Entry tags:

fic, hp, snarry

Fic: The Predators Club - Part One
Title: The Predators Club
Authors: winifredzachery and yivel
Pairing: Severus Snape/Harry Potter
Rating: NC-17
Genre: Romance, Action/Adventure
Warnings: AU, Rimming, Bestiality, PWP-ish
Word Count: 5200 (for this part)
Disclaimer: Most of the characters are JKR's, the few that don't seem familiar are ours. No money is being made from this.
Summary: After having returned from a DADA conference, Harry leaves for an assignment that doesn't go as planned.

Part One


The young girl turned around. She thought she'd heard a sound, but the street seemed to be empty. The club was not too far off, now, and she walked faster. Just a few feet away, a door banged open and a group of obviously drunk men spilled out onto the street. They passed her, leering and whistling, but the girl ignored them. A few seconds later, she had reached the inconspicuous looking door to the club and was already pressing her hand against the metal frame, when suddenly another form materialised beside her out of the dark.

"Good evening," a deep male voice said much too close to her ear. Startled, she looked up and right into the face of a red-haired stranger. The man smiled at her and pressed his hand against the metal beside hers, holding it open for her to enter.

She looked at him strangely, but preceded him into the club. He followed close behind. She didn't know what to make of this man.

They lost each other in the crowd and the girl went to the bar to get a drink, but when she stepped onto the dance floor he was in front of her again.

"Hello, there."

She looked up, startled once more.

"Want to dance?" he asked and the girl nodded. He was quite good-looking, after all. He smiled and drew her closer.

They shared more than one dance that night, and he brought her home after they had left the club together. As things often go, she invited him for a butterbeer and something else in mind. He was really handsome and friendly, after all.

They drank butterbeer and coffee and when there was nothing else to drink, she invited him to her bedroom.

The other men in the circle laughed. "No real challenge, there, eh?" one of the men taunted and took a sip of his drink.

Bill Weasley snorted. "I'm not that bad of a hunter, you know! I might not have your experience yet, but it wasn't me who almost got kicked out of that boy’s bedroom last Friday," he grinned.

Snape snorted. "At least that incident proved more of a challenge, wouldn't you say? I'm sure this little girl of yours was easy to impress."

"She was cute! I wasn't up for a fight, that night. You, on the other hand, seem to be on the hunt twenty-four hours a day," Bill retorted. "Well. If you think I’m so damn cack-handed, what would you say to a little challenge, dear Professor?"

Snape took a sip of his wine. "I'm always open to new suggestions, as you should know by now.”

Bill smiled. "Very well, Professor. Let's say we meet again in three weeks. That should give us ample opportunity to pursue new paths. I assume you will attend the Defence-Conference next week?"

Snape nodded in answer.

"Afterwards, our fellow members will get to judge who has made had the bigger catch."

Snape inclined his head in agreement, with a look in his eyes that said he had no doubt as to who would be the more fortunate.

---

Harry stepped out of the huge fireplace he'd just flooed to. Luckily, it was big enough to manage several floo arrivals at once. As always, he had managed to get himself covered in soot and coughed resignedly.

When he looked around, he found himself in a huge hall of what might have been a family mansion once, but was now the most modern conference centre in whole of wizarding Britain.

The walls were echoing with the footsteps of hundreds of people.

Suddenly, he found himself face to face with Remus Lupin.

"Professor! I didn't know you would be here!" They shook hands and Remus smiled.

"There is someone else here who would love to meet you, I am sure."

He looked over the crowd and waved someone over Harry couldn't see, the people surrounding them were all taller than him. It wasn't difficult to imagine who would join them, though, and he broke into a broad grin.

Sirius reached them a few seconds later and immediately enfolded Harry in a tight hug.

A few feet away, the crowd parted before another figure that had just arrived in the hall. Snape stepped out of the flames, elegant as ever, without a single speck of dust on his black robes.

A sneer formed on his face as he saw Potter and his mutt of a godfather in a seemingly inextricable tangle of robes a few feet away.

Then Lupin, who was standing beside the two, noticed him, but before he could say anything, Snape vanished in the crowd.

Harry was still stunned. "Why didn't you tell me you would be here?"

