Archive of Our Own (BETA rev. 2101)

"The song-dream happened and the cloven-hoofed piper
Played in that holy ground where they felt the awe and wonder
And they all were unafraid of the great god Pan...
And they stood upon the lawn and listened to the silence
Of the wind in the willows and the piper at the gates of dawn."
--"Piper at the Gates of Dawn", Van Morrison

Snape found the boy on his knees before the mausoleum, oblivious to the rain streaming down his face, fingers twisted in the muddy grass. His shoulders heaved as the bile from his belly splattered across the whited sepulchre housing a thousand years of Malfoy dust and bones. A bloodstained scrap of white fabric lay crumpled next to him, mute testament to the young Death Eater's activity that night.

"Get up, Mr. Malfoy."

The boy looked at him, distant and blank behind shadowed grey eyes, lank blond hair sticking to his damp skin.

Snape glanced away. The wind whipped through the willow tree next to the crypt, slamming the thin boughs against the moss-covered marble.

Draco sat back on his heels, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. A smear of black loam stained his pallid cheek. "How do you do it? What he asks?"

Snape pulled his own mask from his face, shoving the despised silk in his pocket. "One does one's duty." He eyed the boy coldly. "You requested this, Mr. Malfoy."

"I didn't know." Draco stared off into the early morning darkness. The outlines of the other gravestones were barely visible through the downpour. He swallowed hard, thin lips pressing together. "She bled." His hand trembled against his thigh. "So much blood."

"As often is the case with exsanguination." Snape crouched next to Draco. The boy looked far too pale. Snape removed a glass phial from his pocket. He uncorked the tiny bottle, the scent of mint and fennel filling the air as he lifted it to the boy's lips. "Drink." He refused to think of his own first kill, of that dark night spent curled in bed, alone and nauseous and guilt-ridden.
Draco shivered, wrapping his arms around his thin frame. "I'm so cold."
Snape flattened his hand against Draco's cheek. The boy's skin was clammy, wet. Shock, of course.

He was completely unprepared for the press of warm lips on his palm.

"Are you mad?" he snapped, jerking his hand away.

Draco turned his head, a pink flush warming his cheeks. "I..." He fell silent.
Snape knew he ought to move, to step away from the boy, away from the pale curve of his neck, away from the sharp jut of his jaw.

He did not.

"Forgive me," Draco said at last, his voice stilted. "That was..." He trailed off again, staring at the rain puddling on the grass beneath his knees. His jaw tightened. "It's just that I'd rather not--I don't--" He looked at Snape then. "I don't want to think. About her." A nervous sweep of his tongue across his bottom lip. "Or any of it."

"I see." A thin white scar, almost unnoticeable against the pallor of the boy's skin, stretched across Draco's temple into his hair. Snape ran a finger along the ridge, following its perfectly straight line. "Lucius."

Draco pulled away from the touch. "I was six."

"A curse mark."

"I ducked." Draco's mouth twisted bitterly to one side. "That time."

His lips were soft when Snape kissed him.

Snape pushed the boy onto the water-logged ground, his mouth moving hard against Draco's, his tongue sliding against the boy's--hungry, demanding. One hand tangled in the boy's mud-streaked hair, twisting and pulling, as the other slid down Draco's chest, fingertips dipping through gaps in the wet lawn shirt to skim across chilled skin.

Snape cursed himself for this weakness even as his hand parted the thick wool placket of boy's trousers, tugging at the short line of covered buttons until his fingers slid around the hard heat of the boy's cock.

He tensed as Draco's hand pressed against his trousers.

"Don't."

Draco's open mouth slid across Snape's throat, hot and wet; his teeth nipped at the sopping, greasy tendrils of dark hair that caught on the curve of Snape's jaw, sticking to his cold skin. "Yes." He pulled at Snape's trousers, opening them. His fingers brushed the swell of Snape's cock.

With a sharp hiss, Snape caught the boy's hand, pulling it above Draco's head, pressing it into the slick mud. Icy rivulets of rain coursed down his cheek. "No."

"Please." The whispered word against Snape's mouth sent a shudder of arousal through him. Draco dug his fingernails into the back of his professor's wrist as he undulated beneath him. "I want..."

Snape's calloused fingers moved roughly across the boy's cock. "You want what?"

Raindrops caught on Draco's eyelashes, slid down his temples. His face twisted, eyes darkened. "You." A rasping huff. "To do this."

"To make you come?" Snape murmured, breath warm against Draco's jaw.
The boy shivered and pushed against Snape's hand. "Hard."

Snape moaned into wet, muddy skin and tightened his grip on the boy's prick, fingers pulling, tugging, sliding. He shifted his weight, pressed his own erection up against the boy's hip. Four firm strokes for Draco to come, his palm sliding over the damp tip of Draco's cock. The boy writhed beneath him, his sharp cry muffled into Snape's chest as his hips bucked upwards.

Snape pushed against the boy, hand tight on Draco's waist and slick with semen, his cock catching in the sodden wool pleats of the boy's trousers. One thrust. Another. And with a whisper of the boy's name, he fell against Draco, his body shaking. They lay in the muck, legs entwined, the only sounds the squall of wind and rain and their ragged breaths.

Snape sat up at last, straightening his wet clothes in silence as he hunched over, refusing to meet the boy's eyes.

Arms slid around his waist; a pointed chin nestled against his shoulder. "Thank you."

Snape grunted. "I trust you shall leave this out of your report of the evening's activities to the Headmaster."

A quiet laugh from the boy. "Of course, professor."

Warm lips pressed against his neck. Snape closed his eyes, pulling away. "Hogwarts, Mr. Malfoy."

The first faint wisps of pale grey morning light glittered through the rain as they Apparated.