Term 6: Flying Lesson 1

Grace made her way onto the fields of the quidditch pitch carrying her broomstick, it was one the school lent her until she could afford her own with her salary but she wasn't going to mention that to her students. It was just after breakfast and the sun was beginning to warm the air, the dew beginning to evaporate, drying the grass.

A simple flick of her wand and enough brooms for all of her students were aligned in two neat rows, facing each other with enough space for the students to stand between them. She smiled to herself, her first lesson as a professor, it was so exciting.

She stood patiently as she waited for her students to arrive. They were likely finishing up their breakfasts and, hopefully, chattering excitedly about their first flying lesson. Her brown eyes looked about as they gathered. Mostly first years filled the field though there were a few older students who likely needed more work on their flying before they would be given a passing grade.

Slowly she cleared her throat when it seemed all had gathered. "Good morning students, I am Professor Grace Eversteen and I will be teaching you flying. You may address me as Professor Grace, Professor Eversteen, Miss Eversteen or simply Professor or Miss. Welcome to flying!"

She set her broom simply on the ground before she continued. "Flying is one of the most basic forms of magical travel and until you're old enough to pass your apparition tests it may be your only form of travel. The other common form of travel is the floo network." She cleared her throat again. "Before we can begin flying we need to have command of our brooms. To do this we first must be able to summon our broom to our hands. This is a simple task where you will stand beside your broom, hold your right hand out above it, command it firmly with the word 'up' and then gasp it firmly when it flies up to your hand."

With that Grace stepped up beside her own broom, placed her right hand out over it and firmly said "Up." Just as she had described, the broom flew up into her hand and she grasped it firmly. "That is all I want you to do for now. It is your turn students!" Upon saying this she blew her whistle signaling the students to do just as she asked under her very watchful eye.

Willow was one of the first to arrive after breakfast but one of the last to step up to her broom. She listened intently to the professor and her instructions and was sure to follow the rules but, in all honesty, she hated heights. Flying meant being high in the sky on nothing but a broomstick, she'd have to be very careful not to panic and break her neck in this class. She stared at the professor rather impressed by her knowledge and her command of her broomstick.

Slowly, she stepped up to her broom, raised her right hand above it and shakily declared "Up." The broom didn't even move. She sighed frustratedly and this time tried to sound a little more affirmative. "Up!" The broom at least twitched a little this time. She took a moment and a deep breath, summoned up all her courage and told herself softly "you have to pass this class to progress to second year, just be strong and get through this."

Clearing her throat she flexed her right hand and imagined the broom there before looking down to it with the best firm gaze she could give it. "Up!" She commanded, to her surprise the broom quickly found her hand and she grasped it firmly. Unfortunately, that was probably going to be the easiest part of this class. She looked around to her fellow students nervously.

This professor seemed quite nice, especially compared to Professor Elldir. Since Aoife was putting her life in the woman's hands. She was nervous, but trying desperately not to be weak and let it show as she made her way to her broom. "U-Up!" she stammered but to no success as the broom stayed firmly on the ground. Once again, she wished she was from a wizard family to have a bit more experience with these things.

Taking a deep breath, the girl thought of her family and making them proud, then a lot more confidently said, "Up!" and beamed as it bounced up into her waiting hand. Second try! That was pretty good! Maybe she COULD be a Quidditch player, whatever the sport actually was. Aoife smiled at that girl from the library, seeing that she'd been successful too.

Hunter pushed open the large doors that opened into the grounds and took off at a run, his robes trailing lightly behind him. He had slept in by ten minutes, and was trying to make it to his flying lesson on time. He was incredibly excited for this lesson in particular - I mean, come on. Flying! Why wouldn't he be excited? He sprinted toward the place the lesson would take place, and slowed as he neared the small gathering of people.

Yes! He wasn't late. There were only two other people there - a Hufflepuff that he'd seen around in classes and Aoife. He stopped when he'd reached them and turned his attention to the Professor. She was a tall, dark-haired woman, and she seemed nice enough. He watched her as she summoned her broom into her hand, a grin spreading across his face. That didn't look too hard! He stepped up to the broom next to Aoife and watched as she and the other girl tried to summon their brooms. Neither of them got theirs on the first try.

Taking a breath, and looking determinedly down at his broom, he extended his hand to rest in the air overtop of it, palm down. Confidently, he said "UP!" A huge grin spread across his face as, immediately, the broomstick shot up from the ground and collided with his hand. He grasped his fingers around it and looked around at the others. Both of the girls had succeeded in getting their brooms to rise as well. He looked at the Professor, excitement plastered on his face. He hoped that they would get to fly on the brooms today.

