Cela listened to the others and nodded at Livvy in agreement. "Looks like lots of the new 'claws and the younger ones are all eager and stuff for 'claw only study sessions." She smiled when she saw/felt the Grey Lady and stood up to offer a quick little curtsey.

"Hello ma'am."

Cela sat down again, her thoughtful face on.

"Professor Vindictus? I think a lot of Ravenclaws have grown complacent. Last term and even the term before, it sort of felt like they expected that the top earners would take care of everything. I think aside from all the usual stuff with studying and attending classes and doing homework, we all need to set a good example." She miiiight have possibly shot little looks at Adrienne and Miles.

Okay. She totally did.

"Maybe we should have a sign up and get everyone to pledge that they'll do their part. Because you know what? Every point counts. If we get the whole of Ravenclaw house to make a personal goal to aim for, even if its only 50 points, that will help a whole lot."

ARGH! Why does the Grey Lady always do that! My office now has an ice cold corner. He cleared his throat. "Yeah, good ideas. I like the pledge idea, Cela. Perhaps we can have a parchment posted in the common room where students can sign it. Now let's move on and discuss the one cup we've never won - Gobstones." Marbles. They're marbles. Stupid balls of magicked glass. "How can we improve in Gobstones and win that trophy?"

"Practice?" Celandine suggested. "Cheering!" She waved her pom-pom in illustration.

"Its a bit scary to some people I think, because they don't want to be covered in gob. So like, maybe we make sure everyone knows the Impervius charm? So they don't get all gobbed up if they doooo miss."

"Yeah, we should definitely have a crowd there cheering Ravenclaw on to victory," Vindictus grinned. "But how can we get the house interested in a game of marbles? We need a dedicated team that loves to play. I mean if it were Wizard's Chess, then that would be exciting to watch and possibly play."

"Maybe we can have a practice game in the common room? Encourage the new students to learn the rules and see how fun it can be? Especially the muggleborn students since they probably don't even know what gobstones is, right? So maybe aside from a pledgey thingy for housepoints and stuff, we can have a Ravenclaw gobstones club!" Celandine suggested enthusiastically.

Too bad they didn't have a wizards chess tournament too.

Miles listened back and forth as the talk moved to Gobstones and he moved over and sat at the edge of Professor V's desk. "Umm..." He scratched his head and looked at the both of them. "What IS Gobstones?" Ok so he'd heard that they always had tournaments and stuff but...well he didn't have any clue what it was. But he knew what Wizards Chess what.

Ahh...that'd be so cool to have. Bouncing slightly he looked at them both, "Come on...I want to know! Maybe I can play!" Yeah and be the best and lead the house to VICTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! "I mean is it like marbles. I know what marbles is. You hit the marbles with your shooter attempting to get all of the opponents marbles out of the ring." Marbles...funny word that. Who came up with such words. "But what is gob...is it goo? Goo can be fun. A reason to get messy!" Right on.

Oh, his Ravenclaws were BRILLIANT!

"YES! That's it!" Vindictus exclaimed and pointed at Cela. "We should have a monthly Ravenclaw game night! Food and games instead of a night devoted to parchment and books. Fun, fun, and FUN! The four of you could decide on the game and I'll make arrangements with the Kitchen for food."

"Its like wizarding marbles." Cela informed him. "The marbles spit at you if you miss. There are different kinds. One is like you said where you knock them out of the ring and the other is where you have to get your gobstone closest to the jackstone." Cela explained, quite oblivious to Miles!Extreme.

Ohh pointing? Celandine blinked and pointed back with a pom-pom, a smile flooding her face.

"Wizarding games?" Celandine asked curiously.

Constantine just...strolled into the office. He was thirty-nine years old. Heaven help the person to tell him to "knock on the door" or "please wait outside patiently". Ha. Patience was for people who had it. He, however, did not.

"Hey Max. You should take a look outside. There are some abnormally large birds flying around." Neo was almost considering contacting National Geographic. If, it weren't for the fact that the bird were actually kids.

"That's right. Wizarding games," Vindictus replied to Cela. "Now let's talk Quidditch. I took a look at the sign-ups for tryouts and am a little concerned. We need athletes if we're going to live up to Ravenclaw's tradition of fielding strong, competitive teams."

