Venora sat in the Hufflepuff common room sorting through her hoards of art supplies. For an eleven year old, her collection of materials to use to satiate her artistic urges really was quite extensive. The bin that she carried around often became the source of intrigue for others because of how much it was capable of storing. It looked like a regular box that her father might use to store his tools in, but once you opened it up, it seemed to have neverending storage space. It was one of her all time favorite gifts that she had been given for a birthday and every time she got new gifts since, it usually was something to add to her collection.

Venora's art supplies consisted of both muggle and magical mediums and appealed to her tendency to want to mix them. There was a wide array of paints and brushes, mixing palettes, charcole pencils, blending sticks, clay and molding tools, construction paper and other items that spoke to her muggle side. Then, there were containers of shimmery paint, and paint that became animated or could be bewitched, or pencils that looked like small wands or quills that headed her slew of magical means to be artistic.

Ususally when she was in one of her artistic moods, her attention was completely focused on her project. Little could distract her. But one person had quickly become a catalyst for distraction, no matter what.

Even in just a half a year of school, Venora had become quite close to Dahlia Collins. For the most part, they were inseparable. And together, they had also formed a close bond with Serenity Lee Thornton. They had become consumed during the early months by the idea of getting the sorting hat to reconsider the Ravenclaw's placement. BothVenora and Dahlia had strongly believed that Serenity belonged in Hufflepuff as they did. It was an ambitious pipe dream but eventually there seemed to be more snags in their way than they had anticipated so for the time being at least, it was on hold.

That didn't mean the two Badgers remained idle. Not long after the return to Hogwarts, and they had concocted a new scheme to occupy their time.

Venora could not say how it came about and if anyone asked who's idea it really had been, she truly would not know how to respond. If anything, it had come about in a long line of interwoven spoken thoughts between the two and it involved Venora's artistic talents and Dahlia's academic genius.

So when Dahlia entered the common room, Venora seemed to sense her there and immediately looked up. She grinned at the younger Collins girl and when she was close enough, Venora whispered, "Ready to go?"

Much like Venora, Dahlia wasn't certain which one of them had come up with the idea but once it was there she had become obsessed with it. There was so much in her life that was changing that it was nice to have something constant to focus on. Ayla still wasn't talking to her and even her own twin was discovering a life away from her amoungst the other Gryffindors. Every ounce of free time Dahlia had she devoted to this new project, her new obsession. She had scoured dozens of books to track down the right combination of charms. She had found one that was perfect for what they were doing but it generally wasn't used until fourth year. Even as smart and talented as she was she didn't think she could manage magic that complicated and so while she had discovered the charm right away she spent the rest of her time finding a simpler version of it, one that she was certain she could perform.

She entered the common room with a smile on her face and a sparkle to her eyes. Finally after so much time spent planning they were going to get it done. Unfortunately they wouldn't be able to grab Serenity on the way to the fifth floor corridor, the location they had decided was best for their little experiment. They would have to get from the dungeons where the Hufflepuff common room was to the fifth floor and back without anyone noticing them, that didn't leave them any time to get up to Ravenclaw tower.

"Definitely." She helped Venora to her feet and led the girl out of the common room, "I can't believe we're finally going to do this." She gave her friend a smile as they casually moved through the castle, "Have you decided what you're going to paint yet?"