September 3rd, 1894 — Hogwarts Grounds

"Before we get started, anyone in the air before I give the go-ahead loses five house points," Ben announced to the gaggle of first years (were they always so small? He was certainly he had never been this tiny while he was at school — with a few exceptions, these kids looked even smaller than the group from last year). The school-issued brooms were already laying in a neat line along the grass, and even before the group of students had fully exited the castle Ben had already seen a few eagerly edging towards them. This was his first year having the class from day one, but he anticipated that these first few lessons would be the hardest. The skill and comfort level of the group would be at its widest now, when some of these kids had been riding brooms in their backyards for years and some had never even held one.

"Now if you've brought your own broom I'll need to look it over before you can use it for class," he continued. They couldn't have anyone using some broken stick for flying practice — anything could happen with an unpredictable broom. "So for today you can choose to use a school broom, or you can stand aside and wait until I see it. Show of hands: who's flown before?"

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[at some point in this thread I may cause some light injuries to spice things up. In your first post you can volunteer as tribute if you want ;P or not, that's fine too!]

  

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MJ made this <3

Margaret walked out into the sunshine after another restless night in the Hufflepuff dungeon, her eyes were sore from two days of near constantly holding back her tears, or failing to do so. She had avoided too much contact with other students beyond what she was forces too, but felt like they were avoiding her as well.

The group of first years were all outside in their uniforms in their forming friendship groups but Maggie mostly hung to the back. The only broom she was interested in was one used to sweep the floor, she had no idea why some of the students almost looked like they were ready to start a sprint to pick up a broom. There was quite a lot students here, so she figured, if she said nothing and did nothing to draw attention to herself, the teacher might be so distracted as to forget to put her on a broom, or perhaps think he already had when he did notice her.

She looked up at the castle that loomed above her with its penants flapping in the breeze and at the bridges that joined some of the taller towers, she wondered how high they might be.

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Reuben Crouch

  

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People had brought their own broomsticks? Jameson had arrived at Hogwarts fully excited for flying classes, but was glad the school would provide one for him to ride. Aunt Odira had said that he should wait to see if he liked it before they invested in something so pricey, which he agreed with in theory, but now felt a small pang of jealousy. Jammy punted this to the side, though, standing eagerly amidst the other first years.

"I hope I do alright today," he voiced quietly to one of the other boys. "I was hoping to try out for the quidditch team, but suspect I'll give it a miss if I prove disastrous!"

  

Aside from a few very eager hands, the group mostly didn't react. Ben nodded and then began separating out the group, gesturing each student to a broomstick along the line. He spread out the eager hands — best not to let the more experienced fliers clump up at the end, he decided, lest they decide of their own volition to get a little overambitious. There would be plenty of time to show off later in the session; he didn't need any of them jolting fifty feet up in the air, competing with each other to see who could go higher, when the exercise was just to hover.

"Flying is a give and take," he told the students. "You don't command your broom, you work with your broom. When you're up in the air, it'll talk to you, and if you don't listen you'll end up in the hospital wing. The first exercise is harder than it sounds. Put your hand out over your broom, about as high as your waist, and say up. When you've got it up, climb onto it and hover there. Try not to fall over."

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The following 1 user Likes Reuben Crouch's post:1 user Likes Reuben Crouch's post
   Margaret Wallace

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MJ made this <3

Zack eagerly raised his hand in the air. He loved flying, no matter what other people said about his skills. Especially his mother, who didn't seem very fond of the idea of him on a broom but allowed it regardless. Zack would just prove her wrong by excelling at it. The only downside was that his broom was a little bit old.

"Up!" Zack said when prompted. He knew this part, or at least had made sure that he wouldn't be too awful when it came to looking around at him. He grinned widely when the broom smacked into his hand, climbing with some agility onto it and whooping to celebrate his victory.

He balanced on the broom, trying to look at the other first years to see who might be better than him. Or who might be awful at this. His money was on the Hufflepuff girl who looked like she'd never touched a broom before.

[I volunteer as tribute so long as Zack can make Quidditch tryouts afterwards :P]

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   Reuben Crouch

Gia had difficulty not running outside for Flying class. This wasn't the class she was most excited for, this was Desmond's territory, but she knew how to fly well enough for her age. Georgie was nowhere near as fast as her brother, but she wasn't as brave on a broom, either. Today, Georgie would be focused on doing well enough to prove her skill and then calling it a day. She had no one to impress.

Eagerly raising her hand when asked, she noticed that the extremely quiet Hufflepuff girl did not. The poor girl didn't seem to be enjoying any of the fun new things at the castle. What a shame. Approaching the quiet girl, Gia gestured to two brooms that hadn't been claimed. "Hello, would you like to fly by me? I promise I won't go fast or very high."

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Margaret Wallace

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   Margaret Wallace

Caspians broom was his pride and joy. He had been flying on the regular since he was eight though had begun even before that, always looking to improve his flying skill. His broom was only a couple of years old though so far from outdated. He trusted it and worked well with it so he saw no need to replace it with anything new just yet.

