Hello again, for some reason I found this chapter really hard to right so I hope it's turned out okay. Please keep the reviews coming they're very helpful to improve my writing. Also I thought I'd let you know that for me it's coming up to exams so these might be less frequent in the next couple of weeks.
~PureBloodSnake x
Quidditch and Aritmancy Tutoring
Dear Miss Granger,
As you are probably well aware, I have recently moved from Durmstrang to Hogwarts. At Durmstrang there was not the option to take Arithmancy, so I have moved into class without the last two years of knowledge that the rest of you have. I was wondering if maybe you could tutor me in the subject? My brother has often moaned about how annoyingly good you are at the subject, and from what I have seen the last couple of lessons I believe that to be true (although I have no idea what you are talking about). If you accept the proposition I can arrange for any type of payment you would like (as long as it is nothing to do with Draco he is too stubborn for me to try and correct his behaviour towards you, although I have tried).
Please owl back as soon as possible with your response.
Caelum Malfoy
Caelum smiled as he penned his name at the bottom of his letter. His handwriting was a lot better than at the beginning of the summer as Lucius had taken one look at his scrawling writing and demanded he learnt how to write with a quill properly. However Caelum was sure that with a bit of prompting Hermione would be able to recognise the writing. He walked up the steps towards the owlery and gave his letter to Draco's barn owl.
"Can you deliver this to Hermione Granger and wait for a response please?" He gave the owl an owl treat before it flew off. He moved towards his own owl who was sat there watching him with curious eyes.
"I'm sorry Hedwig, I would much rather use you, I think you're better than him, but we need to avoid suspicion and you are far too recognisable. I hope you aren't massively lonely. I'll come up and talk to you as much as I can without it being too strange, okay?" He stroked her feathers once more before leaving the owlery.
Because it was Saturday Caelum walked down to the Quidditch field to watch the Slytherin tryouts. Draco was sat on his broom hovering high above the pitch watching with mild disinterest. As soon as he saw Caelum he raced down to meet him.
"Why aren't you trying out for seeker? You're the best seeker the school has ever seen and you love the game." Draco had sat on the seating next to Caelum.
"I thought it would be too obvious."
"We'll just say that Krum taught you a couple of moves. Plus Slytherin needs to win the cup especially after losing to Gryffindor too many times thanks to you. Come on, get your firebolt and come join us. You have a little time before they start seeker trials and if you're not back I'll delay them for a little while. Please?" Draco was looking at Caelum with large eyes and smiling. Caelum would never have believed that Draco Malfoy was pleading with him.
"Okay, only to keep you happy." His teasing rewarded him with a large smile from Draco. He ran into the castle and down to the dungeons. Luckily he avoided all teachers, even Snape who seemed to be able to locate him all the time. He got back to the Quidditch pitch just to hear Draco arguing with the Captain (who Caelum hadn't yet learnt the name of) to wait just a few minutes.
"We need all the help we can get to win the cup, even without Potter the Gryffindor team is still better than us. He'll be back in a couple of minutes, he's most definitely a better seeker than me."
"He better be worth it Malfoy."
"Shall I remind you who bought the whole team the best broomsticks money could buy." Draco was sneering at the Captain and made it obvious that he was the one in charge, not the captain. "You don't need to worry anymore he's here."
"Caelum you took your time. But let's get going, seekers game?" It turned out that none of the Slytherins wanted to challenge Draco so it was just the two of them flying.
Flying and not having to worry about anything but the snitch and Draco was very relaxing. Caelum hadn't had this much fun in a long time. For once he had got competition (Draco was a lot better without worrying about his teammates) and he felt complete, not having to live up to James Potter's Quidditch legacy or being the boy-who-lived. All that he had to care about was the wind in his hair and trying to spot the snitch in such a cloudy sky, there wasn't any sun to reflect off of it. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the snitch dancing above the stands. Draco was still spouting taunts at him. Caelum decided to make it obvious that he had seen the snitch so to show his worth to the Slytherin team. He, after a week, had learnt the inner workings of Slytherin house, he had to prove his ability, and he knew Draco wouldn't let him win this easily. The Snitch flew off glad to be the object of the chase. They both followed it swooping down into a dive, it kept diving and almost hit the floor, Draco pulled up a couple of metres above the ground. Caelum, laughing with joy carried on to the last possible moment, before pulling up a couple of inches above the ground and reached out to where the snitch was hovering flitting slightly from side to side. The cold metal touched the tips of his fingers, and he felt elated, the feeling of success something he hadn't felt for so long.
"Malfoy, both of you land." The captain's voice broke through his winner's trance. The joy he had felt from flying vanished as soon as his feet touched solid ground.
"Caelum Malfoy, you've got the position, you fly like a little Gryffindor so you should help beat those bloody lions. Where have you been hiding? We should've got you instead of the self-proclaimed 'Ice prince of Slytherin', we'd have beaten Potter years ago." The Captain laughed before placing the snitch in the case and carrying it off the pitch leaving the twins standing together alone.
"So… Ice prince of Slytherin? That was your own invention? You prat!" Caelum laughed, running away as Draco tried to swat the back of his head.
? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?
Dear Mr Malfoy,
I would happily tutor you in Arithmancy. Your handwriting looks awfully familiar, I think that may be part of the reason why I agreed. I will be honest, you are an enigma Caelum Malfoy and I want to unravel you. I think the spare Arithmancy classroom on the third floor would be a good place to meet at seven tonight. I won't bring my friends if you don't bring yours.
Hermione Granger
Caelum read the note as he stood outside the spare Arithmancy castle, hesitating before he went in. He had told Draco he was planning to meet with Hermione and they had both agreed that if two hours went by and Caelum wasn't back he would go looking for him, but Caelum didn't think that would happen. Taking a deep breath and summoning the Gryffindor courage that was now hidden by his Slytherin self, Caelum entered the room. Hermione was already waiting inside.
