Hi, Jenny,

I have started over on my response 3x because I want to find the right words to respond, and I'm still not sure if I am.  You are being considerate and polite, and I appreciate that and I respect your opinion.  I would not ask you or anyone else to delete your messages.  Everyone has a right to his/her opinion.  

Let me speak first to the matter of Dumbledore's manipulation.  I actually agree that it is a weak spot and OOC to the Dumbledore in my story.  It is a plot device because I needed to get Draco to Prince Hall and it was very difficult for me to think of a way to do so.  Now that Severus is Harry's father and is so upset and angry with Draco, I did not believe that he would want to allow Draco there, unless Harry agreed as well.  I could not think of a way to get Harry to agree unless he came to feel some degree of sympathy for the other boy and wanted to spare him from Azkaban.  The only way I could come up with was for Dumbledore to be involved.  It is a stretch.  But I am not a professional writer.  Fanfic is only a hobby and all I can do is my best.

Draco was not going to be under a enslavement spell.  He would have been presented with the choice of going to work for Harry and Severus at Prince Hall or facing a trial and prison.  I suppose I saw it as somewhat similar to a 'community-service' type sentence and I think it would have enabled Draco to have a greater understanding of how badly he had harmed Harry and to have empathy for others.

Since beginning Slave Child, I have done a lot of thinking about the message it might send.  There have been times when I have been almost scared because it seems to me that sometimes people are crediting me with being more intelligent and savvy than I truly am.  I never intended to make any grand philosophical statements.  I am simply playing with an idea and with characters that I love. 

But I realized that I did not want to appear to send the message that I support or believe in slavery.  Very much the opposite.  I have tried to show that, despite Severus' love and all of his attempts to reassure Harry, that Harry is still devestated by the slavery spell, that it has had a profound effect on him.  I had intended, by the end, to have an anti-slavery message.   

At least I intended to try to show that.  I don't know how well I would have succeeded.