28. Painful Revelation
Evangeline remained at the dance until the bitter end. Feeling long before midnight that she'd turned into a pumpkin and lost far more than her shoe. She danced with Remus, and Sirius, and even with Albus Dumbledore, but she wasn't happy, and knew that she didn't look it. She insisted on dancing the last dance of the evening with Remus, instead of Sirius. It was too hard to find any comfort in the arms of someone whom, she knew, detested Severus and wished him ill.
When it was finally over, she reluctantly went to bed and tried to sleep, but she simply couldn't and ended up pacing the floor for hours. Her heart ached with worry over Severus. Finally around 3:30 in the morning, she couldn't stand it any more. She gave up the idea of sleep completely, put on her robe, and went down to the dungeon to see if he'd returned. First she checked his classroom and office, and then went and tried his room. There was no answer to her knock, and no sound that she could hear, despite pressing her ear to the wooden panel and listening hard. After pacing up and down in the dungeon for a while, the coldness of the passages finally drove her back upstairs. Where was he? How was he? Her mind was a dizzying whirl of questions and fears.
While she was passing through the entry hall, about to force herself to go back up to her room, she heard a noise at the front door. As she watched in horror, the door slowly creaked open, and a bloody hand reached inside grasping hold of the wood with all of its strength. With the barest whisper of sound, a body collapsed half in and half out of the opening. Suddenly sure it was Snape, she ran to the figure and turned it over to see its face. Much to her dismay, she was right. He was in much worse shape than he'd been in the last time. Evangeline managed to drag him completely inside the hall but wasn't sure just what to do next. Should she leave him and go for help? The injured wizard settled things for her by coming back to consciousness on his own as she knelt next to him and stared at him in anxious concern.
His eyes snapped open, and he groaned softly when he saw her gazing at him worriedly. "Evangeline, why are you here at this time of night?"
She caressed his battered face gently with a slightly trembling hand. "I've been waiting for you, Severus. Don't lecture me, please. You don't have the strength. Can you stand with my help? We need to get you up to the hospital wing." She fought back her fears and tried to remain calm for his sake.
He moaned and said faintly, "Not the hospital. I need to go to my quarters."
Alarmed by the state he was in, she stayed firm. "No. You're too badly injured for that. Let me help you up."
Realizing that she was probably right, he didn't protest any more and tried to assist her as best he could. His left arm appeared to be broken, but with his usual all enveloping robes on, she couldn't assess his injuries any more specifically than that. Biting back the questions that spun through her brain, she concentrated on helping him get to his feet so they could begin the climb to the hospital wing.
Slowly and painfully, they staggered up the stairs together and made it partway down the corridor that leads to the staircase to the hospital wing, when he lost consciousness again, and she lost her grip on him. With a moan, he collapsed on the floor in a heap, and as she was attempting to awaken him, a nearby door opened and Remus Lupin looked out.
With a sharp intake of breath at the sight that confronted him, he immediately came out to help her with Snape.
"Evangeline, why didn't you just magic up a stretcher for him?" inquired Remus, as he pulled his wand from the pocket of his robe and performed the charm himself.
Anxiety made her snap. "Because unlike you, apparently, I don't sleep with my wand. I didn't have it with me when I found him."
Remus just looked at her as they raced up the corridor. "It's okay, Evangeline. Let's just get him up to Poppy, as fast as we can."
They fled quickly up the stairs and into the infirmary calling for Poppy, who came running out of a back room, fastening her robe around her as she came swiftly to their side. The mediwitch directed them to a back corner of the large room and had Remus lay Snape gently on a bed. Fortunately the rest of the ward was empty of patients at the moment.
"Help me get his robes off, Evangeline," she said as she also directed Remus to pull the privacy drape around the bed and to get some things from her office. Like Remus, she apparently slept with her wand, which she passed over Snape carefully several times to try to diagnose his injuries, while Evangeline unbuttoned his clothes.
After getting off the first layers, they began to peel off his shirt as well. The pain in his broken arm brought him back to consciousness just as Evangeline was easing his sleeve down over his left forearm.
"No!" he croaked hoarsely. With an anguished expression on his face, he batted feebly at her with his other hand to try to stop her from exposing his flesh, but it was too late.
She went very pale at the sight of the Dark Mark glowing blackly on the bruised flesh of his injured arm. Horrified she dropped his arm as if it had burned her. Understanding finally burst into her brain. It was a signal! An evil summons to stand in the presence of the Dark Lord! Severus was a Death Eater, like those who'd attacked her, like those who'd killed her mother.
"No!" she moaned softly and stumbled up away from the bed. "You're a monster!" she cried. "How could I have been so wrong about you?"
He shook his head. "Evangeline, please, let me explain." His eyes pleaded with her to listen to him. His voice was drenched in pain, but she just continued to shake her head in horror and back away.
"You're a monster, a Death Eater, a murderer!" Eyes wide with shock and pain, she turned around and ran from the room as if pursued by demons.
Lupin started after her, only to be called back by Poppy. "Let her go, Remus," she commanded. "I need your help here now. You can tend to Evangeline later."
The mediwitch turned to the distraught Snape, placing firm hands on his shoulders and forcing him back down onto the pillows. "Severus, you must calm down, and let us help you. You need medical attention. Evangeline will be all right. Once she's calmed down, she'll listen to you, and she'll understand." But Snape looked at Poppy with blank eyes that had lost all hope.