CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Confrontation

Sirius had decided to spend the rest of Sunday afternoon and evening in Hogwarts with Lucy since Harry was gone anyway. Dinah also sensed he felt bad for not being with her this weekend, although as far as she knew Lucy was pretending that she hadn't been as upset as she actually had been yesterday before coming to Dinah's.

Dinah's plan was to break off from their group as soon as they passed her rooms and then wait for an hour or two before going to see Severus, but luck just wasn't with her today. All they had to do was turn one corner and there was Severus, walking down the hallway towards them. The air was thick with tension as all four of them screeched to a halt. For a moment nobody moved or said anything, and then Dinah made the first move by jumping sides.

Literally. In a move she felt necessary she took almost a leap and moved from where she stood next to Lucy and Sirius facing Severus to Severus's side, as close as she could be to him without physical contact, and now she and him were facing Lucy and Sirius and she could see the sneer on Lucy's boyfriend's face, only outdone by the one her own boyfriend's.

"Professor Ketteridge," Severus said coolly, nodding at Lucy although his sharp gaze never left Sirius's face.

"Professor Snape," Lucy returned, uneasily.

Severus's eyes narrowed and Dinah had to resist not stepping away from him. Luckily, her sense of loyalty kept her by his side. "Black," he almost spat out.

Lucy watched Sirius's face with uneasiness as the latter said "Ssssnape," in a drawn out manner. The voice inside Dinah started screaming at him again for intending to say 'Snivellus' but she kept her mouth shut.

"Still enjoying your freedom, I see," Severus murmured. "Coming and going from Hogwarts whenever you please... in whichever form you please."

Dinah got nervous and slipped her arm into his, worried that he was going to go too far and subconsciously hoping that her touch would calm or pacify him. He flinched as normal and then looked at her for a short moment before turning back to glare at Sirius across from him.

"Yes, actually I am," Sirius replied. "I find the ability to choose what form I celebrate my freedom in a rather useful one. Too bad you can't say the same."

"You don't realize that you were freer than I ever was," Severus hissed. "Even including your time spent in Azkaban. And I have no need to celebrate my freedom by turning into a scruffy mutt."

"Severus, don't," Dinah found herself saying, but he was effectively ignoring her.

"You," Sirius said, practically sticking his finger in Severus's face, "Have no idea what it was like there, or being stuck in that damn house day after day. And I believe Dumbledore asked you to keep your mouth shut about what I am."

"I have no reason to keep such information from the woman I am involved with."

Dinah felt her face flush. Did he say that or am I dreaming? her new inner voice had to ask. I must be dreaming.

Sirius snorted, "Woman you're involved with? Like you were involved with Lily? Yeah, that worked out well."

"Sirius," Lucy gasped, shooting a concerned look in Dinah's direction.

Dinah had never felt more torn than she did now. She wanted to react hostilely to Sirius's words and stay on Severus's side. And she didn't really know what Sirius meant by those words either. Maybe she was supposed to be defending herself and not Severus. Was he implying by his statement that Severus just couldn't get a girl or that she herself was going to not want him just like Lily didn't want him. She wanted to scream that she really did care for Severus, but her voice just wasn't coming to her.

Yes, she wanted to lay into Sirius in some way for his comment, but she also knew that Lucy was still on her side, at least partially. And a more hidden part of her wondered if Sirius's words were essentially true and this whole 'involvement' thing was just a lie as Severus went out of his way to humor her. But he had called her the woman he was involved with without any provocation. That had to count for something. Then again, maybe he was just saying that to make Sirius angry. Dinah was so confused she felt that Lucy's concerned look was entirely justified.

Severus's reaction was her second point of concern. His face had turned a shade of red she had only seen before on the teenage Severus in the pensieve and he was barely coherent as he growled at Sirius. "Don't you... dare... even... mention..." His hand was going for his wand at a pace that felt like slow motion, at least to Dinah.

She clutched his arm more tightly. "Please. Stop. This has to stop." To Dinah's relief, Severus's hand stopped at the same time that Lucy grabbed Sirius's hand and stepped in-between the two men, facing Sirius.

"Don't," said Lucy, having made the move with a certain ease that must have come from her Auror training.

"Lucy. Move," Sirius said, still reaching for his own wand and glaring at Severus.

"No." Lucy said in a firm voice, and then looked over her shoulder to meet Dinah's eyes.

Dinah exhaled, this whole thing getting too stressful for her. It seemed Lucy was the only other sane person in this group. "We have to split up and go to our separate rooms now before this gets any worse," she told her friend.

