As Remus Lupin was approaching the head table a large owl settled on his shoulder and poked a message at him. He grabbed it quickly and tore it open. It read:
Success! Tell Albus and Minerva, and all three of you get down
to the Ministry right away. Fudge has scheduled his news
conference for 2 p.m. Bring a change of clothes for Severus and
his wand. Bring Snuffles if he wants to come.
My love and Thanks to Both of you,
Evangeline
P.S. I'd appreciate a more modest change of clothes, as well.
Lupin sighed with relief. Thank god! He headed for the head table at a run.
Dumbledore and McGonagall looked up at him in surprise. "Albus, Minerva, you have to come with me right away. Evangeline has gotten Fudge to release Severus. We need to get to the Ministry as soon as possible. Fudge has scheduled a news conference for 2 p.m. Evangeline wants us to bring a change of clothes for Severus and his wand, too."
They looked at him in amazement. "How has Evangeline achieved this miracle, Remus?" McGonagall exclaimed, as Dumbledore read Evangeline's note.
Lupin looked embarrassed. "I'd really rather let her explain, Minerva. Let's just accept it as good news and go with it for now, okay?"
She stared at him for a moment. Then both she and Dumbledore got to their feet, and the three of them hurried out of the hall.
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An anxious Evangeline paced back and forth in a small back room at the Ministry. Fudge had assured her that Snape would be brought to her as soon as he arrived. That couldn't be soon enough for her! The last few days had been the most agonizing four days of her life. She looked with satisfaction at the pictures and negatives in her hands, pictures of Mabel Andrews. Smiling to herself, she put them into her purse. She'd get them to Minister Eggleson, with her sincere thanks, as soon as possible. At least they'd been able to stop one instance of Fudge's corruption, in addition to setting Severus free; she wished they could've done more.
Finally, just when she thought she couldn't stand one more moment of waiting, the door opened, and Snape walked into the room. His shirt was torn and dirty, and his robe, vest, and jacket were missing altogether. He looked horribly tired and worn, and there were heavy dark circles under his eyes. None of that mattered! Never had anyone looked more wonderful to Evangeline; she'd been so afraid this moment might never come to pass. When he saw her waiting for him, he stopped and simply stared at her with a look of amazement on his face.
"Evangeline," he whispered hoarsely.
With a cry of delight, she flew across the room and threw herself into his arms, hugging him fiercely. His arms encircled her tightly, and he returned her hug with equal fervor, holding her desperately against his body. Savoring this contact as a drowning man savors his last gulp of air.
Finally she lifted her eyes to his, tears shining in their emerald depths. "Oh, Severus, thank god, you're all right! I was so frightened for you."
Ever so gently, he held her face in his slightly trembling hands and gazed deeply into her eyes with wonder. "How did you do this, Evangeline? How did you get me out of that place? How?"
Intensely happy to be in his arms once more, she smiled radiantly at him and laid a loving hand on his cheek. "I'll explain everything later, Severus. Right now I want you to kiss me and never let me go."
Willing to put off explanations if it meant he could finally turn dreams into reality and have her with him again, he acceded gladly to her request. Time stood still for the next few minutes as they savored the sweetness of their reunion.
All too soon they were forced back to reality as the door opened again and Lupin, McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Snuffles stood there and watched their embrace. Reluctantly, Severus and Evangeline pulled apart in the face of this company but didn't let go of each other, as the others entered the room.
Dumbledore beamed happily at them and patted Snape on the back. "It's so good to see you, my boy. Are you all right?"
Snape assured everyone that he was fine and once more asked them what happened. Everyone just looked at Evangeline.
Uncomfortable at all the attention, she shrugged and eyed everyone in embarrassment, really quite reluctant to begin explanations. "For now, let's just say that Fudge had a change of heart. He's promised to announce Severus' innocence to the world at a press conference in an hour. I'll explain everything later when we're all safely back at Hogwarts. This really isn't the place to go into details. Let's just go along with Fudge's little program, shall we?"
Reluctantly releasing Snape from her grasp, she went and opened the door and spoke to the official outside. "Professor Snape needs a place to freshen up and change. Where can he go?"
The man nodded to the next door. "That's a bathroom. He's welcome to use it if he wishes."
She smiled. "Thank you."
McGonagall handed over a bag to Snape. "This is a fresh change of clothes, Severus. Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything."
He nodded gratefully. "Thank you, Minerva. I'm sure it'll be fine." He took the bag and disappeared into the bathroom, eager to remove any lingering traces of his imprisonment.
