14. Dining with Dogs
As Evangeline changed into a leaf green robe for dinner, she found she was intensely curious to meet Remus Lupin and his dog. Anyone who could inspire such strong emotion in the usually so reserved Severus Snape was worth knowing more about. It did worry her a little, though, that the emotion inspired seemed to be intense loathing. She sighed as she solemnly regarded her reflection in the mirror, her eyes huge, her face pale, hoping that dinner would go smoothly, fearing that it might not.
Finding herself with a little extra time on her hands, she headed down to the night hearth in Severus' classroom to check on her potion before dinner. When she entered the room, she found Severus himself staring moodily into the cauldron with a dark look on his face. Clearly he wasn't in the best of moods, and she paused in the doorway; unsure whether or not she should disturb him, when suddenly he glanced up in her direction. His dark eyes bored into her green ones, and he seemed to sense her insecurity; he gave her a small grim smile and stated dryly, "Don't worry, I don't bite…much."
That reassured her a bit and made her smile, and she crossed the room to join him beside the cauldron. "How's the potion coming along?" she asked as she bent over to look at it.
"You tell me Evangeline. You're the Potions Master in this area," he said blandly.
She tested its consistency and smiled up at him. "It's looking good."
Then she straightened up and looked Snape in the eye. Soberly, she asked, "Are you going to be all right, Severus? Is there anything I can do to help you?"
As he stared intently down at her, he found himself wanting to say, "Yes, I want you to immediately hate Remus Lupin and Sirius Black on sight. I want you to remain my friend after they try to turn you against me!"
But instead he found himself frowning down at her and saying gruffly, "No. Everything will be fine. I guess we should head up to dinner. Waiting won't make it any more pleasant." He gestured toward the door. With a sigh, she turned and preceded him out the door and off down the hall.
As they approached the door to the Great Hall, she could see him steeling himself for a confrontation. What was between these men that would cause such an extreme reaction? The closer it came the less she was looking forward to dinner. When they entered the hall she could see a group of people standing next to the head table casually talking. The group consisted of Dumbledore, Flitwick and McGonagall speaking with two other men whom she'd never seen before. One of the men was tall and sharp featured with black hair and a well-trimmed beard. The other was slightly shorter and very slender with medium brown hair that was liberally shot with gray. Evangeline looked around the hall curiously, but she didn't see a dog.
As she and Snape approached the group, they all turned to meet them. A hard closed expression flitted across the face of the dark man as he looked at Snape. The other man maintained a kinder, more friendly expression on his face.
Dumbledore stepped forward between the two groups and said warmly, "Evangeline, Severus, good. We've been waiting dinner for the two of you."
Evangeline smiled up at him. "I'm sorry, Albus. It was my fault. I have a potion simmering down in Severus' classroom, and I needed to check on it before dinner. Please, forgive us for keeping you waiting."
"Not at all, my dear. I have two new colleagues, I'd like you to meet." Taking her arm in his, he led her forward towards the strangers. "This is Evangeline Winthrop, gentlemen. She's taken on the rather enormous task of cleaning and restoring all of the paintings in the castle. So I expect she'll be with us for sometime, a pleasing prospect indeed." Dumbledore beamed at her, and she smiled back at him. He led her over to face the brown haired wizard with the kindly expression, first.
"This is Professor Remus Lupin, my dear. He'll be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year at Hogwarts. We're all very happy to have him with us again."
Well, that's a bit of a stretch she thought, as she shook his hand and exchanged greetings. Well aware of a very tense Severus Snape, who stood behind her.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Winthrop. Please, call me Remus. I'm sure we'll get to know each other quite well over the course of the year." Lupin smiled politely at her, and then he turned to Snape and extended his hand. "It's good to see you again, Severus. I trust you've been well."
Evangeline found herself holding her breath, wondering what he would do. However, apparently the first hurdle was safely overcome because Snape merely grasped the proffered hand, shook it, and said mildly, "Lupin, welcome back."
Okay, thought Evangeline, good, maybe no fireworks after all. All that worrying for nothing. Then Dumbledore turned her to meet the other stranger in the room, the tall dark haired one. "Come, Evangeline, I also want you to meet, Sirius Black."
As the tall handsome man smiled at her and extended his hand, she jumped back a foot, banging into Snape and forcing him to grab her around the waist or risk them both toppling to the floor. "Sirius Black! The escaped mass murderer!" she exclaimed in dismay.
