Runes so so it was pretty neat to see how muggle concepts were still super pertinent to wizarding society and magical physics. Take THAT, Neo Alliance. "Sir Isaac Newton. Mathematician, physicist, astronomer, theologian, author, and a key figure in the scientific revolution." Just for some context because clearly some people needed to know about 'some guy' so they could stop calling him 'some guy'. Sure, Lisa had elaborated a LITTLE bit more bit...he had started and there was no stopping now."His first law is also known as the Law of Inertia which states that if a body is at rest, it will remain at rest unless it is acted upon by a force, OR a body is moving at a constant speed in a straight line, it will keep moving in a straight line at constant speed unless acted upon by a force. So...yeah. Basically. You, a falling object, are going to keep falling until the ground acts upon you and brings said fall to a sudden stop. So...an object is just going to keep doing what's it's doing...but it's the Second Law you really gotta think about when it comes to falling, because in falling the only force acting on us is gravity pulling us back down at varying accelerations depending on our mass and net force and stuff. The more mass the more inertia. Like...trying to catch a falling bowling ball is going to be harder to stop than a beach ball. But then you gotta ALSO think about the Third Law, which is basically that there is a force exerted on an object, then it it going to exert an equal force back. So like....If I were to try and dismount from my broom only a foot in the air while kind of just coasting parallel to the ground ... it's going to be a pretty safe landing without much risk of injury. No worse than it I were to jump as high as I could and come back down. ...I mean....unless I twist my ankle...which I've done...but anyway...less everything and the force I am putting into the ground with my landing it going to be pretty minor and therefore the ground, er, pushing back at me isn't going to be much. Hence not likely to cause injury unless you're just clumsy. But if you're high up and come ZIPPING back towards the ground and all that...there is gonna be a lot of push back and you're going to get hurt. AND, for the record, capes don't help with this. You might THINK they would because of some additional wind resistance or whatever but...they don't. You just sort of end up with fractured bones when you jump off from somewhere high and then free fall back to the ground." He paused a moment to take a breath because he had NOT been while speaking. "Basically...landings are all about the physics, but Cushioning Charms on the ground cheat that so...if those are in place it is just easier to fall off and let the magic do the work for you."

What was once a sullen expression quickly turned into a wide, eager grin. All the woes and sadness from a moment ago dissolved in the blink of an eye—or rather the words of the Professor. Emm’s whole expression lit up, her eyes shining with new hope.

It...it worked!!! Oh sweet holy Merlin, it worked!! All the detentions didn’t seem to matter so much anymore. The fact Kazmi wanted to see her after class was of little consequence because she wouldn’t be needing her broom. Wouldn’t be in the air. Wouldn’t be subjected to the very topic the Professor was bringing up.

Emm gave a firm nod, acknowledging she’d heard his non-request. She did her best to remove the stupid grin from her face but Circe she was practically floating on cloud 9 here.

That “little stunt”, like they all liked to call it, actually worked.

Now she could confidently participate in the lesson. Everything was great. “Well, Professor, there’s a good chance if you aim for the ground, it’ll embrace you like a friend whose boyfriend you stole back in first year—painfully and without mercy. It’s not gonna tell you not to, it’s not gonna try to cushion your fall, it’s gonna make sure it breaks as many of your bones as possible and make sure you don’t get to participate in any recitals for the foreseeable future and if the ground REALLY liked their ex, you’ll probably never dance again in your entire life but it’d probably be your fault ‘cause if you knew you did all that, you shouldn’t be trying to embrace that ground in the first place. So in short Professor, the ground is a scorned lover that loves no one and gets mad when you leave it to take to the skies and when you get back to it it’s gonna be mad enough it makes sure you regret it and the only way to avoid all that unnecessary teen drama is to never leave the ground—unless like you’ve got jumps to make, or like...like you’re strapped into something more long term like a serious relationship or seatbelts because then it’ll never let that happen and will be the hero from all the legends that saves the day and your face and your legs and maybe your spine.”

This was a GREAT day.

Weekends were fine by Kinsay. She never had an issue with waking up super early. In fact, she preferred it to staying up super late, which made things a little difficult because her best friend in the entire world was not an early riser by any means. And. They shared a bed at Hogwarts.