Coach Crouch knew what he was about, Caspian decided, as the coach spoke of how one was to work with their broom. That had long been his own mindset. He put his hand up over his broom and issued the up command. His broom dutifully flew up into his palm. He climbed onto it with practiced ease and hovered, waiting for the coachs next round of instruction.

  

Pip had not been allowed to bring his own room so he had to make do with one of the school brooms. Besides, his broom was a baby broom anyway. One that had been designed specifically for children. He listened dutifully as the Coach spoke. He put his hand out of his broom and issued the up command. Nothing happened. He tried again and this time the broom at least wiggled.

Pip issued the command again, this time with more force. The broom rose up rapidly and hit him square in the face, causing a mild nosebleed.

I volunteer him for injuries tribute on top of the ones I provided him lmao

The following 1 user Likes Pip Manwaring's post:1 user Likes Pip Manwaring's post
   Reuben Crouch

Maggie's plan to remain invisible had not worked, despite the mess of pick me boys trying to impress the professor. In front of her was a wooden broom, very much like the brooms she used at home, but also not. She was about to reach down to pick it up when she noted how the other children were doing it and paused, she didn't know any spells?

He heart raced a little when someone approached her, but she calmed when she saw it was the girl she had briefly spoken to at the lake. Still unsure, she smiled quite bashfully and did a little courtsey of habit. "Hi, you dont need to do that, I don't even know if I can ride a broom." she held out her hand and nervously said "up" the broom didn't respond, why would it? It's not like she even wanted to do this. "up!" nothing still. She looked over at the professor  he was momentarily distracted, so Maggie considered just picking the thing up and pretending, it wasn't like anyone would care. "up" Maggie looked at broom dismissively before kicking it away.

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Georgianna Shacklebolt Reuben Crouch

  

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Hester, for her part, had never ridden a broom. She'd never wanted to, preferring horseback to pretty much any other method of travel. She hadn't even liked the train much, to be honest. But she couldn't help asking, "Do we have to?" She looked incredibly uncomfortable with the whole situation.

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set by LOU

deep in my bones, oh, yeah, i know — i am the champion

Brooms.

Were they serious? Rorie thought as she made her way down to the Quidditch Pitch. At first she had looked around to see where the school stables were; and when she was told there were no school stables, she was incredibly put out. Instead they had brooms. Like the ones in her picture books. The last thing Rorie needed was someone back home finding out she was a witch that flew a broom. She had intended to get through this class with as minimal effort as possible, but Coach Crouch’s instructions sounded as if he thought they were actually sentient. Surely it was just a regular broom?

Rorie looked suspiciously down at it; and it lay there. You don’t command your broom, you work with your broom. Hmm. That sounded suspiciously like horseback riding, and that was something Rorie understood in excess. She looked at Georgie, giving her a smile before refocusing on her own broom. “Up!” she said firmly, as if she was telling Beauty to walk on. With a wooshing sound, it flew up into her hand with such great force that Rorie stammered, “I-I’m sorry!” as if the broom had reprimanded her for thinking it was something so pedestrian as regular.

She clambered on it, gripping with both hands she kicked off and was suddenly hovering. She was hovering! Her joy was immediately cut in half by the image of the boy in front of her getting smacked in the face with his own broom. After letting out a guffaw, she winced at him and wobbled a bit on her broom before asking, “Are - are you alright?”

Pip Manwaring

  

Flying was not very feminine.

That was what Mother had always said when she made comments about quidditch or the broomsticks in hop windows, or even when she pointed out that she'd seen one of the neigborhood boys flying where he shouldn't have been. Flying wasn't feminine, so it needn't be a word in her vocabulary. After years of Mother's dismissive attitude Culpurnia had learned to take her words with a grain of salt, but somehow the saying—Flying isn't feminine—managed to stick with her.

Even though she and every other boy and girl in the group were dressed in the same robes, she felt as insecure as she would've been wearing a dress. Where were her legs supposed to go? Her wrist had always been weak, so what if she couldn't grip it?

Her unconvincing "Up!" yielded little results, though, so perhaps the logistics of being in the air wouldn't be an issue today.

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Connor’s mother had bought him a broom once. He had tried it out that year, on a few cloudy days outdoors – and once indoors, instead of walking up the stairs – but Mrs. Murray had used to fret, irritatingly, about him falling off, so much so that it was no longer fun. (This was how he remembered it; and definitely not because he had been concerned about the broom suddenly giving way beneath him, or him not managing to turn it in time.)

Still – he hadn’t raised his hand at the question, thinking it would be better to count himself amongst the people new at it, and not the hoping to try out for the quidditch team crowd. (He expected the boy talking about that was just faking modesty, so he could end up showing off later.) Connor had no intention of being a quidditch player, so the whole flying thing felt mostly useless to him – but once they had been given their directions by the Coach, and people were trying to get their brooms to hand, he glanced left and right and began to feel the urgency of it. Pettigrew had done it already.

