Hello everyone, I hope you've had a nice Battle of Hogwarts Memorial Day (I may of cried rewatching the third movie because Lupin).
I really want to thank everyone for the reviews again, especially mizzraz27 who has reviewed the last three chapters. To the guest who left that lovely long review about Draco calling Caelum little brother, I hope this chapter clears a couple things up and ends that awful habit. Also I'm sorry for making Ron seem like a bad guy, but that wasn't the case I was just trying to write it from a Slytherin's point of view and not the Gryffindor point of view.
Thank you for reading see you in a couple of days for the next chapter.
~PureBloodSnake x
Disastrous Defence Against the Dark Arts
Caelum's first class come Monday morning was Defence Against the Dark Arts, with the Gryffindors. To say he was anxious was an understatement. He didn't want to perform at his best and have something like his patronus give him away to Ron and Hermione but at the same time, he had a reason to do well in class, he wanted, no needed to make his parents proud.
"Just sit there for the lesson today and take good notes, I doubt there will be any practical work today, just introductions, and then we will work on ways to make it less obvious to your friends. Yeah?" Draco answered his unasked questions easily and quite logically. Caelum was a little embarrassed that he hadn't thought of that himself. But then Draco did seem to be more the reasonable one of the two of them.
"Thanks Dray." He breathed smoothing down his hair before heading down to breakfast.
Breakfast was the usual affair, the Gryffindors glared at Draco and Caelum, Caelum happily munched on a piece of toast and Pansy tried to get him to eat something more. For Caelum the day got better when the post arrived. The magnificent eagle owl that belonged to his father swooped down and landed in front of both him and Draco. Picking up a piece of bacon he fed it to the owl, smiling as it leant into his hand as he stroked it.
"Don't let father see you feed his owl bacon, he'd have a fit. Especially as he seems to like you more than father." Draco was untying the post and eyeing the bird warily. Pulling back with the post in his hands Draco relaxed.
"See that wasn't too bad was it?" He asked the owl in front of them who was still being petted by Caelum, without warning the owl shot forward and pecked at Draco's hand, leaving a little trail of blood pouring down the pale skin. "I hate that bloody bird!" He said to Caelum who was trying not to laugh at him. "Mother and father have sent something for you." Still pouting over the bite on his hand, Draco handed Caelum a little box wrapped meticulously in brown paper. Opening it as casually as he could (it was the first gift he'd gotten just because so he was a little excited) he pulled out the letter and then a self-inking quill that was a gorgeous emerald green colour and a leather bound journal. He smiled putting them in his bag before reading the letter.
Dearest Caelum,
We hope you are settling in well at Hogwarts, we know it is a little different than Durmstrang Caelum knew that was only written to throw off the people checking the students' post . We are proud to have another Slytherin in the family although we all thought you had more Gryffindor qualities, you are more of a Slytherin than we thought if you managed to keep that from us for this long. Draco wrote and told us that you were a little anxious about your Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, as your abilities differ from your classmates due to your Durmstrang teaching. Our advice is to take it day by day and try and match Draco for skill until you are more comfortable. The journal and quill we sent are quite unique, not many self-inking quills are seen in such wonderful colours. The journal however is a one of a kind, there are protections on it so that no-one but your exact genetic code can open the journal, it is so precise that polyjuice does not affect it. However the unfortunate news is that Draco might be able to open it, we have no idea how it works with twins, maybe something you can try. (If it does open to Draco's touch, I advise you to ward it quite well, he can be very insensitive and nosy sometimes.) We hope these help you adjust to your new settings and give you an outlet.
We look forward to seeing you at Christmas
Love
Mother and Father
P.S. Your father wanted me to remind you that in public you must put up a united front no matter what quarrel you may be having.
Caelum smiled, Narcissa was so thoughtful and despite appearances very motherly. He was so grateful to be able to experience the feeling of being loved first hand. He finished his piece of toast, ignoring Pansy's attempts to get him to eat something more and finished his orange juice.
"Come on Caelum, time for lessons." Draco pulled Caelum close to his side as they walked out of the great hall, Pansy and Blaise behind them. "I won't let the Gryffindors do anything, mark my words little brother." Caelum scowled at being called 'little brother' but couldn't quite quell the feeling of safety that Draco provided him.
Defence Against the Dark Arts started quite well in Caelum's opinion, he had got to the classroom, sat down and pulled out his textbook, wand and parchment and quill before any trouble started. The Gryffindors all sauntered in thirty seconds before the class was supposed to start, and sat down at their desks chatting loudly.
"You'd have thought without their precious golden-boy they'd all be like lost sheep." Draco muttered loud enough for the Gryffindors to hear. They turned their eyes to him, glaring.
"Dray, we agreed not to draw attention to ourselves!" Caelum hissed at him, trying desperately to not be overheard.
