A Bit of Elbow Grease

[Maris Wormwood]

Set at the end of S2, Y37

Maris surveyed the two girls in front of her dubiously, hands on her hips. They didn't exactly look to be the cooperative types, but then again, cooperative students didn't get placed in detention. "Right, so your heads of house have asked me to supervise you two while you serve your detention time," Maris announced, motioning to the stack of cauldrons the potions professors had been happy enough to provide. "Seems there's a little chizpurfle infestation in the dungeons, so you'll be spending today cleaning all these cauldrons till their spotless. Don't need those nasty things chewing any holes in all the school cauldrons over the break," Maris explained, grabbing a bucket with a selection of scrubbing brushes and sitting it in front of the two girls. "I've got some potions that should deal with any chizpurfles if you find them, but otherwise you should get scrubbing. I mean it when I say 'spotless', I don't want to have to redo every cauldron because of any subpar cleaning spells," she said, settling herself at the front of the classroom they'd commandeered for the project and pulling out a book. She'd still be keeping an eye on them both, and checking their work, but it would be nice to get a head start on her winter reading list while she could.

 

[Seraphina My]

Seraphina wasn't surprised that she had received dentetion, but she couldn't believe that they were making her serve it with Tilly. How could they think it would do any good to force her in the same room with her enemy? She crossed her arms as she looked off in a corner. Seraphina didn't know who the woman was in front of them, but she didn't think she looked life a professor. Just a grown-up with too much time on their hands.

Having never heard of what she had misinterpreted as a "cheese puff," Seraphina reluctantly grabbed a cauldron and brush, starting to scrub at the dirty spots. Her wand was habitating her back pocket, and she thought about pulling it out when the woman wasn't looking and just merely poking Tilly with it. As she continued cleaning the cauldron, her elbow bumped into the Hufflepuff's. "Could you move?" she said, not really intending it as a question but as an order.

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly didn’t know what a chizpurfle was. While she didn’t want to meet one, she supposed it was better company than Seraphina. Tilly obeyed Maris wordlessly, grabbing a few different brushes and heaping them into her arms. She carried them over to one of the cauldrons and started scrubbing. The Hufflepuff wasn’t excited to share the same space as the Gryffindor, but she wasn’t going to waste time complaining about it. She wanted nothing more than to finish this detention and go back to her dorm.

When Seraphina bumped into her- on purpose, of course- Tilly was tempted to shout at her. But what would that achieve? It would give Seraphina what she wanted. Instead, she stepped around to the other side of the cauldron. The blue gunk stuck to the sides of this one was particularly heinous. Good thing Tilly spent so much time cracking bludgers.

Not really thinking before she spoke, Tilly asked quietly, still focused on the mess of front of her, “Why were you living in a tent?”

@Seraphina My

 

[Seraphina My]

Seraphina continued scrubbing her cauldron but slowed down when Tilly spoke to her. She hadn't really gone into much detail about why she had attempted to live in a tent at the beginning of the year. Ivy was the only one who had any idea how insufferable her roommates were. And living in that room was just another reminder that no one valued her or really wanted her around. It wasn't much different from living at home. "I like sunsets," she replied dully and then placed her clean cauldron on the counter, taking out her wand because her hand was tired. "Why are you so tall?" she eyed back, picking up another cauldron.

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly didn't believe Seraphina's answer about sunsets. However, she decided it was better to let it slide. She scraped and scrubbed at the blue mess in her cauldron. Tilly envied Seraphina for finishing one so quickly, but perhaps she wasn't as thorough, or the potion residue wasn't as sticky. "Genetics," Tilly replied.

The Hufflepuff decided to switch to a more sensitive topic. "Why do you hate me so much?"

 

[Seraphina My]

Seraphina started scrubbing the cauldron when Tilly asked her a question she wasn't expecting. To be honest, she didn't know why she disliked Tilly so much. The incident that led to their feud hadn't really been her fault at all. It was more so Seraphina's and then Liusaidh interrupted. At the same time, Tilly hadn't really come to her defence when Liusaidh's magical intervention caused Seraphina to break her nose, and maybe it was that thought that hurt the most. She had let another person hurt her rather than just dealing with it all between them. "I don't... hate you," she started, quickly finding a spot that required harding scrubbing. She started to really put her energy into that spot the more uncomfortable with that fact, as she admitted it to Tilly.

 

[Tilly Drage]

Tilly’s forehead wrinkled in confusion when Seraphina said she didn’t hate her. Over the last year, Seraphina had taken every opportunity she could to be nasty to her. To be fair, Tilly had worsened the situation. She’d responded with just as much attitude. Would things have even gotten to this point if she’d made more of an effort to walk away instead of getting in hurtful jabs of her own? The Hufflepuff wasn’t blameless in this whole thing.

Leaning down and scrubbing at green gunk that was more an adhesive than a potion at this point, she said quietly, without lifting her head, “I don’t understand. Then why were you so horrible, every time?” The words Sasquatch, yeti, and Bigfoot swirled through her head.