Umm... yea... I wish Harry had been able to keep him, he seemed like he wanted to before they left.

Story is good so far, there isn't much post hbp stuff out there, most people find keeping dumbledore around a lot easier in terms of dealing with plot devices, etc. My one criticism is that the way Harry talks about Hermione, with the shifting of tenses makes it a bit hard to follow. Is Hermione deceased? If so keep it all in the past. If she's alive, be careful with how you word the beginning bit about how Hermione would react to crucio:

"...at least he wouldn’t have to worry about Hermione’s voice high with horror as she said Crucio? You used the cruciatis? I don’t care that it was on Snape, Harry; you used the cruciatis on someone!

No. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about that. Because Hermione would never know."

The way you word things later in the chapter makes it seem like Hermione is alive, however, this passage gives the impression that she's dead...
If he just isn't planning on telling her you might want to consider reworking that...
All of that said, I'm really enjoying this.

You know, some people might be able to draw a conclusion from the fact they woke up at all after falling unconscious around someone as evil as Snape.

Harry is obvously not one of them.

Now you made me cry. One can hope that the strength of personality that made Severus capable of the sacrifices he made to atone for his mistakes driven by his cruel environment will survive and Steven will do truly great things for much happier reasons.

great fic! thanks :)

Can you write a sequel to this at some point? 'cause, that would be cool. Imagine, a little boy growing up with a phoenix familiar, Harry Potter as a godfather, and Narcissia Malfoy as Godmum. Plus, I'd love to know if Peter played LSD rat, what they did with the Peter poppet, what happened with the mass-produced Wolf's Bane, and so on.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and hope you will do a sequel one day - perhaps a one short of Stephen's first day at Beaubatons. Great characterizations, great dialogue, cool magic.

Also: "Oh, **, yeah. The other Dark Lord. Yeah, well, don’t worry, babe, something’ll be found before you can say ‘release the hounds’."

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! I love that movie.

I don't know how I missed reviewing these last two chapters. But I'm glad I did because now I can review again! Very well done. I like the open ending; it fits.

I am reading this for the second time and it is just as amazing as the first time!

O.K Good!

starts out dark & ends up light and sweet-- well done, good job.

Interesting! :-)

Once the war is over, is there any chance of seeing Harry becoming involved with "Steven" as a loving, mentoring Uncle? You write very good, emotionally-involving stories, and Harry keeping Severus and raising him himself was impossible with him being still so young, and primary target as the Boy-who-lived, but now the hate is gone, and Harry can see how Dumbledore manipulated Snape, and he could love the child very much, and be a very good influence on the child so that he helps him grow with a strong support system instead of the isolation and abuse he saw during the occlumency lessons. Keep up the good work. Zafaran zafaran@fastmail.fm

*cheers* *sniffles* *Hoo-ah!* *Aw! *Hurray!*

Uh, and lots more stuff like that. As always, I love your stories. Sorry I wasn't around to comment as it went along; been terribly busy.

I'm looking forward to catching up with The Horse though. :)

Steven. Heh.

You said Snape is borderline psychotic and no happy ending in canon - absolutely on the money there!