"The very same," a soft voice whispered in her ear. She looked up at Snape, but he was totally focused on Black with a look of disdain on his face.
Black faced Snape with a look of extreme annoyance. "You could have explained, Snape!" he snapped angrily.
"I could have," stated Snape in a flat un-emotional tone. "But so could anyone else in the room. Making explanations for you, Black, is hardly my job, after all."
"Well, I hope someone will explain something to me now," complained Evangeline with impatience. "I'm not used to having escaped criminals introduced to me at dinner like it's an everyday occurrence." She glanced significantly at Snape, who belatedly realized that he was still holding on to her. He released her from his grasp and stepped back a step never taking his focus from Black.
"Perhaps Albus would like to do the honors. He's so fond of surprises," purred Snape, with another glare at Black.
Dumbledore nodded and stepped forward again. "Yes, my dear, I suppose I really should've prepared you for this. The truth has been well known to all of us for some time now, so I've tended to forget that Sirius is still a fugitive to the rest of the world. The fact is that Sirius has been wrongly imprisoned these many years, and we're all looking for ways to clear his name."
Snape's quiet snort of disgust from behind her seemed to indicate to Evangeline that at least one person in the room wasn't overly eager to clear Black's name.
Black came forward once again and took her hand in his. "I'm sorry that I frightened you, Evangeline. Please say that you'll forgive me." He favored her with a charming smile and put her hand to his lips and kissed it. Earning another dark look from Snape, which didn't go unnoticed by Black.
Still a little uncertain about the man, Evangeline smiled nervously up at him. "Of course, I forgive you. It was simply something of a shock to be introduced to you without warning. Actually," she gave a small laugh, "I was expecting a dog."
Black threw back his head and laughed heartily at that. "Were you indeed, my dear?" He tucked her hand into the crook of his arm with an inviting smile and led her to one end of the table, where he pulled out a chair for her to sit down. Then he immediately took the chair next to hers. Taking this as a signal for the meal to begin, everyone else took a seat at the table as well. Snape took a seat on the other side, as far as he could get from Sirius Black.
All through the meal Black flirted shamelessly with Evangeline. She decided that she couldn't take him seriously, though, as she kept catching him checking for reactions from Snape. He kept making veiled comments and warnings to her about Snape, over and over again, until she found herself getting rather perturbed. As the tension at the table kept mounting, she found she was peeking at the Potions Master fairly frequently, herself, afraid of an explosion at any minute. Black certainly seemed to know what buttons to push with his comments and also seemed to relish pushing them as hard as he could.
However, true to his promise to Dumbledore, Snape refused to rise to the bait. He held his tongue and simply ate his dinner as rapidly as possible. If he seemed a bit rigid and pale, well that was certainly understandable. When she happened to glance at Lupin after one of Black's little digs, he had the grace to look embarrassed.
I wish I knew what's really going on here, Evangeline thought to herself, thoroughly depressed by the incredibly tense atmosphere. The meal dragged interminably. Flitwick escaped before dessert, and Snape left as soon as the last coffee cup hit the saucer. As she watched his very stiff back retreat from the room, she grinned to herself, imagining that he would probably head straight to his classroom to begin flinging glassware around. The tension had been so strong that she found she wouldn't mind tossing some breakables around herself.
Once Snape left the room, some of the uneasiness in the air seeped out with him. Black began behaving in a much more subdued manner. It was clear that his insistent flirting had been solely aimed at getting a rise out of Snape. Perhaps Black assumed there was more to her relationship with the dark wizard than there actually was. Or, perhaps, he simply couldn't help acting like an idiot in Snape's company and would pick any object to fight over like some sort of desirable bone. Whatever his motivation, she didn't enjoy being used as a pawn one little bit.
Evangeline stood up to leave. Politely she turned to Lupin and said, "It's been a pleasure to meet you, Remus. I hope the next time we meet we'll have more of a chance to talk."
"I hope so as well, Evangeline." Lupin smiled a friendly smile at her, and she found herself liking him much more than her dinner companion.
Reluctantly she turned to Black and said, in a rather cold tone, "Good night, Mr. Black, I'm sure I'll see you again." Then before he could respond, she nodded to the other professors, and left the room.
Outside in the entrance hall she hesitated. Should she go up to her room or down to check on her potion and Severus? Curiosity, and the fact that she'd need to check on her potion in twenty minutes or so anyway, won out. So she headed over to the dungeon stairs and down.
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