The Great Hall was mostly empty when Harry entered to have dinner later that first Wednesday night in November before his detention. Remembering he earlier told Ron and Hermione that he would save them a spot when they came down for dinner at their normal time, he walked halfway down the sparsely populated Gryffindor table toward one of the larger empty areas and sat down. He then filled his plate with food and began eating.

Almost done with his dinner, a while later, Harry looked up from his plate and noticed that a majority of the students had arrived. He was a bit surprised that Ron and Hermione had yet to show up as Ron supposedly had something very important to tell them at dinner before Harry left for his detention. Harry took a sip of pumpkin juice and looked towards the doors. As his eyes traveled up the long wooden table, he spotted his friends sitting very close to each other near the end of the table, talking and laughing.

Feeling slightly betrayed and hurt at his friends for ignoring him yet again, Harry quickly finished his dinner and stormed out of the Great Hall, being sure he was seen by Ron and Hermione. Once out of the Great Hall, he proceeded up to his dorm room, almost at a run, to change for his detention. He had eaten slowly so he could spend some time with them before his detention and now he had no time to dally around because they decided not to join him.

Ron entered the dorm room minutes behind Harry and immediately stopped in the doorway, his eyes taking in the sight before him. Clothes and books were scattered all over his bed and Harry's. He walked into the room and around to Harry's bed. He found Harry bent over his trunk, throwing a pair of socks and trainers beside him on the floor. "Blimey Harry, what do you think your doing?" he asked, forgetting the real reason he went up to their dorm room.

"What do you care?" Harry snapped, his voice not hiding his feelings about being ignoring at dinner. He reached into the bottom of his trunk and pulled out a raggedy pair of jeans and shirt.

"Harry," Ron began.

With clothes in hand, Harry grabbed his pair of trainers and socks on the floor and stood up, his back to Ron. "I need to change for detention." Without another word or waiting for Ron to respond, Harry headed to the bathroom to change.

When he reentered the dorm room a few minutes later, he was relieved to see that Ron was gone. He wasn't in the mood to have a row with him at the moment. Placing his school clothes on his four-poster, Harry took off for the potion's classroom.

As he slowly descended the stairs toward the dungeons, Harry's upset feelings turned to anger. He could understand his friends wanting to do things without him, but he couldn't believe they would forget their promise to have dinner with him. Over the past month, he'd noticed that Ron and Hermione’s forgetting about him had become an almost regular occurrence.

His thoughts then turned towards his detention as he rounded a corridor and spotted the potion's classroom. He was fuming by the time he got to the door. He couldn't believe Ron, again, got out of a detention from Snape. His detention was so unfair. Ron deserved a detention too. At that moment Harry knew the greasy git really had it out for him. His anger worked up, Harry knocked on the wooden door with more force than necessary.

~SH~

Severus was shifting some items around in the potion's storeroom when he heard a forceful knock on the classroom door. "Enter," he said rather loudly while still in the storeroom.

Harry opened the door and stood just inside, left hand clenched in anger on the door knob. With surprising courage, Harry started ranting the minute he entered the classroom, not bothering to notice that the Potion's Master wasn't in sight. He was too busy looking at his trainers instead of the classroom. "Sir, this detention is uncalled for. I did nothing to deserve it," he shouted, not caring if he was being disrespectful to his professor. "And if I got a detention, Ron should have received one too. I think you…" He stopped abruptly, surprised at what he had said. He was thinking those thoughts but never imagined saying them out loud to the professor.

Severus stepped into the classroom carrying a huge metal bucket. "Please desist with your infernal racket Mr. Potter." He placed the bucket on the floor next to one of the desks at the front of the room and looked Harry up and down with narrowed eyes. "I see you remembered to wear something old." Harry just stood at the door glaring at him. "It seems you can listen to instructions after all."

"I always listen," Harry replied. "But not to you most of the time," he added in a very quiet whisper.

Ignoring the boy's comment, Severus walked to his desk, sat down, and looked at Harry still standing at the door. "Are you incapable of shutting the door Mr. Potter?" he asked, exasperated.

Without a word, Harry closed the door and took a seat at the desk Snape had set up for him to obviously use during his detention.

"You will have two assignments to complete during this detention. Tomorrow morning the second years will be brewing a boil cure potion and my store of flobberworm mucus is almost depleted. As such, you will be replenishing it." Severus watched Harry nod his head. "As you can see, Potter, the bucket is filled with flobberworms. You will obtain their mucus and fill all the vials I have set out on the desk. All the utensils and tools you could possibly need are on the desk as well. When you have filled all the vials, you will let me know so you can start on your other assignment."

"Yes sir," Harry said unenthusiastically, staring at the wiggling mass of flobberworms in the bucket next to him. He definitely was not going to enjoy this task. He could only imagine what the second one would be.

Severus turned his attention to his desk to start reading the fourth year's papers he had collected that day while Harry started working on his first assignment.

A little while later, Severus looked up from the papers to the desk Harry was working at. The boy had his mucus-covered hands on top of the desk, and was staring at them in disgust. Severus then looked to the vials and noticed that they were all full of mucus. He let out an infuriated breath. If that boy could ever follow directions, it would be a miracle. He got up and walked over to Harry.

"Potter," Severus hissed, leaning over the desk. Harry jerked his head up to stare at the professor, surprised at his closeness. "It seems, Mr. Potter, that you can only follow directions once a day."

"That's not…" Harry started.

Severus interrupted. "You will now finish the rest of this detention by clearing out the potions storeroom." He stood up straight and walked over to a cabinet on the far side of the classroom. He pulled out an empty bucket, sponges, a scrub brush, rags, and various cleansers. "It will be done the Muggle way."

Harry just sat there watching the professor.

