Hidden Wings - Part I

The Secrets of the Silverwing

"Okayy", said Draco slowly and followed her to the door. Mioha placed a hand on the door knob and carefully turned it to the right. The door unlocked with a soft click and swung open to the inside, revealing something neither Mioha nor Draco had expected.

The room was large, larger than it actually should be considering that on the other side of the hall was another room.
There were shelves upon shelves filled with books and tables covered in wands and globes and other things. And finally, on the left was a large rectangular training area, marked by a glowing red line. On the side stood several motionless dummies with wands, their heads consisting of a metal-like face with two eyes and a grim mouth.

"Whoa", Mioha whispered and quickly shut the door behind her.
This was even better than she had imagined! Hogwarts had provided exactly what they needed to train! They could research spells and practice them at the same time without having to sneak around the entire castle. And-

Draco cleared his throat.
"What is this?", he asked coldly.

Oh. Right.

"I'll explain later", said Mioha and walked towards two comfortable looking armchairs that had popped out of nowhere. "You start."

Draco's face was impassive as he seated himself in one armchair and looked around the room, but Mioha saw his eyes glint excitedly when he looked at the training area.

"What are your questions?", she asked and sat down as well.
Draco's head snapped around as if he had woken up from deep thoughts, and for a moment, he just stared at her in silence.
Then he reached into his pocket.

"I found this book in the library last year", he said slowly and pulled out an old book, which was bound in leather and looked like it was about to fall apart.
Mioha could not read the title, since the letters had flaked off, and looked at him in confusion. 

"What is it?", she asked.

"The Secrets of the Silverwing", Draco replied.

Mioha's eyes widened.
"May I see it?", she asked eagerly.
Excitement of reading something about her kind filled her, and she felt the sudden urge of ripping the book out of Draco's hands.

The blond Slytherin nodded and handed it to her, watching her carefully as if she would damage it any moment.

Mioha breathed in deeply and let her hand trail across the cover. Someone had scratched off the author's name, leaving a deep mark in its place.
Carefully slipping a finger beneath the cover, Mioha turned over the page.
Handwritten words filled the yellowing paper. The handwriting was neat and slanting to the right, the black ink faded from age.
Skimming over the words, Mioha flipped through the pages. There were several pages with missing pieces at the bottom, some looking like they had been torn off. There were some colorful sketches as well, although it was hard to see what some were supposed to show. But altogether, this little book seemed to contain everything about Silverwings.
Who had written this?
As far as she knew, her kind had never liked to get too close to others, so how come a human had been able to write a book about them?