Hello. Another chapter from France, I don't think I'll get another one up before I get back to England, but I'll try. It was pointed out that I had a plot hole with Narcissa going to visit Sirius due to the fidelius charm on Grimmauld Place, and the way I looked at the charm was that it only worked if you didn't know of the place, which Narcissa, being a Black did. I hope that clears some stuff up for you.

~PureBloodSnake xx

Slytherin Skepticism

Seeing the fifth year Slytherins sat in the common room talking conspirately about something was not unusual. But when Severus Snape stepped into the common room that evening, he was surprised to see the whole common room, from first years to seventh years listening to Draco Malfoy.

"Umbridge needs to go. It doesn't look like the Ministry will pull her out anytime soon. So we need to try and force that decision. She's a danger to all students in Hogwarts."

"Why should we listen to you? It's well known that your brother doesn't like her." A seventh year asked from the back of the silent crowd. There was a tittering of agreement.

"It's true that she has personally victimised my brother, but that still isn't a good enough reason for her to use the cruciatus curse on a student." There was a surprised gasp that echoed around the common room. Severus had to admit that Draco was handling this well, a lot like his father.

"On who?"

"Me." Draco paused for dramatic effect before continuing. "It wasn't meant for me, but for my brother, but that's not the issue. She's attacked a Slytherin and at one point that meant that we stood together. I hope that's still the case." There was a unified nod of agreement.

"What do you want us to do?" Asked a first year that Severus did not yet know the name of.

"Make her life a living hell. Pull pranks, be awful in her classes, but most of all make sure she can't catch you. It will frustrate her to no end that she can't blame anyone for these pranks. And if it looks like someone is going to have the blame placed on them give them an alibi- no matter what house they're in." There was an agreement from all in Slytherin.

"If any points are lost, I will make sure you earn those back." Severus startled a few of the students by cutting in then but smiles grew on their faces when they realised they would not get in trouble for these pranks.

? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?

The first prank came not long after that meeting during Caelum's and Draco's class. Umbridge waved her wand to write the chapter title on the board, but instead it produced a loud shower of sparks and turned her clothes a putrid green, before becoming floppy.

"Wha- Who? Where's my wand!" She screeched, her eyes narrowing at the laughter that consumed class. Not receiving an answer from anyone in the class, she began to wave the fake wand threateningly. Caelum stood up and her eyes narrowed to thin slits.

"I'm sorry professor, but it looks as if you can't teach us properly. There's no point in me staying for my usual half an hour." He left the classroom, Umbridge's wand tucked safely in his robe.

"MR MALFOY!" He heard as he walked down the corridor towards the Slytherin common room. He refused to answer, but it became apparent that it wasn't directed at him, when Draco joined him, his face drawn into a tight frown.

"We need to have a word with the rest of our Slytherins. Not one of them stood up for you after, only Granger did. Blaise was quite happy to let you take the blame. I may have cast a silencio on him, that only I can undo." Draco grinned cheekily. "Now we need to plan what we're going to do, we need to be the best at this game. I've heard rumours that you have an invisibility cloak. Do you have anything like that?" Caelum grinned, his teeth showing looking very malicious.

"I might. And I might have access to every single one of the Weasley twins pranks. They owe me." Draco looked at his brother slightly scared.

Five minutes later, Draco was watching Caelum rummage through his trunk. There was a lot of clothes screwed up on the floor around Caelum's feet. Draco had started to fold all the clothes his brother had thrown around but had since given up as he realised the magnitude of that task.

"Aha!" Caelum suddenly sat up pulling a blank piece of parchment with him. "Sirius would probably have a fit if I showed you this, but it's mine to do what I choose." He stopped and unfolded the parchment a bit before pointing at it with his wand. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good." Draco laughed lightly, which turned into a gasp of disbelief as ink swirled on the parchment

and a map of the castle appeared.

"Wait, what are the little dots?" Draco leaned closer reading the labels under the moving dots. They were the names of people in the castle.

"Is that Dumbledore pacing his office? Is that actually what he's doing?"

"Yeah this map is a masterpiece, it shows everyone in the castle and where they are. So, if you look at our defence classroom you'll see that Umbridge is pacing in front of an almost empty classroom, and that Pansy, Blaise and the others are heading our way." Caelum handed the map to Draco who started to find their names on the map and was pleased to see that the dot next to his, was labelled Caelum Malfoy, and a little annoyed that it also said Harry Potter. It was technically correct, Harry Potter still lived. Caelum then pulled a large cloak out of his trunk and grinned triumphantly.

"This is the reason you were never able to catch me doing something wrong." Throwing the cloak over his head, Caelum revelled in the astonished gasp Draco let out. Although his brother couldn't see it, he too was grinning happily.

"Quick put the cloak on properly, Pansy and the others are about to enter the common room. I want to have a word with them without you, but I want you to hear what they have to say behind your back." Draco was tracing their dots with his finger. "How do you hide the map again?" Caelum pointed his wand at the map.

"Mischief Managed." And Draco watched with fascination as the parchment seemed to absorb the ink and out of the corner of his eye, saw his brother fully disappear.

Theodore Nott, Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe and Blaise Zabini, stepped into the fifth year boys' dormitories and looked around.

"What was that about Draco?" They asked as soon as they realised that Caelum was not in the room with them. Blaise still couldn't speak, he just looked at Draco furiously.

"I thought that the other night the whole of Slytherin made a promise that we wouldn't let any of us take the blame. And you allowed Caelum to take the blame! Why? And if you didn't know it was Pansy who switched the wands, Caelum only took the wand out with him." Caelum blushed, glad that no one could see him, it was nice to see someone standing up for him, instead of accusing him.

