Charlie strolled through the gardens, a soft smile upon her face as she took in the beauty of the flowers and breathed in their delicate aromas as she passed each one, in no particular hurry. Normally when she found herself here, it was to investigate one plant or another for a potion that they'd been learning about in class, not to while away time aimlessly. She had a tendency to delve deeper into the ingredients required when time allowed her to, fascinated by the incredible variety of uses for even some seemingly mundane plants and flowers. Classes had let out and she simply had felt the need for a bit of a quiet break and her wandering steps had brought her here.

She saw a particularly beautiful cluster of rose bushes, a riot of pinks and white and red blossoms... with a single yellow rose among them. The sight gave her pause and a bemused look touched her face as she came to a stop. Reaching out she brushed her fingertips across the soft petals, wondering how it seemed to be growing where it shouldn't be. Surely there were other yellow buds hidden away, but for now, it alone shone like a ray of sunshine. Shifting her pack she dug through it until she pulled out a sketch pad and pencil before she let it settle to the ground by her feet. Flipping to a clean page she began a rough sketch. She wasn't great at it, but was getting better and drawing the beauty of nature, even in a controlled environment, simply brought her joy. It only took a few minutes for her to get lost in her task and lose track of anything beyond her little bubble.

It wasn't really that Gwenna hated Herbology. As far as classes went, time spent in the greenhouses was usually relatively tolerable since it involved things like digging around in dirt, wrestling with Venomous Tentacula, and collecting foul-smelling stinksap from Mimbulus mimbletonia. But the third year student was feeling particularly grouchy after she'd gotten detention for threatening to pull off another student's earmuffs when they'd been attempting to repot some Mandrake seedlings. Even after she'd protested that she'd only meant it a little, Professor Prewett had been unrelenting and assigned her to two weeks' worth of shifts assisting in the greenhouse as punishment.

She was in the process of clomping back to the castle, dragging her feet to leave muddy footprints on the path behind her, when  an unexpected movement near the rose gardens caught her eye. Gwenna paused, squinting cautiously towards the flower patch.

She recognized the older student, Charlie Sinclair, from some of the joint year Care of Magical Creatures classes. Sinclair wasn't bad -- she was one of the friendlier older students, by and by, and not nearly as obnoxious as some of the know-it-all girls in Ravenclaw -- but seeing her standing there, her back to the path and fully engrossed in what she was doing, was far too tempting to let slip by.

Sucking in a breath, Gwenna found her footing, and then quietly crept closer...and closer...

"GRARRRGHLERAAAR!!"

Letting out a horrible roar reminiscent of the Mandrakes that had gotten her in such trouble, she leapt at the Hufflepuff girl from behind as if to attack.

She was frowning slightly in concentration as she tried to get the details just so. She would have to remember the coloring later as she didn't have her colored pencils with her right now and of course, that was what had caught her attention in the first place, but she was fairly certain that her memory would serve her well. With her attention so focused on the drawing pad she didn't hear the other girl's approach and even began to hum softly to herself, which masked it even farther and there was no reason to be cautious in here. The gardens were a place of peace and quiet to work or reflect on the beauty of the world around you... or simply enjoy the view.

Being attacked by a young Mandrake-screeching banshee was the farthest from her mind.

The scream had her gasping and nearly dropping her pad. Her pencil did clatter to the ground as she fumbled to both recover her drawing pad and try to spin around to see whatever had made the spine-chilling scream. Her head whipped around faster than the rest of her and she caught sight of Gwenna leaping at her. Her silvery blue eyes went wide and she stumbled away from the girl in a awkward half side-ways, half backwards move, lost her footing altogether and ended up on the ground even before the girl had a chance to make contact, if she even did. Charlie's pad went flying after all, landing on the ground a couple feed away from her.