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Reviews For For The Boy Who Has Everything
First, I find it hard to believe he is in the arms of his lover's mortal enemy within a month or two of Sirius' death. Then his wishy washy treatment of Harry has me completely enraged. This is a great fic and a nice unique turn for a very well used story line, but I find it hard to read at times. It feels like Harry is being abused worse than at the hards of the Dursleys. No one will tell him what is going on and no one is helping him to heal from all that has happened. Actually, I think that is why I hate Lupin. He is drowning in self-pity and has latched onto Snape, who seems to actually be able to offer comfort to him at times, yet he can't seem to get it together enough to realize that Harry, a 15 year old teenager, may need a little help himself. He spouts that he is not going to be alone for another 12 years, well sorry but Harry grew up completely unloved and just lost the only two adults he ever felt love from. Can't really work up much angst for Lupin under the cercumstances. Author's Response: Lupin has his own problems and a platter full of his own issues. Under the circumstances he is actually doing pretty well. We heard him admit to Snape that he blames Harry for what happened at the Ministry, and he has a valid reason blame Harry. In canon, Lupin barely seemed to care that Harry was alive. I think Lupin might be being slightly misjudged. A lot of his "weakness" in regards to Harry is really a reflection of Snape's stubborness. By virtue of being (a) Harry's father, (b) Harry's legal guardian, and (c) not a maligned werewolf, Snape controls the situation. As for his relationship with Snape, I think you hit on a real issue. He's on the worst kind of rebound and there's no particular evidence (even accounting for Harry's point of view) that the relationship is a very functional one. I'm glad you are outraged for Harry. I love that I can bring out any sort of emotion in a reader. :-) You are supposed to be on Harry's side in this, after all.
Author's Response: Snape going overboard with "I'm going to drum some sense into you if it kills both of us" is really my favorite kind of Snape. I think it's about time someone made Harry do some real school work. The little dunce is really not applying himself in most of his subjects. :P
Author's Response: Snape seems to think Harry is too dimwitted to be allowed to put on his own socks without supervision; what is this 'rights' of which you speak? :-)
It will be interesting to see how you develop a real relationship between Harry and Severus. I've got to admit, though, that right now I really dislike Severus and Lupin too. Lupin seems pathetically weak and Severus is just plain mean. Which actually they were pretty much in canon, too, so you are doing a good job with the characters in this very new setting. Author's Response: If one simple word had to be chosen to describe the canon characters of Snape and Lupin, I think "weak" for Lupin and "mean" for Snape would be very good choices. Lupin does have a weak character, and Snape is not a nice person.
Author's Response: Yes; any faster would have to be at the expense of Snape's character. I'm glad it's still enjoyable despite the lack of touchy-feelies.
Author's Response: It hasn't been too hard yet to pretend to be Hadrian. I suspect that once the reality of it sets in, he will find it more difficult. Not to mention what will happen when he finds out that he's Snape's son for real. On the other hand, I think the exploding!Harry thing is overdone in a lot of Severitus/Sevitus stories, and Harry in this story might not be as much of a drama queen.
Anyway, the plot thickens...
Of course, with this schedule he might not have time to meet with Ron as often as Lupin had indicated. It'll be interesting to see how long Harry will last with education-overload before he blows. :-) Author's Response: I'll be more curious to see how long SNAPE will last with that schedule. He might regret his decision to spend so much time in Harry's company. I do think, though, that Harry's exaggerating the heaviness of his new schedule just a little bit. I mean, even Snape would let him get a full night of sleep, for pete's sake. :P
Author's Response: Look at it from Snape's point of view -- he finally has some proper control over the lazy brat's schooling. You can't blame him for going a bit overboard. :-D
First, I love your writing style. I like the very original idea of having Dumbledore die at the end of OOTP, thereby removing much of the explanatory info Harry gets at the end, the prophecy, etc. And it really makes it very believable that members of the Order, in particular Lupin and Snape, would have a very difficult time dealing with their own feelings about Harry. In many ways Sirius, and in your story Dumbledore, died because of Harry's mistakes that eventually led him to go to the Department of Mysteries, thereby forcing the Order to go rescue him. Lupin, in your story, has lost someone extremely close to him with Sirius' death. We know from HBP that Lupin would have also been grief stricken at Dumbledore's death. And Dumbledore's death would have vastly affected Snape as well. And that's just the emotional toll on them. They're also having to deal with a great amount of trouble from Fudge and public opinion, all stemming from, as they would see it, the inability of Harry to do as adults instruct him to do, and instead take matters into his own hands. In your story, Lupin and Snape have gone through all this trauma and stress and are now risking Azkaban to keep Harry safe. Their attitude toward him isn't right, nor is it calculated to get the responses they really want, but it *is* very human and understandable. I love the way you've written everything from Harry's point of view and his slowly growing realizations of what's really going on. And of course, the reader sometimes "gets it" before Harry. I don't see this as an extremely dark story, but it does have a grittiness to it that is very appealing, as the characters react with very believable, if flawed, responses and attitudes. Your take on Lupin, by the way, is excellent. This is a guy who was so protective of *himself* that in POA he kept vital information regarding the safety of hundreds of children, and Harry in particular, secret for months solely so he wouldn't lose the goodwill of Dumbledore. And after POA, he did not contact Harry in any way to offer any support, leaving that to Sirius. Even after Sirius' death, in canon, we don't see Lupin attempting to contact Harry to offer any comfort or support. And in POA he is willing in very cold blood to kill a cringing, pleading unarmed man in front of 3 thirteen year old kids. I don't dislike Lupin, but he is a very flawed character, even in canon. I also find your depiction of the relationship between Snape and Lupin to be fascinating, as Snape continues to have a somewhat negative view of Lupin, even as he also apparently cares for him. And of course, that's a very Snapish sort of way to be. I hope you're able to continue this story as it's quite original, a fascinating set of character studies, and very well written. Author's Response: Reviews like yours are not only awesome for their own sake, but also provide so much food for thought. Truly, thank you for taking the time. Dumbledore is usually such a prominent character in fics involving Harry developing some kind of positive relationship with Snape, but in 99% of them he is the same character recycled over and over. The kindly manipulator who does things (sometimes ugly things) for "their good." In most stories Dumbledore makes me gag. To have him meddling and twinkling his eyes throughout my story... no. I wanted him gone from the start. Fortunately this also presented some interesting subplots, like the unrevealed prophesy, chaos in the Ministry, and no one around to "control" Snape. |
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