The way I started my story was pretty far removed from my normal writing style, but it seemed to feed into and augment the story, so I didn't try to change it (although I wondered at times whether I should!). I'm still pretty new to fiction writing, but I've learned to trust my instincts, and if a story (or part of one) cries out for a different style, if that's what drives the action, etc., I'll just go with it, and the stream of consciousness seemed to be on target for this one. (If I were buried alive, gasping for breath, I'm not sure I could even think in complete sentences!)

I thought the scene with Snape rushing off to find the letter was quite dramatic. I'd wondered how to get him into an action sequence-- instead of just talking with Harry in the hospital wing-- and the message from Lily helped to round out the story as a whole!

Believe it or not, I actually wrote this including Lily's forgiveness, then had to go check "Deathly Hallows" again, just to make sure she hadn't forgiven Sev outside of Gryffindor Tower and I'd simply forgotten about it. I've read so many different fanfic situations, I honestly couldn't remember that bit of canon! ARG! But my instinct was right on, and I'm glad I could work this into the "buried alive" story, with Harry seeing and receiving the messages from Lily while he was still in the coffin. (Check out my response to Jan_AQ below for a further bit of info!)

Oh dear! The other "S" word appears: "sequel"! I really wrote this to be a self-contained story without a specific sequel planned (sorry!), since my focus (now that I'm FINALLY able to get stories posted!) is to explore different stories, rather than go immediately into a sequel following my first story. However, I won't say "NEVER"-- if I'm ever totally stuck for an idea to write about, I may revisit this one! :-)

As for Draco-- I'm not really into writing TORTURE yet! I'll leave that up to your imagination. Let's just say, I'm sure Voldemort won't just hand him a Tuesday-night detention!

Thanks for reading, and especially for reviewing! All of the reviews have been very positive so far, so I'm hoping the other readers (the 99% who don't post reviews) also enjoyed it!