Secrets Aren\'t Forever

The rest of the class went by in almost absolute silence, for Aleina at least. Her and Hermione barely exchanged any words throughout the rest of the class. Behind her, Aleina could hear Ron and Harry arguing about the next ingredients to add to the potion, and she swore that she could hear her name come up in conversation. Just as her potion was finished, Snape rose from his overly stuffed leather chair and stood in front of the classroom. All conversations ceased.

"Bottle your potions and clean your messes," Snape said. His eyes were scanning the room and watching the students bottle their potions. "Longbottom!" He called out.

"Y-Y-Yes P-Professor," Neville studdered. His hands were shaking in fear.

"Your potion should be a lavender color, please tell me the color of yours..." Snape repled with a certain viciousness in his voice.

"It's..uhm...blue...P-Prof..." Neville began uneasily. Snape held up his hand, signaling for silence.

"You fail! Again. Seven years and you have still been completley incapable of producing a potion thats even close to being right. Quite pathetic that even Crabbe and Goyle are able to make the simplest of potions, and they don't even have half of a brain between the both of them." Snape sneered at Neville. Tears welled up in Neville's eyes and he balled his hands in anger.

Aleina began to feel anger rising up from within in her. Although Neville wasn't the greatest at brewing potions, there was no need for Snape to compare him to Crabbe and Goyle. Neville had 5 times the brain that the two of them have.

"That's fucked up," Aleina said to Hermione. She said it loud enough for Snape to hear, but not for the rest of the class to hear. Hermione looked at her with a quite shocked expression on her face. No one said anything about Snape's insults...ever. The only person who has, was in fact Harry. Yet even he learned his lesson after many unwanted detentions and a couple hundred points take from Gryffindor every year.

Snape eyed Aleina with some suspicion. Actually, he was quite surprised that Hermione's best friend and smarty pants sidekick would actually speak out in retaliation to something that he had said. He slowly walked to the desk that she and Hermione were sitting at. Hermione saw this happening and cowered lower into her seat.

"Well Miss Tempest, you seem to be displeased with my thoughts of your fellow house mate. Any reasons for that?" Snape asked coldly. If there was one thing he hated more than an insufferable know it all. It was an insufferable know it all that purposely pissed him off in other ways. Aleina looked at him for a minute before deciding upon what to say.

"Actually, Professor Snape," she began, adding some extra emphasis on the actually part, knowing that it would only anger him more. "I believe Neville to be much smarter than the idiots on the other side of the room and in fact i guarentee that if you would not be such a bastard towards him he could brew some of the most complex potions." Aleina ended. Maybe that hadn't been the right thing to say, but oh well. What's done is done.

Snape was taken slightly aback by her manor of insulting him. He grew very anger, which was apparent by the vein in his forehead protruding slightly, and his knuckles turning white as he clenched them tightly. There was snickering amongst the Gryffindor side of the class.

"30 points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Miss Tempest. And another detention to add to the list. Let's see, this makes how many just this year...22, if I'm not mistaken. That will be another 10 points taken for your persistence of breaking school rules." Snape barked. With this statement, the Slytherins began to laugh quite loudly. Aleina just stared at Snape. Her anger not subsiding one bit, in fact in was growing by the minute. This just hadn't been her day. She's been exhausted to the point of death, forced her best friend to screw up their potion, and now she had Professor Snape not only insulting her, but taking a ridiculous amount of points away from her house.

'I'm sure my classmates just love me right now' she thought to herself.

"Yes sir" Aleina replied flatly.

"Hand me your potion Miss Granger," Snape suddenly said. Hermione seemed to be in her own little world and it took her a few seconds to register what Snape had said. She shakily handed the potion to Snape while giving Aleina an unsure look. Snape unbottled the potion and carefully from the vile to his lips. He tilted his head back and consumed half the vile.

Everyone in the classroom waited for something to happen. An explosion, an outbreak of something. Anything to intrude on the awkward silence filling the air. After about a minute, nothing happened. Curious mumurs began to float around the room as Snape stood there examining the potion. After about another minute Snape began to speak again.

"Suspicious," He said rather soflty, but still with insult in his voice. He looked very carefully at Aleina, then at Hermione, and back at Aleina once more. "Suspicious that Gryffindor's most prized and top students of the year are somehow able to muck up a rather difficult poition..." He trailed off.

"Well...if it's rather difficult..." Aleina began to say, trying to cover for Hermione and herself.

"Silence!" Snape called out. "I didn't ask for you to speak. It is rather odd, though, that the two of you girls have brewwed potions beyond your years but somehow seem to manage to screw up a potion such as this. Perhaps it was just a moronic mistake that ANYBODY could make. Or..." He leaned close to Aleina's face, as if peering into her mind. Aleina didn't move an inch, she stared right back into those black holes in his face called eyes. "Or is there something that you are hiding Miss Tempest, after all this is a Concealment Detection Potion."

"I can assure you, Professor, that there was no intentions of screwing up this 'rather difficult' potion as you like to say," Aleina spat back with such confidence that even Snape couldn't tell if she was lying, or telling the truth. He stepped back and look at her inquisitively.

"Then please, Miss Tempest, tell me, what did happen to your potion?" He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows, trying not to show his anger. He would have enough time with her to show his anger. Oh yes, plenty of time indeed.

"Well you see Professor, I clearly didn't mash the bat wings as fine as they should have been. So that when they were added to the mixture, it turned a shade of very pale pink, rather than lavender. And to the untrained eye, as it seems somebody has seeing as how they couldn't figure it out before asking me why the potion was messed up, the lovely shade of pink and lavender may seem very close in color. And with that small detail, the entire potion was just made useless even before the snake skin and werewolf fangs were added." Aleina said nearly in all one breath. She knew exactly what had been done to mess up the potion. And what would a good explaination be without insulting the great Potions Master?

"Again with the cheek Miss Tempest, I thought that you would have learned by now, but I suppose not. 30 more points from Gryffindor, and I only see it appropriate that you spend your entire weekend evenings here in detention, starting after dinner tonight!" Snape retaliated. He was clearly pissed off and in no mood to deal with students any longer.

After sampling the rest of the students potions, he dismissed them. Quite a few times, Aleina could see out of the corner of her eye, that Snape was eyeing her quite closely. She had been unsure as to why. There was no doubt in her mind that any of the students had made the potion correctly so she just passed it off as nothing.

As soon as the last of the students exited his classroom, Snape locked the door and sat down at his desk.

'Yes, you do have some craft and cunning running through your veins. But you are no Slytherin. Two can play at these games Miss Tempest. And the games have begun, lets just hope that you're not a sore loser' Snape spoke soflty to himself. A smirk came across his face as he began to plan out how to handle his weekend with the lovely and vey witty Aleina Tempest.

A/N: So now the story truly begins. Any Gryffindor should know not to play games with a Slytherin. Perhaps Aleina will figure this out...then again maybe not. Detention is coming next, and everyone knows that detention never holds good news. Reviews are welcomed and appreciated. I will take sugestions and constructive criticism as well. Thank you.