An: Vivid description and reliving of a bullying scene via magical means. Triggering language suggesting auucide is used. Please be careful reading and just don't if you struggle hard enough.

The staff meeting that night was short. Dumbledore looked at the professors gathered around; fine witches and wizards all of them. "The coming letters are going to cause some tension. There are a couple things I want to do to try and mitigate backlash. Severus, I want you to coach the child on Legilimens and Occlumency. Both, please." He turned his gaze to the nurse. "Poppy, you need to keep her medications on you at all times." Next to Sprout, he considered his words a moment longer. "I'd...ask your prefects to keep a close eye on Ms. Sims until we can ascertain the exact repercussions of her stunt this night."

"What of the boy?" McGonagall asked. "The way she spoke implied quite obviously he didn't want to be the way he is. Won't he receive backlash as well if the wrong people believe what she said?"

The Headmaster thought for another moment. "We'll deal with those repercussions as they come."

x

Cassandra was flying, her yellow butterfly wings present on her human back. She flitted from one giant flower to the next, doing as butterflies did. Eventually she became exhausted and curled up in the petals of a tulip, pulling it closed around her like a blanket. She felt as if she were forgetting something, but decided it probably didn't matter if it was so hard to remember. Right? She shook off her worries and rested, feeling the gentle sway of her tulip bed in the wind.

This was simple. What possible need could there be for worrying? A few days passed and she enjoyed going from field to field, sampling each beautiful bloom. The warmth of the sun kept her happy and it was hard to even think what being unhappy was like. Eventually Cassandra noticed the other butterflies. One was a simple red to match her simple yellow and it was fighting another male with much bolder, brave crimson for his wings. "Like you're good enough for her if you think I'm not." The crimson male spat, savagely attacking the wings of the simple red male. "I've got news for you, squib. She's a radiant golden beam of sunshine and you're just...you."

The simple red male was fighting back, but it was rather clear to Cassandra he just had less skill at being nasty with his speech. "You're evil." He said to the more vibrant butterfly. "She isn't. You're going to r-ruin her like you ruin everything else you touch." Pain stabbed the crimson male at this. Cassandra felt it in her own heart and started to recall that was something she could do, feel the emotions of others. "The only life she'll have with you one of a prisoner or a trophy."

Cassandra tried to sit up at this, to say anything at all. She didn't like this dream anymore. Even the warmth of the sun had fled from the heated argument. She only felt restrained. "Get out of the w-way! I told you that you're j-just hurting her!" The crimson butterfly gasped and a deep hurt permeated Cassandra. Then her eyes shot open to see that she was thrashing about in Madame Pomfrey's hands and...Neville Longbottom's.

"What..."

But Pomfrey was already speaking, pressing her medication into her mouth. "I will be sure you get these every morning now. Swallow." She held water for Cassandra to sip and the groggy, confused young witch did so.

"What's happened?" She finally asked, noting the awkward way Neville stood next to the bed with a hint of apprehension rising within her.

Pomfrey was clearly debating answering her at all, but Neville...Neville had already made up his mind. "Malfoy was trying to do something as you lay here recovering." His face was red with the effort of making himself say this. "I...I put a stop to that!"

Cassandra's head was swimming with the strange transition from butterflies and peaceful sleep to argumentative human boys and medication. "Neville, please give me some space. The pills need a moment and you are terrible at mental shielding."

"That will be all, Mr. Longbottom. Back to your classes. Ms. Sims is in capable enough hands." Neville paled and sprinted off, leaving Madame Pomfrey and Cassandra in the room with Professor Snape. He fixed his gaze on Cassandra as she was swinging her legs over the side of the hospital bed. "I expect you in my office before the end of lunch. You have approximately thirty minutes. Don't be late, Ms. Sims. This request comes from Headmaster Dumbledore himself."

She stood, blearily and began to make her way over to him. "I'll come now. I see no reason to get even more sleep. I have to get an education eventually."

x

Snape didn't go easy on her. "Ms. Sims are you holding back because you don't think think I'll cross the line of propriety and look within your teenaged brain?" Cassandra panted as she stared up at him. They had been doing this for hours, practicing her Occlumency so that she'd better be able to shield herself and hopefully not need the medication for much longer.

She didn't answer in the end, brain too fatigued and full of a thick mental fog. "So be it. Legilimens!"

She felt him picking through her unguarded brain then, looking at it all before he fell into her sharpest memory. "I don't know what your bloody problem is, you mudblood harlot." Draco Malfoy stood before her, saying the hurtful things she never wanted to hear.

"Draco I...I only want-"

"You're a bloody stalker. I'll have my father arrest you." His steely eyes glinted coldly at her.

Cassandra tried again, already overwhelmed from the day she'd had. If she could only do one good thing today, it wouldn't be a total loss. "Draco you dropped-"

"Stop calling me by name like you're a friend of mine." His disdainful eyes looked her up and down. "Merlin, you're pathetic. Why don't you do the bloodlines of the future a favor and go off yourself?"

Cassandra shoved hard, with the brunt of her mind against the intruder. Professor Snape was expelled from her memories with enough force his physical body actually stumbled back from what she sat. They stared at each other a moment before she bolted, flinging herself at the door, wrenching it open and sprinting down the hall. Even the dungeons weren't safe anymore.

The tears stung more than just her eyes, blurring her vision and causing her to stumble and nearly fall when she slammed into a Durmstrang coming around the corner. He grabbed her, steadying her by the shoulders. "Easy, butterfly witch." His dark gray ehes pierced her face, searching it. "You are upset." This was none other than Viktor Krum, Quidditch extraordinaire.

Cassandra didn't know what to address first. The fact he had called her a butterfly, or the fact her upset was so clear to all. She settled on fisting her grip in his uniform, her anxiety and painful fear still clutching at her heart from that horrid lesson. Finally finding her words, she opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by the popping flashbulb of a camera. "Ah. The girls are all over this...Bulgarian bonbon."

Cassandra turned her head, ready to be angry after the start to her day, but Viktor Krum was moving between her and Rita Skeeter. "I've already told you not to harass me or anyone with me. Go get your kicks elsewhere." His thick accent might have made Cassandra swoon under any other circumstances, but today was an amazingly crappy day.

"Sorry Viktor darling, but I'm actually after Ms. Sims this time." The predatory reporter leaned, trying to get a view of Cassandra from behind the towering Quidditch star. "One of the only reported...failed suicide attempts in Hogwarts history."

She put emphasis on failed and Cassandra sucked in a sickened breath as her stomach turned. She opened her mouth and again someone else was speaking first. It was Krum once more, spitting ice at the reporter as he gently hauled a stunned Cassandra away. "The only failure I see is you, vulture witch. Go feed off someone else. Despicable woman." He kept pulling her along until they had reached one of many alcoves. "Are you alright?"

Cassandra was startled. "W-what? Oh. I'm... I've been better, honestly." She gave up the pretenses at the last second. Biting her lip, she got back to her earlier question. "Viktor...err...Krum, why did you call me a butterfly?"

He shrugged, casually speaking with that thick tongue. "I saw you seek refuge on the pitch yesterday. What landed was a butterfly but what sat up was a troubled young lady." He held up a hand sensing her upset deepening. "Not a soul will be told. I was there hiding too, Cas...Cus..."

"Just call me Cas. That's good enough." Feeling the warmth of hope begin to permeate the black cloud of negativity ruling her mind, Cassandra smiled at him. "Maybe we could be friends and share the hiding spot?"

A slight smile that was full of expression stretched Krum's lips and Cassandra got the feeling this was a rare sight. "I'd like this." She shook his hands.

"Friends it is, then Viktor."