Oh, this is brilliant! I love it! I love when writers take a slightly different approach to canon events, and your story is so clever! You've also really done your research. Are you native to Britain? You seem to have a familiarity with places and institutions and government... or did you just research that well? (Asking as a fellow writer with strong Ravenclaw/Hermione tendencies.)

Anyway... onward!

Arsinoe,
I write in the hopes that you're still getting your "fan mail". I just wanted to take a moment to say I love your writing and your storytelling. There is something soothing and peaceful in the way you write Severus, in particular, and that means a lot to me. My best friend, who died of cancer two years ago, was a Snape/Rickman impersonator/enactor, and brilliant at it. He was a gentle and soothing person, who nevertheless could be hysterically funny and sarcastic.

When you wrote about Harry watching Snape's hands, it brought to mind forcefully my friend's hands. Like Snape, he was tall and dark, and his fingers were exactly as you described Snape's...

Anyway - beautiful storytelling so far. I'm so glad this is a loooonnnng tale. Back to it, and thank you for such a delight.

So, it's incredibly funny because you prefaced chapter 4 (or 5) with an overly long author note saying you wouldn't bash Dumbledore nor write him as a villain.

Then, you write this chapter.

I'm sorry, this is too entirely fucking retarded. I'm laughing right now.

your author's note making excuses for why james would leave his son with nothing are trash, you honestly don't want a rich harry or with at least enough to live well and that's it, isn't albus a thief? It is not even worse than that, it is a dark lord disguised as a nice grandfather and in the little that has come out you have already made it clear, just because it is not part of the story (just your excuses for why Harry has nothing) it is because I have not already abandoned the story.

Honestly, your excuses are useless, Lily, with how smart she is, she should have done something, investments so as not to be left with nothing, draw a line for her husband... SOMETHING, but no, she hasn't... I sincerely hope that something well it happened to harry beyond finally receiving a humane treatment... if not this story could well be deleted from this page, it wouldn't be a great loss for the community

I have been on the verge of abandoning your story because of what you have done to the Potters, I doubt James would have done that without spells or potions involved, and if he did it of his own free will you have written the worst James Potter I have ever read and that he is not even alive, there is no logic whatsoever and I sincerely hope that you solve it somehow, harry potter cannot be poor and currently he is... if there is something that bad again I will send this story to hell

Ughh. Don't get me wrong, the story is quite decent, but it would be better without interspersing french words here and there. English isn't my native language as it is, and I had no plans to be forced to learn french as well.
Otherwise cheers for huffpuff!Harry, that's a rare one

That whole "unknown adult man tells a kid he's magical and then takes that pre-teen in secluded corner and asks him to adjust his clothes" is a paedophile thing waiting to happen. I do hope no kids would be abused in real world under the guise of Hogwarts letter. Ouch.

I really like this story.

" If you gaze too long into an abiss; the abiss Will gaze you" that is a very good Nietzsche 's quite about desires and instincts

Thank you for this amazing story.
My condolences to your family, I was completelly gutted when I read on your bio that you passed away.
Your stories wil live on and you will be remembered fondly by many of us here in ffnet.

How awful of his parents to use the entire family fortune like that. If I were the Potter Ancestors I'd be pissed. Using some to help the war is one thing but all of it?

Regarding the idea that Tom Riddle's "bad blood" made him bad. Yes, bad science. I would like to say in JKR's defense, that she was writing a series of childrens' books, rather like the Anne of Green Gables series. She uses traditional literary themes, such as orphaned protagonist, or a protagonist whose parents do not observe his adventures closely. Another traditional theme, (which I think she may have used unconsciously,) is good or bad blood. This was a big thing a hundred years ago and more. Anne of Green Gables was a protagonist who was orphaned so young she could not recall anything about her parents, and raised by people of lesser education.
Even though she was put to work at a young age, like Harry, she managed to take advantage of having learned to read, (compulsory education was a thing in most of Canada by the turn of the century.) Anne was an enthusiastic reader, although raised in less intellectual households, and even passed from one home to another as a child worker, to care for babies.
In one of the later books, Anne learns more about her parents, and lo and behold! Anne's parents were both high school teachers with good manners, "nice ways", and good brains. They also loved Anne very much, although she was only a few months old when both her parents died.
By the way, another theme is the tragic flaw, which is what killed Snape in the books. When we were reading these books as a family, (isn't that wholesome? I come from such "nice people.") As soon as it was revealed that Snape was a reformed Deatheater, I announced to the family that he would die before the books were over. Just another literary tradition.

I can totally relate to being the odd duck out. Funnily enough, my parents and I also moved to Kentucky when I was younger, and while I have a few good friends, I still (After nearly two decades of living here) feel like an outcast sometimes. It's hard as a child to move around and go to new schools, especially starting in a school where most people know each other in some shape or form.

Awesome story. Really, really enjoyed reading it

This is one brilliant redemption of the old snaps-saves-Harry plot