Dinah walked into the parlor to see Lucy putting up some Christmas decorations.

"Oh!" Lucy said, looking surprised to see Dinah. "Would you like to help me decorate? It's a bit late in the season I know, but better late than never I guess."

"I don't know…" Neither of the men was in the room and if they ran into each other there could be consequences.

"Sirius isn't here if that's what you're worried about. We got an owl early this morning inviting us to spend the day with the Lupins. They didn't know we had guests and I told Sirius to go ahead and go. Hopefully it will make things easier for you and Severus."

"Oh, well in that case, sure," Dinah smiled and knelt down next to a large box. "I hope you're not disappointed you didn't get to go?"

"I am a little bit to be honest, but they're coming over the same time the Weasleys will be here so I'll see them soon." She sighed; "Teddy's getting so big. I swear he's four sizes bigger every time I see him. Of course if I did go I'd never get this done and what kind of a Christmas would that be for Teddy?" Lucy pointed to the box Dinah had knelt next to, "Be careful with that one. I'm not sure what's in it. It was in the attic and labeled Christmas so I brought it down."

Dinah pulled aside one of the box flaps and peered inside. "Oh, wow, there's some really old stuff in here. She reached in and pulled out a small brown, crumpling Christmas tree. At Lucy's slight grimace she laughed, "Yeah I don't think we're going to be using this one anytime soon." She set the decaying tree aside and dug further into the box, pulling out a smaller box and reading the writing on the front: "Order of the Phoenix… it looks like this box is full of stuff used by the old Order!"

"We'll have to make sure to set that aside. We might want to let the members that are left go through it."

"Yeah, good idea. Look here, there's an ornament with Mad-Eye Moody's name on it," she held up a white ornament from the small box, and then dug in some more. She frowned when she pulled out a big, round, red one, "Lovely. Here's one that says Lily and James… in a heart, no less."

Lucy grimaced. "Oh, I see. I have no issues with James and Lily but I understand why it might not be a good idea to display that particular ornament. Maybe we shouldn't put that one up. At least not just yet. In fact it might be a good idea to wrap it up and give it to Harry for Christmas. He might like to have that."

Dinah smiled, "You're right. That's a great idea. A perfect place for their ornament to go," she smiled at the ornament, her bitterness at it washing away slightly. "Just do me a favor and make sure we hide it from Severus while it's here."

"Hide what from me?"
"Eep!" Dinah jumped, only realizing that her outburst had sounded kind of ridiculous when she turned to see that Severus had come down the stairs and was eying her with a curious… that is, a curiously suspicious look. She sighed, "You have a knack for showing up just at the right time, don't you?"

He smirked, "So sorry about that. Now what is it you have to hide from me?"

"Would you believe me if I said it was your Christmas present?" At his characteristic raised eyebrow she shrugged, "Worth a shot, anyway. Well, I guess it doesn't matter," she frowned and held it up; "Here. We just found a box full of Christmas stuff from the old Order."

He took it and looked at it for a moment, his expression more unreadable than ever. When he seemed to be staring at it long enough for hell to freeze over, Lucy spoke.

"We were going to wrap it up and give it to Harry," she said.

"Hm," his typical noncommittal noise had deeper undertones this time. Maybe anger, maybe sadness, maybe both. Dinah still couldn't read him as well as she wished to. "Well, I assume Potter is the one who would appreciate it the most," Severus finally said, his tone cold. It was the tone he used when speaking to Gryffindor students. The tone Dinah liked the least.

"Dinah and I are trying to decorate the house. You can join us if you want."

He frowned, probably thinking that he was going to be forced to participate.

"But," Lucy continued, "you probably don't want to do that. Sirius is out for the day and I doubt he'll be back until after dinner so you don't have to worry about running into him if you'd rather just wander the house, or do whatever strikes your fancy."

"If you don't mind," he said, walking over and handing the ornament hesitantly, gently, to Lucy. Dinah somehow suspected that he had preferred to hand it back to Lucy instead of her. Not that she blamed him.

"I think I'm going to take a walk outside. Perhaps run some errands," he said when Lucy had put the ornament away. "I don't know when I'll be back."

Dinah nodded, the usual understanding and disappointment battling within her. Obviously he wanted to be alone for awhile. Perhaps that was for the best. "Okay. Don't be gone too long; I'm sure we'll be having lunch or dinner eventually."

He flashed a weak half-smile at her and left the room. Mrs. Black didn't seem bothered by his passing, because they heard no screaming before the sound of the front door shut behind him.

Dinah sighed and turned back to the box, "Well, that was interesting."

