December 9, 2008
Tuesday, 3:00pm


This is the fifteenth and final meeting of Flying Class.  All term the first years have been learning about brooms, their care, history, and most importantly, the safe practice of riding them.  They'd ridden brooms nearly every single day by doing drills in steering and speed control, and even played some games that tested skills in maneuvering and safe falling.  They must receive a passing grade in this course in order to be allowed to ride the school brooms, bring their own brooms to school the following year, or play Quidditch.  Students who do not pass the course will meet with Madam Hooch in Remedial Flying in the second term, along with older students who have shown one way or another they need a refresher on riding brooms properly. 

The class meets a little earlier than usual so as to ensure the Great Hall will be cleared out in time for dinner.  The inclement (cold and very windy and rainy) forced this last part of class indoors.  The giant tables and all the chairs have been removed.  In the vast open area are a series of giant hoops, flags and overgrown croquet wickets.  Madam Hooch stands near a rack of brooms holding a stopwatch and a clipboard.  She is dressed in considerably less gear than the students are used to seeing.  Her billowing black and white robes are shucked in favor of a tight fitting black vest over a white shirt with voluminous sleeves and a black ascot.  Below are her usual black riding jodhpurs and black boots.

The students have been warned there would be both a practical and a written evaluation, and so Madam Hooch has prepared herself for whining, anxious nerves, and attempted cheating.  (And a dozen questions from Eirene.)

Charles headed to the Great Hall, ready for his final Flying lesson. Of course, by now the lessons were rather moot, him being a very good flier, but he attended the lessons anyway to get broom privileges. Entering the Hall, he looked at the course they would be flying. Croquet wickets they probably needed to fly thorough, hops that probably needed the same, and flags they would need to fly around, though Charles expected at least one idiot to try to fly through the flags too.

One of the earlier groups was Serenity Lee with her best friends Dahlia and Venora. Serenity wondered if her friends had been as excited as she was because sometimes it looked like Dahlia dreaded flying lessons. Then again, the Ravenclaw could have been wrong. She hurried in to the Great Hall to stand there and gawk in awe at how empty the floor of the room was. Her hazel eyes shifted to peer up at the many hoops and flags.

"An obstacle course," she whispered in marvel.

This was going to be difficult! While Serenity Lee possessed average skills on a broom, she still hadn't gotten over the initial fright of being up high. She wasn't scared of heights so much as she was afraid of falling off her broom. There had been a story in a book she'd read where people could jinx brooms and make others fall off. What if she couldn't counter-jinx it?! The idea was horrifying and the first year found herself glancing around nervously as if expecting her fellow first years to be ready to jinx her. Now she was paranoid!

Despite his run-in with Hooch earlier in the year, Keegan still considered the woman his favorite teacher (Aside from Tulo, but she wasn't really a teacher) and he was actually excited to take this class. Aside from Astronomy, Flying class was one of the few he put effort into. He even, in a rare turn of ego, considered himself one of the best fliers in class. Considering how he was considered the worst in almost every other class, he though he earned that position.

Arriving after a few brownnosers, but before the queen of them (imagine that), Keegan pushed his way to the front, another new for him. Though he wasn't pleased about having to write in Flying class, he knew that the practical exam was going to be awesome. And when he saw what seemed to be an obstacle course, he couldn't help the excited grin that crossed his face. Now this was a midterm! No stupid plants to pick, no little boxes to fill in... "Awesome" He breathed, his face lighting up.

-- Usual Uniform. --

Quidditch. Was. Disgusting. Aglaia Knight could think of so many more classes she rather be attending than the sweaty, nasty flying class. Of course, Flying Class didn't necessarily have much to do with Quidditch, but she still had to get sweaty and, well... She had no real reason to hate the class. Maybe it was because Mai and Keegan liked it so much. She knew how to fly alright, and she secretly liked the adrenaline it gave her, but she still couldn't say she liked the class. If it weren't for the fact that she'd have to take remedial flying if she didn't pass, she'd simply be down in her dorm studying for more important midterms. But, alas, remedial flying existed and Aglaia dare not embarrass herself like that.

