Disclaimer: Just exploring my imagination, based on somebody else's characters

Note: Hello! I'm really looking forward to how this story will develop. The first moment the main characters meet is the most critical in setting the tone for the whole story. So this one is ...very different than what I have tried in the past. That's half the fun for me for sure. In my mind this is a dark and gritty half love story. We'll see, it's always amazing to me how one idea can change over time. My goal here is to write Severus as more of a jerk than I normally do. I'm trying to break a bit my Severus mold and push for a darker Hermione too. It's always fun to see how all you readers and authors will react. I look forward to your comments and remarks as always. Hugs!

Also, I've put below the song and setting that I am envisioning. It's the first time I've incorporated these kinds of things in a story as well. ;-)

Chapter 2: When Two Worlds Collide

Song: Spotify "Why don't you do right?" by Sugarpie and the Candymen

Bar setting: Google search "Atlas bar in Singapore"

De-Magicalized Zone (DMZ), The Kit Kat Club, January 2006

Severus Snape was horribly behind schedule when he knocked three times at the door of the most notorious sex club of the De-Magicalized Zone, the Kit Kat Club. He despised this strip of earth more than he could put into words. It was lawless, dirty and full of punks who needed to be taught their manners. It was during the course of teaching two young men their manners that he realized he was running much more behind than he should be. The miscreants had already been apologizing for a long while, blood running down their faces, teeth missing and trembling in fear when he had to bring his lesson to an abrupt end. Grabbing his cane firmly at the bottom, using the snake head as a weapon, Severus properly bashed their skulls in with enough force to concus them and knock them unconscious. It probably wasn't enough to kill them, but then again, some were made of stronger stock than others.

Severus ran his fingers up the lapel of his cloak absentmindedly, coming across a small bit of skull and hair that had landed there. Scrunching his nose up most distainfully he flicked it off as if it were a fly resting there. That was what he hated most about the DMZ, with no wands and no wandless magic allowed there, one had to resort to getting one's hands dirty. The dower Potions Master snorted at this thought and began to observe the dirt under his nails as a small slit in the door opened, a pair of eyes looked at him from within.

"I'm here for the show." Severus said, as calm and collected as he could for a man running extremely late.

The pair of eyes squinted at him for a moment, then the slit shut and the sound of locks being unlocked sounded through the shabby wooden door. 'Everything takes longer without magic.' Severus thought whilst rolling his eyes at the inordinate amount of time it was taking to enter this establishment of ill repute. Severus tapped his foot irritatingly, though he knew it wouldn't do him much good.

The door finally swung open and the must of stale cigarettes, cheap perfume and human musk filled his sensitive nostrils.

"You're late." A squat old woman said, looking up at him with her hands on her hips. She must have been half his height, certainly not any more than that.

Severus peered down at her, narrowing his eyes at her in an attempt at intimidation. It didn't work. "Manners." He said simply, holding up the head of his cane, still caked in blood.

"Pull that shit in here, and you'll need more than a cane to save your sweet pansy ass." Said the old lady, arms crossed, her eyes assessing him for any sort of real danger to the patrons.

Severus started to retort but then thought better of it. For as much as he'd love to put midget grandma in her place, he needed to focus on the task at hand.

He started again. "The only thing you'll see my pansy ass doing, is getting licked for an exorbitant price by one of your whores." He crossed his hands on his cane, giving her his most prim look he could muster.

That answer seemed to abate any fears she might have that he was a rabelrouser of sorts, and she motioned him to the club door.

"You'd better hurry, the final act is coming soon. You certainly don't want to miss that." The old woman gave him a toothless grin as she called out after him.

Severus ignored her and made his way through the club. He moved past the bar, the play rooms and the open sex areas and to the back where the shows took place. That was the only thing that interested him now, that was the only thing that mattered, finding Agent Lazarus and making the hand off.

'Oh for the love of Merlin!' he cursed to himself.

