Chapter 1-

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office, his fingers arched and resting on his forehead. He drew in a deep breath, and decided to confront the matter at hand.

"Minerva," Dumbledore began, speaking to the only person in the room. (Aside from the coat-rack, a friend that Dumbledore had many an intellectual conversation.) "I have a problem."

"I know, Albus." Minerva replied. "You've said that three times already."

"Yes, I would like some tea." Dumbledore said. "But not yet. I have a problem."

"And what is that problem?" Minerva asked a bit testily.

"In the fight against He-Who-Something-Or-Other," Dumbledore continued, "We need out best wizards and witches."

Minerva waited for more, but nothing came. "Albus?"

Nothing.

"ALBUS!"

Dumbledore woke with a start.

"Minerva!" He said. "I'm so glad you're here! I have a problem!"

"WHAT IS THE DAMN PROBLEM ALBUS?" Minerva flared eyes wide with rage.

"Gilderoy Lockhart is going to screw everything up!" Dumbledore said, avoiding eye contact with this mean woman in his office for some reason. "He insists on going on a mission, I can't stop him!"

"Send him on a mock mission!" Minerva resolved.

"We'll need some people to watch over him." Dumbledore continued. "Some people who have experienced Lockhart's antics before."

A smile curved up on Minerva's face. "I know just the people."

~*~

Severus Snape was currently standing at the head of his class, looking evil and menacing, as was his wont. He stood towering over his students, the pitiful little beings, looking fearfully up at him.

"Do you know the answer to the question, Bentley?" Snape asked, his eyes casting daggers into the poor child.

"N-n-n-n-o, Professor Snape..." Bentley replied, his eyes brimming with tears.

"I didn't think so." Snape said, sweeping across the room, his black cloak following closely.

"You know what this means, don't you?" He asked, staring into the black hole of ignorance that was his class.

"We'll have to drink our poisons?" The class said in unison.

Snape nodded gravely, with a trace of a smile on his lips. He walked to his desk, opened the secret drawer, and pulled out a bottle of the strongest poison known to wizards.

He stood for a moment to admire the situation. He glanced down at the bottle, in all its splendor. But suddenly, out of nowhere, the bottle opened it's mouth and yelled, "Severus Snape, I can't believe you did his again!"

Snape stared at the bottle for a moment, confused.

"If you don't wake up right now, I'm going to douse you in lighter fluid and light a match!" The bottle continued. "Even though your hair might be flammable enough without the lighter fluid!"



Severus' eyes snapped open in time to see Professor Andromeda Stone standing over him with a can of lighter fluid.

"You fell asleep in your office again." She said. "You have a class now."

Andromeda Stone had been working at Hogwarts for two years now, and she never failed to cause some form of mayhem. As always, her unkempt hair was in a black bun on her head, and her gray eyes were stuck in grimace mode as she blamed Severus for falling asleep.

Severus followed Stone into his classroom, still lingering on the beautiful dream he had.

~*~



Hurrah for new fics! I hope this one will be better than the last. To all of you who don't know me, I'm Jerri Fletcher, and this is the third in my Snape-Stone series. I suggest reading the last one if you hadn't. There's some important stuff somewhere between the innuendoes and shameless humour. Anyway, next chapter should be up eventually. Thank for reading! -Jerri