A Sticky Situation

"POTTER!"

Harry blinked and tried to raise his head. Things looked a little hazy, and he was aware of an acute pain in his shin. Shaking his head, he raised it a little further and realised he was in the potions lab. Cursing under his breath, he sat up fully and looked forwards, straight into the eyes of Professor Snape, which had a nasty glint in them.

"I'll thank you not to fall asleep in my classes in future, Mr Potter," Snape hissed, turning with a swish of his robes and striding towards the front of the class. Reaching the board, he muttered without turning around, "20 points from Gryffindor. If you do anything else wrong in this class, it'll be 100 and a week's worth of detentions."

Next to Harry, somebody giggled.

"I tried kicking you, but you didn't wake up. Logboy."

Harry turned around.

"Shut it, Malfoy," he lanced, sticking his tongue out to take the sting out of his words. Draco poked his tongue out back, muttering under his breath,

"Late night last night, Potter?"

"You know perfectly well what I was doing last night, Malfoy!" Harry whispered back, trying to concentrate on dicing his rat's liver properly to go in the Sticking Potion the two were trying to make. It was nearly finished, and if Harry did these last ingredients right, they could get full marks.

"Oh, do I?" Draco murmured, innocence plastered over his face. "I've forgotten!" He grinned, then leaning over, with a wink, added, "Remind me." Harry dropped the diced rat's liver into the cauldron and gave it a quick stir. Raising his eyebrows at Draco, he reached around and gave Draco's ass a quick squeeze. However, when he tried to remove his hand, it wouldn't budge.

"Draco!" he hissed. "My hand's stuck on your ass!" The Slytherin gave him a patronising look and grabbed Harry's arm, yanking it. All that happened was the robes nearly ripped. Draco gave an alarmed yelp and stopped yanking.

"Harry.." he said slowly, raising an eyebrow. "You didn't have any of that potion on your hands just now, did you?" Harry gave him an odd look.

"I might've don.. oh shit!" he cursed, realisation dawning. He gave his arm another yank. Draco grabbed it.

"Don't do that! These robes are designer and brand new! My father'll kill me if you rip them!" Harry glared at him.

"So we just go around stuck like this forever, do we?" Draco considered this for a moment, then stuck a hand in the air.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy?" came the acknowledgement from the other side of the room. Both boys tried to look innocent, as Draco asked,

"If someone got this potion on something it wasn't supposed to be on, what would they do?" Snape narrowed his eyes as if he knew their predicament.

"Well," he answered after a long pause, "that person would have to come to me to get it unstuck. This potion is the strongest Sticking Potion we are able to make, and it would be unwise for anyone to try to undo it on their own." Draco nodded.

"Thanks Professor!" he said, flashing Snape a dazzling grin. He turned back to Harry.

"Now what do we do?!" he hissed. Harry shrugged hopelessly, mirroring Draco's current feelings.

"Do we have a choice?" he muttered resignedly. Draco shook his head forcefully.

"No! There is no way I'm telling Snape!" he hissed.

"Well what other choice do we have?" Harry hissed back. Draco glowered for a moment, before nodding, and with a fearful look at Harry, slowly raised his arm again.

"Yes, Mr Malfoy?" came again from the other side of the room. Draco gulped.

"Er. Me and Harry have.. er." he paused and looked at Harry, "gotabitstucktogether." He said the last bit in a rush, so that Snape looked at him in confusion.

"You have done what, Mr Malfoy?" Draco gulped again.

"We're stuck together, Professor," he said clearly. Snape raised an eyebrow and walked over to their table.

"Well?" he said, talking out his wand. The entire class was now looking in their direction. Harry and Draco stood up properly and walked towards Snape. Harry heard a snort coming from the table next to him, and suddenly the whole room erupted in laughter.

"SILENCE!" roared Snape, and the room became quiet again, except for the giggles of Pansy Parkinson. Snape ignored her. "Now, Mr Potter, Mr Malfoy," he murmured so quietly they could hardly hear him, "would you care to explain how this came about?" Harry cast an alarmed look at Draco. They hadn't realised they might have to explain it. Snape was tapping his foot.

"Well Professor," started Draco, "Harry spotted I had some dirt on my.." he coughed, " behind.. and he was kind enough to try to brush it off for me." Draco flashed his grin at Snape again, who raised a disbelieving eyebrow.

"I'm sure you did, Mr Malfoy," he replied, "but I will not tolerate this sort of behaviour in my class. You both need to learn a lesson from this. Therefore, if you come back here at seven tonight, I will remove the Sticking Potion. Class dismissed."