Chapter 36

Lucy looked across the table at Sirius after they'd finished dinner in her rooms, Wednesday evening. She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again before she spoke, "I think I'm going to go to the library for a bit. If you don't mind."

"I can come with you," Sirius offered, looking concerned.

She knew he looked like that because she almost never said she was going to another area of the school when he was there but this was important and it was best done as soon as possible. "No, no," she quickly said, "that's okay. I think it's best if you don't come…Dinah sort of…thrust this book at me the other day and ran off before I could say anything. I know she sometimes spends her evenings in the library looking things up and…I think I need to go find her."

Sirius smiled, "Well, then go find her. I'll stay here. Maybe she's done being mad at you."

"Maybe," she said, picking up the book and kissing Sirius before slipping out the door.

She probably should have told him about what Dinah had said about Lucy being mad at her but she'd known that would have led to a long discussion and she really wanted to try and help her friend if she could, even if it meant putting off some much needed time with Sirius.

Combing through the library Lucy eventually found her old…or rather young, friend sitting at one of the tables, hunched over a rather large book. Not wanting to frighten her, Lucy tapped Dinah on the shoulder, "Dinah?"

The younger woman jumped and turned around, startled for a moment, and looked up at Lucy, who was holding the fairy tale book she had given her the day before last. "Oh, um... hi."

Dinah looked nervous. Lucy felt the same way, "Um, can…can I sit down?" She told herself she needed to breathe. If this had been Tonks and they'd had a fight, Lucy would probably have done something silly to break the ice or vise versa. But this wasn't Tonks, this was Dinah, and Lucy wasn't quite sure how to go about making up with her friend.

"Oh!" Dinah exclaimed, pushing a nearby chair back with her foot and gesturing to it with a large wave of her arms, "Of course! Please sit down!"

Lucy smiled. Dinah's reaction made her think that Sirius just might have been right and Dinah had stopped being mad at her. "So," she said sitting. She placed the book on the table and began tracing its title with her finger, an idle, nervous gesture. "You wanted me to interpret this?"

Dinah just stared at her for a moment. "Um, yeah... I just thought you might have an idea about it," Dinah watched the book instead of looking at Lucy. "I hope I'm not bugging you or something."

She giggled. This was rather like dealing with most of her sixth years. Of course, technically she supposed that was exactly what Dinah was. A sixth year. "Dinah, you're not bugging me. In fact I've been spending most of my time outside of class reading or grading. I seem to be occupying a rather large gap in the social workings of the school. Not really old enough to talk with most of the professors, though some do try and I'm not a student so I really shouldn't be hanging out with them all the time. It can be rather lonesome, but it's not something I've never experienced before." She thought it wise not to mention spending time with Sirius as one of the activities she engaged in.

"Oh. So you're not busy, then."

"No, no. But…I'm not really sure what you wanted me to interpret. I mean I read them and everything but you didn't mention anything in particular you wanted me to look for. There's a whole host of ways I can interpret these stories. It sort of depends on the context…"

"Oh," Dinah sighed, realizing that her friend was right. "I'm sorry, that was really stupid of me, wasn't it? I'm sorry, I know you're probably still mad at me and I didn't mean to waste your time. Here, I'll show you what I was looking at," she reached for the book.

She held on to the book firmly for a minute. She'd been trying to avoid the subject, but now it seemed like she'd have to bring it up. "I'm not mad at you. I thought you were mad at me. I mean, maybe I was a little mad at first, but that's understandable isn't it? I don't know. I was more confused than anything. Then…then he told me…"

"You... you're not mad at me? I... I'm not mad at you, either. I mean, I just wanted to give you time to deal with what happened because I thought you needed that. I mean, I hit your boyfriend. I sort of expected you to be mad at me; that's why I was waiting for you to come over but when you didn't I thought... you hated me." Dinah appeared to be blinking back tears.

"I'm not mad at you," Lucy whispered. "I appreciate you wanting to give me time though. We talked about it. We dealt with it. It's over. I thought you needed time to cool down and then you kept running away from me…"

"I was giving you time," Dinah swiped at her eyes and smiled a little. "I guess we were both being pretty stupid, huh?"

Lucy grinned, blushing, "Yeah, I guess we were. Now," she said, pushing the book so it was between them, "what where you thinking about these?"

Dinah smiled and opened the cover of the book. "I read the first three," she said, pointing to them in the table of contents. "I didn't really get to the last four because the third one really struck me. I guess, first off I wondered if you knew anything about the author. You know lots of authors, right?"

