Thank you so much for a wonderfully written one-shot.
Indeed, I've always heard about nine lives, but seven is also a symbolic number, as well as a powerful one.
Minerva is a great character, and very few writers succeed in writing her right. You are one of them, as well as Ariadne..
I like your AU; Snape should be alive! Snape should have the opportunity to live, for once!
Again, many thanks!

~Lady Hermione Jane Black Lestrange Riddle Voldemort~

Very beautiful. Yes, Minerva does seem very serene. I'm not sure exactly what we're supposed to guess about her view of Snape, it doesn't seem romantic, but the fact that she wished she had been there at his death (if I've understood correctly) seems very intimate indeed, even for a collegue and former teacher. I enjoyed this very much.
Isa

I truly liked the idea of this story - Minerva's last life as a portrait, the story told from the portrait's POV, and the seven-lives-thing with cats - yes, why shouldn't it apply to a cat animagus, it's a magical world after all.

I have only two minor points of critisism, first, I find it hard to think of Snape as "elegant" - tall, thin and dressed in black comes with some dark glamour, but elegant is overdoing it. I immediately thought of Lord Vetinari or Death or Dracula, or Lucius Malfoy.
Secondly, I don't think Snape would ever become Headmaster of Hogwarts. Even if the WW in general forgives him, and he survives the war and all that... I just don't see him returning to Hogwarts, especially as the Headmaster. But that's just my impression, and it really does not matter much - the Minerva/Portrait and Severus/Headmaster scenario works for your story and that's what matters.

Many the things I loved in this fic.
First of all, your skill to make us guess the characters of the story, without telling names: few hints like a tabby cat, a twinkling of an eye, the black fabric of a robe.
Secondly, though we are reading the thoughts of a portrait, the scene is not static but, changing a bit Imhilien’s title, full of life: we sense the complicity between the headmasters and the active and fond caring for the new one. Wonderful that moving image of “black fabric just seen vanishing through the open door”.
Finally, I adore Minerva and you made, like the painter, a good picture. Few brush strokes and you have told us her spirit and story life.
I also want to believe firmly that to the indivisible trio among students, corresponds an equally strong and trustworthy trio among the professors. You’re right: that vision in the Foe-glass could be the definitive prove of her loyalty despite of some disturbingly evil signs.

I like the way you used Imhilien's title. I'd never thought of it as having that interpretation before. In fact, great ending.

There are not many from whom I care to read straight narration, but I do enjoy your narratives. You always have great depth of feeling in your writing. As for Minerva, I do hope she has some care for Snape. I like to believe that she does.

Very nice, as ever - you have a very good visual imagination for things like her tabby-coloured hair.