Hermione opened the door to the Potions classroom and her heart sank as she saw that Professor Snape was still there. She walked in with her head down, wrapping the robe around her more securely and headed for her desk.
"Ah! You found something to wear I see. Well, you can now clean up the mess you made!" Snape said sharply.
"Of course I will, but can't I go and get dressed first! I promise I will come back down afterwards, I.." But Snape interrupted her
"No! You will do it now Miss Granger, it has done enough damage already, it must be cleaned up before it does any more!" He said pointing at the spilt potion; that was now starting to harden into sticky brown goo.
Hermione sighed in defeat and pointed her wand at it to magically remove it.
"No! You mustn't do it magically! It is very unstable, throwing magic at it, could cause it to explode." He warned, putting his hand up, then looked away flourishing his own wand, "No, the only way is with water and ..a brush." He said, producing the said items out of the air and passing them over to her.
"You mean you expect me to scrub this off by hand!" Hermione questioned him incredulously, holding up the cleaning implements, he had given her.
"I thought as a part muggle you would be used to manual work, haven't you ever scrubbed floors before?" He said a malicious smile playing on his lips
"No as a matter of fact I haven't!" she replied indignantly, but nevertheless went over to the sink and filled the bucket with cold water. "Can I at least heat the water magically?"
"No, it must be cold, as I said it is very unstable, although it is quite safe on your skin now it has hardened" he answered and started to walk up the classroom, "Now get on with it or you will miss dinner"
Hermione reluctantly began to scrub the floor, pouting sullenly, thinking of all the things she would like to call him, if only she had the guts.
After about 20 minutes, she had managed to scrub the desk and chair clean, so she started on the floor. Her were sore and a blister had come up the palm of one hand, it was also very difficult to scrub and hold the robe shut at the same time. She knew she would get no sympathy from him though, so didn't bother to mention it. As she got down on her knees, she realised that he had approached and was now watching her with interest, making her feel very uncomfortable. Suddenly, the memory of the night in the library came flooding back clearer than ever. She decided to confront him about it once and for all, but in a round about way, as she still wasn't sure.
"Professor Snape" hermione asked, sitting back on her legs, "Can anyone do a memory charm? Or does it have to be done with the 'Ministry of Magic's' permission?" She said trying to make the question sound perfectly innocent
His demenour suddenly changed from haughty to unnerved, shifting on his feet slightly.
"What are you talking about? Why are you asking me about such things?" he snapped
"Oh, it's just, I thought you were an expert on these sort of things. You see I think someone tried to perform one on me the other night, to make me forget something, but I don't think it worked properly" she paused looking down, biting her lip so as to try and suppress a smile "because I remember everything, it's just a bit hazy" she looked up then to see his reaction.
Professor Snape had visibly blanched, which was hard on someone already so pale. He had been leaning on a desk but now stood up straight, hands behind his back, trying to regain his composure.
"I see..and this memory..was it an unpleasant one?" he questioned, trying to make it sound casual by looking down and brushing off an imagined bit of dirt off his robe.
"No, well at least it wasn't at the time.." Hermione said, starting to scrub again, "but now I'm not so sure!"
"Memory charms are allowed, in certain circumstances, to be done by non-ministry officials. If they are qualified to do them of course and the situation calls for it" He continued, his haughty expression was now back, but his eye was twitching slightly.
"By the way, you can stop that now, I will finish it" Snape said suddenly, breaking the silence
"But I've nearly finished, I just need to get this bit here.." Hermione's perfectionism always got the better of her.
"Please, go, I have other things I need to be doing" he said sounding agitated. Hermione got up, carefully holding the robe around her and began to pack her bag. Then she looked up startled as she heard Snape uttering the cleaning spell "Scourgify!" at the rest of the spilt potion, clearing it up in an instant, with no adverse reactions whatsoever!
"I thought you said it was unstable and couldn't be cleaned up with magic!" Hermione said her mouth gaping open in disbelief
"I thought it would be an appropriate punishment and a lesson for you to be more careful in my class in future!" He said looking very smug
"You mean you've had me scrubbing that ..that muck off your filthy classroom floor and get sore hands.. for..for nothing! When I could have just cleaned it up with my wand!" Hermione felt anger bubbling up inside her now, she needed to express it but could not think the right words just at the moment
"You..you..you! Oh! I'm getting out of here!" she gathered up her things, her face red with righteous indignation and stomped over to the door. Just before she left she shouted out "You're sick, do you know that! SICK!" then left, slamming the door as hard as possible, behind her.
"Yes maybe, but you like it really don't you, Little Miss 'Goody two-shoes'" He smiled to himself as he followed her out of the door watching her, as she stomped off down the corridor.