"I was wondering how long it would take for you to actually walk through the door." It wasn't meant to insult, it was just a fact but Caelum felt ashamed at himself.
"Was steeling myself incase there was more than one lion in here." He sneered at her, but there was no feeling to it. "You said I was an enigma you wanted to unravel. Please tell me why you find me an enigma, I find it most curious." He could do this, he could face his best friend without having to worry about anything.
"You, Malfoy, are nothing like your twin and that in itself is a little curious. You have seen Fred and George Weasley, they are practically the same person in two bodies, you two do not even appear to be that close. It fascinates me how two people so alike in everything, appearance, manner and having being raised mostly the same way (excluding your time at Durmstrang) could be so different, it doesn't make much sense to me. According to biology you should be, there's social and environmental factors to your behaviour, but there's also genetic factors...!" Hermione was talking about muggle science that Caelum didn't understand too well, he understood a little but not enough to know how important it was to what she was talking about. "And then there's how familiar you seem. Your writing is similar to somebody else's just a little neater. There's also the way you carry yourself and your gait. It's all so familiar yet I can't put my finger on it." She frowned before turning to Caelum and smiling at him brightly. "So anyway Arithmancy is a magic that is about the study of numbers and their properties. This allows us to predict the future which is much more accurate than divination…" She continued on and on and Caelum drank it all in, and for the first time taking decent notes.
There were finishing what Hermione deemed as the 'first lesson of Arithmancy' when Hermione suddenly looked upset.
"What's wrong Granger?" Caelum was a little concerned, he hadn't seen her look this upset since they'd all been told that Harry Potter was not attending Hogwarts any longer.
"You remind me of Harry that's all. I think I was projecting how similar you are to Harry onto you thinking there was more to it than there actually was. I'm sorry, I'll just go now, same time next week?" Caelum nodded unable to speak. She pushed everything into her bag very quickly and stood to leave, only then did he do something. He grabbed her arm and she struggled trying to pull away.
"Hermione wait!" He called, shocking her with the use of her first name. "Please. I have some explaining to do." She looked at him shocked. How many times had he said something on those lines to her? "Please just sit and listen to my story without interrupting to ask questions, it'll make it a lot easier." She did as he suggested and Caelum took a huge breath.
"I used to be Harry Potter." Hermione opened her mouth to say something. "No, just listen." Her mouth closed again. "It was after the last task when I went to Moody's office I wasn't exactly one hundred percent truthful when I told you what happened. Whilst we were all looking at the Moody in the trunk, Crouch had managed to get hold of a wand, he shot a cruciatus curse at me, except it didn't reach its target because Draco threw himself in the way of it. He screamed so loudly, and it was so pained, I don't think I want to see that again, it still haunts my dreams. After that we went to the hospital wing and I wanted to know why. Draco told me to go away and come back when he was feeling better. So, as you know I came back to Gryffindor and went to the end of year feast. That night as everyone was going to bed I went to the infirmary to see Draco and ask for a reason, he told me it would be better in Dumbledore's office. When I got there the entire Malfoy family was sitting there. They explained that fifteen years ago they had lost their youngest son, Draco's twin, he was abducted by someone in the middle of the night. That little boy was me. Madam Pomfrey at the beginning of the year noticed that I had a glamour on me that was slowly disintegrating, so they took a blood test and realised I was a Malfoy. It's why my face was starting to get, more aristocratic, I think you said. After that I agreed to spend the summer here in the castle, neutral ground, to get to know my actual family." Caelum finished his story and eyed Hermione critically, she didn't seem happy with his explanation.
"I've always told you, you adapted too well, how did you just get on with them just like that?" So it wasn't that Harry Potter was now Caelum Malfoy was a problem, it was how easily he accepted it.
"I assure you Granger, he did not accept it that easily, we had many fights, one where he blew out the windows of a spare classroom." Draco's voice made both of them jump, but Caelum was glad to hear it.
"What are you doing here?" He asked tearing his eyes off Hermione for a second.
"I gave you two hours, it's been two and a half, I came to see whether or not the mu-" Caelum glared at him, "Granger had hexed you for being so incompetent with Arithmancy." Draco smiled at Caelum and he knew there was no heat behind the words.
"Harry," Draco glared at Hermione, she seemed to cower under his gaze "Sorry, Caelum, are the Malfoy family good to you?" Caelum nodded not trusting himself to speak.
"Our parents spoil him, they're trying to make up for the last fourteen years."
"I didn't ask you," she snapped and despite himself Caelum smiled, Hermione was still the same.
"Yeah, what Draco said is true."
"Well then I am pleased to make your acquaintance Caelum Malfoy," she got up from her seat and threw her arms around his neck and squeezed lightly. "I'm not going to tell Ron just leave little hints to see how he reacts." Caelum squeezed her tighter. Hermione released him from the hug and collected her bag and books before heading towards the door. At the last moment she turned around. "There's a Ravenclaw in the year below, a friend of Ginny's, Luna Lovegood, who's been saying that Harry Potter is closer than we thought. Strange." And with that Hermione left and Caelum felt a weight lift off of his shoulders as he sank down into the closest chair.
"That obviously went better than you thought." Draco was beside him and closer than he thought, so he startled slightly. "You look like you need a rare Draco moment." Caelum laughed slightly as Draco sat down next to him and wound his arms around his neck pulling Caelum into a tight embrace. "You do realise if you mention to anyone that I don't mind hugs, you won't live long enough to finish your sentence." He threatened, but Caelum just laughed and buried further into his brother's protective embrace.
