Before the end of the fall term at Hogwarts, the art club had their last meeting before coming back in January. Between last year at the Remembering Day celebrations, and the Woodcraft Festival, it should have been amazing. After all, the Art Club had an amazing leader, Fauna. At this meeting, they decided to do an ice sculpture contest, and they decided that each Art Club member would submit a piece of artwork to be give to the winner of the contest. However, there was a bombshell statement afterwards. Fauna wanted the art club to essentially run it themselves, while she was working on a SAWS event for the festival!

Fauna's surprise announcement meant that the Art Club had no leader for the event. Even worse, that meant that one of the existing members had to coordinate the event! Megan decided to take the reigns for this event, despite her apprehension. After all, she helped out in the Remembering Day art booth and mural, and the face painting for the Woodcraft Festival. While those had nothing to do with ice, at least she got the first major stage of embarrassment out of her system of showing her artwork. Plus, it would help her show that she was fully capable to planning an event to show that she would be able to replace Fauna when she graduated at the end of the year. Or, at least, that was what she hoped would happen.

To plan for the event, Megan had planned out the event with the other members of the Art Club. Working with the other members of the club, they were able to organize the event under her leadership. They were be able to pull of the necessary magic to actually get blocks of ice to the competition and to charm them not to melt. In addition, she even carved out a snowflake for the competition out of ice to be used as a sample to go from. After all, it is usually easier to have a picture of what you are working on, then going on without anything but guessing.

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Before coming to the Winter Festival in Hogsmeade, Megan spent hours trying to figure out what to wear. By all means, she was never obsessed about how she looked, and she certainly wasn't in the Plastic's group. Yet, since she was essentially leading the Art Club's Ice Sculpture contest, she figured that she had to dress as well as she possibly could. Since she wanted everything to go smoothly and look well, she had to dress appropriately since she was leading the event. There was nothing worse than an inappropriately dressed leader, or at least, that was how she felt. Additionally, dressing well would induce confidence and professionalism, despite how she was bound to feel on the inside.

After the hours spent, Megan walked over to the booth in Hogsmeade dressed in her best outfit.  With the rest of the Art Club helping her, she set up the booth from the supplies that she carried with her in her bag. She fretted as they set up the booth, with three blocks of ice waiting for the competition. If more came, she could get more blocks of ice from her bag. She took out several joke wands from her bag that only casted a carving charm, which would be used for the sculptures to even out the playing field a little. The paintings were framed and on display, which she would put together for the prize when the winner was selected. There was even a case erected for the sculptures to be placed in, once the contest was finished. That way, the sculptures could remain in Hogsmeade for a while extra, so observers could see the art work.

Fidgeting nervously after the booth was set up, Megan made her way slowly over to the table at the booth where she placed her sample that the competitors would be sculpting. She spent a few more moments to rearrange everything on the desk to her perfectionist whim. After satisfying herself that there was not too much more that could be done, she figured that it was about time to open up the booth. Placing her wand close to her throat, she casted a spell. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Ice Sculpture Competition booth is now open! Come and test your skills at carving ice" her voice boomed overhead. Quickly stopping the spell, she placed a piece of parchment on the table, to record the names of the people who entered the contest.

As a member of the Wizard Art Appreciation club, it was Giselle’s responsibility to attend the ice sculpture activity at the Winter Festival in Hogsmeade. Even so, she had partly avoided attending because she wasn’t in the mood to stomp through snow mounds and get shaved ice all over her face. There were some days when she didn’t feel much like doing anything, and there were others days where we body was unstoppable and couldn’t contain all her energy. She often wondered if that was the human and veela body chemistry balancing themselves out. It wasn’t until she received a third letter from Liviana threatening her life if she didn’t show up today that she managed to throw on her outfit and head to Hogsmeade. The two girls met at The Three Broomsticks and shared a warm butterbeer before they started to make their way over to the designated booth. Apparently, Dracon, Liviana’s whatever, was in Wales for the rest of the winter break and wasn’t able to join them. It was clear to Giselle how much her friend liked that boy, she practically fell over herself with excitement when he was around. Giselle could understand why, he was very handsome and charming, but she noticed that his priorities usually revolved around him, and Giselle didn’t like that. But Liviana was happy and Giselle supposed ignorance was bliss and left it as such. He was good looking – what else really mattered at seventeen?

The two girls stomped through a snow hill, laughing and grabbing each other’s forearms for balance. Giselle gave a scream as she almost slipped on a section of ice that was hidden perfectly underneath a light covering of white powder. She caught her balance on Liviana and threatened that if she was going to fall then so would she. Somehow, the girls managed to escape the snow without any causalities or wounded and walked to the large area that was to be the ice sculpture booth. The set up looked nice, but Giselle was sure she could’ve done a better job. Giselle knew Megan from the club but they weren’t exactly close. In fact, if Megan hadn’t been in charge of the ice booth, they probably never had held a conversation. Giselle and Liviana approached the booth after Megan’s loud speaker voice box died off. Giselle gave a little wave and a small smile, “hi Megan.” Giselle turned her head to look at Liviana  and placed her hands back in her pocket. “We were going to come see how the booth was doing,” Giselle looked around and didn’t see any participates.

