A/N: Thanks everybody for the reviews so far! I'm glad to see some of the fans of the other stories are checking this one out as well :)

Dinah was just driving past Piccadilly Circus when she began to get the strange feeling that something was missing. She frowned and slowed the car, pulling down a side street. It was like the feeling when you forgot to wear a watch or a ring after you'd been wearing it for a long time – that sort of strange, nagging sense of nakedness. Something was definitely wrong.

The loose brown sleeves of her robe dangled in front of her as she turned the steering wheel to pull over to a safe spot on the side of the road to think this through. And then it hit her. What had just been staring her in the face was not supposed to be there!

"Oh, damn!" she cursed, looking down at herself in an unnecessary verification of what she knew to be true. She was wearing her witch robes. And not only that, but she had grabbed her car keys sans her purse or wallet.

She wasn't going to get very far in the department store in such a state.

Well, there wasn't much choice in the matter. She needed that stuff and just wasn't in the mood to drive back home and get it. She pulled her willow and unicorn tail wand out of her robes and rolled down the car window. Giving her wand a flick, she announced, "Accio clothes! Accio purse!"

It took a few minutes but soon the necessary items floated through the window and into her waiting hands. After checking that nobody was around, she tactfully changed clothes in the car and continued on her way.

Of course, she had forgotten a coat. But there was no point in summoning more stuff, so needless to say it was a relief when she emerged into the warm store out of the cold winter air. She sighed and looked up at the well-lit ceiling, surrounded by the smells of leather, fresh cloth, and perfume samples. It was nice to be back in Muggle civilization.

Well, she'd never really spent a lot of time shopping for men's clothes, so this would be an adventure. The men's department was fairly large, and she started in the blue jeans section. It was easier to think about the raw basics first.

Both Sirius and Severus were average-sized men, so there was no worry about especially small or large or tall or short pants. But she definitely wanted well-fitted jeans, none of those terrible baggy ones the kids were wearing these days. Once she found the correct style, she grabbed a pair for each of them in a medium size, then as an afterthought grabbed a size above and below for each of them. She could take back whichever ones didn't fit, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

As she headed away from the jeans section to the shirts area she felt a silly grin spread across her face. This was going to be terribly enjoyable… after all, it was almost like playing dress-up as a child, but even more exciting. She found herself wondering what kinds of outfits she could try and put together for Severus. How would he look in a suit, for instance? And what color shirts should she get?

The silly grin turned wicked as a plot formed in her mind. He always wore black, and it was flattering of course but… suddenly an image of him in a loose-fitting white dress shirt floated into her mind. If she bought it, perhaps he'd feel obligated to wear it. Really, why shouldn't she just get him lots of clothes and offer him an endless array of choices.

Severus in Muggle clothes… oh, this was going to be great!

She absentmindedly grabbed a medium-sized blue shirt for Sirius, and then got started on project "dress-up Severus". By the time she was at the cash register she had gotten him three more pairs of pants as well as four shirts. She'd felt obligated to provide him with at least one black outfit, but desperately hoped he'd choose one of the other options. If not right away, then perhaps eventually.

Needless to say she spent more money than she had intended, but no matter. She barely bought Muggle things anymore, so she had the cash to spare. Besides, ₤350 wasn't that bad…

Oh, well! No matter! It was time to go back and deliver the goods anyway, and she couldn't get into the car fast enough. It seemed to take twice as much time to get back home as it did to drive to the department store, even with her stopping to summon the things she had forgotten. But at long last she pulled into her driveway at 31 Oakby Lane and hurried up to the front porch.

The place was quiet when she came in, and she found the three of them sitting around in the living room, Severus with a glass of water and Sirius with a glass of some brown liquid, "I'm back!" she announced, smiling. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't even think to offer you all refreshments. But I guess you managed to help yourselves all right. What is that?" she pointed to Sirius's glass.

"Lucy says it's a root beer," Sirius replied, looking at the contents of the glass. "It tastes nothing like roots...or beer. It's good though."

