Miranda has a lovely summer, some of it spent at Karen's and some in Italy and some at home.
She shows up with Karen at the train platform and they look for Minor.
"You don't have to tell me anything it's none of my business really I just wanted to make sure it was safe."
"I hear they've been giving the third-years an awful lot of homework this week."
"You can just tell me when you want me to go away, you know," she says, and she goes for the door.
Miranda asks to be excused from dueling when nothing to help her with footwork turns up. She is denied. She makes an attempt to duel while stationary, with shields and spells that keep her opponents from closing, but she's not actually very good at dueling and there are several legal spells that make her attempt to move anyway, ones that make her dance or spin or launch backward.
There's also a few that are legal aimed at the body but not at the head.
Most people under Tarantellagra just - dance. Miranda falls, and where her shoulder was is her ear.
She hits the ground.
Miranda goes to the hospital wing and takes more than half an hour to patch up.
"'If you get into a fight with Dark Creatures they won't go easy on you because of your incompetence' - nitwit -"
"She took a Contusion Jinx to the ear on her way down," says Madam Hirudinea. "She'll be all right, but it will take at least overnight before she wakes and she'll be in some pain for the next few days."
"I am not the person to whom you might most productively voice your concerns, Mr. Way."
"She has independent study with you, can you - create a scheduling conflict," says Karen.
"Certainly not," says Madam Hirudinea.