Chapter 4
"So..." Dinah was sure that asking this question would be dangerous, "What pieces are we all going to be?"
Lucy spoke up, surprising Dinah when she said, "I'll be the top hat! It's fancy," she smiled.
"Great," Dinah smiled, "I'll be the thimble again. I like that one. Severus is usually the boat," she stuck the boat in front of her husband. "Sirius?"
"I think it's obvious I'll be the dog again," he said, placing it on the "Go" space with the others.
Dinah forced herself not to roll her eyes, and Severus was less successful, but luckily Sirius didn't notice. Sure, the dog was available but he certainly jumped on the opportunity to take it, and after Lucy had been so gracious in selecting the top hat. But it seemed Lucy understood. She certainly handled the situation, anyway. "Okay, I'll go." Dinah rolled the dice and landed on chance. The card she lifted up sent her to jail. She sighed, "Wonderful start. I just have all sorts of game issues today."
"My turn!" Lucy said excitedly. Her roll landed her on King's Cross Station, "Well, I think I'm going to buy that," she handed the money to Dinah, who was again being banker.
Severus rolled the dice and landed on Whitechapel Road. Wordlessly he handed Dinah £60 and she gave him the deed with a small smile. He smiled back and she felt a twinge of guilt. She should have told him already. She needed to tell him soon. But...well, maybe after the visit. Yes, she would definitely tell him then. She forced herself to turn back to the board as Sirius took his turn.
Sirius rolled and landed on Income Tax, "Great. I don't seem to be doing any better than you, Dinah," he said as he handed her the £200.
"I wish I could take this for myself," she joked, putting the money in the bank. She rolled again, "No luck, I'm still in jail."
"Did someone land in jail last time? I don't remember. You'll have to remind me what happens," Lucy said.
"You did, silly," Dinah grinned, "You get out when you roll doubles. Or if you have a get out of jail free card, which none of us currently have."
Lucy smacked her forehead, "Oh, yeah! I swear anymore I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached." Dinah followed Lucy's gaze over towards the stairs and they giggled. Dora was sneaking down them towards Severus.
Dinah pointed, "Darling, don't look now. Your best friend is coming over for a visit."
"What?" Severus shot her a confused look and then his eyes followed her outstretched arm to where she was pointing. He sighed. "Wonderful." Dora jumped up on his lap and curled up. He pet her a few times, "Different from Godric, isn't she?"
Dinah grinned, "Only with you." She turned to Lucy and Sirius, "Severus and Godric like to fight with each other. Well, play fighting, really. It's actually pretty cute. They're like secretly best buddies or something. With anybody else Godric curls up like Dora."
Lucy laughed, "Dora, as we all know, will curl up with anyone," she stood up and took the cat from Severus's lap; "Let me get her out of your way." She held Dora up to face her saying, "Stop bothering him. Some people don't feel the need to have you with them constantly. Here," she said, putting her down in Sirius's lap, "Bother him. The two of you both like to be petted. You can pet each other."
"I'd rather have you pet me, Lu."
She rolled her eyes before she pet him on the head.
"That's not exactly what I meant."
She laughed, "What? Snuffles loves it when I scratch between his ears."
"Oh, I suppose this will be okay then," he said, reaching for the back of her neck.
"No, no no!" Lucy squealed when Sirius grabbed her neck. "I don't like that in either form." Dinah must have looked as confused as she felt because Lucy went on to explain, "He thinks it's funny when I'm in my fox form to pick me up by the scruff of my neck."
Dinah giggled, "That's cute. Well, probably painful, but cute. Anyway I think that's only supposed to be done by a mother fox, and then only when the fox is still young. It's the only way to do it right."
"What are you, the expert on animal care?" Severus rolled his eyes.
"Well, I have enough pets."
"Indeed," he snorted, "You and that infernal snake of yours spending all hours of the day conversing in a language I can't understand."