Speaking of the best friend, Kinz felt far more at ease when she arrived....... Even if her arm was still in a sling. This, of course, worried Kinsay so so so so much. If she could trade places with Emm, she absolutely would. In a heartbeat. Thankfully, Emm didn't look terribly miserable at the moment, which is probably the only reason why Kiz resumed her star jumps until class began - which it did, only moments later.

The question was simple enough, but Kiz was a little slow to put up her hand (unusual), which meant that she had to wait for everyone else to share their answers first. It wasn't so bad because she agreed with a lot of them, but when Atlas started sharing his answer, Kiz checked out very quickly. How someone could speak for that long without tiring themselves out was a total mystery to the littlest James. Maybe some people just liked the sound of their own voice.

Also hard to follow? Emm's answer. Kiz was used to the way Emm told stories, but this was a tough metaphor to follow. She nodded encouragingly despite this because that's what best friends were supposed to do. And when it came to her turn, she tried not to panic.

"Proper form is important for sticking landings in gymnastics too," she offered softly. "It's kinda similar because maybe you can get lucky when you land wrong after flying and you don't actually hurt yourself that much. But if you land improper all the time, it's still a higher risk for injuries, just like in gymnastics. Because you're putting all that pressure on the same joints over and over."

Also. "Are there brooms that will land for you automatically?" Not that Kinsay wanted a broom that would do all the hard work for her, but maybe some of her classmates could benefit from one of those.

So Cecelia wasn’t short on landing horror stories, but she preferred to keep those to herself. She’d been young and inexperienced waaaay back when she was learning how to fly, but things were different now and shouldn’t people live in the present? Mhm, they should. Thinking about proper form during landings did make her think of something else, though.

”I think it builds confidence. It’s like, when you learn to do something properly and you practice it a lot and you get it down, then when something goes wrong in the air and you need to make an emergency landing, you’ve got more confidence because you know you’ve got the skills and reflexes you need to land without hurting yourself.”

Heath had just enough time to return Claudine’s smile with one of his own before the lesson began. As he listened to Professor Kazmi, he began to relax a little. Was today’s lesson about landing? He hoped so! That sounded fairly safe, and it was one of the few aspects of flying that Heath did well.

As he considered why it was important to have good form in landing, the obvious answer that came to mind was to avoid injury. But that had been said many times, and there were only so many ways to word the same information without being repetitive. Oh? They were allowed to tell stories too? That might make things easier. Searching his memory, he recalled a story his quidditch-obsessed brother told him when he was just learning how to fly. There was no need to worry about him using names! Despite the fact that Fiy was not only not in this class but had not been in this school for eight years, Heath didn’t want everyone to know that he was related to Fiyero Jones… the quidditch player who looked nothing like him.

He raised his hand and said, “My brother once told me a story about a bad landing he had. He was trying to show off and land while standing on his broom, but he fell off and broke his arm.” What could be learned from that? Don’t try any fancy tricks while landing, for one. “I suppose the thing to take away from that story is to keep landing simple. Don’t try to improvise with fancy tricks, and don’t get overconfident…. That and even the strongest flyers can make mistakes.”

Alright, time to move along. There was little need to go through it all again. "We've covered this briefly before, but I'll run through the basic landing technique with you all now."

While he gave his explanation, Kamran held a hand up in the air, and steadily brought it down as he spoke, illustrating a landing. "Decide where you're landing. While in the air, point the broom handle towards the ground. The angle will determine how steep the descent is, which contributes to your speed." It should go without saying that they ought to factor this in if they didn't want to go straight into a dive. "Before reaching the ground, pull back gradually on the handle to level off and slow down. Where possible, aim for an even distribution of weight between your feet, and bend your knees slightly as you land. Make sure to take the responsiveness of your broom into account, especially if it's not one you're familiar with."

Were they sick of his voice yet? Never fear, it was time to get into the air. After a few more words from our sponsor.

