Hello again. I'm very sorry that this took so long. I kinda abandoned this during my exams and then procrastinated starting this chapter for too long. But I've finally uploaded it, a month or two later than I had originally hoped! Now, I would love to say that I will be back to the weekly (ish) uploading schedule, but I am off to France for work experience, so that may cause a little problem with that, but I will try my hardest!

Thank you ever so much for all reviews and to anyone who's still reading this

~PureBloodSnake xx

Halloween Fun

Halloween was close and Caelum didn't know what to think this year. Every other year it had been the anniversary of his parents' death, but this year he had two alive parents who loved him.

"Well you could use it as a day to commiserate the fact Voldemort attacked you, no matter who your parents are. You've still got that connection to him." Was Hermione's suggestion, it was plausible but Caelum never wanted a reminder that he was 'the chosen one'. Draco of course found it hilarious, he thought Caelum for once needed to act like a normal wizarding child on Halloween and take part in rituals and be happy over the large amount of sweets the could eat at dinner. Caelum decided that he would follow Draco's suggestion. It was Pureblood tradition to perform certain rituals and ceremonies on Halloween as the veil between life and death was at its thinnest.

"Are you ready for your Pureblood initiation task?" Blaise asked him, the day before Halloween on the way to charms.

"Of course." Caelum answered feigning offence. He knew there was no such thing as a Pureblood initiation ceremony and it was just a prank (being friends with Fred and George had taught him that much), but he was going to get his own back on the other boys. Crabbe, Goyle, Draco and Blaise wouldn't know what had got them. With Hermione's help he had learnt an illusion charm to create a swarm of ghosts walking out of the forest. Draco would be worried about his safety and come rushing into the forest thinking he was facing the ghosts, only to meet a couple of traps Caelum had set. That was only if the plan went well.

As soon as the Halloween feast had ended, Umbridge looking even scarier in baby pink, so much so that Caelum avoided looking at her for as long as possible. Hermione smiled at him across the hall as she began to leave.

"Why are you smiling at that snake?" Ron sounding outraged and Caelum had to hold back a laugh.

"Honestly Ronald, he is not his brother. He's actually quite nice when I tutor him."

"YOU'RE TUTORING A MALFOY?"

"Yes Ron," Hermione's loud sigh caused Caelum to snicker making Draco throw him a weird look. "Caelum asked me to help him with Arithmancy as he hadn't studied it before and needed to catch up with the work. It's actually rather refreshing to have an intellectual conversation with someone who isn't a Ravenclaw." With that Hermione walked away from the table and out of the great hall. Five minutes later, Caelum, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise and Pansy left the hall and headed outside, only to be stopped by Snape.

"And where do you think you're going at this time of night?" This tone was one that Caelum had never heard before, and it unnerved him slightly, Snape could be...nice?

"To take part in some PureBlood Halloween rituals." Caelum was glad Draco answered, he could not be that cool and composed in front of Snape.

"Very well, enjoy." Snape turned and his robe billowed behind him as he swooped down the hall towards the dungeon.

"I don't think Snape has ever been that nice to me." Caelum whispered into Draco's ear and could feel him smile in return.

The group of Slytherins stood outside the castle, near the stone circle.

"You missed a show when Granger hit Draco here two years ago. He whined for several weeks." Crabbe broke in, shocking Caelum with his momentary humour. He was learning a lot about people he used to believe was his enemies. They still might end up on the other side of his war.

"I heard. Many letters were sent telling me, so I wrote back telling Draco to stop being a wimp. It was only a punch." Caelum laughed, and was pleased to hear all the other Slytherins, except Draco laugh along with him. He felt so much more at home with the snakes than he did with the lions.

"Ha ha very funny. Can we get on with this now?" Draco whined sticking his bottom lip out petulantly.

"Yes please, I don't think I can stand to be out here when Draco starts moaning about the cold. I did tell him to bring a jumper, but he wouldn't listen." Pansy said poking Draco in the ribs, who jumped skittishly away.

"Okay Caelum, you need to go into the forbidden forest and pick some Fluxweed and bring it back to the common room before midnight. We'll take shifts waiting for you here, if anything goes wrong send up red sparks. Got it?" Blaise explained adding dramatic pauses whenever he felt like it, sending Pansy and Goyle into giggles. Caelum started to move towards the forest, but Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him to the side.

"I'm gonna stay here until you get back, the others will all take their shifts but I'm gonna be here the whole time. So you better hurry, it'll be freezing soon." Caelum immediately felt guilt flush through him at Draco's words. Draco cared enough to spend five hours out in the cold to make sure he was alright and Caelum's prank relied sorely on taking advantage of that fact. Pushing down that thought he thanked Draco and walked past Hagrid's hut and into the forest.

Fifteen minutes later, Caelum's Point Me spell found Hermione near a patch of stinging nettles.

"Please tell me the Fluxweed is not in there." he breathed making Hermione jump.

"Took you long enough, and yes, it is. I'm not entirely sure how to get it out without causing too much damage to us, there's no magical cure for stinging nettles."

"Would there be any Dock leaves in the forest?"

"Of course, how could I've been so stupid?" Hermione raced off yelling at Caelum to just stick his hand into the nettles and pull up the Fluxweed. Taking a deep breath he braced himself for the uncomfortable itchiness of the stinging nettles that he had not felt since childhood. Surprisingly, it was irritating but not as bad as he remembered. Hermione came running back, her feet hitting the ground heavily.

"Shh!" Caelum growled, gesturing for her to stop, he could hear yelling in the distance.

