Cassandra sat down carefully on the bed, keeping her feet on the floor. She let them poke at her with their sticks, though she watched their movements very carefully. She didn't undress. When Madam Pomfrey brought her a tray of food, she eyed it warily until Snape reached out and took a mouthful from her plate. She studied him as he swallowed. Only then, once she was satisfied that it wasn't drugged or poisoned, did she eat the food. It was very different from the scraps she usually managed to scavenge on the streets. She watched their wands very intently, trying to figure out how this new weapon worked. It was frightening, the way that it seemed to be used for so many things. One moment it was used as a weapon to knock her unconscious, and the next it was tapped against her hand to erase all lingering pain from dislocating her thumb. It made it more dangerous, because she couldn't assume whenever she saw one that it would be used as a weapon. She had to make sure she knew what the intentions of the person holding it were. Some meant no harm while others surely would. She watched the adults around her carefully, memorising how they moved the wands to perform differents spells and what the effects were. She wished she could ask them to give her a demonstration of battling with the weapons, so that she could be absolutely certain of which movements indicated danger.

She slept very lightly that night, rising every time she heard a noise. She was too jumpy here. She wondered if she could get one of those strange sticks to use herself. She knew how to use most weapons, including guns, even if usually her skill made them unnecessary.
She wondered if that stick could make it so she could understand their words. A strange longing filled her. She'd seen how other people used words, how it brought them together or kept them apart, and she wished more than anything that she could be a part of that as well. She'd even tried to identify the different sounds, to recognise them, but she could never associate them properly with what she would understand from the movements. People seemed to use the wrong words, or maybe the words just had several different meanings. She couldn't understand it. Her way of communicating was much more efficient, but no one could ever understand what she meant. If only everybody could do what she could and communicate solely through looks and movement. Then she wouldn't always have to feel so alone.

For a while, Cass just lay on the bed and watched as Madam Pomfrey bustled around the room. Pomfrey would talk even when it was just the two of them in the room, as if she expected Cassandra to just suddenly start understanding her. Over the next few days, she bought books into the main ward and sat reading them.
Cassandra didn't do anything for the first day, not wanting to give them too detailed an idea of her capabilities. She just sat and watched them.
On the second day, she decided to take advantage of not needing to hide or scavenge for food, and took the opportunity to keep to a regular exercise routine.

She didn't have any equipment- no sparring partner, no weights, no training dummy- but she could at least go through the motions to keep herself in shape. Madam Pomfrey set her book aside the moment that Cassandra stood and stepped away from the bed. After a few minutes of push-ups and other basic exercises, Pomfrey returned to her book, sparing only a cursory glance for Cassandra to check that she wasn't causing any damage.

When Cassandra moved on to the fluid, practised movements of tai chi, Madam Pomfrey peeked over her book curiously to watch her in amazement. Even to someone with no knowledge of it, it was clear Cassandra was very skilful.

Then Cassandra's movements changed. For a moment Madam Pomfrey thought she was performing some strange, chaotic kind of dance, before she dropped her book in alarm as she realised Cassandra was fighting with an imaginary opponent, punching and kicking as fiercely as if she were fighting for her life. Pomfrey had a horrifying thought- was Cassandra having some kind of hallucination?

She stood and moved towards Cassandra, who was facing in the opposite direction. Suddenly she whirled and threw a kick in Madam Pomfrey's direction. Pomfrey, through her fear, noted a sudden look of alarm in the girls face before she managed to stop herself just before her foot made contact with the startled healer.

Cassandra, afraid and alarmed by the near miss and the stupidity of a woman who would approach an assassin while they were working out, focused on making her anger and fear as obvious as possible. She gestured to Madam Pomfrey, then her foot, and then mimed falling backwards, unconscious. She glared, hoping that even someone so incapable of reading body language would understand that. As Madam Pomfrey blanched, Cassandra turned and walked away to do stretches at the other end of the room.

She was aware of Madam Pomfrey's alarm and confusion, aware of her throwing something into the fireplace and saying something, aware of the other adults suddenly arriving. madam Pomfrey conversed with them in low tones. Cassandra imagined her emotions must be clear even to those who couldn't read them so easily. Aside from glancing at them to see a mixture of alarm and mild curiosity, Cassandra paid them little attention. Rather than try to spar with an imaginary opponent again, once she finished her stretches she went through the motions of several moves, starting slowly before increasing her speed until the adults could barely tell what she was doing. She noticed them turning towards her and their voices quieting, but she didn't care. She knew where they were, and none would approach her without giving her more than enough time to stop. When she finally finished, breathing only a little heavily, she jumped at the sound of applause from Dumbledore. He looked intrigued and pleased by her display, although the others seemed more uncertain.
Dumbledore smiled, made a cheerful suggestion to the room at large and swept out, soon followed by McGonagall and Snape.

Cassandra, tired of remaining in the Hospital Wing, made to follow them. Pomfrey placed a gentle hand (which was shaking a little) on her arm to stop her. Her words were meaningless, but her body said "Where are you going?"

Cassandra pointed at the door and blinked. Pomfrey hesitated.

"There's no harm in letting her see the place, Poppy." McGonagall reassured her. "Why not show her the castle? Make sure she's aware of the dangers. It must be dull just sitting on that bed all day, and it would be far better for you to show her around than for her to sneak off alone."

Madam Pomfrey didn't seem sure, but she led Cassandra through the door anyway. Cass would have preferred to explore on her own, but she knew that would also make it more dangerous. Although she was pretty confident that she could beat anything that attacked her ( no one had ever proved her wrong before), she still didn't know what that strange pearly white person had been. She supposed they were a kind of superpowered human, or perhaps something else altogether.