“It seems a bit slow.”

Giselle’s mouth sometimes worked before her brain.

Ah the trials and tribulations of being a hyper-involved student and having a high maintenance best friend. She’d been so caught up with Drake in the last few days she hadn’t had time till today to really hound Elle about getting off her duff and getting to Hogsmeade to help with the ice carving booth. It was a really brilliant idea when the club came up with it. Of course she wasn’t sure about letting a fifth year take the lead especially when their booths seemed to be so popular. It was a massive undertaking and Liviana was, admittedly, a bit of a control freak. She was a meticulous planner, she made lists of her lists and crossed every “t” before dotting all her “i”s. Sitting back and being someone’s lackey was not her idea of a good time - and Drake wouldn’t even come in to see all their hard work pay off. This all meant her mood was closer to foul and there was a very chance she’d have to bite her tongue to keep from being snotty.

The upside? She got to spend the day with Giselle. Balancing boyfriends and best friends - especially when your best friend was a temperamental Halfling with abandonment issues and lived in another house. There had been some flare ups between the girls when Liv had started “seeing” Drake. It was natural, Elle wasn’t fond of sharing. For the most part they’d shared one another’s undivided attention for the last six years. Now there was a boy that took up quite a bit of her focus and spats happened when plans had to change or be canceled. Livi had had to get better about making time expressly for Gissy. It really wasn’t hard when she made herself think about it. Eventually everything had settled out and they were back to being two peas in a very strange pod. “Oy, watch the new leather, ya harpy!” her tone was playful as Giselle tried to steady herself.

“Bea’ll skin me alive if I ruin my new jacket the first time I wear it out of the bloody house,” As they came to a stop she looked at the booth and bit the inside of her cheek. It wasn’t bad - which some how was more upsetting. The meanest nastiest part of her had hoped it’d be dreadful but Megan turned out to be rather competent when it was all said and done. She then had to bite her cheek to keep from laughing. Giselle had a way of saying things without thinking - which was both hilarious and got them into trouble sometimes. Lightly kicking her calf she cleared her throat “Well, she just made the announcement so, really, they haven’t had time to show up”. Pulling her long hair over her shoulder she glanced at Giselle as she moved behind the booth, “Come on then Princess, use some of your charm and get us some contestants”.

“Well, she just made the announcement so, really, they haven’t had time to show up”

Well, if Giselle had been running the booth, she would’ve had a line already wanting to participate. She could have pulled them in by the dozens and droves, although all the competitors would be male, but that was all right. Giselle’s wide blue eyes narrowed a little at the girls as her friend stepped around the other side of the booth and a small frown was itching at the corners of her mouth. The half-veela’s arms folded rather haughtily across her chest and the lightest and smallest, “hmph”, echoed in her throat. The sound was lost to the movement and voice of Liviana, though, and it went unnoticed. Giselle hadn’t really wished to run the booth at all. It was far too much responsibility and would take up far too much of her schedule, besides, it was much easier to stand there and smile then set up giant blocks of ice. She wasn’t into physical labor.

The only way she did any really hard exercise was swimming. Giselle took to water like a fish ever since she was old enough to walk. She believed it had something to do with her ancestors being related to sirens and harpies, able to conjure up massive storms and create hurricanes at the slightest flick of their dainty wrist. In the back of Giselle’s mind, she thought how amazing it would be to be able to create a sea storm like that and possess such control over the water. However, she was a smart girl, and knew that harpies and sirens were not creatures to envy. They were murderous and completely feral, a danger to all those around them and especially men at sea. Even Giselle would be attacked and manipulated if they ever encountered such a creature, they would see her as a product of the worse kind of union – between a magical creature and a human male. Giselle tried not to think about things like that. Liviana only ever said it in fun, but it always ruffled her feathers – no pun intended.

“Come on then Princess, use some of your charm and get us some contestants”

Then Giselle was called out for her previous thoughts. Giselle’s lips pursed and she stepped behind the booth counter. She turned to Liviana and said hotly, “I don’t use my charms to lure people into silly little booths at festivals.” Giselle looked back at the crowd of people moving passed them, watching the faces of various ages of men and boys drift past and seeing them take startled second looks. Giselle turned her face back to Liviana and a little smirk appeared on her pink lips, a light blonde eyebrow arched slightly. “Unless you don’t think I can do it,” Giselle said with a hint of playful arrogance in her tone.