"What's this? Mini Malfoy telling Malfoy off. Priceless." Ron was the one who said this, although Caelum hadn't seen him say it he knew from the voice. It seems Ron was a lot more vindictive without Harry to placate him. "I think I'm going to look forward to this year, Dumbledore can't be seen to have Death Eaters in his school so maybe I should save him the trouble of getting rid of the two of you." Caelum was shocked, even after he had seen Lucius at Voldemort's rebirth, he had not even thought of Draco being a Death Eater.
"I'll have you know," Caelum interjected coolly. "There is no proof that The Dark Lord is back, all we've got is that Potter brat telling us that he is. And the only other person who could verify is dead. It seems to me that Potter has run off this year to hide from his attention-seeking lies, why not face them with some Gryffindor courage?" He winced slightly as he said the words, he was as he said the only one who knew the truth but he wasn't going to share exactly what happened with anyone. Ron was fuming at his words, his face was bright red as he stammered some sort of comeback before giving up and pointing his wand at Draco.
"Furnunculus!" Ron bellowed, shocking the few who weren't paying attention to the exchange.
"Protego." Caelum lazily waved his wand setting up a shield in front of both him and Draco that just absorbed Ron's curse.
"Reducto! Confringo! Diffindo!" Ron kept trying to break the shield, but so far it seemed to withstand the barrage of spells. Caelum could feel his energy slowly draining as he kept the shield up for a lot longer than he had previously. Draco seemed to notice the small signs of strain on his brother and quickly pulled out his wand.
"Expelliarmus!" He said almost as lazily as Caelum performed his shield charm. He caught the wand with his seekers reflexes but still Caelum didn't let down the shield charm.
"I haven't got my wand, why do you still need a shield charm?" Ron spat at him.
"I don't trust any of your friends not to curse me as soon as I let it down, also I believe you are quite fond of using muggle methods to brawl." Caelum had picked up the drawling tone of the Malfoy's quite quickly and now understood why they used it so often, the look on Ron's face was quite satisfying. Someone at the front of the class cleared their throat.
"Mr Malfoy, five points for such a strong shield charm. Mr Weasley sit down and Mr Malfoy please pass me his wand. And ten points from Gryffindor for attacking another student." Professor Umbridge was dressed head to toe in the most awful shade of pink Caelum had ever seen. And from the way she talked he already knew he wasn't going to like her. "Well then, I've heard a lot about how awful your education of Defence Against the Dark Arts, I'm here to catch you all up to speed, so if you will all put away your wands and open your textbooks and start reading. Yes Miss Granger?" Hermione's hand was in the air waving about like usual, however this time there was a frown on her face.
"When will we start the practical professor?"
"Why do you need to learn the practical? All you need to pass your OWLs is the theory." Caelum sat back shocked.
"So does that mean whilst you're here we won't learn how to cast any defensive spells?" He asked not even bothering to put his hand up.
"That is correct Mr Malfoy, the ministry does not think there will be any need to use defensive spells. Who would want to hurt children such as yourselves?"
"Well some people," he pointedly looked at Ron, "believe that The Dark Lord has risen again. I want to be prepared for all his insane followers." He was getting agitated with this woman.
"Now, there's no need to be afraid of a couple of delusional people they will not harm any child." She retorted a sickly sweet smile gracing her toad-like face.
"Well as you've just said they are delusional, there is no telling what they'd do to children and I'd like to be safe in the fact that I could protect myself if the need arises." He was almost growling at her, he desperately wanted to hit her with a stupefy and walk out of the lesson. Even the Gryffindors were looking at him with a little respect.
"I still don't see why you think that." She said her voice rising a little because she wasn't getting what she wanted with minimal effort.
"Well as you've said already the education here has been awful, a monster tears up the castle, a mass murderer breaks in several times and we've been told the Dark Lord killed somebody for competing in a school tournament. Now whether that bit's true or not is a different matter, but fact is Cedric Diggory died. There are things that want to hurt us and if you'd pull your head out of your arse maybe you'd see that." He was fed up and he wasn't going to listen to this anymore, he packed everything back into his bag and walked out of the classroom.
"Caelum wait." Draco was calling after him, but he kept walking he really didn't want to be reprimanded by Draco right now, not while he was still reeling. "Caelum, stop." This time Caelum did as he was told. Draco caught up to him quickly and placed a hand on his arm. "Come on I know a place you can blow off some steam." Draco proceeded to drag Caelum across the school to the seventh floor. He then paced back and forth three times in front of a stone wall. Slowly a door began to materialise. Draco opened the door and gestured for Caelum to go in first.
Inside was a large room lit with skylights, although not being on the top floor, and mirrors on one wall. The room was mainly empty, however there was a couple of training dummies dotted around the room.
"Dray- what is this place?"
