Disclaimer: Not mine. Only the Committee and poor Chloe are mine. Well, them and the 172 Uni students. I taught a class like that once. Ugh.

A/N: I'm sure that my depiction of this chemistry class is completely different from how universities in the UK handle things. But hey, in a big city, at a middle-rank university, well, maybe it could happen this way?

A/N 2: Hey, anyone feel like beta-ing? Not sure how long this is going to be, not sure at the moment of my update schedule. Drop me a line…

Chapter 2

Severus's reflection stared back at him from the window of the train carriage as the industrial landscape rattled past. The train trip from Leeds into London's Kings' Cross station, more than 2 hours in which he would have to spend time with other people, at least gave him time to think. His days since receiving the Ministry's "invitation" had been a horror; Saturday he had barely been conscious of the world around him, but finally Sunday morning his migraine had let go of his skull and he could begin to feel sub-human again. He had spent most of Sunday staring at the bare walls of his flat, going through once again all his reasons for having left the magical world so far behind him. Normally, he didn't miss it, and he was sure it didn't miss him, either. But in the aftermath of a headache, a truly terrible headache, he always wondered why he had cut himself off from the potions he had always used to get relief before. Monday had been full of magpie students again, barely scraping through their lab sessions. The lecture section, though, was perhaps the worst. One hundred seventy-two university first-years, at last count, all of whom had to take the class, and one hundred seventy-two students and one professor, none of whome wanted tobe in the class. The students had talked, read the newspaper, passed notes, sent text messages to their friends, and every now and then glanced up at him to see if he was done droning on yet.

But what else did he have? The magical world was out of the question, he didn't have the personality that would let him live in idleness ('and besides, what would I live on?'), and he certainly didn't have the personality to attract a rich widow to solve the problem of what to live on while he idled his life away, but he had a grasp of chemistry that would let him teach in his sleep… even if it was Muggle chemistry, and not the potions he could have taught while unconscious. He had survived Monday, as had his students, and now it was Tuesday. His one day in the week when he had neither lectures nor labs, and here he was, summoned to London. By the "Committee For Reconciliation and Fairness."

Undoubtedly a Gryffindor invention. Which other house would include fairness in a committee title? But why did he even care? He and the magical world had survived without each other for this long. He was only coming to London so that he wouldn't be hauled off, kicking and screaming, by some bunch of goons from the Ministry.

He spent the rest of the train trip scanning through journals he had received in the mail on Friday, and before he realized it the train was slowing down for its arrival into Kings' Cross Station. The train arrived at platform 11, and he was proud of not even turning his head as he strode quickly past the pillars separating platforms 9 and 10. The Tube was heaving, as usual, but he managed to find himself a corner in the last car. Well, actually clear a corner by dint of sneering, glaring, and generally making everyone around him so uncomfortable that they all found reasons to be elsewhere.

Severus found his steps slowing as he got closer and closer to the telephone booth masking the Visitor's Entrance to the Ministry. It wasn't quite 9 yet, he didn't need to be there quite yet, did he? But finally he shoved open the clumsy door and wedged himself into the grimy space. He lifted the receiver to enter his visitor's entry code, but was surprised to hear nothing in the receiver after he had typed in the four numbers. Puzzled, he racked the receiver, then lifted it and tried again. Still nothing… just dead silence.

Wonderful! Here he was, just as required, but how was he supposed to get inside the Ministry?

"Maybe they've disowned me just as I've disowned them," he muttered. "And a whole day shot for nothing!" He tried entering the code again, slowly, then in reverse, but still nothing. Frustrated, Severus carefully, restrainedly hung up the receiver, shoved the door back open, and finally managed to extricate himself and his briefcase from the small space.

"Well, now what? It's too early for lunch, too late for breakfast, and far too early to go back home."

A woman, walking past at the end of the alley with a cell phone clutched to her ear, stared at him suspiciously, and he sneered at her in reflex.

'What, I'm not allowed to talk to myself now?' he wondered. 'I would think there were enough strange people in London that I would fit right in.' Just as he started to walk away, having finally decided to go book-shopping on Oxford Street, he heard footsteps on the pavement behind him, and then acautious voice called out to him.

"Professor? Professor Snape?"

He turned to see a young woman – a chit of a girl, really, not more than 18 if that, he decided – running after him.

