Hidden Wings - Part I

A close call

The next morning was a Saturday. The Daily Prophet arrived at breakfast and was delivered to Mioha by a brown school owl. Dropping the newspaper onto Mioha's plate, the owl hooted a short greeting before it took off again.
Mioha curiously picked it up and unrolled it. The front page was not very interesting, it only contained an article about the marriage of one of the Weird Sisters. Luckily, neither she nor Harry were on the front page.
She flipped a page, then another- and froze.

SIRIUS BLACK- IN LONDON?
The Ministry of Magic has received a tip-off from a reliable source that Sirius Black, notorious mass murderer, who has escaped from Azkaban, is currently hiding in London. The ministry warns the wizarding community that Black is very dangerous. He killed thirteen people, broke out of Azkaban-

Mioha stopped reading.
She felt nauseous.
So someone had recognized Sirius at Kings Cross. And given Draco's choice of words in the Hogwarts Express, she would bet anything it had been Lucius Malfoy who had tipped off the ministry.
Mioha looked up at the Gryffindor table and saw her friends bent over something.
They were likely reading it too.
Now Sirius did not really have a choice but to stay hidden inside Grimmauld Place, or being disillusioned wherever he went.

Mioha pushed her plate aside and stood up. She was not hungry anymore. Grabbing her bag, Mioha left the Slytherin table and hurried out of the Great Hall.

What would Sirius do if he found out about this? He would surely laugh it off and say, the ministry wouldn't be able to find him even if he appeared right in front of them.
Mioha frowned.
She hoped that someday, Sirius would become a free man, who could go wherever he wanted without needing to hide.

Since it was the weekend, she would have a training session with Professor McGonagall had eight, and one after lunch with Professor Snape. That meant, her homework would have to wait until the evening, but luckily, she wasn't so much behind on it anyway.

Choosing the corridor that would lead her to the secret entrance close to Professor McGonagall's office, since it was the closest, Mioha looked around carefully as she approached it. Clearing her head from her worried thoughts about Sirius, she focused on making sure she was alone. She couldn't make a mistake when it came to the Labyrinth.

There was no one there. It was silent in the brightly-lit corridor, besides the soft crackling of the few torches. Mioha closed her eyes to disillusion herself-

A strong smell of a sweet perfume hit her.

Mioha opened her eyes again and rubbed her forehead, pretending like she couldn't decide whether or not to enter Professor McGonagall's office. But her eyes scanned her surroundings carefully.
And she couldn't see anything. Her eyes told her one thing, yet her nose another.

She could smell that someone was behind her.

Mioha bent down to tie her shoe, which was still tied from this morning, and strained her ears for the slightest noises.