Aww, that is such a nice comment! I really enjoyed reading your thought and thanks for all the praise! McGonagall will get something to say in the next chapter, Dumbledore will play a minor role until the end. Hermione is kind of a walking lexicon, so I thought she'd have read up on all her professors in first year. I personally believe that you have to be really accomplished to even become a Hogwarts teacher, its such a prestigous school - the exception being Defense and Divination. I also think that could be a reason why Hermione doesn't like Trelawney, she just doesn't live up to Hogwarts standards and Dumbledore just keep her around to keep her safe and in close proximity (in case of another prophecy, you never know)

I think I said it somewhere - or will say it - in the text. Harry is a fairly good student if he wants to be, oyu can see that in Defense. He just mostly doesn't try very hard. He never had a reason before, no one cared about his grades. Now theres Severus and Harry really wants to get his approval, so he tries - that and his talent make him a good student in Potions.

Severus more likely thinks that Harry will have some intuition that could lead Snape in the right direction with his work. Its not like he understands the principles of potions better, he just has that natural instinct, so Severus believes he might have a hunch when the potions master is stuck. Fresh blood, you know? ;) But I'm not going to go into the experiment stage with them in this story, theres too much other stuff that's going to happen.

 Who did Snape study under? Well, I know it probably wasn't Slughorn, he's way too lazy for that kind of responsibillity but I think he would have pointed Sev in the right direction.

I am considdering writing a sequel, this story was always meant to establish a relationship between Sev and Harry - and leave it open until the end if Sev actually takes guardianship of Harry or not - I'm not going to reveal that now. The sequel would obviously have to deal with Lupin and Black and I don't know how I would fit them in there. I tried to stay pretty close to Canon in this story, but HP3 deals with the issue of Harrys parents and how he is an orphan and why so much that it would become difficult for a sequel - either way, if I put them together or if I have Sev abandon Harry. But if I write the story it would obviously be more interesting if Sev abandoned him. We'll see