Snape's heart beat fast with fear as the Death Eaters descended on the cottage and its out buildings. He prayed that Evangeline had not returned from Hogwarts, or that she could get away, through a painting, as soon as they arrived on the scene. He was with the group that was sent to search the house, including her bedroom. They found no sign of her, to his great relief.
His group returned to the courtyard in front of the cottage. Malfoy was questioning the house elves and Matthew. It was obvious very quickly that the house elves knew nothing, and they were disposed of on the spot. Matthew told them very little. Only that the woman who lived here was gone. He said he didn't know where, but her name was Charlotte Mellyn. He'd never heard of Evangeline Winthrop or Albus Dumbledore, either. Finally, in a rage of frustration, Malfoy killed Matthew, as well.
Just then someone pointed up at Evangeline's window. Snape looked up to see her staring down at them in horror. She vanished back into the room, but the hue and cry had been raised.
Evangeline stared down at the bodies on the ground and the seething mass of Death Eaters surrounding them. "Oh, Severus, are you down there?!" she murmured fearfully, horrified at the very thought.
Suddenly, she was aware of being spotted. As fast as she could, she turned and ran for the nearest painting. However, before she could reach it, her bedroom door burst open, and two Death Eaters ran in. One cast a hex that hit her in the legs, the other threw something that hit her in the back, and had the effect of knocking her off her feet and directly into the painting. She was immediately sucked inside, but when she tried to get to her feet, they didn't work!
With a stab of horror, Evangeline knew she was in serious trouble. Her back hurt like hell, and her lower legs felt numb and unresponsive. The cold dead feeling seemed to be creeping up her body slowly. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get up and walk. If she stayed here, alone, she'd die. No one could possibly rescue her. She knew that she had to find a way to get back to Hogwarts immediately, so with all her remaining strength, she began to crawl.
To her frustration, it quickly became apparent that this would never work. She couldn't possibly crawl all the way to the portrait that she needed to reach before the numbness in her legs overtook her completely. There was only one other thing she could try…now, while she still had some strength. She could sense that before too long the burning pain in her back would be too overwhelming to handle.
Trying to relax and gather her strength, she placed her hands flat on the painted surface beneath her body and concentrated with all her might on reaching out to the painted figures that inhabited this realm. She'd never tried to summon one to her before, but she had an undeniable connection to them, and her need was dire. Determinedly, she tried to broadcast that need through the fabric of the painting. Her perception of time slowed. For what seemed like forever, there was nothing but pain and desperation. Then finally, as she was reaching the end of her endurance, she suddenly felt an answering pull through the painted surface. Someone had heard her! Someone would come!
As the sound of movement reached her, the terrified witch raised her head to see a short, rather comical figure in armor ride into the painting on a fat gray pony. Never had anyone been a more welcome sight. Thank goodness…a figure from a Hogwarts painting!
The knight dismounted and came over to help her. "Never fear, my lady Evangeline, I fly to your aid in your hour of need!"
Evangeline forced a smile. "My sincere thanks, Sir Cadogan. I really do need your help most desperately. I need to reach Professor Dumbledore, and I can't move my legs. Please, help me get to him."
The knight bent over with difficulty in the unwieldy suit of armor and hoisted her up onto his pony's sturdy back. "What scurvy cur has done this to you? Point him out, and I will challenge him to a duel in your honor!" the knight exclaimed importantly.
She shook her head, which was beginning to feel as foggy as the netherworld. " Don't worry about that. Just get me to Professor Dumbledore, Sir Cadogan," she moaned. "Now, please!"
The knight mounted the pony behind her and held her securely in place against his rounded chest, yelling out threats and challenges to her unknown assailant, as they headed swiftly off into the mist.
Shortly, she tumbled out of a painting onto the floor of Dumbledore's office, startling Black, Dumbledore, and Lupin, who all jumped to help her with horrified expressions on their faces. Lupin picked her up carefully, and they rushed her to the infirmary as fast as they could.
By working together Poppy and Lupin were able to determine that the injured woman had been hit with a creeping paralysis hex. Poppy didn't know how to stop it, but hoped that their learned, Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, did. Fortunately he did know the spell to halt the hex in its tracks, but he wasn't sure just how to reverse it. With some difficulty, he managed to stop the encroaching paralysis at hip level unsure why the standard counter curses didn't seem to be working.
The knife in her back caused even more dangerous problems. It had a nasty serrated edge, which would only cause more damage, if they simply yanked it out. Poppy knew how to safely remove it. However, this caused a great loss of blood and collapsed one of Evangeline's lungs. Fortunately this was something that Poppy could repair with ease, but the wound itself wouldn't heal! No matter what she did it continued to get larger and more painful. It appeared that the knife was coated with some sort of unknown poison.
As poisons were not something that were much of a problem in the general order of things around Hogwarts, Poppy wasn't much of an expert. She suggested checking the books in Snape's library for help. He had much more expertise in this area than she did. Hoping to find a quick answer, Lupin went to do this. In the meantime, the mediwitch used a general antidote potion to slow the poison's effects, and a strong sleeping potion to put Evangeline to sleep and stop her cries of pain.
Over the next three days, Poppy and Lupin tried their best to tend to Evangeline. Lupin finally found and cast the proper reversal spell for the creeping paralysis, but it wasn't working very well or very fast for reasons that he couldn't figure out. The paralysis was going away but very gradually.
The knife poison was another matter. Poppy was able to keep Evangeline stable with her strongest general antidote potions, but she couldn't halt its destructive progress completely. No one in the castle was familiar with the poison that had been used. Other than its reddish brown color, they could discover nothing about it. Its effects on Evangeline were alarming. She was delirious with fever most of the time, as her body tried to fight off the infection. The wound itself festered and wouldn't heal no matter how she treated it. Poppy was beside herself with frustration.
Everyone wished fervently for Snape's presence. His expertise on poisons was desperately needed, but he was nowhere to be found. Dumbledore had sent out feelers for Snape or Death Eater activity, but so far had heard nothing of value. He'd received one terse note, by owl, that simply said that Snape had a personal emergency he had to take care of and would return shortly. Dumbledore assumed that all of the Death Eaters were being told to send such messages to stop people from worrying unduly about their absences. Voldemort was obviously on the warpath but why? Surely this all couldn't be just to hunt down Evangeline and the dragon chest.
Evangeline was quickly moved down to Snape's quarters to keep her out of sight. Either Poppy or Remus Lupin stayed with her most of the time. Minerva McGonagall also stayed, whenever she could spare the time. Everyone who was able to spare a minute pored over books and scrolls on poisons, either Snape's private books, or ones from the restricted section of the library. Madam Pince pulled out everything that she thought might help. Still, nothing of value was found, and Evangeline got more and more ill.