I know this story is on hiatus, but man, you've got an amazing load of words here. This is simply -astounding-.

Wishing you good writing,
~V.

You must update, this is absolutly brilliant! Well done, so original and well written.

You know I usually like your work, but in this one there are too many long mystical descriptive words, a lot of nouns of 2-3 adverbs each, and it sort of distracts the reader away from understanding what's actually happening in the story, it would be advisable to use a higher verb to adjective ratio, so we can see a plot visible.

WOW! I never would have thought Sweet was a DE (because of what happened to Eileen)but...wow. And Severus facing off against the death eaters, his drive for revenge, the emotions are so great. :D I love this story, I hope the next chapter comes along soon. :D

SPLENDID CHAPTER! I enjoyed it all - especially Severus observing the fight and most of all the end with Sweet. Now, you really can't let us wait long. (-:

I'm glad you didn't have Snape wipe the floor with those death eaters (and gave Albus a bit of a hard time of it as well). It made the characters more believable instead of giving them some phony God-like characteristics. (Not that I'm against such au stories in general, mind; you just seem to be going for something more realistic here. ...just struck me how funny to think of a fantasy fandom as realistic or not. lol)

Well, that's certainly in character - rushing into danger to save someone else.

It's beautifully written, and I love it as a story per se, yet at the same time I can't really believe it as a story about the characters in the books.

We know, in the books, that Snape was very much the injured party in the hex-war with the Marauders, both because the nickname Snivellus implies that they knew how to make him cry and enjoyed doing so, and, even more so, because Lily asked James what Snape had ever done to him, and James could come up with nothing better than "the fact that he exists". It would have been very much to his advantage at that point to come up with a half convincing excuse - and he had none at all.

Snape also does not seem to have featured in Filch's index-file-o'-crimes. And we know that the Slicing Hex which he himself invented, Sectumsempra, is quite restrained rather than reckless and ruthless. We know this because Harry, in a panic and not even knowing what it did, took an almighty hack at Draco with it with all the considerable force at his disposal and Draco still apparently had a head, four limbs and all his internal organs afterwards. Clearly, Sectumsempra is the magical equivalent of a pocket-knife, not an axe.

So although I love the story, and Sweet is a fascinating character, at the same time I have to see it as very AU.

Very dramatic. So he's angry with Neville because he sees himself in him?

Sweet, in fact, acts rather as Snape himself will later act.

Sweet, presumably?

I'm reading this in the middle of the night, so I'm too sleepy to make any very interesting comments.

Very nice descriptions.

Fascinating stuff, very well-written.

Actually, 22 reviews from 800 hits is quite a good average - I find one usually gets one review for every fifty to a hundred hits.

Wow, another great chapter! I really do hate your Ollivander, he's so very evil. I'm going to feel very nice when he finally meets his end. And Sirius, what a prat! He deserved the slashing hex, and I'm not surprised Sweet was upset after waht he said about Eileen. But I am worried, with Sweet getting in trouble and his ominous "or at least I hope" comment; that worries me. I hope he won't get fired, but seeing as there isn't an Icarus Sweet employed at Hogwarts when the canon takes place, I'm betting he does. As long as he doesn't die. *dropping subtle hints/pleas* Anyways, another great addition to the story. I hope you are able to update again soon. :D

You updated! *does update dance* To hell with school and all its unfair demands on one's time. :(

First of all, I loved the formal and ironic prose, the way the seemingly polite words kept throwing out little barbs. Quite fitting for the tone of the story, really.

Great play of emotions throughout, too, the vicious stabs, large and small, between characters, the delicate yet resilient underpinnings of respect and friendship, the sonorous notes of authority. Even though Voldemort is hardly mentioned it's easy to see how the stresses inherent in that conflict are igniting these incidents, and pushing young and old alike to breaking point.

I also think this chapter, along with Chapter 8, emphatically display how truly dangerous a character Severus is. An explosive temper, fierce loyalty to a few friends, equally fierce animosity to enemies, a lack of caring for humanity in general, unthinking recklessness when driven, a teenager's willful stubbornness, a headstrong and unshakable will, unusual intelligence, a dragon friend, a shared soul with a dragon, and powerful magical talent are all dangerous in of themselves. Roll them all together into one troubled teenaged boy and you start counting down to calamity.

Severus in this story (and in the canon) is a loose cannon in the truest sense, beholden to none, controllable by no one. If anything he's even more dangerous as a teenager, caught in the grip of ferocious passions that he is ill-equipped to control. As if all this were not enough, the fact that he doesn't give a fig about public opinion or conventions means no one has any meaningful hold on him unless he chooses to be held. This is the mode in which I love the character best--hats off for the terrific portrayal.

The small moments of simple companionship stand out all the more against such a turmoil of conflicting emotions, pasts, and goals. Severus's scenes with Sweet and Muninn were heartwrenching islands of warmth in an increasingly turbulent wizarding world. Severus's generosity of spirit was all the more poignant because, as we well know, he is not generally a forgiving individual. :) Severus and Muninn's friendship, and Severus's forgiveness of Muninn's deception (or "expedient omission," if you will), are stirring examples of beautiful things arising from evil.

A disturbing possibility comes to mind... Would the events of that night mean that Muninn and Severus are each other's living Horcruxes? If so, it's both extraordinarily cruel and just plain extraordinary. Cruel, that a child underwent the trauma of splitting his soul without his knowledge and without fault; extraordinary, because he was able to do so without murdering anyone, but in fact through an act of mercy. Because of the way it was done I'd imagine the soul-splitting process was much more benign than in, say, Tom Riddle's case. Just like in Lord of the Rings, the very book referred to earlier in the story, means have a way of defining outcomes--and mercy is never a mistake.

Nevertheless, I don't believe the loss of part of his soul really helped Severus's already troubled psyche, either. It may have helped provoke him to public displays of murderous rage against Ollivander, for one thing. If he and Muninn share a part of each other's soul--just where does Severus and and Muninn begin? Does Severus even realize the depth of sacrifice his own compassion, and Muninn's desperation, might have led him into? Or is he too lonely to care, as long as he has someone to call friend? Questions abound, in a nice tingly kind of way. :)

Well, it seems I've rambled enough. Fun, well-written, and above all satisfying chapter all around, great job! This humble reviewer tries hard, oh so hard, not to prod and push for more updates because she is good, obedient, patient (oh so patient) reader, yes she is... *fumbles out, furtively throwing hopeful glances*