Gay Aurors

Cold. It was freezing cold and the wind was ripping through Harry's hair. He wasn't wearing nearly enough clothing, just bare silk over his skin, robes not meant for the outdoors. The moonlight glinted off of his white hair, a jarring moment of question in his mind about when his hair had gone that shade when he heard the scream from the far hill.

Running as if on a weaving trail through the trees that appeared shaded blue was a woman in white followed by a huge, terrible beast. The moon shone brightly on the scene and the men around him in hoods and masks laughed the sinister, manic laughter of the deranged taking pleasure in his suffering.

He wailed, reaching out towards the figure in white as if somehow his arms could stretch out to snatch her from the beast, to pull her away from the gaining grey werewolf. Greyback. The woman screamed again and he found himself screaming back, "MUM!"

His voice was high, shrieking and taut with emotion, his pulse racing as he scrambled, trying to rally against the vice-like arms that held him far too tightly. Scrambling against the figure, feeling the blubber of someone larger than him, but primarily made of fat, he jammed his elbow trickily into the man's belly, then followed it up by stomping his foot. All at once a cold metal hand was wrapped around his throat.

Harry worked hard to scream, feeling everything Draco must have at that moment. The wind rustled the trees; Greyback paused and howled as Narcissa tripped. He tried to flinch and look away, but his face was held steadily down to watch as his mother was attacked, white dress bled purple in the light of the moon.

He let out a strangled whine and his eyes closed.

"This is what happens, young Malfoy, when we fail. The Lord still has use for you, but should you falter again, that will be you."

In that way that dreams do, the scene changed and Harry was sitting on a cot, only left with the barest essentials as a soldier would. He had the vaguest notion of being taught discipline, of becoming a solider, but no one was teaching him anything. His hands shook from the bitter cold that permeated his grey room. Grey walls, grey sheets, steel cot, grey nightstand, grey light pouring in from a single high window and the notion of bars at the other end like a grey cell.

The figure at the door was black and Harry wondered if he was just seeing things in black and white or if there really was no texture to this room, no color to it. The memory was strange and he reached down to feel what he knew to be Draco's rib bones, to know that he was scared, but resigned to the door opening being the last time he saw such a sight on this plane of existence.

It was spooky to feel Draco so lost, so beyond feeling or help. He was ready to pass on, had prepared himself for it for days, it seemed. His stomach growled in protest to his not eating and his face prickled with stubble.

"Severus!" he gasped as Snape peered into his room. He held his hand out to summon him, beady black eyes and dark curtain of hair covering his unusually pale face.

Harry as Draco took his hand and Snape roughly turned it over and he dropped a small pebble into his palm and closed Draco's hand over it. He felt the hard, sickening jerk of the magic and though he was terrified, his face broke into a smile. When he landed, it was in a strange country with loads of black haired people and giant trees releasing bright pink cherry blossoms that pelted his face and caught in his pale hair and he looked around, having no clue where to go or who to see.

He had his wand, he had a bag of coins that had been shoved into his pocket, but as he staggered through the winding park, Draco had nowhere to go.

-

Harry awoke with Draco's back to him. He had shagged him in the shower and again in the bed, deciding that he would stay the night here to Draco's faint protests. He was pressed against Draco's back, his face against his spine, Draco's hair flicked back to half cover his face. His fingers were still inside of Draco, Harry wanting to just keep feeling inside of him, playing with him until he'd fallen asleep.

As the muzzy fog of waking started to wear away, he wondered how much of those dreams were Harry's conjecture about what happened in Draco's life or if there were still some dregs of the potion keeping them connected, at least when he was inside of him. He'd had a few flashes of Draco's life when he'd shagged him in the shower. They were all little things, like seeing the Malfoy torture chamber, long since unused, of course, but hearing about the Malfoy family history.

He thought he'd seen part of the training, the hexes, the drills, how they pushed Draco with potions and practice to bring out his Veela side at will and how terrible and yet beautiful he could become if he called it up, but also how inhuman he looked. Feeling what Draco felt, he could tell that he didn't care for the transformations. It wasn't because they were painful, because Draco had become accustomed to pain and seeing what happened to his mother had pushed him past feeling much of anything. But what he didn't like about it was how hard it was to remember her face, how hard it was to remember being human.

