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Chapter 5
Intermission --
(In which much is explained, we meet more Muggles, Severus eats some really awful Muggle food and Ron gets a detention even though he's not in school... :D)

The party of terrorists stopped for the last time about three hours later, coming to a halt in yet another Muggle garage. Instantly at least 13 of the 17 Muggles, (Severus had counted them all two hours back), climbed to their feet with strangled cheers.

Through this Severus inferred that they had reached their destination.

Once again Ron had to be woken up, (this time by Snape who was still upset and used the opportunity to shake Ron rather roughly,) before venturing out of the truck. After some stretching of limbs they all headed to the very back of the garage, to where a tiny inconspicuous door stood.

One by one they filed through that door, and found themselves in a place with several corridors leading off in many different directions. Luckily it appeared that at least one of the Muggles knew where to go. He led them down around and through several different halls, turns, doors and more halls. Finally after what seemed like forever (especially for Severus, who was carrying a rather heavy Ron), they came to a hole in the floor-- which had a step latter propped up against it's mouth. Said step latter led down into a musty smelling and dimly lit room. Off to the side of the room was one last unlit hall that ended in a very unused looking door. This was opened by one of the Muggles and they all filed though it.

They stepped into the basement of a very ordinary looking Muggle house. Severus' eyes darted about, taking in everything from the rows upon rows of boxes to the paper covered furniture.

Someone shut the door behind them, causing Severus to jump. He relaxed, but only slightly, when more cheers welled up in the throats of the Muggles about him.

"Home sweet home!" Sam announced from beside him, grinning. She spoke to Severus and Ron, explaining. "We'll be staying here for the next few days, laying low before we start shipping people out again." She said.

"Brilliant..." Ron mumbled from against Severus' arm, sounding more than a little tired.

Sam gave him a concerned look. "Oh sweetie, let's get you looked after," She said.

Severus quickly learned that the name of the Muggle house was "Asylum". (Sam jokingly referred to it as the "Insane Asylum" on more than one occasion.) It was a rather large Muggle house with at least three floors including the basement. Incredibly enough, they all fit inside of it nicely enough... a fact that amazed Severus to no end.

Right from the start, life turned rapidly into a whirl of activity where every person seemed to have something to do and did it instantly without question.

On the first night Sam, (who apparently was a doctor as well as a terrorist,) had hauled Ron off to what appeared to be the kitchen of the Muggle house, sitting Ron down on a chair and poking him with a needle while Severus watched with clenched fists and teeth. Then she had led them both to a very small bathroom that contained only a sink and a toilet, where she commanded Severus to get Ron washed up. She had then disappeared-- only to return a minute later with what looked like very well worn Muggle clothing. These she thrust at Severus, along with some sandwiches covered in muggle-wrap and a wink.

After a good half an hour of cleaning up Weasley-- who had conveniently decided to remain asleep for most of it, Severus was near beginning to reach the end of his limit. He was tired and upset, didn't have a CLUE where he was in the WORLD, let alone city, town or state, STILL couldn't do magic and had been in WAAYYY too much close physical contact with people over the last two days. He may have been a damn good spy, which meant that he was also a damn good pretender, but he didn't think he could pretend he wasn't miffed right off for a moment longer.

Luckily the Muggle woman decided to return right about then, which forced him to rein in his emotions, and gave Ron a quick once over. With a nod of approval she led them off to a bedroom. The bedroom, though incredibly small, had been set up with a single bed and a cot. After making sure the still asleep and lightly snoring Weasley had been settled into the latter, Severus settled into the former and was fast asleep within moments.

When Severus Snape woke up, he was totally and completely alone.

Which was a blessed relief... not to see or hear or endure Weasley's presence again was a dream come true...

And then he remembered.

Turning absolutely white, Snape sat straight up in bed, swinging his legs over the side and staring with no small amount of trepidation at the messy and unmade cot that Ron had occupied. For a fleeting moment he wondered if the boy had been dragged off again, (three days at the hands of the FBI Muggles did that to a person), and then he remembered the far more pleasant circumstances they were in presently. Drawing himself up and scowling a bit at the fact that he was missing his robes, (Sam had confiscated them the day before when she had given them replacement Muggle clothing), he swept from the room.

It didn't take him long to locate Ron either, he could hear the boy's loud laughter not very far down the hall. He winced. Ron was obviously better, to be awake and making so much noise so incredibly early in the morning...

He wondered exactly what time it was anyway.

As he approached the sound of Ron's laughter, he wondered if the boy remembered. Just the thought was enough to make him grow pale again. What if he *did* remember? What then? How was he ever going to approach the boy again? He was fairly sure Ron would make a large fuss, and not only that just the memory was enough to make him cringe inside.

His fears were calmed though, when he walked into the next room.