"Everyone who's not grounded-" Cambridge. "-mount your brooms, loop the training area, and then practice landing. Those focusing on the basic technique will be doing so within this coned-off square; fly at a low height if you must, but I'd like you to fly a little higher or faster than you did last lesson." He had an alternative for any who couldn't bring themselves to do that either, but hopefully that wouldn't be necessary. "Those of you looking for an additional challenge can increase the difficulty by attempting to land on a smaller area - those podiums just down the way - or by any other variation you can think of elsewhere around the perimeter. As long as you're focusing on your technique, and being sensible." No foolish injuries, please. Multiple healers in this school might mean a mega headache if anyone got hurt on his watch. Maybe Healer Poppy would bring bread though, so it wouldn't be all bad.

Kamran would, of course, be watching. "Practice as many times as you wish, but I want everyone to try at least once. As always, feel free to share constructive criticism with each other." He gave a shrill blast on his whistle. "Off you go. I'll blow the whistle again when we're moving on."

Now then. The wayward Gryffindor. "Miss Cambridge, you can stand by me." Outside of the basic landing square, that is, until he flew off to see how everyone else was getting on. "Watch the others and see where they're going right or wrong. Give feedback if they want to hear it, or tell me what you'd tell them."


OOC: We have reached the mini-activity. I hope the instructions are clear, but I know there are many words here I'm so sorry SO TO RECAP:

- Everyone is to get in the air and loop the area
- Beginner flyers/those wishing to practice the basic landing technique described in this post, practice landing in the coned-off square
- More experienced flyers can practice landing on the small platforms further along (3ft by 3ft, no higher than 5ft off the ground) or other variations of landing around the perimeter of the area (eg: approaching the ground at a faster speed, or from a dive (be careful), with less control (be careful), dismounting into a run, an extra light and stealthy landing, etc)
- Feel free to have your characters share constructive criticism with each other (in pairs or groups or just as passing comments)
- You can do this in as many or as few posts as you like
- The ground of this area is charmed; please keep the information from this thread in mind

I'll be posting throughout the activity as Kamran observes. If your character needs him, just approach or flag him down. We'll move along in no less than 72 hours from the time of this post (no earlier than 2am BST on 31st May). PM or VM me with any questions. And have fun! Please.

So...much...Muggle science. Mamie would have to tell her father about how they talked about physics during flying class. He might be so impressed that science applied to magic that he'd explain to her mother how safe flying was. If science was involved, it was obviously safe. Yessirree.

Plus, she was good at flying. No crash landings, no problem.

She tried reeeeeally hard to pay attention to Kazmi's description of how to land. Just...she had landed before. It wasn't new. When it was finally time to ACTUALLY FLY, she mounted her broom and kicked off the ground, already looking for one of the podiums he'd mentioned to land on. She flew her loop, climbing as she did so to get out of the way of the first years...but not too high. She didn't want to show off. Once she'd identified which podium she wanted to land on, she approached from her Golidlocks height, she pointed her broom handle toward the podium, steep as she pleased at first, but slowly angling the handle back toward level. She didn't land too hard on the podium and she did bend her knees but...that weight distribution wasn't perfect. She wobbled a bit, throwing out an arm for balance so she didn't, erm, fall off the podium. Balance regained, she dismounted her broom and hopped down from the podium.

Hopefully nobody saw that.

She was oh so pleased with her AWESOME knowledge of Sir Isaac Newton that she had been both simultaneously irked (she had the bases covered, my dude) and in awe of Atlas’ next comment (because WOW such awesome detail). She ought not be surprised given that he knew that her Kneazle was plotting her death just by observing here. Knowledge was a terrifying power at times. Instead of HUFFING, she decided to give Atlas a smile because they were... well maybe not friends but on good terms, yeah?

She watched the Professor’s reaction to their comments but the Prof seemed to focus more on her crash landings. The subject made her cheeks pinker once more as she glanced down at her shoes. Hmmmm..... She wished there was a spell to make her invisible or melt into a puddle right about now to stop anyone from hearing about her embarrassing tale of not being able to fly.

But once again, the Ravenclaw was simply too hard on herself. She was after all only eleven.

Lisa was very content to have a lecture and answer a few questions here and there. That sounded all rather nice - all discussing hypothetically flying instead of actually flying. However, the Professor had other ideas as he rolled out a practical application of the lesson. So she’s practice flying and landing. She mounted her broom, gripping it gently as if she was carrying a bird from and to a cage. Gentle as to not crush said bird. And then she pushed off of the ground.

