Disclaimer I own nothing.
Thanks to Heather, my wonderful beta!
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Chapter Four- Hunter
Severus stormed into the office and threw his cloak into a corner.
"Bad mood again, Mister Snape?" asked his long suffering secretary, adding quietly, "What a surprise."
"I heard that," growled Severus, who could not be bothered to actually do anything about it.
"Whoa, sorry!" replied the unfortunate woman. "Honestly," she added to herself, "he could actually be a vampire, what with th-"
"I heard that too, Miss White! And I do not appreciate being compared to the creatures that I am hunting. I would be very happy," said the increasingly annoyed man, "if you would just be quiet and get on with filing!"
"Yes, Mister Snape, sorry for annoying y-"
"Now!"
Severus glared at Lucy White for a moment, daring her to reply. She stared back, then turned to the stack of papers that had piled up on her desk and began to shuffle.
The raven-haired man in turn began to look through his own rather more orderly pile of papers.
The door to the office suddenly flew open and hit the wall with a crash. Severus swiftly ducked under his desk and reached into his robes for his wand.
"Got some papers for you, Mister Snape," sang an unfamiliar voice.
Severus slowly straightened, his patented Death Glare falling on a head overflowing with blonde ringlets.
"Who are you?" he snapped.
"Shelley, Mister Snape. I'm new here," the girl proudly proclaimed.
"I can tell. Now listen to me, Shelley," spat Severus. "This corporation houses vampire hunters. Vam-pire hun-ters," he enunciated. "We are paranoid and jumpy. We are short tempered. We do not like people barging around loudly and entering our offices without knocking!"
Shelley whimpered.
Lucy immediately took pity on her and beckoned her over to give the usual 'Don't-worry-it's-only-Snape-he's-a-bit-mad' talk, her eyes shooting daggers at Severus. It was a talk that she gave to all of the people that were unlucky enough to venture into his office, and Lucy, as usual, made it as clear as she dared that she disapproved of his attitude. As usual, Severus ignored her.
When the unfortunate blonde had been calmed down enough to promise Lucy that she would not leave just because of the bad temper of the ex-teacher, she scuttled out of the room.
"Mister Snape, you really need to stop doing this to all of the new workers."
"Doing what?" asked Severus innocently.
"Terrorizing people. I can't imagine what you did to your poor students when you were a teacher…"
"Nothing they didn't deserve," he said darkly.
"Somehow, that doesn't comfort me," said the woman with a frown.
"That is not really my problem, Miss White. I believe that you were doing paper-work?"
Lucy snorted at the man and returned to work once more.
Severus picked up the pile of document that Shelley had dropped on his desk, and began to skim through them.
"Vampire club orgy type thing…" he muttered to himself, "yet another supposed attack on a muggle virgin… stupid wizards killed in Transylvania while sightseeing… sighting of Damien… Sighting of Damien?" Severus straightened in his chair, and looked more carefully at the sheet in question. Ever since he had handed in his notice at Hogwarts and begun his work as a vampire hunter, he and Damien had constantly been meeting, whether by coincidence or design.
And that damned vampire always manages to slip through my hands, thought Severus grimly. Well maybe this time he won't.
Severus had always told himself that he had not become a vampire hunter because he might at some point kill whatever vampire had done whatever had attacked her. He was just doing his duty to the Wizarding World, and helping the Ministry to rid themselves of the constant supply of non-peaceful vampires that were always plaguing them.
He was certainly not doing it because maybe, just maybe, some day he might see her again.
Severus had told Dumbledore that he needed a change, and that it was time for him to leave Hogwarts. After all, now that the war was over it was safe for him to leave the children. He had owed the headmaster much for watching over him and lifting him from the darkness so many years ago, but he deemed his debt finally paid."
As he had told himself repeatedly, it was time to move on. Forget about the past, throw himself into whatever he felt like doing, maybe find a woman who could satisfy him…
But try as he had, no woman could satisfy him. She had always been there in the back of his mind, like a splinter that he would never be able to dislodge.
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Severus turned to the people standing around him. They looked tense. Well, that was probably a good thing; it meant that they would be alert, and they certainly needed to be.
"You all know what to do, don't you?" he asked quietly.
"Yes, Severus," said one of the party with a thin smile. "We know what we're doing."
"I hope so."
The group split up as planned. Severus lead seven of them into the woods that surrounded the large house they were to break into, while the speaker lead two others up the path that lead directly to its front door. As he walked quickly through the wet leaves on the forest floor, Severus looked back towards the group walking up the path. They were out of sight.
He sighed. The protocol was always such a hindrance. They were on Ministry business, so they were not allowed just to break into the house and capture everyone in it. No, instead a well armed party had to go into the house and formally attempt to arrest the vampires in question. The party would of course be refused, and then attacked. The vampires would then be alerted to the presence of the others who were there to finish the job of arresting them and rescuing the original delegates. The annoying thing was that as ineffective as this plan was, if it was done any other way then the vampires, once arrested, could take their captors to court. Since the vampires were almost human, they had rights. And Severus certainly had no intention of landing in Azkaban.
"Found it!"
"Good," said Severus, hurrying towards the trap-door that one of the members of the elite group of vampire hunters had found. Severus had asked for the best in the business, and he had been given them. It took a real professional to find something hidden under so many layers of leaves and protective spells.
The light emitting from his wand allowed him to exchange glances with the rest of his team. A whispered spell later, the door opened and after a quick look, Severus climbed in.
As he descended the cold metal ladder that led to the basement of the house, Severus hoped that this time he would succeed. From the information he had, Damien was renting the house with a small number of other vampires. Apparently they were taking a break of some sort, and would not be expecting any attacks.
Severus unlocked the second door that led into the basement and lightly dropped through it. A moment later the rest of the team followed. Surprisingly, the door swung upwards to shut behind them.
"Lumos," whispered Severus, and the room was lit as everyone else followed suit.
A second later, the shocked wizards and witches were plunged into darkness once more as their wands were snatched from their hands.
Severus vowed to himself that if he survived long enough, he was going to find whoever had fed him the information about the 'small number of vampires' and ensure that they suffered for a great length of time.
The room that they had dropped into was large, but it had been completely filled regardless. Even the best fighters that the Ministry could provide did not stand a chance against at least a hundred vampires.
As Severus felt his mind giving in to the oblivion that was offered by the powers that the more powerful vampires possessed, he lamented being outsmarted by Damien again.
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Severus woke, and grimaced in pain.
Glancing around, he was able to make out the figures of the other people in his team in similar positions to himself; hung from the walls by their hands.
All ten of his companions were there, although none of them were conscious yet.
There was someone else in the room as well. They were not hung from the walls, but instead were lying on a bed in a moderately sized cage, built by vampires especially for holding human prey.
"Hello?" he asked tentatively.
The figure on the bed sat up, and moved towards the bars. Severus strained his eyes so that he could see what they looked like.
His eyes settled on long brown hairand a face that he thought that he would only see again in his dreams. Right now, the woman's full lips were parted slightly, and her chocolate coloured eyes were wide with shock.
"Hermione?"
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AN: Can this be? I have I actually updated this fic? Wow. Sorry for the long wait, I'm afraid there are probably more to come. I'm not sure when exactly the next chapter of this fic will come up (within the next couple of months, I can promise that!), but I will do my best. I just have too much going on atm.
Sorry the chapter is so short, but I just wanted to get it out!
Thanks to my lovely reviewers, Miss Elvira Dark (glad you like him!), princess-Starseed-1987, momsangel, Moon-n-Universe-Goddess, Evil Penguin Slayer (love the name!) and Natsuyori.
Please review!