There was only one seat in the house left, and that was right at the end of the long stage. The Kit Kat had a special kind of stage where the performers could remain closer to the curtain, on the more traditional side. Or they could walk out onto a peninsula of sorts that went really through the middle of the seated crowd. Severus had the great stroke of luck to be seated right at the end of this elongated part of the stage. Front and center, for lack of a better term. In a place where he wanted to remain as anonymous as possible, he was about to be the most prominently placed person in the room, other than the performers of course.

'Well at least she won't miss me.' He thought to himself sarcastically.

Severus pushed through the crowd and took a seat. He ordered a glass of wine and acquainted himself with the surroundings. While the rest of the club left something to be desired, this particular part was most aesthetically pleasing. It was done up in a purple velvet with a sort of art deco feel that made if feel grander than it was. It gave one a sense of class in a rather classless environment. Interlacing his fingers in his lap and sitting back in his chair, Severus looked around at the clientele here. They were Wizards, Witches and Muggles from all walks of life. Mostly well dressed and done up, some fully clothed, some in dresses and suits far too risque to wear in public. There was nobody he knew, which was already a huge relief. He had not looked forward to an encounter with a former colleague from Hogwarts.

'Oh the utter embarrassment.' He thought to himself, though a glint did come into his eye at the thought of catching Minerva at one of these places. 'A fiery old hell cat no doubt.' He mused and took a sip of his wine, tapping his fingers incessantly on the table, waiting for the final act to begin.

Then a voice brought all of the talk, chatter and anything else that was going on there to a halt. "I'd like to thank everybody for being here tonight." It was a sexy, teasing type of voice, like one you might hear from a dominatrix.

Severus was all ears.

"This is my last number, so I thought I'd give you something to . . . think about later when you're engaged in full debauchery."

The utter naughtiness and zeast that came through from this disembodied voice, the curtains to the stage were still down, made Severus raise an eyebrow with distinct interest. The spotlight came on.

She started singing before the music began, it was a sweet pleading voice, one that made you feel desire in the pit of your stomach. "You had plenty money 19. . .22"

It was when the curtains pulled away that Severus instantly regretted not getting there sooner. The woman that walked out was like something he'd only ever seen in Muggle films, or his own dreams. She wore an emerald green dress that shimmered under the spotlight. It clung tenuously to her breasts, strapless and form fitting with a huge slit up the side. Her shoes were black platform and stiletto, making her several inches taller than she would have been, but extending her legs into such a form that it made even a restrained man like him want to crawl on his belly toward her. Her hair was a bit longer than shoulder length, full curls and arranged in a glorious ordered mess on one side of her head. A small bit of eye makeup and deep red lipstick drew you to all the right places.

If this was Agent Lazarus, then he was in trouble.

She finished the first couple of lines of the song, and had everybody in the room hooked instantly. Women, men, trolls ...everybody who was in that room only had eyes for her, for that confident, dirty little smirk that played across her face as she sang.

"Why don't you do right, like some other men do?"

As she drug out the end of that line, walking down the long part of the stage, nearing the middle of the audience, she stopped suddenly, bringing her hands behind her back. Her dress dropped to the floor, as if it were magic. Though, as Severus ran his finger in between his neck and his collar to escape the rising heat in his body, he knew it certainly wasn't.

Underneath her remarkable dress she wore a beautiful 1920's corset with skin toned meshing, emerald green ribbing and beautiful green and gold flowers covering only her nipples. Her panties were the same, cute flowers in the front, nude meshing in the back exposing her succulent bum to the audience. Her green garter belt heald her nude colored stockings with a single line running up the back of each leg.

It didn't matter if you were gay, straight, into elves or whatever, if you were not turned on by this woman you were most certainly dead. What was worse, was that she was coming right toward him, slow and easy, like a great white shark on the hunt for the choicest seal.

