Chapter Seven: The Taipan


Draco appeared in the Snapes' sitting room to find himself not only in the company of Severus and Amethyst Snape, but Sirius Black as well.

"I thought you might have forgotten." Severus said. "I'm glad you opted to be on time."

Lying to Severus Snape was ill-advised. "I got distracted." he said. Not a lie, not the truth. He might get away with it.

Severus just looked at him for a long moment. "You know why you're here?" he eventually asked.

"Yes," said Draco slowly. "The Taipan." he said.

Amethyst was pacing. "A taipan is a snake." she said. "A very deadly snake. Perhaps the deadliest snake known to man." she stopped to look at Draco. "The Taipan is a group of wizards. The deadliest wizards in Britain, possibly."

Draco suddenly understood. "I thought I was on probation." he said, looking at his probation officer. "I thought I was on your shit list." he said, looking at Amethyst.

Sirius smiled, "I won't report you to your probation officer, I promise."

Amethyst looked at Draco. "You were a shitty kid, from what I hear. You lost your damn mind kidnapping me. However," and here she paused and smiled. "You have a lot of guts. And you are tough." she said.

"It was Amethyst who suggested we recruit you to the Taipan." Severus told Draco.

Draco sighed. "The Taipan." he said.

Amethyst looked at him very carefully. She walked up to him and put her arm around his shoulder. "I will talk to him alone." she said as she led him from her home. Neither Sirius nor Severus said anything or tried to stop them.

Amethyst led him away from the house into the darkness. She did not speak as she walked, but she kept her arm around him. They crossed a narrow brook and kept walking. After a five minute walk, Amethyst stopped and turned Draco to face her. She held him by the shoulders and Draco could see her eyes in the starlight. She was looking at him, curiously. She laughed and released him. She walked away until she was about five feet from him.

"I am going to tell you a few things no one knows, except for Severus, of course." she said, her back to him. "When I was fourteen, Severus made love to me for the first time. It was in this clearing where we fell in love, as a matter of fact. Well, here and Dungeon Ten at Hogwarts."

Draco said nothing, unsure where this was going.

"It was here that he showed me the Dark Mark when he got it burned into him." she continued. "He had feared that I would stop loving him because of it." she turned to face him. "Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard?"

Again, Draco said nothing, but his heart suddenly dropped into his stomach.

Amethyst walked up to him. She was close enough to touch him, if she cared to. She did not. Instead she said, softly. "I have been watching you ever since you got out of prison, Mister Malfoy. At first because I did not know if you could be trusted and you would have been the last serious threat to Harry Potter left after I poisoned your parents."

Draco's jaw dropped.

"But you have been freed by your father's death it would appear. And you and Harry Potter have become more than friends or I miss my guess." she said, locking her violet eyes with his grey ones. "If you haven't yet, it is near."

Draco nodded, still not trusting himself to speak.

"Your greatest fear is that you cannot possibly be loved by the likes of Harry Potter, am I right?" Amethyst said, eyes still locked.

Draco again nodded, unable to look away.

Amethyst smiled. "Draco, I have known only two people who would have appeared, on the surface anyway, to be more incompatible. Would you care to hazard a guess?"

Draco took in a soft breath. "You and Severus would be my guess." he said, beginning to relax.

Amethyst nodded. "Very good." she said. "Severus and I both, at times, thought the worst of what people would think. For us it was simply the age old assumption that no Slytherin could possibly love a Griffindor. We knew what we would face if word got out. My brother alone went so far as to convince us each that the other was dead in an attempt to keep us apart." she broke the eye contact and Draco felt like he'd ben physically released. Amethyst stepped back one step. "You face a greater challenge. Are you up to it?"

Draco nodded. "I think I am."

Amethyst smiled. "He will not hate you if you become Taipan. We are not the Death Eaters. We are the protectors, if you will. The Death Eaters will be reborn, I have no doubt. Reborn under another name. But this time there will be Taipan to counter them. These new Death Eaters will not have anyone like Lord Voldemort, at least not in the beginning. They may not even target Harry Potter, although they will hate him. The powers that were given the Aurors have been revoked. The Death Eaters we may have overlooked will take advantage of this." here she paused and searched the sky. "Will you become one of us, Draco Malfoy?"

Draco thought to himself only a moment before responding. "Yes."

Amethyst gave him a dazzling smile. "Good, very good." and she clapped him on the shoulder and began leading him back to the house. "And I would advise you tell Harry about it. Honesty from the beginning. Take down your shields. He will understand better than you think he will."

Draco nodded, but his heart was scared.

Draco Malfoy joined the Taipan that night



Harry lay, now naked, in his own bed hours later thinking of the very strange way he'd been left. Midnight. The Taipan. Taipan. He remembered hearing about them, but could not remember what. Either Amethyst or Severus had sent for Draco just before Midnight and Draco, no doubt thoroughly distracted, had forgotten and was forced to leave rather hastily. He frowned to himself. The Taipan. And then it hit him! He remembered. The Taipan had been blamed for the deaths of the Malfoys. But Harry knew that it had been Amethyst and Severus, with Sirius creating a distraction who had killed the Malfoys. He propped himself up on his elbows. Had they been one in the same? But Amethyst hadn't been back in Britain when the Taipan began getting noticed. Severus? And what did they want with Draco?

For Harry could not deny his feelings for Draco. The stirring began the first night and the more he and Draco talked, the deeper his feelings grew. And he had reason to believe that the same was true for Draco.

Harry collapsed on the bed and closed his eyes. He hoped he could sleep for the adrenaline.

