Warning: This chapter is rather dark. If you need more details, scroll to the Author's note at the bottom.

As Callidus rushed back to the Slytherin common room, he mentally assessed every part of his mind and body, trying to determine if he could feel anything different. What had those fifth years done to him? After pranking Lockhart for months, Callidus was no stranger to delayed spells. Whatever the fifth years had done could potentially strike him at anytime. On the other hand, it was noteworthy that the girl had mentioned dreams. Had they done something that would affect his sleep or his dreams? Callidus knew very little about such magics. His anxiety must have shown on his face because when he sat down next to Harry and Draco, the first comments that came out of their mouths were: "You're really late today," and "Did something happen? You look - upset."

"I -" Callidus exhaled heavily. "A group of fifth years cornered me, and used some sort of spell on me."

"You were hexed?" Draco questioned, his grey eyes flashing angrily. "Was it Gryffindors?"

Callidus shook his head. "It was a group of Slytherins. And I don't think it was a hex - it was something else."

"Why did they corner you?" Harry wondered, obviously concerned.

"Because of Hermione, Caiside and Ginny. Apparently, they think I'm a traitor for befriending them."

Draco frowned. "While I don't agree with befriending Gryffindors, there's nothing wrong with Hermione, Caiside or Ginny. Are those fifth years stupid or blind?"

Draco's supportive comments made Callidus feel better. It didn't mean that other Slytherins would be so understanding, but it was still reassuring to know that his friends were backing him. "I don't know what they were thinking," Callidus sighed. "Even if they didn't like me spending time with Gryffindors, what is a group of first or second years going to do?"

"You said they used some kind of spell on you?" Harry queried. "You seem - fine. Do you feel anything weird? Should we go to the infirmary?"

Callidus vehemently shook his head. "No. I don't want to make a big deal out of this. The last thing I need is Madam Pomfrey fussing over me."

Harry gave him a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, she does like to fuss. You should have seen how she treated the team after the Quidditch game. She just kept shaking her head and clucking her tongue. So you don't know what kind of spell they used?"

"Unfortunately not," Callidus answered. "Though one of them made a comment about dreams. I'm not looking forward to going to bed tonight."

Draco knit his brows. "If it's to do with dreams, then it would probably be related to mind magics. Mind magics are usually extremely difficult and can be finicky and dangerous though."

Callidus hummed thoughtfully. He had learned a bit about mind magic last year when he was trying to figure out whether or not Dumbledore could read minds. He still occasionally did meditative practices to clear his mind. Could something like that protect him?

Callidus sighed. "Well, I told them I would stop spending time with the Gryffindors so I can only hope that they won't bother me again. The girls agreed a while back that we would meet somewhere else. Apparently, they've faced harassment as well."

Harry frowned. "Really? I s'pose I shouldn't be so surprised." He huffed unhappily, tilting his head to rest on the back of the sofa. "I just wish this stupid feud would end and we could go back to the normal rivalry." Harry glanced towards Callidus. "When is your friendliness bomb going to be finished? I've been thinking that something like that could help."

Callidus arched his eyebrows. "Oh? What do you mean?"

"I mean that if we could use that potion to make everyone get along - even just temporarily - then maybe people would finally see how stupid this whole thing is," Harry clarified.

Draco nodded. "I don't care for Gryffindors, but it would be a relief for this feud to be over. People who are always looking over their shoulders aren't too pleasant to be around. I mean, on top of the normal Slytherin cautiousness."

"You mean paranoia?" Harry corrected.

"I mean a very much warranted self-preservation instinct," Draco retorted, before turning back to Callidus. "The point is, I agree with Harry. The whole idea of a potion that makes people friendly seemed ridiculous and useless at first, but if it would calm everyone down, it would be worth it."

"I'm surprised to hear this sentiment from you," Callidus told Draco. "I would have thought you'd be reveling in a Slytherin-Gryffindor feud."

Draco shrugged. "I certainly enjoy tormenting the odd Gryffindor or two. But I prefer it when they don't expect it - not when they're waiting for it to happen at any second. Feels too much like hexing puffskeins in a basket. Ugly puffskeins."

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "well, not the part about them looking like ugly puffskeins. Or the tormenting part." He shook his head. "The point is, when is your potion going to be done?"

"Well - about that," Callidus gave his friends an uncertain look. "It's finished."

"Finished?" Harry echoed. "As if in - finished, finished? Completely finished? Really?"

Callidus nodded guiltily, wondering if his friends would question him further. But Harry was so excited that all he said was: "That's awesome! This means we can finally use it! We should do it soon. How long will it take you to get the doses ready?"

