Things washed up on the shore of the lake all the time. Things students dropped, things the merpeople let float to the surface, once she even found a talon as big as her hand, it sat at the top of her collection of weird oddities she wanted to turn into a sculpture. A sculpture that represented Hogwarts in it's entirety. One that she hoped to set up in her own art studio or exhibit and never sell to anyone, a memento of her time spent here. So she did as she usually did when her homework was done and she didn't want to paint. She grabbed her bag of oddities, as she called it, and headed out of the common room. Before she left the tower, she gave the doorknocker a little pat on the head and marched down the stairs. It was a tradition, any time she left the common room, she gave the doorknocker a pat, it was meant to be good luck.
She half skipped down the stairs, half ran, and made her way out onto the grounds. It was starting to get warmer and the sun felt nice on her skin, even if it was still a bit chilly. She had thrown on a pair of jeans and a huge oversized sweatshirt, covered in paint and oil stains. She was warm and happy as she made her way across the lawns, humming under her breath as she searched the grounds. A few people sitting outside looked her way, and she knew a couple of them had to be muttering to their friends. 'Oh, there goes that girl, the one who picks up junk.' but she didn't mind. She somewhat liked the reputation she'd built around herself.
Sure it didn't mean she had many friends, or that she would EVER have many friends, but she liked the idea of being that weird girl who picked up random things. Her eyes started their natural process of scanning the ground for items, when she heard a voice from nearby. It took her a few seconds to recognize that it was directed at her, and a few more seconds to turn to see who had spoken. No one spoke to her... why would they start now? A girl she didn't recognize was sitting on the lawn, obviously enjoying the sunshine. She'd asked her something and Phoenix took a moment to remember what had been said before she answered. "The purpose? I'm looking for things." She said with a small smile, and lifted her satchel of wonders up to show the words 'Bag of Oddities' stitched into the side with different colored thread, she'd enchanted it to make it glow slightly and it would occasionally change to a different color on it's own.
"I'm making a sculpture, and I'm using things I find around the castle to make it." She glanced around the ground and then back up at the girl, unsure if she should stick around and talk or if the other girl was just making a passing comment and wanted her to leave. People usually wanted her to leave, so she wasn't hurt or surprised if that was the case.