Severus Snape listened to the sound of the boys' retreating footsteps. Tiredly, he rubbed his temples. The Potter brat was always causing trouble. He had been, for once, enjoying the year at Hogwarts despite the unwelcome addition of the mangy wolf on the staff. He had an ally in the return of a friend, perhaps his only friend if you didn't count Albus and Severus was not sure that he counted Albus as a friend despite the older wizard's constant involvement in his life. More importantly, he finally had the opportunity for intelligent conversation that was often sorely lacking amongst the Hogwarts staff. It was fair to say that Severus did not invite conversation with his scathing remarks and permanent scowl but it wasn't his fault that the mindless chatter of "Britain's finest wizarding institution" failed to live up to that promise. The only person he could slightly tolerate was Flitwick and apparently he squeaked and fell off his books while announcing Potter's name. Hardly dignified for a first rate duelist who, more importantly, knew that Harry Potter would be in the first year class of Gryffindors that day.

Speaking of Potter, there were few children that Severus could tolerate less than the arrogant, good-for-nothing, carbon-copy of the reckless bully that James Potter was. Scowling, he thought over the events of the afternoon. He had been quietly if not somewhat peacefully (well as peaceful as cursing terrible handwriting and suffering the clumsy analogies of dunderheads ever got) grading his second year student essays that he had assigned over the summer when Cressida had barged in with none other that the miserable excuse of a student. Once he saw Mr. Potter's face, he knew that either the boy had complained about his failure to bow to Potter's whims and misguided sense that the world was at his beck at and call, or that he had gotten in trouble for lurking somewhere he did not belong. In either case, Severus was ready to tear into Potter and list his numerous misdeeds. He was appalled, therefore, when Cressida began to berate him for his supposed lack of oversight of Potter's care. As if he didn't have enough on his plate ensuring that the spoiled brat survived his time at Hogwarts! Why would he care where the no-good bane of his existence resided at other times during the year? He was sure that Potter had lots to complain about his muggle relatives. Nothing was ever good enough for him.

However, as he replayed the events of the afternoon while summoning a glass and bottle of Firewhiskey, he remembered that Cressida had been furious that Potter had been placed with Petunia. This fact, in itself while unanticipated, was not as troubling for Severus as it was for Cressida. After all, he smirked, Cressida had the tendency to be overdramatic. However, he also wondered if Petunia had the ability to maintain her jealousy of Lily after all these years. All he could remember was her insistence on normalcy but that would prevent any mistreatment of their resident celebrity, right? In fact, she might have even taken him down a peg or two which was perfectly fine in Severus' opinion.

Severus though carefully on what other staff members said during meetings. As much as he tried to tune them out, his spying days during the first war had left him with unbreakable habits and unfortunately, he did often remember the things that his colleagues mentioned no matter how trivial, inane, or utterly irrelevant. He remembered a disagreement when Hagrid had been first dispatched to fetch the boy when his letters had failed to reach him. At the time, Severus did not think much about why the letters did not reach the boy. He assumed that Dumbledore had merely underestimated his wards or that Potter was simply above responding to the Hogwarts letter. Hagrid seemed oddly disgruntled by the whole affair which was unusual given Hagrid's baseline of oblivious cheer but again, Severus had again chalked it up to the boy and his impact on others. Lord knows that Severus would have been driven mad by the 11-year-old's antics and questions. But then again, Severus recalled with a grimace, he was not Hagrid and unlike himself, Hagrid appeared to have an endless tolerance for the dunderheadedness of young students. He had never even raised his voice (well at least if you counted Hagrid's booming voice as his normal volume) at the hellspawn Weasley twins despite their numerous attempts to enter the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid had complained about the muggles who had lived with Harry and mentioned that he had to visit a shack to retrieve the boy. He remembered thinking at the time that the term "shack" referred to how Hagrid viewed Muggle homes. However, now that he reflected, Hagrid's own state of lodging, while cosy, would have hardly caused Hagrid to judge others. Perhaps, Potter had been found in a shack, but that could be due to some ill-conceived camping expedition. Hagrid had said something that stuck with Severus, though, before he was quickly interrupted by Dumbledore. What was it? Oh yes, Hagrid had almost sobbed at one point, stating "Tol' him that James and Lily Potter died in a car accident, they did! Can yer believe that? A car accident?! James and Lilly Potter..." Severus had thought about why Potter was told about this as a reason for his parents death and had resolved to ask Dumbledore about it but the opportunity had never arisen. He sighed. Perhaps he had misjudged the boy's home situation but then again, given the boy's reckless behavior and defiant attitude in his classroom, he doubted that the muggles were mistreating him. More likely, they simply let the boy get away with things than put up with him. That was why the boy had no boundaries or self-control. Severus was satisfied with his conclusion.