It was a larger room, perhaps the biggest in the house, with one LARGE table in the direct center of it, which had a good dozen chairs placed around it. Sitting on two of the chairs was Ron and a Muggle who Severus recognized as Rashid. The boy was apparently cheerfully helping Rashid clean Muggle weapons as a slightly dirty rag was clenched in his hand. As Severus flounced into the room, Ron looked up and gave his Potions Master a hesitant half-smile.

Severus Snape gave his student his patented sneer back, which caused Ron to look away again. The boy frowned slightly before deliberately focusing his complete and utter attention back to Rashid and the weapons.

Severus stood there for a very short moment, taking the time to breathe a mental sigh of relief. Apparently Ron didn't remember, or else there would have been a whole lot of more emotion on that easily excitable boy's face.

Secure in the knowledge that he was safe for the time being, Severus walked through the room to find himself in yet another-- this one he recognized from the day before-- it was the kitchen area.

Sam was already there, eating some sort of colorful Muggle food in a bowl of pink tinted milk. One eyebrow arched gracefully into his hairline.

"Hey!" Sam greeted him cheerily through a mouthful of the food. "You're awake! 'Ave some." Without getting up, she motioned to a box that said "Fruit Loops" along the side of it, as well as a small pile of Muggle bowls and spoons and a see-through jug of milk.

Severus regarded the offering skeptically for a moment before hunger won out and he sat, picking up and mixing the cereal and milk together in a bowl. It was quite like potions actually... he glanced at Sam's bowl to reassure himself that he was mixing the correct amounts, then stopped when they appeared satisfactory. (Sam was giving him strange looks by this point.) Retrieving a spoon from elsewhere on the table, he scooped some of the milk drenched cerial up and stuck it in his mouth.

And very nearly spat it out again. "What is this?" He sputtered.

Sam gave him a wide-eyed look. "Fruit Loops." She said. "... Haven't you ever had them before?"

"No." He winced, replacing his spoon on the kitchen table. "I daresay I don't believe I'm missing much." He paused. "Isn't there anything else to eat around here?" He asked a bit balefully.

Sam shrugged. "No, not really."

Severus merely looked at her.

Sam shrugged again. "Nobody around here knows how to cook really good." She explained.

Severus' expression turned from one that was slightly pained to one that was slightly horrified. Upon seeing that Sam wasn't about to offer up any other grand words of advice, Severus let out a self-suffering sigh and very slowly reached out and picked up his spoon again. Looking like a man about to be led to the Guillotine, he stuck his spoon in his cereal/milk and scooped some of the stuff up, then stuck it in his mouth.

And chewed.

For some reason this was incredibly funny and Sam howled with laughter. As for Severus, he couldn't for the life of him figure out exactly what was so funny about really awful Muggle food, and gave her a rather nasty look. This only served to make her laugh harder.

"So..." Sam stopped chuckling after much difficulty. She leaned back in her chair, and studied him for a moment. "What about Ron?" She asked finally.

Severus gave her a completely blank look, then made yet another face as he forced down another spoon of the Fruit Loops and milk. "What about him?" He asked once he had quelled the nausea.

"I don't know... it's sweet," Sam said thoughtfully, twirling her spoon in-between her fingers.

Severus merely glared at her, which didn't seem to affect the blond American Muggle at all. She grinned.

"The way you care about him," she elaborated.

Severus continued to glare at her. "I'm afraid you're mistaken..." he said swiftly in a clipped voice, placing down his spoon again with particular force. "I don't care about him at all."

Which was the truth. He didn't. He looked off towards the dining room despite himself and she turned in her chair to follow his gaze-- taking in Ron as he chattered needlessly and incessantly at Rashid, still helping him clean the Muggle weapons. Rashid kept on grinning and nodding-- and occasionally righting the weapons in the boy's hands when he pointed them the wrong way-- but it was obvious that the man could barely understand a word the boy was saying. Which was good, because Snape caught a "and my brother Bill works with Dragons, isn't that bloody brilliant?? One year Hagrid, our magical creatures teacher...." and he very nearly groaned out loud. He was going to have to have a *talk* with the boy.

The woman turned her attention back to him and chuckled. "You do care about him," She said. "I can see it on your face."

He didn't know what she thought she saw on his face, because it hadn't been anything remotely pleasant. He turned his glare back on her. She was smiling at him.

He sighed, exasperated. "Ma'am," he said stiffly. "When I'm *not* a terrorist, I'm a school teacher." Which wasn't all that far from the truth... the Deatheaters could very well be considered a terrorist organization, and he *was* a school teacher-- as she well knew from the day before. "Ron Weasley is nothing more than my rather disobedient student."

"Oh, yes! I remember." She looked at him kindly. "Well then what *is* he doing here then?" She asked.

