Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.
Scrub. Scrub. Wash. Scrub. Scrub. Scrub. Wash.
Wash. Wash. Wash. Scrub.
Scrub. Scrub. Scrub.
Harry Potter imagined there was a particularly stubborn piece of glop on the side of the cauldron, if only to ignore his Professor. Harry knew he should have been used to it by now. It had been going on for days, but it still bothered him - after all, who wouldn't be bothered as a Professor practically rubbed in his face that his father was a good-for-nothing, lazy, stupid bully?
Harry knew it could be true - but then again, he had never seen any proof.
The imaginary speck of glop changed back and forth from that speck to Snape's face, and he would scrub particularly hard at it, wishing it would just fall away.
It didn't.
Ever.
He scrubbed harder, and harder, and harder - he dunked the sponge into the bucket of soapy yet dirty water beside him and began scrubbing again.
The Professor took a moment to breathe, and his muscles relaxed slightly - until it began again.
"Just like your father, Potter - lazy and incompetent-"
"My mother." Harry suddenly burst out - not in a shout, but in a voice barely higher than a whisper.
"What?" Snape spat, staring at the back of his head. He could feel the cold, dark gaze burning a hole into him.
"My mother. Did you hate her too? Was she a bratty, incompetent, lazy, foolish, stupid, dumb, petulant, foolhardy Gryffindor, too?" To both Harry's and Snape's obvious surprise, his voice held no menace and his voice did not raise over the normal tone level. It simply sounded like a normal, everyday question.
Snape stared. After a couple of minutes, Harry continued scrubbing. Two minutes passed after that, and finally, Snape spoke.
"No. She wasn't." His voice was a low, hoarse whisper.
Harry glanced up from the cauldron, but his fingers didn't stall gripping the edges of the sponge and his arm didn't stall moving across the quite-clean cauldron, but he asked;
"Then maybe Professor, if you looked past my hair and my glasses, just maybe you could actually believe that I have some of my mother in me, too." And he continued washing, and the last thing that left his lips were "I am already in detention, Professor." when Snape spoke, in the same hoarse, whispering voice, eyes slightly widened.
"Detention, Potter."