Hidden Wings - Part I

Invitation

Mrs. Bludge trudged up the steps, panting heavily.
When she reached the top she had to bend over, putting her hands on her knees to regain her breath.

"Girls!", she called annoyed. "Get out here and get your chores done!"

There were twelve kids in the orphanage.

Most of them were Jessamine's age, some were older and some younger.

Jessamine's chore of the day was to clear the fence of the weeds, fix it, and repaint it.

She hurried down the stairs and went out the back door to the shed. Inside, it was stuffy and very dark, but Jessamine quickly found the rake, the spade and the paint bucket, as well as the paint brushes.
Going to the front of the orphanage and laying down her tools before returning to the shed, she retrieved a stack of wooden boards.
Once she had everything, she started working.

First Jessamine had to check which wooden planks of the picket fence were stable enough to stay and which ones were rotten and brittle.

She used the spade to get them out of the hard ground, which took her most of the morning. By the time she was finished, she was sweating heavily and covered in dirt.

Wiping some strands of lose hair out of her face, she started to rip out the weeds using the rake.

It was a long day of pulling weeds because the picket fence lined the complete front of the orphanage and the sides of the building too.
Most weeds were dandelions with extremely deep roots, and more than once Jessamine landed on her butt trying to pull them out.

When the painting job was done as well, Jessamine was splattered with white paint, some even had gotten into her hair.

Jessamine cleaned everything away and marveled for a moment at the new fence before she leaned back and cracked a few bones in her back.

"Umpf", she made and grimaced. She was surely going to be sore tomorrow.

She took a quick shower and took her dinner into her room. Most kids found her weird, always talking to plants and animals, so Jessamine rather kept to herself.

She had only gotten through her burned beans when something crashed into her room through the open window.
It was an owl, ruffled-looking owl.

Jessamine hurriedly picked the owl up and carefully placed it on her bed. It was very exhausted and croaked weakly a few times.
The girl fed him some of the beans, which the owl actually seemed to like, and gave him some water as well.

She then noticed the roll of parchment tied to his wing. Untying the string, Jessamine unrolled the yellow parchment and read:

Hello Jess,
My parents would like to invite you over to our house for the rest of the holidays. My brothers would pick you up next Friday, if you say yes.
My mother wants to thank you for healing my head, so be prepared for a lot of food.
The owl is Errol, he'll probably stay the night because he is very old.

Ron
P.S. I hope you don't mind the name 'Jess', George and Fred call you that all the time

Jessamine felt excitement bubbling up inside her. Spending the last three weeks at the Weasley's house seemed like an adventure, and she was already looking forward to it.

A brown bird flew into the room and elegantly landed on the bed next to Errol.

"That's Errol", Jessamine introduced him. "He's Ron's owl."

Errol opened one eye to take a look at Esma, before closing it again as if that had been too exhausting.

"You poor thing", Jessamine cooed and slowly stretched out her hands. Resting them lightly on the owl, she let her magic flow into the small, feathered body.

After the silver glow of her hands subsided, Jessamine saw that one could definitely see a difference.

Errol's feather were less tousled and had a healthy shine to them. His eyes seemed to glow too. The owl hopped up energetically and stretched out his leg, screeching demandingly.

Realizing she had to write an answer, Jessamine quickly scribbled it onto the back of the parchment and tied it to Errol's foot.

He took off and soared out of the room.

Jessamine turned to Esma.
"What do you think? Did I overdo it a bit?"

Esma chirped.

The twelve-year-old sighed.

She probably did. Hopefully the Weasley's would not find Errol's new energetic behavior strange. Her magic was going to last quite long.