She never had a problem with getting up or flying - it was always stopping.

Her eyes flicked to the ground. Right, time to practice the basic landing technique yeah? She bit her lip.

Ollie felt so dumb after listening to all the other's responses. Duh! How could she not even bring up Newton's three laws! This was the science stuff she was good at and GAH - Okay she couldn't get too worked up. She didn't need to be angry with herself and bad at flying before this lesson.

She had her own broom... er well her father's old broom. She was surprised that he even kept it after all these years, but it was still in great condition. Well, was in great condition. It wasn't looking as great as it once was after the few lessons Ollie had used it for. She was just glad that she didn't have to borrow a broom from the school, she had seem some others not doing great with their borrowed broom and she didn't need anything else making her lessons worse.

Ollie walked up to Professor Kazmi and sighed. She didn't like having to stand next to the Professor for her lesson, but it was for the best. She didn't need to get hurt even worse than she already had been. "Do you have any tips for me this time, so I can actually stay on my broom?" The longest she had been on was maybe thirty seconds at most. She had done some research on her father's old broom and turns out that it is actually one of the fastest ones. Ollie couldn't remember the name of the make anymore but she did wonder what use her father had with such a fast broom... Did he play quidditch? No, she couldn't see that happening.

Maybe consider that the ground is not as vengeful as you think it is.

Snort.

“Good one, Professor. Maybe next we can pretend brooms don’t hate being ridden and aren’t looking for every chance to buck you off like a wild Abraxan, unamused you snuck a ride on it.” Professor Kazmi was a hoot when he wasn’t scowling down at her and trying to force her bum on a broom. For all the world said, broken limbs were a useful asset and there was no mistaking the way the girl’s grin turned Cheshire Cat wide when the man mentioned being grounded.

Again, she tempered it, having never actually told Kizzy she hurt herself on purpose. She knew she was worried and wanted to behave appropriately to the situation. Emm waved her temporary goodbye best friend before moving to stand by Kazmi.

WAIT.

Grounded AND she got to give running commentary on everything everyone was doing wrong? Circe, she’d have to break a few ribs next time, or...or dislocate her shoulder. Merlin class was getting better and better. Emm bounced once on the balls of her feet as she took her place next to the man. She nodded her understanding eagerly. “Yes, sir!”

Quote:

Originally Posted by wednesday

Ollie walked up to Professor Kazmi and sighed. She didn't like having to stand next to the Professor for her lesson, but it was for the best. She didn't need to get hurt even worse than she already had been. "Do you have any tips for me this time, so I can actually stay on my broom?" The longest she had been on was maybe thirty seconds at most. She had done some research on her father's old broom and turns out that it is actually one of the fastest ones. Ollie couldn't remember the name of the make anymore but she did wonder what use her father had with such a fast broom... Did he play quidditch? No, she couldn't see that happening.

Speaking of, because the Professor DID say she could give feedback. “Glue your bum to the seat of the broom, that way so long as the broom stays up, so do you—or get someone to let you on their broom and get yourself glued to them instead. There’s a charm that does it. I can help.”

Kid was welcome, Emm was great at this standing around and talking business.

For example, Emmerson tugged at Kazmi’s robe. ”Professor, that kid over there flies funny.”

Ash listened to other people's answers with interest. She was amused by Cambridge's answer, but not in a funny sort of way. It was hard to explain. Ash was impressed that Atlas knew so much physics, but very unimpressed with how confusingly he decided to explain it. There were... much easier ways to say this? And like, a lot of these kids didn't know physics soooo... maybe not the best way to go about this. And yes, there was a story behind her exploding broom, and yes, Kazmi did not want to know it. So she regarded the answers to this question with a mixture of subtle amusement and boredom. Let's get to the flying part, please.