With each time they had sex, Harry could see a bit more about Draco, or at least that's what he thought was happening. He wasn't sure if he was just seeing what Draco wanted him to see or not, though.

Now that it was morning and the light streamed in through the blinds onto the sparse futon-like bed, it was time to get up. He pulled his fingers from Draco, who whimpered and turned his head to the side to kiss Harry over the shoulder before staggering like an Inferi to the bathroom to have first crack at the hot water. It was such a Draco act that Harry could only laugh and get up to make coffee and debate how to spin that they were together all night. This was probably the end of their professional relationship, but Harry thought that they'd find their way back to one another. They always seemed to.

--

They both arrived slightly late, but Harry actually looked tidy for once, spawning many more lewd comments than the fact that he had just arrived with Draco. After rolling their eyes at the cheers and jeers, Harry and Draco sat down and Kingsley poked his head out of his office and called for Draco, waving him in.

Draco set his shoulders back and nodded, shooting Harry a quick look before he headed into Kingsley's office. When the door opened further, Harry noticed that it was just Kingsley he was meeting with and felt relieved that nothing bad would happen to him. At least, not in the office.

Harry was just about to set upon some very boring paperwork when Ron ducked his head into his cube. "Going to put him on restricted duty, I heard. Think it sounds like the Japanese government isn't too pleased about us not extraditing him over there, or that's what I heard. Not sure why they want to do so, but seeing as they're likely to lop off body parts or get him to slice into his gut," said Ron, demonstrating the proper hari kare, "I don't think they're going to let him go."

"Shit," said Harry as he looked at the office door. He hadn't thought of extradition, but then he hadn't been thinking of much aside from the strange dreams and the sudden onslaught of things he knew about Draco. Or thought he knew, anyway.

"Yeah. Oh, but you're not under question, so I think we'll finally be on for being partners," said Ron as he took the black plastic guest chair in Harry's office. "Brilliant, yeah? But sorry about... but he's Malfoy, you know? Always been a bad guy."

"Always?" asked Harry, giving Ron a look that said he wasn't buying it.

Ron nodded and swallowed, seeming to understand the power of emotions as he slid his tongue over his braces. "Maybe he did change. He was a good partner, anyway."

"Why aren't you partnering up with Tonks? Now we know she wasn't up the duff..." said Harry as he flipped open a file, which may or may not have been color-coded per Draco's specification.

"Oh. Well. I don't know. We might... give it a go. Dunno yet. Lot of..." Ron toyed with his braces and seemed lost in thought about Hermione. Harry looked at him curiously. "I guess I didn't really have her so maybe that it wasn't her gave me permission to do... all that I did. Maybe I really am that kind of prat. Maybe Lavender is what I deserved. But I don't know. I just... I don't want to jump into something else. I know I'm not going to... I mean, Hermione's happy where she is. But I miss her so much."

That was a lot for Ron to say about his emotions and Harry had a hard time keeping up and an even more difficult time trying to figure out what to say in response. "You just need time to mourn her?"

"Yeah."

"What about Lavender? Did they sort out what was going to happen to her?" he asked, watching Ron carefully.

The way Ron paled made his blue eyes look that much more shocking and his freckles more dramatic. He exhaled and shook his head, rubbing his forehead. "They were going to give her The Kiss, you know? And after everything, the years and the fatherless children and... I was really ready to let her have it. But then... I went to get my teeth cleaned and... she doesn't believe in the death penalty. She believes that people are basically good and that taking the lives of someone who did wrong turns you into a murderer yourself." He sighed and laughed mirthlessly. "I couldn't disagree. So I left her in Azkaban. It's what Hermione would want."

Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder and squeezed it, proud of him for making that sort of choice. He was doing right by Hermione as best he could and Harry knew he'd be all right. "Yeah, that's what she'd want."

"Ginny and Neville were over at the Burrow this weekend," said Ron, his voice pitchy for him, still wrought with emotions even if he was changing the channel. "They were announcing their wedding. It totally overshadowed Percy's run for the Minister for Magic, it was brilliant," said Ron, finding humor in Percy's frustration.

Laughing with Ron, Harry nodded and thought of Ginny, wondering if she'd read the papers about he and Malfoy. Surely she had. "What did Ginny..."

