To Market, To Market
Chapter 3

That night the whole staff was delighted with the new meal plan. They were even more delighted to hear about the pancakes for breakfast. After dinner Snape and McGonagall agreed to set their alarm clocks for 7:00 AM so they could have the pancakes ready for everyone at breakfast. Then they parted, each tired after a long day of grocery shopping.

The next morning McGonagall's alarm went off at 6:30 AM. She quickly got up, dressed, and grabbed a sticker.

At 7:00 AM Snape's alarm clock went off. He cursed into his pillow and hit the snooze button. Then he remembered pancakes and practically jumped out of bed. Dressing didn't take long and he was soon rushing out of his room. As he went to close the door he paused. A shiny squirrel had appeared on his door. He tried to peel it off, but it seemed to have been charmed to stick very, very, very, very well. Fine then. If that's how she wanted it to be, he had some stickers of his own.

After breakfast McGonagall noticed that there was a dragon on the door to her classroom. When she entered the staffroom she found one also attached to her #1 Teacher coffee mug. She tapped her foot for a moment and then went to get more of her stickers.

On the first day of classes in the new school year many students were surprised to see cute animal stickers plastered all over the potions room. Other students wondered about the dragon stickers placed in prominent areas of the tranfiguration classroom. However, there were two stickers that had been placed in specifically chosen spots just a couple days before, and those two stickers would never be seen by any students.

(a couple of days ago)

"Hagrid! Hold him!" cried Professor McGonagall as Hagrid tried to keep a struggling Snape from slipping out of his grasp. Snape twisted and wriggled, but Hagrid managed to get the smaller professor's arms behind his back and hold them there tightly. Meanwhile McGonagall dug into her pocket and produced a sticker.

"No!" Snape screamed. 'Minerva, this is a definite invasion of personal space. This is harassment!"

Grabbing the collar of his robes McGonagall pulled down and branded Snape with an adorable tiger two inches below his right collarbone. Then she let go and stepped back. Hagrid loosened his hold and Snape broke free angrily. He pulled his collar down again and scowled at the sticker as he tried to rip it off.

"Don"t worry about it Severus, there's an extra stick charm on it. It shouldn't come off for a couple of years at least," said McGonagall grinning. She pulled Hagrid with her into the great hall for lunch. Snape continued scowling. He wasn't hungry anymore. He wasn't going to let her get away with that so easily. That evening he made a quick trip to the grocery store. When he returned to Hogwarts he went directly to Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door.

"Hullo, perfesser," welcomed the half-giant.

"Good evening, Hagrid," said Snape as friendly as he could manage. "I was wondering if you would mind sharing this cake with me. It's awfully big for one person."

"If yer offerin' I wouldn't mind havin' some o' that one bit." Hagrid led the way into his house and set the kettle on for tea. He had his suspicions about this sudden visit.

The next day after breakfast Hagrid stopped McGonagall in the hallway with some questions about the upcoming class schedules. He saw Snape sneaking up from behind the unknowing professor, but kept her distracted. When Snape had reached them and stood right behind her, Hagrid grabbed both of McGonagall's arms. With a cry of triumph Snape reached down the back of his colleague's robes, careful not to reach down too far, and stuck his last dragon on her right shoulder blade.

"Sorry, Professer McGonagall," said Hagrid apologetically as he let her go, "but I thought it best not to take sides in this one."

Snape smirked as Hagird went on his way and McGonagall put her hand up to feel the sticker now charmed to her back.

"It'll come off when you take the one on me off," he told her.

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to live with it," she replied with her own smirk.