"Wanted to make it a surprise, obviously," Sirius grinned. "And I'm really looking forward to my godson's great speech." Harry rolled his eyes and swatted his arm.

"Don't tease! It'll be crap, I'm sure. They'll laugh at me. I don't know what possessed me."

"No, Harry, you'll do just fine, I'm sure," Remus assured him.

"I'm more the practical type if you know what I mean," Harry retorted and sighed. "I don't think lectures are my kind of thing …” He sighed again. “Come on, I want to get to my room." Together, they went over to the receptionist, who checked Harry's reservation and handed him the key to his rooms.

When they reached Harry's room, Sirius flopped down on the bed.

"Hey, don't make yourself too comfortable, I want to get something to eat, and soon," Remus chided.

"Me too!" Harry said and pulled a small suitcase that contained his clothes out of his trouser pocket. He Enlarged it and put it down at the foot of his bed. “I haven't even decided what to wear!" he croaked when he had pulled out several robes and had them hanging down the front of the wardrobe door.

Sirius chuckled quietly. "Uh, you look okay to me …"

"Okay? I don't want to look okay! I need to look confident. And that can only happen if I'm wearing the right clothes." Sirius snorted slightly, but Harry ignored him. The thought of standing in front of thousands of DADA-experts many years his senior made him weak in the knees.

"Come on, let's go," he said, throwing the last few robes onto the bed. "I've no nerve for this, now."

They went back downstairs and Harry felt suddenly queasy when he saw a Daily Prophet reporter among the now thinner crowd. Sirius patted his shoulder soothingly and pulled him forward to the hotel restaurant, where they sat down at a table far away from prying eyes.

"I'm not very hungry," Harry admitted and stared morosely at the menu.

"But you have to eat something! You won't be able to concentrate with an empty stomach!" Sirius argued. "Right, Remus?"

Remus nodded, but seemed a bit distracted. "Are you looking for someone?" Sirius asked.

"No. No, I was just watching people," Remus answered a little too fast.

Sirius raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further. "So, what have you been up to since the last time we met, Harry?"

"Oh nothing special. Got this new job. Getting rid of anything moving in the Graceton Manor House."

"At least leave the client alive, will you?" Sirius laughed and clapped him on the back.

A waiter soon came over to take their orders, and despite Harry's protests, his godfather ordered a huge pasta dish and pudding for him.

While they waited for the food to arrive, Harry listened to Sirius and Remus talk while he himself kept darting glances over the crowd. Letting his gaze trail over the corner behind them for a third time, he thought he saw a shadow that hadn’t been there before. He shook his head slightly and cursed his paranoia. Things like that were just a side-effect of his work and a lot of fancifulness on his part.

He'd just been distracted again by a question from Remus, when he thought he'd noticed movement in the dark corner. Again, he turned around and this time he saw it. Or rather him. Snape, his former Potions Professor had just taken a seat there.

Snape caught his eye for a moment before smirking slightly, and then the waiter was beside Harry, setting his plate down in front of him.

Harry hadn't thought it possible, but now his appetite was even further from ever being discovered again.

Listlessly, he shoved the food around his plate, which earned him many concerned looks from Remus and Sirius.

---

Snape stared at the three figures in front of him over the rim of his glass and marvelled at the boy's nervousness. He had been surprised to discover that Potter had accepted the offer of giving a lecture at the conference. It had only been three years since the young man had left school, after all, and he couldn't imagine that Potter had enough experience in the field of hunting dark creatures to do this. But he was always prepared for miracles to happen where the boy was concerned.

Snape would attend, of course, and was already looking forward to the discussion afterwards. He had a few things to say in the matter, after all.

He watched the boy throw down his fork and stand up. After a quick discussion with his godfather and Lupin, Potter left the restaurant.

---

The rest of the time, Harry spent pacing his room. He'd gone though his notes about a million times, now, but he still couldn't remember what he wanted to say. Luckily, Sirius and Remus had left him in peace. Sirius' well-meant comments would have driven him nuts.

Fifteen minutes before the beginning of his lecture, he went down to the largest room, where most people were gathered already. When the announcer finally called his name, his heart almost stopped. He stood in the middle of the room, rooted to the spot, until Remus finally managed to gently push him towards the front of the room.