Severus removed his finger from his collar, but took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. He was sweating profusely, as was every other sexually sound being in the room.

Then, to his great surprise, a man hopped up on stage near her and began to gyrate crudely in her direction. The bouncers made their move, but the dazzling young woman on stage never stopped singing and never broke stride. She held her hand up as if to stop them and turned to her unwanted guest. She lifted a soft hand to his face and stroked it, just as the appropriate line came up.

"Get out of here, give me some money too!"

Once her line was finished, she lifted her right knee higher than one would think possible given the height of her own heels and she planted a kick right in his stomach. The normal sized man flew a fair distance and landed on the floor with a sickening thud.

The crowd cheered and she smiled in return, continuing her way down the stage. There were a small couple of stairs that she made her way down, now level with the crowd the spot light still following her. Severus had to grin at the way she flirted with the crowd, how she pulled handkerchiefs out of men's pockets, kissed women on the neck and took a drink of champagne from the patrons as she passed through. She had them in the palm of her hand, most of them anyway.

Severus did his best to not fall under her preverbal spell. She was indeed beautiful and captivating, but it was a cover. It was nothing but an intoxicating, well done, spot on cover that made his cock twitch in excitement and his blood run warmer than it had in a long while. He inhaled deeply and tried to remind him that this was all an act and that, when it was done, they would have to be professionals.

She was getting close to the end of the song, Severus could hear it in the music, there wasn't too much left to go. He was almost in the clear. Then not quite, she finally made her way to his table.

"Why don't you do right?" She sang, as she laid herself across his table, her buffet of goodies there for him to admire. Then she shifted so sat in front of him on his table, her spike of her heel in his right shoulder her hands gripping his lapels, pulling him toward her.

"Like some other men…" There was a long pause as she brought him in for a slow kiss, her heel causing him just the right amount of pain to heighten the sensation.

He didn't respond, he wouldn't give in so easily. She kissed his bottom lip, waiting a beat for a response. Then she let him go.

"..doooooo." Her smirk was priceless as she hopped back up on stage and walked away from the crowd, waving as she exited the stage.

The room broke into a huge roar of applause, whistling and all sorts of other calls that one could imagine in a place like this.

Severus merely sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair, her first onslaught avoided, who knew how much time he would have to recuperate. He finished his wine, wiped his face and took some deep breaths. The room had begun to chatter as people stayed to have more drinks, laughed and carried on. He would stay put, he would wait for her to come to him.

Though he didn't need to worry too much about where she had gone or what had happened to her, after some moments she came into the room through a side door. She had on a black latex underbust corset with a mesh bodysuit, black latex thong and high heeled boots up to her mid thighs. It was simple, but tasteful, well put together and accentuated everything she had to offer.

In a fashion much bolder than Severus would have liked, she walked right up to where he was sitting. "So you're the one who paid extra for a full night with me."

He hadn't.

She leaned over and whispered in his ear nibbling it while she spoke, "Well we're gonna have lots of fun tonight."

"Laz . ." He began in a hushed tone.

"Shushh." She said, bringing her fingers to her lips. "This way."

The beautiful young woman took him by the hand and lead him to a more private cabin of sorts. It was still visible to all who might walk by, a poorly beaded curtain their only barrier to the outside. But it was private enough. She motioned to a seat and he took it, looking up at her waiting for a continuation of their brief discussion.

She straddled him, bringing her lips once again to his ears. "There are ears everywhere in this club Severus. Eyes too." She leaned back and looked to her side, there was a camera in the cubical. "But that one only picks up video, so we should be able to have a civilized conversation."

She smiled then, looking at him with this kind of look that one might give if one had seen a unicorn for the first time. It was pensive, curious and above all, analytical.

Severus ran his hands over her black mesh covered breasts and down her corset, she was a beautiful creature and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to play it up for the camera. "I have questions." He said in that deep questioning kind of voice that he knew would will her to comply.

