Penny put on the protective robe, goggles and gloves as indicated by Professor Vindictus and grabbed a quaffle....

She stepped up to the left side of her broom with her right arm extended.... making sure she did it right - they had covered how to do this in the first flying lesson and in a firm voice, called her broom 'Up', the broom raised into the air and into her right hand and she mounted it....

And then kicking hard off the ground, she was in the air - "Oh I love flying", she thought as she zoomed around the course to the first of the flaming barrels...

I'm afraid that you won't survive this lesson..., Gwen kept repeating in her head, without having noticed that the Professor added something with unless you wear this...

She was so scared when she grabed the broom, the girl kept thinking about her last flying lesson. Total desaster! I can't even fly all right, how am I supposed to go through a barrel in flames?

Oh, well, here goes, she told herself as she finally began raising from the ground.

Penny had lined up at the start of the barrels of fire.... and took a deep breath.... "Oh Merlins Pants...this is crazy!", she shouted to the wind.

Hoping nobody heard she threw her quaffle through the first flaming barrel and zoomed after it as quickly as she could...

Relief swept over Penny as she emerged from the barrel whole and intact, catching the quaffle neatly in her left arm.

Carr wanted to cry. She almost did as she fought to pull on her equipment with trembling hands. This is insane. This is crazy. Breathe. Just breathe. This is insane.

She chanted the words over and over to herself as she tried desperately to calm herself, without any luck. She looked at her broom on the ground, sobbed once, and then commanded, "Up!"

Nothing.

The broom knew. It knew she was going to die and it didn't want to burn up with her. Her voice squeaked when she tried again. "UP!"

Nothing again.

"Up! Up! Up!. Come on, up!. Please, up!"

Nearly in tears with frustration, Carr hit the ground on her knees hard next to the broom and began to talk to it in a soft voice. "Please?" she pleaded. "Please, up?"

The broom, whether it sensed her agony or felt guilty about it's own uselessness, rolled over lamely on the ground. Carr, taking this as half-hearted permission, picked up the broom and mounted it.

Williaqm zoomed back in front of the burning barrel. " Wiliam took the dom throught the burning barrel with ease. Score!!!

Gwem started flying. Calm, be calm, she kept telling herself, but just couldn't do so. She begann flying quite low, so that her feet almost touched the ground. Then, she decided to fly at first around, and wait a bit before actually going near the barrels of fire.

She was so scared, concidering the fact that she couldn't even fly without loosing her balance.

Kurumi looked down at the ground and, for perhaps the first time, didn't feel like her stomach was turning summersaults. Perhaps it was the fact that she had gained a little bit of confidence in receiving a broom, perhaps it was that she had been selected for the team, or perhaps it was more of her gaining confidence in herself? Kurumi figured her having her own broom was probably the biggest factor.

Rising higher now until she was level with one of the flaming barrels, Kurumi removed the waffle quaffle from under her arm and held it in her hands as she hovered there for a few moments. No time like the present, right? Swallowing hard, she tucked the ball back under her arm and leaned forward, propelling herself forward and sloooooooowly through the first barrel. She probably went through it a little too slowly seeing as the edges of her robes. Kurumi began waving her arms around frantically, forgetting for the moment that they had been charmed to be fireproof.

As she flailed, Kurumi lost her grip on the quaffle and it slipped out from under her arm and fell back down towards the pitch.

MERLIN!

She sure hoped that it didn't hit anyone on the way down!

Kurumi pointed the nose of her broom downwards and began a swan dive towards the falling quaffle.

Aiden looks like she is having fun so far. She flies into the burning barrel upside down. Nothing bad happened. However, it is not for long for everything to go so smoothly.

As she exits from the eighth barrel, her arm catches fire. Panicked, she let go of the Quaffle and tries to put out the fire with her other hand. It is the time when she loses control of her broom and crashes to the ground. "Bloody hell!" she mutters while dusting the dust off her.

A few scratches will not do any harm. Aiden gets back on her feet before she recollects her broom and Quaffle back. "Right! Twenty two more to go," she reminds herself. Aiden looks more determined than before.

Sarah gasped loudly. Is he joking? She stared at the professor. No, doesn't seem so. The boxes with the robes appeared and he was swishing his wand. So we were actually going to fly into these..er...stuff? She raised her brows and nodded in dissatisfaction. Too much for me, she thought as she moved forward to get a set of robes and things. Lessons, Hm! She fitted into her robes and grabbed a broomstick.

Fire-proof eh? Let's see. Sarah mounted the broom. She zoomed towards the professor and asked, "Sir are you..so sure at this?" looking at the broom. She looked at the professor again, hoping to see signs of laughter or fun. None, merlin, doomed! she thought as she kicked off from the ground.

