A/N: The time between this chapter and the next will be more than two weeks, closer to three. My beta and I are super busy with life things right now. But never fear, it is in the works! I love hearing from y'all, even if its just a one word response! 😊

"Feeling like a freak on a leash

Feeling like I have no release

How many times have I felt diseased

Nothing in my life is free, is free"

-Korn, Freak on a Leash

As Hermione Granger, finally out of her Unspeakable robes and in her flannel pajamas, slowly sank into her favorite spot on the couch in her living room, she sighed contentedly. It was a well broken in soft dark brown couch with several burgundy throw pillows and a thick blanket folded on the back. The couch sat on a burgundy area rug, surrounded on three sides by two accent tables and a coffee table, all three made of pine that matched the wooden floors. Each accent table was topped with a lamp. Bookshelves filled to near capacity lined two walls while the wall directly across from her couch held a fireplace and her television. The young witch leaned forward to the coffee table and picked up her glass of wine and the television remote. Normally she wasn't one to watch a lot of television but it was Friday night and she felt she had earned it. Having finally been assigned to a department and officially begun her field training, she felt accomplished. While she had felt some initial trepidation about being sent to the NU Files, everything in the orientation readings had her excited about the challenging work the assignment surely had in store.

Crookshanks emerged from the kitchen in her apartment after finishing his dinner. The aging cat leapt up next to her and settled in as she turned on the television. Hermione distractedly flipped through the channels, sipping her wine in the other hand. She was really reflecting on her first day in her assigned department, it had been very...interesting, that was the best way to describe it. Who would have thought she would be assigned to work with Professor, no, Agent Snape?! Although, he hadn't been nearly as bad as he was when he had been her potions professor. Granted, it had really only been a half day spent with him since her assignment meeting had been after lunch. Hearing him flirt and hint at having a sex life had shocked her, but upon further reflection it was not with disgust or disbelief that he would have a sex life, she was more so surprised that he would act in such a way in front of her. Hermione felt a chill run down her spine when she remembered the tone of voice he had used with the Snoddy sisters' portrait. During lectures at Hogwarts, the young Gryffindor had enjoyed his teaching voice, but hearing it used in a nearly sinful way was not something she had been prepared for today. Suddenly, a show caught her attention, she paused on the channel as the whistling paired with that haunting piano in the theme song continued.

Hermione smirked at the screen, how appropriate, perhaps an "X-Files" marathon was exactly what she needed. She eyed the notebook from work on her coffee table, but she had firmly promised herself she would not read any more today. It would keep until tomorrow, she had already read most of it anyway. Her attention was drawn back to the screen as David Duchovny aka Special Agent Fox Mulder strolled into view. Hermione snorted into her wine glass, while she could certainly see where her new work had a lot of parallels with the show, her coworker was certainly no Mulder. And if she was honest with herself, Gillian Anderson aka Special Agent Dana Scully was no more similar to her than Snape was to Mulder.

With that thought, the new Unspeakable agent wondered if Snape had ever watched the show. Or if he even owned a television. Hermione wondered what he might be doing currently, probably grumbling to all and sundry about the unfortunate addition to his department. Or maybe he was simply at home reading with a drink in hand. She shrugged and turned her thoughts back to the screen, she was trying to remember if this was an episode with the cigarette smoking man or not.

Hermione had no idea how close she was to guessing what Snape was doing with his Friday night. Or how similar it was to her Friday night plans. He was grumbling about his new assignment and he did have a drink in his hand but he wasn't grumbling to a person. "Bloody know-it-all, I put together all of the information she could need about the department's history and some example cases but I saw her scribbling away on that parchment. I'll probably come in on Monday to a novel's worth of written questions. It's more background than I got." Severus complained, tossing back the remaining contents of his glass. The grumpy wizard had also changed from his Unspeakable robes into more comfortable dark grey lounge pants and a faded Black Sabbath shirt.

He reached over for the bottle of fire whiskey to refill his drink when a loud squawk interrupted his movements. "That's enough." It came from the African Grey parrot perched on the back of his leather lounge chair.