"Now, now, I really think that 'all hours' is an exaggeration," she grinned, reaching up to mimic Lucy and pet his head, "And I honestly think that you're jealous."
"I am not jealous, and don't pet me!" he growled, shoving her away in embarrassment.
She smiled and turned back to the other two, who were watching them with shocked expressions, "Now, that wasn't something you ever expected to see, was it?"
"I didn't have much choice," Severus muttered, grasping his head with one hand and keeping the other outstretched toward her to prevent her from touching him again.
"Neither did we," Sirius said.
"That's enough," Lucy warned. "Anyway I think it's fascinating that you can talk to Slinky. Sometimes it'd be nice to know what's going on in Dora's head."
Dinah nodded, "It is truly an amazing gift. I'm just... you have no idea how nice it is not to have to hide it anymore. To embrace it. Even if it is only in front of friends at this point." She felt Severus's hand reach for hers under the table, and she rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, closing her eyes. Then she had to force back the guilt that threatened her yet again. She needed to tell him soon. "Oh, but," she opened her eyes and said to Lucy, "Can't you talk to some animals while in your animagus state?"
"Yes, somewhat. It's not quite the same as talking to each other, but it's similar. I've found it easier to communicate with your own kind too. Like it's easier for me to communicate with another fox than say a bird or a fish."
"That makes sense." She was half listening to Lucy, half reveling at the fact that Severus was totally fine with her leaning against him like this in front of others. Yes, he drew the line at her petting his head, but that wasn't exactly surprising. She covered her mouth to hide a chuckle. "Well, I guess it's your turn, Lucy."
"Oh! I guess it is," she rolled and ended up at the jail, but just visiting, "Looks like I've come to see you Dinah."
"Always nice to have company in a lonely jail," she grinned, then nestled her head deeper into Severus's shoulder, "Severus? Your turn."
He chuckled slightly, and it translated into a warm rumbling in her ear. It was making her sleepy. He rolled and landed on chance. "Hm. Get out of jail free," he tucked the card aside.
She sighed, "That was supposed to be mine."
"My turn?" Sirius asked, looking closely at Dinah, "You look tired, Dinah. You want to put the game on hold until tomorrow? I don't mind, besides it would mean I get to go out undefeated for the day."
"Well, we could," she agreed, yawning. "I'm not really hungry. Those chips this afternoon were rather filling. But we'd be going to bed pretty early."
He shrugged. "Okay, no problem," he picked up the dice and rolled. He landed on the electric company. Handing over the money, he mumbled, "This game is not going well for me."
"I've always said Muggle electricity was wasteful," Severus stated.
"Oh, hush," Dinah lifted her head from his shoulder to roll again, "Doubles! I'm free! Oh, and I am going to buy Bow Street! I am back in this game!"
Lucy rolled, landing on Whitehall, "I own a railroad and now I own Whitehall too. I've turned into quite the property owner." She laid her head on Sirius's shoulder, mimicking Dinah's earlier position, and stroked Dora, who still sat in Sirius's lap.
Severus rolled a ten and landed on community chest. The card instructed him to pick up £100 from the bank, which he smugly tucked next to his get out of jail free card.
The game continued on in a similar fashion, Sirius and Dinah generally getting the bad luck while Lucy and Severus did well. Dinah sighed when she landed in jail again, and turned to Lucy, whose head was on Sirius's shoulder again as she looked ready to fall asleep, "Well, there I go again. You want to call it a night, start up again tomorrow?"
"Sounds good," Lucy said, shooing Dora off Sirius's lap. "After all this is a never-ending game," it sounded as if she was teasing because Monopoly did take a very long time to play.
"I agree, but we haven't hit the two hour mark yet so we should continue tomorrow," Dinah smiled.
"You're only saying that because you somehow think you can come up from the bottom and win," Severus said.
"I'm not at the bottom!" she retorted, "Sirius and I haven't compared. He could be at the bottom."
"If you say so," he agreed with a mild smile and stood, "Then I'm going upstairs for the night." He nodded at Lucy and Sirius, "Good night."
