Hi, and thanks for your comments.  They've really been making me think about the characters.  Someone on FF.N was really upset with Severus after this, too, and this is pretty much what I said...Severus is an interesting character, and he can be hard for me to write, especially when he's in his 'hating-Harry' mode.  I don't want to excuse his mistreatment of Harry, and I do think he's mistreated Harry, no doubt about that.  He has ever since the beginning.

But I have also wanted to portray Severus as somewhat sympathetic, or at least as someone that readers could understand why he acts the way he does.  "My" Severus is basically a decent person, but who's suffered a lot and is still struggling to rise above it.  He's cynical and sometimes bitter.  I think, under the best of circumstances, if he'd had a loving supportive family, he would still be introverted and have a few close friends rather than a wide circle (not that there's anything wrong with that, I'm like that myself).  But since he grew up surrounded by cold and abusive people, he does have a lot of serious issues.  He doesn't expect kindness or friendship from the world and he doesn't get much of it. 

But he does have a good heart underneath it all.  Even now, when he misjudges and despises Harry, it's been important to me to try to show him treating Harry with the innate respect that all people deserve.  He didn't want Harry to be a slave.  When he heard the news, he didn't dance around Dumbledore's office thinking, "Now I can really stick it to Potter!"  From the beginning, he's wanted to free Harry, but there just isn't a safe way to do it.

About this particular situation...yes, Severus behaved terribly, and he will come to see that.  But, and again I'm not condoning what he did, but he did think Harry had invaded his privacy (again...the Pensieve incident came back to bite Harry...though I also say Harry wasn't totally to blame for that either, since Severus had been invading Harry's privacy all through Occlumency lessons), and Severus really didn't intend for Harry to get hurt.

Well, I'm kind of rambling, but I guess it's because I know how I want to portray Severus, but I'm not sure I'm doing it well.  He's got his issues, as I said, and certainly he's got a lot of room for improvement.  But he's been badly scarred by his past and he's trying to rise above it, even if he doesn't always succeed.  But I do hope I've shown that he does have the potential to become a great caretaker who can be loyal and loving.

And as for Harry, well, of course he's got to survive...or else it would be a short, sad tale, wouldn't it?  But I don't do short, sad tales very well.  Poor kid is in for a rough time though, before things get better.