Flying For Beginners

Staring at the list, Harmony nodded.

Alright, so I'm paired with Lawr then. I wonder where he is...

Harmony shifted her weight from her right foot to her left as she looked around. She watched as Will demonstrated for the flying class how to get a broom to you. She sighed slightly, deciding to go ahead and call her broom to her and then wait for Lawr. With her hand hovering over the broom, she smiled. This was what she loved.

"Up!"

The broom, while it was rickety and shaky, shot up into her hand like it should. She held the broom gently, watching as everyone talked to their partners.

Samantha Quill wrote:"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.

"Not really," Raven replied. He looked around the quidditch pitch and sighed. "My partner hasn't even shown up. I saw you and decided to come see how it was going."
He shrugged as he smiled at her. Taking the broom next to hers, he stuck his hand over it and pretended as if he was commanding Loki. "UP!"
He smiled when the broom came to his hand. He looked over at Sam and shrugged again. "I just think of the broom as if it was Loki. It works."

Samantha gaped at the boy. The broom - her, lazy, temperamental broom - had literally jumped to obey him.

"I just think of it as Loki," the boy explained and Samantha cast her eyes downwards. She didn't have a pet so she wouldn't know.

"I guess I need to be more firm with it," she said. Gesturing for him to replace the broom on the ground, she held out her own hand over it.

"Up!" she said. To no one's surprise, it didn't budge.

Raven frowned and glanced at Sam. Thinking, he had an idea and grinned. "Okay, maybe the pet analogy wasn't the best. Have you ever been angry with someone because they weren't listening to you? Try pretending the broom is that person. Yell at them to listen to you. Make them hear you."

"Y-yell?"

In truth, the dark haired girl had never shouted or yelled at anyone in her life. Of course she had been angry but she'd always kept it in instead of shouting, swearing and yelling. Simply because it didn't do any good to raise your voice.

She looked hesitantly at her broom. Okay, suppose the broom had done her a personal wrong. It had... it had refused to come up to her and embarrassed her. Yes, that was it.

"Up!" she said a little more firmly. The broom twitched slightly but still remained on the ground.

Sighing Raven crossed his arms. "Whatever you thought of didn't work. Really mean it, Sam. Hmmm...."
It clicked in his head what would really anger the quiet Slytherin. Grinning, he whispered, "Pretend that that broom is someone who came into your bakery and used up all your ingredients. They got flour and stuff everywhere! And they refused to clean it up."

Samantha physically blanched at the thought. Who would do something like that?

Picturing the broom as the offender, as someone who had left flour marks all over her counter and wet splodges on her recently shining tiled floor, she raised her hand stiffly at the broom once again.

"Up!" she commanded in a soft and dangerous voice and a moment later, the broom handle was securely in her grasp.

Raven practically crowed when the broom shot into Sam's hand. He grinned at her. "I told you, you could do it! All you had to have was the right motivation! And having dueled you when you weren't angry, I personally would never want to be the one to get on your bad side!"

As the haze of the dirty kitchen cleared from her mind, she realized the broom was now in her hand. Looking up at Raven's playful expression, she smiled.

"Hopefully, it'll listen now and I won't have to get mad at it all the time," the girl joked. She couldn't help the grin on her face with the broom safely in her hand. She had finally done it.

Alex looked around felt a bit out of place here. Everyone knows everyone else here and see my luck! my partner hasn't even shown up. Not that I can say anything to her over that, I come in late i all classes, it is a bit weird! Oh well! might as well get something done.

Alex looked around and felt even more out of place. Everyone was getting their brooms on the move while she had just had her 'space-out' moment. She rolled up her sleeves as she aproached her broom. "UP!" she said as she finally reached it. It did rise up, just well, it ended up hitting her on her nose. "Oh CRAP!" she cried out in frustration. It didnt hurt, well their wasn't much to hit her with. Twigs don't hurt, but her pride was definitly wounded. And she reacted to the situation as she always did, she started stomping on that broom going through a list of abuses in her head. Then, she realised how stupid she probably looked. Not like anyones interested. she thought with a shrug and went back to beating the broom senseless.

"I don't mind going first."

Rebecca set her mind to the task. She WOULD make the broom rise to her hand. It would do WHAT she told it. They were older brooms so they should be used to students by that point.

Rebecca held her hand out over the broom sitting at her feet. She said in a clear calm voice. "Up." The broom rose up to meet her hand wonderfully. Just a few inches from her hand though it sunk back down to the ground. "Up!" Rebecca repeated again. This time the broom touched her hand and she gripped it hard.