"We have 15 minutes before we can use the room I've arranged dearest." She took his chin in her hand and brought him nose to nose with her, "So ask." She whispered. Her amber eyes danced in amusement as she studied his face more closely.

Not to be outdone by a younger agent, he gripped her sweet little bottom and brought her hips to rest on his, sure she wouldn't miss what had been growing there. Her eyes and nostrils flared at the sudden feel of his more than healthy erection.

"Crankshaw was a flaming homosexual, who only took on male students and apprentices. How did you get close to him?" He fisted a good bit of her hair firmly in his right hand, pulling her head so she would look at him. He had to see her eyes, he had to know if she would lie. An agent's job was to lie, he knew that better than anybody. That was why he could not trust another agent, even if they played for the same team.

She resisted only slightly, then looked him in the eye. "Well clearly you don't seem to share his sexual leanings." She grinned, then continued. "I'm sure you know the feeling. You are beautiful, smart, at the top of your game…" She shook free his grip of her hair and licked the side of his neck so that the camera could see. "...then young beautiful boys know your weakness for them and use you. They take and they take until you feel like nobody loves you anymore."

Agent Lazarus sat back on Severus' knees, studying him with a look that made him feel like a science project, as if she were analyzing every muscle of his face for a reaction. "That's when you start to take on people who won't hurt you, people who want you for who you are, not what you can give them. You break the mold, change your habits."

"I see." Severus replied in a low sultry voice that made his little bunny shudder. He ran an idol finger over the front of her latex thong, he could feel she was aroused through it, and it titillated him.

"Why can't you give me the information I need now?" He was squeezing her clit between his thumb and forefinger, threatening both great pleasure or great pain depending on her response. He saw her smirk, caught in a scenario she had not anticipated.

She was perfectly still when she answered him, though the playfulness and naughtiness was still in her voice. "It's because of the form it is in. You will see when our room is free."

He sent her a devilish smirk, gently rubbing her bundle of nerves before running his hand up her back. She was muscled and firm, the kind of woman who could take punishment, he liked that.

She turned now, sitting on him with her back to him, her ass rubbing his cock, her back arched so his hands had full access to her breasts and her pussy, her head near his.

"You don't like my line of questioning, do you?" Severus said in a low voice, slipping his fingers beneath her panties and using his free hand to hold her neck and jaw. She was splayed across him so beautifully now, he was sure that the camera operator was taking full view.

She groaned, he liked the way she groaned. It was throaty and raw, it was real. . .while everything else was a cover, an illusion created to meet a predetermined end, these lovely sounds indicated she really liked what he was doing to her. He grinned, but she couldn't see it.

"No. And I know where it will go next." She moaned, moving her hips with his fingers. He had yet to enter her, and this surly frustrated his young companion.

"Where do you come from?" He grinded the question out in her ear, as he tightened his grip on her throat, so she knew how much he wanted her to answer.

"A dream." Were the only two words to leave her lips. She had his balls tightly in grasp, threatening serious pain if he pressed his will any further. Her heart rate was even, her movements measured, it lit a fire in Severus that he could not describe.

Severus released the agent from his seductively deadly grasp. "It's time." She said, releasing him and guiding him out of the tiny pleasure cabin.

Taking him by the hand, she lead him through some doors, then some others...then some more. They were in the back part of the club now, quieter than the rest. She took a key from her corset and opened one of the doors to the right, pulling him inside and shutting the door, locking it behind her.

Severus didn't miss a beat, as she turned around he was upon her. Pressing her sexy little body against his and the door. He wasted no time in claiming her lips in a deep, strong forceful kiss, one that a naughty girl deserved. Her muscles were twitching, but she wasn't fighting him. When he drew back she stumbled to the side, wiped her mouth and glared at him.

"You better get to work sweetheart, no kisses until after you've done your job." There was an anger in her voice, a foreboding tone he couldn't place. He liked her, she was professional, sexy, most likely dangerous.