The Slytherin freshman passes through several more flaming barrels, unharmed. Seems like she has put her full concentration on. The dark haired witch is on constant vigilance as her cold grey eyes are watching for possible incoming dangers to avoid.

Next, Aiden is planning for a few stunts. A sneer is carved on her lips.

OK Rachel, through the barrel, she said to herself, she grabbed hold of her broom, and zoom, she went through the barrel, with her eyes closed, well she tought she did, when she opened them she was still in the barrel!

Swerving around various students and any flames that happened to jump off the burning barrels, Kurumi managed to catch the quaffle before it hit the ground and was even able to pull out of her dive before coming within ramming distance with the ground. Tucking the ball back safely under her arm, Kurumi returned to her starting position and glided through the first burning barrel once more - making up for dropping the quaffle a few minutes earlier.

Having successfully made it through barrel number one, with very little fire caught on her robes, Kurumi veered around and began heading through her second, then third, onto the forth, looping around a bit towards the fifth, doubling back a little for missing the real fifth one and going through it sixth instead. She made her way through several more before stopping to take a break. She had managed to go through the barrels with minimal fire caught on her robes, but he heat was exhausting her.

Setting the ball on her thigh and holding it there with her left hand, Kurumi hovered in place to catch her breath.

Penny held her quaffle tight under her arm as she flew towards the next barrel...

Okay, "this is easy", she thought, "just keep concentrating and it'll be fine"..
Approaching the next barrel, she withdrew the quaffle and tossed it threw the flaming barrel and flew in after it... this time though she smacked her arm off the side of the barrel on the way through....

Emerging on the other side, she saw the flames on her robes, but amazing they didn't burn her and miraculously the flames died out after several seconds leaving nothing but scorch marks.

Wiping some sweat of her forehead, she looked around at her fellow students to see how they were doing...

Seeing the roaring fire, Aiden changes her mind. No stunts today. Safety first. Securing the Quaffle firmly under an arm, Aiden flies through more flaming barrels continuously.

Only two barrels left.

Rebecca put on her robe, gloves, and goggles and grabbed a broom. She was nervous about flying, since she missed the first lesson and didn't know how to fly to well. She heard a lot of the other students saying up and then flying. So she tried it. "Up," she said and soon enough, she was flying. "This is easy! I should try to go around the barrels now though."

WHOOSH!

Rebecca went flying towards the first barrel, holding the quaffle she picked up when she got her broom. She gracefully went around the first barrel with ease. "Wow," she said to herself. "I'm pretty good at this. I just hope I can get through the whole course..." Then she zipped her way to the next barrel.

They were ....what?!

Ok so Simon had flashbacks to lessons where the pyros of the school went crazy and when he heard Lexi's excitement he knew it was still in effect. The boy making a mental not to stay away from her and Evelyn...and anyone else that seemed far to happy with the flames for that matter. He on the other hand wasn't too thrilled, prefering air and water to fire in the list of elements one had to compete against even if there was no danger thanks to Vindictus' planning.

Might as well get it over with.

Simon got up to his feet and retrieved the goggles, robe and protective gear, putting all of it on and pausing in place as it fitted itself securely onto him. Absently watching as Kurumi took off as he took up a quaffle of his own, he was glad to see that she seemed better off, managing to make it through though having to retrieve her fallen quaffle.

Well here goes nothing, he mused as he mounted his broom and took off from the ground with ease, quaffle secure as he was quite used to flying with it. Simon manuevered up into the sky so he was abouut the height the stilts made the flaming barrels. Taking a deep breath, he took off like a shot, soon making his way through the first barrel.

Finally, the last two berrels. She can feel sweat beads going down through her face and body. She manouvers the broom at maximum speed through both barrels. Then, she stops at the side of the pitch, wiping sweat off her face. She needs a long shower after this.

Penny had been so busy looking around her she dropped her quaffle.... changing direction Penny pushed her broom downwards hoping to catch the ball.... but too late...it was on the ground and Penny knew she was gonna crash land..

***BUMP***

Getting to her feet, rubbing her head and feeling idiotic... she walked over and picked up the quaffle.....

"Lets try this again, shall we?".. mounting he broom, with the ball safely under her left arm again, she took to the air for the next barrel..

Focusing on the barrel in front of her, she threw the ball into it and followed it quickly, careful to keep her elbows tucked in close to her body...
"Phew... I'm glad we don't play this game here in Hogwarts", she thought with a smile..

Flying very slowly and wobbling, Carr approached the first barrel. It's a good thing I'm a small girl...