While it wasn't that long of an amount of time that she opened the ice sculpture booth, Megan couldn't help but wonder if anyone was even going to bother showing up. No one had been there yet once she opened up the booth, and it didn't appear to be anyone stepping foot near the booth. When she noticed this, her mind immediately rushed to calling her effort a failure. Yes, the booth was open for a mere few minutes, and she was already thinking it was a failure because no one was there yet. 'My effort must have failed, this contest must have failed, I have failed,' she thought to herself repeatedly.

Despite what she thought, Megan kept a confident look on her face. The last thing that she needed was to convey to the people around her, and the potential participants, that she thought she already failed. Just because her self-confidence was failing already before too much happened already did not mean that she should let everyone else know it. She could keep her thoughts to herself, while conveying a completely different attitude to everyone around her. Well, to any people that were around her.

Her thoughts were quickly dispersed when she heard people come up. Megan looked up quickly, noticing that it was Giselle and Liviana. While Giselle and Liviana were both members of the art club as well, Megan never really talked with them too much. At any rate, still no participants showed up. It appeared that she was better at making more club members show up than participants. Even though that was not technically a bad thing, it still meant that the booth was slow at first. At the very least, it meant that they were staffed well. Yes, that was a positive. More members showing up could mean a better chance of some participants showing up, hopefully.

At Giselle's remark, Megan nodded to both Giselle and Liviana. "Patience Giselle, give it some time," she responded. If they tried to force people to come, than maybe they would adversely scare them off. Now that would definitely be worse than no people showing up at all. While it may help to bring people in, that didn't mean that those people would stay or even come in for that matter. But, she heard Liviana's remark to get people to the booth. She had no problem with both of the other girls going off to find some participants, given that they weren't brought in on the wrong context. She frowned at Giselle's "silly little booths" comment. It was quite frankly Giselle's decision to attend the "silly little booth", as she didn't force any of the art club members to attend, given that the holiday just passed a few days ago.

Much of Venora's holiday had been spent helping her father in the Charms shop as it was one of the busiest times of the year with folks coming and going with the intent of buying gifts for loved ones. But at some point, her father had decreed that she and her brother get out and enjoy their vacation. So the three of them headed to the Hogsmeade Winter Festival.

When Venora had begged him to let her help out at the ice sculpting venue, he had been reluctant to leave her alone, given she was only eleven. But eventually, as they passed by again after making their rounds, he saw that the the event was full of Art Club members who looked more than capable of watching over her.

Venora was eager to help or even participate in the ice sculpting. Art was the one thing that she was particularly good at, even if she was relatively modest about her talents.

Rushing up to the group of older girls, Venora breathlessly exclaimed, "Has it started yet!? Did I miss it?" Her cheeks were flushed from the cold but her eyes  looked around to their faces eagerly. Oblivious to whether she may have interrupted a preexisting conversation, Venora told them, "I know exactly what I want to make. I can participate, right?"

As the minutes ticked on, the ice sculpture booth still had no willing participants yet. Megan couldn't understand how she failed in that regard to attracting participants. She believed, under her leadership, that the booth would've attracted at least some people. Yet, beside herself, only Liviana and Giselle attended, neither of which appeared to want to participate in the contest. It appeared as if she succeeded in attracting some members of the Art Club. While they were far from all of the members, she never required any of them to come. After all, it was the holidays.

Frowning to herself, Megan knew that she would have to admit failure when it came to the booth. She could see it now, when Hogwarts resumed, or even earlier for that matter, Fauna would approach her and question how the booth went. Even at the word 'failure,' she could already tell that Fauna would be disappointed in her. She could picture Fauna with a depressed look, or at least a disapproving look. It wasn't even that hard to visualize, considering that Fauna was the president of the club and had every right to know what went on. Of course, if that happened, then her chances of taking over the club when Fauna graduated would be even worse!

When her thoughts turned to failure like that, Megan's self confidence would take a plunge. With her low self confidence and the obvious effects of her failure, she definitely wasn't too happy with the event so far. Perhaps interest will pick up as the time went on, or at least more people would stop by?

Right when she thought that, Megan saw someone approach the booth. Ah yes, Venora was apart of the Art Club as well. The running total was now three club members attracted to the booth. But, wait, the young first year was willing to participate! At the very least, they had one willing participant, even if the girl was a part of the club! Megan smiled when Venora came over; her self esteem rising a little for the first time at that time! Yes, she would take that as a victory. Now her mental image of Fauna didn't look as disappointed, which was always a plus!

"Sure you can. Hopefully we can get someone for you to compete against?" Megan responded hopefully. If no one else was going to participate, she would be glad to, so Venora had some competition. Otherwise, she was planning as just judging, but she didn't mind actually participating. Quickly, she looked over at the wands that she had specifically assembled for the competition. "I hope you don't mind using a wand that just casts a carving spell?" she asked Venora, gesturing to the wands she laid out. "if it helps, I could do a demonstration," she offered.