Rachel breathed in and out steadily to overcome her nervousness. A broom was one thing, but a carpet???
Gingerly, she sat herself in the correct place on the rug and listened carefully to the instructions. Right, you can do this!
Grabbing the corners of the carpet, she slowly leaned backwards and the capet began gaining height. Yay! I'm doing it! Suddenly, the carpet jolted straight upwards more quickly. "No, no, stop STOP!!!" she said to the carpet and pulled the corners of the carpet towards her. It halted instantly and she almost fell off. Phew! She looked down and saw that she was about five feet from the ground. That's not too high...
Grinning, she leaned gently to the right, trying not to get overly excited as the rug turned. She floated lazily around for a couple of minutes, enjoying the sensation.
Deciding that she would attempt landing, she grit her teeth together and pulled the edges of the carpet towards her. Ever so slowly she leaned forwards towards the ground and the rug slowly lowered itself back to the ground. At the last second, she let out a yelp and let go of the edges. "Ouch!" she shouted and looked down at her red hands. Great, carpet burns! Oh no, oh no no no,wait WAIT! The carpet shot down the last few feet and once it hit the ground, she felt herself thrown off by the momentum and landed face down on the grass. "Mmff," she groaned and lifted herself from the ground, spitting out little bits of grass in her mouth. Urgh, this tastes awful!
She sighed amused herself for a few minutes byt watching others fly around and letting her heart calm down for a while. I'll wait until my hands stop burning, then I'll try again.

The presence of the dust and Kayla was getting to him, Nico eased the carpet to dismounting height and gracefully climbed off the thing with the knack of someone who'd obviously had some experience with carpets. He flicked his wand from his sleeve and got rid of the dust, scourgifying his hands just to be sure. Once he was satisfied that the carpet was dust free, Nico seated himself on it once more and took a much cleaner grip on the corners, subconciously and slowly directing the carpet toward Kayla without intending to do so at all. He brought the carpet as high as he could and watched the rest of the class dispassionately, correcting his angle and direction every so often as he looked everywhere but.

Astrid was ready to start again when she spotted Nico out of the corner of her eye. Shoot! she thought. That's all she needed. It was hard enough to concentrate on not falling off this blasted carpet without his gorgeousness sitting right beside her. OK, now concentrate! she thought, determined to make this work.

She leaned herself back again, this time ready to raise the carpet a bit further in the air. As she started moving upward, she glanced in his direction and realized that he wasn't there anymore. She looked up and saw him several feet above her. At his current height, Astrid wasn't in the right position to see him properly. She tried to keep her focus on the task at hand, but she (of course) couldn't help but to take one more peek in his direction. This time, when she looked up, she leaned too far back and the carpet jerked her upwards. Astrid fell right to the floor, flat on her back, hair in her face.

Nico looked down as he head a thud and when he saw it was Astrid he brought his carpet down in a hurry, with little to no grace or style; opting for speed instead. He jumped off the carpet and knelt down next to Astrid. Poor Kid.

"Are you alright, Astrid?" Nicholai offered his hand to help her up, his brow furrowing in concern.

Mari sat on her carpet, a rather unsure expression on her face as she centered herself on the thing.Flying was not her strong suit, but she had promised her father she'd at least try. Sometimes she wondered if he was somehow hoping an as of yet hidden passion for flying, and therefore Quidditch, would suddenly show up out of nowhere. Not likely, she thought as she grabbed the edges of the carpet nervously.

Her heart was beating a bit too fast, but she was already on the thing, so she couldn't do much else except just try to steer it. It didn't help that everyone she knew except Asteira was there. Then again, her friend probably wouldn't have even set foot near the carpets. " She's the smart one then," She muttered to herself as she tried to keep herself on the carpet, her hands tightly holding onto the fringe of the carpet. She chanced a turn or two, and took it up a bit, but she felt that was going too far too soon. She brought it back down, albeit a bit less gracefully than she would have liked.

Astrid opened her eyes slowly when she heard his voice. She parted the hair out of her face and said, "Owww." she said. "Well, that was ladylike, huh?" she said as she took his hand and pulled. She was getting used to being embarrassed in front of Nico. It was almost second nature to her now. First the water balloons and now she moronically falls off of her carpet. Lovely! She hardly even blushed in his presence anymore.

When she was finally back on her feet, she brushed herself off and smiled. "Thanks Nico!" she said sincerely. "I must remember to say on the carpet from now on." she rolled her eyes and started to laugh.

Nicholai saw Mari out of the corner of his eye and watched her progress. She looked fairly relaxed to him. And she had been fast enough to choose a carpet that wasn't as dusty as his had been.He'd been meaning to talk to her about the whole thing with the photos. Nicholai offered her a smile before turning back as he pulled Astrid to her feet.

