How long did he need to sit here to see any dramatic changes? How long did Rooney need to keep his eyes peeled and attention perfectly on the hourglasses for Ravenclaw to leap into the lead? Why couldn't he change it himself? Honestly... Wait a minute... Reaching into his satchel, Rooney took out the sketchpad that looked nothing like it should have fit (thank you Mama and extension bags) and started to draw out the scene before him. Only... he was making sure that Ravenclaw had fifty times more gemstones than any of the other three houses.

He'd just try his best to make it lifelike, enlarge it to be life size and affix it to a stand in front of the hourglasses.

Perfect.

People would be none the wiser.

It needed a lot more colour and detail first though.

Carl paused in front of the house point hourglasses on his way back to the Hufflepuff Common Room. So this was where he could check on the number of house points each house had! Not that there was much to see ... his own house was first in place, with zero points. That was lame.

But there was a Ravenclaw drawing something and he looked older, so there must be something interesting going on that Carl did not know about. He lingered nearby and while pretending to observe the gemstones, peeked at the drawing. Oh, it was just the hourglasses. Except, there was something wrong - "You drew too many stones for Ravenclaw." He pointed out.

Oops. He just admitted that he was staring at the boy's work!

The hardest part about drawing was making sure that all of his colours were sharpened enough that he could use them for exactly what he needed. Blunt pencil strokes bought nothing to a delicate background piece. In fact, it was the quickest way to ruin something you had been working hard on. He had recently been dabbling in ink art, but wasn't used to having no margin for error so he wasn't that confident.

Although he wasn't at all confident in this form of art either.

Performing was his art.

Looking up through his eyelashes, Rooney was greeted with the appearance of a Hufflepuff. "No I didn't." Who said he was drawing the actual standings right now?

Maybe he'd put Hufflepuff into the negatives.

So he was not an expert at drawing and he knew it. Which was why as soon as the boy replied, Carl knew he had made a mistake of some sort. "Oh, okay." He sat down next to him, at least glad he was not angry at him for looking at his work.

His eyes wandering from the hourglasses to the sketchpad, Carl figured out that the older boy was not drawing the exact scene in front of them. "What are you drawing those for?" He asked. It would look good on a Dormitory wall, but somehow he did not think that was the case. Maybe because he would be pressurized to do his homework if he woke up to a drawing of the house points in front of him.

It wasn't an issue that the kid was now sat beside him because it didn't deter his concentration from his drawing. In fact, he found it easier to split his concentration between the boy and the paper he was half way through filling. "Just for my own use, I suppose." And the real reason was so he could change everyone elses view of the real hourglasses. But he wasn't going to tell this kid that. He would probably laugh at him, and it was supposed to be a thing on the sly. Something he'd probably put in place when everyone else was asleep in the castle. If he could get from the tower down to here, that was.

"I've actually drawn all four houses different to what they are right now." Roo smiled and pointed out the differences in all four. "It's just that the difference in the Ravenclaw hourglass is greater than the others. That's why your attention is drawn to it."

Oooh, okay. Carl found the reason unusual but not completely strange. Maybe the boy liked hourglasses and drew them because they made good subjects. Like, he had a friend who liked sketching trees. She was a great artist too, otherwise he would have found her weird.

He nodded at the Ravenclaw's explanation, his eyes moving from hourglass to hourglass. "Yes, that's right!" Carl could have pointed out the differences in the other hourglasses but he chose to talk about Ravenclaw because the change was more obvious. He watched the older boy fill the paper, then asked, "Do you need help with anything? I could like, sharpen your color pencils or something. I am good at that." More nods. He wanted to contribute to this drawing, but at the same time not ruin it.

... Sharpen his pencils? Rooney raised his eyebrow, looked properly at the kid and then back down to his drawing. "Is that all you have to offer?" Roo was someone that struggled to accept help on something from someone who didn't have an idea what they were offering or getting involved with. But he supposed that pencil sharpening wasn't a huge deal and the kid might have been really good at it. Wasn't he supposed to be giving people a chance this year?

"Sure. Don't break them. I like them all the same height." Too much sharpening would make that all wrong. Broken pencils left mess. He needed sharp elegant points.

Sharp and elegant.

Carl was rather taken aback by the question. He thought frantically about more ways in which he could help, but he did not want to ruin anything, so sharpening pencils seemed the safest. At the Ravenclaw's consent, he said, "Got it!" and with a grin, began his work.

He picked up a red pencil (red being his favorite color) and his pencil sharpener. There must be a charm to magically sharpen pencils! But for now, Carl had to stick to the Muggle way. When he was done with red, he examined his product. Sharp and elegant, check. He moved on to blue for Ravenclaw. Carelessly, he stuck the color pencil into the hole and - the tip broke. "Oh! I'm sorry." He said, glancing at the boy.