Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Reviews For Cradle and All
Title: Chapter 5 01 Jun 2011 2:00 am
Reviewer: LegolasAnimeLuver (Signed) [Report This]
    AWESOME! Please have Hermione and Harry be soul-mates and please have Snape be Harry's biological father! It would just make this story even better!

    Author's Response:

    Romance isn't really a focus of this story.

     And, at least for the moment, the only couples that will be referred to will be canon. (As much as I personally dislike Harry/Ginny).

    The pairings really aren't going to be a focal point. It's really going to develop more with regard to Harry and Snape's relationship, and whether or not they can get over their mutual animosity, etc. Harry and Hermione's friendship will be very important, as she's going to be integral to keeping Harry focused, and sort've be there for him to lean on while everything is spinning out of control.

    So, sorry, but romance of any kind isn't very likely to be much involved in the story, except in passing mentions, or in the dynamics of how it would affect who's doing what. You'll see what I mean later on.

    Thank you for the review, and hopefully the lack of snogging won't chase you off!

Title: Chapter 2 14 May 2011 8:05 pm
Reviewer: Zireael07 (Signed) [Report This]
    I like the history behind Ciaran and the reasoning behind his name!
Title: Chapter 5 14 May 2011 8:05 pm
Reviewer: Zireael07 (Signed) [Report This]
    I love the story and can't wait to see what happens next to Harry and Ciaran!

    Author's Response: Thanks!
Title: Chapter 5 13 May 2011 5:45 am
Reviewer: ObsessiveaboutSnape (Signed) [Report This]
    I read this right after it was posted, but for some reason didn't review. I'm not nicely horrified, I'M COMPLETELY HORRIFIED!!! What kind of idiots are running the ministry these days!?!?!? They're freaking BABIES!!! I kind of feel like Harry should get Dobby and Kreacher and Winky and any other houseelves that will help, buy a huge manor stick it under Fidelius and some wicked house elf magic and steal all the little babies away... I may actually write that, one day...but STILL!!! I can't wait for you to update, so I can see how Harry handles this. he should so go all Vanquisher-of-He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on the Ministry and make them do as he wants....*le sigh*

    Author's Response:

    Thanks for the review!

    And no, Harry and Hermione are definitely not going to be shy about their opinion of this new program to eradicate Death Eater genes from the population.

    Especially since Harry is fighting so hard to keep Snape from going to Azkaban or being executed for Dumbledore's murder. If someone were to tie him to Voldemorte's breeding program...that would be even worse.

    I don't see them creating some kind of super!orphanage for all the Death Eaters' babies, but they will definitely be making their opinion heard at some point.

    As far as Harry throwing around some kind of Savior clout, I don't really see that happening on a large scale, because Harry would much prefer to stay out of the limelight as much as possible, and he's not very political-minded to begin with. Let's just say that his Slytherin qualities will come into play, but not on a political platform kind of thing.

Title: Chapter 5 25 Apr 2011 10:00 pm
Reviewer: Fmh (Signed) [Report This]
    Yes this is worse than Voldemort! I'm sure Harry & ahermione are not going to take this without a fight! Please update soon!
Title: Chapter 4 25 Apr 2011 9:54 pm
Reviewer: Fmh (Signed) [Report This]
    Well I cna sympathise with Harry Babies do scream all day every day! I have the scars to prove it! Love this but hope we move on soon to some plot twists!
Title: Chapter 5 23 Apr 2011 9:13 pm
Reviewer: Anonymous (Anonymous) [Report This]
    Da-yum... color me FREAKED. I've never seen THIS twist in fandom. * co-signs for the rest of this ride *
Title: Chapter 5 23 Apr 2011 4:55 pm
Reviewer: Rhyselle (Signed) [Report This]
    Oh, yes, I'm all "nicely horrified".

    Please remind me who is Minister of Magic at this time. I simply can't believe that even Fudge could be this inhumane.

    This is all too reminiscent of the Slaughter of the Innocents by King Herod and the Pharoh's slaying of the Hebrew firstborn in the Bible. Was that which inspired you?

    This actually sounds more like an attack against Muggleborns and Halfbloods to me, using the "No Deatheater Genes" argument to actually get the job done. It totally wrong to punish the babies and the mothers who came to love them despite the circumstances of their conception.

    I wonder just who really is behind this horrible policy. And who is actually performing the paternity tests? St. Mungo's? I rather doubt that, actually. I can't see healers being executioners. Someone with an eye to truth, or someone who would lie in order to get the outcome they really want?

    How were the babies killed? I'm not meaning to sound gruesomely curious, but formerly, the main versions of execution in the Wizarding World that we've seen is the Dementor's Kiss, McNair's headsman's axe, and, presumably, the gateway through the veil in the Department of Mysteries. Or was some poor Auror charged to do it with Aveda Kedavra? Poison?

    This sounds like time for Hermione and Harry to use their hold on Rita Skeeter and make her write articles to rouse the wizards and witches into rebellion against the new policy.

    Hmmm. Now that I'm thinking about it, putting the original articles into the Daily Prophet might end up having the wrong result than the Ministry wants. Forewarned,expectant mothers and the mothers and babies that haven't yet registered or gone in like "law-abiding" citizens could flee the country using either magical or muggle means.

