Flying For Beginners

"Sure I am...how about you?" Rebecca asked. She wondered if that was the only thing that Dixie was scared of. Dying. Rebecca didn't fear death that much. It was bound to happen. Being mad fun of though...it didn't stop. Her older siblings had made fun of her a lot when she messed things up.

Will regarded Jas with a grin. "Sup, Jas? Yeah, I know Hilary. She's in our House. She your partner or something?" He really, really wanted to get flying now. He wondered if Professor Lewis was waiting for the rest of those who signed up to show up. He slowly grew impatient, bouncing a bit to get the excitement jitters out of him. They better hurry up!

Alexandra looked at Bri. "I don't really know what we're supposed to be doing..." she trailed off. "Maybe we were just supposed to find each other? I guess we can just talk until we get some instructions. So, have you played Quidditch before? And do you like flying?" she asked, thinking that it would be best to talk about their lesson.

A little nervous, Will followed Professor Lewis' instructions, moving on the other side where an old broom lay.

He had done it a few times before, but he mostly just picked up the broom on his own. However, he tried to steel his nerves as he raised his hand over it.

The broom was rather battered and dull. His voice cracked a bit as he looked at the chipped handle. "Up!"

The broom shuddered, but remained on the ground. He grinned sheepishly at his professor.

"S-sorry," Will cleared his throat. He'll need to be a bit louder. "UP!"

The broom shuddered violently, but nevertheless rocketed up into his hand. His sheepish grin turned triumphant. "Yes!"

Bri was about to respond to Alex, but Professor Lewis gave them the instructions to begin the lesson then. So Bri put her broom back on the ground as the professor had demonstrated and lifted her hand over it. She felt a little silly talking to a broom, but tried to have a firm voice none the less.

"UP." Bri told the broom loudly and firmly as she could without giggling about the fact that she was talking to the broom. The broom seemed to think it was funny also because it just rolled over on the ground.

Bri didn't think it was was so funny anymore. Her broom was practically mocking her. She glared down at it, although she knew glaring at it would do no good. This time Bri had a little anger in her firm voice as she said, "UP."

The broom seemed to notice she was no longer joking or thought it was funny and zoomed right up in to her hand. Bri smirked at the broom and she gripped it tightly. She had showed it who was the boss. Bri looked over at Alex, seeing if she had gotten her broom up yet.

Reina smirked watching Will get his broom. "What was he so nervous for?" She thought to herself. She turned to Jas. "Hey Jas, Hilary is nice, you'll like her. She's muggleborn like you, so this will be her first time with a broom." She smiled encouragingly. "But if she doesn't show up you can be with us, Will and I will show you what to do." Reina moved over to her broom. She looked down at it, it was older, and probably slower at moving. She cleared her throat, looking down sternly at the broom. She pretended she was scolding her nephew. "Up!" She said. The broom shuddered for a moment and then shot up toward her hand. She grabbed it and smiled triumphantly. "Okay Jas," she gestered to her friend. "This is half the battle right here. Your turn."

Hilary still hadn't found her partner. She wasn't sure if Jasmeet actually knew who she was. That would make finding each other far more difficult. She wondered if there was a way that she could get the girls attention - she was almost sure she would know her to see her - but wasn't sure what she could do. She'd just have to wait, and sooner or later, they'd be bound to meet up.

Jasmeet smiled at Reina, and mimicked what she had just done. She walked towards her broom, lifted her right hand, cleared her throat, and said "Up".

She saw as the broom shot up towards her outstretched hand, and she placed her fingers around it tightly. She looked up at Reina, and smiled.

"Thanks, Reina. I've been meaning to do this ever since I read about Quidditch. If only I can find Hilary, I'm sure I'd like her," she beamed at her friend.

Hilary noticed a girl not too far from where she was. She looked fairly familiar, as though she had seen her around before. She wandered over to where the girl was standing, hoping she didn't make a complete fool of herself.

"Hi," she said, only a little awkwardly. "Any chance that you're Jasmeet?"

"Hi, any chance that you're Jasmeet?" she heard.

Turning around, she saw a girl standing before her. She must be Hilary, she thought.

"Yeah you got that right," she smiled at the girl, "And you must be Hilary. I wasn’t sure who you were, so I came and joined Will and Reina. Heard you’re Muggleborn too. That’s good, I’m not the only one doing this for the first time,” she babbled.

"Yep," she said, with a smile. She, too, was relieved that she wasn't the only one who was new to this. She had been listening to some of the other students talk about their flying abilities, and was starting to get nervous.

"Ready to get going?" she asked, finding two brooms, handing on to Jasmeet and placing hers on the ground next to her.

