Tiffany stopped staring at the other students zooming around her and decided to try again. It had to work this time. She knew it was probably because she hadn't ever done magic before Hogwarts, but then again, several students were Muggle-borns.

She sighed, holding out her hand above her motionless broom. "Up!" She cried, a little too loudly. The broom started vibrating softly, then, to her surprise, it shot up into the air, hitting her hand with so much force that her eyes watered. Tiffany took a deep breath, before sitting on her broom. She kicked the ground, her brain repeating the words annoyingly in her head: I'm going to fly! I'm going to fly!

A sudden rush of cold air hit her face as she took off. Her hands were aching from her grip on the broom. It was the best feeling ever. All thoughts were blocked out by the sound of rushing air, and the feeling of freedom, of happiness. Tiffany didn't dare look dow, but she could tell that she was getting higher now. Maybe she should get down now? But how? She ducked her head, and suddenly she was zooming down, heading straight for the grass below. "How do you stop?!?!" She screamed, as cold air filled her lungs. Her voice was drowned out by the air's fierce roaring noise. She tried to tilt her body, but that just turned her to the right. She regretted this move immediately. She was now heading straight for a tree. She was going to hit it! "Heellp-"

CRASH!

Tiffany groaned, rubbing her forehead which had she had hit on the tree during her crash-landing. That was nothing though, as she remembered the broom. She spun her round, to see it motionless on the grass, not a single scratch on it. Great.

He was watching the other students leave the practice area when a strange whistling sound caught his attention. Both blue eyes looked upwards to where the sound was coming from. "Pull up! PULL UP!" Vindictus shouted as Aden's out-of-control form hurtled towards him and he dropped to the ground.

Dani laughed loudly as Professor Vindictus dove out of the way of the rampaging broom. She lost control of herself and fell off her broom again. This time though, instead of fainting, she rolled around laughing. She just couldn't stop.

"Bull pup! What?!" Broccoli yelled trying to turn and avoid the man. Why wasn't Professor Vindictus making any sense? It didn't occur to Broccoli that the man hadn't beem making sense since he'd been smacked in the head with his broom handle.

The attempted turn, however, didn't work. All it did was put him in a slow spin. Grass. Sky. Grass. Sky. Grass...

Maybe if he leaned counter the spin he'd steady out? He leaned the other way. Something brown came slowly into focus as he leaned in the other direction.

"Ah - broo-"

Boom.

Crash.

Thunk.

Bounce.

Broccoli hit the stack of extra brooms like a bowling ball hitting the headpin straight in the pocket. The brooms scattered like a set of tenpins on a clean strike. Once again, the fourth year Ravenclaw bounced on the invisible cushiony ground and laid sprawled out like a voodoo doll that was tossed to the side.

The sickening cracking sounds of twigs and sticks splintering like flimsy toothpicks made Vindictus's stomach sink. He rolled over and he couldn't comprehend the site directly before his eyes. "Muh . . . . Muh . . . ," he stammered and crawled over to the now-fit for kindling brooms. "MY BROOMS!" He picked up a few pieces in both fists and looked over at Aden who lay like a ragdoll on the grass. A few broken twigs fell from his clenched fists to the soft grass.

Dani stopped laughing when the professor saw the brooms. He looked close to tears. Walking over to him she placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't cry, it will be okay. It could be worse." She counted the amount of students. "You still have about twelve left." She tried to make her voice sound optimistic.

While Professor Vindictus has screamed loudly about his brooms, what Broccoli heard was more like "KA BOOMMM!!" This lead him to think that Vindictus thought the entire thing to be funny. It also didn't encourage Broccoli to get up. Too bad for him to really, because a few hours later, he would have wished he had moved much faster.

A piece of broken broom handle came flying out of the sky where it landed with a loud thunk right on Broccoli's head. If he hadn't a broken nose before the piece hit him in the face, he probably did now.

"Ouch..."

He slowly rolled over only to find Professor Vindictus with a mixed look of terror, dread, heartbreak, hopelessness, and anger on his face. I didn'tk now someone could experience all those emotions at once...

"Umm....sorry...?" he muttered as he tried to stand up.

"Three left," Vindictus corrected Dani and dropped the broken pieces onto the grass. "Can you take the surviving brooms back to the Broomshed for me, Dani?" He hoped she'd say yes. There's gotta be a curse on the brooms this term. Lost a few in the dungeon fiasco and now nine in one lesson. It has to be a curse.... He then walked over to Aden who was now nursing a bloody nose.


