Violet had kind of wanted to partner up with Claudine again, to continue trying to get to know her a little better--she'd realized recently that the other girl, although two years ahead of her, was actually close to Violet's age, due to the fact that Violet was a year behind her class. But, as usual, Claudine had gone off to work alone. Well, Violet could do that, too.

And what was this nonsense about separate pinatas for the students in the Room. Violet had been thinking and thinking ever since her exile about what she'd done to merit being sent down there, and it had finally dawned on her--she must be stupid for it to have taken so long to sink in--that the reason must have been her half-blood status. And ever since, Violet had been more determined than ever to show she was as good, and often better, than the pureblood students. So if the pinatas on the left were harder to work with than the others, so much the better--Violet was up to the challenge! (she hoped)

Violet thought she had the knack of conjuring birds down, though--besides the concentration aspect, she was pretty sure that her desire to see a magpie had something to do with it, too. And it really helped that she was intimately acquainted with at least one magpie. It would also help that this new assignment was to have the birds attack something rather than be herded into a cage, because magpies were the most mischievous and curious birds ever and would probably attack a pinata just to see what was inside. Though getting them to attack the right pinata might be a trick.

Violet walked over to the area on the left, acting as if she did not at all feel slighted by being separated in this way, found the pinata shaped like a snake, then stopped and gathered her thoughts and feelings. She could see Mack now, his little black and white body, his beak constantly poking into places it should be poking. Okay, then. "Avis!" she exclaimed, waving her wand, and almost on cue this time, the little flock of magpies sprang from her wand tip. Now for the tricky part--getting them to attack the snake pinata (or getting them to do anything except what they wanted to do, for that matter). "Oppugno!" she cried (maybe sounding just a bit more confident than she felt) and pointed her wand from the birds toward the fake snake ahead of them. And then she waited (and crossed the fingers of her other hand, in her pocket where no one could see).