After Severus brief moment of freedom, he laid in bed with Paige. Their bodies laid underneath the sheets, concealing their nakedness. Their lives had been so horrible; there were more things to hide then their naked bodies. The sheets were a way to cover everything they didn't want to remember. Those sheets held them back from the world and the reality they had to live in. So many times in life, the two of them just wanted to escape and live in a world where no one could hurt them.

The two of them breathed rather heavily, trying to catch their breath as sweat clung to their bodies. Paige's head laid on Severus chest as they tried to calm down their heaving hearts. He ran his hand over her hair gently and kissed her forehead. "Are you alright?" He asked sincerely for once in his life. Then again, very few people had ever treated him decently in life. The least he could do was treat those few people back with the same decency.

"Blissfully calm," she replied. "You?"

A smirk came over Severus lips. "The same."

Paige pressed her hand on Severus chest and forced herself up gently. She looked at him, her messy hair falling down around her shoulders. "Have you had many women?" She asked rather bluntly.

Severus didn't look at her as he replied. "No."

Paige kept looking at him as if she were waiting for an exact count. He looked in her in the eyes. "Two," he finally stated. "Three including you in what seems like a very long life." His response almost had sadness to it. He knew Lily was never one of those three people, but that remained his fault and there was nothing he could do about it. He had let go of Lily for one brief moment in his life, but as that moment was over, she came rushing back to him just as quickly.

Paige laid back down on his chest quietly. "There was only one person before you."

"That's it?" He questioned. "You made me believe otherwise with some of the things you just did."

A slight chuckle escaped Paige's lips. "Was that your attempt at a compliment?" She questioned. "I didn't know you knew how to give one of those."

Severus wanted to reply, but the door burst open. Harry Potter and a couple of Aurors from the Ministry entered the room as Severus and Paige pulled the sheets over themselves. "I've been looking for you," stated Harry. "You're a hard man to find."

"And just how did you find me?" Snape asked curiously.

"Lucius turned you in." Harry replied.

"Hmm. I should have known." Severus stated as if he wasn't surprised by Lucius' betrayal.

"I suggest you get dressed," Harry said. He couldn't help but feel slightly shocked to see a woman in bed with Severus. He turned to Paige and looked at her. "You too."

"Leave her out of this," demanded Severus. "She has nothing to do with this.

Harry gave Severus a look of sincerity, but with a glimpse of confusion. "Yes, she does. You brought her into this. I'm afraid that she has to come as well." Harry explained.

"She's a muggle." Severus confessed with a glimmer of fear in his eyes. This was an emotion Severus rarely showed in life. He had been scared very few times: once maybe twice in a very long lifetime. Once, when he realized he had probably lost Lily because of his own stupidity, and the second when he knew Lord Voldemort was going to attack the Potters. He knew he would have lost her for good then.

A look of surprise came over Harry's face. He didn't know Severus would ever associate with a muggle. "She still has to come. She's been exposed to our world," he explained. "I assure you that she will not be harmed. We will wait out in the hallway while you two get dressed, but don't even think about trying to escape. The only way possible is for you to use magic, and we can track that." With this said, Harry and the two Aurors went out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Severus turned to Paige and looked at her face, not sure if she was confused, scared, shocked, or just plain mixed about everything. "Are you alright?" He asked for the second time today.

"Fine," she replied. "Just tired of being called a muggle. I've heard that word enough for the past few days." Paige climbed out of the bed and grabbed some of the clothes that Draco had brought to her. She slid on the usual garments, a pair of plain jeans, and a silk green top that tied at one side. "Hmm. Someone actually has some good taste."

"It fits you well." Severus complimented. He slid on his pair of black jeans and black t-shirt that Paige had given him back at the hotel. He didn't have anything else to wear. At this point, he was really starting to miss his usual black robes. They were his signature clothing, and somehow, when that cloak billowed behind him when entering the classroom, it gave him power because it scared the students. The black clothes and cloak were a part of him, and now he had been degraded to a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

"What are they going to do with me?" Paige asked, a look of concern appearing finally.

"I'm not sure," replied Severus. "They won't harm you though. They can't. If anything, they might ask you some questions and want to know how much you've learned about the wizarding world since you've been in my presence."

"What if I never see you again?" Paige asked out of the blue.

Severus had not been expecting this question. As far as he was concerned, he figured she would want to be on her merry way once everything was over. He was nothing more than a bother to her: a complete nuisance since she had to take care of him. If anything, Severus owed her his life. He needed to protect her because she had protected him. Yes, he had saved her from her father, but she had brought him back from being near death. That meant more than saving her from her father. She could have probably done that on her own since she had escaped to the hotel anyways. The truth was Severus had never owed someone so much before.

"I won't allow that to happen." He explained with a stern look on his face.

A knock came from the door before it opened up a crack. "Are you dressed?" Came the voice of Harry. Under no circumstances did he want to see his former Professor exposed.

"Yes," replied Severus. "We're ready."

Harry opened up the door and looked at the both of them. "We will travel by Floo Powder to inside the Ministry," he explained. "We have some questions for you both."

