Incredible that you saw four years ago how much Dumbledore was using Severus. Lot of foresight. Well written :)

I loathe Moody. He is horrible.

Okay, I agree with most of what you said about the Aurors, but I assume "One with bits missing" is Mad-Eye Moody.

Wasn't he supposed to be one of the only Aurors who DIDN'T sink to the Death Eater's level?

The only issue I see is, didn't Dumbledore say that he turned spy "over a year" before the end of the war.

Granted, this IS more than a year, but it doesn't seem to be quite what the Headmaster meant.

It's always fascinating to explore the reasons and events that led Snape to where he is in canon. Your first chapter is my favorite, reeled me in right off the bat, the tension between AD and SS unmistakable, and you keep up the strong characterization in each successive installment. Even now, after DH has blown it all to pieces, a great deal of this rings true - the important parts remain. Snape the angry, trapped young man, wishing for a different life, berating himself for wishing as much, hating himself for every reason imaginable, and learning to trust the Headmaster only from a distance. I look forward to more.

I was no longer hoping for this one to be updated - thanks for proving me wrong! (-: Poor Severus, BTW...

Good to get an update on this fic. One wonders why, if they were constantly sniping at each other, why they didn't simply ask Slughorn to be paired with a different partner (though it does make sense to put the two brightest sparks in the class together). So we must assume that, despite the bickering, there is an underlying rapport and that the 'deal' owes as much to this as to the need to establish a working relationship in class. How very sad that Snape still feels he has to maintain the distance and reserve between them. We don't know a great deal about Lily, but what little canon says shows her to be kind and sympathetic - Snape might easily have found her a good listener, even if she was James' girlfriend.

Good chapter!

True, Lily _does_ keep bringing James up. It's like she wants Snape to say that James isn't pranking him (even though in canon, Sirius Black says he was, just being careful that Lily didn't catch him). And doesn't Lily realize that James being Head Boy just makes it easier for him to cover up something Sirius Black might do? Of course not. She's being willingly blind now, because she doesn't _want_ to see whom she's really in love with. It'd be interesting to see what she thought once she was married to James, and the Marauders came over on weekends to tell old tales of Fun with Snivvy--that she would be expected to laugh at, of course. One hopes she was horrified to realize that Severus didn't lie or make things up.

Good chapter. But now Severus can't tell Lily anything, can he?

Oh dear - poor kid.

Hi!

I like the new chapter, particularly the description of some of Snape's regrets. Also the ending, especially the last line. So sad.

Whooey! We're having a Dujathon today with three chapters for three fics. I hadn't even read this story because you hadn't updated in so long, so I've had to go read all the previous chapters, too. It was just SO hard! ;-) This story is an intriguing look at something that has fascinated me for a long time. Only a few days before we hopefully get more information on what actually happened to bring Snape back to Dumbledore. I think your take on this is very close to the spirit of what happened.

good chapter! update son lpease!

I had to re - read the last chapters of the story :D
Of which I remember the strenght of the chapters with the Occlumency lessons: they were heartbreaking, with this young Severus so alone and so - rightly - convinced that no one cared for him.

I don't remember another story where he came back to Dumbledore during his school days, and like with everything else you are writing I wait with faith to see why you did this interesting choice.

Now with this chapter we meet Lily.
Great the comparison with the previous chapter, where we saw his free thoughts about the prank.

Great and sad end:
"Really, it was better this way"

even if in a completely different situation it remembered me a bit his last thoughts in an old story, "I was right", because there is a similar feeling, that he couldn't go on with this rare kind relationship - and here with a sincere friendship - and that this was the right thing to do.

Glad to see this story continued. I'm particularly fond of stories about Snape at this point in his history and find your telling of it well worth the reading.