Ash went up into the air. Not high enough for her to look like a show-off or a reckless idiot, but a little higher than usual for her and high enough for her to get an adrenaline rush when she came in for her landing. Because there was no point to flying if you couldn't have fun. Quidditch, transportation, blah blah blah... Ash just liked the feeling she got when she flew really FAST. She came in for a normal landing on a podium, but FASTER. Obviously, it wasn't as good as usual due to increased height and speed, but it was good enough and plus, it was FUN. She couldn't help but smile as she went back into the air again. This was fun. Forget professional quidditch or whatever- landing was really super fun. Forget rules or whatever- Ash felt free when she was flying like this. And secretly, she also felt good because, well, her exploding broom hadn't been able to stop her from flying. That felt like a big win. Ash could have hard evidence for once that she was stronger than the pureblood supremacists.

Claudine couldn’t help noticing yet again how Kazmi was always patient and open minded when receiving responses from them all. She grudgingly admitted to herself that this was a good trait. She still wasn’t going to be fond of him as a professor though. Nope.

Anyway.

The sixth year paid close attention to the hand demonstration from the man even though she was familiar with landing. Since she wasn’t a beginner {even though she wasn’t a pro flier}, she would not be flying in the coned area. What she would be doing was landing in a smaller area. That was a great way to challenge herself.

Claudine kicked off from the ground, rising higher and higher in the air as she made her way around the Training Area.

If the professor was expecting him to chime in too he was gravely mistaken. The boy had crossed his arms in front of his chest and began to zone out what Atlas was saying halfway through his complex speech. Had the professor told them about physics he might have listened with mild interest, at least have put in an effort you know? But this was Atlas and that was reason enough to not listen.

Instead, the first year looked ahead at an owl flying in the distance wishing he could fly like that owl and once the Gryffindor was finally done he rolled his eyes. What a show-off. At least Emmerson's answer had been funny. Confusing like Atlas was but way better in any case. But that was probably because he did not like the youngest of the two Gryffindors.

As it was time to do the first activity, Daniel paid attention to the hand demonstration that the professor gave because even after a couple of lessons he was still a beginner after all. And although he would have loved to fly around the training field he also wasn't that stupid to try and instead stayed in the coned area. He swung his right leg over the broom and watched as some of the older kids began to loop the training area wishing that he could be one of them. Instead of pushing himself off of the ground, the eleven-year-old let go of the ground by simply lifting his feet and he rose into the air in a more steady form than he had shown the previous lesson. LOOK AT HIM PLEASE cause he felt proud of this achievement ok?!

But this was sadly not the activity. It was the landing so the Hufflepuff looked down at the ground below him and began pushing the handle of the broom to the ground and it dipped down.... faster than he had wanted to... He quickly leaned back to stop the broom in midair and as he tucked the broom the boy accidentally made half a loop. He struggled to roll the right way up again and when he eventually succeeded to do this he let out a deep breath. That had been scary.

It did not take long for him to rise back up to his starting position though and after giving himself a few mental encouraging words, he dipped back down again, determined to land perfectly and show everyone how it was done!

Serena listened to all the replies and made notes. It was useful information, she guessed. She was more interested in mounting the broomstick and taking off. Honestly, she had been looking forward to some kind of flying game, but...they were going to practice. It took all of her eye structure to keep herself from rolling her eyes. She already knew basics. She's been flying since she was a year old.

Flying was practically embedded in her DNA.

She guessed not everyone was as lucky as she is. Siiiiigh.

The broomstick touched her hand on command and she swung her leg over it. Yes, yes. Don't dive and kill yourself. Got it. The redhead kicked off and was in the air, and as it was usual in Flying lessons, Serena actually looked approachable and...in a good mood. Doing her loop, the first year came back down for a landing, making sure to take her area of control into consideration. Which was almost like breathing. She just did it without having to think about it. Her mum had taught her the ways of Quidditch legends.

Violet wasn't a beginner--she had three years experience behind her. And that was why she knew that she was going to be practicing in the coned off square, at least for starters. Because her experience had shown her that flying was not one of her strong points.

She took one of the school brooms--it was the same one she'd been using, she was sure she recognized it--and walked without enthusiasm to an open space from which she could take off, which she managed to successfully, if not gracefully. She held on tightly with both hands as she rose in the air, a little higher than her comfort zone (but she didn't want to lose points for being a slacker, and Kazmi had told them not to stay too low).