Lucy smiled, "That it was. He's still really hung up on Lily isn't he? I bet that makes the more…intimate aspects of your relationship difficult."

She forced a laugh, "What intimate aspects?"

"Oh, you know," Lucy's face was beginning to look like the heart ornament they had just been looking at, "hugging, kissing, sweeping you off your feet and whisking you away…and not to get into a territory you might not want to go but I think sex would have to be mentioned in that group too."

Dinah laughed more naturally, then quickly stopped herself for fear Lucy might think she was laughing at her like last night. "I was being sarcastic, but yes… those things. The first two are really the only ones we've shared. It's not that I don't understand his issues, but I wish there was a better way I could help him get over her. I don't know, maybe I'm fooling myself. Maybe there's no hope."

"I think there might be, especially if he's doing what I think he's doing." Lucy paused for a moment before looking over at Dinah and saying, "You don't have to be afraid of making me cry, you know. I made a mistake I shouldn't have made and when my mum would do something like that her and Dad would have a huge fight. It usually ended up in him yelling something about never wanting kids. He likes a perfect ordered life and I learned early on that I was not part of that. I guess I grew up trying to be perfect to make him want me…I don't know. Anyway don't worry about it, I can laugh at myself as well as anyone," she smiled reassuringly. "And to completely change the subject if you have any questions about 'intimate things' I'll be happy to try and answer them if I can."

Dinah paused a long time, trying to digest all of this, and then grinned; "Do you mind if I make fun of you a little bit by saying that I'm now not sure which of the three things you just talked about I should respond to first."

Lucy laughed, "No, not at all."

"Oh, good," she chuckled, "Well, anyway, thanks for telling me. I was really feeling bad about yesterday. I know what it's like to feel unwanted and out of place. Of course, I never really felt that way in the Muggle world, but my time at Hogwarts was hard. Not that I didn't enjoy it of course, but being so much older than everyone else wasn't fun and it kind of got in the way of any sort of friendships that might have formed."

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, for me it was better at school. Of course I did have family and a close friend or two and one semi-serious boyfriend who turned out to be a real ass."

"Really? I guess that's something else we have in common then. Which leads me to the third statement from your giant monologue," she grinned. "I appreciate offer, but there's probably not much you can do. I'm not inexperienced in intimacy; it's more that I'm inexperienced in Severus."

"All right, well the offer still stands if you ever feel the need. I can only help you so much with Severus himself and that's mostly from a student's perspective. Sirius knows some of what went on before but he won't tell me. That does bring up a question I have, though. How do you deal the old boyfriends issue? I mean Sirius does know I had boyfriends, but we've never really talked about it."

"Severus and I never really talked about it much," she admitted. "He knows about my one serious boyfriend. But in his eyes it's nothing compared to his tragic past with Lily. He doesn't say that, of course, but it's a feeling I get." She paused, "You know, I shouldn't say that exactly, that we have it in common, you might get the wrong impression. Dylan wasn't really an ass, it's more like we were just… fundamentally incompatible," she sighed, "It took me a long time to realize it though."

"Yeah, Nick Hill, you remember him from Slughorn's party? Well, he was really just an ass. After dating for 5 months I found out he was really only with me so I'd help him with his homework and because he'd bet one of his Slytherin friends he could get in my robes…unfortunately for him he was in Gryffindor and Bill and Charlie didn't take too kindly to him when they found out about it. I don't think Nick bothers Sirius too much anymore, though. I wasn't really serious about him," Lucy shrugged, "I was fourteen, what did I know? No, I think he's gonna hit the roof about my only other boyfriend though."

"Ooh, what other boyfriend is that?" Dinah grinned, "Sounds like there are some juicy details involved."

"Nothing too juicy really," Lucy gave a small smile. "Sirius is, after all, my one and only in those matters. You probably won't recognize his name and actually Sirius might not either seeing as he was in Azkaban at the time…His name is Gawain Robards. I was nineteen and he was my mentor…the Auror I studied under. He was thirty at the time," Lucy looked slightly embarrassed at this fact. "I heard he was appointed to the position of Head of the Auror Office a few years ago…"

"So you don't keep in touch, then? Did it not end well?"

"Um, no not really. That is we don't keep in touch. We more or less stopped dating when I finished training and was going out and doing assignments on my own, but neither one of us really said anything. We officially stopped seeing each other when I quit the Ministry. He was all about loyalty to the Ministry. Which was fine…until I stopped agreeing blindly with them." Lucy took a deep breath; "I've seen him a couple times since then. Both after Sirius was…well I don't know what else to call it but dead. Mostly just to cry on his shoulder but I doubt Sirius will be reasonable if that topic ever comes up. Of course even if I hadn't quit I don't think Gawain and I would still be together."