"I DON'T CARE PANSY!" Draco yelled, and Caelum had to stifle a giggle at the enraged tone of his brother. Draco was still yelling at Pansy five minutes later and Caelum felt oddly warm and uncomfortable, even on this chilly night. Now that he had the Fluxweed and his stinging nettle hives were healed, Caelum and Hermione began to start their plan.

Caelum had only been gone forty-five minutes, when Draco spotted red sparks fly into the air.

"Caelum." he breathed before rushing forward, Pansy and Blaise hot on his heels. "Point Me!" he yelled as they reached the forest and the red sparks were blocked from view by the thick canopy above. His wand pointed into the forest, into an area so dark, he was scared his wand might not even make a dent in the blackness. But he carried on. Why did they suggest going into the forbidden forest on Halloween of all nights? They all knew the horror stories their parents told about the monsters that came out on Halloween. But Caelum didn't know that, and had foolishly agreed to their prank. Why was he so trusting? Draco blamed himself for Caelum's un-Slytherin actions, he hadn't warned his brother of the brutality that came with being a new Slytherin.

After what felt like a month of waiting Caelum, finally saw the Slytherin trio come into view, he sent his signal to Hermione, a quick, but quiet whistle, and she pulled out her wand, muttering an incantation. Suddenly an illusion of Aragog, the giant Acromantula, was in front of him. Smiling quickly at Hermione, Caelum pulled out his wand and pointed it at the beast. As Draco spotted him, Caelum began to shake in fear. He could see Hermione, in the branches above the Slytherin's head, covering her mouth trying to hide her giggles. It was all he could do not to laugh as well.

"Stupefy!" he stuttered, his repressed laughter making it so much easier to look scared. When that did nothing, Caelum stepped back and looked worriedly at Draco and their friends, who had frozen at the sight before them. He sighed inwardly, some things never changed. "Draco, go!" Caelum yelled startling his brother out of his daze. "Go get a teacher!" Draco straightened up, and placed a mask of confidence over his scared features.

"Not without you! I'm not losing you again!" And with that Draco began firing all the spells he knew at the acromantula who was still advancing on his brother. Caelum froze slightly, he didn't think about that. He was hoping that Draco and the other Slytherins would go running, straight to a teacher, but Draco wouldn't leave him, not after the years of them being apart. Caelum made the decision to end the prank then, before the ending that they had planned hurt his brother emotionally.

"Arania Exumai!" He yelled pointing his wand at the illusion, and from up in her tree, Hermione cancelled the illusionment spell. "Draco?" he asked timidly at his brother, who was now leaking furious rage.

Hermione crawled down from her tree, and left the forest, Pansy and Blaise hurriedly following her. They had sensed Draco's anger and were more than happy to let Caelum deal with it.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Draco whispered his voice cold and emotionless. "Do you know how scared I was for you?" Caelum felt small, hoping that Draco would look at him, but he refused to meet Caelum's eyes. "I thought you were going to die." Draco sank to the ground as his whisper faded away into the forest. Caelum rushed forward and engulfed his brother in a hug.

"It was only an acromantula. He wouldn't have hurt me, it was only an illusionment spell." Caelum whispered, praying that he had said the right thing to calm his furious twin.

"Only an acromantula? And I'm guessing you're on first name basis with it as well!" Draco laughed coldly.

"Actually, his name's Aragog, and his wife's name is Mosag. They were actually pretty friendly for things that were trying to eat us when we first met in second year." Caelum replied. And this time his distraction plan worked, as Draco stopped, stared at him, turned away and then looked back at him in shock.

"What did you even do in second year? I remember hearing some rumour that you saved the Weaslette from Slytherin's monster down in the Chamber of Secrets, but you were twelve so that can't have been true." Draco's anger was melting away, letting Caelum feel the cold of the night again.

"I'll tell you everything that happened to me, the stuff that isn't public knowledge like last year," Caelum paused for a second, composing himself as the image of Cedric's death floated through his mind. "If you promise not to get mad at me! I didn't really have anything to live for back then."

? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?

Draco sat in silence as he listened to Caelum recount his first three years at Hogwarts. He was beyond astounded at what the headmaster of Hogwarts had allowed his golden boy to endure. Three-headed dogs and a crazed defence against the dark arts teacher who was in league with The Dark Lord in his first year, aged just eleven. A Basilisk and a memory of The Dark Lord in his teen years, and on top of that Caelum almost died, just aged twelve. And then in his third year, Caelum was helping a mass-murderer to escape, before being placed in the Triwizard Tournament last year and witnessing the rise of The Dark Lord. Why couldn't his brother have led a normal, safe life?

"I hope this year, there is no life or death experiences for either of us." Draco commented at the end of Caelum's tale.

"I doubt it, you see there's this evil wizard out to get me." Caelum laughed, a warm, content laugh.

"No, he's out to destroy Harry Potter, you're not him. You're Caelum Regulus Malfoy, a pureblood." Draco argued back.

"As much as I wish that would change things, it doesn't. It just means I might get another family killed." Draco frowned at his brothers words and pulled him close under his arm. He wasn't going to tell Caelum lies to try and comfort him, but he couldn't find any truth in the words he wanted to say. Caelum however, curled further into his brother's body, finding comfort in their size difference. Draco found that size difference uncomfortable. Caelum shouldn't be so small, he was fifteen, but had the body of a thirteen year old. He knew something awful happened to Caelum when he wasn't at Hogwarts, but to what extent did that extend to? Was it the reason for Caelum's small stature? Draco vowed to find out, but as he lay on his bed, Caelum's form tucked beside him (both of them needed the comfort of the other's presence tonight), he couldn't help but let his eyes close and relaxed to the sound of Caelum's soft breathing.