He took a deep breath. And then another. Remember, he's not an expert flyer - just a kid needing to work on his flying skills. "You need to work on your landing skills, Aden," Vindictus finally said. "But I think you need to go see Nurse Avalon for that bloody nose of yours."

"Padding?" He sniffled then coughed and hacked up some flaem. Spit off to the side. "No no, sir, the padding was fine. This was from a piece smacking me in the face." He sniffled then rubbed his bloody nose with the sleeve of his robe.

"What about a Ruddy hose?" He coughed again and then realized that his left hand pinky was turning a bit purple. Ouch, that was going to hurt a lot tomorrow. "Why do I need to find you a hose?"

Dani nodded. "Okay." She grabbed the three brooms and headed toward the broomshed. Thinking about the lesson, she smiled. She had done it! She wondered if she had earned any more points just for zooming around.

"NURSE. HOSPITAL. NOW." Vindictus had no choice but to shout loudly at Aden who was clearly not listening to him. "Do I need to write it down for you?"

"Purse?!" Broccoli sat there on his haunches blinking confusedly at Vindictus. Did the professor moonlight as something - um...not a good idea to go there he decided to not ask that question. "Popsicle...." he stopped his next question as his pinky started throbbing.

He responded loudly, like a boy that couldn't hear properly (because he couldn't). "Sir! I'm going to go to see the nurse. Maybe Dani can help you find a purse. She's a girl after all."

Vindictus slapped his own forehead. "Go. Now. Please." He bent over and retrieved his clipboard. The parchment on which he had been writing comments was crumpled and he ripped a corner from it. Even his quill was bent in half, but he somehow managed to hold the tip between his fingers to scribble the words Aden B. to Hospital and his signature. He shoved the scrap of paper into the Ravenclaw boy's hand. "Here you go, Aden. Now off with you!"

Professor Vindictus was smacking himself. He wondered why. Had he hit something on the nail with the purse thing or was he really looking for a male's opinion. He watched the professor gather his clip board and scribble something before handing it to him.

"NURSE! RIGHT!" He yelled loudly without realizing it. "I'll Go NOW! If you still want help with the purse later - Um...I can come BACK!"

He tucked the note into his pocket handed over his rather sad looking broom to Professor Vindictus and slowly limped back up the castle.

Now that the flying disaster was leaving the scene of the crime, Vindictus looked around the pitch and saw that all of the students had left, including the ones who crashed. The House Elves are going to gripe again over the grass stains and ripped robes. Too bad. They didn't lose nine brooms today. The Flying professor was in deep thought as he left the practice area clutching a broken clipboard and ripped class record.

Flying Lesson #2
 

The gates to the practice pitch were opened despite the ground being a tad squidgy from the water that was mysteriously leaking into the school. A sign was stuck to the left gate and it read:

Flying Lesson #2 - Quidditch Basics

Begins: Tuesday, July 7 @ 9pm EST
Ends: Thursday, July 9 @ 11:59pm EST
Where: The Practice Pitch
Who Can Attend: All students, regardless of year

After passing through the open gates, you will notice a row of wooden benches, a broom rack and a crate full of bats. Come on in and have a seat. But don't touch a bat or broom!

Overly excited about flying class, Anna Greingoth headed out to the practice pitch. Gryffindor hadn't been able to play their first Quidditch game of the season, so she'd been missing the opportunity to climb aboard a broom and take to the skies. No doubt Professor Vindictus would have a really awesome lesson planned for them today. She stopped just outside the pitch to read the sign that had been stuck to the gate. Quidditch Basics...ohhh, this was going to be a treat for sure! Anna made her through the gates and out towards the rows of wooden benches. She took a seat and waited for the lesson to begin.

Reese skipped down to the practice pitch with a smile on her face. She's been waiting for this flying class for AGES. Well, not ages, but you get the idea. She stopped at the opened gate and looked at the sign that was stuck to the left gate. She read it and then headed into the practice pitch. She took a seat on one of the wooden benches and waited for class to begin.

QUIDDITCHHH. The most awesomest sport ever--wayyy better than the muggle sports and well... it was the BESTTT, 'nuff said. He'd only found out last term and he fell in love with it. He headed past the gates, curiously looking at the bats and brooms. Why couldn't students just ride on their brooms whenever they wanted tooooo? Oh it would've been just crazily awesome if he flew on a broom everyday outside and all. Taking a seat next to Reese on the bench, he sighed and waited for the lesson to begin.