Harry Potter was standing in detention, again. He'd grown very used to this, over the course of years with Snape.

This time, however, seemed subtly different. Which was troubling.

Harry had expected himself to be somehow let off, or given lighter duty - but it turned out that cauldrons were cauldrons, and Snape still had a ton of soiled ones. It was almost to the point that Harry wished more people melted them like Neville. You didn't have to clean those.

It probably ruined Snape's budget though.

Harry looked up at Snape, who was scrawling his cramped handwriting across pages of chickenscratch homework. "Does the school allocate funds for you to buy new cauldrons, if students ruin them?"

Snape shook his head, "A limited amount. Never enough to last a month."

Harry sighed, "I suppose that explains why even this shoddy piece of work needs to be cleaned."

"Yes, Mister Potter, it does."

Harry hadn't minded cleaning at the Dursleys. It was quiet work. He'd minded getting reprimanded when he'd gotten everything done right, or being assigned inhumane amounts of work.

It felt better, here, to work for something - even if it was grouchy old Snape. Harry thought he might be a grouch, if his students kept costing him pence and pounds, too.

Besides, Harry had plans to make. Now that he was 'somewhat' friends with Hermione (she didn't have anyone else, Harry thought, and friendship takes time to develop), he needed to spring Sirius Black from prison.

Harry had knowledge that he shouldn't have. Knowledge that Snape, or Dumbledore, might pull from his mind - if, that is, they thought to look. He couldn't tell them, or give them reason to suspect him. He'd have to be indirect - the Slytherin way.

Ruddy good job I'm in Slytherin this time round, isn't it? Harry thought sarcastically. I just need to figure out how...

Harry had the clean way of doing it - the Malfoys were certainly powerful enough to move mountains in the Ministry. He just didn't know if they cared. At all, about anything. Harry wasn't willing to even condemn them as zealots, as he'd been in a previous life. Life was complicated, and brands are forever.

Harry also had the blood in the water method of freeing Sirius Black - it would probably mean the fall of Fudge's government. But Sirius would be free, and Harry wouldn't have to go back to the Dursleys. Harry didn't mind Fudge's government falling, either. The worst thing about the man was that he was such a coward - the corruption was one thing, but Fudge would sway in the wind. Harry couldn't even bribe the man to own a conviction.

Huh. How about that, the cauldrons are clean.

[a/n: I did consider the idea of having Harry discuss Sirius with Snape, in order to have Snape say, "Isn't there someone else, someone without a personal vendetta, who would like an order of merlin?" In the end, though, Snape's a mindreader. Harry's trying not to be exceptional around the man.

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