Despite the anti-nausea potion, Evangeline had a rather rough morning the next day. So between the morning sickness and a rather persistent headache, she didn't make it out of the dungeon until lunchtime. When she entered the dining hall, she found a small handful of professors eating at one end of the table, and Ariantha and "James" at the other end.
She joined Ariantha and "James", although from their attitude, she felt she might be intruding on something intimate. Still with them it was hard to tell, so she decided to take a chance and a seat.
Ariantha turned a thoughtful eye on Evangeline as she sat down next to her. "Evangeline, you look very pale today. Are you feeling all right?"
"James" glanced over, and gave her a concerned look. "Morning sickness, Angel?"
Ariantha raised an elegant eyebrow and looked at Evangeline more shrewdly. "Morning sickness? Are you pregnant, Evangeline?"
With a sigh of exasperation, Evangeline glared at "James". "Thanks, oh so much, "James"."
Realizing that he'd probably said something he shouldn't have, he looked repentantly at her. "Is that a secret, Evangeline? You've got to keep me informed about these things. Sorry."
Evangeline shook her head in disgust, then looked at Ariantha. "Yes, Aria, I'm pregnant. I was hoping to keep that quiet until after the wedding. I wasn't expecting the town crier over there to be announcing my private business to everyone whenever the mood hit him."
"James" squirmed in his seat. Pregnant women could be so touchy!
Pleased to be in on the secret, Ariantha smiled warmly at her friend. "Well, I won't say anything if you don't want me to."
Then another thought struck her. "Oh, Evangeline, that's not why you're marrying this man Snape, is it? He doesn't seem like your type to me. So dark and brooding. He never seems to smile, and he's certainly not the most handsome man you've ever dated. Far from it, actually. You know, I don't think you dated a single Slytherin male the entire time we were at Hogwarts. You always seemed to go for the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs."
Evangeline continued to glare past Ariantha at the smiling "James". "Well, that was certainly a mistake on my part. Perhaps my taste in men matured after graduation! Gryffindors certainly no longer hold a fascination for me. A pretty face is not much of an attraction without a strong intelligence to go with it. I find Severus to be very attractive and infinitely preferable to any other man that I've ever met. I'm marrying him because I love him…period! Please don't think there's any other reason. We found out about the baby after we became engaged, anyway."
"A baby! Are you pregnant, Evangeline?" Happy and surprised voices rang out from behind her back. So much for one occasion at a time. She used to be so good at keeping secrets, why was keeping this one so darn hard?
Evangeline sighed resignedly and turned to see both Margie and Eleanor grinning happily at her. "Yes! All right! I'm pregnant! Boy, try to keep a secret with loose-lipped Gryffindors around!" she exclaimed in mild annoyance.
"James" was looking a trifle embarrassed by now; as well he should be as far as Evangeline was concerned.
Both Margie and Eleanor embraced Evangeline, and once again she had to assure them that she wasn't getting married just because of the baby. They both seemed pleased by the news, but Margie's eyes had an odd gleam in them as the news was discussed. Evangeline found herself wondering if perhaps she and Edward wanted children, but hadn't had any luck trying to have them. Hopefully that wasn't the case. She certainly didn't want to add to anyone's difficulties. Perhaps she'd have a private word with Margie later, just to be sure. Not that she could change things if it was, but perhaps she could make her friend feel better. She wanted so much to have everyone in her life as happy as she was at the moment.
******************************************************************
Neither Snape nor Lupin had attended lunch in the Great Hall. Evangeline was pretty sure that Severus was up to his neck in his inventory and had forgotten all about such mundane things as food. She knew he'd been feeling a little overwhelmed with all of these strange people around. So his absence didn't really surprise her every much. Although she'd certainly much rather have him around than not.
However, Remus' absence was more of a surprise to her. She'd never known Remus to miss a meal. Especially now that it would leave Sirius a clear path to Ariantha's door. Suddenly she wondered how things had ended up last night. When she and Severus had gone down to bed, both Remus and "James" had been making plays for Ariantha. Now Aria and "James" were looking very happy and together. Did that mean that Remus was rejected last night? Evangeline hesitated to ask directly, but suddenly she was a little concerned for her friend.
Instead she asked casually as she was leaving the table, if anyone had seen Remus today. No one had it seemed, but no one, including "James", seemed overly concerned. Probably she was being foolish. Still it wouldn't hurt to look around a bit, just to see if she could find him.
Evangeline climbed the stairs and went to knock on Remus' door. There was no answer, so she tried to think of other places he might be. The first place she checked was the Astronomy tower in case he was depressed because of Ariantha, but it was deserted. So she moved on and checked the library, and various classrooms and any other place in the castle that she could think of. However, there was no sign of Remus anywhere she looked.
By now, she was seriously becoming worried. The only other places she could think of were Hagrid's cottage and the grounds around the castle. It was a beautiful day; perhaps he'd simply gone for a walk and fallen asleep under a tree or something. So she left the cool interior of the castle and went out into the sunshine. First she decided to walk around the grounds to see if she could spot him outside.
As she got around to the North side of the castle in a rather isolated area near the Forbidden Forest, she heard someone call her name. She turned to smile at her friend, but before she could speak…everything went black.
******************************************************************************************************