"We don't know why we're supposed to trust him automatically because he's a Malfoy." Theo broke in. "And it would be nice if you could release Blaise from his silence. I think he has a few things to say on this." Draco reluctantly took the spell off Blaise, but vowed to place it back on if he said anything that would upset Caelum.

"Draco," he began cautiously. "Before September, we didn't know you had a brother, let alone a twin. Then for three months, you two have been inseparable and we don't think you've told us the whole truth. With the way you two act, you seem like you've known each other your whole life, yet we find it very weird that you allowed each other to go to different schools for four years. Why should we trust him? He doesn't even seem much like a Slytherin, he's the same as you, yet the opposite. We don't know enough about him to trust his word. Don't get us wrong we trust you and to an extension him, but we don't trust him enough to take an unforgivable for him." Caelum stayed silent under the cloak and looked at Draco, who let a momentary flash of sadness flick through his eyes, before he steeled himself and addressed his friends.

"You're right, we didn't tell you everything, but I didn't want to tell you without his permission and he's careful with who he trusts, and with the magnitude of this even I was wary of telling you. One of you go get Pansy, I'll go find Caelum." Draco left the room, gesturing behind his back for Caelum to follow.

"Do you want to tell them?" Caelum asked as soon as he had taken the cloak of in the corridor outside the common room. It was empty as all but Umbridge's fifth year Gryffindors and Slytherins were in lessons.

"Not really, but it's the way Slytherin works, we trade information for trust, they know things about me that I don't want anyone to know, and I know things that they don't want anyone to know. It's just the way we work, very different to Gryffindor I'm guessing." Caelum nodded but he understood the premise. "We don't have to tell them everything, just the basics. You being stolen and then finding you again during the summer. Nothing about Harry Potter or anything like that. Good?" Draco knew how to command respect with the Slytherins and Caelum really admired that about his brother. In one way Blaise was right, they were opposites. Draco was the politician and Caelum was the soldier, they both could be hot headed but Caelum was warm and passionate whilst Draco was cold and distant. Caelum was loud, Draco was quiet; he was a follower, Draco was a commander. They fit together perfectly and Caelum was surprised that no one had noticed it sooner.

"Caelum? Caelum!"

"What?" He snapped back before realising and apologising.

"What were you thinking about?" Draco asked a kind smile on his face. It was rare to see and Caelum thought it made him look a little less stuck up.

"What Blaise said about us being opposites, haven't you realised how perfectly matched we are. Fred and George are literally the same person, but we're each other's other half. You're a politician, I'm a soldier, you're cold and distant, I'm passionate and warm. Opposites but the same."

"I don't think I've ever thought about it. But I see what you mean, I don't know why no one has seen that in all the years we have been fighting. I suppose we're quite lucky in that aspect. Now let's go, they probably think we're trying to come up with a cover story."

"Well we kinda were."

"Don't say 'kinda', Father would kill you if he found out." From then until they reached the dormitory, they walked in silence, but close enough that their arms were brushing each other's.

"About time." Pansy said as they walked in, but she had a motherly smile on her face. "I was about to send one of the boys to find the two of you."

"Sorry I was in the library, writing a letter." Caelum lied. "Draco waited for me to finish.

"Okay enough with the pleasantries." Blaise cut in glaring at Pansy. "I want to know why, in the last four years, we have never heard of Caelum Malfoy, until he was sorted into Slytherin House three months ago." Caelum and Draco had sat on Draco's bed, their shoulders pressed together for comfort. They still put up a united front which annoyed Blaise to no end.

"I want no interruptions throughout this tale please." Draco told his friends and was happy with the relaxed breath he felt from Caelum. "When Caelum and I were born, we were extremely close, wouldn't go to sleep without being in the same room. We looked even more identical than we do now, except Caelum had slightly darker hair and bluer eyes, but only in certain lights. Everyone was really happy for a year, even with You-Know-Who on the rise, we were prospering. On our first birthday we got our first little brooms, Caelum never seemed to be off of his." Draco smiled sadly and even though Blaise was getting annoyed at the length and sentimentality of this story he couldn't not let his friend have this one moment. Draco was never one to let anyone in, and yet Caelum had come along and now Draco was a lot more open. Was it something they needed to be grateful for? "One night, Mother had woken up to some crying, something that hadn't happened since the first night we were brought home. She came into our nursery and Caelum was missing." Pansy gasped loudly, her hand covering her mouth. Draco leaned more into Caelum seeking the reassurance that he was still there. Blaise noticed the gesture and smiled inwardly, yes it was good that Caelum was around. "Our parents spent years looking for Caelum, but never found anything, so I grew up not knowing I had a brother. When I got my Hogwarts letter, there was no other letter, that's when our parents gave up hope, they finally stopped looking. At the beginning of fourth year, Dumbledore found a wizard living with a squib and his witch wife. They had a child that was slowly losing his glamour. That child was Caelum. Over the last few years his 'mum' was teaching him spells and the Hogwarts curriculum, without him ever setting foot inside the castle. At the beginning of the summer holidays Caelum was brought to Hogwarts to get to know us. It was like gaining a missing limb, everything felt balanced." Pansy silently wiped away a tear and Draco gripped on to Caelum's arm tightly. Although half of what he had just said was a lie, he still felt uncomfortable reliving the past traumas. Blaise slowly got up, the other Slytherins following him, leaving the two brothers alone, Caelum comforting Draco with quiet, whispered words. They needed each other now.