Hidden Wings - Part I

Suspicions

Your last report was not nearly detailed enough as I had asked. Find out where this Silverwing is.

Lucius Malfoy

Draco angrily crumbled up the letter in his hands, before letting it drop down onto the wooden floorboards.
Aries huffed irritatedly. He had given a lot of effort to deliver that letter as fast as possible.

Draco shot his short-eared owl a glare.
"Piss off", he snapped at Aries.

The owl hissed at him, clicking his beak as if he were contemplating to bite off Draco's fingers. Then he jumped off his perch and soared through the opening in the ceiling out of the owlery.

Draco watched how his familiar flew off into the evening, too angry to bother that his owl probably hated him.

Lucius always wants something, Draco thought bitterly.

He had stopped connecting the word 'father' with that cold-hearted, selfish man a while ago.

Lucius Malfoy had ordered him to find the Silverwing, but Draco had not been successful. His searches in the freezing nights had not left him a single clue he could follow. Hoof prints were not a real proof for the existence of a Silverwing, they could belong to any hoofed creature.
Draco had scoured the lands for tiny clues, like silver pieces of fur and hair.
But there was no trace of the winged unicorn.

It seemed like the Silverwing had just vanished into thin air.

Uncle Severus had caught him outside at night several times and was probably already suspecting something.

Draco grimaced.
He had no desire to get detention, but he needed to fulfill his orders. His uncle probably thought him a spoiled brat who just wanted to break some rules.

The blonde Slytherin leaned against the wall, his gaze traveling over the grounds.

He had started to leave this childish behavior behind him a few months ago. The Dark Lord was returning, there was no time to act like a kid. All mudbloods would be targeted once he would rise, and anyone siding with them.

The sky was fading to a dull purple, the trees darkening to black statues.
His eyes flickered to the edge of the forest when he noticed some movement over there. A large figure and a small one appeared out of the dark forest, their faces barely discernible in the dim light.
It was Lince and the oaf.

Feeling a little bored, Draco watched how the student hurriedly made her way to the castle while Hagrid stomped to his hut. The girl still had the bandages on her hands, as far as he could tell.
Pansy had been delighted when she had seen the mudblood run out of the Great Hall two days ago, her hands covered in a green slime. She had expected Draco to taunt the mudblood about it, but he was far too busy to waste his time squabbling with others.

He had a job to do.

Draco pushed himself off the wall and turned around, his gaze traveling over the perches in the room. Most of them were empty since the owls were out hunting. He quickly crossed the round room and descended the wooden stairs. As he made his way down the corridor, his mind returned to the Slytherin with bandaged hands.
Something was not right about her.

Yesterday at breakfast, he could have sworn he saw her knife hovering in her hand while she was putting butter on her toast. But wandless magic was very difficult to train and control, especially at a young age. He knew he hadn't imagined it, Draco trusted his senses more than anything else. But if Lince was capable of wandless magic, why was she so rubbish at using a wand?

Turning around a corner, Draco decided not to return to the Slytherin den just yet.
He would stop by the library first.

Mioha had another full moon coming up tonight, and Professor Moody once again was the one supervising her.
Her stomach churned at the thought. The past few months she had kept her distance from him, never raising her hand in his class and avoiding him at meals or in the corridors. She didn't know why, but a little voice in the back of her head made her remain wary around the old Auror.

She had just visited another sick unicorn herd with Hagrid, and quickly made her way into the castle.

The moon would be rising soon.

Mioha entered the Labyrinth and made her way through the brightly lit hallways by flying. She could have found her way with her eyes closed. The forest room had become her only way to be in a forest during the full moon, so that made it her favorite besides the Magnus Antrum.

Pushing the door open, Mioha glanced inside, her nose immediately picking up the familiar scents of grass, earth and water. In the clearing before the edge of the forest was an empty chair. Professor Moody had not arrived yet.
Breathing out in relief, Mioha shut the door behind her and spread her wings. She flew to the left, flying parallel to the edge of the forest for about a mile until she landed on a large rock.

It was shaped like a tall cone, yet the top was flat like a platform, as if someone had cut off the tip.

Mioha folded her wings on her back and sat down cross-legged, her gaze wandering over the blue cornflowers and buttercups growing around the boulder.  The air was buzzing with the sounds of bees, butterflies and other insects flying and crawling around the flowers.
A large blue butterfly caught her attention, having the size of the palm of her hand.
The Slytherin smiled.

"Hey, Big Blue", she called to the butterfly which was busy sticking his head into a buttercup. Upon hearing her voice, the insect shot backwards out of the flower with a Pop! and fluttered over to Mioha, who gazed at him with adoring eyes.
Big Blue's wings sparkled like sapphires and had tiny little swirls of white sparkles on them. The tips of the wings looked like they were dipped in turquoise and purple, and glowed in the moonlight.

"Mioha", Big Blue greeted her, landing on her knee and elegantly tilting his black head.
"Another night here, I see."

The butterfly delicately folded his thin legs until he rested comfortably on the girl's knee, slowly opening and closing his large wings as if he wanted to dry them in the night air.

"How are you?", Mioha inquired, looking up at a robin that fluttered by.

"I am fine, thank you very much. It is a true delight to fly in here, although the birds are truly nasty creatures."

The robin shot Big Blue an outraged look, before disappearing into the forest.

"And it is always so easy to make them want to eat you", the butterfly continued, turning his little head in search of a flower he could sit on.
"If you will excuse me, I believe I have found a rather lovely cornflower..."

And the butterfly took off again, fluttering silently down onto the meadow and landed on the blue flower. The plant swayed slightly from his weight as Big Blue grabbed on to the leaves and inspected the flower petals.

Mioha had to grin. It was quite interesting how different the characters of butterflies could be. Some were extremely sophisticated and a few even supercilious, while others loved to bellow and shout in glee when they found a pretty flower.

She tilted her head upwards, her eyes falling onto the pale moon that started to rise. The girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Another full moon, just like any other.