Harry awoke with an incredible hard on, which was being tended to by Draco, who had apparently come home while Harry slept. Harry barely noticed that it was the deep dark of the middle of the night. Harry tried to speak, but pleasure allowed him only moans. When he'd spent himself and Draco came up to kiss him, Harry returned it with a passion he never felt possible. It seemed that he and Draco had another thing in common. Neither of them had ever cum in anothers mouth. Until tonight.

"Didn't mean to wake you, Potter. Sorry." Draco drawled, as Harry moved over a little to accommodate him in the king sized bed. In adulthood both men were about the same height and weight and they both silently thought they fit each other wonderfully.

Harry snorted a laugh. "Liar." he said, breathlessly, now belly to belly with Draco.

"Yea, well." Draco said. He looked into Harry's eyes. "I need to talk to you." he said.

"About how you left me?" Harry said. "What time is it, anyway."

"About half two." Draco said. He sighed. "This is difficult. Do you trust me, Potter?" he asked, running a hand along Harry's arm.

"Obviously I do." Harry said.

Draco pursed his lips in the darkness. Nodded. "I'll be right back." he said and jumped out of bed. Harry heard him walk across the hall, rummage through something and walk back. He hopped back in the bed and said, "See this?" He was holding a small flask.

"Yes." Harry said. "What is it, truth serum?" he laughed.

"That's exactly what it is, Potter." Draco said. "I am still not sure I won't lie to you, just out of nerves." and he drank half the bottle.

Harry gaped at him, then made up his own mind. He grabbed the bottle and drank it dry.

"What'd ya do that for?" Draco demanded.

"If we're going to be honest, we may as well go all the way." Harry said.

Draco looked at him as if he thought Harry may have lost his mind. Draco lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling and felt the light feeling the truth serum produced. "OK, then." he said. "We're stuck like this probably until dawn, so don't ask me anything you don't want the answer to."

"Do you love me, Malfoy?"

Draco turned his head and looked at Harry. "Yes." he said slowly and looked amazed by his own answer. "Well, it works. I tried my level best to lie to you."

Harry laughed. "Well, let me tell you that I love you too. It's been getting stronger since the night you moved in here and we got to talking."

Draco nodded. "Well, you might change your mind after you hear what I have to say." he said, so grimly Harry braced himself for the worst.

Draco looked at the ceiling for a long moment. "Have you ever heard of the Taipan?" he asked.

"They are apparently the ones who took credit for your parents death." Harry said, laying his head on Draco's chest.

"They killed them, all right." said Draco, putting his arm around Harry and tousling the already mussed hair. "And so you know already some of the members."

Harry exhaled. "Severus, Amethyst and Sirius."

"Albus Dumbledore started the Taipan a few months before the Dark Lord finally fell. They brought dissension to the ranks, which made the rest of the job so much easier. Remus Lupin, Severus Snape and Sirius Black were it's only members until Snape brought his wife in." he told Harry, repeating all he'd been told during his meeting. "There were no other members. They have worked to discover as many people working alongside the Dark Side as they can and deal with them as they see fit." he felt Harry tense. "They do not always kill, Potter. I was asked to make sure you knew this when I told you what has happened."

"You joined the Taipan." Harry said, dully.

Harry felt Draco nod. Harry lifted himself up and looked into Draco's eyes. "Why?" Harry asked, mystified.

Draco sighed and looked around the room, as if the answer was somehow on top of a dresser. "I have been a part of the Dark Side since my fathers foul sperm hit my mothers pitiful egg." he finally said. "I have seen what they can do. What they are capable of. I have participated in some of it. Potter, murder was a kindness with Death Eaters. They tore apart lives without drawing blood. They built people up and tore them down without even a second thought. The only thing that saved me from getting the Dark Mark burned into me was that Father wanted me to be able to act, and I couldn't do too much under Dumbledores nose. I even sabotaged my Seventh year to avoid it."

Harry did not interrupt because he knew Draco had to get this off of his chest. When Draco continued he said, "I was still looking for approval from my father. That's why I kidnapped Amethyst. I wanted her to know that I was a great and powerful Malfoy." He laughed. "And she kicked my ass damn near into the middle of next week."

Harry smiled, but said nothing. "I figured Karma or some shit had to do with getting Sirius Black as my probation officer. And I just knew it was his cruelty that gave him the idea to have me stay with you, of all people, when I got out. I started feeling something that first night. I had no idea what it was at first. A fluttering in the stomach. I didn't realize I was falling in love until I woke up in the hospital with you watching over me. That has never happened before and I knew it must be love, or something like it. Close enough for me, anyway."

"Severus approached me shortly after that about the Taipan. Gave me until September the first to think it over. Today. And I'd decided to join them. Until you asked me for that headache cure, that is. When I got in front of them I had doubts. Amethyst changed my mind." he said.

"Amethyst?" Harry said. That was the last name he'd expected to hear.

Draco nodded. "She told me a little about her and Severus. How they would have shunned them, or worse, for their relationship. About her reaction to him when he showed her the Dark Mark."

Harry nodded. He'd heard this before, when he'd first met Amethyst. "How she loved him regardless of what he was." he said.

"Yup." Draco said. "She told me to come back here and tell you that I had joined the Taipan. She knows, Potter. She knows about us. I don't know how, but she's guessed."

"Amethyst is sharp." Harry said. "I'm not surprised."

"She doesn't care if were guys. And I don't think Severus will either. They won't tell anyone about us. Not out of loyalty, but because it's none of their business." Draco said, sounding both impressed and relieved.

Draco ran his finger along Harry's jaw line. "Well, that's that." He said. "Time for you to throw me out of your bed and tell me to get the hell out of your life." He actually looked expectant.

What Harry did was kiss him. "You leave this bed before dawn and I'll curse you into about a million pieces." he said, smiling.

Draco did not leave the bed. They made love through the rest of the night and did not rest until dawn.