Hi, Jenny,

I have started over on my response 3x because I want to find the right words to respond, and I'm still not sure if I am.  You are being considerate and polite, and I appreciate that and I respect your opinion.  I would not ask you or anyone else to delete your messages.  Everyone has a right to his/her opinion.  

Let me speak first to the matter of Dumbledore's manipulation.  I actually agree that it is a weak spot and OOC to the Dumbledore in my story.  It is a plot device because I needed to get Draco to Prince Hall and it was very difficult for me to think of a way to do so.  Now that Severus is Harry's father and is so upset and angry with Draco, I did not believe that he would want to allow Draco there, unless Harry agreed as well.  I could not think of a way to get Harry to agree unless he came to feel some degree of sympathy for the other boy and wanted to spare him from Azkaban.  The only way I could come up with was for Dumbledore to be involved.  It is a stretch.  But I am not a professional writer.  Fanfic is only a hobby and all I can do is my best.

Draco was not going to be under a enslavement spell.  He would have been presented with the choice of going to work for Harry and Severus at Prince Hall or facing a trial and prison.  I suppose I saw it as somewhat similar to a 'community-service' type sentence and I think it would have enabled Draco to have a greater understanding of how badly he had harmed Harry and to have empathy for others.

Since beginning Slave Child, I have done a lot of thinking about the message it might send.  There have been times when I have been almost scared because it seems to me that sometimes people are crediting me with being more intelligent and savvy than I truly am.  I never intended to make any grand philosophical statements.  I am simply playing with an idea and with characters that I love. 

But I realized that I did not want to appear to send the message that I support or believe in slavery.  Very much the opposite.  I have tried to show that, despite Severus' love and all of his attempts to reassure Harry, that Harry is still devestated by the slavery spell, that it has had a profound effect on him.  I had intended, by the end, to have an anti-slavery message.   

At least I intended to try to show that.  I don't know how well I would have succeeded. 

Thank you.  I think some of Draco's ability to 'hold up' was because for a long time, he was simply numb and shut off.  Also, he might well have taken opportunities to sneak off alone to grieve.  It would be really hard for him to allow anyone to see him vulnerable, but I think that his control was only a thin veneer and with the confrontation with Dumbledore and Severus, it finally cracked.