A/N: Thank you again so much for everyone's continuing reviews! I really appreciate your thoughts and comments and I'm glad everyone is enjoying the story! :)
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
Friends
"There you are!" Dinah exclaimed, pulling a grey cat out from underneath her bed, Godric following his girlfriend out with his tail twitching. "Have you really been here this whole time, Dora? How did you manage to hide from me when I was even looking for you? Godric, really, if I end up with kittens after this..." she scolded her male cat, marching toward her door with Dora. She had heard that Lucy's cat was missing and had been keeping an eye out for her the past couple of days, but had not imagined that Godric had her stashed in her rooms this entire time.
She closed her door behind her, locking Godric inside, and headed down to Lucy's rooms, knocking on the door.
"Dora!" Lucy said when she opened the door to find Dinah holding her missing cat. "Where have you been?"
"Hiding in my room with Godric and somehow escaping my notice this whole time," Dinah said with a slight smirk. "Sorry about that. I was looking for her but those two are apparently very good at being incognito."
Lucy rolled her eyes, "It seems I've been a bad influence on you missy. Thanks for bringing her back. Did you want to come in?"
"Sure," Dinah smiled. "I'm free tonight. Severus has grading and I don't, so..." she stepped inside. "How have you been?"
"Not bad, dealing with Septimus is always interesting. We celebrated Sirius's birthday yesterday, it's today, so that was fun and there've been no strange occurrences since the last Quidditch match as far as I know so all is well." Lucy closed the door behind Dinah and ushered Dora into the bedroom.
She sighed, sitting down on the sofa. At least Lucy hadn't had to deal with strange occurrences. Dinah, not so much. "That's good. Maybe things will get better around here now." Fat chance.
"How've you been the last couple days? I noticed Severus sticking pretty close." Lucy sank down on the other end of the sofa, closing her book and picking up her hot cocoa.
Dinah smiled. "Whenever he can. Not that I'm complaining. I even got kissed on Monday, which was glorious. It's just with all the weird things happening lately... and that ghost boy Tommy I might have mentioned before... I think he's worried about me."
"Mmmm," Lucy said, sipping her drink, "Not to bypass the kiss or anything but I remember you asking about a Tommy and you've been looking up ghosts I know. I didn't realize they were one in the same."
"Yes..." she didn't want to say too much on the subject. It wasn't that she didn't trust Lucy, but she still didn't want the whole world knowing about her prophecy unless absolutely necessary. She had had to tell two new people in a very short time already and that was stressing her out enough at the moment. "It turned out that Tommy was an unusual sort of ghost-like creature, that's why we never had him in any of our classes. But, I don't know... after a little bit of research and some incidents it seems that some dark magic might be involved. But I don't know much beyond that. Dumbledore knows, though, and Harry, so we're keeping an eye out for things."
"That probably explains those Dark Storms we've been having I suppose. So, you finally met Harry huh? What'd you think? Oh!" she said, setting her cup on the end table, "I'm sorry, do you want some cocoa or something? I should have offered sooner."
"Cocoa would be nice, thanks. Harry seems very nice." She laughed, "Of course, Severus doesn't think so. I think he was scowling the entire time."
Lucy grinned, summoning up the drink for her friend, "Harry's great. We get along, which is good because that might have been a deal breaker for Sirius. Anyway, is there anything in particular you want to do? I'm afraid I don't have much more than books here. I tend to spend my evenings reading or grading, especially since it's gotten colder out and I can read by the fire."
"We could play a game or something, if you have it. Severus and I enjoyed some wizard's chess on Sunday. Of course, he did nothing but beat me over and over again, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. Or I could bring another movie over."
"Movie!" Lucy shouted, "Sorry. You probably find them rather uninteresting at this point or something, but I find them completely fascinating."
She had to laugh again. "Okay, movie it is. Comedy, action, romance, drama, some combination of those? You pick."
"Hmmmm, How about some sort of romance? I seem to be in a romantic mood," she held up the book she'd been reading, entitled Seduced.
Dinah stared at the picture on the cover. It was interesting how much wizarding and Muggle romance novels had in common. The characters on the front looked like oversexed, overamplified versions of humans, the woman perfectly shaped and voluptuous and the man with probably the largest, shiniest chest she had ever seen, bared beneath his spread robes for all to see. They both wore sensual expressions and their hair was wind-swept. She had to resist rolling her eyes and sighed. "Okay. But what with all the unresolved sexual tension in my life lately I think it's my turn to not be in the romance mood. So just bear with me if I keep groaning during the movie."
Lucy grinned, looking at the cover herself, "Well, you can pick something else if you'd like. I'm not picky. They really do exaggerate the people on these covers don't they? I suppose they're just proving the adage 'don't judge a book by its cover'. For instance the guy in this one is supposed to have blond hair and on the cover it's clearly black. It bugs me when they do things like that."
"I bet I can find something with some romance in it that's not objectionable to either of us. I'll be right back." She headed to her rooms to find something they both would like.
"Umm, nice movie, huh?" Dinah asked, yawning. She looked over at Lucy but her friend seemed to have fallen asleep again. Then again, Dinah felt like she was falling asleep herself. Which made little sense since the movie was an action-comedy-romance which was fairly fast-paced and she had always enjoyed, but something about the early darkness of December and the stress of the week seemed to be sending her into sleepy land. She struggled to stay awake, making her eyes as wide as they could go, fidgeting, and trying to focus on the plot, but her lids just kept trying to close...
The movie started to fade and it sounded kind of echoey. Everything got sort of warm as she moved to lie sideways on the couch. She'd just rest her eyes for a tiny... little... bit...
...
It was dark. There was no movie. Maybe the tape ran its course and stopped? Dinah didn't want to open her eyes to find out; she was too cozy curled up on this soft couch. There were some rustling noises and a click, but she tried to shut it out. Sleep was coming back...