Snape shot the bird a foul look before snatching up the bottle and pouring a few fingers worth in his glass anyway. "Well you're a bloody know-it-all too, arsehole." Snape stated, taking a sip of his drink and sighing.

"That's not my name!" The bird squawked with apparent indignation. He flapped his wings about Snape's head as the wizard stretched an arm up and tried to shoo him from the back of his chair. He flew off and landed on the adjacent leather chair, set out for the very few guests Snape ever entertained. Snape chuckled and regarded the admittedly, beautiful bird Minerva had gifted him with when he "retired" from teaching.

"Yes, I know, you hate being called anything other than your real name, D.B." He said, shaking his head as he recalled the note Minerva had included with the bird.

Dear Severus,

Congratulations on your retirement from teaching! Since you refused my many offers to throw you a retirement party, I am forcing this gift on you. I was going to buy you an owl since you would no longer have access to the ones here at school. But when I heard the name of this fellow along with the story of how he acquired it, I knew this was the gift for you. After all, birds of a feather should flock together, right?

Regards,

Minerva

P.S. His name is Dungeon Bat because when they found him in his previous owner's basement, they initially thought he was a bat. They don't know what his previous name was because he prefers his new name.

Upon receiving the bird, Snape had initially tried to return him but to his dismay it seemed the blasted bird was already attached to him. So he reached a deal with him to go by D.B. because he refused to call his pet Dungeon Bat. Gazing into the fireplace, Snape reflected on his decision to request Agent Granger be assigned to the NU Files. She truly was the most promising person he had seen come through since being assigned to that department himself. The cases were so involved they really needed two agents to handle them. He definitely could have used her help last year with all of the reports he had coming in regarding Muggle technology. The potions master may be a half-blood but he was very removed from his Muggle heritage at this point in his life. His eyes drifted over his sitting room to rest on his new computer.

After the war, he had decided to use his Order of Merlin money to completely renovate his house at Spinner's End before moving in full time, he had to admit the place looked fantastic. The dark wizard had unleashed Narcissa Malfoy on the place to furnish and decorate with some very firm ground rules regarding colors selections. She had kept within his limits, the sitting room was all dark mahogany wood, including the floors, fireplace, accent tables, and overfilled bookshelves. The ceiling and parts of the walls visible were a rich slate color. There was a large, dark green area rug under his leather chairs that was quite a luxurious texture. Snape enjoyed digging his toes into the rug, not that he would admit it. Above his head, a mahogany ceiling fan slowly revolved.

He had also stood firm on having modern upgrades, much to Narcissa's disappointment. One of those modern items he hadn't gotten until the last month or so was a computer, which he was slowly learning how to use. His work had provided him with more knowledge than he had anticipated about the inner workings of computers but the actual interactions and functions still provided him with a challenge. Perhaps Miss Granger knew a bit about them.

"She's going to be a real pain in my arse but I'll appreciate her help. Miss Granger always was brilliant." The former professor said to his bird, then paused, his glass held in front of his mouth poised to take a sip. "Don't tell her I said that."

"It'll cost ya." Said his feathery companion, clicking his beak at his owner. Snape sipped his drink, then snorted and looked at the bird.

"Oh really? And what is the price of your silence?" Snape asked, mildly amused.

"Better grapes." He replied promptly, ruffling his feathers importantly.

Snape sneered at him, "There is nothing wrong with the grapes I bought you. Just what are 'better grapes?'"

"Red not white. Cut in half." Squawked the feathery menace. Snape shook his head.

"I'll get you red grapes but I'm not cutting them up for you. I'd hate for you to get fat and lazy because you don't work for your food." He said firmly.

D.B. cocked his head to the side and studied Snape for a moment. "Deal. Red grapes. I won't tell."

Snape smirked and thought not that he'll ever get the opportunity, Granger will never set foot in my house. He set the glass down on a side table and reached for his remote control, a new television had definitely been on his list of upgrades.

"So, what should we watch this evening, D.B.?" Snape said, turning on the television and flipping through the channels.