"It shouldn't take too long," Callidus told him. "Having containers prepared takes a bit longer. But I could always use larger containers filled with more of the potion. The challenging part would be collecting all the containers after the potion is dispersed."

Harry hummed. "I think we could easily have it all planned out. We have Camouflage Potion after all. As for using the potion itself - I had a great idea to ensure that no one knows it was us. I think we should give the potion to Peeves."

Callidus arched his eyebrows.

"You really think you could convince Peeves to do anything for you?" Draco asked doubtfully, as he considered the poltergeist's chaotic nature.

"Well, he wouldn't be doing it for me specifically," Harry explained. "But I know he'd do it, just for the sake of creating trouble."

"That's a good point," Draco conceded. The trio spent the rest of the night discussing the rest of the details of the prank. The guilt that Callidus felt from not telling his friends was quickly forgotten and replaced with a sense of anticipation. But once it was time for bed, Callidus quickly remembered what had happened to him earlier in the evening, and though he closed his eyes and attempted to meditate, his mind was needled with a feelings of anxiety.

Eventually, he fell asleep, more from exhaustion than calmness. As awareness returned to Callidus, he found himself in the corridors of the dungeon, filled with a sense of anticipation. He had a fantastic idea for a potion, probably his best ever, and just had to get to his lab and create it. He turned a corner, but then felt a strange sensation in his mind, as if it were being stretched and pulled at, like chewing gum. The stretching feeling persisted, until it seemed to connect to something, and Callidus realized he wasn't alone. Usually, the presence of others was not a noteworthy event, but these people felt important.

He stopped in his steps and turned around to face the fifth year girl that had taunted him earlier. For some reason, her face looked even more reptilian than he remembered, with her flat eyes, small nose, and thin lips.

"Hello, little traitor," she greeted with a toothy smile. "My friends will be here soon. And then we can all have a little fun."

Callidus frowned. "Excuse me. I'm quite busy." He attempted to pass her, but then she pulled out her wand, aiming it straight at him. Callidus froze.

With an uneasy look at the tip of her wand, Callidus reminded her: "Hexing me would be a dishonourable thing for a pure-blood to do."

The girl raised her eyebrows, and moments later, the three fifth year boys appeared behind her in quick succession. "Merlin, don't tell me you haven't figured it out," she sniggered. She turned to face the mousy-hair boy. "The little idiot doesn't even realize he's dreaming!"

The dark-skinned boy smirked. "Ah - a surprise then. There's something delightful about surprises."

"Yeah - it always seems to make their pain worse!" the eager boy crowed.

"What shall we do with him," the girl mused, using her free hand to tap her chin. "This is just supposed to be a little scare - to make sure that he stays away from those Gryffindors."

"I think we should just go for it. Give him a full taste of what he'd get if he really is a traitor," the mousy-haired boy opined. "There's no reason to go soft on him. He isn't even a pure-blood."

"Yes! I like the idea. I want to see him howling!" the eager boy burst out, with a hungry look in his eyes that made Callidus feel sick to his stomach.

Fear gripped at him, but Callidus knew that he wasn't helpless. "If this is just a dream -" he furrowed his brows in concentration, and the dungeon corridor vanished, so that Callidus was out in the woods instead. But then, that stretched chewing gum sensation in his mind seemed to snap like an elastic, and Callidus was back in the dungeon corridors facing the four fifth years. No - he was wrong, it wasn't a corridor, but a narrow room, for as he tried to back away, he came against a cold, hard wall.

The girl gave him a lizard-like leer. "You think it's that easy to get away? My family has been practicing this form of mind-magic for generations upon generations. It's the sort of stuff that Euphie would love to get her hands on for ARMED, but of course, we don't share our secrets."

"What have you done to me?" Callidus asked, proud that he was able to keep his voice level.

The girl shrugged one of her shoulders. "The same as I've done to my friends here. I've linked my consciousness to your dreams."

Callidus narrowed his eyes. With the force of his own mind, he materialized his wand, and sent a blasting spell towards the fifth years. But then a horrible headache ripped through his mind, making him feel as if his brain was trying to explode out of his head, and failing to do so because of his skull. He collapsed onto his knees and gripped his head, crying out from the awful pain. Eventually, the feeling subsided, but by then, he was breathing heavily, and entire body ached.

"Tsk, tsk," the girl admonished. "While it was clever of you to think of doing something like that, you think I would ever enter someone's mind unprepared? No. I've been taught better than that. By the way, how did you like that little taste of my power? It's just a little teaser, of course."