Just then, he saw Neo burst into his office.

"Abnormal birds? Isn't that the area of Mrs. Professor Lawson?" Max asked with a chuckle and walked over to his window. This has gotta be one of Neo's jokes. He probably let Peeves in here so that the pesky poltergeist can hit me with a waterballoon. Then he peered outside and his jaw dropped. Two students were in the air on broomsticks.

Turning around, Max's eyes resembled two blue flames and his jaw was twitching. "For the love of Merlin! I'm gonna beat the stupid out of them with those brooms!"

He wanted to say something else but there were students present. "Ah, meeting adjourned. We'll finish this later," Vindictus said to Cela, Adrienne, Miles, and Olivia.

"Let's go, Neo," he said and hurried out of his office.

Ruff.

"Mmhmmm," Constantine replied nonchalantly. With that, he left the room, just after Max.

"Gosh." Celandine murmured quietly. "I hope they're not Ravenclaws." She stood up, picked up a shortbread for the road and eyed the others. "Shall we go brainstorm some more so we have some more suggestions and stuff for Professor Vindictus when we meet up again?"

Yes? No?

Well she was going to. Celandine headed out of the office and off in the direction of the library.

Satine hurried towards the Head of House's office with a small present inside a black and blue stripped bag with tons of blue tissue paper erupting out of it. This was one of the items on her list for her goals this year...to make a mark... She smiled and smoothed out her robes as she walked up to the HOH's office door in all her Ravvie finest. She had even put on her newest dark blue shoes to complete the ensemble.

She pushed a strand of purple hair behind her left ear and fluffed the blue tissue paper to make it look good and then took a deep breath as she knocked on the door in front of her.

He wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not.

Sabel shifted the weight of his backpack on his shoulder as he made his way to Professor Vindictus's office. He definetly hadn't started off on the right foot with his teacher during the first Flying Lesson, which was just yet another reason as to why he so often claimed he had two left feet.

He let out a sigh and pulled up his hand to knock on the door. He wasn't exactly expecting the Professor to see him - the man was sure to have other responsibilities to attend to - but he had a question that had been eating at him, especially since his Defense Against the Dark Arts class had ended earlier that day. And for him, questions were meant to be vocalized. How the question would be received and how, or if, it would be answered, however, was completely up in the air. Like a broomstick.

He rubbed the back of his neck with the bad, personal joke he shared with himself as he took a spot waiting along the wall outside the door. There was another girl there and gave her a small smile; she looked to be in a good mood. And she was carrying a present.

He blinked. Was it the Professor's birthday?

Professor Vindictus had only been gone from his office for about 15 minutes so that he could deal with two individuals who had the nerve to break a rule and fly on the school grounds.

The door to his office was open and three of the Ravenclaw leaders were still inside (Cela had left, pom poms and all).

"Hey there! Did Miles force you to stand outside until I got back?" he asked with a boyish grin as he approached the door where Sable and Satine were standing. He opened it and held it open for them. "Come on in."

As he waited for them to step inside, he looked at Olivia, Adrienne and Miles. "Oye, you lot. I'm baaaack!"

Sabel blinked in surprise at Professor Vindictus' apparently good-natured mood. It seemed quite a difference to the strict and sharp tone of the Flying Instructor. Then again, it had only been one class; hardly enough to be able to form an accurate judgement from.

Not knowing who Miles was, Sabel figured it was probably best to retain any comments and instead slipped inside upon the Professor's offering. He blinked at the three in the room in slight surprise; well this could sure prove to be interesting....yes. Interesting. He would leave it at that.

Not too sure where to sit, stand, or otherwise position himself in the body of space that was the Professor's office, Sabel let his feet stop automatically at the edge of the carpet, giving the three inside the room a small smile so as not to be rude, before casting a suspicious glance down at the carpet. He didn't trust objects that could so easily be distorted by his feet, or his feet distorted by them. Not in a Professor's office. Not since last time.