Monday morning saw Agent Granger arriving five minutes after Agent Snape, which was still ten minutes earlier than necessary. Snape glanced up at her before grunting "Morning."

Hermione, hoping to develop a good working relationship with her coworker, smiled warmly and said "Good morning, Agent Snape. How was your weekend?"

"Blissfully quiet." He snapped, not looking up from his desk again. It was a lie really, D.B. had intruded on the quiet moments of his weekend. But Agent Granger didn't need to know that. Hermione tried not to flinch at his response, she managed to only blink a bit forcefully. She sighed and walked over to her desk, setting her bag down on top.

"Severus! Don't be such an arse!" Celeste exclaimed within her frame, making Hermione jump in surprise. "You may hate mornings but Agent Granger was merely being polite. Honestly, I should like to bend you over that desk."

Snape looked up at the last comment and smirked. "Ladies, always making promises you can't keep." He said before setting down his quill next to a cup of steaming tea and spinning around in his chair to face a slightly red-faced Hermione. The former professor quirked an eyebrow at her. "I trust you had not forgotten that I am an arse at times. I also trust that you have an unreasonable number of questions for me regarding Merlin only knows what."

Hermione huffed and reached into her bag for her notes. The brave witch pulled out her personal notebook and turned a few pages before folding it back and sitting in her desk chair facing Snape. "Actually, I don't have an unreasonable number. I think you'll find them all perfectly acceptable and really necessary for me to do my job properly." She said, haughtily. "And I think it's generous to say you're only an arse sometimes."

Snape snorted at her and crossed his arms over his chest. "We'll just see about the reasonableness of your questions. Let's get on with it so we can get some work done today." He replied, ignoring the fact that she had called him an arse.

Not one to be easily deterred, Hermione pulled out a quill and ink, ready to make notes of his answers. "Now, the reading materials you provided, thank you by the way, showed examples of cases and gave me a comprehensive history of the department. But I would like to better understand the other types of cases for which there were no examples in my reading."

Agent Snape nodded curtly, that was actually reasonable, although he would never tell her that. He actually should have anticipated her desire for that information, but it had been a while since he had dealt with her...enthusiasm for knowledge. The wizard laced his fingers together and placed them in his lap before beginning.

"Well I'll tell you about the most recent Muggle mystery that I personally dealt with last year. Frankly, I could have used some assistance but it resolved itself in the end." Snape stated, watching the new agent scribbling away in her notebook. He rolled his eyes at her. "Honestly, Agent Granger. I haven't even begun to tell you what the case is and you are frantically writing already."

Hermione paused to look up at him and glare. "I'm titling this section of my notes and writing other pertinent information about what this case is before you begin to tell me about it. I assumed you weren't going to be willing to repeat any of this to me in the future." She said, looking back down and writing a few more words. "I was trying to spare both of us from needing to repeat this informative discussion."

Snape had not thought of that and shifted his gaze downward to adjust an imaginary wrinkle in his robes. "Fine, carry on then. As I was saying, this occurred last year, 1999. I started having reports forwarded to me from various different departments with claims that the Muggles were gearing up for the end of the world because of something they referred to as 'Y2K.'"

Hermione attempted to keep a straight face upon hearing exactly what this case had involved. She kept her head ducked down to ensure her expression was hidden. Snape continued explaining, completely unaware that his coworker was so amused.

"So naturally, I began following up on these reports. Apparently, select groups of Muggles everywhere were stockpiling food and bracing themselves for some catastrophe related to their technology entering the new millennium. It was fascinating that not all of them were convinced this would happen, it was truly a spectrum of levels of belief. They certainly had some higher ups within the Ministry convinced of this. I believe chief among was the Minister himself and Arthur Weasley. Rather than investigate the validity of this concern for catastrophe, Kingsley and Arthur wanted me to determine the severity of this event to devise a plan to deal with the mass hysteria they were convinced would ensue at midnight on December 31st." Snape paused here to sniff indignantly and turn back to his desk for his cup of tea. He turned back, took a sip and continued.