As Aglaia found her way towards the class, long hair and cloak fluttering in the rain and wind, her face blank and her cheeks red with cold, she became more and more furious by the second. Why couldn't they have picked a day that wasn't completely nasty and rainy? Her dark eyes slowly glided up to see the obstacle course Hooch had placed for them.

Aglaia was generally a fearless child. She wasn't afraid of getting hit, monsters, older students or adults, rabid dogs, nor was she afraid of heights. Though she was a bit afraid of falling, as was anyone, and she was afraid of anything ever hurting her pretty face. The other students stared up at the course and Aglaia nearly smirked. Piece of cake. This would be the last time she'd ever have to be in this class again.

She stopped next to Noriko and Eirene and smiled at them, a lovely greeting, and looked back up at that course. "Wicked," She murmured, "I can't wait for this class to be over with. I won't have to worry about falling on my face anymore," A soft hand shot up to her face and she muttered an "Oh" after imagining herself falling. What a nightmare. Luckily, she wouldn't have to worry about that... Right?

Serenity Lee wasn't incorrect in her thinking that Dahlia was dreading their final flying class. She had proven herself knowledgeable in the different forms of brooms and how to take care of them all as well as the History of the travel broom versus the sports broom but when it actually came to flying, Dahlia was horrible. She had never been bad at anything in her life and was not looking forward to once again humiliating herself in front of the rest of the first years.

She looked up at the obstacle course with a horror stricken expression. She had no idea how she was going to manage going through that, she had a hard enough time just getting her broom off the ground let alone weaving through hoops and wickets and around flags. She felt as if she was going to throw up. What if she failed? She had never failed anything before. How horrible it would be to have to take remedial flying in the next term. She didn't think she'd ever hear the end of it.

Flying was the exam that Eirene dreaded the most. Flying required fast thinking and coordination that she just didn't have, and as a perfectionist, it drove her nuts when she couldn't plan and prepare for every single obstacle (or Gryffindor) that got in her way.

She stood by Noriko and Aglaia, staring at the hoops and going through the route in her mind. When Aglaia spoke, Eirene nodded in agreement.

"I want to know how we're going to be graded," she told her friends, then went on to brag loudly about the studying she'd done. "I do hope the written portion counts for more than the practical, because I've spent all this time memorizing broom history and Quidditch plays and the proper cleaning methods, and it would just be horrid if all that work went to waste."

Eirene shot a nervous look at the course and lowered her voice to a whisper, "I also want to know if we're going through the obstacle course one by one, or in a group. Because if it's one by one, everyone will be watching, but if it's in a group, we have to contend with the barbarians!" She glared for a moment at Keegan and Mairead. "I wish the instructor had told us what to expect! If I don't get an 'O', I'm going to die!"

Dramatic, yes. But typical of how Eirene felt about midterms.

The first years were gathered anxiously before her, a mess of fidgeting and lip-biting, mumbling and murmuring.  She knew that this time of year was one of the most trying on the eleven-year-olds.  It was their first round of exams and all they had to surround them were the nervous preparations of the older students, hyperbolizing the problem.  And though loathe many of them would be to admit it out loud, most were very much looking forward to Christmas holiday and seeing their mums and dads again.  It had been an exhausting term, and they had so little left to do.

And Hooch was merciful.  Now of course, she took the broom trials very seriously - she'd never allow a pass to a student who wasn't ready.  But those students had already made themselves plain.  The class spent so much time practicing that it would take a very nasty turn of fate for this exam to flunk a previously sturdy student.  But it had been done in years past.  With punching.  Another time with a poorly contrived Auto-Fly Enchantment.

"We'll begin with the practical and then wrap up with a short written test," she announced.  "Your marks on each will be incorporated with the marks you've earned all term, but do your best, sparrows, both are weighted quite heavily.  After it's all over, we'll have a breif graduation."

She smiled then, very warmly.  It might often be said of Hooch that she is hard, exacting and no-nonsense.  And that, naturally, is absolutely accurate.  But one does not teach Flying for nearly fifty years if one does not very much enjoy children.  Every group has its prickles, but she's always very fond of each group, every year and finds it a little difficult to say good bye.  Of course many of them she'd see continually in Quidditch, but others she might not have occasion to speak with again as they went on with their schooling.

She sighed and raised her eyebrows.  "Shall we?"

