Chapter 37

When she got back to her room she found Sirius waiting in bed for her. She pulled on her favorite flannel pajamas and Sirius groaned. "What?" she asked, climbing into bed.

"I know what flannel pajamas mean," he said, putting his arm around her as she snuggled up to his side and put her head on his shoulder.

"They don't mean anything. They're warm, comfortable, and cute," she said, closing her eyes.

"You were gone a long time. I take it you two made up then?"

"Mmm."

"You seem more relaxed now," he observed, caressing her back, "I didn't realize you were that bothered by it."

Lucy snored softly.

Sirius chucked, "See I told you I knew what flannel pajamas mean."

Lucy entered the library the next day hoping to find Dinah and Severus there again. At a table near the entrance she saw a group of Slytherin students "studying". Derwent was among them. She knew some of the boys he was sitting with and they certainly were some that had a definite Death Eater bent to them. Apparently he and Agrona hadn't made up yet. If his association with those boys went on much longer she might try having a talk with Severus and Derwent as well.

It didn't take her much longer to find Severus. She'd wandered farther into the library and eventually found Severus standing in front of the same table that they had left yesterday, his face flushed with anger and frustration, shouting; "No! No! No! Useless!" and shaking an open book over his head. Lucy just stared at the table. Dare she believe that Severus Snape was actually standing there in the middle of the library with a table piled with two giant stacks... of romance novels?

"Um, Severus?" she asked, peeking over the stacks of books, "What…what are you doing?" This was utterly bizarre. If he wanted romance novels she could have let him borrow some. Of course asking her for them couldn't be any less embarrassing than going through the library and finding them. The upside to the library was the novels Hogwarts kept weren't nearly as…detailed as the ones she had.

"These books are absolutely useless as research materials!" He declared, pointing at one of the piles. "Here I am looking for the perfect Valentine's Day gift to give to Dinah and all these stupid teenage tomes can come up with is flowers and chocolates? Flowers are so generic and Dinah said she didn't think that I would want chocolates so that must mean she doesn't want them either, right? Oh, okay, and one of them suggested a necklace but I already gave her a necklace!

"And these!" Severus's finger shifted to the second pile, a look of utter contempt and loathing on his flushed face; "This pile of abominations that I retrieved from the restricted section? They're supposed to be romance novels but they say nothing about Valentine's Day! They're all about... sex! Sex, sex, and sex!" he exclaimed, shoving the first three books off of the pile in turn where they clattered down to the table.

He grabbed the fourth one and his face took on an even deeper loathing as he held it over his head; "Except for this one. This one actually manages to mention Valentine's Day and yet it's about... about... Valentine's Sex!" he shouted, violently tossing the book aside where it smacked into one of the nearby shelves. His loud repetition of the word 'sex' was drawing stares from nearly all of the students in the library, but for once he didn't seem to notice their reactions.

Lucy bit her lip to keep from giggling and went to pick up the discarded book from the floor, "Well," she said, "generally the adult romance novels are about sex…some more so than others but still. If you wanted a decent romance, non-sex, Valentine's type novel why didn't you ask me? I'm sure I have one." She pulled out a chair and sat, angling it so she wasn't hidden behind the pile of books.

"No, it's hopeless," Severus clumped down in his chair and smacked his forehead onto the table, not moving anymore. "I have no idea what I'm doing," he muttered, his voice muffled by the table and curtains of greasy hair covering his face.

"Well," Lucy said, repeating herself, "um, presents. Okay, we can deal with that. Do you have any idea what type of present you want to get her? You know, sweet, cute, romantic…sexy." She guessed the last was not the type of present he was looking for but it couldn't hurt to mention it. She knew Dinah was in a place where she was ready for that. Pushing Severus into that wasn't on her agenda though.

He finally lifted his head to look directly at her, and she thought she caught a trace of fear in his eyes; "No. No sexy. I... I mean it's not like I don't want to, it's just too risky. If I end up thinking of Lily and stopping in the middle a third time she might run away from me and never come back. I can't risk that. I need her. She can't leave."

She wasn't quite sure how to answer that one. "Um, I…I can understand that I suppose. I don't really know what to tell you about that without going out into some rather uncomfortable topics. What about flowers or chocolates. Oh! What about a stuffed animal?"

Severus grabbed a piece of parchment and started furiously jotting down her words, his nose almost pressed to the paper. "I said flowers and chocolates are generic, but a stuffed animal might do." He frowned. "Cute, sweet, or romantic, huh? Well, all of those things, any of those things, just give me something to work with here! She said not to worry about it and that she didn't want anything big. But that's one of those tricks you women play, isn't it? It means she really does want something big," he looked very proud of his deduction as he fixed Lucy with a firm gaze. "If I've learned anything from you in the past few months it's that."