Clumsily, Harry stumbled onto the stage and blinked in the too bright lights. He cleared his throat, cast a quick Sonorus and looked out over the crowd.

"Um, welcome, ladies and gentlemen," he stuttered out and gripped his notes more tightly, so that the parchment crinkled slightly.

"As you have, um, certainly gathered from today's agenda already, I will give you a short overview of my work as a hunter and then I'd like to invite you all to participate in a discussion and ask all the questions you desperately want to get off your chest."

---

When he was finished, Harry remembered nothing of his lecture, but obviously the audience had liked it. They gave the tell-tale Boy Who Lived-standing ovations Harry had got quite used to ignoring, until he lifted a hand to start the open discussion. He knew he could hold his own there.

Once the audience was seated again, a few hands were immediately raised. Harry picked a few of them at random and answered simple questions about his work. He could not long avoid noticing the hands of several experts in the field of Defence Against the Dark Arts. He hadn't thought that this many would want to listen to his lecture.

Harry got even more nervous, when he noticed the dark figure at the back of the room. Snape. Of course, he would never miss the chance to watch Harry make a fool of himself. To his surprise, Snape remained silent, though.

The hour of discussion was almost over and Harry had done well, in his own opinion. The questions and comments ceased slowly and silence ensued.

Snape purposefully caught Potter's eye and saw the boy bracing himself.

"Mr. Potter," came the snide voice from the back of the room, "I find myself surprised as to your sudden eloquence. You must be in excellent form, indeed."

Harry swallowed, perplexed. Of course, it was customary for the participants to introduce themselves, but Snape didn't care to do so, obviously.

"Would you care to explain how you handle situations that involve no Dark Creature in the conventional sense, but, say, an Animagus you might deem dangerous?"

"Um ..." Great start. "You mean would I be able to discern an Animagus and deal with them in an appropriate way?" There, a whole sentence. That hadn't been overly difficult, now, had it?

Snape smirked. People would not be able to recognize it as such, but Harry could see it in his eyes. "For example, Mr. Potter. Do you think Animagi are capable of taking most of what defines the way a human being thinks through the transformation into their animal counterpart?"

Harry nodded. "I think they are. What makes some of them so dangerous might rather be their instincts as animals that can't be subdued."

"So, are you implying that an Animagus is legitimately at your mercy to be hunted, if you are of the opinion that their instinctual behaviour poses a threat?"

"… Yes, I suppose," Harry agreed. "I haven't thought about focussing on Animagi, yet."

"Maybe you should start considering that, Mr. Potter. One never knows, you might find yourself confronted with one of their kind much sooner than you think."

Harry eyed him suspiciously, and when he didn't answer right away, Snape had already turned towards the door.

---

When Harry returned to Sirius and Remus, they were both looking at him askance. "What did that greasy bastard want to achieve?" Sirius asked suspiciously. He didn't like having Snape talk about Animagi as if he understood a damn thing about them.

"No idea," Harry shrugged. "But at least he wasn't too critical."

Sirius opened his mouth, then, but Harry interrupted him before he could say something scathing.

"I know you don't like him, but he's the Master in the area. Since he finally got the DADA post at Hogwarts, his integrity is much acknowledged among his colleagues. He knows what he's talking about."

Sirius growled a little, but he couldn't argue with his godson, there. He didn’t have to like Snape, though.

Remus changed the subject a little. "Your nervousness was completely unnecessary, by the way, you did a great job up there."

"Really? I can't remember anything I said!"

"You knew it all by heart anyway, obviously," Sirius chuckled. "Well, I'm really proud of you."

"Oh, come on, it's no big deal. I bet there'll be nothing but criticism in the next issue if Defence Quarterly. They’ve been trying to work against my perfect image for years now."

"Hey, where's my optimistic godson and what did you do to him? No, really, just trust us when we say you were brilliant."

"Okay, you win. Can we go now? I'm hungry."

"That's what you get for refusing meals we try to stuff into you," Remus grinned and they made their way back to the restaurant.

This time, Harry didn't refuse the food. He ate a double portion of pasta and chocolate éclairs for dessert. He didn't notice the eyes watching him once more.