Grace smiled as three of her first years managed to get their brooms into their hands. The students that were repeating flying all also managed to get their brooms into their hands but that was less impressive of them than it was of the first years.

"Wonderfully done, you three!" She chirped at her first years. "Willow, 5 points to Hufflepuff. Aoife, 5 points to Gryffindor. Hunter, you got it on your first try! 10 more points to Gryffindor!" She smiled happily at them and then returned to watching the rest of the class. Slowly, several after many many tries, the students were holding their brooms. Nearly a half hour had passed before everyone had gotten their hands on their brooms.

Grace cleared her throat. "All right students, now we're going to hover on her brooms. I want you to mount your brooms firmly, grasp them securely and kick off from the ground, hard. When you kick off point your brooms upwards slightly to raise into the air. Be sure to only go up a few feet, I don't want you going too high just yet. Once you're up, level out your broom and hover there for a moment, then fly back down. To fly back down simply point the handle of your broom back towards the ground gently until your feet touch ground again."

The professor did just as she described and went over it again while she did so so that the students could see exactly what she meant. She made it look very easy indeed! "All right, on my whistle. 3, 2, 1!" She blew her whistle signalling that it was the students' turn to try.

Having just taken his pollyjuice potion, and changed into the Ravenclaw robes he had taken from the common room, Thaor headed to the Quidditch Pitch for flying lessons. He almost gave detention to a student who had ran into him before he realized he was a first year, or, so he looked.

He smiled as Grace instructed them how to get their brooms to their hands. Should be simple enough. he said to himself.

He stepped next to a broom and said Up. the broom moved a bit, but stayed on the ground. Up. he said again, with no affect. Come on, that Hunter kid got it on the first try. Why is this so difficult. he said to himself.

UP! UP UP UP UP UP! he yelled, the broom flying up and hitting him square in the face. Bloody hell that hurt! he exclaimed, holding his nose. UP! he tried once more, the broom finally floating straight up to his hand.

About time. he thought to himself before looking around and seeing he was the last one to get their brooms up.

We have to ride the things? he said, dreading what was about to happen. He was simply happier with both feet firmly on the ground.

Thaor mounted his broom, hovered for a few seconds, then decided he had enough, and leaned forward to touch back down, however instead of the broom lowering to the ground, it took off across the pitch.

Grace yelped in surprise as one of her students, a first year Ravenclaw, took off across the pitch. "C-Come back!! Oh for heaven's sake..." She hopped on her broom and sped off after the student, thankfully as a teacher she had a slightly better room than the first years were given to learn to fly so she was able to catch up to the student with ease. She whipped out her wand "Aresto Momentum!" She declared with a sharp flick of her wand. The Ravenclaw student's broom slowed to almost a stop. She flew up beside him and slowed her own broom down.

"Now, don't panic, do as I do. Point your broomstick handle towards the ground and think about landing. Come on we'll do it together."

Hunter beamed as the professor awarded him ten points. Finally, something in the wizarding world that he hadn't struggled with! He turned to watch as the other students in the class continued to summon their brooms. He raised an eyebrow as a ravenclaw boy struggled to get his broom to rise, and couldn't help but laugh when the broomstick finally complied but slammed into the boy's face. He quickly stifled his laughter, not wanting to discourage the boy, and turned his attention back to the professor.

Yes! They would get to fly! Well, sort of. They'd at least get to levitate, which Hunter was half certain wouldn't work until he watched Professor Eversteen do it herself. How did it work? Magic was the strangest thing. Hunter quickly straddled his own broom, eager to copy the professor, and braced himself to push off from the ground. Before he had a chance, however, the same Ravenclaw boy that had difficulty with summoning his broom had pushed off. Instead of returning to the ground, he shot forward. The professor took off after him.

Hunter raised an eyebrow at the scene and watched as Professor Eversteen slowed the boy's broom with some spell. She drew alongside him, and quickly seemed to have the situation under control. Since the commotion had ended, Hunter felt that it was okay for him to try the exercise. He tightened his grip slightly on the broom, though not too much - he felt confident from how easily he had gotten his broom to rise. He pushed off of the ground with perhaps a little too much force, and found his broom rising more than a few feet. He glanced down to find himself several yards above the ground.

Despite his rising higher than expected, Hunter found that he wasn't afraid - just amazed. His body naturally found its balance atop the room. It was almost like horseback riding, only not. A grin spread across his face as he looked down again. His broom hovered in place, awaiting command. He took a deep breath and leaned forward like Professor Eversteen had instructed. The broom started to move forward, instead of downward, so he pushed lightly down on the handle with his hands. That did the trick, and before long he found himself back on the ground. He was glad that he'd been successful, but he couldn't wait to get back in the air again!

