This was excellent! Your characterization was perfect, and it was a wonderful little insight into how Severus felt about himself and Albus.

A great story. Very well written.

Madbrad: As I see it, Severus considered Dumbledore to be lying--perhaps to himself as well as to Snape--about being "truly sorry" for all the suffering he laid on Snape.

I can't say I blame him. Dumbles seemed to feel genuine attachment to Harry, despite having to use him as a tool, but he always appears to be faking what little fondness he shows for Severus. Dumbledore certainly had his favorites: his gallant, attractive young Gryffindors, merry pranksters, manly little fellows. I can't imagine him doing anything improper with them, but he obviously liked having them around.

Excellent story, written with precision and no wasted words. I love seeing the English language used so well.

Me likey, although I'm amused by some of the other reactions. Why is it that Snapefen find Dumbledore going 'You disgust me' so unforgivable? Snape had just admitted to sending Voldemort after an innocent family, and only backed out when he learned that one of them was the woman he was obsessed with. That's pretty disgusting.

I enjoy reading little fics like this that really dig deep into Snape's character. I've noticed that lately a lot of writers have perverted Snape's integrity and, in turn, have made him a hollow shell of his canon self. This just reminds me that I'm not wasting my time here. Thank you.

This was really good! I haven't read any of your stories for a while--"The Guardian in Spite of Herself" hadn't updated in so long that I thought maybe you'd stopped writing altogether--but then I decided to take a glance at your profile page and found this.

I like the glimpse at some of the things that were going on at Hogwarts during DH, and particularly Snape's balancing act of trying to protect the students as much as he can without giving away the fact that he really isn't loyal to Voldemort. I also liked how the ending implied Snape's resentment at being used by Dumbledore. I wonder if some of his animosity towards Harry was partly contempt that Harry was unable to see how he, too, was being used...?

Anyway, great story!

Good work, although I can't see Snape *suggesting* Cruciatus. He is quite startlingly non-violent in canon. Even when people (or an animal like Buckbeak) try to kill him, he does not attack back.

I've always rather thought the Carrows worked their way towards Cruciatus rather than starting with it, based on Neville's comment that DA activities "got more difficult as time went on ... and then Micheal Corner went and got caught ... and they tortured him pretty badly. That scared people off." But canon doesn't explicitly say when the punishments got that bad.

Honestly, I'm wondering which part of Dumbledore's comment that "LIAR" was aimed towards. All of it?

Yes, indeed. Albus already said what he _really_ felt--'You disgust me' and 'Draco's soul is important, but not yours'. I think any reassurances after it is far too late for Snape to survive either side of this war ring rather hollow.

Some regrets _do_ come too late. At Kings Cross Road, all Albus had to say about the matter was 'poor Severus', as he would discuss any failed tool. We all know that only Harry was really important to Dumbledore, and only as long as he was needed to defeat Voldemort.

For the Greater Good, of course.

This little story is made of win; I was hooked within the first few sentences. It was a great way to snare the reader by presenting the (shocking!) idea of an atrocity occurring at Hogwarts way beyond the (sanitised) events that we heard of indirectly in the canon. The word 'abattoir' -- what a brilliant choice of a word! Seriously, it was on reading that word that my demeanour turned a right-angle and I moved into oh-my-goodness mode on this story, desperate to find out why in blazes Snape would have said such a thing.

Even now I'm uncertain as to whether a student actually *died*; whether Ginny was merely the second most damaged pupil from the Carrows' class. But even if she and her peers were obliviated, surely the parents of the dead child would have to be notified of the death? Hm. If a student *wasn't* killed then the 'abattoir' word and the 'never risk the death of a student' (and I note that Snape doesn't say "never *again* risk the death ...") isn't quite merited.

Still, once shocked into oh-my-goodness mode, I really enjoyed Snape's reasons, marshalled for the Carrows, on why their beastly instincts should be tempered. The cleverness of his words were very satisfying to read, how he was able to hook into Voldemort's policies without letting slip his true motivation (which of course was something we readers know about, and which added the extra depth to the story, our appreciating his twisting the Carrows' loyalty to their cause in his favour). I really liked his cleverness in adopting the party line to control the Carrows. The final 'hostages' remark which did the trick was inspired ... well, something I wouldn't have thought up, which is why I liked it so much, that 'cleverness' factor of the story.

I didn't understand the 'LIAR' bit, though, so I guess I missed anything attached to that climax of the story; that bit didn't work for me. It seemed that Snape was ... berating himself for lying to the Carrows? Or to Dumbledore? But the Snape that we know from the "The Prince's Tale" chapter seemed to be quite candid with Dumbledore, no secrets, so why would he be upset at lying to his mentor? And there'd be no reason to chastise himself for lying to the beasts known as the Carrows.

Someone like Snape - an intellectual precisionist, someone who was on Dumbledore's side for more than a decade, someone who was such an integral part of Dumbledore's plans and so forth ... I don't grok why he'd be unsettled/unstable/worried enough to write that 'LIAR' word. As if he was internally *troubled* about what he was doing. While I don't think much of Rowling's simplistic excuse for Snape's motivations - 16+ years of spying and dedication to Dumbledore all because of a childhood crush on a girl who'd ended up spurning his affection and marrying his worst enemy (!) - I do think the canon tries to give us a Snape who was most definitely and unequivocally dedicated to his side/task, with no uncertainty or ambivalence attached to his decision.

So yes, an excellent little ficlet, but I'm afraid this poor reader was left with a question mark hovering over what I guess was a punch line at the very end?

Would you be so kind as to point me to the forum/area where this challenge was posed? I'm a big fan of Paracelsus and wouldn't mind visiting any locale which he frequents! :-)

Really great start! I think you nailed Snape's part, as well as Dumbledore's interference.