"It's called the room of requirement or the come and go room, it changes based on what the person needs. I asked the room for a place we could blow of steam and this is what it's given us, so fire away and destroy those targets. I'm quite looking forward to seeing what the amazing 'Harry Potter' can do with his wand."
"Hey, it's nothing special Dray, really, I'm just extremely lucky." Draco scoffed.
"Sure, like every other third year can produce a corporeal patronus or survive through a tournament meant for seventeen year olds and kill off a basilisk, and somehow which you haven't told me yet, break into the Slytherin common room. You're a special person Caelum Malfoy and don't you forget it!" Caelum broke into a large smile as Draco looked at him without even hint of teasing. "Come on, I know you need to hex something." And with that Draco pulled Caelum into the centre of the room to stand in front of the awaiting dummies.
An hour later both Caelum and Draco lay in the centre of the room looking at the ceiling.
"And you say you're not special, honestly you know more spells than most of our year and can perform them successfully. That mu-ggleborn Granger must have been jealous of you." Caelum noted that his brother was trying not to upset him and was grateful to him for trying. "Now Defence must nearly be over, so I want to see that patronus charm."
"I don't even know if it will be the same, so much has changed since last time I cast one."
"Well just give it a try, we both know you'll be able to do it."
"Alright then." Caelum closed his eyes and tried to think of his happy memory, but all he could see was the flash of light and then Cedric's body hitting the ground and Voldemort's cold laughter.
"Caelum you're safe, at Hogwarts, with me Draco." Draco's whisperings brought him back from the nightmarish memories and he began to focus on his words. Safe. Hogwarts. Draco. Having a family. Then he thought of his birthday celebrations and how happy he was to have a real family of his own.
"Expecto Patronum!" He kept his eyes closed for a little longer and only opened them when Draco let out a little gasp. In front of them both was a eastern dragon, floating around and coiling itself around nothing.
"See told you. You're an amazing wizard little brother. An eastern dragon is a symbol of luck, wealth and power, only really powerful wizards have a magical creature as a patronus it's actually really rare." Caelum smiled Draco sounded a lot like Hermione right at this moment, not that he'd say anything, but now he missed Hermione. Maybe he could tell her the truth soon, and make her promise not to tell Ron.
"Caelum? CAELUM?" He was shaken from his thoughts and saw Draco was staring expectantly at him. "I was going to ask you to teach me, but I see you were a little too busy in your thoughts to even recognise that I, Draco Malfoy, was asking you, my little brother, for help." he was teasing but Caelum's features drew themselves into a frown. "What's wrong?"
"I was just wondering- wait I tell you on the way to history of magic we better move quickly." Draco looked at his watch before the two of them raced across the room picking up their bags and robes before almost running down the corridors.
"So what was it?" Draco asked panting slightly, but looking as if he hadn't done anything but stroll leisurely down the corridor.
"Why do you call me little brother? I mean we're twins and it's a little mortifying. I've pretty much always been the youngest and it's something my cousin used to tease me about. It's not a fond memory and I would like it if you didn't remind me of that." Draco had come to a stop outside of their classroom and had turned to face Caelum dead on and looked directly into his eyes.
"I didn't realise-"
"Dray- it's fine, it's something stupid I wouldn't expect you to know.
"It's not fine. I always wanted to be a big brother, I felt like I was missing something for a long time and that was only filled by the incredibly protectiveness I had for my friends, and I suppose when I realised you were my brother, I felt that need to protect you, even though you don't really need it. I suppose I kinda forgot you were only thirteen minutes younger than me. I'll need to find something else to annoy you with, because I can't really call you 'scar-head' anymore. Which-" Draco leant forward and rearranged Caelum's fringe so it now covered his scar, which hadn't disappeared when the glamour disintegrated.
"Dray-" he moaned, pulling away "Stop."
"One more thing." Draco looked around and saw that everyone was in the classroom before leaning forward and pulling Caelum into a one-off hug. "I really am sorry," Caelum started to complain again, but relaxed into Draco's arms and tucked his head under his chin, allowing this one moment of comfort before he pulled away.
"That was uncharacteristic of you Draco," he teased, secretly happy for that touching moment.
"I'm being serious, you need to tell me when things bother you, straight away." he sounded a little like a teacher when talking to a bullied child but Caelum was grateful all the same.
"Okay, it if it will stop you worrying. Now I'm sure Pansy is wondering where we are." Pulling on Draco's arm, Caelum lead them into the History of Magic classroom and slid into their seats next to Pansy. Professor Binns didn't notice.
"Where have you two been? You both left Defence early after you," she jabbed Caelum in the chest "argued with her in front of the whole class and then neither of you turn up to break and then are twenty minutes late to this class. Your father would be so disappointed in you two." she hadn't even bothered to lower her voice as she told the two of them off, much to the Hufflepuff's delight.
"Sorry Pansy." They both muttered embarrassed.