Severus glanced over at Paige, giving her that I-told-you-so look about the questions. Harry and the two Aurors, ones that Severus did not recognize, started walking towards the fireplace in Malfoy Manor. Then, the Aurors moved so that everyone was in a single file line: Harry in the front, then Severus, an Auror, Paige, and then the other Auror. This pattern acted as a failsafe. It kept the two people in question, Severus and Paige, between two people at all time.

"This fireplace is big enough for two to three people," explained Harry. "So this is how it will work. Myself, Severus, and Dobbs will go first, and then Paige and Gueverra will follow behind." Harry came up with this plan because he knew Paige couldn't use magic. She only needed one person to make sure she wouldn't try anything, where Harry knew Severus could try to escape so he allowed for himself and one Auror to watch over him.

One of the Aurors, who happened to be Dobbs, nodded first. He stood taller than everyone except the other Auror, Gueverra. Both were rather tall and muscular and looked like something the army would definitely accept as muscle. Both had brown hair, one darker while the other lighter. The one had longer hair, which was held back in a ponytail. He could definitely pull off working as a bouncer in a nightclub, while the other had standard military hair, making him look like he belonged in camouflage while carrying a gun. Both of these Aurors had been in their job for a while, and appeared as if they had been bread their whole life to be an Auror. Some witches and wizards were bread to be an Auror, while others were given natural talent like Harry Potter.

Harry, Severus, and Dobbs all stepped into the fireplace. Harry grabbed a bit of Floo Powder before he had stepped in. He shouted, "Ministry of Magic!" and threw down the powder, causing the three of them to be engorged in green flames. The three disappeared from the sight of Paige and Gueverra. All three men stepped out of the fireplace and into the Ministry of Magic. There were a few wizards hustling and bustling around, but nothing like it used to be. The wizarding world truly had been divided during the Second War, and the pieces were still trying to be put together.

Severus glanced around at the place, not being able to quite help himself. He felt as if he were partly responsible, sitting behind his desk at Hogwarts, taking the role of Headmaster just to please Voldemort. Dumbledore had died, and yet, he had still played both sides. He had to in order to stay alive, but at the same time, it almost had become pointless. He had turned his back on the wizarding world, protecting his own life instead of trying to fight for what he had once believed in. "Where is everyone?" He asked through the almost deafening silence.

"Many wizards left during the war," answered Harry. "A lot of them didn't come back and just left their positions. Others died so it's just a matter of trying to put everything back together and find people to fill in the positions. On top of that, the Ministry really needs to be reformatted, having more power in certain places than others."

After noticing the Ministry's quietness, Paige and Gueverra finally came through the fireplace. Paige looked a bit dizzy, as she had never traveled by Floo Network before. Most of the wizarding world had been a learning experience for her, and a world of new beginnings, because an abusive father had corrupted the world she came from. She may have been a muggle, but she wondered if she could ever fit into this world of mysterious and weird magic.

"You people sure have some weird ways of traveling." She admitted.

Harry turned to look at her. "It takes time to get used to it," he explained. "Anyways, we have to get to the Auror department."

Harry started to walk towards the elevators while everyone else followed him. He stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the Auror department. He remembered when Moody had been in charge of the Auror department, and now he had been recruited to help bring peace to the wizarding world. He had more experience than others, killing Lord Voldemort and escaping him in previous attacks, so they had asked him to help make things better.

After everyone had entered the elevator, it started to move backwards, downwards, to the side, and then downward again. After a couple of minutes, the elevator came to a stop at the Auror department. The door opened and let all five of them out. As they exited the elevator, they stepped on various crumpled up papers, ones that were once interoffice memos. "For people who can do magic, you sure don't know how to clean the place." Paige stated rather bluntly and rudely.

Severus couldn't help but grin slightly. He knew she was acting this way as a defense mechanism for taking them out of Malfoy Manor.

"Aurors have been rather busy trying to capture Death Eaters and others who have been causing havoc. They haven't had much time to worry about cleaning." Harry explained, walking down a hallway with two separate rooms.

These two rooms appeared gray, dark, and damp. They were rooms used for questioning and interrogations. Across from the rooms were two cells, ones where they kept people who were criminals or captives. "I'll question Severus," explained Harry. "Dobbs and Gueverra, watch over Paige in the other room. We can talk to her later."

Paige gave Severus a disconcerting look as she was dragged into the room with dull gray paint on the walls. Only a couple of metal chairs and a metal table sat in the metal room, obviously used for questioning. Harry and Severus went into the other room, which looked exactly the same. A fluorescent light glowed from up above, making the rooms appear even more boring, dull, and gray. There was no life in this room and no happiness usually came out of it. "Don't worry," Harry said. "They won't harm Paige, but I am going to ask you some questions, and I do expect you to answer them truthfully."

For once in life, Severus was the one being interrogated. He had usually been the one asking questions and being given answers. If he weren't given the answers, he would pour Veritaserum down their throat and force it out of them. This time, he knew he had to answer the questions and not play dumb. His life could depend on telling the truth. More importantly, Paige's life could depend on his ability to tell the truth. As Severus pondered his upcoming fate, he sat there, waiting to receive the various questions that Harry Potter would ask him, the one boy who already knew so much from viewing his memories.