Okay, so I couldn't say away...

For your questions... if you're still wondering. Your characterization has been great and your plot very original. I mean the Snape's really Harry's dad isn't original persay lol, but how you've gone about it is really interesting. You've really given Snape and Lily's past relationship a lot of depth, it seems real. And how Harry discovers their relationship is cool too.

About the torture... I agree with you. The detail isn't really all that important, unless it gives the story significance. And once you've read about the torture, the images stick in your head... and I don't really need to many torture images-too sad.

My thoughts on this chapter. Perhaps you should mention that Snape hated Harry because he thought Harry was the result of Lily affair with Jamesr. And he was a physical reminder of Lily's unfaithfullness and the reason for their relationship to end. I suppose you do, in one sentece- you mentioned Snape hated that Harry was a constant reminder of Lily chosing James, but that was after a couple of paragraphs describing reason's he hated Harry. And it skips on to hating the fact lily died for them... In my opinion, I think Snape's hatred would focus mostly on the fact Harry was the result of the affair and stem to the other things... do i make sense at all? Oh and I think one of the reasons Snape might start to reconsider his hatred towards Harry is because he found out the boy isn't the same baby... and that there was never an affair... Oh that leads me to what dumbledore told Snape... that Snape killed his own baby, that's so sad! AAHHH I can't wait to get to the part where Snape finds out the truth...