Not wanting to be the one with the last broom on the ground, Connor gave it a few tries, quietly, under his breath. At least one of the girls was protesting the necessity of the task at all, so that gave him more time, at least, to at last feel the broom leap into his hand.

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   Reuben Crouch

The excitement was palpable throughout her body and she bounced on her toes to help expel some of the extra energy. The first day of flying class in her first year at Hogwarts. How did it get better than this? (Well maybe if she had Mona had been sorted into the same house so they could have played Quidditch together instead of against each other. That would have made it better because she certainly wasn't convincing G to try out with her.) Plus they had just convinced Papa to buy them new brooms before the school year started which meant when Coach Crouch had asked who had flown before, she shot her hand up in the air. Was it even possible to be the child of two professional quidditch players and not learn to fly before you could walk?

And then when Coach instructed that those with their own brooms had to have them inspected, she staked her spot in line, a bit annoyed at having to wait. Not that it took long before she was back in line grinning and commanding her broom to hover at her side as she mounted it. Even more annoyingly, they'd been strictly instructed to just hover, not take off like the wolfhounds did after a rabbit. So she took the chance to watch those around her. Disappointingly, none of the other girls really seemed to be that interested in flying except maybe that one muggleborn girl in her house (which meant she'd need to look among the boys for races later on though some of them tended to get huffy when a girl beat them). Among the boys, the reactions were a mix of excitement that matched her own, a handful was cocky, another handful was still trying to figure out what they were, and... Pip was getting smacked in the face with his own broom.

"Pip! Are you okay?" Tels called, prepared to get off her broom at the first sign her cousin wasn't okay.

  

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Lovely set by Bee!

Kaatjie preferred portkeys. The last time she'd taken one, it had been to get from Oostvert to Hogsmeade, when she'd moved. But when she traveled summers with her mother, they'd taken portkeys to hop around Europe. She associated them with a rush of feeling, feeling like they were getting flung through the air — and the prospect of an adventure. Brooms mostly seemed slower.

So Kaat spent several beats in front of the school broom with her hands on her hips. She didn't want to be a baby, or the last one, so finally held her hand out: "Up!"

It shifted on the ground. She huffed out a breath.

  

Holy hell there are a lot of you! For the sake of everyone's time and sanity I'm breaking my reply up, feel free to only read the bits you're tagged for and skim or skip the others!

Ben noticed the first few children to shoot into the air once he'd given the clear, of course — they were the ones to watch, the ones with something innate that would give them the edge later. They might not be immediately skilled, but if their brooms responded right away it meant they were comfortable — and that they might later end up on one of his Quidditch teams. In the meantime, at least one of them seemed to need some help focusing — Zackary Carter was so keen to observe everyone else's progress he'd sent his broom lilting slightly to the left as he peered down the line. The tail end of it brushed his neighbor, which might have been worse if the girl hadn't still had her feet planted firmly on the ground. As it was, the bushy end of the broom merely brushed Culpurnia Cress's shoulder, which was unlikely to send her off balance. Still. "Eyes on your broom, Mr. Carter," he called as he walked the line.

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"I don't make the curriculum, Miss," Ben told the girl who had asked whether she had to, tone dry. He didn't remember all of the first years from the welcome feast, much as he'd tried to commit the names to memory, so the name Hester Frey temporarily escaped him. "Flying has been a fundamental part of a Hogwarts education longer than you've been alive, and if you'd like to challenge it you'll have to do so with someone more important than me."

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One of the girls was off like a shot as well, Ben noticed with some interest — Lilibet Meadows hadn't raised her hand when he'd asked who had flying practice, as most of the other more comfortable ones had. Maybe one to watch, then — but unfortunately he couldn't devote much time to her at the moment, because next to her Pip Manwaring had turned his face into a small fountain of blood. Ben fished out a handkerchief and tossed it his direction. "Broom down, head back," he instructed — then gave Stella Pendergast on Manwaring's other side a nod to let her know she could stay in the air. Nosebleeds were showy, but hardly enough to stop a class over. But unlike the two girls sailing smoothly on either side of him, this poor boy might make Ben's people to watch list in the opposite direction.

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There was one other boy who seemed to already have good command of his broom — Pettigrew, no big surprise there — but a fair few were still struggling to get their broomsticks off the ground, so Ben decided to give them another minute before moving on. The ones who were hovering could stay where they were — hovering in place might actually be good practice for some of them, if they'd only done self-directed flying before and had never had to do anything besides zooming from one end of the yard to the other.

He pretended not to notice that one of them had kicked her broom. Most of them were doing fine.

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Margaret Wallace / Georgianna Shacklebolt / Caspian Pettigrew / Connor Sinnet / Kaatjie Spaans

  

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MJ made this <3