I suppose that means me on Quidditch Pitch

Professor Wright

February 10, 2018 11:19 PM

Flying lessons for first years! by Professor Wright

Glasses were not objects Gray thought about very often. He had worn them, after all, every day since before he had ever entered Sonora’s walls as an eleven-year-old student. Reaching for them every morning and putting them on was almost a reflex at this point, and when it failed, he noticed quick, fast, and in a hurry because of the difficulty this caused with pouring his juice into a glass and not all over a table. His glasses were like clothes – he didn’t think about them much, but wouldn’t think of going many places without them.

Today, however, he was thinking about them as he gathered the first years for their flying lessons. He was thinking about how very much he envied people who did not require them. He had a headache, did not have time to run down to the hospital wing to swallow any potions, and could not wear sunglasses with any efficiency. He had tried that before, a natural consequence of living in California for most of his life, and it just didn’t work well. They looked ridiculous at best and slipped around wildly, stunning his eyes with light and dark every time, at worst. So he was just going to have to suffer through flying lessons.

He tried not let the students see that he was suffering, though, as it was neither their fault nor their concern, plus the less kindly among them might see it as an invitation to try to get ‘round the professor and do something they were not supposed to do. His year had already been quite interesting enough. First years crashing into the building would not be good.

“Hello, everyone,” he said. “Welcome to your third-ever flying class.” For some of them, of course, this was almost certainly untrue, but others…. ”You’ve now spent most of at least two hours of your lives on brooms, at least at a hover, so congratulations. Today, you’re all going to move on into actual flying. Your basic goal for today is to rise at least ten feet in the air and fly from the center of the Pitch here to the goalposts on my left. Those of you who are new will want to do that a few times, those of you who’ve been playing during the basics lessons should attempt the length of the Pitch at least once before you go back to playing catch. If you’re flying down here where the beginners are, no racing or diving or pranking them, please, thank you. Sound clear enough, everyone?”

OOC: Welcome to flying class! Two things you should know is that you would have met Professor Wright as your Charms teacher as well as your flying teacher, and that your first lessons were like the ones in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone were before Neville’s fall – saying ‘up’, mounting the broom, hovering, etc. Students who already know how to fly are allowed to go play with Quaffles and such after Gray determined in the first lesson that they could sit their brooms correctly, though. All posting rules – good spelling and grammar, at least 200 words, more detail and creativity equals more points, no godmoding – apply. Tag me if you need me, and have fun!

Subthreads:

I suppose that means me by Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren with Michael DiCaprio, Pecari

Trying to make progress by Sylvia Mordue, Crotalus

16 Professor Wright Flying lessons for first years! 113 Professor Wright 1 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren

February 11, 2018 9:29 PM

I suppose that means me by Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren

Heinrich was not terribly impressed with flying lessons. Professor Wright was a bit wordy, in Heinrich's opinion, but so were most of the teachers. Not one of them kindly kept to simple straightforward present tense sentences. The good thing about Flying, though, was that he already knew how to do it, so he didn't really need to understand the instructions. Which was also why he was not impressed with the class. It was kind of pointless for him.

At least they weren't doing the Up and Hover anymore. That had been beyond dull. Some kids had flown off and done some Quaffle tossing or something, but Heinrich hadn't be certain enough of what Professor Wright was saying to feel confident that he was actually allowed to leave the professor and rest of the class. And even if he had been sure, he wasn't sure he would have wanted to. He could fly. He wasn't a Quidditch player.

Today, if he understood correctly, they were flying to the one goal and then back to the other. So he got on his broom and set out to do that, matching his altitude to that of most of his classmates. He matched his pace to one of his classmates and asked, just to be sure he understood the task at hand, "We fly to goal and to other goal?"

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren I suppose that means me 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister, Aladren 0 5

Michael DiCaprio, Pecari

February 17, 2018 2:13 AM

And me by Michael DiCaprio, Pecari

Flying wasn't the most interesting class, but it was the most fun because Mikey got to play around while others learned how to fly for the first time. Playing catch wasn't really the most exciting game either, but he liked to spruce it up by doing loops when the teacher wasn't looking and trying to catch it with one hand or with his non-dominant hand. He would've hated it if he had to learn the basics with the other kids. It was a little weird having their Charms teacher as their flying instructor, but Professor Wright seemed alright if a little long-winded at times.

Playing around during their "lesson" wasn't too bad compared to his other classes, but he couldn't wait for tryouts to start. He was looking forward to becoming the next star Quidditch player at Sonora. Even if he didn't make it to the pros, which would be totally awesome, at least he could brag about winning the Quidditch Cup somewhere outside of his club. His dad had been a part of a Quidditch team in college and Mikey wanted to do something like that in the future too.

