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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Tasks	By : QueenB Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 5179 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in anyway, shape or form. The rights of such belong solely to J.K Rowling. I do not make any money or accrue any monetary benefit on this story.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
In spite of the hostility underlying their first meeting, the sorcerer was very quiet as they walked through the house. Harry couldn’t be sure whether the silence was a good thing or a sign of evil intentions on the part of his host.
The lengthy hall led off to various rooms, the doors firmly shut and so heavily guarded with magic Harry could actually see the pulsing wards with his naked eye. Snape didn’t bother to look at them or stop, only led the two youths to a door at the end of the hall.
Behind the thick oaken door was a sitting room, surprisingly cozy. There were plump chairs, covered in leather that looked butter soft to the touch. Wall-to-wall carpeting in forest green with silver edging lay on the floor, muffling their footsteps. There was a fire crackling, in spite of the June heat, with a cauldron suspended over it.
The walls were covered with shelves, each filled with books, many bound in leather of various colors. Harry didn’t recognize any of the nearest titles but they looked impressive. Hermione would have loved this room.
Snape grabbed Draco by the collar and led him to a round table. “You will sit here and keep an eye on that potion brewing over the fire and take notes of the changes in its color. If I return and find that it has boiled over or been ruined by your inattention, you will be very sorry indeed.”
Draco sat, glaring spitefully at Snape all the while. “When my father learns how you’ve treated me – “
The sorcerer sneered. “I haven’t so much as scratched that delicate porcelain skin of yours, Draco. Since I’m sure your father didn’t raise a crybaby, he will have nothing to say to me. He’d just better hand over the – “ Abruptly, he seemed to remember that Harry was in the room and cut himself short.
“You, Potter.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You don’t have to call me sir,” Harry murmured with an innocent look.
“I will not tolerate insolence from you, boy.”
Harry was about to retort again that he wasn’t a boy. Draco shot him a beseeching look but quickly focused his concentration back to the bubbling cauldron when the sorcerer swung around to glare at him. Harry swallowed what he was about to say; he wasn’t the only one at risk here if the sorcerer lost his temper.
“Have you eaten yet, Potter?”
“Um, no.” After the sorcerer’s initial nastiness, Harry was taken aback by the question. Snape’s next words disabused him of any kind motivations.
“Well, we can’t have you fainting away on your first chore. Come with me and I’ll fix you supper.”
“What about me?” Draco whined.
“You ate enough at breakfast to feed a dragon,” Snape snarled. “You’re not getting another bite until you’ve completed your work!”
He gestured for Harry to precede him and locked the door behind them. He warded it as well just for good measure and Harry’s heart sank. The man was clearly paranoid to a fault. Getting past a barrier like that would be as difficult as getting past the initial wards. Draco wasn’t getting out and Harry wasn’t getting back in, not unless he applied a great deal of force.
He was already spent with his travels and the efforts at the outlying barrier and knew he’d need a few hours to recharge and get his strength back. A good meal would certainly help with that.
Glad the sorcerer wasn’t going to starve him, Harry was nevertheless dumbfounded to find a kitchen with a table groaning with food. The sorcerer frowned and tapped the table with his wand. Immediately over two-thirds of the food disappeared. “Can’t have you over-eating on your first day. It will make you bloated and sleepy. And you’ll want to be awake for your first task.” He smiled horribly at that, the expression made even nastier by the yellow teeth exposed behind it, and Harry wondered what the man could be planning.
What was left on the table was more than ample and Harry set to with a will. As he ate, Snape drawled, “There’s not need to shovel your food into your mouth in that disgusting fashion. The food’s not going to disappear if you don’t eat it quickly.”
“You’ve just proven otherwise…sir,” Harry added.
A feather-thin eyebrow lifted. “A mild attempt at wit? I’m impressed. Your father wasn’t so adept. His idea of a bon mot was belching on cue.”
Harry stifled an untimely burp behind his hand, ignoring the sorcerer’s smirk. “Excuse me.” Wiping his fingers awkwardly on the napkin provided, he asked, “How do you know my father?”
