I never expected to find some of the material here on P&S, but this ended up being a beautiful tale of redemption and renewal! It felt realistic that Harry and Severus would both suffer in the aftermath of the war, and would need help picking up the pieces. Who better than each other.
A beautifully-written, moving and convincing story. Thank you so much for writing it.
Beautiful story of love and restoration.
love it!! like severus was able to have a real life...
I generally go for stories where Snape or Harry saves the other. I had recently tired of graphic Snarry stories elsewhere, so came here to read a Snarry story or two at a site I KNEW did not allow slash. Imagine my surprise reading about the kind of sexual abuse that Snape had undergone--or the erection and semen use in the spell! If it weren't for the design, I wouldn't have thought I was at P&S!
I think the fact that semen was involved at all (coupled with Snape's erection), pushed this story into a different category, drama-wise. I am not a prude--I admitted at the beginning of this review that I was reading Snarry slash elsewhere--and I am VERY well over the age of consent. But the level of intensity wrought by the sexual juice aspect of the spell ramped up one's expectations on a dramatic level as well. Certainly Harry and Snape did not have to become lovers. But the story just felt truncated, cut short, to me. The spell scene had been so intimate, with Harry and Snape necessarily being closer because of the spell, it just felt like that whole last chapter was "told about" rather than shown. Your earlier chapters show Harry actively interacting with not only Snape, but Ron and Hermione as well. Whereas in the epilog, we hear about Snape's changes, and Harry's lives as they're supposed to have moved on. But we didn't get to really FEEL those changes. Another thing: Snape (as a surname) has a more distancing feel to it. Imagine if Harry were only described as "Potter" throughout. Yet even just describing the actions in the epilog, it's Harry and Snape, not Harry and Severus--even if 'Steven' was mentioned. It's like Snape never truly recovered--the use of his surname to describe him kept him and his progress at an emotional remove to the reader. He started as Snape, he ended as Snape. Had you replaced all your mentions of "Snape" with "Severus" in this chapter, we would have felt his change more, it would have felt more intimate, period.
I'm always glad to find stories where Snape is rescued by Harry, including this one. I'm just saying this particular story had a few problems for me. But thank you for having written it--I do appreciate all your hard work! Please know I submit this respectfully--no insult or hard feelings intended, at all. If I didn't like the story as well as I did, I would never have read through to the end, nor told you the few things that seemed to me could have been tightened up to make it even better. Keep on writing--you're doing well.
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