Lucy smiled. He looked so proud of himself. She imagined it was rather like watching your child realize they'd learned something all on their own for the first time. "Yes, most of the time. Something bigger might be jewelry. Rings probably wouldn't be wise, if you catch my drift." She thought a bit more before saying, "You could do some sort of nice pajama. Maybe something silky with some lace, nothing too revealing. To me that's more on the romantic side than sexy. If you were going sexy I'd say lingerie of whatever type you…well, you know," she blushed.

Severus finished writing down what she'd said, looking like he was blushing a little himself. "She would look nice in lingerie, probably..." He shook his head, "Never mind. At any rate, what about jewelry that matches the snake necklace? You can find snake stuff easily. Slytherins know where to look. But it all has to be the same type of stuff, doesn't it? You women are always wearing matching accessories and all that other girly rot, right? But isn't it supposed to be like the same tone of metal or something or you can't wear it together? Dinah's babbled things like that on occasion."

"Yes, matching is good. We don't like looking like we got dressed in the dark. You could get her something to go with the snake necklace or a whole new set if you wanted. In my opinion the best gifts are ones that shows you noticed something about her, something she didn't have to come out and tell you. For instance I happen to know one of the things Sirius is getting me is a book. Now, I know I said before I kind of hate it when people by me books and normally that's true but it seems he noticed my current copy of Fall From Grace is falling apart because I've read it so much. Part of that's because I've been using it for class. Still, it means a lot that he noticed I like the book and my copy is in need of replacement."

"Great, now I have to go spy in her rooms," Severus groaned, but wrote down 'New set, notice something, book,' on the parchment. He regarded his list, and then said quietly; "Is this stuff really going to make her happy? I want to maker her happy."

Lucy shrugged, "Some girls are materialistic and only want the stuff. I think as far as Dinah and I go it's not so much the stuff but the thought and effort you guys put into the gift that makes us happy. I think you just being you makes her happy."

Severus shook his head rapidly from side to side, looking stressed. "I don't know what about me could make her happy. It's just...I always thought about doing some Valentine's...thing for Lily and I never did. I don't think I knew what to do. I never let her know how I felt about her and then it was too late. I should have told her how much I loved her and I didn't. And now there's Dinah..." he trailed off, looking thoughtful even in his mildly distressed state.

She leaned back in her chair, thinking about that for a minute. "You loved Lily. Maybe that was part of the reason you couldn't figure out what to do. Love makes people crazy. Do you…" she really had no right to ask this, "Do you love Dinah?"

Severus just stared at her for what seemed like hours, his expression truly unreadable. Finally he let out an exasperated sigh, looking no less distressed than he had since she'd stumbled upon him. "I don't know! Stop asking so many questions and just tell me what I should do here! Do you have any other ideas to add to this?" he gestured to the list.

"Sorry," Lucy apologized, "Um, how about," now she started to giggle, "food? Dinah seems to enjoy food."

That finally got Severus to laugh. "She does. She does enjoy food. I love that about her," he paused and frowned, probably realizing that he had used the word 'love'. He shrugged and added it to his list.

Lucy bit her lip, turning away again. Severus might not know but she was pretty sure he did love Dinah. "You know this is not so much a physical gift but she'll probably love it just the same. You could willingly, and happily, go see Rosa with her. And keep an open mind about her too."

He sighed and shook his head; "About that. That's a lovely sentiment, but I can't...she just doesn't understand. Muggles are...I know how Muggles are!"

"Severus, I think Dinah probably has a good idea about Muggles. What makes you think you know them any better than she does?"

"Never mind," he growled. "Well, I guess I'm stuck going there with her anyway, I might as well at least try to be nice about it. That doesn't mean I'm not still suspicious. And if her friend does anything stupid I'm going to be the first one to perform Obliviate and take both of us out of there!"

"Truthfully I'm a bit suspicious as well. I mean I trust Dinah knows her friends well but I'm not at all comfortable with her telling her friend. However, if you Obliviate Rosa, Dinah is going to be pissed."

"All bridges will be crossed when we come to them," Severus said in a stubborn tone, gritting his teeth. He sighed; "Well, thank you for this I suppose. Now how am I supposed to decide which of these things to get her?"

Lucy shrugged, "I've really no idea. Is there something in particular that stands out to you? I actually haven't gotten Sirius anything but…well, never mind," she said, blushing.

Severus rolled his eyes. "I think I get the message," he shoved the Valentine's Sex book at her, "Here, you need this more than I do. Now I have to go think," he gathered up his parchment and stood from the chair and leaving.

Laughing, Lucy started putting the books back on the shelves they belonged to. Who'd have believed she could chase Severus Snape away with something as harmless as the mention of sex? Of course she had no need of the book he'd shoved in her face. Reading the back of it before she put it on the shelf she decided that she might just check that one out…just in case.