She made a large, slow, careful loop around the area and then prepared to attempt a landing. She gingerly lowered her boom handle, a little lower than usual since she was flying so high. Her stomach felt like it was shooting up into her throat as she started to descend, quicker than she liked (though pretty much any speed of descent was quicker than Violet liked).

As the ground loomed up uncomfortable close, Violet pulled up the handle, trying not to jerk it, and tried to center her weight over the broom. She felt herself level off and slow down as she made the landing, bumping the ground a few times before she stopped but not knocking over any of the cones. For Violet, this was a win! Maybe she'd dare to try landing in one of the smaller areas next.

......... Was Cambridge okay? Really. Did she know the brooms did not hate being flown? It was important to Kamran that she knew that.

Future discussion.

He let her have her moment of enthusiasm - all the better to ruin it later - but naturally interjected when she gave her version of helpful advice to Burke. "Alright, thank you Miss Cambridge." Kamran turned his attention to Burke. "Slow and steady, to start with, Miss Burke, until you get the hang of the basics and master your balance. I think perhaps that broom isn't quite right for you to learn with." Actually, he had been wondering where it had come from. It certainly didn't look like a school broom, and yet Burke was only a first year. Seemed that was another conversation he ought to be having, but later. Right now, it was a matter of practicality, if it turned out she was having trouble with control. "Why don't you leave this broom with me, and see if you fare any better on one of the brooms over there." Kamran gestured to the back ups he'd provided from the school broomshed, then held his hand out for the Slytherin's broom, without voicing any of his other thoughts just yet.

And then back to the grounded Gryffindor again. "Constructive criticism, Miss Cambridge. Keep it considerate, stick to how can they improve, what can they do well."

In the meantime, he was keeping an eye on the others. Kamran was fairly certain there would be some disgruntled flyers out there, but that was fine with him, as long as they were going what they were told. Landing could be a dull topic when you knew what you were doing, but vital to learn. They'd be moving on soon enough.

He shielded his eyes against the mid-November sunlight, and peered down towards the podiums. Turov seemed to be doing alright - Kamran wasn't surprised she'd opted for the more challenging option - if a little wobbly, from what he could see. That was, of course, why he had them practice. Down to the podiums too came Fox, who probably could have stuck that landing better, but not bad for a first attempt. Good to see her apparently willing to try again, at least. Kamran had a feeling Blaze was likely to opt for the podiums as well, and waited to see how that would go. Perhaps in a minute he'd head on over and provide some even smaller spaces, for those who needed a further challenge in that same vein.

Those who were more on the beginner side of things were where Kamran's attention was naturally drawn; even though they were doing the most basic technique, a lack of experience could easily put them at a higher risk of accidents, depending on the student. Miss Nam had done well enough so far, but Kamran seemed to remember her issue was not in going up, but coming back down. He kept an eye out to see what kind of form they were dealing with.

Yoon was... not going anywhere. Kamran watched him anyway, to get an idea for how his technique and form had improved since the last lesson. There was a hairy moment in there when he tried to compensate for a little overzealousness, but Kamran wasn't too concerned, even when the boy started to roll. He didn't fret or rush over, only watched quite calmly, waiting to see if Yoon would correct on his own. If not, the floor wasn't far away.

But he got there, and now only had to land. Kamran waited to see how he managed it before actually speaking up, to make sure he didn't startle him out of his concentration. "You can fly around the area too, Mr Yoon. Stay low if you'd like; the practice will be useful."

Baltazar-Dos Santos was having a much simpler time of things. Either a natural flyer or one with plenty of experience in learning. Or both. "Very good, Miss Baltazar-Dos Santos," Kamran called out to her, at the risk of tell her something she already knew. "Feel free to up the difficulty if you want the extra challenge." He gestured to he podiums, and the rest of the space around the perimeter. Really, she could try landing out of a dive if she thought she was up to it, he wasn't going to keep anyone from pushing themselves, and that went for first years with flying experience under their belts as well.

