Just as Evangeline was beginning to think no one was home, the door opened, and Snape stood there looking down at her. His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline. "Miss Winthrop, this is a surprise. I thought you and Filch were roaming the castle today in search of paintings."
She stood there for a moment just staring into his eyes. They were like bottomless black pools. You could get lost in those eyes! She shook herself sharply. Come back to reality, Evangeline, before he thinks you even more of a simpleton than he already does.
"We were looking at paintings, but we finished. Mr. Filch reminded me that if I wanted to check the house rooms, I'd have to speak to the heads of the various houses. Also, he didn't show me any professor's private quarters, so since I was down here anyway, I thought I'd start with you. Do you have any paintings you'd like me to take a look at, Professor Snape?" She finished in a rush. With a twinge of embarrassment, she realized that she could feel a blush starting to climb across her cheeks. Why does this unpleasant man make me so nervous?
After a moment's hesitation, Snape stepped back from the door and gestured her inside. "As a matter of fact, I have two paintings in the other room. I'd be curious to see what you thought of them."
Evangeline stepped into what was obviously a combination study and sitting room. It was comfortably furnished with a warm rug in muted tones of red on the floor. A large desk surrounded by bookcases dominated the far wall. In fact, bookcases covered all four walls, except for an enormous stone fireplace on the nearest wall flanked by two comfortable looking wing chairs with ottomans. She'd never seen so many books outside of a library! Candles glowed from large candelabras that stood in the corners of the room and next to the desk. A wrought iron chandelier hung from the center of the high ceiling with even more candles, and a photograph of a large house in a silver frame hung over the mantelpiece. To her left a door was slightly ajar and probably led to a bedchamber.
Apparently she'd interrupted Snape's reading, as a thick book lay open in the middle of one of the chairs by the fireplace. She was a little surprised to see his academic robe draped over the back of the other chair. The man himself stood before her in a crisp white cotton shirt and dark trousers. He looked a bit less formal and forbidding here in his home territory, and somehow she felt as if she were being granted a liberty that he didn't extend to everyone.
Feeling a little awkward, although without the faintest idea why, she crossed the room to the mantle to examine the photograph. Snape followed her and stood at her elbow. "Do you restore photographs as well, Miss Winthrop?" he inquired softly.
She shook her head. "No, and this certainly doesn't look like it requires restoration. It's a beautiful house, Professor Snape."
"Yes," he said in an odd flat tone. "It's my ancestral home. I haven't spent much time there in quite a while."
"Well, it's lovely. I'm sure you must miss it. Does your family still live there?"
"No. It's empty most of the year, except for a caretaker." Dismissing the subject suddenly, he moved away with an abrupt gesture. "The paintings you're interested in are in the bedroom. This way." He opened the inner door wide and motioned for her to precede him inside.
Curious as to what she might find, she entered Snape's bedroom and glanced around. A large four-poster bed with green silk curtains dominated the room. There were the same elaborate candelabras in here as well. On the left wall stood a comfortable looking couch, also covered in green silk, and over it hung a rather imposing painting. Intrigued she walked over to examine it more closely. It was a large painting of an alchemist in his laboratory mixing up some bubbling potion in a large black cauldron. The alchemist had a short white beard and was dressed in rich blue brocade robes trimmed with what looked like ermine fur. He was currently measuring some substance on a golden scale. As she watched interestedly, he scowled in their direction obviously not wanting to be disturbed at the moment.
Evangeline took her wand out of her pocket, and murmuring something that Snape didn't catch, began to move it slowly over the surface of the painting. A soft blue light flared at irregular intervals as she meticulously covered the entire surface of the painting. Curious he moved up behind her and bent over slightly to get a better view of what she was doing. His sudden nearness made her a little nervous. The man had a very affecting presence.
"What exactly are you doing?" he inquired in a soft silky voice.
Although it wasn't easy, she tried to stay focused on the painting, but his close proximity was so distracting that it was difficult. She straightened up, moved back away from him, and met his questioning eyes. "I was using a surface scanning spell to check the painted surface for cracks and irregularities in the paint or varnish. Every time the blue light would flare, it illuminated a spot that could use some work. The overall colors have dimmed a bit as well, although not as badly as a painting that's exposed to sunlight would have."
"Ah, I see." He nodded toward the painting. "Could you repair the flaws you found?"
Confident in her abilities, she smiled warmly at him. "Of course, that's what I do. This painting is actually in very good shape. It wouldn't take too much work to bring it back to mint condition. It's a charming picture." The alchemist bowed to her and smiled a rather superior smile that reminded her of Snape. She smiled and bowed in return.
Then she turned once more to Snape, who was watching her thoughtfully. "You said you had two paintings, I believe, Professor. Where's the second? May I see it as well?"