"Not personally," Lucy grinned. It was nice to be able to kid around with Dinah again. She hoped they'd eventually reach a point where Sirius would be able to apologize for his behavior or at least a point where they could be in the same room, but she thought that was probably a long ways off. "But yes, I am familiar with a lot of authors. This author I wasn't too knowledgeable on. His name sounded familiar but I had to go look him up." She reached into the bag she'd brought with her and pulled out her copy of The Squib Did It. She flipped to the back and the "about the author" section.

"He was a squib?" Dinah asked, looking surprised as she looked at that part of the book.

"Mmm," Lucy nodded, "It seems so. I think it'd be interesting if we could find out the name he used as a Muggle and how his life was after he left our world but that probably wouldn't add much to the stories here. I read through all of them and the first three are probably the best, unless you like really gory fairy tales. The second one struck me as a tale about horcruxes, but other than that…well actually I was hoping I could get a copy of the first one at some point so I could look at it more in depth. It seemed to be one of the lighter pieces and it had a good moral to it."

"I liked the first one, too!" Dinah exclaimed, grinning, "But I wasn't quite sure why the first one referenced the third one. I guess we'll get to that later," she looked back at the about the author section. "So he was a squib born into a Slytherin family and that's why he wrote fairy tales about the dark arts, probably. You know, I bet he faced a lot of the same issues that Muggle-born Slytherins have to face. But it must have been worse in the 1700s."

"I imagine so. The witch hunts can't have been long over, they might have even still been going on. The squib issue can be hard to deal with, especially for pure blood families. I mean, at least if one of your parents is Muggle-born than you have a chance joining a society where you can be relatively normal, but pure bloods just don't have any experience with Muggles mostly and no one to introduce that to their squib children. Either way it must be hard to be a part of a world that you can't truly belong to…I imagine a family full of Slytherins would only exacerbate the problem," she bit her lip, worried that Dinah would take the last comment the wrong way. She'd been thinking of the Blacks when she'd been talking about Slytherin families but she was afraid to bring that up now that they were on speaking terms again.

"Ah, I see," she ran her finger across the about the author page absently. "You're thinking of Sirius's family then."

"Um, yeah. They had issues with anyone that wasn't in Slytherin so I imagine a squib would have been so much worse. Um, Dinah about that…" she hesitated. Maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to talk about that subject here, in the library. "Actually, you know, we should probably leave that until we aren't sitting in the library with students all around us…"

"Yeah, I guess so. I don't know how much there is to say at this point, anyway. I guess you two dealt with it however you had to."

"Maybe not, but there were things he told me, things I mentioned that I don't think even he realized about the whole thing…I just…I think you deserve to know about them. At least at some point. Now isn't the right time though. Um, back to the stories I guess," Lucy said, staring pointedly at the books in front of them, her cheeks flushed.

"Um, yeah, let's," Dinah agreed, flushing a bit herself as she skimmed the about the author section again. "So after he couldn't make it as an author in the wizarding world he wrote Muggle stories, huh? You're right, I wish we knew what he changed his name to. It says he changed it but it doesn't say to what. But he was a successful Muggle writer, so maybe... wait, I think I know somebody that might be able to help!"

"Help what? Oh!"

Dinah turned at the new voice to see that Severus had come up behind them. He was looking at Lucy with a surprised expression. Apparently he hadn't expected her to be there. She herself was rather surprised to see Severus there. She'd assumed if he hadn't been there all this time he'd probably had something else to do.

He stared at Dinah for a moment, frowning, and then looked back at Lucy, his posture slightly stiff and his voice flat. "So I see you were willing to help interpret for us then."

"You don't' have to be so formal," Dinah smiled and shook her head. "Lucy and I have patched things up."

"Oh... I see," he slumped down in the chair on the other side of Dinah, his uneasy gaze shifting from her to Lucy and then back again. "That's a good thing... right?"

Lucy nodded, "Yes, it is. We decided we were both stupid. Have you looked at these?" She shoved the book towards Severus, trying to act normal. She was sure she wasn't succeeding.

"No, but Dinah told me about them," he said, shooting a curious raised eyebrow at her and then staring at the about the author section. "A squib born to a family of Slytherins, huh? I feel bad for him."

"Yeah, that's unfortunate, but I'm sure it happens," Dinah agreed. "Lucy realized that the second story was about Horcruxes, too," she turned to Lucy. "I wasn't aware you knew what those were, but I guess being so close with Harry, Ron, and Hermione you would. That was the only one that was easily interpretable. What I wanted to know was... do you think there's any reason to believe these stories have some basis in reality? Or is he just making stuff up?"

"Well," Lucy said, flipping through the fairy tale book, while Severus looked through her mystery book, "I think all stories have some basis in reality, even if it is very small. Whether or not Scrump had these experiences himself or only heard of them from others I can't say."