A quiet pop brought him out of his reverie. Wordlessly he summoned another glass and filled it with Firewhiskey and offered it to Cressida who now sat in front of him, looking confused and a little exhausted. "No luck, I presume?" It was more of a statement than an answer.

She nodded in thanks and she took the glass and smirked as she took a sip. "A little early to start drinking isn't it? Don't you have classes that you need to teach?"

Severus smirked in response. He replied, "And yet you appear to be drinking on the job. I only have my NEWT students this afternoon and they will be working on researching their independent projects in the library today."

She chuckled, "How convenient."

"I take it that I do not have to inform the Headmaster that Black has been apprehended and is currently en route to an actual secure facility?" He asked.

She sighed. "No, unfortunately, I did not see a trace of him when I went to look. It was curious. My wards are set to detect the instant that he crosses the perimeter. Therefore, I have to assume that the has breached the grounds but has some means of avoiding detection. However, he has not crossed the perimeter past Hagrid's hut so I have to assume that he somewhere between in the middle of the Forbidden Forest and the stone wall behind Hagrid's hut."

Severus scowled. "Too large of an area to do a hominus revelo, then."

"That's the curious thing. I cast that a few times but the Aurors cast that around the Azkaban area when he first escaped and that also yielded no results. At the time, I thought that this was due to their incompetence..."

"A logical conclusion," Severus supplied.

"Yes..." Cressida nodded, "But at the same time, I tried several other detection spells and my wards are set up so no wizard can breach them...I wonder if Black is cleverer than we are giving him credit for."

Severus scoffed. "That's unlikely. Black was always rash and reckless. His only talent lay in bullying and tormenting other students while inflicting his sob story on all authority figures."

"And yet, he bested Lily..."

Snape barred his teeth in anger. "You know that the only reason that he was able to trick her was because of Potter's stupidity and entitled attitude towards his safety!" Unwanted images of him finding Lily laying in the nursery came to mind and he almost slammed his fist on the desk. Instead, he settled for placing his tumbler on his desk with enough force that the contents almost sloshed out of the glass.

Cressida raised her eyebrow and rolled her eyes at this display. "Be that as it may, he is still dangerous and poses enough of a threat to get my agency's attention."

"I thought that your agency was only pulled in because of how our minister introduced the situation to the current prime minister and because his killing of Pettigrew was labeled a terrorist attack," Snape stated as he picked up his glass and swirled the contents discontentedly.

"That was some of it."

"When you mentioned you involvement, I took it for granted that you were assigned. How did you get roped into dealing with this mess? Couldn't you have just dispatched a member of your task force to the mundane assignment of watching a school full of children?" Snape asked. Now that he thought about it, he wondered why he hadn't asked her more questions in their frequent correspondence.

She directed a saccharine smile at him in response. "And why would I miss the opportunity to indulge in your cheery company?" This elicited a dry laugh from the man. She smiled in response and continued, "I am not above denying that this assignment as certain draws. Namely, if I find Black, he will be wishing for the Dementor's Kiss before I'm through."

"I can drink to that," stated Severus. He raised his glass and she responded in kind.