Agent Lazarus pushed past Severus and went to a locker in the corner. "Take a seat." She said without looking back at him. There was only one place to take a seat in this plainly done up room that had only one purpose in this club. "The desk!." She continue, annoyed that he was taking so long to arrange himself.

When she turned around with a pensive, his heart sunk. The reason for why she couldn't just hand him the information was now plain to him. Also the fact that they would be here most of the night, not engaged in other more stimulating activities also became clear. She grinned at his visible discomfort as she put the pensive down in front of him.

"So, Severus Snape." She made sure to annunciate all the syllables, almost as if she were mocking his speech pattern. "Have you ever taken a deep dive before?" She was standing across the ratty desk from him, her hands splayed out, face to face with him.

"If you are asking whether I've used a pensive before, then I'm afraid I must tell you the answer is yes." He was being difficult, they were power playing here and he would not be undercut.

She laughed and shook her head, then began to pace in front of him as if she were teaching a class. "A deep dive is something else. It's...messy." She looked over at him to see if he was following. "I told you I worked with Crankshaw, that I was apprenticed under him."

"You must be an exceedingly bright girl." He smirked deviously, his words both true and sarcastic. Crankshaw only took the best, there was no question in his mind that she was good, but how good was the question. There was a distinct enjoyment in ruffling her little feathers.

She smiled sarcastically back at him, her cute little ass twitching in that mesh bodysuit she still wore. "The reason I never finished my work with him, the reason I was with him for more than six years, was because he had dementia in the end."

Severus merely rolled his eyes and threw back his head. There wasn't much more that could have made this information extraction trickier. Crankshaw was a genius and with that came a certain thought process that would be taxing to understand, then utilize, then convert into information they could use. Dementia complicated this task tenfold.

She continued, "I took what I could when I could. When he didn't notice. That was early on. But later as he got really bad it was harder and harder to narrow down what memories might be useful."

Agent Lazarus looked over at him now, sadness in her eyes. She had cared for the man in some twisted way, that was not in question. To steal an old ailing man's memories, to grab them up as he lay there dying, while his synapses are still firing even when his heart had long ceased to pump, took a certain kind of cold heart. Severus looked at her, doing his best to remain as emotionless as always.

"Even till the end I took what I could." She was suppressing tears now, you didn't have to be an agent undercover to see that. "It's all here, in this pensive. And it's a fucking mess." She bit her lip nervously. "You're the only one who can make sense of what is in there now Sir."

Severus narrowed his eyes slightly at her use of the word 'Sir.' It was a strange usage, one that made him think of his Hogwarts days. HIs mind flashed back in quick succession, there was something about her tone, inflection and usage that was oddly familiar. Agent Lazarus was certainly of an age where he could have taught her if she had been in England at the time. He took a closer look at her face now, his earlier attentions having been drawn away from it by other more sexually alluring body parts.

She cut him off before he could get a more critical look at her face. "You have to do it now." She looked at the clock, "We have five hours before we are kicked out of here."

Severus nodded, knowing that the word "clusterfuck" didn't even begin to describe what he was about to dive into. He was about to go through the stolen memories of one of the most infamous Potions Masters in Wizarding History. One so dark and twisted that Lord Voldemort had entrusted him with such sensitive information that it could in fact lead to his own demise.

The pressure was huge, the stakes high. She would have to watch over him while he was completely immersed in Crankshaw's evil mind. Severus eyed her one last time, as if that would give him a good indication as to whether she was capable of protecting his person. He sighed to himself, 'I guess I'm not going to live forever.'

Just as he was dipping his head down toward the pensive Lazarus put her hand on Severus' shoulder. "Be careful in there. Find the list of Horcruxes and get out quickly." She warned. "Oh and kiss me again without my leave and I'll punch you in the face."

At that Severus could only grin. 'Good girl.' He thought to himself as he leaned forward, falling into the abyss.