Dinah sighed, "That's what I kind of thought. But there must be some way you can get hints, right? Like through his style of writing and stuff? Is there a way to identify which parts he identified with most... or something? I'm sorry, I probably sound like an idiot. It's this body. My, um... brain is kind of that of an adolescent's, too, if you hadn't noticed," she sighed and stared at the table.

"Um, yeah. At this point in the year though I'm used to dealing with sixth years," she grinned, "Actually though, we can use his style to make assumptions. Obviously we'll never be completely sure of ourselves without any doubts but assumptions aren't bad things. Sometimes, even if they're wrong, they can lead us someplace the author never thought of themselves. For instance when he writes 'Eventually, the young woman recognized the boy as someone from her past. Someone she had known through her dead sister, long long ago' we see a continuing emphasis on the sister. He spends a lot of time talking about the ghost like creature that was the prince's former self. I'd guess this could be something he either spent a great deal of thought on or he saw a similar creature himself."

"Yes!" Dinah exclaimed, "That's just the kind of literature interpretation I expected from you! It's great!"

Lucy blushed, hiding her face from them so they didn't see her blush intensify, "Thanks, but I think you could have come up with it on your own eventually."

"Not in this body, and not so well-articulated," Dinah said, somewhat glum.

"This book was clearly based on reality," Severus spoke up suddenly, drawing both Dinah and Lucy's gazes over to him. He looked at Lucy; "Doesn't that mean that the author likes writing based on his experiences?"

She stared at Severus in his sixteen year old body, her eyebrows furrowing in thought, "Normally I would say yes. In this case I'd say most likely. It's hard to make a definite conclusion with only two books having been written by the author and only one of these is clearly grounded in reality. Though I have strong suspicions both of them are."

Dinah nodded, thinking as well; "Also, the fact that he was essentially a Slytherin squib probably means he had a lot of time to really think about the nature of evil and the things that happen to people. The, um...well, the mindset of Muggle-born Slytherins that I seem to be getting from my surveys is a strong desire to find their place in both of the worlds that they have been thrust into, and a lot of thinking about things and trying to understand. I bet he was much the same."

"Probably. Like I said earlier it has to be extremely hard to be part of a world you can't participate in. It makes no mention of his family being pureblood or not but I'd guess they were. Slytherins tend to be so anyway. And, again generally, they don't tend to be very forgiving. There are exceptions of course," she said, hoping she hadn't offended either of them.

"Hm. Clearly," was all that Severus said, looking more distracted than offended.

Dinah just shrugged. "It all makes sense, really. Lucy, if I was able to find you more of the author's work, do you think you could interpret more easily?"

Lucy nodded, "It would help to notice patterns and we could probably be more confident about some of our presumptions. But it might be hard to do. Scrump only published these two books as a wizard and we don't know what name he used as a Muggle…"

"Well, there's where I think I might know someone that could help," Dinah said, looking conspicuous with both Severus and Lucy's curious gazes on her. "You see, I...I have this friend in the Muggle world, Rosa Banks. She's a historian and a linguist and she knows pretty much anything you could ask her about things written in the past. If Scrump became as popular in the Muggle world as that book says he did she should be able to look at these books and match his writing style and use of language with that of the Muggle books. She could probably tell us who he became."

"Dinah, you can't show your Muggle friend these books!" Severus protested.

"I can if I tell her that I'm a witch," Dinah murmured.

"Dinah!" Severus nearly shouted, standing from his chair and slamming his hand on the table, drawing stares from the nearby students. He flushed and sat back down.

Lucy had been noticing over the last weeks how insecure Severus was. That probably accounted for how he fell in so easily with the Death Eater kids. Perhaps even why he'd been an easy target for teasing. She knew better than to mention that though. Besides it wasn't likely to do anything but embarrass him more. "Do you really think that's the best idea Dinah?" she asked, concerned. "I mean with the Statute of Secrecy and everything…"

"You yourself know how inefficient the Ministry is," Dinah said. "As long as there is no kind of hubbub or anything they won't know about it. They monitor underage magic but they don't monitor every witch and wizard and every person they perform magic in front of. It would be too difficult. I've noticed it in my surveys. You'd be surprised at the sheer number of people Muggle-borns are able to tell without Ministry knowledge. As long as it's done quietly, it can be done easily."

"And what makes you think your infernal Muggle friend won't cause a hubbub when you shatter her...what do you call it...'paradigm' about the world she lives in?" Severus demanded, still looking vehemently opposed to the idea.

