Warp Speed [o]

[cole.edison.blackthorne]

Cole swung around to face his broom, genuine despair on his handsome face. "Look, Celeste, I can't do this anymore. The alliance between the Star Fleet and the Klingon's is in danger, and I can't be a part of it." He paused, dropping his eyes from the broom to the floor. "No matter how much I love you." He ran a hand through his messy dark hair, sighing deeply as he sat down heavily on the bench behind him. "I can't be with you any more.... I'm sorry...." Allowing his head to fall into his hands, he refused to look back up at 'Celeste', too heartbroken at what he had done to face the sadness that would no doubt be in her eyes.

"You okay, Cole, mate?" His head shot up immediately at the sound of Frankie Hooper's voice. "Uhhh, yeah, yeah. Fine." An embarrassed laugh left Cole's lips as he smiled sheepishly at the other Ravenclaw boy, hoping to God he would just pretend he hadn't seen anything and walk away. "I'm just, errr. Fine. Yeah." He should have chosen a better time and place to fit in an impromptu rehearsal. Obviously the Quidditch pitch was no place to run lines for the new Star Trek 5000 movie he was auditioning for during his Christmas break. Frankie now thought he was a nutter. Brilliant. He couldn't keep the embarrassed look off his face as Frankie nodded, gave him a weird wave, and jogged off toward the castle.

"Nice little rumour going round the common room tonight, then," Cole muttered, getting up from his seat in the stands and grabbing his broom. He rolled his eyes and put on a high pitched, girly voice, "Cole broke up with his broom today!" He had intended to just get in some flying practice. Their team hadn't had any official practices as of yet, and Cole was missing being up in the air. One thing about discovering he was a wizard was the sheer thrill of finding out he'd be able to fly and play Quidditch, which he had thought maybe involved something to do with swamps when he first heard the word. His lines now forgotten about, he mounted his broom and pushed off over the stands, gliding slowly up to the top where he paused to hover and take in the view of the grounds. A small part of him imagined he was on a space ship, preparing for warp speed. 'I'm such a nerd,' he shook his head with a wide grin.

[faye.louise.harper]

Credit to Ash Likes Your Face

Faye watched as several students cruelly bashed into each other in a bid to escape their class as soon as possible. Faye's flying class didn't start for another twenty minutes or so. She was currently walking down the upper hall, sparing a few glances at the bookshelves on her way. Hogwarts was a big place, full of lots of twists and turns. Sixth years were one of the easiest to teach flying to because they'd developed over the years. However, practice was still required. Faye had written several papers on flying with ease and dodging techniques with brooms in sport. She knew exactly how tough it could be, but every once in a while she felt not as in control as she looked. As usual Faye was really looking forward to her class, it was the greatest feeling to see that twinkle in some student's eyes that said they'd learned something new.

So when she arrived on the Quidditch pitch, ready to teach her class, she was very disturbed to find several students on the pitch that weren't a part of the class. This wasn't leisure time, this was class time. With a flick of her wand a great weight pushed down on every broom, Cleansweeper to Nimbus, it didn't matter what type. Her spell brought them all down to the ground. She then put her wand to her throat so her voice can be emplified. "Everyone who is NOT a part of my class please leave the Quidditch Pitch. This is my class time. Please get off the pitch NOW." she called sternly and glared at any student that was taking too long or had cocky grins on their faces. Fortunately most students didn't want to spend their free time in detention, so she had an edge there.

With her broom following her, Faye moved further inside the pitch. In this class she was creating rings of fire for the class to fly through. They'd need concentration, coordination and accuracy. She hoped her class were up to the challenge. With a soft smile she looked at the young(ish) Ravenclaw. "Are you in my class?" she asked, her voice returning to it's gentle chirpy tone.

[cole.edison.blackthorne]

Just as he was about to fly off over the pitch into freedom, something that felt like a hand jerked his broom backwards, causing Cole to cry out. His grip tightened as the broom began to wobble and sway. He was being dragged. Backward and downward against his own will. He tried pushing against it to no avail, whatever force was bringing him down, would win, he just had to cling on for the journey. His eyes, more green than blue today, darted about the pitch, looking for the culprit who was thwarting his fun before he even had a chance to start, when a booming female voice bellowed across the pitch, ordering all students who weren't a part of Flying class to leave.

Well, drat! Cole had dropped Flying lessons this year, since he figured there were more important classes he needed to dedicate the time to, and he had pretty much learned enough over his first five years to make him a strong enough player on the Ravenclaw team. The tips of his toes finally brushed the ground and he regained balance. "Are you in my class?" A softer version of the booming voice was now at his ear, and Cole jumped to attention to face Professor Harper. He opened his mouth to answer, then abruptly closed it again to reconsider his words. He didn't want to leave the pitch, which presented him with a great dilemma. He decided on an answer.

"I should be," he told her, dismounting his broom and facing her properly. "Professor Harper, I was told that I'd have to drop this class this year, to make room for others, but I wanna sign up again. If that's possible. I mean, now. Sort of. Like, right now. For this lesson." He gave her a cheeky smile. It wasn't a lie that Flying had been one of his favourite classes during his schooling, and though he wasn't sure he could get much more out of it other than fun, the thought of rejoining gave him a small buzz. Surely he could sacrifice a bit of his free "study" time for something like that? His smile widened. Now to hope that Professor Harper was as keen as he was. Or that she at least wouldn't punish him for being a bit cheeky and forward.

[faye.louise.harper]

Credit to Ash Likes Your Face

Faye kept a fixated eye on the brooms still coming down, just to check that none of their riders were shaking or making their brooms unsturdy. Accidents happened easily that way. But when the boy she had spoken to finally managed to pull out an answer, her eyes focused on him. He didn't look like a troublemaker. He could still be one, she knew not to judge a book by it's cover, but first impressions couldn't be helped sometimes. She listened intently to him, getting from his talk of signing up again that he wanted to re-join her class. But then she figured she must be mistaking it, since he then followed this with an apparent interest on just that one class. It was unorthodox for a student to want to sit in for just one class, after all, they had no assessments or exams in a class they weren't taking. Surely he'd want to focus on the classes he was actually a part of.

"Just to clarify. Your not on the register, but you want to take part in only this lesson?" she asked, surprise gracing her features. Her smile was still in place, after all she couldn't criticize someone that had a clear interest in flying. "Well I suppose that'd be alright." she placed her hand on his shoulder and lifted her head inspiringly. "On your broom then!" she instructed like a general, turning to acknowledge the rest of her class. "Blackthorne is joining us today. If I see anyone try to give him grief you'll be suspended from all flying activities including Quidditch." she seemed to have an idetic memory for names. She just looked at the boy and her head said 'Blackthorne' and she trusted her instincts on that. Perhaps it was because she always had the time to get to know people.

Within seconds Faye had her positioning right to take off into the air. She expected her students to join her in the air pronto. Anyone that stayed on the ground in her lessons were left behind. With one hand grasping her broom firmly, the wind only mildly blowing against her hair, she used her free hand to pull out her wand. She waved it in circles like drawing a picture in the air with a sparkler. But instead, the movement provoked rings of fire to form in the air. She flew on and created a long line of them, some slightly misaligned so the students would have to notice when to move slightly to the left/right. It'd hardly be practice if they only had to fly in a straight line. She did several rows of this before flying over to her hovering students. "Careful not to lose your eyebrows. You'll need concentration so don't look anywhere besides the ring in front of you. If you try to fly in a straight line, you'll get burned. You have to keep yourself aligned." and with this speech ended, Faye blew her whistle signalling to start.