Hello lovelies, it's been a while since I published, but it's been busy. I'm in my final year of school and it is exam season so the stress is real. Riverdale has just ended and I am shook and Eurovision was on. It's been hectic.

Due to exams I am going on hiatus on this fic for about a month and a half, but as that's it takes me to upload a chapter normally, it shouldn't seem too unusual. The only difference is I'm not going to start writing another chapter until 22nd June. after that I should upload more regularly as I won't have anything to do with my existence.

Thank you for sticking with me

~PureBloodSnake

Matches and Paper Hearts

The relationship between Caelum and Draco had strengthened since the tears at the end of the their attempt at discovering the horrific events of Caelum's childhood. The two of them hardly separated from one another and Caelum only spoke to Draco in whispers since. Narcissa watched on worriedly, seeing her son become more and more a shell of his former self as the days passed. After a week of no change she requested Draco's presence in her study after dinner.

"I'm worried about Caelum." Her words were blunt and she knew that they would have the most impact. Severus looked up at her, shocked at the lack of eloquence and Draco looked down at the floor, thinly-veiled sadness dancing across his features.

"He's shut down, he won't talk unless absolutely necessary and even then it's more urgent than what most people class necessary. He refuses to acknowledge our bond anymore and I can't feel him. Instead of helping him, all that session did was the opposite, we made him worse." The fear on Draco's face was evident and Narcissa felt her heart shatter.

"It's not too uncommon," Severus began softly and Draco almost laughed, thinking about how Caelum would have reacted to this tone of voice from the professor he knew as harsh and unyielding. "Dredging up the past from where Caelum had it locked up in his mind was most probably going to cause issues, however things often get worse before they get better." Draco wasn't sure if Severus was talking with professionalism or as a replacement father figure, he wasn't sure which he would rather hear.

"But at the rate Caelum is going, he won't have time to get better!" Draco's frustration at the situation caused him to ignore any form of eloquence he had ever been taught.

"What do you mean?" Narcissa's voice was a lot calmer than her son's but they all could hear the urgent edge.

"I know that he's ignoring the bond, blocking me out, but the numbness, the feeling of giving up is so strong that it's slipping through somehow. I don't know what's going to happen when he actually does give up. I feel like, as his magic is so in tune with his emotions that it'll probably help him kill himself!" The silence that echoes around the room is deafening and Draco wants to curl up in a ball, his hands over his ears, his eyes closed, forgetting the world. Instead he curls in on himself and sinks down into the empty chair, his fingers grasping at his hair.

"Right then." Narcissa's voice is shaky but still a lot stronger than either she or the others in the room feel. "We don't let him have the chance to do that to himself. He'll hate us for a little while, but we'll have to get over that, it'll be better in the long run. Severus you'll take watch during the day under the guise of remedial tutoring- we'll make up some excuse. I'll take evenings and Draco, you take the night watch, I don't want you to stay up watching him, just don't leave him alone, sleep in the same room. Agreed?" The two men opposite her nod their heads sombrely and rise to leave.

? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?

It's extremely awkward to start with, Caelum was very quiet and withdrawn around Severus, preferring to sit in silence whilst Severus lectured him about the topics. For several days they continued in that fashion, Severus tried getting Caelum to open up and respond to questions or start a conversation. Nothing worked. It seemed as if Caelum had no interest in the tutoring whatsoever, but his written work was next to perfect. Severus was surprised, he had not expected such a high level of work after witnessing the school-work of Harry Potter. The involvement progressed slowly, Caelum became more attentive and then began to actively take notes during his sessions. Severus took that as improvement and eagerly reported back to Narcissa, who was equally as excited about the news her youngest seemed to be opening up a little.

Narcissa too, had been making good progress with Caelum. She spent the evenings with her son, deciding it was time that he, like most PureBlood children, learnt how to play a musical instrument. Narcissa gave Caelum the choice of the instruments that Malfoys or Blacks usually played and he chose her sister Andromeda's viola. Narcissa smiled when he picked up the beautiful instrument, she had always thought that the mellow toned instrument had the nicest sound when played properly. Watching Caelum place the instrument under his chin and hold the neck of the instrument delicately, Narcissa could see the resemblance between Caelum and her side of the family. His fingers were thinner than the Malfoy fingers, his chin was slightly rounder and his eyelashes were dark brown almost black. He still looked every bit a Malfoy but it was nice to see that he was a Black as well. She just hoped that he wouldn't inherit the Black madness. Shaking away her worries, Narcissa instructed Caelum how to hold the bow and play the open strings. She expected to cringe at the sound he made when he first put bow to strings, but was pleasantly surprised at the smooth but slightly uncertain sound that emitted from the instrument.

"Can you read music Caelum?" She questioned, her voice gentle as if talking to a wounded animal. Caelum noticed her tone and logged it in the back of his mind, with Draco's refusal to sleep alone on his mind and Severus' insistence that he needed remedial tutoring despite the fact that all his work was coming back with very few corrections. He wanted to say something but instead he shook his head and muttered an almost silent 'no'.