"Say about Neville meeting his son from Lavender? She said she always knew it was Neville's," Ron said, sobering as he pushed his hair back from his forehead. "Not sure what to do there. I'm his father, sort of. But Neville seemed... after apologizing to the point of being ridiculous... really like he wanted him."

Harry was glad he hadn't finished his question. Obviously Ginny had long moved past their school romance and had bigger problems now. "Does Ginny? How do you feel?"

Ron held his hands up uselessly. "I don't know. I mean, he's not really my child; he's Lavender and Neville's. Since Neville wasn't with Ginny at the time of conception, she's not that irked about it. She seemed to like him. She's babysat them before. I don't know," Ron repeated, rubbing his forehead.

Harry didn't know what kind of advice to give on that other than patting Ron's back as he tried to pull himself together. He was desperately trying to come up with some well-worded token that would do the trick to solve everything, but it wasn't coming. What did come was Kingsley's door opening and Draco coming out looking solemn.

He sat down at his desk and looked suspiciously at the red package sitting on his desk. He peered around, but no one looked ready to giggle, but it did have the appearance of an Auror joke present.

Draco looked exhausted already and certainly not in the mood for this, but gamely pulled back the wrapping paper to reveal a black sliding box. The Aurors gathered around, murmuring about butt-plugs or gay wedding vows to tease Harry and Draco with. Others jabbed one another in the ribs to find out who set it up when Harry saw a kanji symbol he'd soon learn was the sign for snake in the corner.

"Netsuke? Potter?" asked Draco as he stood, looking down at the strange figurine, a snake with eight heads and eight tails, each of which looked ornate and vicious. "Did you bring me this?"

Harry was about to answer that he had not when Draco turned to pick it up. With a sudden jolt of irrational fear, Harry threw himself at Draco, catching him as he began to spin around, the small snake a Portkey to somewhere else entirely.

The room was dark and lightless and as Draco called out, "Hey!" to measure the number of repeated refrains to gauge the size of the cave they were in, Harry called, "Lumos." and wished he hadn't done that.

Stretching out around them in the still darkness was the giant version of the netsuke 8-headed snake. It was green, and each hissing, tongue-flicking face looked angrier than the last.

"Friends of yours, Potter?" asked Draco as he lined up back-to-back with Harry with his wand at the ready.

"It was a present given to you," Harry responded.

"Yeah, but you can speak to snakes. See what it wants?"

"I'd say it wants to kill us," said Harry.

"Did you ask?" Draco nimbly set up a perimeter shield around them. "Because it doesn't seem to be striking us so much as staring."

"This is a magical creature, are you sure that shield is going to work?" asked Harry as he peered around the cave for rocks or something-- anything to hit the beast with. He wouldn't turn down a sword, either.

"What do you mean by 'sure'?" he asked Harry, warily watching the beast.

"Sure. You know-- certain."

"Certainty can be subjective..." said Draco weakly, his voice trailing off at the end.

That wasn't a good sign at all. If Draco was balking then he didn't think it would work. One of the heads came down to strike, easily bypassing the shield, although it did glow white and looked to wriggle like a giant vat of jelly. Draco and Harry jumped away from each other and already the creature had them split up.

In a flash, Draco's dragon ring leapt out from his hand taking the form of a physical silvery shield which blocked the next head's strike on Draco while another slithered down to flick its tongue at Harry. "You are not supposed to be here, but you still smell tasty," the eight-headed snake said.

"But Draco is supposed to be here?" asked Harry.

The snake appeared taken aback, abandoning its assault on Draco, who was cowering under his fierce dragon shield. The shield was long, dropping almost to the floor when Draco knelt. Out of the center of it, a human-sized dragon head roared, spewing flames.

"The blond one? Yes, he is our tribute, sent by our master," the snake responded. Five of its heads peered curiously down at Harry as the other three kept a keen eye on Draco, looking for a way to dodge the flame of his shield, seeming to choose a three-pronged attack.

"He's not a tribute, he's my...." Well, Draco had certainly made that statement complicated to explain. Harry cleared his throat and looked shifty. "Partner."

"Too bad for you," said the snake. One head was coming at Draco from above while the other two were sneaking in from the sides. Before the snake could strike, however, the shield sealed off around Draco, morphing into a cocoon around him. "Your partner leaves you to die."