She ducked her her down and flew toward the center of the barrel, slowly inching through. Somewhere before she reached the end, she closed her eyes against the heat, which was a mistake. Unable to see anything, the girl panicked and grabbed the broom roughly. It shot upward, cracking the top of the barrel with the top of Carr's head and then bounded forward, carrying her through. The girl screamed and checked all of her extremities to make sure they were unsinged, but the charms had held up. Trying not to cry, she moved toward the second barrel.

Squealing with delight Lexi grabbed a quaffle and kicked off from the ground hard. Zooming off into the air she got a good distance up and then came to a stop a good ways from the first barrel. Hmmm.

Laying flat against her broom almost she took off toward the first burning barrel with a smile on her face. ACK! She swallowed a BUG! She started to cough and pulled back to stop herself... right outside of the barrel. Ooooh the FIYAH! WIN. Lexi coughed and hacked and STARED. Awesome.

Hehhehe.

Turning around she smiled and then went back toward the barrel once she cleared the bug from her airway. Woooot! Leaning forward just a bit she went through the first barrel with no problem. Giggling with glee she felt the heat from the flames as she came it on the other side.

Too hot to bear it, Aiden takes off the goggles and the robes, putting them besides the broom she used. It is when she heard someone screaming. She looks up, it was a first year having some technical difficulities.

"Newbies," smirks Aiden as she shrugs her head. She looks at the other students who are still flying. Then, she wipes the sweat off her forehead again.

When Eino grew a little more confident flying, and determined that his brrom wasn't cursed, like last time, he prepared himself to take on the first barrel. He approached it very slowly and flew around it first to examine it. Yep, it was on fire, and it looked dangerous. There wasn't much to worry with all those non-burning charms, but Eino was still a little anxious. He first needed to determine the proper position he had to take, so that his head and his feet wouldn't hit the barrel. Most importantly, the speed at which he had to pass through them so that he didn't get stuck inside the burning barrel.

He positioned himself right in front of it and measure the entrance and exit openings as well as he could. After a few adjustments, he rubbed his hands together, and double checked if his goggles were on properly before his first attempt. He backtracked a couple of yards, bent his body forward and began flying towards the barrel. He began to fly faster and faster until he reached the barrel and began to slow down. At least his calculation had been right, and he made it through the first opening. The problem was he was now back at the speed of one mile per hour and barely made it out the barrel. His arm had caught on fire but after a few pats it was extinguished, and the robes were intact. That wasn't bad for the first barrel. Now, let's try doing that again without slowing down and getting stuck inside the barrel.

Penny decided to fly up above the barrel course for a few minutes to clear her head and airways.... all the flames and smoke were making her a little coughy so the fresher air was exactly what was needed before going through the next barrel....

Flying down after a couple of minutes, Penny lined up to the next barrel, threw her ball through it and slowly flew in after it....

Four barrels down..... twenty-six to go...

Alright. Here we go. Lexi had about 5 more hoops to get through. WOOOO.

Shifting slightly on her broom to get into a better position she started zooming toward the next barrel and smiled. As it were her DOM started to slip from under her arm as she neared it. In an attempt to grab it again she took her eyes off of the path she was on...

BAM!

Yep. She smashed into the edge of the barrel hard. Jarred around a bit she let the dom fall and grabbed the broom with both hands. Then the greatest thing happened... She looked at the arm of her robes and FLAMES were dancing there. SO.PRETTY. SQUEEEEEE.

But awwwww... about 10 seconds later they flickered out and died. This made Lexi sadface as she hovered beside the barrel. Sighs. Whipping the broom around she dove back toward the ground to fetch her dom.

Once she was set once again she zoomed off to the barrel again and whizzed right through it. Sigh. The pretty flames made her wand to set things alight just to watch them burn. SIGHSIGHSIGH. Maybe after class she'd start a fire in the common room... or on someone's pant leg.

After a not so great, but not so bad, first experience Eino's confident level remained the same. He was glad he made through it, especially considering his terrible flying skills, but he still wished he could have done slightly better.

It was time to fly through twenty-nine more burning barrels. Gulp. He approached the second one and reenacted the same preparation, without one thing in mind: Don't slow down this time! He began flying towards the barrel but he doubted himself and stopped right in front of the barrel. Letting out a heavy sigh, he backtracked, worked up the same confident and tried again. This time he was going to try to go through more than just on barrel. He had to, otherwise he wouldn't make it out of here until the end of the year. He began flying and gradually increased speed, the barrel was approaching and he was still gaining speed. This time he was going fast! He closed his eyes for a second but realized that would be a really bad idea so he quickly opened them and ZOOM! He made it through the barrel! That was two! He didn't stop flying this time and the third barrel was now approaching. He steered towards it and ZOOM! Barrel number three! He went through five more barrel consecutively before he needed to take a break.

He turned around and counted. He had gone through eight barrels now! Without getting burned or falling or anything!