Reina grinned, waving to Hilary. She watched the two girls interact, leaning on the broomstick for a few seconds before going over to Will. "Hey Black" She said softly, lifting her broom higher to inspect the handle. "You think these things are going to hold the whole year?" She asked him casually. She really didn't want to feel awkward around him anymore, she just wanted to it all behind her.

Jasmeet placed the broom in her hand on the ground, and took the one Hilary offered. As she followed Hilary, she looked back at Will and Reina and waved at them.

After a few seconds they both came to a stop, and she stood opposite Hilary. She placed the broom on the ground, next to her legs and willed Hilary to follow what she was doing.

She rasied her right hand, cleared her throat, and said "Up". Just as the broom before had shot into her hand, this broom did the same. She looked up at Hilary and smiled.

She watched as Jasmeet was able to make the broom rise on the first try. She instantly felt nervous. What if she couldn't do it? What if the broom wouldn't come to her?

Swallowing her nerves, she raised her hand over the broom and said, in a clear voice, "Up!"

Nothing. She instantly felt a blush rise in her cheeks. But she wasn't giving up that easily. "Up!" she said again. This time, the broom zoomed up to meet her hand.

Will looked at his own broom, which seemed to invite more splinters than typical aerodynamics.

"These things wouldn't last a Quod session, let alone a Quidditch match," Will answered Reina's question with a more stable tone. He was more comfortable when talking about Quidditch than anything else. "I give this broom two hours of life before causing someone to fall off it when it kicks the bucket."

Reina snickered. "Gee, I wonder if you can cast the Levitate charm on yourself. Glad we get to bring our own brooms next term." She paused, thinking about next term, especially Quidditch try outs. She'd heard a couple of positions tossed around, but didn't remember hearing anyone but herself wanting to be Keeper. She looked at Will. "What position on the team are you going to try out for?"

Will shrugged. "Chaser or Beater, I suppose. Chasers technically get all the action and Beaters control the external elements by strategically placing Bludgers at the opposing team. Anything where I can get some action. Seekers just fly around looking for the Snitch. Not really exciting when you think about it. You?"

When it was evident the Gryffindor girl was too nervous to speak, Samantha walked over to one of the brooms nearby. Raising her hand like Professor Lewis had showed them, she muttered a prayer not to embarrass herself too much and said "up!"

Nothing happened.

The broom remained as had been, not having moved a single inch.

It's okay, you knew this would happen. Her aunts sounded oddly hollow in her head, as though the woman was trying to sympathize with Samantha's predicament. Try again, girl.

"Up!" the Slytherin tried again but to no avail. The old broom simply refused to budge. Samantha wondered if they'd given her a normal Muggle broom just to watch her try to make it rise. It would be hilarious.

Closing her eyes and concentrating hard, she said firmly "Up!"

This time, it moved.... only to roll over and now lay a foot away then it had originally been. Samantha groaned. She shouldn't have signed up.

Reina snickered, thinking about Will playing either Chaser or Beater. He would be good at either, she decided. She looked at him. "Keeper, definitely. End of the day it doesn't matter what the Chasers or the Beaters are doing, if the Keeper isn't any good then you're not going to win. Plus, it's the only position where you actually get to watch the game while it's being played."

Seeing as his partner still hadn't arrived, Raven sighed and watched everyone else. Seeing Sam he was going to go over and wish her luck until he saw she was having problems with the broom. Thinking, his eyes lit up as he strolled over and greeted her happily. "Hey, Sam."

"Raven," Samantha blushed at the sight of the boy. Great, it wasn't enough that she was stuck with a temperamental broom but her friend had to be right there to witness it.

Lowering her head, she gestured to the broom refusing to budge. "Hope you're having better luck," she muttered, eyes still fixed on the ground.

Jasmeet looked up at Hilary, and smiled warmly. "Well that went better than planned. I wonder what we have to do next." She looked around at that, and saw that the other students were still doing the first step.

"Well I guess we'll just have to wait and see," she said.

Cat looked at the broom on the ground in between her and Yuki. Tell it to come up? She could do that.

"Up." She said firmly, in a tone she had often used on Rory and Rodge, and most recently a pair of troublesome animals. It was a tone that brooked no leeway. The broom jumped into her hand obediently and she grinned. This was going to be fun.

Dixie was nervous, she had to admit that. She wasn't really afraid of flying-just afraid of making a fool of her self. Turning to Rebecca, she smiled and asked "Do you want to go first, or would you rather that I went first or what?"
Eyeing the broom on the ground, she thought it looked a bit ominous, lying there. She suddenly remembered that the school brooms were rather old, and that didn't do anything to calm her down. Now she would half expect the broom to buck her off or something.