McGonagall turned and handed another bag to Evangeline. "This robe is a bit more modest than what you have on, Evangeline. Please tell me that that gown you're wearing wasn't necessary to change Fudge's mind about releasing Severus." She eyed Evangeline's gown with concern.
Embarrassed, Evangeline hugged her. "Don't worry, Minerva. All this gown did was get Fudge's attention. I didn't have to fight him off to get him to listen to me. I just thought something less flamboyant would be better for the press conference."
McGonagall looked relieved. "I'm glad to hear that, Evangeline."
Evangeline was directed to another bathroom and reappeared shortly wearing a plain, well-fitting brown robe with gold trim.
While they stood around quietly waiting for Snape, Fudge walked in and beamed at them.
"Well, Albus. Everything has come to a happy conclusion, eh? I told you things would be resolved soon, and we'd find evidence concerning Snape."
Dumbledore frowned disapprovingly at the Minister of Magic. "You implied that the evidence you were looking for was of Severus' guilt, Cornelius, not of his innocence."
Fudge nodded gravely and his face assumed a serious expression. "Yes, yes, that's true. I truly believed him to be guilty, but I'm certainly happy to discover that I was wrong. We've uncovered evidence that proves that these horrid Death Eaters were attempting to falsely implicate Snape in their foul plot. We almost fell for it, but fortunately, thanks to my own efficient undercover network, we were not fooled in the end. All's well that ends well, eh?"
He smiled broadly at Dumbledore, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, which focused on Evangeline with fear in their depths.
At this point, the door opened, and Snape walked in looking much more like his old self. He stopped short and glared darkly at Fudge. Fudge paled, but he forced himself to step forward and clasp Snape's hand in his.
"No hard feelings, eh, Snape? We're all very happy here to discover evidence that exonerates you of any wrongdoing. We need to go out on the steps, where I'll make a public announcement to that effect, eh? So everything will be set to rights, right Snape?" He licked his lips nervously as he stared at the tall dark wizard who glared murderously at him.
With a sneer of disgust on his face, Snape quickly removed his hand from Fudge's grasp and stated in a low menacing tone, "I will cooperate with your little side show Fudge, but do not expect me to forget this outrage. You've made a dangerous mistake here. You would be wise to remember it."
Fudge had gone so pale by now that it was difficult to tell if there was any blood left in him. He nodded his understanding nervously to Snape, and then he gestured quickly towards the door. "Shall we go?"
Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Lupin walked out the door followed by Snuffles, who growled threateningly at Fudge as he passed. Evangeline picked up her wand, minimized her cloak and her black gown, and put them into her purse. Then she turned and came forward to take Severus' hand with a nasty smile for Fudge. "So far so good, Cornelius. Let's get this over with, shall we?"
Fudge's fat face quivered with suppressed emotion, and he was visibly struggling to remain calm. With a look of absolute loathing for the two of them, he turned and marched stiffly out of the room.
Snape turned a quizzical eye to Evangeline. "I can't wait to hear the explanation for all this."
Still finding it hard to believe that he was once more standing beside her, she smiled sweetly up at him. "Later, my love. The show is about to start. Get ready to play the part of the tragically misjudged hero. Be gracious and modest, and it'll all be over soon, and we can go home."
He smiled longingly at her. "Home. You have no idea how good that sounds."
She hugged him tightly. "To me, too. But we have one more thing to get through first. You can play gracious and modest, can't you?"
Snape snorted shortly. "I'm much better with glowering and threatening, but I'll do my best."
She smiled lovingly up at him. "That's all I can ask."
He smiled back, and they followed the others out of the door.
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Later that evening, after Snape had been warmly welcomed back to Hogwarts by most of the staff and students, and after everyone had had a good dinner, a conference was held. Explanations were eagerly awaited by all…well…by most. Evangeline, Snape, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin, and Black retreated to the Headmaster's sitting room next to his office. Relief was in the air, so was curiosity, and perhaps, a tiny bit of embarrassment and shame.
Everyone sat around the warm room in comfortable chairs and stared at Evangeline, who was sitting next to Snape on a cozy looking couch.
Dumbledore smiled at her. "Well, my dear, I think it's time you explained to all of us just how you produced this miracle."
She chewed on her lip nervously. "I'll tell you, Albus, but I hope you won't be too disappointed in me."
He raised an eyebrow. "How could I be disappointed in you, Evangeline? You brought about something we were all hoping for."
