Levigate: to rub, grind, or reduce to a fine powder.
June 3, 1982
The hot glare of the afternoon sun toppled through the wide-open oak front doors of Hogwarts, spilled across the flagstone floor, and was even brave enough to creep down the first few steps to the dungeons. But that was where it stopped. The sweltering heat of oncoming summer froze in the perpetually-damp-and-chilly potions classrooms. Students and teachers flooded the grounds, reveling in the first glorious weather truly unclouded by fear and sorrow. But in his cold, dark classroom, Severus Snape was cocooned away from it all.
The laughter and shouts from the grounds faded with the sunlight down in the deep recesses of the school. Snape stood vigil behind his desk, bottles and pouches of ingredients laid out before him. Carefully, he laid three snake fangs into a bowl, picked up a pestle, and began to grind.
Everything yielded to a pestle, if one gave it enough time. It was the surest way of obliterating something. Not as flashy as a direct blow. Not as quick either. But a guarantee of eventual demise.
Snape knew this better than anyone. He had seen it first-hand. Alcohol had wasted away Tobias Snape. Tobias Snape had ground Ilene Prince into a shell. The Dark Arts had frayed his connection with Lily until it had fallen to ashes at their feet.
It took patients, long hours of careful work in dark, gloomy places. But in this manner, even the strongest things could be reduced to nothing.
Steadily, he ground the snake fangs, watching them slowly turn to powder. He would keep wearing away at them, no matter how long it took, until he saw them as nothing.
The Dark Lord might lie in wait for years, decades even. He might bide his time, gather strength. He might dodge every blow for ages, but Snape was patient, precise, and diligent. He would see that the Dark Lord was ground to oblivion eventually, too.
A/N: A bit more Snape for you, just to round things out. He owned this word. His name was written on it. :)