"You and everybody else," Severus snorted bitterly in disgust. "And? Do you think I ought to wash my underpants too?"
"No!" Minstrel said, then, reconsidering, "well, you ought to if you don't, but - I mean -" she petered off, blushing as she tried to repress a smile, "- it's really none of my business - what did you have to bring up your underpants for?"
She was so flustered that Severus paused to wonder about it. His fury and indgnation lost a bit of its edge, and the tiniest of smiles cracked up the furthest corner of his lips. "YOu're right, it really isn't any of your business," he said without rancor, "although for the record, I wash and press them regularly, it's just that - er, never mind -"
For Minstrel had let out a snort of laughter, which she was trying to quell by shoving her fist into her mouth, to no avail. "You PRESS your UNDERPANTS?" she giggled around her fingers. "Now why would anyone do such an anal thing as that?"
"It keeps them from getting musty you know!" Severus snapped defensively, red spreading from his nose, across his cheeks to the tips of his ears. "It's not like I can hang them out in the sun to dry while I'm in school!"
"Why don't you let the house-elves do them for you?" Minstrel asked, still giggling.
"I'm not going to let some elf touch my -"
"Uh-huh," Minstrel nodded with mock sagacity, then lost control entirely and broke into helpless laughter.
"Thirteen-year-olds!" Severus huffed to himself. "Look, if you've got nothing better to do than laugh at my laundry habits, why don't you just run along and look for someone else to bother? There'll be a practical later, and I have my Potions OWL scheduled for tomorrow, you know."
"Oh, pooh!" Minstrel declared with a falsely regal air after she had wiped off the tears of hilarity that had formed at the corner of her eyes. "You of all people don't have to study for THAT."
"Therefore you think you can bother me?"
She blinked innocently at him. "Can't I?"
"No," said Severus flatly. He put his hands on his cousin's shoulders and spun her around so that she was facing in the opposite direction. "I need to study. Get going."
"Well, I'm glad you seem okay now anyway," said Minstrel in a very small voice as she allowed herself to be chivvied away. Severus did not reply. She was not sure he had even heard her.
Later that afternoon, Minstrel waited for the fifth-years to finish their practical exams. BLACK EVANS LUPIN PETTIGREW POTTER SNAPE