She glanced at her clock. "Yes, the rest of the school should have left the Hall. I think we can begin. Severus, we shall bid you good evening now."
With one last glare of warning, Snape rose to his feet, his cloak billowing behind him. "I trust you shall recall our discussion, Professor."
The elderly witch had the temerity to roll her eyes at him. "And I trust you shall recall my suggestions to you."
Snape growled. The nerve of some people! Just because he provided proper supervision over his ward did not mean that he "hovered". He tilted up Harry's chin and scowled at the brat. "You will behave yourself," he told him sternly. "AndтАж you may come to our rooms tonight if you need me."
Harry's face lit up. His da couldn't be really mad at him if he was inviting him to come home later. Harry nearly always slept in the dorm with his mates, but every once in a while he tended to sneak down to the dungeons, especially if he'd had a bad day or had had a nightmare or something. His da never snapped at him when he did, but this was the first time his father had ever openly said he could. "Okay, Da!" he agreed happily, oblivious to Professor McGonagall's sudden coughing fit.
Several minutes later, he was a lot less happy. He stood by Professor McGonagall's side in the center of the Great Hall. She'd chased out the last of the students, then closed and warded the doors. Harry watched nervously as she spelled the furniture to cluster in the far corner, clearing the enormous room and making it look as it had earlier that evening.
To Harry's dismay, several scrub brushes, rags, and buckets then magically appeared around them. "I expect this floor to be spotless when you are through, Mr Potter," she said, handing him a toothbrush.
Harry's shoulders slumped. The Hall would have been hard enough to clean with a regular brush, but with thisтАж He'd be here until breakfast!
Well, it wasn't like he hadn't had plenty of experience in scrubbing floors. Dudley's jeering voice was loud in his memory as he unhappily accepted the toothbrush and started to get down on his knees.
"Mr Potter!" Professor McGonagall's scandalized voice halted him in mid-crouch.
"Yes'm?" he asked nervously. What had he done now?
"Mr Potter, that will take forever. Have you forgotten you are a wizard?"
"Erm, no."
"Well then..." She looked at him expectantly, but Harry could only blink in confusion.
"Did I say you were forbidden to use magic to complete the task?"
"N-no," Harry admitted, eyes wide.
"Then I expect you to use this as an opportunity to practice your transfiguration skills. Come, come, Mr Potter! Don't dawdle. Take out your wand and get busy."
An incredulous grin slowly crept across Harry's face as the potential of this "detention" dawned on him.
##
Three hours later, Snape couldn't stand it anymore. It was all well and good for that superannuated tabby cat to claim that she wouldn't traumatize the boy, but what did she know about it anyway? He threw down his quill, ignoring the pile of homework that he'd been staring at sightlessly for the past twenty minutes, and stormed out of his office.
When he got to the Great Hall, he slowed his pace. He'd already burst in on McGonagall once this evening, and all he had gotten for his pains was a sense of his own ridiculousness. This time, he'd take a more subtle approach.
Using the stealth he had perfected as a Death Eater, he disarmed the wards, cracked one of the doors and sidled inside, only to halt in utter disbelief.
A wet and filthy Harry, clad only in his singlet and trousers, was happily skating around the room on transfigured scrub brushes, closely following an enchanted pail of soapy water. A second bucket, this time with clean water, followed him, while a busily working mop completed the parade. At another end of the hall, enchanted rags dried and polished the floor.
"You missed a spot, Mr Potter," Minerva called from the far corner, where she was comfortably settled in an armchair with a book in her lap and a pot of tea hovering at her elbow.
"Okay, Professor!" Harry executed an impressive spin and headed back to catch the overlooked patch. "C'n I do the ceiling too, like you promised?" he begged.
"It is close to curfew, Mr Potter," Minerva chided. "And you have forgotten to have the rags wring themselves out again."
"Oops." Harry flicked his wand, and the rags promptly hurried to the nearest bucket and wrung out their excess water. Snape watched, impressed. He hadn't realized how much control the brat had developed over his magic, and even assuming Minerva was providing guidance and assistance, this was an impressive feat for a first year.
Harry skated over to the professor. "Pleeeeeeeease, Professor? I won't be long. I'll just do a quick once-over, okay?"
"Honestly, Mr Potter. You'd think you get enough time in the air with all the Quidditch practices," McGonagall scolded, but then she relented and a wave of her wand had Harry floating upside down and rising towards the ceiling. "And no more belly flops!" she called after him.
"This is so cool!" Harry yelped in delight, twisting around and spraying water from his skates onto the floor below.
Snape managed to close his mouth before any water dripped in, and he turned and left the Hall as silently as he had entered. Behind him, Minerva watched from the corner of her eye as the door closed behind him, and she shook with silent laughter.
TBCтАж
*Chapter 47*: Chapter 47
Not long thereafter, a tired and happy Harry retransfigured the various cleaning supplies into their usual mundane states and shrugged back into his robes. "That was really great, Professor!" he told his Head of House with an enthusiasm he usually reserved for Quidditch.
"I hope, Mr Potter, that you are astute enough to realize that this was not a typical detention. Any future detentions with me are unlikely to engender similar approval," she warned sternly.
"Yes, Professor," he agreed, even as he mentally rolled his eyes. Merlin, how dumb does she think I am?
"Very well, then, Mr Potter. Off to bed with you."
"G'night, Professor," he said happily, giving her a quick hug and running off before she had recovered from her astonishment.
Minerva straightened her robes and cleared her throat in some embarrassment. Harry did seem to have a habit of тАж adoptingтАж people. She began to understand why Severus seemed so worried about the boy's effect on his Evil Bat reputation. The instant a Weasely calls me "Auntie Min", she vowed to herself, I am obliviating the entire school.
Harry reached the Gryffindor tower shortly before curfew, and the Common Room was crowded when he slipped through the portrait hole. His sodden and grubby appearance had the effect of stopping all conversation.
"Merlin, Harry!" Ron exclaimed in astonishment. "What'd she do to you?"
"Oh, Harry, are you all right?" Hermione asked worriedly, while the rest of the Tower clustered around.
Harry's blossoming Slytherin nature again asserted itself. He sighed heavily and told the absolute truth. "Professor McGonagall handed me a toothbrush an' had me scrub the whole Great Hall!"
"Merlin's shorts! Even we тАУ"
" тАУ never got anything like that!" the twins exclaimed.
"Sure, we've had to scrub the тАУ "
" тАУ trophy room and help Hagrid тАУ "