"It is a long elaborate story of which I am not quite sure of all the details." He replied darkly. "Rest assured, I feel *nothing* for him *or* any of the rest of the students I teach." He added, and his lips thinned... partly because he had just overheard Ron finish telling Rashid about the Mountain Troll him and Harry had defeated back in their first year at Hogwarts.

The Muggle woman looked shocked for a second, then her expression turned to something akin to sympathy. "I see. But you still must feel some sort of responsibility towards him... he's your charge after all. You got him caught up in this; you have to get him back in one piece if you can. "

"In that degree, I suppose, yes."

She stood, gathering up her breakfast dishes as she did. "Don't worry Mr. Snape," She said, reaching out and patting his hand gently. "We'll take care of you... and get you and your young charge back home again."

He tried not to make his expression seem too grateful, but some of it may have appeared on his face anyway. Either way the Muggle woman smiled back at him kindly before getting up from the table and serenely walking away.

He managed to get Ron away from Rashid a couple of minutes later and proceeded to drag the boy to their bedroom (the only place he could hope to get a moment of privacy.) Grasping the boy by his shoulders, he propelled him towards the cot the boy had slept on the night before and forcefully sat him down.

"What, may I ask," he began in a voice soft and lethal enough to assure Ron that he was very *upset* and most definitely not joking. "Was the meaning of telling that MUGGLE man about the wizarding world, Mr. Weasley?" He sneered a bit and narrowed his eyes.

Ron winced, but said nothing.

"Don't you know how foolish that is?" Severus continued. "Your father works for the Ministry of Magic no less, I would have expected better from you!"

Ron looked uncomfortable for a moment, shifting about on the mattress, then shrugged. "He doesn't understand me anyway," He tried. "Thinks I'm making up stories..."

Eyes cold, Severus leaned down towards the boy, so far that his face was about a foot away from Ron's. "But you know, and I know that you're not making up stories now do we Mr. Weasley??" He asked.

Ron was beginning to look distinctly threatened. "I..."

Snape straightened. "You will not do it again! Do you understand me?"

Ron nodded wordlessly, a faint flush coloring his cheeks.

Severus turned towards the door, then turned back again. "In fact Mr. Weasley, I think I know of a way to help you remember not to tell Muggles things they don't need to know." He smiled, which wasn't the most pleasant thing in the world to see. "Congratulations, you now have a detention."

Ron's mouth fell open. "I what??"

"This afternoon. Be in the kitchen a three o'clock sharp!" Severus snarled. With that he turned heel and swept from the room.

As soon as he had disappeared from sight he distinctly heard Ron Weasley let loose a string of curses about him, and despite himself Severus smirked. His life, for the moment, was complete. A student hated him. Now if he could only get his robes back from the Muggles he'd be the happiest wizard alive...

During the next week or so Severus actually got quite used to his new routine. Beginning on the day of his awful encounter with "Fruit Loops" he had received permission from anyone he asked to cook the meals in the house. Which satisfied him completely... cooking he found was more than a little bit like potions with all of it's chopping and mixing. He was in his element when he was in the kitchen and it did more than enough to calm him and keep him occupied.

And, of course, being Hogwart's Potion's Master, and with his attention to detail he cooked *very* good food.

In fact all the Muggles said he cooked the best food they had ever tasted when they gathered for their noon and evening meals. Even Ron thought it was great, and had once let it slip that it was "almost as good as the house elf's cooking" a comment that had landed him in detention in the kitchen chopping vegetables with his moody professor for an entire afternoon.

Oh Thursday, three days after they had arrived, the leader of the organization-- who was a large man with olive skin flashing eyes and a thick accent-- insisted on speaking with Severus. It turned out to be an interview. The interview went well for the most part... the man just wanted to know about his organization-- the Deatheaters. Severus found that he didn't even really need to lie to the Muggle. He just told him about past attacks, like the one that the real Black was arrested for 15 years previous (which had killed a street full of Muggles) and claimed that they had been done by them. Led him to believe that their exploits where usually covered up by the Muggle police... which they usually were with a little bit of help from the Ministry of Magic.

The Muggle seemed to believe him, a fact he was extremely grateful for. He allowed Severus to leave the room then with only a friendly request for Severus to put in a good word for them once he got back to Great Britain. Severus was only too happy to oblige.

There was only one thing that seemed a little bit off to him happened when he was exiting the room after his interview. Sam was standing outside of the door. She looked startled for a whole half a second, before she was at his side with an innocent smile and a "how did it go?" He immediately took her intentions to be benign and answered in the positive. After all she had showed nothing but kindness towards him and Ron... there was no reason to assume she had any ill intent towards him, was there?