Dinah had to laugh, "Well, I'm glad you like it. Yes, I never really understood the name myself. I think it is seasoned from some kind of root, but it's nothing like beer, aside from the carbonation," she turned to Severus. "Just water, huh? I never figured you for the adventurous type when it came to Muggle things."

Severus responded with one of his usual, half-smiles, half-smirks, "You've figured correctly as usual," his gaze shifted down and he raised an eyebrow.

Dinah flushed and hid the bulging shopping bag behind her legs, not that it did much good. "Well, I got the clothes, anyway. Er, I guess I should hand them out now."

"Oh," Lucy perked up. "What do we owe you for them? I mean I don't have any Muggle money but I'm sure we can work something out."

"Oh, I didn't even think about that. Don't worry about it, you can just think of it as a kind of a Christmas present. Besides, er, the bulk of this is for Severus." She pulled the bag out from behind her and took out a gigantic pile of clothes. She handed the jeans and blue shirt to Sirius, "These are for you." She next tried to ignore everyone's stares as she handed a towering pile of clothes to Severus, "And for you."

Severus looked more bewildered than anything as he took the clothes from her, "I'd say something about this, but you probably don't want to hear my comments."

Ignoring Severus, Lucy rose from the couch tugging on Sirius's hand, "Come on, let's go get changed."

"Us?" he looked down at the pile of clothes Dinah had handed him, "There are no clothes here for you to change into."

Lucy rolled her eyes at him, "You can be so dense. Anyway the quicker you get changed the quicker we can go for a ride in the car!"

"You do know I used to have a motorcycle, right? I find the car less fascinating than you do."

"So? Besides, that motorcycle flew so it's hardly the same," she turned to Dinah, cutting off any response Sirius might have made, "Is there some place in particular you'd like him to change?"

"Upstairs, turn right and go into the first door on your left. That's the guest room. Severus, why don't you go into the second room on your left, just past the guest room. That's my bedroom and you can change in there. Then when you guys are done I'll lend you some of my clothes to wear, Lucy."

"That's all well and good," Severus rolled his eyes, "But which of these clothes, pray tell, would you like me to change into?"

She flushed again, "Just put something on. I simply felt like providing you with some… er, choices. After all, we might spend more time in Muggle society, and now you have options."

Severus didn't respond, but stood and headed up the stairs with the giant pile. Dinah sighed, glad this was over for now, and turned to Lucy and Sirius, "Sound okay to both of you?"

"Sure," Lucy said. "If you want you can just pick out whatever and toss it to me in the guest room. I can change in there. It'll save time and continue to keep the boys separated."

"Probably wise," she nodded, and Lucy and Sirius headed upstairs together. Dinah waited a few moments and followed them up. She might as well get the clothes to Lucy while she was still in there with Sirius. No point in having her come down and then go back up; and of course it lowered the odds of hearing more innuendos she'd have to ignore. She knocked on her own bedroom door. "Severus? Are you done yet? I need to get in here to pick something for Lucy."

"Come in," he responded.

She opened the door and was greeted with him standing facing her, wearing the black jeans and black long-sleeved shirt she had picked. She sighed. Black of course. Well, she'd just have to work on him to get him to wear the other stuff in the future.

And besides, the black outfit looked really good. Without the robes he looked more human. Of course, perhaps that was a result of her Muggle upbringing, but she had always preferred men in Muggle clothes over wizard robes. Too bad Severus had such a negative view of Muggle society. It was going to be hard to get him to wear that kind of stuff often, even the black outfit.

"I thought you needed to pick clothes for Lucy," Severus raised an eyebrow, his favorite gesture.

Dinah felt her face turn bright red as she realized that she had been staring. "Oh, right, I guess I should," she hurried past him to the dresser and pulled open a couple of drawers. A pair of blue jeans and a green jumper looked good, so she grabbed them and set them on the bed.

"They aren't going to do her much good there."

Dinah flushed again and turned to face Severus, "I guess not."

He regarded her for a moment and then smiled a little, "I'll never understand your behaviors."