The snake attempted to strike the cocoon, but the metal didn't give way and the dragon head reared up to blow fire against its face. The head writhed under the flame, flailing and shrieking as the other two heads tried to put it out.

Harry inhaled and quietly prayed that Draco was taking a calculated risk that the snake wasn't after him, because it would be too painful to contemplate that he prized his own survival over Harry's. "Didn't say he was a good partner."

He'd never heard a snake laugh before. The sound was an eerie snarling hiss and Harry was suddenly a bit worried for what Draco was hearing.

"All right, Potter?" Draco's voice was echoing from inside his metal shield. "Do you need me to Summon you?"

"It doesn't seem inclined to eat me... yet," answered Harry. He was pretty sure he was speaking English, but it was hard to say since he never knew when he was speaking Parseltongue.

"Brilliant. So could you tell it not to eat me?" asked Draco weakly.

"What do you think I'm talking to it about, exactly?" asked Harry, feeling petulant in spite of the eight-headed snake with one burned head, which actually smelled a bit tasty.

"I don't know! All I hear is harssheeea heth sheeee shaaa sheeeieth... Seth Green hessshhhhith."

"Seth Green?" asked Harry.

"Yeah. Why are you talking to the snake about Seth Green?" asked Draco. It was hard to tell his expression from behind the shield, making it impossible to know if Draco was kidding.

"I wasn't." Another thought occurred to Harry. "How do you know Seth Green?" Muggle actors didn't seem to factor in big with the Wizarding crowd, although if anyone had the geeky comic talent to break through....

"Who doesn't know Seth Green?"

Harry could picture Draco's proud, insolent expression, making him grin in spite of the weirdness of the situation. "Right, well. I think you made it angry."

The snake recoiled, looking ready to strike with its seven uninjured heads. Harry wasn't sure, because that was subjective, apparently, but he thought that might be bad for Draco.

"Hey, so... what do I call you?" he asked the snake.

It stopped and all seven heads turned to Harry. He'd never seen a snake look incredulous before, but this was proving to be an afternoon of many firsts. "You may call me Orochi. At least until I eat you."

"I'm quite stringy, I'm not sure I'd be very satisfying." It was glib, but Harry needed time to think.

"Better than rats," the snake answered.

"Potter, what could a snake possibly have to say that's so bloody fascinating? It's a snake! What's it doing, telling you about how shedding its skin is hard?"

Ignoring Draco's echoing whinging, he elected to keep his attention on Orochi. "But if you've food, then surely there's something else you'd want more than a change in diet. I don't know if you've noticed, but the blond man's pretty stringy, too. More bones than is probably worth it. Isn't there something else I can offer you?"

Orochi eyed Harry with fourteen uncanny eyes, slithering in to poke over him, flicking its multiple tongues over him curiously. "You are in love with this partner of yours, are you not?"

Harry nodded, finding that was easier to do without Draco being able to see it.

Looking wistful, at least as far as a reptile could, Orochi turned its heads away, averting its gaze dramatically. "Though snakes are cold-blooded by physical nature, we are not incapable of love. Susa-No-Wo, the Serpent King, turned back from his evil ways for love."

"What on god's green Earth are you talking about with him, Potter?" Draco asked.

Sighing, Harry answered, "He says his name is Orochi, and he believes in love."

Suddenly, Draco stood, his shield retracted, folding easily on itself. "Orochi?"

Orochi turned its attention on Draco at hearing his name, staring impassively as it slithered closer to Draco.

With a flourish of his wand, Draco produced a barrel of liquid, and then another and another until there were eight lined up in front of the monster. "Tell him it's sake, and it should drink the sake before it has its meal."

Harry was about to tell Orochi this when the giant hydra-like beast dunked its heads into the barrels, seeming to get the idea without being told. "You can conjure sake?" asked Harry.

"I know. Magic, right?" Draco smirked and perked a brow. "I did study in Japan, you know. If you can't conjure decent sake, they pretty much throw you out of the country."

"Really?"

"No. But it's a good skill to have." Draco watched the beast sloshing through the sake, flourishing his wand again as the barrels seemed likely to empty.

One of Orochi's heads wobbled up from its barrel and it said to Harry. "I was in love once. Beautiful snake. Eight heads, all so identical. A skin pattern you could look at for hours."