She glanced at Lupin and Black, who were squirming a bit in their seats, too.
"What I did to get Severus set free was illegal and underhanded and despicable, Albus, but I saw it as the only way, so I'd do it again in a moment." She raised her chin and stared at them defiantly.
Dumbledore and McGonagall glanced at each other questioningly and then returned their attention to Evangeline.
Snape reached over and took her hand reassuringly. "It's all right, Evangeline. Just tell us what happened."
She smiled at him and squeezed his hand. Then she stood up, walked over to the fireplace, and took a deep breath.
"Remus brought Minister Eggleson to see me. She'd come with information that she hoped we could use to free Severus. She was horrified that Fudge blamed everything on you, Severus. She was very grateful that you saved her from Malfoy." Evangeline looked over at Snape, and he nodded with understanding.
So she took heart and continued, "It appears that Fudge is running an extremely corrupt administration, based on kickbacks and blackmail. Minister Eggleson had evidence of one particular instance of blackmail. Fudge was trying to force a secretary into sleeping with him, or he was going to destroy her family and fire her as well. He was using evidence from a similar incident years ago. This woman was tired of being victimized. She was willing to allow us to record her meeting with Fudge and use it against him."
Evangeline paused and tried to judge how her audience was reacting to this, but they all seemed stunned. So she sighed and resumed her tale.
"After Minister Eggleson left, Remus and I talked it over and decided that this was our only hope. Fudge was going to block every legitimate avenue of help that was tried. Something down on Fudge's level seemed all that was left. We recruited Sirius' help because we weren't sure we could do it alone, but I decided you, Albus, and you, Minerva, should not be told. We didn't want our wallowing around in the mud to reflect badly on you or Hogwarts."
She took another deep breath. "Basically, Sirius took pictures and Remus recorded Fudge's meeting with the secretary. I activated the Quick-Quotes recording with a record animating potion and turned it into a verbal recording. I took the pictures, and one of the two recordings we made, to Fudge this morning, and …voila! Severus is free by afternoon…everything was a big misunderstanding…so sorry."
She looked down. "I'm not proud of what we did, but I couldn't stand the thought of Severus spending one minute more in that horrible place. Fudge would've just left him there to die. I had to get him out, anyway I could!"
Snape got up, went over, and put his arms around her. "It's all right, Evangeline. I'm sorry that Fudge forced you down to his level. I know this ordeal has been hard on you, but no matter how you managed it, I'm free because of you. I can't ever thank you enough for that."
She smiled up at him, and he smiled back. Then he took a deep breath and turned reluctantly to face Lupin and Black.
"It appears that I also owe a debt of gratitude to the two of you, for helping Evangeline in this undertaking," he stated dryly.
They looked at each other and then back at Snape.
Lupin smiled. "Don't worry about it, Severus. None of us were happy to see you end up in Azkaban. We were glad to help get you out. You don't owe us anything."
Black leaned casually back in his seat and grinned. "Speak for yourself, Remus. Personally, a debt of gratitude sounds just fine to me! My personal motivation was a strong desire to get you back here Snape, so I could watch you play daddy! I plan on enjoying that a whole lot!"
Snape rolled his eyes, sighed, and stared at the ceiling. "You told them, I see." Then he tilted his head and looked down at Evangeline.
She looked embarrassed. "I had to explain why I couldn't go through the paintings to get the book that contained the recipe for the record animating potion." She bit her lip and looked up at him nervously.
He shook his head and smiled down at her, speaking in a dry tone, "Don't worry about it, Evangeline. Everyone will know sooner or later. It's not the type of thing you can hide forever."
She smiled at him and gave him a hug. Then she turned to Dumbledore and McGonagall.
"I hope you can forgive me for blackmailing Fudge. I know this isn't the type of behavior that you approve of."
Dumbledore got up and came over and took her hands. "My dear, I'm sorry that you felt you needed to protect us from this. I feel that I'm the one who let you down, by not finding another alternative for you. You did what you felt was necessary. I'm certainly not going to argue with your methods. You managed to bring Severus back to us. That's the important thing. I appreciate getting this insight into Fudge, as well. His behavior makes more sense to me now. I'll have to see what can be done about him, but that's not a concern of yours. The only thing I want you to concern yourself with now is planning your wedding!"
He smiled happily at the two of them. "We have a bride, a groom, and a license now. All we need is a date."
Severus and Evangeline looked at each other.
"We'll talk it over and let you know, Albus." Smiled Evangeline.