"Night," they said together.
Lucy laughed and looked at Sirius, "We've been spending entirely too much time together."
"You sure about that?"
"No," she smiled, "Let's go spend some more time together. You need anything before we go up, Dinah?"
"Do you mind if I have a glass of water to take some Muggle vitamins?"
"No, of course not. I'll grab you a glass," Lucy said, disappearing and coming back quickly with a full glass of water, "Here you go."
"Thanks," she flashed a smile at them and followed Severus upstairs. She stopped at the bathroom to take the pills so that he didn't see. He didn't approve of her using Muggle medicine, even something as innocuous as vitamins. Well, hopefully Lucy wouldn't mind that she left the glass in the bathroom. She retreated to the bedroom.
"That was fun, huh?" she climbed into the bed next to Severus after putting on her nightgown
"Fun enough," he agreed, putting aside the potions book he had bought.
"That book must be fascinating," she joked. "You know, I hope Sirius and Lucy are all right. Wasn't it just a bit unnerving with their arguing earlier?"
He shrugged, "He has anger issues and she's overly emotional. We knew that already."
Dinah rolled her eyes, "You are so..."
"What?" he smiled slightly, "Do you deny it?"
"Not... exactly," she sighed, "Well, we had our share of issues, too."
"Don't remind me," he grumbled, tossing the book aside.
She smiled, reaching over and petting his head again, "But you'll let me do this when we're alone, won't you?"
"I'd rather you didn't," he made to shove her away again, but there was no real effort in it.
"Liar," she grinned. They both knew he loved it when she played with his hair, but it wasn't something they had to necessarily talk about.
He chuckled and took her hand, kissing it before returning it to the bed between them
"Aw, come on," she teased, "What happened to our cheerful and playful child forms?"
"They still exist. However, I have only one summer to make sure I've fully restored my reputation as the grouchy thirty-nine year old Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, and to make sure I don't give Gryffindor any points ever again," he grimaced.
Dinah laughed; "I wouldn't worry about that. You have quite a bit of practice being a grouchy, thirty-nine year old, stick-in-the-mud, scary, intimidating – mmph!" she broke off as he kissed her.
As she wrapped her arms around his neck she couldn't help but think that she wished the students could see this more often. And yet, a bigger part of her was glad that it was something that was only for her.
She'd tried to be sneaky. For the last two weeks it'd worked, but not today. No, today it hadn't worked. "I'm fine. It's just a little stomach upset," Lucy insisted.
"It was a little stomach upset two weeks ago. It never went away, did it? You expect me to find you throwing up in the downstairs bathroom and think you're fine?"
"I came down here because I didn't want to wake you up." Lucy had tried to keep their argument down but she wasn't sure they'd been successful when she heard two sets of footsteps on the stairs.
"Everything okay?" Dinah asked, entering the living room.
"No, everything is not okay," Sirius said as Lucy frantically nodded her head.
"I'm fine, Sirius."
"No, you're not! You've been eating constantly and now you're throwing up. That's not fine. I think we should take you to St. Mungo's"
Lucy backed up a couple steps towards the stairs, "No, I'm not going there."
"Um, look," Dinah took a step toward the couple, "I'm sure we can talk this out. Lucy, if you're sick-"
"I'm fine," Lucy cut her friend off, "I'm not going back to St. Mungo's," she pointed a finger at Sirius, "and you can't make me. You're not my father," she said before running up the stairs away from the group.
A minute later a door could be heard slamming shut. Sirius threw his hands up in frustration, "I don't know what her problem is. She's been acting strange for at least a few days now. She's not fine and when I try to talk to her about it she runs away."
"Okay," Dinah said, still trying to be the peacemaker if that was even possible. At this point he'd try anything. "Maybe I can help. I'll go upstairs and see if I can talk to her. You two just... entertain yourselves," she made a random gesture at them and then left up the stairs after Lucy.