"Oh yeah?" asked Harry, not sure if he wanted to hear a drunken snake's romantic woes, but it was better than being eaten.

"Yes. I thought she would lay many eggs for me, but she thought she could do better," he said glumly. "I tried to mount her once. It is the only time I... do you... and your friend... you should... show me what that is like."

"What, the... mounting? Because we don't lay eggs." Harry stopped for a moment, thought about Draco being part Veela, which was a bird creature, after all. "That I know of." His eyes darted around the cave, but there wasn't anywhere to run. He did notice that Draco was giving him a very strange lusty look. His eyes appeared to darken each time he spoke in Parseltongue and Harry didn't miss the tent in Draco's robe. "Er, yeah, we have sex, if that's what you mean."

"Show me," said Orochi. "Show me what it's like to have sex with someone you're in love with. I wish to watch you procreate."

"We don't pro--" Licking his lips to stall for time on how to explain to an animal that not all sex was procreative sex and even if they wanted to, two men weren't going to make babies. Then he decided that was a waste because they were hardly going to spend nine months here so what Orochi didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. Now came that difficult task of convincing Draco to have sex in a cave in front of a homicidal snake. Given the massive boner Draco was sporting, Harry thought he might have an easier time of this than he might otherwise. "I'll see what I can do," he told Orochi, and then he turned to Draco. "We have to have sex."

Draco's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He leaned in and whispered as his eyes darted desperately, "With the snake?"

"Er. No. With each other. Why would you think with the snake?" asked Harry.

If at all possible, Draco looked shiftier and cleared his throat. "No reason."

Harry looked at Orochi and then at Draco suspiciously, but decided to just Not Think About It, because, for serious, pure-bloods could be some kinky bitches. "Right, so... erm..." Looking around the cave, he wasn't sure where a good place to do this would be. The ground was muddy and littered with bones of long departed Orochi snacks. "Against the wall?"

When he turned back around, he found Draco watching Orochi gorging itself on the huge vats of sake with a calculating look. "What did it say it would do if we didn't shag?"

Slightly offended with the idea that Draco might turn him down, especially after all of the trust he'd put into this relationship, Harry said, "He said he'd eat us." It wasn't exactly untrue, he was going to eat Draco, he just hadn't said that he wouldn't if they did. It seemed like Draco had a plan, though and that time was factoring into that, and shagging would certainly stall for time. Besides, if Draco could serve poisoned tea, Harry could certainly omit the truth for sex that Draco was generally more than willing to have. Maybe just willing. Harry decided to debate that with himself later.

"All right," said Draco as he started in on his robe, looking around, finally settling on having a go against the wall. "Can you, um..." he started as he pulled his robe up, hitching it over his hips to throw the fabric over one arm before unbuckling and unzipping his black trousers, letting them drop to expose the golden pale of his legs all but glimmering in the queer light of the cave. "Speak Parsel to me?"

For a moment, Harry just gaped at Draco, mostly because he was half naked and bending over to expose his perfect, round arse and the dark crack where Harry wanted to bury his prick, but also because his request was a little odd. At least to Harry's ears. "But... you won't know what I'm saying," said Harry as he approached Draco slowly.

Draco was looking over his shoulder, not at Harry, but at Orochi with that same measured, thoughtful look. Harry wondered how serious he was about snake sex. When Draco turned his attention to Harry, he was blushing. He cleared his throat, balancing on one arm against the wall. "It's sexy, all right?"

"My talking to snakes is sexy?" asked Harry, not sure how deeply he wanted to probe into this matter, but as it was the only thing standing in the way of him probing into Draco, it might as well be answered. He threw open his robe and jammed his thumb into the clasp of his buckle, pulling it open quickly, followed by the rapid unfolding of his trousers. He was still waiting for an answer as he hefted his prick from his boxers and started to caress the tip of his cock along the crack of Draco's arse, pleased with the sticky dot of glistening precome it left on his cheek.

"I don't care that snakes understand it. It just... since you did it second year... and... yeah," said Draco. He'd turned his head forward and let his chin flop down to his chest, which Harry knew was a tell-tale sign of blushing.

