Thank you!  Fred and George were great fun to write.  :)  It's amusing to think about what sort of hat they made for Snape.  I keep imagining one of those Cat in the Hat rave-style hats.  :D

I have a fondness for knock-knock jokes that break out of the normal knock-knock joke format.  As a kid, my favorite one was, "Orange you glad I didn't say banana?"

Oh, good, I'm glad you hardly noticed the maneuvering.  That's what I was going for.  It's easy to say Snape is Slytherin, but I wanted to show it.  And not in a "Look! He's being sneaky!" way, but in a way where it's so subtle that he even manipulates the reader.  It's interactive fic!  :D  Anyway, it's about time Harry's hotheadedness allowed Snape to manipulate him into something other than a detention.

Neville having a better memory (and thus better potions skills) is a minor plot point that fit in well with a later chapter, although I didn't realize that when I was writing it.  I just tried to imagine how Snape's life spent caring for Lily and raising Harry would affect his role as a teacher.  I still don't think he's going to win any Teacher of the Year Awards, though.  :) 

Thank you so much for the detailed review!

Yes, summer approaches.  More on that later…

Thank you for posting!