Disclaimer: Story based on characters and plot owned by J. K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended with the following.
Harry stands, weary, his arms aching. Hours spent cleaning the potions classroom every evening for the past several years have taken their toll. Gone is the bright-eyed student eager to escape his muggle upbringing and learn the delights of magic. That child has been replaced by this pale husk, bent by labor, broken by grief, bone-weary, unable now to recall any spell other than scourgify.
He remembers the night it happened, the night Death Eaters broke into the school to slay teacher and student alike. The night Harry's prodigy failed to forestall the slaughter.
Morning found him covered in blood.
Their blood.
He had never since felt clean, can never cleanse the stain.
He is fortunate that the new Headmaster, Professor Snape, bless his name, has allowed him to stay on as caretaker and take over for the late Argus Filch. Sure, he must suffer the taunts of pureblood children and parents. But it is a small price to pay to remain at his only home, Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts. Hogwarts, whose floor is dirty now... Filth! Must clean, clean Hogwarts.
Great doors bang open as a pale, snake-faced man strides into the Entrance Hall. Harry mutters under his breath at the dust that is stirred up. He looks up into red irises framed in mirth.
"You like to clean, don't you, Harry Potter?"
Harry Potter. That was me once... yes.
The Dark Lord flicks his wand, thirteen inches, yew, with phoenix feather core, and dust rains down upon the Hall. Harry stands, enraged.
"You," he says, voice quavering, "you filthy, filthy... filth." In his time of greatest need, eloquence fails the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Clean.
"Yes, me." The Dark Lord tosses his head back and cackles.
"Scourgify!" Harry screams and crystalline bolts fly from his outstretched hands. They strike the dark figure in the chest and he is consumed in a violent whirlwind.
Harry stoically grabs a broom and starts in on the new mess. "Must clean. Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts..."