Hidden Wings - Part I

The year goes on

"Is that the best you got?", Draco said and easily blocked Mioha's hex. He whirled around his wand, casting a curse with it and at the same time sending another jinx at Mioha using his free left hand.
Wandless magic was becoming his favorite, it seemed.

Mioha jumped back and let her silver whips flick forward. Light exploded in midair when they connected with Draco's curses.
She jumped to the side and whirled around, letting the whips whoosh around her.

Draco had to jump up before they could wrap around his feet, and did a flip backwards. Landing securely on his feet, he used a corner of his black training shirt to wipe his sweaty face, revealing the abs lining his stomach.

Show off, Mioha thought and attacked Draco with her whips again.

Professor Snape had warned her not to get too comfortable relying on her whips, otherwise she would become too predictable for enemies.
However, he did not object to Mioha training with the whips regularly. She had to perfect her fighting style with them, after all.

And even he couldn't deny that it was getting extremely difficult to defeat Mioha in a duel, especially when she used her energy whips.
Her power was growing. And so was her control.

After training, Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione took one route through the Labyrinth that would lead them to the Gryffindor tower, while Mioha and Draco took a different route to get to the Slytherin den.

"How exactly do you conjure those whips?", asked Draco as they walked side by side.
"I've tried it before on my own, but it is very energy-consuming in my opinion."

Mioha shrugged.
"It's not hard for me, but I guess that's just because you're still used to your wand", she said. "Maybe in...a few years-"

"Years?", Draco frowned. "Hallelujah."

Mioha rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry, but that's how long I guess it would take you to master whips without a wand. Have you tried to do it with your wand?"

"Yes", said Draco sourly. "It didn't work either."

"Maybe there's a book on how to do it", Mioha suggested. "I've seen Professor Dumbledore do it, so there has to be a way to learn it."

"I have not tried looking for a book yet", said Draco sarcastically.

Mioha furrowed her eyebrows at his tone, but chose not to reply.

They turned left and ascended a wide spiral staircase.

"So...you still want to get some flying tips?", Mioha asked cautiously.

"If you have the time", Draco replied curtly.

"Okay. Uhm...how about Sunday? On Saturday we were planning to do a Canisclan session."

Draco's face hardened, but to Mioha's relief, he didn't say anything. But it was still obvious what he thought of the Canisclan meetings.
"Sunday would be great", he said with a stony face.

Mioha threw him a look.
"You said that as if you're going to a funeral."

Draco raised an eyebrow.