---

Later that night, Harry tossed and turned in his large, lonely bed. Sleep eluded him and today's discussion repeated itself in his head over and over. Snape's comments had been less biting than he'd feared. He'd heard much of the man and his work and despite the enmity that had always seemed to exist between them he would love to talk to the man some more. Maybe the distance they now had, in not being student and teacher anymore, would help there.

After about two hours, in which he had tried in vain to fall asleep, Harry sighed and got up. No sense in wasting the night in bed. So he decided to go to the bar for a midnight drink.

He put on a pair of jeans and a jumper, not caring so much for appearances this time. He just wanted to feel comfortable. He stuffed some money into his pocket and made his way downstairs. Maybe getting a little pissed would be the answer to his current problem.

The bar was mostly empty, only a few chairs at the bar were occupied. Harry sat down in a corner, as far away from the others as possible. After ordering a whisky, he shot a glance over the tables, mindful not to draw any attention, as he didn't need a chat with another enthusiastic admirer.

He had quite enjoyed the discussion today, and was looking forward to participating in some more over the next few days, now that his nervousness was gone.

His drink arrived and he sipped thoughtfully, mulling over his current job. He liked it a lot. It was a challenge that kept him on his toes, but so different from what he'd had to do in his fight against Voldemort. The conference was a chance to learn so much more and maybe even expand the range of services he offered.

His musings were interrupted suddenly when a dark figure entered the bar through a side entrance. Harry recognized it immediately. Their eyes met for a few seconds before Harry looked down at his drink again. He hoped he could escape this somehow. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to face certain sarcastic remarks right now.

His wish was not to be granted, though. Snape ordered at the bar and then came right towards him. "Good evening, Mr. Potter."

"Oh, um, hello, Professor." Harry looked up as the man seated himself opposite him. "It's not exactly my night, Sir."

"Why not? You obviously did well with your lecture, this afternoon. My esteemed colleagues regard you quite highly, already."

"I was just talking about my experiences and ... well, who doesn't regard Harry Potter quite highly?" He swallowed the aftertaste of his bitter words with a huge sip from his drink.

"What about your experiences? Haven't you made enough for your age?"

"Yeah, sure, but somehow I expected more. Not of the job but... you're probably not interested in that." Harry sighed. His drink was empty, so he gestured to the bartender for another one.

Snape looked at him closely, but said nothing. Harry had the feeling Snape hadn't agreed with that last part of his statement. A few minutes passed in silence, which was only disturbed when the bartender came with Harry's drink.

"Since when again is it possible for us to have this kind of conversation?” Harry mentally smote his forehead, because, well … neither of them had actually said anything for a while. “Because I'm still not used to not ... you know." Harry shook his head slightly and burrowed in his drink again.

An eyebrow went up. "To what, Potter? Not arguing?"

"Well, yeah. I think."

Snape snorted. "It's called ‘growing up’, I think." He took a sip of his own drink. “And maybe that applies to both of us,” he added in an undertone before clearing his throat.

Harry regarded him, slightly taken aback, then said, "I don't feel any more grown up than when I left school." He scraped one of his fingernails lightly over the edge of the wooden table.

"I don't presume these three years can possibly have been so unbearably uneventful as you want to make me believe."

"For me, they were. Hunting dark beasts and coming home to an empty flat, mostly."

Snape sipped his drink and stared at him intently. "And there, I would have thought, after vanquishing a Dark Lord, the hero might get to enjoy himself."

"I don't enjoy alcohol and willing fans, if you mean it like that," Harry retorted.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "I was referring to life, Potter. Whatever it is young people your age do."

"Oh. Well, I've found nothing that really tempted me until now."

That eyebrow again. "I see."

Harry finished his second drink and waved to the bartender again. The man didn't see him, though, so he went over to the bar to order there. When he turned around with his glass of water, he noticed Snape watching him.

"Like what you see?" he quipped when he sat down again.

"You should have been able to answer this question quite some time ago, I think," Snape replied and narrowed his eyes at Harry's glass.

Harry looked at him, puzzled. "You mean ... What do you mean?"

"I mean, Mr. Potter, that you have no observation skills whatsoever."

"Never was my strong side," Harry sighed "I actually meant the question as a joke. I never thought something like this was likely to come up between us, as this was always one of the things I didn't have to scrutinise, because it was more than obvious that -" A sudden interruption made him stop his babbling and look up.