Lucy's eyes shifted back and forth between the couple. Dinah did have a point and Lucy, herself, had technically broken the law. She had her misgivings about it but she wouldn't be the first one to cast stones. "Um, I'm sure Rosa is very nice and not at all infernal, Severus," she quietly said.

He snorted. "You would think so. You two are both the same. Nice, idealistic. I'm telling you, Muggles are all infernal. They find out about magic and they either worship it like freaks or condemn it and go on witch-hunts. The International Statute of Secrecy was put into effect for a reason!"

"Severus, she can help us. You know how closely that story ties to... well, you know," Dinah murmured. "Rosa is very nice and she's also open-minded. Can't you just give her a chance? I was hoping you would come with me when I told her."

"Come with you!" Severus exclaimed; "Are you mad? I don't associate with Muggles! I haven't even decided yet if I'm going to let you go through with this inane plan of yours!"

"Let me?" Dinah shouted, standing from the table and fixing him with a glare. "Oh, I'm sorry..."

Lucy wasn't sure what she was apologizing for but it was starting to get a bit heated and she began inching her book away from Severus.

Severus bit his lip and looked away. "No, I'm sorry. I just...don't think you're thinking this through. You don't know how she will react. You may think you have an idea, but you really don't know..."

"Um," she said, pulling the book firmly into her lap, "I know the statute was put in place for a reason and it was a good reason, but there are already plenty of Muggles aware of our existence. At the same time," she turned to Dinah, "You may be relatively sure how Rosa will react but much like our assumptions about Scrump you can't know until you…well until you know."

Dinah sighed, "Look, I know that. But I still think it's worth it to try. If you're that worried about how she'll react then that's all the more reason for you to come with me, Severus. Besides, I've...told Muggles before, and it went just fine."

Severus scowled. "Ah. Yes. Him, then. You're going to use that against me, are you?"

"I'm not trying to; I just want you to realize that all Muggles aren't as horrible as you think they are!"

Lucy was beginning to wonder if she could leave without them noticing. Her words didn't seem to be helping them think rationally and she was now uncomfortable. She hated watching people fight. Her hand inched down for her bag and she slipped the book inside, hoisting it on to her shoulder.

"Oh! Lucy," Dinah said, whirling around, "you don't have to go. Severus is just being Severus. Don't worry; I'll eventually get him to agree with me."

"Oh, so I'm not allowed to try to change your mind about something but you're allowed to try to change mine?" Severus challenged.

"Essentially," Dinah replied.

"Um, it's okay," Lucy said, sheepishly, "Just another hang up from my childhood I suppose. Um…I can stay if you want." She glanced around, noting there were still some students trying to study so it couldn't have been that late yet.

"Can I borrow that other book of yours, please?" Dinah asked. "I want to read it to see if I notice anything. If you want you can keep the book of fairy tales until I have to go show it to Rosa. We're going to go weekend after next."

"And apparently it's decided," Severus groaned, folding his arms and glaring at the table.

"Oh, sure," she pulled the book back out of her bag, "I haven't looked at it for years so I won't miss it. If you're sure you don't mind I'd like to borrow the fairy tales from you. At least so I can copy the first one. There's just something about it…"

"Sure, being a professor still I've got it checked out for the remainder of the year," she smiled. "The little things like that and being allowed in the restricted section are all that's left to remind me I was an adult once, I feel like sometimes." She sighed; "I'm glad we're friends again. It's been...hard for me and Severus, being stuck in these bodies and having nobody to really talk to but each other. And we're both stuck in the same predicament so there's only so much we can deal with on our own, you know..."

Lucy nodded. She seemed to be doing that a lot tonight, "I can imagine. It's been hard for me too. I'm sure no where near as much as it was for you but still…You know I never got a chance to tell you before…at Slughorn's party. I…I heard her again."

"The voice of Bellatrix Lestrange?" Severus's head shot back up from the table to fix Lucy with a pointed stare.

"Yes," Lucy said, shifting in her seat. He might be in the body of a sixteen year old but Severus Snape still knew how to stare at a person like he was the dreaded Potions Professor she knew him as. "I don't generally hear voices in my head and hearing hers is worrying enough. If I started hearing others I'd probably have run straight to Dumbledore."

"Lucy, I was reading something in the library the other day about something called 'voice ghosts'. It was only briefly mentioned in a book from the mysteries section, but apparently there have been instances in the past where people have heard the voices of others who were supposed to be dead," Dinah said. "I don't know much about it as there wasn't a lot of information, but that first story in the fairy tales seems to be a little similar as well. And that night...with the dark storm...a lot of other things were happening when the lights went out. Things I probably shouldn't tell you about without permission of Dumbledore and the Aurors but...I wonder if it's all connected."