"Oh, I'm so glad I caught you! We decided you were going to ignore the contract, and we were just about to send the collection team out to get you, but then when we did a location spell, we realized you were right here outside the Ministry! Isn't that funny? Did you see the phone booth? You do know –"

"Yes, I do know, and yes, I did see the phone booth, and yes I did TRY the phone booth, but it was not functional. I am not at all impressed with the Ministry for its use of Livramus charms, I am not pleased with having to give up my only free weekday to come down here, and I am decidedly not impressed with being chased down on the sidewalk by a child. Now, would you kindly escort me inside so that I can speak to an adult, finish this nonsense, and go HOME!"

The girl's eyes got wider and wider as Severus spoke, and she shrank in on herself more and more. She stared at him in shock for a moment after he finished his outburst, then swallowed audibly.

"Come now, girl, surely I've not scared you that badly? The Ministry, please? Sometime TODAY?"

"Y-y-yes, sir? I'm s-s-s-sorry, sir? Please, follow me?"

"Very well, but do try not to turn every sentence into a question."

She had started walking back toward the phone booth, but cast him a frightened look over her shoulder as he spoke again. Feeling mildly regretful that he had apparently terrified her beyond all reckoning, he merely raised one eyebrow at her, and she snapped her head back around to the front. As she easily pushed open the door to the telephone booth – he grimaced to himself, apparently the thing had been treating him as if he were a Muggle – and stepped in, she took a deep breath, then spoke again.

"Would you please step into the phone booth? Since it wouldn't take your code when you were alone, we both need to be in here. Sir." She shrank back into a corner, clearly as unhappy about being in such a confined space with him as he was about sharing it with her.

Severus took a deep breath, still almost on the verge of turning and walking away, then stepped in with her. She slid the door shut, then entered his visitor's code and announced them. "Chloe Hamilton, intern with the Committee for Reconciliation and Fairness, and Professor Snape, to meet with the Committee chair."

A disembodied voice echoed into the cabin as a badge was dispensed into the grimy coin-return slot. "Please attach the badge to your robes and present your wand at Security. Thank you for visiting the Ministry for Magic, and we hope you enjoy your visit with the Committee." The phone booth slid slowly down below the sidewalk, and Severus held himself as still as possible to minimize contact with the intern. For her part, she held herself immobile in her own corner of the phone box, and they remained in uncomfortable silence until the box finally juddered to a halt and the door opened automatically. Severus forced his way out of the cramped space and deliberately stood straight, throwing back his shoulders and defiantly shaking the hair out of his face. Chloe followed him out into the reception hall and seemed to be more in command of herself now that she was on familiar turf.

"Right, sir, if you'll follow me we'll take you to Security first and get your wand weighed, then I'll take you to your appointment."

"Miss Hamilton, it is quite clear that you are completely unaware of my file. If you were, you would know that I have not used my wand in the last four years, let alone taken it with me anywhere. If the Ministry wishes to weigh the damned thing, they're going to have to find it first, and that could take them quite a while."

"You haven't carried… Wow, you can do wandless magic? They say only the really really strong wizards can do wandless magic!"

Severus let out a sigh. He knew that few people simply turned their backs on magic, whether they needed a wand or not, and that having done so only made him even more strange. Especially in the eyes of this youngster. She probably made a point of using magic to do everything she possibly could, and probably even some things for which she shouldn't use magic.

"Yes, Miss Hamilton, I can do wandless magic. No, I have not carried my wand in four years. Nor have I done any magic, wandless or not, for the last four years. Will you please show me to wherever I am supposed to be?"

She stared at him a moment longer in disbelief. "No magic? At all? Wow…" He raised an eyebrow at her again, and she jumped. "Oh, yes, follow me, please."

She took off across the entrance hall and headed down one of the many corridors, and even with his much longer stride he found her hard to keep up with. Finally, though, after taking a winding staircase down what he was sure had to be seven or eight levels, they arrived at an office suite, and she crossed the outer office to knock on the inner door.

"Ma'am? I have Professor Snape here, shall I show him in?"

A voice he couldn't quite hear replied to his guide, and she bobbed her head then turned to look at him.

"Professor Snape? She'll see you now, sir. Would you like some coffee? Tea? Can I get you –"

"No, no coffee, no tea, no licorice, no lemon drops, no, no, no. All I want is to finish this and get out of here." 'Honestly,' he thought to himself as he passed the trembling girl in the doorway, 'where do they get their interns? Whatever happened to Gryffindor courage?'

He walked into the office, and halted in surprise as the woman behind the desk looked up from the file in front of her.