While I hated that Snape died in the last book, and that many viewed him as an irredeemable psycho-stalker, I also hated that Harry ended up with Ginny, and Hermione with Ron, but it never occurred to me to take the initiative and write it the way I would have liked the story to have gone. Granted, I would never have thought to have Snape and Harry become friendly, let alone become family, but I've read a number of well-written stories on the subject, many of which inspired me to contribute my own version. I liked some of those stories better than others for the exact reason that you give for not liking many H/Hr pairings: Most fics overdo and make it unbelievable.

I have to say that I'm glad you appreciate that I'm 'not going the cheesy-easy route and having Snape and Harry make up immediately'. You'd be surprised - or maybe not - by some of the comments I get from people who find the conflict scenes difficult to read. I suppose I could egotistically chalk that up to my writing skills, but I think that people generally read these adoption/mentor/guardian fics for the feel-good aspect, because as bitter as Snape and Harry's interactions were in the books, if you're going to write a piece where they become family, by God there had better be some Fluff in it! Having said that, I couldn't write a piece that consisted solely of a cherubic Harry and doting, indulgent Snape, though, to be honest, when I first started writing this story, I did rush the relationship along so that Snape was adopting Harry back in October, instead of January, but after carefully reading over what I had written, I decided to slow my roll and do my best to make the story more emotionally realistic; it's interesting to me to figure out how to effectively craft the scenes dealing with the uglier side of the situation, but not go overboard. I think I've done a decent job with that. I hope I've done a decent job with that.

This is the first time I've written anything outside of papers for English class (I majored in English), so I was terribly hesitant to post what I'd written 'cause I was uncertain as to how it would be received. The responses I have received though prompted me to take writing classes. I work at the university I graduated from, so getting back into it was a breeze. The school now has a writing program, something they didn't have when I attended before. I'm learning a lot in my classes, but I learned a wealth of tricks and tips trolling the web, and I learned even more by simply reading and reading and reading! There is some truly excellent writing out there; there's also some truly horrific stuff where you want to gouge your eyes out for having read it and you think, "Really? They thought that was good?"

Anyhoo, before this devolves into some novel-length rant, let me say that it took me a while to respond because I wanted to be clear on how much I appreciated you taking the time to write that review. Thanks again.

~Ruth7019