"Then what's to be done," he shrugs with a sigh, "save to accept that he was punished and society was protected from him, even if it couldn't be at your hands."
"That's a known condition," Severus tells him. "Pathological shallowness."
Winky covers her face with her long, large-knuckled fingers and a corner of pillowcase, and shrieks out a paragraph in which the only distinguishable word is sorry!!! until Severus gets into her line of vision, looks down his nose sternly, and crosses his arms. That gets a squeak and silence. "Winky," he says gravely, "I do believe you've forgotten everything I've ever told you."
Two fingers part, revealing an enormous brown eye, and one choked off sound escapes that, to one experienced in the noises of sylvus domesticus, carries definite overtones of Winky so bad! But then she scrambles into a pose that, while respectful, carries barely any overtones of cringing at all (although the whiteness of her knuckles, behind her back, show that it's a strain). "Winky apologizes, Master Potions Master," she quavers up at him. "Winky will remember." When she gets a curt nod, and a meaningful look, she turns to Holmes and dares, "Winky sor--"
"Winky."
Squeak! "Winky means good afternoon, Master Muggle!!!"
"Master Holmes, Winky," he says in a tone that, while less stern, is still firm. When she repeats herself to his satisfaction, he gives her a nod, and her ears unfurl in proud relief.