"Got your cock hard at twelve, did I?" asked Harry as he pulled his wand to cast the lubrication spell. This time, he tried sticking the tip of his wand at Draco's entrance, pulling him open with one hand as the other guided it in. He was pleased at the slight liquid backwash from it that dribbled out of Draco's arse. After he shoved his wand into his robe pocket, he slipped two fingers inside of him, smearing it as he brushed his prick between Draco's thighs.

"Not what I said," Draco gasped, rearing up as Harry's fingers entered him.

"Nervous?" asked Harry as he moved a third finger into Draco, observing that he was a bit more tense than usual.

"It's just cold." Draco's voice was high and tight. He was practically standing now, his arms folded in front of him. He rested his head against his forearms and stared to push back against Harry. "Are you going to... do the voice?"

"You mean like this?" asked Harry, speaking Parseltongue into Draco's ear. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of Orochi's heads look up in recognition and then settle back down deciding he wasn't being addressed.

Draco whimpered and moved his arms up so that his elbows were against the wall, his hands steepled as if in prayer. He pressed his forehead to the crossed thumbs as Harry grabbed his own cock, pulling the tip up and down in the crack till he felt the fleshy weakness and then thrust in solidly. He moved into him a few more times before he wrapped his arm around Draco's waist and grabbed his cock.

The fabric of Draco's robe slid back down his back, gathering between them, making it impossible to see the juncture of their bodies, making it somehow more mysterious, because Harry could most definitely feel the hot pressure of Draco around him, the hot sucking skin pulling at him in stark contrast to the muggy chill of the cave.

"Talk to me," Draco whined, pushing back against Harry, wavering between the fist around his cock and the one pushing inside of him.

Breathily, Harry leaned in closer, not getting much force behind his thrusts, but finding the movement slow and satisfying as he hooked his chin over Draco's shoulder. He didn't want Orochi to overhear what he said, wanted his words to be only for Draco, even if he couldn't understand them. "Every time I'm away from you, I get scared that all of this will go away and you'll have been nothing but this dream. Or you'll have decided this was a phase. I don't think I would've ever known this about myself if you hadn't shown up."

Sometimes things were easier to say when you knew the person would never have a prayer of knowing they'd been said. He kissed along Draco's neck, nipping at his ear as he felt the shudder ripple through Draco's body. Harry was so close to him that he could feel each minute tremble, every catch of breath, even the prickle of Draco's hair standing on end. "I'm scared to be in love with you, but even more afraid that if this isn't what being in love is like, that I'll never experience it. This has been the most intense time of my life and I can't even imagine ever feeling this for anyone else. If you even feel half so much as I feel for you right now, I think I could die happy."

It was so heartfelt and sincere that it pained Harry to say, but it felt cathartic, too. And saying it in such a way that Draco wouldn't understand made it both painful and a relief. It wouldn't be held against him, it wasn't on the record.

He heard Draco's hard grunt and sigh and then felt the liquid warmth on his hand. Harry was a little surprised that Draco had come so quickly, and part of him wondered if it wasn't a sign, if Draco understood what he said on some deeper level. Or maybe it was just the kink of the Parseltongue.

Crossing his arms around Draco's waist, he slid his hands up over his chest, grinding harder and deeper inside of him, as if he could bury himself inside of Draco, resting his head on his shoulder, listening to the whispers and moans, feeling the rush and spark of release tingling in his legs, in his balls and from his chest. Slowly, it ebbed up and out of him and he came hard whispering, "I love you" in Parseltongue.

Or at least, he hoped that's how he said it.

After he'd finished coming, he panted against Draco's clothed shoulder, smelling the sweetness of whatever he used to clean his clothes but heard little else. Harry swallowed hard and asked, "Are you all right?"

When Harry pulled away and looked at Draco, who was staring over at Orochi who was sleeping with a stoic expression. "Yeah, Potter, it's not my first time." His eyes flicked over to Harry and he shot him a wry smile.

Harry wasn't sure if he was relieved or disappointed, but pulled out of Draco and tucked himself back into his boxers after a quick cleaning charm. He bent down to pull up his trousers, watching Draco do the same out of the corner of his eye. He didn't know what he'd expected to happen. He hadn't said it in a language that Draco could understand, after all. What he didn't expect was for Draco to break out a pair of sai daggers and head over to the beast.

Orochi was out. Most of its heads were at least out of the sake barrels. One hung in it, though, another rested across the top. Most were on one or the other side of the barrels looking quite sated. Not that Harry though snakes could smile, but Orochi was making a pretty good case for their ability to look sated. He almost knew how the snake felt.