    Frankly, if I'd been the one to come up with this policy, it wouldn't have been publicized to everyone but instead quietly order St. Mungo's to use a blood sample at the birth of each child be used to "officially determine paternity for more accurate records", and then arrange for someone to "take care of it" outside of public knowledge. A spate of unexplainable "crib deaths" or an "unexpected terminal birth defect" would achieve the same outcome without the political fallout that the policy is sure to engender.

    Of course, for Harry and little Cieran, the current policy must have enough loopholes (which, I'm sure Hermione will start to figure out once her initial horror is over with) that they'll find a way to save not just Snape's son, but the others.

    Otherwise, are we going to start seeing more wizarding babies put in figurative Moses baskets and "left in the reeds" for Muggle Pharoh's Daughters to find and care for?

    An excellent and engrossing story! I look forward to seeing how it all works out. Well done!

    Author's Response:

    The current Minister is Kingsley Shacklebolt. At the moment, I haven't decided if he's actively endorsing this program, or if it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.

    I like the correlation you found with King Herod, though that wasn't what I actually based this premise on. My idea sprung from the more recent Prima Nocte edict handed down by King Edward I of England, when British military tactics Epic Failed on conquering the Scots. If you can't stomp them out, breed them out, basically.

     Whether or not Voldemort would realize he was using a Muggle tactic, I'm not sure. He'd been pretty much bug-nuts by then, so I'd say it's 50/50 that he wasn't aware of the previous use of the tactic, or if he was fully aware and found it nicely ironic to use a Muggle method against their own so-called 'dirty blood'.

    As far as who's doing the testing, you're right, I can't see St. Mungo's doing the testing, especially when it's made clear what it's for. I assume they have some version of the Hippocratic oath, 'First, do no harm'. My guess (and this will likely all be fleshed out later in the story) is that it's some sub-division of the Auror Department, maybe even the Unspeakables (the name's gotta mean something, right?).

    And I wouldn't be horribly surprised if there weren't a few rotten apples messing with the results in some cases due to personal vendettas and whatnot.

    As far as the mothers pitching a fit and all, the general idea is that it's already ongoing, and that there HAS been resistence, hence the death sentence for mothers who refuse to give up their babies. Obviously, they must be Death Eater sympathizers, and guilty by association--at least according to those in charge of the program.

    And yes, there is likely to be a mass exodus of families who haven't registered or been tested, and possibly even those who are willing to protect and hide them, sort of like an Underground Railroad type of thing, except instead of smuggling out slaves or muggleborns/halfbloods, they'll be smuggling out women and their families who were involved in Voldemort's breeding program.

    As far as it being publicized...with the implication that some of the babies' mothers resisted and 'had' to be killed, I think it was made public on purpose, so the Ministry could control what was initially said, instead of having someone send in furious letters to the paper and having those published before the Ministry could put its own spin on the situation. The Daily Prophet is still very much in the Ministry's pocket, but some of their reporters, like the aforementioned Rita Skeeter, would throw them over in a second for more sensationalized news.

     With regard to loopholes, yes, Harry and Hermione will definitely be looking for those, as well as ways of keeping Ciaran off of the radar altogether. I doubt they will be satisfied with a loophole for him, when the Ministry may come back at a later date and find some quasi-logical reason for it not to apply.

    As the program is more widely known, I anticipate there being a lot of desperate parents trying to save their babies by any means possible, so we'll see. A sudden increase in abandoned babies may or may not happen--it would stand to reason that would look suspicious, and abandoned babies might start being automatically assumed to belong to Death Eaters, and then they'd be no better off.

     I am working on all of these angles--despite it having been so long since I've updated, I haven't abandoned the story.

    I just live in Tornado Alley, and we've had a very rough couple of months with multiple Evil-Storms-From-Hell, and we're just getting to the point where there aren't holes in the house, power poles snapped and tangled in live power lines, and 75+ year old trees down all over the yard, so up til recently, I haven't had any time to write between work and cleanup. It's been utterly insane!

    Thank you very much for the long and detailed review. I love it when I can see the wheels spinning in my readers' heads, and know that I've accomplished making you get invested in the story.

Title: Chapter 5 21 Apr 2011 1:40 am
Reviewer: ObsessiveaboutSnape (Signed) [Report This]
    I AM nicely Horrified, though I'm not sure there's anything nice about it.....

    Author's Response:

    Thanks for the review!

    And, I'm glad you're horrified. I get worried about the mental states of fanfic readers sometimes when they gush too much about how wonderful a chapter on murder, torture, etc was. I'm like, "That wasn't wonderful, it was AWFUL!"

    It's good to see you guys reacting all outraged rather than cheering at the prospect of blood the way some fans do, not that I'm not encouraged by the fact that so many of you are obviously reading and enjoying the story as a whole. That's part of what makes it so fun for me to write.

    I should have the next chapter up sometime this weekend. Trust me that Harry isn't going to take this latest moronic move by the Ministry lying down.

Title: Chapter 5 21 Apr 2011 12:52 am
Reviewer: DazzlingD (Signed) [Report This]
    was properly horrified.

    Author's Response: Glad to hear it! Thanks for the review!

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