"Ah, well that will cause a little bit of a problem. If you already knew how a music score worked I could get some viola music and point out what notes are the open strings, but I don't know anything more than that. Viola music is different from most other instruments, a viola plays in the alto clef, where most instruments play in treble or bass clef." Caelum looked at his mother blankly, he had no clue what she was talking about, only really knowing that music was the black dots on lines. "Ill contact my sister Andromeda and ask for some help, that viola you're holding used to be hers. She was a wondrous player but gave it up when she was disinherited by our parents. I think it hurt too much to play after that." That was interesting. His mother still cared for her oldest sister, quite fondly, if her wistful expression was anything to go by, but Narcissa was still trying to instill some PureBlood traditions on her sons. There was obviously a lot more to this story and Caelum wanted to ask but couldn't.

? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?

At the end of the fortnight , Narcissa called both Severus and Draco to her study. Silence wrapped around the room as they settled into their seats and waited for someone to speak.

"I'm really impressed with how quickly this has worked." Severus started and Narcissa shot him a smile, neither noticing Draco curl in on himself as he heard how easily his brother had caught on and pulled the metaphorical wool over their eyes. Draco wondered if it would be less obvious if Caelum had literally pulled the wool over their eyes. "To start with Caelum would not say a word and looked more disinterested than those Weasley twins ever were. His written work was almost perfect, hardly a mistake insight. It was a joy to mark. Then he started to pay attention in our sessions, little things at first and then for the whole session and then taking notes. If Caelum keeps improving at the rate he is, going back to school would be a breeze for him." Draco smirked to himself, if Caelum lasted until school started there would be no obvious signs that anything had ever been wrong with him, no one other than himself and the other two in this room would even know that Caelum had ever been struggling. In that aspect Caelum was the perfect Slytherin.

"That's wonderful. I've found that Caelum is a natural at music, he's taken to the viola like a duck to water. He seems really focused on learning and doing well with the instrument. It never occurred to me that music could heal so much. Caelum seems especially interested in my stories about my family, even asking a few questions here and there." Draco sighed, his mother and Severus were so desperate to see an improvement that they were missing the falseness of it all, the speed at which Caelum had improved was too remarkable and Draco didn't believe it for one second. "Draco?" Narcissa prompted.

"He's not made any improvement, in fact I'd say he's gone even further down the path we want him to abandon. He knows what we're doing and he's trying to get you off his back a little. He doesn't talk at all now in the evening. He's smart enough and aware enough to realise that if he pretends to be better, pretends that he is interested you will quickly get off his case and let him go back to suffering in silence. The only reason he isn't doing that around me is because he knows he won't be able to get away with it. I can see through him and he knows that." Draco struggled to reign in his anger at the obliviousness of the two adults in the room with him. He could see them sharing looks of disbelief and amusement whilst he was talking, he knows they think that he's saying this stuff because he's the only one who hasn't made any progress and wanted to devalue their progress. That's what the single spoilt child Draco would have done. In moments like this, Draco hates that he was allowed to become that horrific child who gained enjoyment from others suffering.

"I'm sure if you keep trying he'll eventually talk to you again. I'm sure he doesn't want to lie to you that's why it's taking a little longer for him to open up. Opening up to you would mean opening up about everything because he can't keep things from you, once he gets the ball rolling, he will tell you everything." Narcissa sounded so certain and Draco admired her optimist but mentally condemned her foolishness, instead he smiled forcefully and left the study.

? ゚ミノ? ゚ミノ?

Caelum was fed up of constantly learning things he was already familiar with. His lessons with Severus were repetitive and it seemed like they were out of topics to study, even in his worst subjects. He found himself trying to come up with excuses to avoid the lessons, volunteering to spend time in the library researching or writing practice essays. His music lessons with his mother were nowhere near as bad, he enjoyed playing the music, especially after his Aunt Andromeda sent some music and instructions on how to read the alto clef. He felt proud of his progress, especially after mastering a version of Ode to Joy. He was definitely progressing faster with his playing than Narcissa had expected and that was good, it meant that he was fooling her a lot easier than he anticipated. As much as he enjoyed the music and beginning to get a piece of the childhood he missed, he wanted to be able to lose himself in the music and not have his mother worry about him having a break down. The hardest part of Caelum's day was the nights with Draco. He couldn't pretend to be getting better with Draco. Even with their mental bond blocked, Draco would still be able to tell that he was lying. It all got too much after three weeks after he started being monitored every moment of his day, he needed an escape from holding everything in.

An escape came in the form of Draco. One Saturday, Draco walked into what had become their room in the last few weeks, and started throwing some of Caelum's clothes into a bag with a couple of books and some money. Caelum didn't say anything just watched his brother in confusion, Draco was in a hurry, but was still being extremely careful about the noise he was making.

"You need out of here." Draco spoke up after the bag had been zipped up and placed on the bed next to another, empty bag in which Draco was throwing his own clothes. "I need out of here. So we're going to France for a couple days, just the two of us. Mum doesn't know yet, she's out with friends and I've left a note on her desk. Severus is out as well so now is the perfect time to go." Without waiting for an answer, Draco grabbed Caelum's hand and the bags and dragged him to the fireplace where he reached for the floor powder. To save time, both of them clambered past the grate and stood still as Draco threw the powder and spoke their destination out loud. Stumbling out of the grate, Caelum looked at his surroundings and realised this place was an apartment with a golden chandelier hanging in the room they had flooed into. This apartment looked expensive and Caelum could tell that it was definitely Malfoy property, even if he hadn't known it existed. Draco had placed down their bags on the floor and headed over to the curtains that were hiding the outside world, and flung them open. Caelum felt his jaw drop as the Eiffel Tower appeared in front of them.

"Welcome to Paris Caelum."