"I firmly believed it was nonsense, but I dutifully investigated what was supposedly going to happen. The Muggles believed that the computers would simply stop working, they called it the 'Millenium Bug' or 'Year 2000 problem.' It had something to do with the way years were programmed, they left off the first two digits for the sake of the expense to store data." Snape paused to regard Agent Granger. She quickly scribbled out the remaining notes from his last statement and looked up. For reasons best known only to her, Snape noticed she was smirking slightly. He mentally shrugged and carried on.

"Naturally, governments and all manner of financial institutions in the Muggle world threw millions of dollars at this problem because they rely heavily on this technology. Some implemented a solution that involved saving dates as four digits instead of two, something they really should have done in the first place." He sneered before mumbling "Dunderheads."

Hermione fully grinned to herself, head down over the parchment, finding it highly amusing to hear her former professor annoyed with someone other than herself.

"There were other solutions as well, I will admit that the details of such solutions went beyond my understanding of how computers work. However, I found through my research that these solutions should work and that the side effects of this problem would not be the catastrophe that many believed it would. Arthur Weasley was actually convinced when I told him. I believe his precise words were 'Bless them! They really can think up some of the wildest things!'" Snape said with a sneer. He took a sip of tea and carried on, no longer looking at Agent Granger since that smirk seemed to have taken up permanent residence on her face.

"The Minister was less convinced that it would be a smooth transition into the new millennium. I spent several weeks devising a plan for what to do in the event the computers in the Muggle world all crashed. I never realized just how serious of a situation that could actually be for them. When I went off to Hogwarts, computers were ghastly large contraptions used mainly for mathematics, we learned about them in that context. I hadn't realized just how far that technology had come or how reliant the Muggle financial world is on it." The wizard said, contemplatively.

"Surely someone here at the Ministry could have told you all about the importance of computers in the Muggle world? I certainly know and I know there was no small number of people concerned about Y2K." Agent Granger said, with a smirk on her face but a mildly puzzled wrinkled brow.

Snape sneered before answering. "It might have escaped your notice but there are very few Muggleborns working at the Ministry. And the half-bloods, such as myself, are very out of touch with the Muggle world. Can you think of any Muggleborns, besides yourself, who chose to pursue a career at the Ministry?"

Hermione opened her mouth to reply but then closed it and turned her gaze away with a deep set scowl plastered across her face. She thought hard for a minute, surely there is someone! I can't possibly be the only one!

"Don't hurt yourself, Agent Granger." Agent Snape said, smirking. "I would hate to file the paperwork or suffer through the explanations if you gave yourself an aneurysm from the effort you are putting into this. The answer is no one, other than you. There is still a deep seated mistrust of the Ministry among Muggleborns because of their treatment during the last two wars in our world. I really don't blame them, why should they be clamoring to work for a government who, not so long ago, sought to snap their wands and deny them access to our world?"

The stunned witch merely nodded, internally reeling because she hadn't noticed the lack of her fellow Muggleborns in government work. Looking down, the young Gryffindor made several notes about this new tidbit of information. There must be something I can do to remedy this, perhaps a recruiting event or something... Her thoughts were interrupted by Agent Snape speaking to her.

"Actually, there are still many within our world with biases in regards to Muggles and Muggleborns. Kingsley's attitude that Muggles didn't have the entire Y2K affair in their control would be a good example. He was ready to sweep in and save them when they would, in his mind, inevitably fail to save themselves. Kingsley isn't a terrible Minister but he is still a pure blood wizard and as such he is biased. I think that really we shouldn't even have cases in our department dedicated to Muggle affairs. It's their affairs, if they really need us for something their leaders know the appropriate channels." Snape finally looked Agent Granger in the eyes once he finished speaking. He surveyed her expression before cocking an eyebrow at her. "Have I truly rendered the famous Hermione Granger speechless?"

She ignored his sarcastic remark, he had truly said much worse to her in the past. Instead she asked, "Why are you telling me this? That bit about biases towards Muggleborns and the lack of them in government."