"The floor, shelves, and vials haven't been cleaned in years," Severus began as he walked over to Harry. "Most of the expired potions and ingredients have been removed over time, but I would like a thorough cleaning done. The vials will be sparkling, the shelves will have no sticky gunk on them, and the floor will be so clean you can eat off of it. If you have any problems deciphering what has expired, you will ask me." He thrust the bucket full of cleaning items at Harry. "Any questions?"

Harry shook his head no. "No sir."

"There is an empty container in the storeroom. Place all the expired items inside."

"Yes sir," Harry replied gloomily.

Before returning to his papers, Severus dropped a rag on the desk in front of Harry. "Clean off your hands." He then whirled around and went back to his desk.

Wiping the slimy goo off his hands, Harry stood up and entered the storeroom.

"Oh, and Mr. Potter, I don't think it wise for you to clean out the storeroom too quickly. You will continue to clean it out over your next four detentions."

"What?" Harry asked incredulously as he walked out of the storeroom. "I don't have any more detentions with you."

"Not yet Mr. Potter," Severus said with a hint of warning. "But with your attitude and insolence, it will only be a matter of time until you land yourself in a detention with me once again."

Harry didn't respond, knowing it was probably the truth; especially now that Snape had a job he wanted him to continue. The professor would probably give him detention for breathing too loud. He looked at Severus and quickly walked back in to the storeroom.

Standing in the middle of the room, Harry looked around. He couldn't believe how large the room actually was. He, of course, had been in it a few times over the past five years, but never realized its size. The room was about 10 feet by 10 feet. Nine levels of metal shelves lined all four walls with various sizes of glass vials and jars resting on every available surface. "This is going to take more than four detentions. I hope that git isn't having me clean the entire thing myself," he whispered.

Deciding it would be best if he started the cleaning on the top shelves and worked his way down, Harry grabbed the empty container by the door that was for the expired potions and ingredients and set it down where he was going to start. He pulled a wooden ladder from one of the corners and opened it up. He then began the slow and tedious job of cleaning up the storeroom.

Harry had just finished cleaning about three quarters of the first shelf when he went to grab a jar near the back by the wall. The sound of shattering glass stopped his reach immediately and he looked down to the ground below him. Two large jars lay smashed on the floor, with the small pieces of glass mixed among a murky orange liquid and bits of something he didn't want to identify. He quickly descended the ladder and stepping over the disgusting mixture, stuck his head out of the storeroom. Seeing that Snape apparently wasn't in the next room, Harry pulled his head back in and quickly cleaned up the mess. He then went back up the ladder to continue where he left off.

An hour and a half later, Severus quietly walked into the storeroom. "Potter."

At the sound of the potion master's voice, Harry jumped and quickly got down off the ladder, his heart racing. "Yes?"

"You are dismissed for tonight. Though I'd rather not see your face again, please be prompt for your lesson tomorrow. It will be held in my office."

"Yes sir," he said rather tiredly. "Where would you like me to put the cleaning supplies sir?"

"You can leave them against the wall in the far corner. You will be using them for your detention on Friday, seeing as tomorrow you will be otherwise occupied."

"Friday?"

"Yes. Friday. It's the day that comes after Thursday and before Saturday. I'm sure you've heard of it."

"I know when Friday is," he said aggravated. "I don't have a detention on Friday, sir."

"You do as of about an hour ago for breaking two of my jars."

Harry stared at the man in shock. How did the professor know he broke them? He wasn't even in the room. And since when does accidentally breaking jars constitute a detention? "I didn't break them on purpose. It was an accident."

"Then your detention is well deserved. It is for your carelessness."

"But that is so unfair. I didn't mean to…"

"Do you want to make it Saturday as well as Friday Mr. Potter?" Severus asked, a little too happily.

Harry looked at Severus then swallowed. "No sir."

"Then get out of my sight before you find yourself here on Saturday."

Harry didn't acknowledge Severus. If he did, he knew his mouth would earn him the Saturday detention. Instead, he quickly left the storeroom and the potion's classroom and headed toward the Gryffindor tower. As he entered the Gryffindor common room and made his way to the stairs up to his dorm room, Hermione intercepted him.

"Harry, where have you been?" She then saw the state he was in; beads of sweat on his face, clothes dirty and wet. "What did you get in to?"

"I was at my detention with Snape," he snapped. "Remember?"

"Oh yes. I'm sorry Harry, I guess I forgot. I've had quiet a bit on my mind I guess." She turned and took a quick look at Ron who was sitting in front of the fireplace playing a round of exploding snap with Neville and Ginny.

Harry followed Hermione's gaze. "Seems to be happening a lot," he said more to himself than to her.

"What was that Harry?" Hermione questioned, not really listening to what he was saying.

"Nothing. Excuse me Hermione," he said while pushing his way past the girl who again turned her attention to Ron. "I'd like to take a shower and go to bed."

"Of course. Sorry. See you at breakfast, Harry."

"Yea, whatever," he said almost out of Hermione's earshot. Wanting to get out of his dirty clothes and to clean off all the disgusting gunk plastered all over his hands and arms, Harry quickly went to take a shower. When he was done, he went to his four-poster. Still not in the mood to have any sort of discussion with Ron, he drew the red velvet curtains closed around him to work on his homework and then to go to bed.

~SH~

Severus watched Harry leave the classroom, glad to have the infuriating boy out of his sight. He could only handle being in the vicinity of Potter for short periods of time before always acquiring a headache.

He turned off the storeroom light, closed the door and went back to his desk to finish grading the papers. After finishing the last paper an hour later, Severus quickly retired to his quarters. He made himself a cup of tea, sat by the fireplace, and picked up the book he was in the middle of reading. He sat there reading until he retired to bed a few hours later. Never once did his mind drift to the box from Lily he stashed in his closet.