"Actually, compared to some of the spectacular falls I've seen, it was surprisingly ladylike. That's a special talent." Nicholai smiled amiably, glad to see she was alright even if she was possibly a little bruised. "No problem- I wouldn't want my favourite charms partner to be out of action." Nico grinned, thinking of the homework they had worked on together. His smile aded slightly as he recalled what had followed immediately afterwards, and he shot an involuntary look at Kayla before closing his eyes for a moment.

"You just need to relax is all, Astrid- it's like you said with riding a horse, that doesn't work so well if you are tense either." He made a slight face having learned that repeatedly since he was never completely relaxed around animals.

Nicholai got back on to his carpet, sitting confortably in the middle and waiting to see Astrid get back on hers safely. He didn't have enough eyes however, as he was still splitting glances between Kayla; who was avoiding him and Mari; who he hoped wouldn't.

Mari was glad to be setting her feet back down on the ground again, even if it had been just a little bit fun to fly the carpet. Now that she wasn't acutally doing it, she could see why others liked it so much. She stood up, smoothed her clothing down and looked over in Nico's direction, hoping he hadn't seen how nervous she was. His smile reassured her that he hadn't, and she smiled back at him before he moved to help a younger girl off the ground. Mari watched, hoping the girl wasn't hurt, and when she appeared to be fine, she again turned her glance to Nico.

She smiled at him again, her embarrassment at the photos having long ago dissipated after she decided it was fine if he knew how she felt. It really wasn't that awful, and besides, he was fun to be around anyway. However, she just kept trading little glances and quick smiles with him as she didn't want to get either of them in trouble with Professor Vindictus.

Qaz waited until some of the others had gotten off the ground….and made some extra room…
Gently, she leaned forward….OOPS! Pull back! PLOP!

Ok…so it wasn’t so gentle…

Qaz closed her eyes….think yoga…think ZEN….

She opened her eyes again…and leaned forward about a millemeter….then two. She could feel the carpet slowly rising….not bad…she leaned forward just a little more and slowly started to move forward. Okay…she pulled back and set it back down.

Qaz surveyed her surroundings…looking for an open area. Once she spotted one, she tried again. Ever so slightly forward…slowly, slowly…now let’s see about turning…OOPS…too far to the right….back down, back down….deep breath.

Astrid looked at Nico and raised an eyebrow. "A ladylike fall, you say. Well that's a new one." she laughed. Even though she was sure, not a moment ago, that she was all done with the blushing, she couldn't help it when he called her his favorite. Why did he have to be so sweet and so yummy ALL the time. It would be so much easier to stop feeling the way she did if he was a jerk to her once in a while. Granted, she really would never want that either.

Astrid couldn't help but notice the small change on Nico's demeanor. She frowned a bit, wondering why everyone had underlined bits of sadness to them these day. Herself included. She couldn't help herself from glancing back at Anna at the thought, but she quickly turned her head back to face him. She had decided to let that all go. It was now a thing of the past and it would remain there if she had any control AT ALL over her emotions.

"I tried to remember to relax, but something must have distracted me." she confessed. "But trust me, this is NOT like riding my horse back home." she laughed. She subconsciously dusted herself off again, she turned back toward the carpet to climb back on. Once again, she sat as she was instructed and grabbed the corners. Then she turned back towards Nico and smiled. Well at least she knew that he would be close by if she needed him again. That made her feel so much calmer. Now all she needed was Maddox to fix her dreadful hair and she'd be good to go. She laughed at the thought and leaned forward on the carpet. She moved in a nice even speed, much improved since her first attempt. She glanced over her shoulder at Nico again and mouthed, "Better?"

When she was sure that she had the hang of things, Anna rose to the full ten feet height the professor had limited them to. This was actually really fun, nowhere near as scary as she'd previously though. She coasted around at that level for a few minutes and then decided to try the up and down motions again.

Anna pulled the corners of the rug towards herself and leaneded forward, causing the carpet to begin dropping a few feet. When she was ready to go up again, she leaned back and went soaring up once again.

Alright, this height seemed silly enough to the Hufflepuff, and she ventured one more time to get a bit higher. It looked like 5 feet to her. It was somewhat better because she was higher. Something that she hadn't been expecting since she started to ride this carpet.

After a few leaning backs and forwards, she caught herself having actual fun. Another thing unexpected. From right to left (because now she was directing the carpet towards the direction she wanted) she felt the air in her face, and everything seemed much better.

Until.

"Wait, how do I get down?" she thought, her eyes opened wide. Oh, right. She pulled those tricky corners and leaned forward. It was a good feeling going down, slowly, of course. We didn't want the carpet to start to have a life of its own.