"I wouldn't act so strange around anyone but you," she retorted.

"Not quite sure what I should make of that," he mused. "By the way, I admit that although I dislike Muggle clothing as a general rule…"

She raised an eyebrow of her own as he didn't finish his sentence, "You find those comfortable?" she guessed.

"No. Well, they're all right, I suppose. What I was going to say was that you look nice in them."

That did it. She was fairly certain a beet would pale in comparison to how red her face was right now. He had actually said that? She must be dreaming! "I, um… thanks…"

He was either completely dense or ignoring her reaction, because he changed the subject, "Oh, and… the clothes out the window?" He almost looked like he was going to laugh.

She laughed, "Oh, that. Well, I haven't been in Muggle society in awhile… I just forgot."

"Mmhm," he half-smiled and took a step forward, regarding her with an interested expression. An almost intense expression; "You truly are a curious person, Dinah."

She felt the color rising again in her cheeks as he spoke her name. He still didn't do it often enough for her to be used to it. "Well, I'm glad I amuse you."

"Mm," he repeated, his fingers coming up to her chin, tilting it toward him so that he could meet her eyes.

Dinah felt her throat closing as she stared into the black depths. He was leaning closer to her, and suddenly she felt like she couldn't breathe. "Severus…"

He smiled a little, and Dinah was surprised she didn't spontaneously combust in that moment. She certainly felt like she was on fire. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. His face came closer…

A few knocks sounded on the wall to the left and then Lucy's voice came through. "Dinah? Is everything okay? Do you have the clothes?"

Dinah's heart sunk as Severus let go of her and took a rather large step back. He cleared his throat, "You should probably get those clothes to Lucy."

"Yeah," without looking at him Dinah grabbed the pants and shirt and left the room. Curse you, Lucy! I almost had an innuendo of my very own and you had to go and spoil it! She opened the door wearing a crabby expression; "Here," she shoved them at Lucy.

Lucy's eyebrows rose, "Whoops, did I interrupt something good?"

Dinah paused and then laughed, "Sorry, I guess that was rude of me. I wasn't thinking much. As you said, you," she blushed and cleared her throat, "interrupted something good."

"Oh, sorry! I know how that is. You'll have to tell me all about it at some point here. Well maybe not here since we'd probably want to be alone for that type of discussion and, well, you know, so there's no point in endlessly repeating it."

"Right," Dinah wasn't quite sure what they would be endlessly repeating, but she did think that telling a friend about what just happened would be good. That way it would be somehow validated if Severus never mentioned it again. If someone else knew, it would be further confirmation that it had been real. "I'll definitely have to tell you about it."

"Sounds great. And feel free to ask whatever questions you want. I'm not an expert but I'll be open and honest. Probably extremely red in the face too but I think that comes with the whole talking about intimate things deal. Anyway, give me two minutes and we'll be down. I can kick Sirius out if that'll make you feel better about the two of us being alone in your guest room but that really cuts down on the chance of you getting back to that good stuff," Lucy smiled.

Dinah laughed, "If only 'getting back' to it was that easy with Severus. Don't worry about it, I'll just go downstairs. Meet me in the front hall when you're ready and we'll go."

"Um, actually I do have one quick question," Lucy stepped out and slightly closed the door. "Do you plan on just going for a drive tonight or actually going to a bookstore? It's just it's getting kind of late and I don't know how long Muggle bookstores stay open. And if we're not going tonight, if we stay here, which we don't have to do if you'd rather not, I should go back and at least feed Dora. She'll make it through the night if I don't but she'll be pissed at me tomorrow."

Dinah glanced at her watch, "Well, it's 7:30… don't worry, the bookstore I'm taking us to doesn't close until ten. And then we can apparate back to your place. Not that I'd mind having people stay here, but I only have two rooms and if I was too insistent upon such a thing… well, I don't want to sound desperate."

Lucy laughed, "I understand. I guess I'd better go change. We'll be down in like two minutes."

Dinah smiled and nodded, then headed downstairs to wait for them.