There in the portrait hole, stood Harry Potter with all of his things for potions.

"It's about time," he grumbled, giving me a particularly dirty look.

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, still out of breath.

"We have potions in five minutes, this castle is huge, I don't know where I'm going, and you three show up from the library," he checked his watch, "ten minutes after you said you would."

"Harry, don't get mad at them, it was my idea." Hermione started.

"Well, if she hadn't trashed my stuff, you wouldn't have wanted to find a way to cover up." Harry said, then continued in a high-pitched voice, " 'but Professor, I've been reading up on swamp goo and it's perfectly normal to get onto peoples things in the middle of the night.' "

"Why don't you lay off her already," said a voice coming from a chair near the fire. "She said she didn't do it, so she didn't do it." Mina's head popped up from the chair the voice was coming from. "I mean, I know her pretty well, she is my cousin."

"You're just covering for her too," snapped Harry. He turned to Ron, then back to where Mina was sitting, looking very sorry that he snapped at her. "Let's go get your stuff, Ron."

Ron looked at me and shrugged. He had an I'm-sorry-but-I-know-you're- still-my-friend look on his face. Besides, who couldn't forgive eyes like that.

"Aletta," Hermione sang.

"Mmm?" I answered, still looking at the boy's dorm door.

"Potions!" she shouted. That made me jump. So I ran up to our dorm room to get my stuff. I came out the same time as Harry and Ron. Even though we all left together, they pulled ahead of us so that we couldn't see them after three minutes of walking. That left me alone to talk to Hermione and Mina.

"I didn't know you guys were cousins! You sure don't look alike," said Hermione.

She was right. Except for height and maybe weight, Mina and I looked nothing alike! I had chin length blonde hair with natural highlights, misty blue eyes (much like Professor Dumbledores), with pale skin and a soft sprinkle of freckles across my nose, while Mina couldn't look any more different! She had shoulder length brown hair, brilliant green eyes (much like Harry Potter) with glasses, and very tan skin with no freckles at all. All in all, you'd think we had come from different planets, let alone our mother's be sisters. And it was only after we were sorted into the same house that we found out that we were both witches(our muggle mothers kept it a secret from each other). Mina and I smiled at each other.

As we got nearer and nearer to the potions dungon, it got colder and colder and the girls wrapped their robes more tightly around themselves.

"Ew!" the girls heard someone say behind them. "What's that I smell?"

We turned around and to our great surprise, it was Draco Malfoy, a snotty Slytherin first year who didn't like anyone but pure bloods (people who have parents who are a witch and a wizard).

"What?" asked Goyle, Draco's Slytherin friend, who in my opinion resembled a baby troll.

"Mudblood!" Draco said in a very nasty tone. His nostrils flared and he sniffed around Mina and me.

"What is it, Draco?" Crabbe asked. Crabbe was Draco's other goon. He, more than Goyle, looked like a troll, if that was possible.

"It's. pure!" he said, standing up strait. "May I escort you to class."

"Eat dirt, Draco. And learn to sniff your own kind," I said walking past him.

He turned to Mina and smiled. Mina looked like she was fighting the urge to spit on Draco's shoe. Then she smiled slightly and sniffed in the air, "Wait, I smell something too, you Aletta?"

I caught on right away.

"Blaugh!" I said, sniffing with Mina. We both worked our way towards Draco, and when we reached him, we looked at each other and nodded.

"Just what I thought," said Mina.

"What do you think?" asked Draco, excitedly.

"Pure blood sometimes rots, isn't that right, Herm?" I said.

Hermione was in a coughing fit that sounded "oddly" like laughter. We all heard footsteps and hurried into the classroom. There were tables with four chairs at each. Hermione, Lavender, and I sat down right away at one table, while Harry, and Ron sat at another. Mina was about to sit at our table when Harry waved her to his. She eagerly ran over and sat next to Harry, smiling!

"Traitor," I muttered under my breath staring violently at Harry. Just then, someone plotted into the seat next to me.

"Well, looks like we have more in common then I thought," Draco said.

I groaned. "Happy to see me?" he asked with a smile.

"Go by your own type, you." my voice drifted off because I was about to call Draco something unprintable just as Professor Snape, the Potions Professor as well as Slytherin teacher, walked into the room.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion- making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but we caught every word. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through the human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnarling the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Then he asked Harry some questions that no one except Hermione knew. Every time Harry answered wrong, Snape made a comment like "Tut, tut- fame clearly isn't everything" and "Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" It was very cold and heartless for Professor Snape to do this to poor Harry, yet, I was enjoying every moment of it. Hey! He deserved it! Draco on the other hand found it tremendously funny, laughing at every remark Snape made.

The rest of Potions was not at all fun. Snape split us into groups of two, I got stuck with Draco. We started with a simple potion to sure boils. Snape swept around watching and waiting at each spot, leaving only when we did something wrong. You could tell he favored the Slytherins, especially Draco. That was the only plus with working with him. The class went on like this, with Snape walking up and down the tables, taking points away from Gryffindor every chance he got.

On the way up from the dungeon, all of the Gryffindors had a little talk, which made things worse between Harry and me.

"This is so unfair," said Harry. "I didn't do anything, and he takes points away from me!"

"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George."

"But for no reason?" Harry asked.

"No, but, um." Ron started.

"Then what does he have against me?" Harry asked.

"Did you accuse him of something he didn't do, perhaps?" I asked, coldly, walking up behind them.

"No," Harry shot back. "I'd never."

"Think before you talk, Harry," Hermione said.

"If you think Aletta's innocent," said Seamus, "take another look at her robe, Hermione."

"That proves nothing!" shouted Lavender.

"Yeah right," said Harry.

"Maybe whoever put the stuff in your things, Harry, started to put it in Aletta's things and was stopped by your girly screams. Ever think of that?" asked Mina.

Harry suddenly when a light shade of pink, "No, um, I gotta go. To Hagrid's. Wanna come, Ron?"

"Yeah." said Ron, and they set off toward the doors.

"The nerve!" we, Mina, Hermione, Lavender, Parvati, and I said at the same time. We looked at each other and laughed all the way to the Gryffindor commons.