Okay, let’s try this again.

Qaz sat calm and still, taking several deep breathes. Leaning a smidgeon forward, the carpet began to move. So far so good. Just an itsy-bit to the left….okay so far.

Slowly, she was turning….no need for any speed yet. Okay, straighten it out….that’s good….a tinsy bit more…whoa…that’s fast enough.

When she got clear of the others, she set it back down. Not too bad.

Dominic stood up again from having fell - this time - backwards off his carpet. He didn't really understand why they had to learn to ride carpets; it wasn't as if it were practical in Britain, considering they were illegal! Sighing quietly, he looked back to his carpet, hovering still empty at about two feet in the air.

"Now you Carpet. Behave," he scolded it, as though it was the carpet's fault he couldn't stay on.

About to climb aboard the carpet, Dominic turned at the sound of a familiar voice complaining of a sore bum. Oh! It was just his captain, Rapunzel... Sweet, so apparently he wasn't the only one unable to stay on the carpet. That definitely made the fourth year feel better. ...and more determined to succeed.

Climbing onto the carpet once more, he sat down towards the middle of it, crossed legged as he could get himself, and just sat. Sitting was easy - he could do that all day.

But the Professor wanted them to fly it. Something which he himself thought was useless, but would try anyway. Moving forward wasn't the hard part, but rather was the leaning back and thus upward that was tricky. Griping the corners of the carpet loosely, the fourth year leaned forward just slightly. Enough to get the carpet moving forward.

Now he would try turning a little bit... Steering his carpet to the left, he sighed happily as the carpet obeyed. It went to the left. Now - to try going upward again, now that he got the turning and flying forward down solid.

Leaning back, he held tightly on the edge of his carpet, as though for safety. He was not going to fall again. Except in the pulling on the edges of his carpet, he felt his hands sliding on it, giving him rugburn in the creases of his palms. But nonetheless, he kept his hold on the edges enough to ...

Stop the carpet! Oh yea ... Dominic had accidentally discovered how to stop the carpet motion. Upwards would come.

This was definitely different than a broom…harder to control, but much more comfortable….

Time to get a bit more adventerous…

Grabbing hold of the sides again, Qaz leaned forward very slowly…okay, just a little more…the she leaned back a bit….

About a meter off the ground…that should do it. Now, turning….slowly…this is not the best place to get dizzy…

A bit to the right….straighten in out….a bit to the left…a bit more….


Slowly, Qaz turned back to where she originated. She slowly descended to the ground.
Her hands were starting to hurt from gripping the carpet too tight. Time for a break.

She noticed her tabby, HiJinx, watching from a distance. Not ready for passengers, yet, she thought. Maybe a bit later.



Qaz raised her hand and asked, 'Uh, Professor, what happens if you let go of the sides of the carpet while you're up in the air?'

Right, Rachel thought as she firmly but gently grabbed the two front corners of her carpet, Let's try again!
Ever so slowly she inched backwards and slowly rose off the ground. She found that it was a lot easier the second time. She relaxed her grip on the carpet and blew out a sigh of relief. Let's go higher!
Grinning mischievously, she rose higher and higher, looking only at the sky and quite suddenly she felt a jolt that almost knocked her off her carpet. Oh Merlin that was close! she thought as she realised that she had reached the ten feet limit. She looked down at everyone, smiling at the sight. It's nice to be up here, and it is a lot more comfortable than a broom.
She floated around at the maximum height, waving to the people she knew. She spotted Astrid and was about to wave when she noticed her falling and landing face down on the ground. Concerned, she made a motion to fly back down, when she noticed that Nico was helping her up. Right, never mind then. She continued flying around and enjoyed the sensation. Every so often, she almost bashed into people but other than that, it was a smooth flight.

Callie had seen everyone start to learn how to fly the flyings carpets. She figured it would be easy for someone who had flown for three years to fly a flying carpet. All she had to do was get on and it would be easy as pie. Apple pie of course.

She looked at her rug and wondered how to approach it. Should she hop on? Walk on? Scoot her boot on? She walked around the edge rubbing her hands together and analyzed the best possible way to get on. Figuring she better just try something, she decided to do a runnng start and then fall indian style on it. Maybe her bottom would hit the start button and she wouldn't have to coax it up.

She stood a few feet back and then began to job. When she got close enough she jumped lightly and fell on it indian stlye. Obviously the carpet did not like this because as soon as her weight hit the carpet it jerked up off the ground like it had just woken up from a nap. She luckily caught her balance, but she had to use her hands to steady her.

She decided to test her weight around and see how the carpet worked. She shifted her body to the left and the carpet started to run left. That was simple. She then shifted to the right and when she had turned her carpet she saw Pompous boy fall. She couldn't help but laugh at him.