She felt fingers in her hair, stroking. That was unusual. She wasn't in the dungeons this time; she was fairly certain. In her half-asleep state she was reminded more of Dylan than Severus. She felt someone's presence near her head, and loose hair falling over her face, and her body woke up instantly. She snapped to attention and opened her eyes. "Severus?" A piercing shriek left her mouth when she realized that that was not who it was. She jumped and moved, slamming into the back of the couch just as her hands flew up to cover her mouth. Utterly horrified, she stared at the shocked expression on Sirius Black's face and could think of absolutely nothing to say.
"Dinah?" Sirius asked, confused, "Sorry. I thought this was Lucy's room. I must have gotten turned around."
"Dinah?" Lucy said, echoing Sirius. "Everything okay?" Obviously she didn't sense any danger since she hadn't moved from her end of the couch.
"Um... um... I'm sorry," Dinah stammered. "I didn't mean to... Um, yeah..." she tried to back up more but the couch and the wall were in her way.
"Just a simple case of mistaken identity, Lu. Sorry again, Dinah," he said, going over to the bedroom door and letting Dora out.
"Sirius?" Lucy's head rose up from the blankets she'd been wrapped in. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I know how much you like traditions and traditionally I like to see my girlfriend on my birthday."
Dinah sighed, finally relaxing a little bit as she watched the two of them. It had been quite startling and really she thought Sirius was taking it rather lightly, but if he wasn't as freaked out by it as she had been what was she supposed to do? It had just been an honest mistake after all. She settled more comfortably into the couch. "What time is it?"
"Only about 11:30. Sorry again, Dinah. I didn't mean to freak you out…or almost kiss you." Dinah hid a shudder, grateful that it hadn't gone that far. Not that Sirius wasn't attractive or anything, but that would have been way too weird. He wandered over toward where Lucy was sitting on the couch, Dora pawing at his feet, before he noticed the telly and VCR on the coffee table. "What were you two doing with those?"
"Watching a Muggle movie," in her shock and sleepiness Dinah realized that she was forgetting to give Sirius the cold shoulder. But she wasn't quite sure she had the strength for it right now.
"They're great!" Lucy enthused, "Sort of like a mix between a play and a painting. Wait," she held up a hand, "you almost kissed Dinah?"
"It was dark in here I thought she was you," he defended himself. "I stopped when I noticed the blonde hair."
"You know traditionally you stop kissing other girls when you've got a girlfriend."
"He didn't want to kiss me!" Dinah was a bit surprised at Lucy's jealous attitude. "He said it was just a mistake."
Lucy just raised an eyebrow at him.
He leaned over to kiss her but she turned her head so that he caught her cheek instead of her lips. "You're not really mad at me are you?"
She didn't answer him, just leaned over and picked up Dora, holding her in her lap.
"Really Lucy, can't he make a mistake? He just said he didn't do it on purpose. How was he to know I'd be sleeping here? It's not like I asked him to try and kiss me." She hadn't really meant to start defending Sirius, but Lucy's attitude was bugging her. She stood up. "I guess I should probably leave."
Lucy sighed, "No, Dinah it's fine. It was an honest mistake I suppose." She let go of her cat and Dora leapt back down to wind herself around Sirius's legs. "Sorry," she mumbled.
"It's okay," Sirius said, kissing her.
"Well, uh..." Dinah sat back down, but still felt funny. "Are you sure I shouldn't just leave? It is late after all and I'm sure you two want to celebrate alone."
Sirius grinned, making Dinah realize what she had essentially implied. Well, it probably wasn't a wrong implication, after all.
"I mean you don't have to leave," Lucy said, "If you want to its fine."
"Thanks," she smiled. "But there's not really anything left to do, is there? I mean, unless you want to try and finish the movie from wherever we managed to leave off last."
Lucy laughed, "Why don't we save it for another time. We'd probably have to start it over anyway. I don't really remember what was going on. If you're lucky maybe you'll catch Severus before he goes to bed. Don't make that face!" Lucy scolded her boyfriend.
"Well, unfortunately that's probably out of the question," Dinah said with a slightly bitter smile, hating to prove Sirius right about this but really there was no way she was going to intrude upon Severus's rooms at 11:30 at night. She could only come on to the man so much at a time without driving him away. And he was probably still recovering from Sunday's pajama incident.
"Um, well, I know you don't want to stay most likely, but you're welcome to. I don't want you to feel like I'm kicking you out," Lucy said, glancing at Sirius.
"No, that's okay," Dinah stood. "It really is late, but you two have fun. Um... Happy Birthday," she added as an afterthought, again not overjoyed at being nice to Sirius but it was the man's birthday and there was no need to be rude. Besides, after the slight effort Severus had made with Lucy at the Quidditch match, mentioning Sirius – albeit vaguely – without any snarky comments, maybe there was hope for the group of them yet. Maybe Sirius even did feel bad about what he did, but just hadn't said anything.
"Thanks," Sirius said, "Enjoy the rest of your night. And thanks for looking after Lu for me. I've heard she can get pretty…intense sometimes."
Lucy rolled her eyes, "Really, I don't think I'm that bad."
"No problem," Dinah just smiled, not commenting on any of that so as not to say the wrong thing. "Good night."
"Night," Lucy said, moving to stand next to Sirius. "I'll see you tomorrow probably."
"Okay, see you then," Dinah gave a little wave before heading out the door. She hurried back to her rooms, not liking to be out in the dark halls alone after what had been happening lately. When she made it into her own bed for the night she couldn't help thinking that Sirius wasn't really such a bad guy after all. And yet... he did still do those horrible things.
She sighed, not knowing quite what to think anymore, and went to sleep.