"A broom for each of you.  We'll go two at a time, so listen carefully."

She eyed them each in turn. 

"Begin by kicking off high and threading through the high hoops in order.  Then, dip low and weave through the flags as we've practiced before.  Then, under the wickets.  The final portion is a straight-away the length of the hall with a firm, full stop just before you return to me.  Remember, don't touch your feet to the ground, or brush against the obstacles.  Make a nice clean run and don't interfere with your partner - that's part of it."

She gave them another once over.  "Right.  Any questions?  Let's have the first two."

Hooch then checked her roster and called out the first two students.


*You all can decide who goes when. 

Growing up, Hannah had heard contradictory things about flying. She'd had one brother who didn't care about flying, and another who'd loved it. So from Erin she'd heard raves about flight and Quidditch, and the confidence that she'd be brilliant on the broom; from Landis, the assertion that it was pointless and that she shouldn't feel bad if she didn't care for it. Her parents had mirrored these opinions similarly; her father was the one who'd bought her a toy broomstick as a child, an exquisitely wrought little thing that hovered a little less than a metre off the ground. But her mother'd been the one to take it away, and to give her a tea set instead.

Now that she'd actually tried it, she still wasn't sure. The sensation of near weightlessness was nice, as was the breeze, but Hannah still wasn't so certain she cared much for heights and KNEW she'd never be able to fly so fast nor so tricksy as the students on the Quidditch teams. They were amazing, so used to the air they seemed half-bird, and although she'd gotten quite used to not looking down she'd never compare.

She gazed at the obstacle course laid out in front of them, barely hearing the excited - or nervous - whispers of her peers. She could do this. She had to do this. Then the written section, and everything was over. Madame Hooch had been kind enough, in her way... now this was all that was left.

Hannah steeled herself, her face set with determination, but she still jumped when her name was called. She stepped forward, grabbed a broom, and looked around to see who her partner would be.

"Step up to the line," Madam Hooch urged Hannah and her (as of yet unidentified) partner with a smart little shove on the back.  "Call your broom to ready and mount up.  No need to be nervous, I'm sure you'll both do.  Well." 

Whistle now to her lips, Hooch flipped open her silver pocket watch and when the little pointing finger met the 12, she puffed out a sharp Tweet.

Eirene, as always, listened very carefully to Madam Hooch's instructions, wishing futilely that she could take notes, and that somehow those notes would help her as she went through this obstacle course of doom. When her name was called along with Hannah's, she gasped loudly, and then scrambled for a broom, as if Hannah would somehow steal all the good ones.

She glanced around at her classmates and got on the broom, thinking not for the first time that it would be more ladylike if she were allowed to ride side-broom, and why in the world brooms didn't have cushions, or Merlin, why they couldn't all enchant carriages to fly in the air.

But she rose up in the air anyway, clutching the broom so tightly that her knuckles turned white. Eirene moved forward at a snail's pace, determined not to bump into Hannah or the hoops. She moved so slowly, crawling forward inch by inch, that her hair barely ruffled and she could still pick out the details of the barrettes in one of her classmate's hair.

Madam Hooch hadn't said anything about a time limit, so she hoped with all her heart that the instructor wouldn't hurry her, or worse, take off points for dillydallying. As Eirene went through the first hoop, the seconds ticked by, and she imagined that Hannah was already far, far ahead of her!

She made it through the first hoop! Eirene glanced back and let out a victorious squeal, content that the broom's bristles hadn't knocked into anything. One hoop down... many more to go!


((OOC note: Anyone is welcome to mock, laugh, and/or try to distract Eirene in some way!))

Of all the exams that the first years were expected to sit, Flying had not been the one that Noriko dreaded the most.  That honor clearly went to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which had been the subject of a nightmare the previous night which she had woken up from in near-tears.  The thought of having to demonstrate her spellwork in front of Professor Storm was enough to send the young Slytherin into fits of nervous anxiety, so much so that she really hadn't had time to worry about any of the other upcoming tests.