She watched as he got on and it seemed like he was not trying to talk to his carpet. The rug wasn't a dog. Deciding to show him how it was done she coaxed the carpet forward toward him.

"Having difficulties?" she asked him with a grin. "That was a nice fall by the way," she added with a little giggle devilishly. She pet her carpet as she waited for his smart remark. She didn't know how anyone could fall off these things.

Lisa made a mental note in her head: go and say hi to Rachel.This was not as easy as it seemed, because of the fact that she was on a flying carpet. She hadn't tried going down yet, she had fallen a couple of times shortly before; but that didn't count. Lisa leaned back, relaxed and the carpet gently rose in to the air. She kept on going straight until she was about a metre under Rachel. "Hi there, Rachel,"she waved at the girl but his time she made sure that one hand was still on the carpet.

Rachel turned, still holding onto the carpet and smiled at Lisa. "Hey there Lisa. How're you doing?" she asked and waved with one hand, causing the carpet to wobble. Quickly, she grabbed the corner she had let go of and steadied herself.

"I'm good, you're a very fast learner,"she told Rachel truthfully. She didn't wave again, but smiled at her brightly. She leaned forward cautiously and pulled the corners. The carpet went down smoothly but slowly, by this time she had numerous amounts of rugburns and scrathes all over her arm. Nothing too major though, she leaned back and rose up. Lisa observed that she could make the carpet go faster when rising than when landing. The carpet slowly moved forward, and she sat there cross-legged enjoying the ride.

Camira was still sitting on her carpet, afraid to move. She really didn’t like falling off. She went over the things Professor Vindictus had said in her head, over and over again. Finally, when she felt semi-ready, she gripped the sides of the carpet and leaned forward. The carpet immediately jerked and she was thrown forward where she rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop with her face pressed into the grass. Gah. Not again.

She got up quickly and brushed her robes off, using a scurgify on her hands. She noticed then that she had a large scrape right on her left calf. How gross was that?! She sighed and made her way back to the carpet. She had a personal issue with this carpet now and she was going to make sure she rode it no matter what…hmm, unless it killed her first. That would be rather unpleasant.

She shook the thoughts of evil murderous carpets out of her head and gingerly climbed onto the carpet for the third time in 15 minutes. She took a couple of deep breaths before grabbing hold of the sides once again and leaning forward very very slightly. Oh my. It was moving. True, she was probably going 2 miles per hour but at least she was moving and not falling off. Ha!

"Thanks," she replied, grinning. At that second, she leaned forward a bit too much and her carpet began falling at a crazy speed toward the ground. "No, no, no wait, stop stop STOP!!!" she shouted, flailing her arms about for a second before remembering what the professor had told them, "To slow down, pull the corners towards you."
She grabbed the corners of her falling rug hastily and pulled them violently towards her. The rug immediately slowed down and she pulled out of the dive, a foot away from the floor. Wow, that was really close! she thought, panting and trying to calm down her racing heart.

Lisa watched as Rachel nearly fell down, but mananged to slow down the carpet."Wow!that was some flying, are you okay, though?"she asked impressed but a bit worried for her.

Rachel laughed shakily and replied, "Yeah I'm fine. And thank you, I try to do my best just before I embarrass myself really hard!" she said and winked at Lisa.
She slowly flew away, trying to maneuver herself through the many students, pulling each corner carefully. She was a bit clumsy at this (like you are in everything, Rachel!) but on the whole, it was better than walking!

Still in awe that he had figured out - albeit quite accidentally - how to stop his carpet in the air, Dominic was determined now to fly higher. For Merlin's sake, if Kaika could do it... and was that Anna too? Whatever. He could totally out fly them on a broom any day. Carpets just weren't his style.

Sitting as still as possible on his carpet, Dominic decided that he would sit here for as long as possible. Relax a little, since flying it was much harder than staying steady on it. The carpet seemed to detect any small motion, and Dominic was thankful he was good with sitting still, variable surface or not.

That voice. And not in a nice tone either.

Narrowing his eyes, Dominic tilted his head to see who those smart remarks were from, but it wasn't really unexpected when he noticed it was just Clumsy Toe Girl. Stupid Slytherin. "Not as much difficulty as you have with speaking without falsity," he replied, smirking back at her himself. "Besides, you know falling is the new flying. You should try it sometime."

Shaking his head, he shifted his weight towards the left where he proceeded to fly a lap around the pitch, and then back the other way before stopping once more in front of the Slytherin. Laps were fun. Now if only he could fly more than two feet in the air... he'd have to try again nonetheless, as he would not like to be 'outshone'. And wasn't going to...