Written for 100quills challenge: Prompt #2 Butterfly
She was beautiful, like a butterfly. Wearing a colourful robe she'd painstakingly sewn from scraps of different colour materials torn from various items of clothing lying around the house, as Ariana spun round and round the silver thread caught the light of the sun and sparkled. When she spun fast, the hem of her robe rose up to reveal the woolly purple socks that she'd knitted, and when she fell dizzily onto her back the rays of the sun made her pale skin glow.
Aberforth watched his sister spin joyously around the garden, a bitter expression on his face. Ariana wasn't just beautiful like a butterfly: she was as delicate and vacant as one too. Before she was attacked, she'd been old for her age and intelligent too, just like Albus. But since then, she'd locked herself away within the mind of a child and lost all control over her magic. She was almost a teenager now, and should have been at Hogwarts for a year, but inside the pretty shell was a child.
For all Aberforth hated what his sister had become, he loved her more than anything else in the world. He treasured these sunny days when she was happy and on cold days when she shivered he wished he was as talented as Albus so that he could cast a proper warming charm for her. He couldn't understand why Albus resented Ariana's condition, because however much it held the eldest brother back Aberforth knew that Albus did care for her.
Later in life, Aberforth realised just how deep that care ran. The day Albus was appointed Headmaster of Hogwarts, he found himself a bright purple robe with silver stitching, and the breeze revealed his multicoloured woollen socks.