"What are you doing?" Harry followed Draco who was looking down at the giant snake.

Draco clapped the sai together and whispered an incantation and it turned into a katana. Then he held it up, blade down with a savage look in his eye. "Killing the snake, Potter."

Before Draco could swing the sword down to sever one of Orochi's heads, Harry had his wand out and froze Draco's sword inches from its scales. It sparkled and shone with the force of the charm Harry had cast. Even Harry was surprised by the crackle of magic. Normally, he was more in control than that, but he supposed he was feeling a bit overwrought. "What? Why?"

"Um... I don't know... because it wants to kill me, maybe?" Draco pulled on his sword, trying to dislodge it from where it was frozen in the air and glared at Harry. "What, you want me dead?"

"No, I don't want you dead, but he's sleeping. We can just leave!" Harry didn't want to admit it, but he'd kind of made friends with Orochi. It was hard to kill something after you got to know it a little.

Draco placed one boot on Orochi's neck and tried again to yank the sword from the air. "Impressive, but end the incantation."

"We can just leave, Dra-Malf...Draco." he said, figuring he'd just buggered him and confessed his love in an arcane snake language. He could call him by his first name.

"We can leave after I slay the beast," said Draco, eyeing his katana, which he'd had to let go of because it was engulfed in white flames. "Clever spell. Would you quit it... Harry?"

In spite of their fight, Harry grinned lopsidedly at being called by his first name. Plus, Draco thought he was clever, which he knew he was, but it was always nice to hear it. "No, we're leaving him alive. Besides, I don't know how to get out of here, do you?"

"We could Apparate," said Draco, glaring at his rapidly disintegrating sword. He folded his arms and shot Harry a withering look, but Harry wasn't fussed or scared. Maybe he should have been, but he was pretty sure Draco wasn't going to fight him.

"And why haven't you?" asked Harry, folding his arms and feeling quite smug.

Sighing, Draco said distractedly, "Because there could be meters of rock and Apparition only takes you so far."

"And we both know that the Portkey was likely set up to be one way," Harry pointed out.

"Plus, I dropped it," said Draco. To punctuate his statement the katana burned down to a little ball and popped with a satisfying crack.

The sound was enough to rouse Orochi, or at least one of the heads and it looked up and around blearily. "Oh. You've finished. You're still here. I suppose I should eat you now."

"Hey! No eating!" protested Harry. The look of alarm on Draco's face told him he'd said it in English so he repeated it in Parseltongue.

Orochi let out a snaky snicker. "You two are funny. No. You've entertained me and gave me sake. I suppose I can let you leave. It's better than the man who offered me human flesh. He didn't mention how little flesh there would be on the human." Orochi looked mournfully at Draco and shook a snaky head as another started to stir.

"Are we going to be eaten?" asked Draco as he looked up at the two heads and almost tripped over a third as he made his way back over to Harry. Once he was over with Harry, he stood behind him, his breath warm on the side of Harry's neck as he peered over his shoulder.

"No," said Harry, smiling a little that Draco was hiding behind him a bit. He'd gotten used to feeling like the sidekick; it was nice to feel like the hero again. Addressing Orochi, he asked, "Can you help us get out of here? We were brought in through magic, but it won't work and we've no idea where we are."

"I could. Does that mean you'll leave the stringy one behind?" A third head roused in interest at that notion. "The man who promised him to me will be quite cross that I didn't eat him, you know."

Harry was tempted to ask who that man was, but by now, he had a pretty good idea anyway. "We'll take care of that man. I don't think he'll be back to bother you. What if there was more sake?" Draco's arms tightened around him and he felt Draco pressing his hips more meaningfully against his side. He was going to need to get a pet snake to talk to. He wasn't sure he could speak Parseltongue without a snake present, but if it made Draco this lascivious... he was going to get a snake when he got home. "Draco," he said in English, "Can you conjure more sake if he takes us out of here?"

"Mmhmm," said Draco as he nuzzled Harry's neck.

A really big snake.

Right.

Focus.

"And we'll give you more sake," he said, watching as the rest of Orochi's head, including the charred one sprung up. Obviously, that was the magic word. "Do we have a deal?"

