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Chapter Five
Alex soon found herself heading back to the dungeons for the next class. It hadn't taken long to come up with a plan and the group had finished up lunch by sharing storied of their school days. It was a long walk back to the potion's classroom but along the way Alex found herself talking to herself in her head.
'Just remember to keep your head. Don't let him see how much he bugs you, Alex! If he see, he has the advantage over you. Just play it off like nothing ever happened.'
She reached the dreaded classroom before she even realized it. Taking a calming breath, she pushed the door open firmly, walking inside like she hadn't a care in the world. Snape looked up from his desk as she walked inside, obviously waiting for another outburst. She refused to give him the privilege.
"Am I to be teaching the next class as well?" Alex asked calmly, standing in front of him. Her eyes met his evenly and she refused to back down and be intimidated by him. He was just a big bully.
"No. The second years will be making an aging potion and they have already been given the instructions how." Snape said studying her carefully, trying to sense if she was up to something. He couldn't really tell since she effectively hid all emotions from him. Snape was slightly impressed since he hadn't seen someone hide their emotions that well since, well… him.
"So we will be supervising and basically making sure they won't blow up the classroom?" Alex continued, bring Severus out of his thoughts. He nodded briefly and soon the young Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's quickly began filing into the room, in efforts to not be late. It didn't take long for them all to get started on the aging potion. Most were prepared ahead of time and everything seemed to be going over smoothly.
Alex was walking around the room watching the students attempt to make the potion, following the notes they had taken in a previous class. Wandering over to the Hufflepuff side, she noticed one young student about to add in some dandelion roots that were not nearly chopped small enough. Moving quickly, Alex stopped the boy without causing much distraction from the others around him. The last thing they needed was to loose more house points. Snape had taken off enough already.
"If you add those like that, your potion will be ruined." She said gently. The boy looked up at her with wide eyes, waiting for her to start yelling like Snape usually did. Instead, Alex took the cutting knife and began to show him the proper way to chop the dandelion roots. The boy relaxed after a moment, realizing that he wasn't about to get in trouble.
"What's your name?" Alex asked, handing him the knife in order to let him finish.
"Thomas Finley." Tommy said but froze as he caught sight of something over Alex's shoulder.
"Is there a problem here?" Snape asked coldly. Alex turned around.
"Nope. Tommy and I were just talking." Alex stated casually as she brushed a stray hair out of her face.
"There is to be no talking. Get back to work, Mr. Finley!" Snape shot out. Tommy quickly started chopping away at the roots like Alex had showed him. As she started to move away, Alex could feel Snape's dark eyes boring into her head.
"It's called being nice, Professor." She sighed impatiently, feeling the need to defend her actions.
"Nice? It is not your job to be nice, Miss. Harper." Snape sneered as if the very idea of being nice to a student was ludicrous. Unfortunately the two had different ideas on teaching tactics.
"Well it's obviously not your job either since you don't seem to have a nice bone in your body!" Alex retorted, glaring hard at him.
"Your job is to observe the class and, as you put it so eloquently before, make sure they don't blow it up." Snape continued as if he never heard the insult.
"Whatever you say…Stanley." Alex smirked as she began to walk to the other side of the room. Snape, suddenly furious, quickly grabbed Alex's arm and held her close to him as he whispered harshly into her ear.
"I do not know how exactly you know my middle name, Miss. Harper, but you will refrain from using it now on." Alex couldn't help but let out an involuntary shiver as his warm breath drifted over her face. His fingers were digging into her arm, making her grimace in pain.
"One… you deserved it. Two… I think it's cute. And three…we have an audience." Alex stated. Snape looked up and saw the students staring at them, wondering what was going on. He released Alex's arm and she quickly moved away from him, rubbing her arm gingerly. They both shared an identical look that said 'this means war.'
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Next Chapter: Snape retaliates! What does the Potions Master have up his sleeve?