"My thoughts exactly," Lucy agreed, and then turned back to face Sirius, who still refused to meet her gaze. "Please, Sirius, let's go back to my rooms. Leave them be."

Finally he looked down at her, "He started it."

Dinah wanted to scoff at the childishness of that comment, but part of her was concerned that Sirius had been sort of right. Severus might have been the one who started it with his comment about Sirius coming and going whenever he pleased. Then again, each of them had been responsible for the slow build-up to where they were now. And Sirius was the one who had almost said Snivellus, and every single one of them knew it.

The whole thing was very complicated

"In case you'd forgotten, I have infinitely more cause to be bitter towards you than you have to be bitter towards me. Just ask your friend Remus," Severus's voice was deathly quiet, and he turned, pulling Dinah with him toward the dungeons, leaving an expressionless Sirius and Lucy behind.

When they had made it to Severus's sitting room he let go of her arm and turned to face her. For a moment she thought he was going to say something about what just happened but then his gaze floated to the books she was carrying. "You found some information, I see."

"Yes..." she said slowly, putting her books down on the coffee table but watching Severus with a wary gaze.

"Then I suppose your trip was successful," he sat on the couch, taking the first paper from the pile and starting to look over it.

"I suppose," she sat down next to him. "What were you talking about back there? Remus who?"

"No one." He continued reading.

She sighed. If he was going to be non-responsive about the whole thing then it was all on her to bring this up. "Listen..." she said, drawing her knees up to her chin and watching Severus out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry. About what happened in the hall."

"Why?" he asked, not meeting her gaze, "Did you do anything?"

"Well... no..."

"Then there is no need for you to apologize," he finally looked at her with the usual raised eyebrow.

"I just," she sighed again and stared off into the room. "I should have maybe said something, you know? Something more than I did."

"Hm."

"Really! And I was pretty nice to them on the trip. We got a long for the most part and Harry wasn't even there."

"You need to stop convincing yourself that you have to hate Sirius Black only for my sake," Severus said slowly, watching her expression. "If you like him, then you like him. Although I can't imagine why you would."

"But I really don't, now," she sighed. "At least, not very much. That's my problem. I should have bit into him more about the whole thing. Said more. That way maybe you wouldn't have responded so volatilely.

"I don't think my response would have varied much, actually, given what he said."

She bit her lip and looked away, trying not to think about the whole Lily thing on top of everything else that was bothering her. "Still... I think sometimes I'm a bit of a coward. I worry about that a lot." There. She'd said it. It was probably more than she'd ever said to anyone, although even Severus couldn't imagine the true depth of that statement.

She felt a sudden spot of warmth, and realized that Severus had just put his hand on her shoulder. She turned slowly and met his eyes again. He was watching her, his expression merely thoughtful.

"You've said more than anyone else ever has for me. I'll say that much," he said after a moment.

She smiled, feeling a little better. "Well, you know. I guess I wasn't completely nice today, after all. I sort of had this inner monologue thing going on."

"Inner monologue?" he repeated.

"Yes. I kept yelling at him in my head. Actually, it was rather amusing. It wouldn't shut up." She laughed.

Severus chuckled at that, and Dinah had to smile. She liked the warm rumbling sound it made when he laughed. "You know... I have to say that I've never before met a person quite as... interesting as you are, Dinah."

Dinah blushed. She wasn't sure whether it was his comment or the way that he'd said it. It was like he was teasing her again, like when he made comments about her eating habits. She didn't know why but she loved those comments, and she loved this. Loved being interesting to him and him not being afraid to tell her that. And saying her name too, of course.

"Thank you," she said, moving to sit closer to him, "Did you really mean it when you said that I'm the woman you're involved with?"

He frowned, cleared his throat, and looked away. "Well... it seems that that's the way it is now. I suppose. So yes."

"And you want this?" she knew she was pushing it, but once again she couldn't shut up.

"I don't know," he admitted. "And I don't want to get into this right now, either. Suffice it to say I think this thing between us is turning out to function rather... well. As it is right now."

She nodded, laying her head on his shoulder and closing her eyes. He had tacked on the 'as it is right now' bit, she knew. That meant that he wasn't promising any further developments in their relationship and that he definitely wasn't anywhere near being over Lily. But it had already developed from him having no interest at all to him enjoying at least a minimal amount of spending time together and cuddling. So even without a promise, she was going to let herself believe it could progress further, given time.

And, after all, she thought as he put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her more tightly against him, she didn't exactly mind 'as it is right now' either.