The couple found themselves in Evangeline's sitting room, which was lit by a dim fire. She crossed the room and took her wand off the table, aimed it at the grate, and the fire leaped up and burned brightly. Then she walked over and sank down in front of it with her head resting on the padded footrest that encircled the fireplace. Snape followed, sank down into one of the wing chairs that flanked the hearth, and just watched her, waiting.
Evangeline propped her chin on her hands and began to speak. "I'm not sure where to begin. There's so much to tell you. You talk of me not knowing enough about your past. Well, I have a past you could never imagine even in your deepest dreams. My father was Ernias Winthrop. Have you ever heard of him, Severus?" She shifted her face to the side to look at him.
He nodded. "Yes. I've read quite a few of his published works. He wrote several impressive books on longevity potions. He was a brilliant researcher."
"Yes." She nodded back. "More brilliant than you know." She sighed and drove her hands deeply into her hair in frustration. "I don't know how to say this, Severus. I've never told another soul, and I don't know how. I'm afraid you'll be the one to run away." She put her head down on her arms.
He left the chair and came to sit beside her on the floor, resting a comforting hand on her hair. "You didn't run away from me, Evangeline. I'm not going anywhere."
Somewhat reassured, she lifted her face and searched his earnestly. "Okay. My father used his knowledge of life potions to bring my mother to life. She'd been an image in an animated portrait. My father had become obsessed with her, to the point where he could think of nothing else. He worked for years to bring her out of her frame, and into the real world. Finally, he was successful. I don't really know how. My father was a very secretive man, he never told anyone how he did it, and he never did it again. For the rest of her life, my mother took various potions of my father's creation to allow her to remain here in the real world. She could go back and forth between the worlds, and she could take people with her, as I can."
Evangeline paused and searched Snape's face for some sign as to whether or not he believed her. She couldn't tell what he was thinking from his sober expression, so she swallowed hard and turned back to contemplate the fire.
"I was born in the same manner as all people, here in the real world. I'm not a painted image, and I don't need to take any potions to maintain my connection here in this world. I guess I can thank my father's genius and his humanity for that. But, I'm not really, or perhaps I should say fully, human. I have my mother's ability to exist in the painted world as well."
She smiled slightly. "When I came to Hogwarts and was sorted into Slytherin, I was a bit taken aback by the emphasis so many of its members put on being a "pureblood". I wondered how someone like me, whose blood could be considered to be half potion-tainted paint, could ever have been put into that house. I guess my ability to keep and appreciate secrets was the more important quality. I've always carefully hidden what I am. I don't know how Voldemort could have found out about my mother or even if he ever really knew what she was, but only what she could do. Perhaps he pursues me simply to find out if I possess her talent."
Snape frowned in concern. "Could you hide that talent from Voldemort? Can you, in effect, turn off your ability to enter the painted world?"
She shook her head sadly. "No. If my hand touches a painting, I get sucked in. As if the painted figures want me in there with them. It's why I wear gloves when I work. I've always said it's to protect myself from the harshness of the potions I work with, but it's really to protect myself from the paintings themselves." She laughed shortly. "We make quite a pair, don't we? Both of us hiding our true faces from the world."
"How much of what you just told me does Dumbledore know?" questioned Snape gently.
She looked down. "He knows what I can do, and that I inherited my ability from my mother. That's all. I couldn't bring myself to tell him the rest. That I'm really some sort of Frankenstein's monster, instead of a real person. You're the only person I've ever told the complete truth to, although one other person does know about my ability to move in and out of paintings. This isn't something I've ever dared to talk about. My whole life has been spent hiding my true nature."
Tears sparkled in her eyes and began to slowly creep down her cheeks. Hoping to comfort her, Snape slipped his arms around her and held her against him. Before long comfort wasn't the uppermost thing on his mind, though, as desire began to reassert itself. It felt so wonderful to hold her close in his arms. He'd wanted the chance to do so for such a long time. What had happened between them in his rooms had merely made his desire for her that much stronger. Suddenly she pulled back from him and slipped off her robe. As his eyes gazed at her in that lovely gown again, he abruptly found himself wanting nothing more than to remove it from her body and caress the warm soft flesh beneath it, but still he hesitated.
"Please, let me love you, Severus," she pleaded softly as she once more offered herself to him. "Let me pretend for a little while that I'm a real person, and that someone could care about me." She put her hands on the sides of his face and stared into his dark eyes with longing. "There aren't any more secrets to be afraid of. We both know the worst of each other now."
His voice was warm and gentle as he spoke to her. "Evangeline, you are a real person, please, never doubt that. I've seen you cry and bleed. I feel your warmth and solidity in my arms." His hands rested lightly on her shoulders and slowly, he ran them down her bare arms. "If I still seem reluctant, it's just that…I'm not…I've never…"
Her eyes opened wide in surprise, and she stared at him. "Oh, Severus, you're not trying to tell me that you're a virgin, are you?"
Amused at the idea, he laughed softly and lightly ran a finger down the side of her cheek and then sensuously down the slender column of her throat, pausing at the hollow at the base. "No…only emotionally. I've never let myself really care about another person since I was very young. It never seemed wise. And after a while, I didn't believe anyone could ever come to care for me. I convinced myself that that was a good thing. Emotional entanglements only lead to pain. I had enough pain in my life. I didn't need any more. I'm probably not the best choice for you, Evangeline."
Gently she looped her hands behind his head, pulled him closer, and whispered, "Oh, Severus, you're the only choice." She pressed her soft lips to his once more, and all of his reluctance fled, as the two of them melded into one on the rug in front of the wavering fire.