"Let me do something to him!" the eager boy blurt out. "I wanna crucio him till he can't see straight."

The dark-skinned boy rolled his eyes. "Ever since your parents started teaching you Dark Magic, you've been obsessed with that spell. Don't you have any desire to be creative? I mean, come on - relying on crucio is just lazy."

"And the pain in dreams isn't the same as pain in real life anyway," the girl added. "It only works insofar as the mind can imagine it." She gave Callidus a cruel smile. "Fortunately for us, the mind can imagine some very horrifying things. In fact, sometimes, it's worse that reality. Shall we see what your mind can imagine?"

Callidus, who was still on his knees, attempted to stand, though he had to prop himself against the wall for balance. "I haven't done anything wrong," he flatly told them. "Can you really call yourselves Slytherins, to do this to one of your own? Or do you just get off on causing pain."

"Definitely the second one!" the eager boy quickly answered.

The girl cackled. "I'm going to have to say I agree. But -" she paused, "it would be better for us, knowing that you actually deserved it."

Callidus furrowed his brows. "If you seek to cause pain, I'm surprised you'd turn against your own House. I would have thought you'd target Gryffindors instead."

"That would be ideal," the mousey-haired boy interjected.

"Well yes - I'd love to terrorize each and every single one of them," the girl remarked. "And maybe the occasional Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw too. Unfortunately for us, their sections of the castle are well protected, and my magic can't access them while they're in their rooms. But lucky for us, we've got a little traitor to play with instead."

"And if anyone isn't a true Slytherin, it'd be someone like you," the dark-skinned boy declared. "After all, we aren't the ones fraternizing with the enemy."

"I told you, I was just using them," Callidus repeated, feeling frantic in the face of the sadistic fifth years.

The girl's eyes narrowed into slits. "You know what? I really don't care." A slow smile spread across her face. "I'm done with talking. It makes me feel dirty, even listening to blood traitors like you."

Desperately, Callidus tried to will himself elsewhere, but while he could get the castle walls to fade, he couldn't escape the grip that the fourth year girl had on his mind. At this point, all the fifth years had their wands fixed on him, but Callidus knew he couldn't handle trying to fight them on his own. As he put all his strength into escaping, he felt a horrible pain, like hot, serrated razor blades were underneath his skin, causing his flesh to bubble and peel, and burrowing into his muscles. He cried out in pain, losing all coherent thought as his mind gave way to agony. It seemed like no matter what he did, nothing made it better. He tensed his muscles, and then tried to relax them. His breathing was shallow, but even when he tried to lengthen his breaths, it didn't help. And when he tried to ignore his pain, and cast his own spells at the fifth years, his efforts seemed to yield no results. Instead, the older students would mockingly laugh, and he would experience pain anew.

Callidus did not know how long the fifth years tormented him for. It felt like hours, but could have been mere minutes. It seemed like nothing could make the pain better. But as Callidus tried method after method, he discovered one thing that eased the horrible feelings, even if it was only by a small fraction. Callidus found that if he could calm his mind, and reach that place of emptiness, then the pain seemed to fade.

Just as abruptly as the pain began, it eventually stopped. Callidus wondered if it had been his efforts that had stopped the pain, but then he heard the eager boy whinge.

"Why can't we torture him for longer?" the boy groused. "I was having fun."

"Yeah? Well you try and sustain this kind of connection for that long, and see how you like it!" the girl tartly answered. "I'm tired!"

"I'd do it if you'd teach me!" the eager boy piped.

The girl snorted. "You may be one of my best friends, but I wouldn't trust you with my family secrets."

"I'm not going to let you get away with this," Callidus promised, feeling braver now that the pain was gone. "What you've done might not technically be a hex, but it's worse. Far worse."

The girl gave him a nasty smile. "Oh? I don't think you understand your situation. Well, of course you don't! Why would you? I bet you don't even know what mind magic is. You see, this is a dream, and here, I have the power. Which means that when you wake up in the morning, all will be forgotten. Mostly all. I'm sure you'll feel an unexplained fear whenever you see us. But fear is a good thing. We like seeing little traitors like you trembling in your dragon hide boots."

"I won't forget," Callidus growled.

The fifth years sniggered. "Whatever you say," the girl shrugged. "But don't worry, even if you forget, we'll remember. And we'll be seeing you again soon. Real soon."

And with that, Callidus's consciousness faded into black.

A/N: This chapter contains torture.

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