Oh goody. As if my life wasn't torture enough... Carter thought as he followed the Professor out and into the Torture Chamber. Oddly enough, he wasn't worried or scared. Mostly he was just thinking about the broom he now had locked up and a friend whom he had lost.

There was an old rickety table in the room with a dozen old school brooms lying on it. Was there a chair? Of course not! But there was something very odd about the tail twigs of the brooms. They looked as if there were shiny lumps of ochre stuck to the twigs. And they were moving.

"Please stand behind the table and don't touch anything until I tell you to," Vindictus began. "As you can see, your punishment is staring you straight in the eye, and that means you don't get the luxury of spinning the Wheel of Torture today."

He pulled a pair of dragon hide gloves out of his pocket and handed them to Carter. "Put these on and feel free to ask me about what you see."

Carter put the gloves on and looked at the broomsticks. Fantastic. Right after he decided to give up flying there they were staring him down. "I assume you are referring to whatever is growing on those old broomsticks." he said with great indifference. At least there would be no 'Wheel of Torture', whatever that was, involved. He'd just get this done and over with and start his new life in certain obscurity.

"For a Gryffindor, I was expecting a more intelligent question but I guess that will suffice," Vindictus replied with a frown. "Vomit slugs. Disgusting little pests that love to feast on rotting wood. Which is why they're having a feast on the tail twigs."

"Your task is to gently remove each of these slugs and place them in the metal bucket under the table," he instructed and pointed to a rusty metal pail. "If you squeeze them too hard, then they'll burst like a gigantic zit and you'll get squirted in the face with gooey yellow pus that smells like rotten eggs."

That made Vindictus smile. "When you finish de-slugging one broom, place it on the floor and start on the next one." He stood there and folded his arms. "Get started."

"Sure." Carter said. He picked up the first broom and turned it over a few times deciding upon the best way to go about de-slugging them. He carefully stuck the back of his thumb behind a slug and pressed lightly on it. It came up slightly. He then noticed the the slug was squishing together. Not wanting to get exploded on he eased back a bit. Once the slug seemed settled again he pushed on it again. After repeating the process a few times he soon had his whole thumb under most of the slug. He aimed at the little metal bucket and flicked the snail off the broom. It landed in the bucket. And then exploded. Sick. But the blast was contained within the bucket and the worst thing that happened was the smell. After a few coughs he began working on the next slug.

"Careful with the slugs," Vindictus warned as he watched the slug explode in the rusty pail. "I'd hate for you to pass out from the smell."

And with that Carter took a step away from the pail. Imagine landing in the stuff! Gross. He continued removing the slugs. It was like that one summer he helped remove leaches with his parents in Africa. I guess now was another time that it came in handy that his parents were doctors. Repeating the same process he had nearly all of the slugs off the first broom. Except now he leaned his arm toward the bucket and placed the slugs in instead of just tossing them. He was slightly curious as to what would happen if he just popped all of them instead of going through the process of de-slugging them. Probably something bad, otherwise he wouldn't be doing this right now. As he was lost in thoughts he didn't even realize he had finished the first broom. Only 11 more of these and he'd be done with brooms forever. Hope you're happy Mina...

Vindictus was now staring at the slugs on one of the broom twigs. They were now slipping between the twigs for protection, and this made them more difficult to remove.

Carter picked up the next broom. He turned it over. Where had the slugs gone? He finally spotted one making a run? break for the twigs. They must be hiding now. He flicked this on into the bucket. It exploded. Carter coughed a few more times, his eyes were beginning to water. But he didn't care. He was determined to just get done and over with this. He didn't bother with giving Professor Vindictus any indication about how he really felt about hunting slugs that were now hiding in the twigs. He set the broom down on the table and went through the twigs one by one. He found the first slug about 20 twigs in. Silly slug, it didn't have as tight a grip now. He placed one finger under one end of it and another finger under the other end. He gently pulled up until the slug was no longer on the broom. He placed it in the bucket and continued his search for the next slug. One. Twig. At. A. Time.

While Carter worked on his second broom, Vindictus picked up the first broom and began to inspect the twigs with a large magnifying glass. "Not bad, Carter. Not bad."

Then he walked over to the pail and held the broom over it. He shook it to see if any hidden slugs were dislodged. Nothing slimy appeared (shaking always made the little pests appear).

"This broom is officially vomit slug free. When you finish that broom you're working on, hold it over the pail and shake it so that any hidden slugs will come out of hiding. If nothing appears, then you got them all and you can tell me that the broom is finished," he instructed and placed the first broom against the wall.

Carter nodded slightly indicating he heard the Professor. He didn't bother looking up from the broom he was working on. His hand was getting pretty full of twigs and he hadn't found another one yet. He rotated the broom slightly and continued sorting the the twigs. After 20? 30? 40ish twigs he finally found another one. He had lost count of the officially number. He removed this the same way he removed the first. He found a third slug near the center of all the twigs. After removing this one he flipped the broom over so he could go through the twigs from the other side. He searched through this side a bit quicker then the last. Instead of going through twig by twig he sorted through it in groups. He caught one in the middle of two different groups and was glad he noticed it before it got squished. He scooped that one out and continued looking. After a few more slugs he had reached the center of the broom. He held it over the bucket and shook. Nothing seemed to happen. "Got another one done Professor." he said setting it on the table and picking up the next one. He'd take care of the stragglers on handle first before moving onto the twigs.