Letting his gaze rove around the other students, Kamran's eyes landed on Blackthorne, one of those students who still had a little trouble with flying even after a few years of learning. The fact she still kept at it showed real strength of character. Kamran watched her come in for the landing, pleased to see she had some real success there. "You're making good progress, Miss Blackthorne. Very good." He was interested to see where she'd take her next attempt, if she made one.

Professor Kazmi was such a great teacher, always covering everything that needed explaining. That was probably why she felt at ease when learning to fly. At least, she felt at ease while on the ground. Whenever her feet lifted from beneath her, the butterflies often took over. But that was likely to be normal, right?

After moving to the coned off square, The Gryffindor ordered the broom into her hand with ease, something she had been practising until she had completely perfected it. She didn’t hesitate when mounting the broom, then took a few quiet breaths as she studied the sky above her, observing if she had an ideal amount of space. Yup, looked good…

She slowly ascended a couple of feet in the air, staying at a similar height that she reached during their previous lesson. Remy hovered there for a few seconds before pushing herself a little higher, as Professor Kazmi had instructed. Only a little wobble, but totally saveable.

Once she had reached a good height, Remy looked at her surroundings and smiled to herself. She wasn’t sure if she would manage it but here she was. The Gryffindor then looked back to the ground and chose a spot where she wanted to land. She tilted her broomstick towards the area, perhaps a bit too quickly, and then jolted back to a straighter stance in fright.

Remy took a second to catch her breath and steadied herself. Instead of freaking out, she simply attempted the broom tilt again, MUCH slower. The broom was much more compliant this time, and she gradually made her short descend, remembering to pull the broom upwards even slower to balance the land.

And voila - she had landed!

If there was a jab to be had, it flew right over Atlas' head. Rather he looked kind of pleased with himself that now 'some guy' had been elaborated upon. It was important to remember these people, you know? The Gryffindor's full attention was on the Flying Instructor in any case, but there were a couple of snags in the response he receive. It was also hard to simplify something that he had grown up hearing forever. He was pretty sure dad used to read Einstein's Relativity: The Special and General Theory to him and Aries as a bedtime story when there was still learning how to walk and toilet train.

Getting off topic, unsurprisingly.

"But...isn't that the whole purpose of Hogwarts? For us to learn? Therefore shouldn't we always be learning?" No snark, just genuine curiosity over here. But also, there was something ELSE that caught his attention. "Was that a threat, sir?" Again, just being curious over here and still with the twinkles in his eyes at that. He was still sort of indifferent to Flying as a subject, but today's lesson had absolutely captured his attention. "That sounds kind of like a bad thing to do and a big liability."

Would mom or dad make a big fuss about it? Well...probably not. And it wouldn't entirely surprise them that he or Aries had broken a bone from a fall. Truthfully, this sort of thing sounded like the sort of thing dad would say...which just made Atlas like Professor Kazmi more.

And while he tried not to derail himself with other physics and their applications to flying, Atlas resumed his pendulum movements with his broom and listened. He did catch the smile of Lisa's and returned her one better with a grin - clearly in a good mood.

Know what else was kind of cool? Daniel Yoon's silence.

Instructions understood, Atlas took his time mounting his broom and just practiced hovering for a bit. Which had its ups and downs...literally. The first try the broom and him touched back down, so it was a good thing the second year had not yet tucked his legs up. The second time there was a bit of lag time, but ultimately his feet were on the ground again. Third time, however, resulted in more definite hovering and thus the Gryffindor took a little time just getting to know this broom and lean this way and that to steer left and right while still at a respectable height. Which was why he was still super close to some of his peers and the professor soooo he overheard something else that sparked his interest and made brooms seem a whole lot more interesting.

"Professor Kazmi! A question!" he waved while gingerly steering his broom for a slow fly by of the man (and Emmerson, hi). "What you just said to Ollie...do you mean that brooms can pick the witch or wizard TOO? Like wands do?" And then how did you KNOW? And why did all the school brooms hate him because they were always obviously throwing him off?

Was Atlas also maybe kind of sort of procrastinating attempting a 'proper' landing?

Absolutely No way.

Okay, Emmerson maybe if you had pick another first year to pick on, you would've gotten away with it. But Ollie isn't that dumb. She rolled her eyes to the girls suggestion of gluing her bum to the broom. What was so special about her that she could give "constructive criticism"? Ollie tried to let it roll down her back and not get frustrated by odd "advice". She actually needed help flying.

