Hidden Wings - Part I

Time flies...

Ron mumbled something under his breath.
"How are you okay with that, mate?", he asked, still sounding a little upset.

"Everyone has stuff they don't want to share", said Harry seriously.

Mioha glanced at him surprised.

Ron looked up, and Mioha held her breath nervously. She kind of understood how he felt.

"Don't think I didn't tell you because I thought you were awful friends", she said quickly.
"I just wasn't sure how to say it."

Ron's blue eyes remained on her face for another moment.
"You are weird", he said suddenly.

"Ron!", Hermione gasped.

"Well, you can't forget the Blast-Ended Screwts", he grumbled and shook himself.
"They just loved you. And if that isn't weird, I don't know what is."

Mioha breathed out in relief when she realized he was trying to get past his anger.

"And the troll", said Harry.

"Norberta", Hermione jumped in.

"The Abraxans."

"The garden gnomes."

"Esma and Sisi."

"Mrs. Norris", said Ron distastefully.

"Okay, I get it", mumbled Mioha, rolling her eyes. "I'm a little weird. But-", she got serious again. "Are you a lot mad because I didn't tell you?"

Harry shook his head, as did Ron a moment later after Harry and Hermione both glared at him.
"No", the latter said slowly, sighing. "I'm kind of done acting like a prick this year", he shot her an apologetic look, and Mioha knew he was talking about the Yule Ball.
"But you don't have to keep secrets from us, you can tell us everything, Jess, we're your best mates."

She sighed in relief.

"Now that that's settled", Hermione grinned and clapped her hands to get their attention.
"Harry, I think you should practice with Jess for a bit. Just some simple hexes."

"Come and look at this," said Ron one evening, who was standing by the window. He was staring down onto the grounds. "What's Parkinson doing?"

Harry, Mioha and Hermione went to see. Pansy, Gregory, and Vincent were standing in the shadow of a tree below. Gregory and Vincent seemed to be keeping a lookout; both were smirking.
Pansy was holding her hand up to her mouth and speaking into it.

"She looks like he's using a walkie-talkie," said Harry curiously.

"She can't be," said Hermione, "I've told you, those sorts of things don't work around Hogwarts. Come on, Harry," she added briskly, turning away from the window and moving back into the middle of the room, "let's try that Shield Charm again."

Ron looked confused.
"What's a tallie wallie?"

As June the twenty-fourth drew closer, the castle bustled with excitement. The third task was the one of the two topics of the school, especially what the champions would have to face in the maze. Sisi started doing her rounds above the lake again, documenting everything that happened in the maze. After a few days, there was a charm on the hedges that prevented the eagle from seeing anything that happened in between them. Mioha assumed the Professors wanted to prevent that any bird could tell her what was being set up in the maze.
The other thing that was on the students' minds, was the exams. Mioha crammed all her studying into her free time, often spending hours in the library at night.

On the morning of the twenty-fourth, all students got early to the Great Hall, too excited to stay a moment longer in bed than necessary, despite the dreaded History exam being today.
Mioha, Astoria and Erica joined Harry at the Gryffindor table, who looked a little paler than usual.