More points to Gryffindor! Maybe she really could be the best student EVER if she kept answering questions before anyone else could and MAKING her broom go up. And Hunter got points too. TEN! So they were going to win the House Cup, all because of Haoife (HUNTER AND AOIFE!!!).

Okay, time to try. Mount her broom firmly, grasp it securely and kick off from the ground, hard, she recalled the professor's instructions. As she was mounting it, that Ravenclaw first year who she didn't know took off. Aoife couldn't hold in a small giggle but quickly returned to what she was doing once all the commotion was over, focusing on kicking off from the ground.

At first, Aoife was a really wobbly and was just trying to hold on, but after glancing at Hunter and his clearly working technique, she managed to be a little more stable. She had to move around slightly because it was hard to keep perfectly still on the broom, but it seemed to be working quite well.

Grace returned with the Ravenclaw boy on foot to the rest of the class. She smiled as she saw Hunter and Aoife doing well with their hovering. [color=yellow]"Wonderful you two! Now Aoife point your handle towards the ground and lean forwards slightly to land."[/yellow]

She continued to smile as she watched several of the other students doing quite well as well. "Wonderful, all of you, keep practicing!"

Willow watched worriedly and hid her face behind her hands, dropping her broom as the Ravenclaw student took off across the pitch. Merlin's beard this was horrible! She was beginning to fear this class even more! She looked surprised as Hunter and Aoife managed their brooms quite easily, her heart sank. She was going to fail this class and get kicked out of Hogwarts... she knew it! Fearful tears came to her eyes as the professor returned and she prepared to try hovering.

"U-up!" She stammered trying to get her broom to return to her hand, it barely twitched. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and said again "Up!". The broom returned to her hand and she sighed shakily as she mounted the broom.

Slowly, she kicked off from the ground much too hard and found herself very high in the air, several yards at least. She screamed fearfully and let go of her broom to cover her face. To her dismay that allowed the broom's handle to tip forwards and fly, rather quickly towards the ground. She screamed louder as it sailed closer and closer to crashing, sobbing now with her face still covered. "H-help!" She shrieked through her hands as tears rolled down her face just has shit hit the ground with a thud. She lay there, atop her broken broom, still sobbing.

Grace was distracted by watching other students in the air that she didn't hear Willow's call for help until it was too late. She gasped fearfully and ran over to the sobbing student, of course it'd be one from her own house! She sighed as she knelt by Willow. "Are you all right Willow? Anything other than your broom broken?" It hit her that, despite saying this very softly the student may then become rather upset over the broken broom. "Don't worry about the broom dear, I'm more worried about you." Carefully, she began to help the student up.

Slowly, Willow tried to get up with the teacher's help, still sobbing. "I'm s-sorry about the-ow!" She fell back towards the ground as her right leg gave way. A sharp pain was within her ankle. The young student clasped her hand to hit and began sobbing again. "I-I think I need to g-go to the hospital P-Professor..." she sobbed.

Grace escorted Willow to the hospital wing. "Everyone stay on the ground while I take Willow to the hospital wing." She commanded as she left. It looked like she probably had a broken ankle, not surprising, since the poor girl's legs had taken the brunt of the fall and that was still enough to break the broomstick.

She returned several minutes later, alone. "All right everyone, continue practicing your hovering!" She watched her students much more carefully now, her wand always at the ready to slow a crashing broom. She sighed a little halfheartedly, she felt horrible that she hadn't been able to catch Willow in time. She would try her best to never allow that to happen to another student again.

Aoife smiled at the professor and began to make her way down, pointing her handle, but she almost fell off herself when she heard a scream. "Willow!" she called anxiously. True, she didn't know the girl well but they'd sort of had a conversation and it was natural for her to be worried.

But the professor had it all in hand. She landed smoothly and made her way over, standing a little bit away so she wasn't crowding round. Her forehead was creased with worry as she watched. Maybe it meant the lesson was over now? She wasn't sure whether that was good or bad. Obviously the Hufflepuff needed to get to the hospital wing but she was having fun.

Grace rested a hand on Aoife's shoulder, trying to calm the young Gryffindor. "Class is nearly over Aoife, if you want to go visit your friend, you can." She said softly to her. She knew Willow was in good hands though her pride would be very hurt and she could probably use a friend. She smiled softly to Aoife, it was good to see Willow was making friends the poor girl was so shy!

She returned to watching the class practice hovering for a few more moments. "All right, everyone, land carefully now." She blew her whistle signalling for them all to land. "I think that is a good place to stop today's class! We'll continue with hovering and move into actual flying in next class."