Vindictus walked over and took the broom from Carter. Since the Gryffindor shook the broom, he used his magnifying glass to examine the tail twigs. But upon close examination, he noticed something odd about a twig and jabbed it with a finger. The twig hit the dungeon floor. "Drat! One of those fat little pests ate through a twig," he complained and placed the broom against the wall. Then he scooped up the damaged twig and occupied himself with examining the damage under his magnifying glass.

Carter saw out of the corner of his eye Professor Vindictus examining a twig with a magnifying glass. Someone loved the school brooms just a little too much. He had already removed (and carefully placed in the bucket) one of the three slugs that decided to remain on the main part of the broom. He began working on the second. As he was doing so he decided to actually look around the room. He was sure by the choice of room that this detention was meant to be much worse then it actually was. Little did Professor Vindictus know that he had experience removing pests. Thank you mom and dad for becoming doctors and doing charity work. But being around so many brooms was having an effect on him. He had thought that just packing his broomstick away would be easy. But it wasn't. Poor little Carter's heart was breaking. He had come to love Quidditch and flying, and now he had been betrayed by it. And again Carter's thought occupied him so that he didn't realize that he was finished de-slugging the main part of the broom. Now onto the twigs...

"Quit tilting the broom handle towards the ground," Vindictus said because he saw the vomit slugs slithering out of the twigs where they had been feasting and onto the handle. "You're allowing the slugs to get onto the handles. Keep the broom flat on the table and pick each slug out like I told you . . . to. WHOA! You've got one that's gonna pop!"

Sure enough, one slug was devouring a twig and was swelling to three times its size. Too bad Vindictus didn't tell Carter that a swollen slug meant it was going to be difficult to remove and one tug would result in SPLAT. Yep. SPLAT.

Carter coughed a few more times as he now couldn't get away from the smell. He spit some gross ... pus? into the elbow of his robes. He was going to have to take a nice dive into the lake after this. After a few more coughs he started working again. He first picked off the slugs that had gotten back onto the handle. After that he start sorting through twigs again. Soon he'd be done with his third broom. And then 9 more. And then he'd be done.

EWWW! Vindictus wrinkled his nose as the slug popped like a massive infected zit. The smell. Yuck.

"I would highly recommend a hot shower with lemon-scented soap. Gets rid of the smell," he suggested as Carter continued to work.

"Umm... and where does one get lemon-scented soap, Professor?" Carter asked. He didn't even know there was such a thing. There was just soap, whatever the house elves (or his mom when he was at home) kept in the shower. He continued sorting through the twigs. Every time he came across one he carefully balanced it between two fingers and pulled gently and slowly upward, just like he did on the last broom. He would then carefully place it in the bucket resisting the urge to throw-up over the smell every time.

"Hogsmeade," Vindictus replied and took the broom from Carter. "Or you could ask one of the girls if they have any lemon-scented soap you could use."

Yeah... Carter could just picture that now:

'Hey Ella, do you have any lemon-scented soap that I can use...? ... Oh, why? Because I REEK! Thanks to our dear Professor Vindictus'

Mina was probably having an easy detention. Or maybe she was just let off the hook. Professor Vindictus was her head of house afterall. She was probably off singing having a good old laugh at Carter's now pathetic life.

As he was lost in his thoughts he continued picking off slugs he came across. After he was done he shook the broom over the bucket. He caught sight of one near the surface. He picked it off as it was trying to escape into the twigs again. He placed it in the bucket. He then shook the broom again. He didn't see any this time.

"Here's another one Professor." he said.

Vindictus took the broom and watched quietly as Carter patiently worked on three more brooms without any further slug explosions. But the pail was getting full and used his wand to make another rusty pail appeared (it would be dangerous to enlarge the rusty spell because the slugs would get larger, too).

"Six more brooms to go, Carter," he said one hour into the detention. "And those slugs are getting bigger."

Halfway there... Carter thought to himself. He was rather proud for not having passed out, had another coughing fit, or exploded anymore slugs. As usually Carter started by picking off the slugs on the handle. The Professor was right, they were getting bigger. Which probably meant they'd be a pain to get off the handle and easier to spot in the twigs.

He started on the first slug. He found he needed to go a lot slower and these bigger slugs were more prone to squeeze and swell up. He made small precise movements until finally the first big one was removed from the broom handle. He placed it carefully in the new bucket. He repeated the process a few more times, then he moved on to the twigs. He was really careful and slow with them. He didn't want to accidentally squish one between the twigs.

Vindictus was getting a little irritated. The slugs weren't on the handles at all - just the tail twigs! But Carter was moving the broom in such a way that the slugs were moving to the handles. ARGH!

"Keep on picking them off," he said and watched a slug begin to swell on a broom that the Gryffindor had yet to touch.

Carter continued working. The slugs were now pesky and quick. Carter was getting frustrated. To keep from tilting the broom he had to squat down to be eye-level with the table. He was starting to feel it in his legs. Two years ago he wouldn't have even felt it, but now he was not in the same shape. He made a mental note to play some more football with Ella.

He carefully pulled off the slugs making their way back to the handle. He nearly squished ever single one of them. They ended up going into the bucket in a nearly swollen state. He wouldn't be surprised if the bucket just exploded at any time. Once the handle was once again clear he went to the twigs. He was careful to move only the twigs, and not the whole broom.

Five exploding slugs later, Vindictus noted that Carter was about to start on his final broom. And it was a doozy with ten fat slugs feasting on the tail twigs, but there was an eleventh one hidden in the middle. It's swollen body was pushing on two of the twigs. "One left and it looks to be the most difficult," he said and wrinkled his nose. "Looks like that fat one will have to be popped 'cause he's stuck."