Flying, though, was not one that she was looking forward to.  It hadn't been one that she had spent a lot of time studying for in the library, and as she listened to Eirene talk about everything she'd done to study for it, her hopes sank lower and lower.  Was she going to fail this exam too?  To make matters worse, Madame Hooch expected them to fly on a broom in front of everyone!  Even in front of her!  The thought of it made Noriko's stomach ache.  She wasn't brave (like Aglaia) or smart (like Eirene).  What if she did so awfully that she lost another point for Slytherin?!

Noriko hung back as the other students scooted forward to wait their turns.  Eirene had been called first, and Noriko's heart leapt for her friend.  How awful!  She'd hate to have to go before everyone else.  She crossed her fingers that Wakahisa would be at the end of the list, so that she could go after all the other first years had left.  Or maybe, if she was lucky, they'd run out of time and she wouldn't have to go at all!

Biting her lip, she scooted over next to Aglaia, looking up at the other Slytherin girl.  "You don't think...I mean, it has to be safe, doesn't it?" she asked nervously.  She had her doubts about that - after all, Madame Hooch had been the teacher who took them on a field trip, so it wasn't as if there was any proof that the other professors were watching her very closely to make certain that she wasn't doing anything dangerous.  Noriko wondered how many other first years had died during the Flying final in years past.  Images of horrible, fiery crashes and students bursting into flames on highly combustible brooms shook her thoughts.

Trying to take her mind off the likelihood of her imminent death, she glanced nervously across the room, eyeing Mairead and Keegan.  "You don't think she'll pair us with one of the Gryffindors, do you?"  That was surely the only thing worse than having to go first on the course.  Noriko would much rather be partnered with Aglaia or one of the other Slytherins.  Having to fly with a Gryffindor would make it certain that she'd get killed!

If Eirene was hoping there wasn't a time limit, Hannah was equally certain that there was one. She went slow at first, hyper-sensitive of the fact that Eirene was following her, but quickly picked up speed. The faster she flew, the quicker it'd be over, right? All she had to do was not. Look. Down.

But as she flew through one of the hoops, her toe dragged over the bottom, and she felt it wobble. Hannah gave a tiny squeak of alarm, stalling in mid-air and doing a hasty about-face as one of her hands shot out to steady the hoop and keep it from falling while with her other she clutched tight to her broom. She could feel her cheeks burning red, but resolutely didn't look at either her fellow first-years or Madam Hooch, although she did glance back to see Eirene's dark head bobbing through hoops far behind her.

After that it went pretty smoothly. Hannah was all nerves when she finally pulled up in front of Madam Hooch, but at least she wasn't blushing any more.

EIropha stood amidst the huddle of robes for warmth, her mind clearly elsewhere as the other's worries went to and fro across their faces. Though as the pair set off she was paying some attention, she'd been absent mostly for Hooch's explanation (as usual,) more concerned about the written portion of the test which she had not studied for, nor had she any natural affinity with the subject. The young slytherin stroked her frizzy auburn hair from her face and tucked it into the done up hood on her robes all the while her eyes followed the flying pair with a langourous interest. Patiently waiting her turn she thought over the prospect that she might fail, she didn't want to, but flying was far from her best class, disliking the degree of effort you had to spend in such practices. She waited and waited to be called for her turn, and as if got closer she gave no note of reaction to the first flier to descend in front of the madame.

Eirene set off at a snail's pace and to Madam Hooch's dismay, she did not accelerate.  She knit her brows in frustration.  Hannah quickly moved past her and began through the hoops.  Hooch watched (with half a eye on the students waiting their turns) and checked off Hannah's skills as she performed them.

Good steady altitude, consistent and controlled speed. Oh, a little bobble there, and so like a Gryffindor to pause and fix it. Hooch smiled and shook her head.

"Well, done, Harper!" she spoke down to Hannah with sincerity and a small smile.  She clapped her on the back.  "Put your broom up and have a seat by the wall, thank you."

"Oh for... Eirene! Challenge yourself a touch, perhaps? We've not got the whole night in here," she called to Eirene, still picking her way ever so slowly on.

She moved into the crowd of first years again and tapped forward the next to students.  "Mount up, you two.  I'm sending you in - Eirene should be finished soon I think so there'll be no need to worry about that."

Tweet!



Like I mentioned, any students may be the next to go! Interact with each other and have fun with it.  No need to be mild mannered on my account.