Snape smirked. "Care to find out, then, what I think of you?"

Harry went still immediately. Snape's gazed seemed to pierce through him and he shifted uncomfortably, pressing his fingernail into the wood this time.

"Um, maybe I should go, now. It's late already," Harry finally said, and surprised them both by getting up to leave.

Snape looked up at him, taken back, and took in the younger man’s shy blush. He nodded stiffly. "As you wish."

"Um, good night, Professor," Harry murmured and hurried away.

---

He finally got a little sleep for the rest of that night. After waking up the next morning, he went though his morning routine and went down to breakfast.

He hadn't made arrangements with Remus and Sirius for breakfast, so he entered the restaurant alone. Only a few witches and wizards were up already, as it was still early.

He looked around for a while, and plumped for a table in the far corner of the room, next to the one a red-haired stranger, who was half hidden behind a newspaper, was currently occupying. Only when Harry came closer did he recognize the man.

"Bill!" he exclaimed and quickened his steps.

Bill looked up from the page he had been studying and stood up to greet him, dangling dragon teeth earring and all. Harry felt warmth suffusing his chest. He’d never cease loving to have people around that reminded him of how good it felt to have a family.

"Harry! Finally I get to talk to you. After your lecture yesterday, I couldn't seem to find you."

Harry smiled at him and shrugged. "I was exhausted and went to my room. I wasn't feeling up to much more after that discussion."

"Yeah, well, it lasted for over an hour. And Snape was pretty strange," Bill added in a murmur and looked away.

"Oh. Yeah. I talked to him at the bar, last night. I couldn't sleep and went down for a drink. He kept me company and said some weird things."

Bill was slowly looking back at him. "What do you mean, 'weird things'?"

"Well, he ... he pretty much wanted to know how life has been treating me after Hogwarts. As strange as that sounds."

Bill grunted non-committally. After some time, he asked abruptly, "and since when do you two have ... this kind of conversation?"

Harry smothered a little snort at recalling similar words from the night before, but sobered quickly again. "We … had to somehow overcome some of our ... resentments in order to work together during the war, I think," answered Harry thoughtfully. "And -" His eyes had drifted to the doors. "Speak of the devil."

Bill turned toward the door as well and watched Snape enter the restaurant in a familiar swirl of black robes. To Harry's surprise, Snape made a beeline for them, as soon as their eyes met, and Bill nodded in reluctant greeting.

The Professor looked around the room once more, and then walked over to the table beside which they were standing. "Mr. Potter. Mr. Weasley."

"Good Morning, Professor, we were just talking about -"

"Very interesting, Mr. Weasley," Snape cut him off, "but surely you can postpone your heart-warming reunion and come with me for a few minutes?"

Bill looked at him, puzzled. "Can't you talk to me here? My breakfast will be here, soon!"

Snape only raised a cold eyebrow at him. "Oh, alright," Bill grumbled and followed Snape over to another table. Harry frowned and sat down at Bill’s table.

"What do you want, Professor?" Bill asked sourly.

Snape sneered and his gaze strayed to Potter for a few seconds before he said, "I just wanted to let you know that those Club members present intend to meet this week. A suitable room has yet to be found." He gave Bill a last look and turned to sit down.

"Very well," Bill answered curtly and turned back to sit by Harry’s side. "Sorry for the interruption," he apologised.

"What did he want?" Harry asked and leaned in a bit, trying not to return Snape's gaze.

"He, um, wanted to ask if I'd attend a meeting with him and a few of his colleagues."

"A meeting? I didn't know you were working together with him?!"

"Oh, we're not. It's only a discussion about DADA."

Harry wanted to ask more, but at that moment, a waiter approached with Bill's food. Harry ordered some for himself and soon the topic was forgotten. The rest of their breakfast was spent with amiable talk about their jobs.

Again and again, Harry’s gaze had wandered over to a man he had once hated most in his life. But when he looked this time, he thought he saw a pair of golden eyes looking back at him. He averted his gaze at once and cursed himself for his paranoia.