Mikey brushed back his hair and practically jumped onto his broom and into the air. What he really wanted to do was race back and forth or find someone to do tricks with, but he highly doubted that kind of stuff was allowed during school hours. It was boring matching everyone's pace, but he didn't want to be known as the rebel. One of the international kids got his attention and Mikey nodded. The way the kid talked was kind of funny, but accents were always interesting so he didn't laugh.

"Yup, pretty much. It would be more fun if Mister, I mean, Professor Wright let us race. I've been flying for a long time, so this feels kinda, like, basic to me."

19 Michael DiCaprio, Pecari And me 1406 Michael DiCaprio, Pecari 0 5

Sylvia Mordue, Crotalus

February 18, 2018 9:34 AM

Trying to make progress by Sylvia Mordue, Crotalus

Even though Simon seemed either unwilling or unable to help her, Sylvia had not fully given up on the idea of Nate becoming a Crotalus. She had him sit with her at their house table more or less every meal time, seeing as the rules weren’t as strict on that as they were at the feast, Perhaps if everyone in Crotalus simply regarded Nate as one of them, she could get him reassigned (if people picked players for teams and clubs, why not houses?) and, if she couldn’t, at least he’d be accepted by all the right people, and that was the main thing.

Flying class was probably her least favourite hour of the day. It wasn’t even treated as a proper class by the staff as evidenced by the fact that the weedy Charms teacher could cover it. It was dull, as subject matter, but fraught with social difficulties to mind. It was rare these days that a girl was called out such matters, but some people didn’t find it very ladylike to play Quidditch. Flying, of course, was not Quidditch, but appearing too interested or too proficient at it could raise eyebrows. However, she did not like to appear incompetent at anything. Sylvia almost wanted to play Quidditch, just because she was quite determined that Simon should not be better at her than anything, and because he already got quite enough special privileges by being heir, so why did he have to have a whole sport to himself as well? However, she was not going to sign up unless she sensed it was something that would impress rather than alienate her brother’s roommates, who were both handsome, eligible Pureblood boys. She could cheer Winston (and Simon - people would probably find her loyalty to her brother endearing) on from the stands, which he would surely like. And which she could do in the company of Victor, who was surely in need of company during matches, seeing as both of his roommates played, and his brother presumably supported a rival team. Indeed, when she looked at it like that, not playing seemed deeply advantageous.

The lesson for the day was very easy, given that she’d grown up around magic and already knew how to fly a broom. The main challenge was doing a decently competent job, so as not to seem helpless, whilst not doing so well that she seemed rough or unruly. She had decided that the most important element of the class was socialising - it was certainly the thing she stood to make the most personal progress in, or lose the most ground if things went ill. She took the flight at a leisurely (though not hesitant, or nervous) pace, calling out to a neighbour.

“Hello. How are you finding this class?”

13 Sylvia Mordue, Crotalus Trying to make progress 1413 Sylvia Mordue, Crotalus 0 5

Heinrich

February 27, 2018 9:49 AM

Sorry for the delay in responding by Heinrich

Heinrich was glad for nearly universal nonverbal gestures and facial expressions because “Yup pretty much” sounded to him like the other boy was saying something was very beautiful or nice but the tone and body language suggested he was actually being told that he was correct. Why did English have to be so confusing? He had already figured out that ‘yeah’ was a less formal way of saying ‘yes’ but what was ‘yup?’ Was that even English? Masha had Russian as her primary language. Maybe this boy was foreign, too?

If he was though, he was really good at complex English sentence structure. There were words in what he said that Heinrich could pick out and define, but the whole context of it was lost on him. The words for flying, race, and liking something stood out and combining that with the other’s obvious disappointment let him guess at the gist of it: Other Kid wanted to broom race and the professor said it would be a long time before that would be all right.

Heinrich looked disappointed, too. “It pleases me to race,” he agreed. “I fly fast,” he continued, trying to express that broom racing was something he had some experience in doing. “Want you we after classes to race?” He knew he had the word order in there messed up, but he couldn’t for the life of him remember how it was supposed to go. He hoped the other boy would be able to figure out what he meant anyway. And surely the staff wouldn’t have objections outside of class, when there weren’t so many new beginners in the way. If first years were allowed to play Quidditch there was no logical reason to forbid them from racing on their own time.

“I am Heinrich,” he added, getting tired of calling the other kid Other Kid in his head. “What are you called?” This sentence he was more sure of, as it came up much more frequently in his Conversational English lessons.

1 Heinrich Sorry for the delay in responding 1414 Heinrich 0 5