Madam Pomfrey talked nearly constantly as she showed Cass around the castle. She supposed that Pomfrey just wanted to fill the silence, something she'd noticed other people do before in Cass' presence. The things she saw were incredible. She saw paintings that weren't just still images. The figures in them moved! This frightened her until she realised that, although the figures could travel from painting to painting, they couldn't exist outside of the artwork. There was no danger of them leaping out to attack her, so she smiled back at them. Pomfrey seemed to greet some of the figures as if they were people. The building she was in was huge, as big as one of the department stores in a large city, or possibly even bigger. She looked with interest at the stone walls and took every opportunity to gaze through the window at the grounds, which seemed just as large. She wondered if she could exercise outside. It would be pleasant. She tried to ask Madam Pomfrey by miming a running motion and pointing outside, but Pomfrey pretended not to understand.
When they saw the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall, Cass was amazed. The Great Hall had a sky, as if it were outside, but she could tell by the lack of a breeze that she was still inside. She also hadn't seen this place through any of the windows. She gazed up at the ceiling, fascinated by this miracle of putting the sky inside. She would have been reluctant to leave if Madam Pomfrey hadn't led her to huge doors that could only lead out onto the grounds.

Once she was out in the fresh air, Cassandra looked around carefully. She wanted to be sure that she could find her way around. She looked at Madam Pomfrey and mimed doing stretches and then running. Pomfrey pointed at the forest and her body language told Cass it was very dangerous in there. She nodded at Pomfrey and started running, keeping well away from the forest. While it might be interesting to explore on her own, she could tell that Madam Pomfrey wouldn't want her to go inside. Running, when you weren't just trying to escape or get out of a difficult situation, could be a very enjoyable experience for Cass. The movement was simple and repetitive, but freeing in a way that few other things were. She was reluctant to stop when Madam Pomfrey gestured that she should return to the castle, but she obeyed. She didn't want to offend her hosts yet, but she wouldn't be obedient to them forever. Still, until she understood more about what was going on, it was best to stay on their good side.

That night she ate more than she had previously before sleeping. She still slept lightly, but although she was subconsciously aware of the noises around her she didn't wake fully until morning.

She rose before Madam Pomfrey did and began doing some gentle stretches. She glanced at the door. Madam Pomfrey wasn't awake yet, but no one had forbidden her from leaving. She finished her stretches and slipped out of the Hospital Wing.

The castle was very quiet, as if she were the only person there. The figures in the portraits were still sleeping, so she made no noise as she walked past. She looked at everything with just as much interest as the day before, only this time she didn't make any attempt to hide it. She wondered if the figures in the portraits were real people, like her, or whether they were just some kind of recording.

She remembered most of what she'd been shown the day before, so as she made her way to where she thought the entrance hall was, she was shocked to find that the staircase wasn't where she remembered. There were no stairs there at all. She could try and find another route to the first floor, but this was the only one Madam Pomfrey had shown her. Had they destroyed the stairs just so she couldn't escape? She might have thought so, if she hadn't seen something incredible. A staircase across the hall was moving. Not moving like an escalator, but actually swinging around to link two completely different places.
A little frightened, Cassandra made her way back to the hospital wing. How would she ever find her way around safely if the staircases kept moving?

By the time she reached the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey was awake and talking anxiously to Professor Snape.
"I woke up and she was gone, Severus, I don't know where- Cassandra! There you are! You foolish girl, don't you know better than to run off without telling anyone?"

Cassandra could tell that Madam Pomfrey was angry at her for running off, and had been worried about her. She frowned at Madam Pomfrey and made a shrugging motion with her shoulders. She wasn't going to stay cooped up or be babysat the whole time.

"Perhaps Professor Dumbledore has the right idea." Snape said dryly. "She needs to be shown the dangers of the castle so she can avoid them. I very much doubt that any of us could keep her cooped up here without her consent."
Pomfrey bit her lip. "She's such a little thing, and I never know how much she understands of anything I say. I'm worried she'll hurt herself, or meet Peeves."

Snape nodded. "Yet it is unavoidable that she learn her way around. In just 3 weeks, the school will be opening to the students."

Mada Pomfrey looked horrified. "We certainly can't allow her free reign of the school once the students arrive!"

"Why not?" Snape asked coolly. "We must figure out a way to teach her before her magic becomes uncontrolled. She has been living on the streets for many years, I have no doubt that she can take care of herself."

Cassandra just sat and watched them talk. She didn't understand the details, but she understood enough. They were arguing about her. Madam Pomfrey was very worried about her and wanted to keep her contained. Professor Snape was worried about her, but believed she needed to be taught how to keep herself safe in the castle. She preferred Professor Snape's view.

The days passed by uneventfully. Cassandra would wake, go for a brief walk around the castle (usually accompanied by Pomfrey, who seemed to wake as soon as Cassandra got out of bed).Then, after she memorised as much as possible of the castle's layout, she would run outside before returning to the Hospital Wing and exercising.
A week in, Madam Pomfrey led her to a room she hadn't been in before. She opened the door to find a large room with a bed in one corner. Weights were on a shelf by the other wall. There was an exercise mat and two training dummys.
Cassandra looked at them quickly, then smiled. She'd been afraid that they were trying to train her to do something, but Pomfrey's body language left no doubt that this was a gift. Madam Pomfrey gestured to the bed and then to Cass. Cass nodded, understanding. This room was for her to use and sleep in. Possibly it was part of an attempt to keep her contained by putting almost everything she'd need in one room, but it would still make her days much less dull. Madam Pomfrey pointed out the adjoining bathroom, and Cass tried to communicate smiled at them until they'd all left her. Then she sat down on the bed, revelling in knowing that she finally had a place all of her own.