"If you feel that way, I don't think Sirius could be too upset. I mean, maybe at first, but…" Dinah shrugged, "Anyway, I know how it goes. I have no bad feelings for Dylan, and I have fond memories of some of our times together. But I haven't seen him in ages and honestly I'm not worried about if I ever see him again. I wouldn't be upset if I did, but I'm not going to be upset if I don't either. You know?"

"Yeah, I suppose I do. I think I just think that the student-mentor thing is going to freak him out. That and the age difference."

"But Sirius is quite a bit older than you as well. Or, I suppose, I guess it makes more of a difference when you're nineteen."

"Yes, but it's more then just physical age. Frankly Gawain could be an old stick-in-the-mud. I'm not completely kidding when I call Sirius childish. He is. Gawain never was. At the same time though, I think me being so much younger than him kinda weirds him out. At least when he actually stops and thinks about it, anyway." Lucy laughed, "Here we were supposed to be talking about you and Severus and we end up talking about me and Sirius."

Dinah laughed, "Well, I'm not especially surprised. Sirius may be childish but he makes infinitely more romantic sense than Severus does. By the way, I almost forgot - You said you thought that Severus was doing something?"

"Oh, right! I'm not sure how he'd feel about me telling you this but I talked to him about Christmas presents last night. I thought he might need help picking one out."

"You mean," she was pretty sure that she must have looked way too excited to Lucy, but she didn't care, "You think that's what he's doing right now? Buying me a present?"

Lucy smiled, "Well, I can't be certain. He didn't tell me his plans or anything. Actually I think he finds me rather annoying most times, but he did mention something about it being a good idea."

"Really?" now Dinah was aware that she was grinning like an idiot. But with all of the stressful situations happening yesterday and today with Severus, she had almost forgotten how lighthearted she could feel when things were going well for them. "Oh! I have to get him something! But… wow, that's the real kicker. What kind of a present do you buy for Professor Severus Snape?"

"Well, if it helps at all I got Sirius a wizard's chess set. The one that's here…bites. It bites hard and it bites everyone…I suppose I should have mentioned that earlier. Of course, I could always tell you what I told him. Think about what he likes, that's always a good place to start."

"What he likes… well, I don't know. He's not really much for hobbies. He likes to work, I suppose. Even though he teaches Defense against the Dark Arts now he still likes to mess around with potions. But it's not like anything of that sort would be new or exciting to him."

"Hmm that does present a problem. What about…no, no, not after I told him not to. Does he go for…no, he doesn't seem like the type. Maybe…no, not that either. Well, what about a cologne or something?"

Dinah frowned, "I don't know. I think he might find that insulting in some way. Besides," she blushed, "I kind of like his natural scent. Oh, and, for the record, all those rumors about him being dirty are not true. I happen to know for a fact that he showers regularly. His hair is greasy, but that's not his fault! It happens very quickly on its own… I guess it's a genetic thing or something."

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to imply he was dirty or anything. I never really thought much about his personal hygiene either. I pretty much figure as long as a person doesn't smell I couldn't care less how much they wash."

"No, I know you didn't mean anything by it. I just felt like I had to say so anyway, what with everything the students say about him and all. Not that he really cares what anybody says about him."

Lucy laughed, "I can understand. It's sort of like how people still tend to think Sirius is a murderer. That and I think I have a tendency to insult the man without meaning to. He can be difficult to talk to at times."

"Don't I know it," she grinned. "Well, maybe… I mean, he does like to read. Not Muggle books of course, but I often see him reading a potions book or a magic book or some other book in his office, even when it's not something we're researching. I could get him, I don't know, a gift certificate to Flourish and Blotts or something," she shrugged helplessly. "Not very personal, I know."

"I wouldn't say that. Especially if it's to a store I like to shop at. Let's me pick out something I'll like and use, while still showing that the person thought about me enough to know I'd shop at that store."

"Really?" Dinah smiled, "I guess it's a better idea than giving him nothing. Okay, I'll do that I guess. I'll never be able to think of anything else, anyway."

"I'd probably be doing the same thing if we didn't live together. It really forces you to get to know a person more than anything else, I think." She looked around the room; "Well, I think this room's done. Now do we move to the kitchen or what I like to call the 'family tree room'?"

"Either is fine," Dinah said, standing up, "Where should we put this other box for now?"

"Um, we could stick it in the bedroom, I guess. It's probably the place where it's least likely to get smashed."

She nodded; "You go and take it up, then, and I'll meet you in the kitchen." She hesitated to tell Lucy that she didn't want to go into the room, for fear of being reminded of the scene in the pensieve.