Vindictus pointed to one of the vacant chairs by his desk. "Have a seat. Sable and feel free to tell me what you need or what I can help you with," he said as he propped the door open with a bronze eagle doorstop that squawked. "Ignore the others - we're just doing some crazy Ravenclaw things in here," he mentioned as he sat down behind his desk.

Ah, the old getting-into-the-chair-trick-without-tripping trick. He considered the chair for a moment. Last time he tried that, he hadn't succeeded very well. His eyes flicked over to the doorstop as it sqwaked and then back to the chair. He didn't really have a choice, he was here now.

So, he set his mind to the task and moved cautiously across the floor towards the chair. It felt like a trek across the Savanah Desert as he almost tip-toed over the carpet and around whatever furniture was in his path; which wasn't much. He was just beginning to relax and wonder exactly what 'crazy Ravenclaw things' were classified as when his foot snagged on a slight rise in the floor. That's right. The Savanah didn't have a lot of rocks.

In his normal style of bad enterances, one foot hit the bump, the other hit the back of that stalled foot and then they both jumped back into motion double time, sending him to stumble the rest of the short distance to the chair. Snapping his hands down onto the arm rests to keep himself from going full throttle, headfirst over the Professor's desk, he quickly plopped himself down almost missing the seat entirely.

He believed that display was his cue to cut right to the heart of things before he could make another blunder. "I was actually wondering Professor, if I might be able to repair, or help repair the broom I used in class...err, Horus." He didn't really feel it was proper to address Horus without using its name. Strange yes, but in his mind it made sense.

Ah, it's nice to have a student who genuinely cares about a school broom. "I've already ordered the twigs so that I can repair the tail of the broom but you know what? When I'm done fixing the broom, you can polish it up and get it ready for the next class. How does that sound?"

Polish?

A smile crept over Sabel's expression; so he wasn't sounding entirely insane. "I would be most grateful Sir." He couldn't help but ask. "Could that also include a nameplate? Or, name-tag-thingy-mah-giggy?" Sabel Dakest, presenting the literacy skills of a fourth year. He was doing well.

Satine smiled as the HoH came out to greet the students and then invited the other girl and herself in. She grabbed the small black and blue stripped bag with tons of blue tissue paper erupting out of it and followed the other girl into the Professor's office.

She politely waited her turn and then said, "Well, Professor, I just wanted to stop by and bring you a small present to start the term off with." in her head she kept repeating...make a mark....which was her goal for the year....

She handed him the bag that inside held a clear plastic bag of blue and black jelly beans. "My aunt and I found these this summer over our travels and I instantly though of you."

"No nameplates or tags on the brooms," Vindictus replied with a smile. "See, each broom is unique when you take a hard look at them. I'm sure by the time you polish up that broom, you'll be able to single it out from all of the other school brooms."

Vindictus accepted the gift and sat it on his desk. "Why thank you, Satine. Are these normal Muggle jelly beans or are they Bertie Bott's?" A perfectly logical question considering black and blue Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans were an adventure. The last time he had a black one, it was motor oil flavored. Ick.

A small smile touched the corners of Sabel's lips at the Professor's words. The man certainly had an appreciation for what he did.

Not wanting to intrude any further, especially now that Professor Vindictus had been presented with a gift, Sabel stood, about to thank the Professor when another question came to mind. Well two rather. "Uhm...Sir, I was just wondering; when should I come to..." he wanted to say 'give a makeover to Horus' but with the Professor's recent words he figured it wouldn't be the best idea. "When should I come back to work on Horus? And...I know that students get practice time in class to learn new skills and the what-not, but are there any out-of-class hours where we can hone in on those skills and...where some of us can start getting used to flying?"

"Keep an eye on your common room announcement board for an upcoming Broom Care class and for dates when the Practice Pitch will be open for those wanting to practice their flying skills," Vindictus answered. He truly appreciated the young Gryffindor's enthusiasm for flying and his desire to improve himself.

There was a Broom Care class? He blinked. Well, you learn something new everyday, he supposed giving a nod of acknowledgement. "Thank you Professor, for taking the time to see me. And I'm...sorry for taking all those twigs off the broom when I landed."

He gave the Professor a small smile as he stood and made a point not to catch his foot on anything. "Thank you again." A small bow of the head and nod to the other students in the room and he was on his way.