It was hard to negotiate with Draco frotting against him, but Harry was a man of many talents. Orochi didn't seem to notice as he seemed quite pleased with the notion. Instead of answering in Parseltongue, all eight heads moved in unison in a large, very weird nod.

"Draco," said Harry, turning to him, knowing this was going to stop the frotting, but maybe he'd get lucky later. "Conjure Orochi more sake."

Distractedly, Draco pulled his wand, huffing a little as he pulled away from Harry and conjured stacks of sake for the beast. Privately, Harry wondered if he wasn't trying to give Orochi alcohol poisoning, but he supposed it probably didn't matter much so long as they got out of there. And to a pet store.

"Ooooh," said Orochi, only it was more of a hiss, because their mouths aren't formed to make ooh noises, but were he able to, that's what it would've been. This obviously endeared Draco to Orochi, which made it even better that the beast was passed out while Draco tried to kill it, because it was hard to spring back from a homicide attempt to being friends again. Orochi lowered a head and said, "Climb on."

"Come on, Draco." Harry rather enjoyed being able to use his first name. He thought when they were back at work they might have to sound formal again, except that all of London pretty much knew they were shagging by now anyway. He'd sort it out later.

Draco, of course, insisted on sitting at the front of the Orochi's neck, just behind the head. He conjured a leather bridle to hold onto and Harry slid in behind him, wrapping his arms around him. Because Harry couldn't quite help himself, he whispered another I love you in Parseltongue into Draco's ear, loving the shudder it caused. He pretended it was because he knew what he'd said and not because of Draco's weird fetish.

That was the last of Harry's coherent thoughts as Orochi took them on a whirlwind tour of the caverns and twisty recesses of what must've been either a very deep cave or a very large mountain. He had the sensation that they were going very high up sometimes, and he could almost feel the tendrils of frost before plunging to extreme sulfur-scented heat. By the time the twisting and spinning ended, they were headed down a long tunnel that led to light that seemed impossibly blinding. After turning a corner, the light became even brighter, like they were headed towards a speeding train.

It went on and on and on like they were traveling for kilometers at an impossible speed with wind whipping through their hair. Harry wasn't sure if it had been minutes or hours or days when finally they came out into a brilliant daylight near a peaceful lake shadowed by an enormous and unfamiliar mountain.

Orochi skimmed out over the grass a few hundred kilometers and stopped, looking around with its other heads as if it were worried about being seen-- which probably it was. "They tried to kill me the last time I was out here," Orochi confided, looking at Harry. "Cut my heads off! As if they wouldn't grow back! But anyway, you didn't see me. I wasn't here."

Draco hopped off of Orochi, ending the bridle spell and gave him a few hesitant pats. "What are you smirking about, Potter?"

But of course, Draco hadn't heard what Orochi said. He couldn't have killed Orochi if he'd wanted to. Harry decided to keep that information to himself and try to ignore that they were back to last names. "Nothing. Just glad to be out of the caves."

He waved to Orochi, who slithered around to slink back off into the small opening that was far from the huge mountain, but Harry suspected that mountain was where they were originally. He held his hand up to shield his eyes as they still adjusted and peered up at its perfect volcanic shape. "D'you have any idea where we are, Malfoy?"

Draco looked wearily around and sighed before rubbing his temples. "Japan."

"What?" Harry whirled around as if he expected to see kanji covered trees or Tokyo would appear if he tilted his head just right. "Are you sure?"

"Unless someone's moved Mt. Fuji and the five lakes, I'd say... I can say that with a fair bit of certainty." Draco had a seat on the grass and just looked around, his eyes wide and face blank as if he were truly stymied as to what to do.

"Are you... all right?" asked Harry as he dropped down next to him.

"This..." Draco paused and looked up and around before looking helplessly at Harry. "This defies my ability to conjure words for how bad it is. This is so bad that--"

Draco couldn't finish the sentence as, with the sound of several incredibly loud cracks, there were at least a dozen people, with black fabric wrapped around their bodies in such a way that only their eyes peeked out, holding wands pointed at them.

"Yeah," said Harry as he looked up at the silent group that held them at their mercy. "I see what you mean." Their leader advanced on them and gestured sharply with his wand for Harry and Draco to stand up, which they did immediately as they raised their arms in surrender. "Really bad."