It was Sunday afternoon, - exactly 6 days after their escape from the FBI, - when Jimmy, a rather stiff looking Muggle with a full beard came into the kitchen. As it was roughly 3 pm, Severus was already preparing supper and Ron was helping him by yet again chopping the veggies... (Ron had made an off-handed reference to magic earlier that day, which had suitably upset Severus enough to land him in detention. In actual fact Severus wasn't all that upset at the boy... he was just trying to distract him, seeing as he was becoming quite bored and had begun to use what little brain capacity he had to ask questions. It was for his own good-- keeping him at odds with his teacher kept him mind off of other troubling but important subjects-- like if they were *ever* going to get home again...)

Anyway, Jimmy walked into the room and they both looked up at him.

Jimmy grunted. "We move out tomorrow." He announced.

Severus and Ron glanced at each other and then blinked back at the Muggle. "Where are we going?" Ron asked politely.

The Muggle grunted again. "North." He replied. With that he turned heel and left the room.

Severus stared after him for a long moment. "North" didn't explain much at all. He would have to ask Sam later on that night what exactly the Muggle meant by "North".

He glanced back at Ron, only to see the boy was making very uneven cuts at the celery that he was chopping-- the pieces were at least a good quarter inch wider than they were supposed to be—

"WEASLEY!" Snape roared. Ron grinned down at his celery and flinched appropriately. "I thought I told you to make the pieces small!"

It wasn't hard to question Sam on the subject that night at dinner-- she sat between him and Jack at the extremely large dinner table. When the noise level of the conversations about them had hit such a volume that it was possible to speak in a low voice to the person next to you and not be heard, Severus asked Sam about the news.

"Are we leaving tomorrow?" He asked softly.

Sam looked distinctly uncomfortable for a moment before she nodded. "Yes," she replied back under her breath.

"And were, may I ask, are we going?" Severus continued in a low voice, concentrating on pretending to eat.

Sam hesitated for a moment. "North," She said finally. "We're heading up through Montana before swinging towards Washington. I imagine they'll be dropping you at the border." She paused for a moment before continuing. "Once across you should be home free to make it for England..." She trailed off.

Severus nodded slowly. "Anything else?" He asked.

Sam made a face. "Um, no. That's about it. We're up early tomorrow..." She distracted away from him as Jack turned to converse with her.

Severus Snape was silent for a long moment before he returned his attention back to his food. So. They moved out tomorrow then...

All was quiet that night in the cramped room that Severus and Ron shared. Quiet at least, until Ron spoke up in the darkness. "Professor Snape?" He asked.

Snape studied the darkened ceiling for a moment before replying grumpily. "What is it Wealsey?"

"About Harry and Professor Dumbledore and all them?" Ron asked him.

"Yes." Snape replied shortly.

Ron paused for a second. "Do you think they're all right?" he asked into the darkness.

"How should I know?" Snape snarked at him. "I'm not there, am I?"

Ron was silent for a long moment, perhaps because he was biting his tongue. "... Don't you wish you were home now?" He asked softly. "Just if it were to see... if everyone is okay?"

Snape sighed irritably. "I don't particularly *care*, Weasley, one way or another." He thought of adding "Really Weasley, do I *want* to go back to a bunch of pathetically useless students like Neville who couldn't make a proper potion if their life depended on it..." but didn't say it. He softened his tone a bit, just a bit, and continued. "I told you before Wealsey, your insufferable Potter friend is infallible. I'm sure he's fine. Now *goodnight* Weasley."

The boy was silent, and for a moment Severus thought the boy had taken his hint and stopped talking. But then a very softly whispered-- "I want to go home," reached his ears.

For a long moment Severus studied the ceiling, silently counting to ten... then when nothing else was spoken, he turned his head to inspect the boy. Ron Weasley's eyes were closed, his face relaxed in sleep. Severus studied him for a short while, then snorted softly and turned his attention back to the ceiling.

He hoped to fall right to sleep as well. Unfortunately it didn't appear that sleep was befalling him any time soon.

Instead he lay wide awake in the darkness, endless questions turning over and over again in his mind. So they were going to leave tomorrow. That was all fine and good, but what about after they fled into the country to the north? He had no Muggle money at all. How were Ron and he to survive? Beg?

He supposed he could always get a cooking job somewhere...

~~~

"So?"

"So."

There was a pause. Then -- "So does his story check out?"

She looked vaguely frustrated. "You know as well as I do that nothing checks out' in this."

"You know what I meant."

Yes, yes I did." A pause. "I can *see* it, sir. He's not a good person, or at least doesn't make a terrible effort to be one. But in regards to that boy..." her voice trailed off.

"That boy?" He prodded gently.

Her voice was soft, near a whisper. "Everything we knew is void, and everything we thought is true. Past all the glares, chiding remarks and what have you, all he wants is for the safety of that kid." Another pause, this one longer than the last. "If there were only some other way...?"

A sigh. "Major, you know the agenda as well as I do. If we miss our drop Hammond'll..."

"I know sir." She said. "I know." A wistful pause. "It seems such a shame though..."