Dixie grinned at Rebecca, happy that her friend had succeeded. 'Now let's see what'll happen with me...' she thought as she set the broom in front of her. Holding out her hand over the broom, she took a breath, and said "Up." The broom lifted up off the ground, just for a moment, then plopped down again.
She tried again. "Up!"
The broom handle sharply swung up, and hit her on the forehead. "Ow!" Dixie rubbed her forehead, and glared at the broom, lying there all nice and innocent. Gritting her teeth, she tried this again. "Up."
The broom rose, and she quickly grabbed it. Smiling a bit, she turned to Rebecca. "We did it!"

Alice slipped in beside her partner, "Sorry for being late, she said before she stuck out her hand observing what the others were doing. Apparently they were supposed to say up and cause the broom to come into their hands. Hopefully I dont send it up into my face... she took a deep breath relaxing a bit before she stood by her broom and said, "Up!", in a commanding voice that cracked a bit at the end. The broom slowly inched up towards her hand before falling again. She sighed a bit before she tried again, "Up!" the broom flung upwards into her hand. She smiled to herself a bit proud she had gotten it.

Raven looked at his remaining partnerless classmates. Going over to Harmony he asked, "Can I be your partner, Harmy? I've never been on a broom before and since you have and I trust you....I promise not to do anything."
He bit his lip and looked at the Ravenclaw pleadingly. "I promise to stop calling you Harmy," he offered.

Harmony looked at Raven in surprise. He seemed pretty desperate. He even offered to stop calling her Harmy!

"I think the nickname has stuck with me," she answered finally. "I am quite fond of it now, though only you and Will can call me that. Besides, I call you Rae-Rae, so it's even. And you even have to ask, Rae-Rae? Of course I'll be your partner. Now, let's watch Will get on a broom shall we?"

"Hmm..." Will looked at his broomstick and smirked. "Well, you don't sit on it backwards of course. You are supposed to mount it like so." He threw his right leg over the broom as an example. "Bristles go behind you for those who don't know."

He thought for a moment more before continuing. "From what I was taught, you have to have balance on where you sit, because if you sit too forward or too backward, you can fall off of it easily when you try to fly," He shifted the broom so he can be equally seated on the middle of the broom.

"And grip the broom, slightly leaning forward," He hastily replied. "And tightly when you're ready to go. You'll have more control of it when you fly off."

Finishing his explanation, he looked at Professor Lewis, hoping that he was correct.

Reina smirked, watching Will. She really wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, she understood the basics of flying. Why am I taking this class when I know this already? She wondered to herself. It was just going to be remedial to her, but she figured at the time it would be a good experience to make sure she knew everything. She leaned against the broomstick, putting her chin on her hands. She wanted to get up into the air.

Cat watched Will carefully. He seemed to know what he was on about, and the self-satisfied smirk hadn't stayed on for long. She rocked back slightly on her heels, impatient to get going, but knowing that if she didn't listen to the instructions she would fall off. Just like her bike, and that horse, and the seesaw that she'd instructed Naomi never to talk about...

Cat shook her head and refocused on Will. She needed to pay attention!

Jennifer arrived late only just recieving the memo that flying had started. She didn't know her partner, so she wasn't even sure who to look for. She walked over to Professor Lewis. "Erm, sorry I'm late Professor," she said in a quivering voice. "I don't know Alexandria. Could you point her out to me?"

Lauren quickly ran to the Quidditch Pitch, knowing that she was very late for her first flying lesson. She had been in the Hospital Wing for the majority of the day and completely lost track of time. She dashed to the group of other first years and noticed that some of them were already practicing flying. She was very late!

Lauren glanced at the list of pairings and noticed that she was paired with a girl named Alexandra Lovegood. She looked around for the girl. Only having seen Alexandra in some of her classes, Lauren wasn't too sure what the girl looked like. Suddenly, Lauren spotted a girl standing to the side of the list of names, so she made her way over to her, hoping that this was Alex, her flying partner.

Hilary looked up at Jasmeet. Now that they were actually going to be off the ground a bit, she was starting to feel a little bit nervous.

"Do you want to go first?" she asked, referring to what Professor Lewis had said a moment before. "Or do you want me to?"

Cat looked at what the professor was doing and picked up the broom. She glanced over at Yuki "You OK, with my going first?" she asked her partner, "Or would you rather?"

Cat looked at the broom curiously. The way that Prof. Lewis and Will had mounted was almost like a bike, except for the obvious differences of course...

This was the part that Rebecca had been dreading. Getting onto the broom. She knew that she had to learn she just didn't want to fall off. She looked at Dixie. "Wanna go first this time?"

Rebecca pounted at the Hufflepuff. Dixie seemed much more calm about getting onto the broom. While getting the broom to come to her was easy. This was actually getting onto the broom.