16. A Werewolf at the Door
The next morning Evangeline awoke with a bit of a headache. She went downstairs, had a solitary breakfast and checked on her potion. Everything looked great. It'd be ready by dinnertime. Slowly she climbed the stairs back to her rooms in silence. Not a soul seemed to be anywhere around. Fleetingly she wondered if the school hadn't been abandoned while she slept and no one had thought to tell her. The castle seemed empty and waiting, as if the adversaries had gone back to their corners to lick their wounds before beginning round two.
Shaking off her disquietude at feeling so totally alone, she determined to concentrate on her work. To that end, she opened the windows in her room, and left the door to the room ajar as well, to allow for ventilation for the strong cleaning solution she'd be using. Then she carefully put on gloves and continued the painstaking job of cleaning Snape's paintings. With concentrated effort, she had them both cleaned by lunchtime, which she decided to have in her room to save time. Fortunately the house elves still seemed to be in residence and were as eager as ever to be of service. So lunch appeared promptly and as usual, was delicious.
After lunch, she got down to the restoration part of the process. After a couple of hours of work, she stood back and gazed with admiration at the concert painting. It glowed with new life. The beautiful figure in the painting sparkled and shown in the brightness of the spotlight. Evangeline sighed with pleasure as she looked at it; she hoped that Severus would be pleased. Carefully she placed it on an easel to one side and went to begin on the alchemist's portrait. As she placed Severus' other painting on the table to begin her work, it's subject harrumphed at her that it was about time that she'd gotten around to him, after wasting so much time on that "utterly boring waste of paint" as he put it.
The alchemist's attitude amused her, and Evangeline smiled to herself, and admitted that she did prefer to work on animated paintings. The conversation alone lightened the tedious aspects of the task. After another hour or so of work, just as the alchemist was letting her in on his biggest secrets for turning lead into gold, she was interrupted by a knock at the door.
She glanced up to see Remus Lupin hanging onto the door with a hopeful expression on his friendly face. "May I come in? I find I'm quite curious about what you're doing, and the door was open."
Rather happy to see another human being, she smiled at him. "The door and windows were open to dissipate the fumes from the cleaning solution that I was using earlier, but yes, you may come in. I was beginning to think that I was the only one in the castle today. You're the first person I've laid eyes on."
He smiled. "Yes, it does seem to be very quiet around here, today. Minerva was the only person at lunch when Sirius and I went down."
Evangeline frowned as Lupin mentioned his friend. "Where is the "oh-so-charming" Mr. Black this afternoon anyway?"
Lupin winced at her tone. "He's taking himself for a walk around the grounds before dinner. I should probably apologize for his behavior to you last night."
"No." She held up a hand and shook her head firmly. "His behavior wasn't your doing. He should apologize for it himself. Not that I believe for a minute, he will. It was pretty easy to see that I was just being used as bait, hoping to inspire more entertaining reactions elsewhere. A rather childish ploy, I thought. I was glad to see that it was ineffective."
He smiled. "Actually, so was I. I was quite impressed with the amount of self control that Severus has acquired in the year since I saw him last."
"I'm wondering why he should need such strong self control at all. Shouldn't a bunch of civilized adults be able to sit down and have a meal together without one of them resorting to juvenile attacks, such as those your friend stooped to last night?"
Lupin sighed. "Both Severus and Sirius are quite capable of adult interactions on their own, but get them together in the same room, and it's often hard to stop them from reverting to childhood roles."
Evangeline frowned and crossed her arms. "Those roles must have been rather unpleasant, judging from what I've seen."
"Perhaps." Anxious to move onto a more congenial topic, Lupin took a deep breath and said, "Look, let's not dwell on the past, shall we? How about starting fresh?" He stuck out his hand to her. "I'm Remus Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance." He gave her a hopeful smile.
Disarmed by his manner, she laughed. "Okay I'll give it a whirl." She removed her gloves and clasped his hand in hers. "Nice to meet you, Remus Lupin. I'm Evangeline Winthrop, art restorer."
He gave her a short bow and smiled happily. "A pleasure. So tell me, Evangeline what brought you to Hogwarts?" he inquired politely.
For a second she froze, as she remembered the four figures in masks who'd chased her through town during that terrifying night that sent her fleeing here for her life. Lupin must have realized that he'd upset her from the expression on her face because he gave her a look of concern and said, "I'm sorry, Evangeline. Did I say something wrong?"
Pulling her mind back to the present, she shook herself and forced a smile. "No, of course not…um, the paintings. All the paintings here are what brought me to Hogwarts. You could call it job security for someone like me. This is the biggest job I've tackled yet."
Lupin nodded, thinking that he'd obviously missed something, but decided to let it pass.
They chatted amiably about art in general and her job in particular, while she worked, until she finished with the painting just as it was time to go down to dinner. She gave the alchemist's frame a satisfied pat. "There, all done. Now I can give Severus back his paintings looking like new."
Lupin smiled. "You started with Snape's paintings, huh? How does he rate first go?"
Evangeline shrugged. "No special reason. He's been very kind to me since I've been here. Why shouldn't I begin with his paintings?"
"No reason, just curious," Lupin said, but he found himself noting her sensitivity on Snape's behalf and thought with a grin that maybe Sirius picked the right bait after all.
Once Evangeline had finished cleaning up, the two of them started down to dinner together, but when they reached the entrance hall, Evangeline excused herself to go on down to the dungeon alone and check on her hopefully completed potion.