Snape continued to look at her for a moment before bringing a hand up to rub his chin. "First of all, you should say us, not them. Everybody knows the most famous Muggleborn in our world right now, no one will confuse you for a half-blood or pure blood. You should think of yourself as part of that group. Second, I think it is important to not only understand the work you will be doing but the political motivations and the environment in which it will be done. I would be remiss if I did not point this out to you since it directly impacts you and as your coworker, it influences me as well." The dark wizard paused, seeming to choose his next words carefully. He turned his eyes away from hers and leaned his head down enough that his hair partly obscured his face before he continued.

"I am a half-blood, this is widely known, not that I face a comparable level of bias but I rank between you and the pure bloods. I am also a former Death Eater that the Ministry headhunted to work in this department, a decision that was not met with sweeping approval from every corner of our world. In fact, there are many who would see me in Azkaban or have me Kissed by a dementor. Between the two of us, everything that comes out of this office will be placed under intense scrutiny. As such, every conclusion and every decision will face a rather thorough questioning. I know, because it already does. I also know this is unusual because Caroline and Celeste told me they have never seen the work coming out of this office so carefully scrutinized. With the exception of the years during which the Minister for Magic was Radolphus Lestrange but he attempted to shutdown down the Department of Mysteries all together." Snape glanced at the clock on his desk and turned to fully see the impact this revelation may have had on his former student.

"So, our efforts during the war count for nothing to these people? Just who do they think are?! They think some fancy lineage means something about a person's abilities?! That's absolute rubbish!" Hermione exclaimed, attempting to throw her quill down in frustration but instead managing to simply blot a moderate of ink across the sleeve of her robe.

Snape had to quickly employ his Occlumency shields so as not to laugh in the face of the obviously upset Gryffindor before him. She reached in her pocket, cheeks tinged pink, and removed her wand to clean the ink from her robes. He continued speaking to cover her embarrassment

"Of course, they acknowledged us with award money and an Order of Merlin. That doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of pure bloods are prejudiced. It's why so many of them had such a strong reaction to the rhetoric the Dark Lord spewed everywhere. They recognized their own unacceptable thoughts personified and as a result hated him for it. Haven't you felt yourself struggling not to dislike people who are so much like yourself? Human beings see their own negative attributes amplified when they notice them in others." Here the potions master paused, his eyes traveling over her face. "Now it is time for my mid morning break, we can continue addressing your questions afterwards. Or, and I highly encourage this next option, you can explore the files to answer your remaining questions about our work. I'm working on an urgent case, the file for which I will provide you once you feel adequately versed in the department to begin the work. The sooner this infernal questioning is over, the sooner we can address that case."

With that, her former potions professor rose from his chair smoothly and strolled out of the room. His robes billowed out behind him as he briefly touched his breast pocket, checking for the items he kept hidden there while on the Ministry premises. Hermione watched him leave, only half noticing his behavior. Her mind was still sorting out everything he had told her. She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard a sigh across the room.

"I know how you feel Agent Granger, you hate to see him go but love to watch him leave. Am I right?" Caroline said, winking at the young witch seated across the room. Celeste rolled her eyes as her sister and chimed in.

"Right, she couldn't possibly be digesting all of the information Severus just threw at her. She definitely had to be perving on her coworker."

Caroline cocked an eyebrow at her sister and replied. "A bright witch like her? I bet she can think about more than one thing at a time. Besides, I do admire the way he walks and billows about. Where do you reckon he learned to do that?"

Hermione burst out laughing at the conversation taking place across the room. She was beginning to see why Snape seemed to like them, based on everything she had read about them from the history and case files, they were brilliant and all of the interactions she had witnessed showed them to be quite funny. Hermione cleared her throat and decided to toss out an idea. "I think it comes natural for him to stalk, a bit like a panther. But the billowing? I personally think he just likes it. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a secret Star Wars fan, he is a bit reminiscent of Darth Vader."

Caroline and Celeste stopped their discussion to cock their heads and grin at her. Hermione was struck by just how similar they looked, though she knew they weren't twins. "Now that's a bit more like it, Agent Granger!" Caroline said. Celeste nodded before saying "Yes, I think you'll get along just fine here. Ha! He does kind of flap about like Darth Vader!"