“Badly,” Snape shot back. “He was an arrogant, preening, strutting, pathetic, gauche excuse for a wizard and more interested in Quidditch than anything else when I knew him.”
Harry scowled. “That’s not true! He’s a good man and a terrific wizard. He’s great at Transfigurations!”
“He was an indifferent student in all else, as I recall.” Snape sniffed and helped himself to a plate of dark meat. Resentment twisted his mouth, further souring his expression.
As the black-eyed man began cutting delicately into the food, Harry thought over what he’d just heard. It sounded very much like Snape had gone to school with his father. But he never remembered his father talking about the sorcerer. Not surprising if there was bad blood between them.
He decided it wasn’t a good idea to mention his father again and cast around for more innocent conversation. “So…you went to Hogwarts?”
Snape’s eyes narrowed. “Sir.”
“Sir.” Merlin, conversation was going to be awkward if he had to keep saying that all the time. “So you went to Hogwarts. What did you do once you graduated?”
The man chewed carefully. Harry thought he wasn’t going to answer the question. Then he swallowed and spoke carefully. “Indeed, I attended that school. However, after I left, I went to teach at Durmstrang.”
“Durmstrang?” Harry blurted.
Snape gave another disagreeable smile. “I see you’ve heard of it.”
Harry struggled for calm. “Yeah, I have.” Gathering his courage, he went on boldly. “During my fourth year, I competed against students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for the Triwizard cup. Hogwarts won. Sir,” he finished smugly.
The resentful look returned but only for a moment. “I’ve heard that was because there were two students from Hogwarts who competed. Unfair odds but then James and his friends never did play fairly. It’s clear you’re following in his footsteps,” he added meanly.
“I don’t see that,” Harry replied, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. “I’m here on my own, aren’t I? And I’m fully prepared to take care of your tasks, no matter what they are.”
“Are you, indeed? Then let’s get started, shall we?”
“Wha—wait, I haven’t finished my meal!”
“Oh, yes, you have.” Snape tapped the table again and the remaining food disappeared. “Come along, young Potter. Your first task awaits.”
__________
Fuming, his stomach growling now that it had been teased with a small taste of food and then denied a full meal, Harry followed the sorcerer. To his surprise, they left the house and proceeded to a stone building. As Snape unbolted the door, Harry was met with a chilly blast of air, freezing after the heat outside. Snape appeared unaffected by the cold and gestured him inside impatiently.
As Harry drew closer, he was assailed by a rank odor, one entirely inhuman, which stung his nostrils and made him nearly throw up the little he’d eaten. Snape shoved him forward and Harry stumbled inside the enclosure.
“This is where you’ll be staying tonight. You must remain here all night.” Snape stepped outside. “I’ll return for you in the morning. If you’re still alive.” The nasty smirk reappeared just before the door slammed shut.
What did he mean by that? With the door shut, the room was flung into impenetrable darkness. “Lumos,” Harry muttered. Almost immediately he wished he hadn’t as the meaning of Snape’s comment and the source of the foul smell became apparent.
Crouched on the floor was the biggest dog Harry had ever seen. Seeing an intruder, it rose to its feet, its head turning towards Harry with a basso growl that shivered the air.
Harry barely restrained himself from scrabbling at the door, screaming to be let out. Not one head but three met his eyes. Six glittering eyes on three dog heads swerved to follow his movement and the growls from each maw escalated until Harry’s ears rang.
The dog, or whatever it was, was huge. It was the size of an elephant, rearing up so that its heads nearly brushed the rafters. Its coat was shaggy, making the animal look like a cross between a bear and a wooly mammoth. A massive torso set on legs like tree trunks completed the horrific picture before him.
The dog bared its teeth at him. But with the swiftness that had made him the best Seeker Hogwarts had seen in 12 years Harry lunged to the side. He waved his wand and yelled, “Expelliarmus!”
The spell hit the dog but the creature charged through it as though nothing had happened. Harry threw other spells as the beast scrabbled along the stone floor but not one made an impression.