A strange expression flitted over his features then he gestured toward the bed. "Yes, I'll be interested in seeing what you make of the other one, and if you can do anything with it. It's on the wall next to my bed."
Turning in the direction he indicated, she walked across the room with him at her heels. A much smaller painting hung on the wall over a bedside table. Before she could get a good look at it, he moved forward and removed it from the wall. With an odd expression on his face, he gazed at it for a moment, and then turned and held it out to her. Evangeline hesitated briefly, then took the painting carefully, holding it by the black and gold frame. It was a painting of a concert. The audience sat in shadow at the front and back of the painting while all eyes fell on the figure in the center right of the picture. A brilliant spotlight illuminated a beautiful woman in a sparkling red gown, her head thrown back, her arms outstretched in glorious song. The painting glowed with the feeling she was putting into her singing, she exuded joy, and obviously totally captivated her audience. The remarkable thing about this painting was, that despite its joy and liveliness, it was absolutely still, like a fly caught in amber.
The delighted witch lifted her face to Snape's with amazement. "It's a Muggle painting!" she exclaimed.
That this man, so dark and forbidding, would own a thing of such joy and beauty was a real revelation to her. "Wherever did you get it? It's so beautiful!"
Snape stared down at the painting with a look of fondness in his eyes that Evangeline didn't think she would ever see there. While compelling, his eyes seemed so cold most of the time. "I was a fairly young boy when I chanced across that painting in the back of a shop in Diagon Alley. I don't know how the merchant happened to have a Muggle painting, but he was happy to part with it for a relatively small price."
Snape smiled faintly in memory. "I would've paid much more if necessary. The painting spoke to me in a way no animated painting ever has. I'd spend hours imagining myself in the auditorium with the rest of the concertgoers, enthralled by the music. I've often wondered what song she was singing that could bring such joy to her face." Suddenly he seemed to realize that he was probably revealing too much of himself here, and wiping his expression carefully blank once more, he turned back to Evangeline and asked, "Can you do as well with unanimated paintings as with animated ones?"
Evangeline looked down at the painting again, then turned back to Snape. "All paintings begin as unanimated paintings. It's not so much the paints used, as the spells cast, and the potions used after it's painted, that animate the painting and give it a pseudo-personality. I could restore it easily. I could probably animate it for you if you wish."
Snape gaped at her. "You could really do that?"
"Yes." She smiled back. "If that's what you want."
Thoughtfully he dropped down to sit on the side of the bed, and frowned at the floor considering something he'd never thought of before.
To give him time to turn over the idea in his mind, she stepped forward and re-hung the painting on the wall. Then she examined it carefully with her wand. There were a few patches of blue light, but not too many. Obviously, this painting had been very well cared for over the years. She stepped back and looked at Snape. He was watching her closely now with an unreadable expression on his thin face.
"Well, Professor, what do you think?" She smiled into his dark eyes.
His voice was soft when he responded. "I think that I like the painting just the way it is, a moment frozen in time. I don't believe I'd change it in any way. Although, I would be willing to have you clean it and fix any small flaws that have developed."
She continued to smile warmly at him. "I'd love to work on it, and I promise I'll take excellent care of it for you, Professor Snape."
"I thought that Minerva made an excellent point at breakfast, when she talked about colleagues and friends addressing each other by their first names. As you will be working here for some time, we could certainly be seen to be colleagues," he said smoothly, focusing the mesmerizing power of those eyes on her once more.
Her mouth went suddenly dry, and she found herself saying. "Yes, and hopefully we could become friends, as well. I'm game if you are…Severus."
She stuck out her hand to shake. He took it in his but instead of shaking it, he brought it to his lips and kissed it, never moving his eyes from hers. "Thank you, Evangeline," he murmured in his low velvet voice.
Suddenly the atmosphere in the room was getting a bit overpowering for Evangeline, and when Snape released her hand, she stepped back, and stammered that she should go now. She wanted to go over all of her notes on the paintings that she'd seen today before she forgot them. If it wasn't already too late. Her brain was beginning to feel like it was full of cotton batting, and his eyes were making her dizzy.
He took the hint and stood up, ushering her back to his chamber door. As she left he said that he hoped to see her at dinner. She nodded, but she didn't feel capable of answering him. As she headed back upstairs to her room, she became aware that the hand he'd kissed felt ice cold except where his lips had touched it. She looked at it almost expecting to see a brand on the skin, but it looked perfectly normal. What the heck was wrong with her? She hadn't had this strong a reaction to a man in years, if ever, and to this man of all men! What was she thinking? Evangeline sighed. She wasn't thinking at all, that was the trouble. Before she saw him again, she needed to collect herself. So she went off to her room to change and to clean herself up before dinner.