After blinking a few times, he looked over again. Snape hadn't had golden eyes the last time he had looked. Of course not. And when he caught sight of the man once more, there was no gold anywhere, only black (and creamy white skin).

Blushing, Harry averted his gaze and returned it to his plate. Snape had caught him staring.

Then, Sirius and Remus approached their table and Harry was distracted again. He was not too sorry for it.

---

The day flew by fast, and, in the beginning, Harry enjoyed it much more that the one before. His nervousness was gone and he was free to listen to whatever lecture struck his fancy. Taking part in the discussions actively was stimulating and he got many compliments for the intelligent questions he came up with, which irritated him a lot.

However well a day started, somehow people always had to remind him at some point that he was not really one of them. Sirius tried to make him forget about it, but Harry was in an increasingly bad mood when they finished their dinner.

So, again, he sought peace in his room, but was unable to entertain himself. Sleep eluded him like the previous night, but this time, instead of trying to fall asleep, he went down to the bar right away.

He sat down and didn't even pretend to be nice when the waiter asked him for his order. When the drink came, he just stared at it. Instead, he was lost in thought. Secretly, he wished Snape would visit him again, but the man was nowhere to be seen.

He noticed a young woman eyeing him closely and wished she wouldn't do what he knew from experience seemed to be inevitable.

And indeed, the woman came over soon and sat down in the empty chair beside him. He didn't greet or acknowledge her otherwise, but she didn't seem to mind. Instead, she began talking to him as if they had known each other for ages.

"... and I remember how your team would almost always win," she was sighing, "I’m two years younger, you know. And I watched each and every one of your games when we were both still at school." She beamed at him.

For some time, he tried to pretend her tittering voice wasn’t there, but she just kept on as if he was listening attentively. After endless minutes, he had enough and turned to her. The woman smiled at him expectantly, but Harry just shook his head.

"Can you please leave me alone?"

Her face fell. "But I thought...?"

"Well, you thought wrong," he replied and immediately regretted the harshness of his voice.

Her smile was a bit forced now. "Well, okay, um ... maybe we could, you know, meet again some time this week?"

"No, I don't think so," was the curt reply. He tried not to glare at her and supposed he had not been very successful when she jumped off her seat and scurried away.

"My my, Mr. Potter, I didn't know you had it in you to wound another human being’s feelings."

Harry let his head flop onto the tabletop. "She was grating on my nerves," he sighed quietly. "I just want some peace. But you are always right on time me, aren't you?" he murmured into the hard wood.

Snape smiled to himself and sat down, watching the boy's head rise again. "Was the young lady not to your taste?"

Harry shook his head, the movement almost imperceptible. "My taste runs in somewhat other directions."

"Mh, I wonder how you would know such a thing if your life has been as highly uneventful up until now as you wanted to make me believe yesterday."

"Well, there might have been two or three things I haven't told you. Or one in particular."

"Interesting. Care to do so now?" Snape said with a smirk and Harry started to seriously wonder what this was all about.

"Well, there was this one guy, nothing interesting, really," he finally ground out.

"You never had a talent for the fine art of lying, Potter, and I must discover that this still hasn’t changed."

"It's the truth!" Harry protested.

"I'm sure that 'this one guy' does indeed exist, but you must have been somewhat interested, otherwise it wouldn't have happened."

"Let me reformulate. He wasn't that interesting. What he did was boring, always the same old stuff. In the beginning, it was all right, I guess, but I wanted … I don't know what."

Snape looked very smug suddenly, and Harry couldn't pinpoint the expression. "What?"

"Maybe you should try something different then. You are young, after all, and adventurous at that, aren't you?"

Harry was horrified to realise that he was blushing. "Yeah ... I think."

"You mean you would not be averse to learning more about your sexual nature?"

Harry blushed again and cursed himself for it. "Um, no. Actually. What are you implying?"

Snape said nothing for a moment. Then, "It is probably the right time to retire to your room."

Harry swallowed, looked down, then up again, and nodded. Maybe it was a good idea to talk about sex with Snape in private. Here, anyone could listen in.

Still, he remained rooted to the spot, and his mouth was suddenly very dry. Snape's eyes were roaming over his body and he felt a bit queasy all of a sudden.

Snape stood and waited for Harry to do the same. "Lead the way, Mr. Potter."


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