Thank you for the feedback, I think it's going to help. This kind of detail in feedback is really unusual, so I definitely appreciate it.

Well, a few things:

When I originally wrote the conversation between Harry and Lupin, I had Harry try to explain about McGonagall, but it felt like it made it too long -- too much about a not-very-important detail. I don't think Lupin knew what McGonagall had actually said to Harry, so for him it was an automatic reaction based on a comparison between Harry expecting McGonagall to intervene and expecting Lupin to intervene. Both involved forcing Snape to do something that he had only a short time ago said he wouldn't do. Now that you've pointed out that Lupin's reaction was too extreme, I might find a way to work that issue into another conversation.

Judging by all responses (not just yours... pretty much everyone's), I'm making a mess of Lupin's character. I admit I don't really see what's wrong with the way he's acting. So, this is probably me not being able to step back from my own story to see how it's coming through on paper. That's always a problem -- things are different in your head before you get it in writing. I mean for him to be fluctuating between cold/distant and trying to be warm like before (and often failing), so that part is okay, I think, but I don't mean for him to come across as aggressive or bullying. His distance and distrust of Harry seem to make sense to me -- in the 5th book he was all for giving Harry info, and the end result was not good. Now he's in another situation where a lot is at stake, and he's reluctant to make that mistake again. Rowling chose to portray Lupin as almost freer... like some burden had been removed and he was finally moving on with his life. I didn't agree with that portrayal. I think that dragging several young friends into a dangerous situation, which then resulted in someone Lupin cared about being killed while trying to fix the mess, would necessarily change things. The Lupin who could barely utter two words while holding Harry back from the Veil and the Lupin who cracked jokes mere weeks later just seem odd next to each other. If I had to reconcile the way I see it and the way Rowling chose to write it, then I would say Lupin managed to stomp down any negative feelings and is ignoring that they even exist. He's good at that.

Harry is a teenager, and sulky and disobedient. True. But right now that's a dangerous way to be. Teenagers also naturally think everything is about them. In this case, we see everything from Harry's point of view, and he, as a teenager, is not capable of recognizing that adults might be caught up in their own problems. He's trying to fit it into a familiar pattern, and what he's coming up with is a sulky "Nobody loves me. Everybody hates me."

As far as emotional abuse, well, Lupin did inflict some nasty emotional damage on Harry once in the 3rd book, didn't he? Guilt-tripping him about his parents' deaths. I always thought that was kind of mean of him. Harry can be very thick... it almost seems like the only way to make him quit doing something that could hurt him is TO hurt him (emotionally), because he doesn't respond to gentler tactics. I don't see this as Harry's fault. It's the way he grew up, and has to do with the skills that he lacks. Lupin IS wrong about him in that regard. However, if you think about the way Harry must come across to adults, it's not a rosy picture. I think he really does come across as stubborn, unreasonable, sneaky, disobedient, bratty, arrogant, and so on. We've seen time and again that he doesn't trust adults to know what they're doing. I'm sure that doesn't endear him to the adults who have to look after him. He might have a valid reason for not trusting adults, but to them it just seems like he's willfully continuing to do exactly what he was just told not to do. I really can't blame Lupin for not believing that Harry didn't let the Boggart out, for example. There was no difference, from an adult viewpoint, between that and some of the other ways Harry has gotten himself into trouble over the years. In some ways the burden is on Harry to change the way he is perceived, or at least give others a reason to step back and reconsider what they think they know.

The thing that's going to be hard in this story is that Harry simply can't attain the kind of relationship with Lupin that would fulfill all his needs. There is going to have to be some reason for him to need something from Snape.

I'm glad at least Snape is the way I wanted. Cold and indifferent. Just doing what has to be done, and ONLY because it needs to be done. HE certainly doesn't think Harry needs to be given any info. He'd be perfectly happy if Harry could be bullied into submission. Unfortunately Harry is used to being bullied.

I think indifferent is worse than hateful. In a lot of Snape-is-Harry's-Dad stories, it turns out he was hateful because deep down inside he cared so much. In a way I think it must be easier to write it that way.

I don't think it's going to be a dark story. They're stuck at Grimmauld Place right now, and that has a big impact on how they interact. That place is really not good for anyone -- look what it did to Sirius. They really need to get out of there.

In any case, I don't do really dark stuff. No suicide, cutting, graphic violence, etc. So whatever happens, it isn't going in THAT kind of direction. I hope that makes you feel slightly better.