She returned her attention back to her Professor and listened. Of course she was going to go slow and steady! She wasn't looking for another crash landing. But, give up her broom? If she was going to be flying around on the one, shouldn't she practice and learn on it? Reluctantly, she handed it over to the Professor and grab on of the other brooms that were around.

Then Atlas came up to her and the Professor. Where had he gotten that idea from? Of course the broom doesn't chose you, Ollie just needed a baby broom. "No Atlas, I just can't fly." She wasn't trying to be snippy but she was aggravated with giving her broom up and with not being able to fly, and with Emmerson's dumb advice! Why was the class so hard!!

She stomped over a few feet and readied to ride this broom. She was going to get it whether she liked it or not! She straddled the broom and closed her eyes. Okay broom, we are going to do this together, she thought. She slowly she came off the ground, only a few feet, and quickly flew upward! Uh-oh, she was in trouble now! Note to self, don't fly when you're aggravated.

Okay....but she’d been serious about that glue thing. It’s just the sort of thing she would’ve done, just the sort of thing she DID do, at least twice in her first year before realising the flying business really wasn’t meant for her. Thereafter, very few attempts were made to improve and the Gryffindor steadily became more resistant to flight. But that was a story for another day.

“It is constructive, sir. If they know they’re flying funny, they won’t do it anymore. That’s how it works.” And while she had no intention of ever trying this herself, she could certainly tell when others weren’t doing it right.

Outside of that, I’m not really sure what else to say. I shouldn’t be giving flying advise, remember?” As if to emphasise the point, Emm lifted her shattered arm as much as she dared. The Gryffindor went to great lengths to avoid flying and when she did give advice, everyone looked at her like she was trying to sabotage their whole career so she’d just keep her mouth shot....and work on her leg stretches.

Toe up, puuuulll. Next leg, toes up, pullll.

Just doing some stretches, don’t mind her. She had practice later.

This was... fun. It... gave her a feeling of freedom, somehow. And it reminded her of the time she won that competition without her broom. She still had that coupon. As a souvenir. But seriously, it was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders while she was flying. Noah was 100% right about flying being helpful for therapy.

Ash came in for another landing, a little higher and a little faster than the time before. And she landed a lot better too, due to finding a better angle to land at. Almost as good as it would have been if she wasn't flying so fast and from such a height. Wasn't that great? This was exciting. She was improving her skill, and releasing her emotions to dissipate into the air. She went up into the air again, ready to get better and ready to be happier and have more fun.

Ash was glad she still took this class. There were a lot of things she was glad she hadn't done. Like cutting her hair short, getting rid of her friendships, or running away from Hogwarts. But quitting this class was very high up on the list of things she was glad she hadn't done.

There was nothing quite like flying or surfing if you wanted to be free and relaxed like this. Ash was glad she had both. It was like a lifeline. Anyway, this was the greatest most fun class and Professor Kazmi was the best teacher ever in the whole wide world. Because she got to fly SUPER FAST. It was like she was a kid again.

'Very good' were two words Violet had seldom heard in regard to her flying, and she felt emboldened to go ahead with her idea of trying to land on one of the podiums. Was it strength of character, or was it stubborness (as her grandfather typically called it)? Whatever, Violet took her broom in one hand and walked over to a clear area to take off again.

This time she made her looping circle tighter and a bit faster, and, feeling unaccustomed confidence, went a little higher than she'd gone before. Looking down (it was a long way down there!), she picked the largest-looking podium and, aiming her handle toward it, lowered the handle into a dive. Violet felt she was going much too fast and tried to pull up, but did so a little too jerkily, and she continued her descent a little slower but in a wobbly motion. Missing the top of the podium by half a foot, she continued onward toward the ground.

Violet let go with one hand, gripping her broom even more tightly with the other, and fumbled in her robe for her wand, pulling it out just in time to frantically cast "Arresto momentum! Arresto momentum!!!" Should she have used that, or Spongify instead? Violet wasn't sure, but it was too late to wonder about it any more, because the ground was coming up to meet her.