Voice ghosts? Did that mean…? It had to. She'd really begun to worry, though she hadn't said anything to anyone. Severus and Dinah had been the only ones she'd told about the voice anyway and she hadn't been able to talk to them…Lucy looked into Dinah's eyes, grinning, "I'm not crazy."

Dinah couldn't help but laugh and even Severus looked mildly amused; "Well, I wouldn't think so."

Lucy shocked herself and probably Dinah too, when she spontaneously hugged her, "Dinah, really, you have no idea. I was honestly beginning to wonder." She caught Severus's eye and smiled, hoping his adolescent brain had understood her meaning.

He gave her a small nod and slight smile, acknowledging his understanding.

Dinah smiled and hugged Lucy back, "Don't worry about it. Believe me, I know how infuriating this whole dark storms and mysterious happenings stuff can be," they broke the hug and she grinned back up at Lucy. "But, maybe now that we're all helping each other we'll be able to figure it out more easily."

"Hopefully," Lucy agreed, "Well, it's getting late. I should probably go…I can walk you to your rooms if you want. I mean I know you can do it yourselves but I thought maybe my presence would help…"

It was Dinah's turn to shock Lucy by hugging her again. "Yes!" she exclaimed after pulling away. "You have no idea how great that would be! Surely people will stare at us less then! Right, Severus?" she turned her excited look on her boyfriend, who instead was frowning.

"But... today is Wednesday, isn't it?" he asked.

Lucy grinned, but she was sure it looked uneasy again, "Yes, but its fine. He can wait and I'm actually doing well for now. I don't…I'll be okay." She wasn't sure how much she should explain about how she was feeling more and more able to be without him by her side constantly. The worry and the ache she'd felt in those early days of teaching were gone. She did still get nervous as her time away from him came to its peak but maybe some of that was due to her and Dinah not speaking for so long.

"I take it that means he's not wandering the halls again, like before," Severus said, and the shrugged and stood. "Okay, then. That would be appreciated."

"No, he's not wondering the halls. Severus?" she said, hesitatingly, "He shouldn't have done what he did. I can't apologize for him and I doubt it would matter much if I did but…I'm sorry. I didn't know. If I had…"

"Mm," Severus grumbled, "You had nothing to do with it. I have no problem with you. I never have," he finally finished.

Lucy grinned, more at ease this time, "Now, don't lie to me Severus Snape." She stood and began walking with the two of them out of the library, "I know very well you wanted nothing to do with me early in the year."

"I wanted nothing to do with your relationship with Black," Severus clarified with a slight scowl; "The two of you and your constant public displays of affection were rather infuriating, actually. To the me from the beginning of the year."

Dinah smiled. "Yes, my old stoic, snarky Severus who panicked when I barely tapped him on the arm. Those days seem...like forever ago."

"I didn't panic, you startled me," Severus insisted, flushing slightly.

Lucy giggled, "You'll have to excuse the us of the past. I think the things we weren't doing sort of intensified the things we were." She blushed and shrugged, "But that's neither here nor there. Which room do you want me to take us to?"

"We'll stay in my rooms tonight," Dinah said, and Severus smiled slightly.

"All right. No problem." She fleetingly wondered if Dinah's clothes were still unorganized. Not that she was going to ask in front of Severus. There was only one bed in Dinah's rooms and she doubted either one of them was sleeping on the couch. She knew what sixteen year old hormones were like. Heck, she knew what her twenty-six year old hormones were like. "You've got nothing to worry about tonight. He's staying in my rooms until he leaves which will probably be just before dawn. In case you were wondering."

"Sure," Dinah nodded as they arrived at her room and she opened the door with her key; "I guess we're being silly anyway. We haven't seen him any of the previous Wednesdays, either." She sighed once they were in and looked at her friend. "Thanks for the apology. Even though it's not the same as one from your fiancé I ...we...appreciate it." At Severus's slow nod she continued; "I'm glad to know that at least you...disapprove of what happened even if you still worked things out with...Sirius."

"Oh, he's going to make one. He's just got to work it up and then get the opportunity." She paused for a moment, knowing she probably shouldn't say what she was about to, "He probably won't appreciate me telling you this, and I know it doesn't make things better, but I think, in some ways…he was jealous of you."

Severus just stared at Lucy like she had lost her mind, and Dinah looked much the same.

Lucy shrugged, "Don't get me wrong he had a lot, but there was something you had that he didn't. Something he probably really needed. Well," she said, going back out into the hall, "Good night. I'll see you at breakfast."

"Um...yeah, good night," Dinah said and closed the door after Lucy.