The creature must be impervious to magic! Harry dodged the snapping teeth again and he wondered how he was going to survive the night with this monster. In desperation, he cast the Disillusion Charm on himself and faded out of sight.
The dog staggered to a half. The snarls died to whines of confusion. Then it began snuffling along the floor. It could no longer see Harry but its sense of smell would soon sniff him out. He had to come up with a strategy before that happened.
There were no windows that he could see, which accounted for the previous darkness. The only entrance and exit from the building was the door he’d come in.
Sidling along the side of the building, he thought he might make it to the door and get out that way. He could levitate the bolts set on the outside, provided they weren’t set with magic. Yet Harry hesitated. If he did escape, he would fail his very first test. He was determined to succeed; he couldn’t bear to see the smug look in Snape’s eyes if he didn’t.
Also, he would lose his chance at rescuing Draco. Strange, how the thought of his unhappy prince hadn’t occurred to him until just now.
The snuffling had changed to an eager growl. The creature had picked up his scent. Frantic now, Harry ran his eye over the stone walls for something, anything, which might keep the monster at bay.
On the wall nearest, a few feet above his head, he saw a wand nestled in two brackets. There was nothing else in the room that looked remotely useful and Harry was out of options. “Accio wand!” he cried.
The wand didn’t budge. But his cry had alerted the Cerberus. Its heads swung towards him and the growl became a bone-rattling bark. Taking a chance, Harry gathered all his strength and leapt for the wand just as the dog charged. The triple-headed beast collided with the wall where he had been standing and let out a howl as all three heads crashed into the stone. It collapsed on the floor, momentarily dazed from the impact, and whimpered with pain, its paws scrabbling at the floor.
As he fell on the floor, Harry barked one of his knees painfully. Barely squeezing back a moan, he pointed the wand at the dog and tried the Repelling Charm again. Once more nothing happened.
Why wasn’t it working?! Frantically, Harry’s fingers felt along the wand and he frowned. There were indentations beneath his fingers and a weird bulge at the tip. It didn’t feel like any wand he’d ever seen before. Holding it up to his eyes, he realized it wasn’t a wand at all. It was a flute.
Merlin, he was well and truly fucked.
The dog stood up, shaking its head. It was recovering from the aborted attack and the heads were swiveling in all directions, trying to pinpoint Harry’s location. With no other choices open to him, Harry lifted the flute to his mouth and blew.
At the first tremulous note, the dog stopped growling. Its heads cocked to the side and it whined. There was a bizarre quaver to it, one of puzzlement rather than the bloodlust heard earlier. It pawed the floor and whined again.
Harry blew another note and then more followed it. He was no musician but a tune seemed to spiral out of the instrument nonetheless. The hound sank to its belly, its heads weaving to the primitive melody Harry was coaxing from the wooden device.
His fingers were starting to cramp but he didn’t dare stop, not until he was certain the danger was over. The growls and whines had stopped completely by now. The beast’s ears drooped; its three heads swayed with every note. Finally, all three jaws opened in wide yawns that nearly split the heads in two. The enormous heads dropped to the stone floor with jarring thumps. Soon the only sounds heard from the dog were loud, snuffling snores that rattled the timbers.
Cautiously, Harry lowered the flute. The creature didn’t stir.
He sank to the floor, weary to the bone. His knee throbbed horribly, his stomach rumbled from renewed hunger brought on by his exertions and his head ached from the beast’s roars and growls. Now that he was no longer exerting himself, the chill he’d noticed earlier came rushing back, causing him to shiver uncontrollably. Realizing he was in danger of catching a chill or worse, Harry cast a Warming Charm and then a Cushioning Charm on his clothes to offset the hard floor.
As a precaution should their journey be a long one, he and his friends had learned spells to keep meals fresh for a really long time. He’d secreted some food, magically shrunken, in a little moleskin pouch around his neck. But he felt too exhausted now to eat and the food might be better saved for another time.
In spite of all his aches and the snoring monster that dozed only scant feet away, he was asleep in no time.

TBC
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Tasks