About the religion--I disagree with you there.  JKR herself claims her wizards DID believe in God and has several instances where religion plays a part--they celebrate religious holidays, baptism, have godparents, ect.  But I won't argue religion with you--not a good topic to discuss, it generally ruffles feathers.  So be it.  But know that in my stories religion will be there, no matter how ridiculous you think it is.  Just accept that fact and maybe you'll find yourself more open to some of the things my stories portray--namely the power of love, understanding, and goodness in people who were mistreated and abused.  I truly believe that in prder to heal emotionally, you need to believe in something--anything, and the American indians believed in a Supreme Being besides the anime spirits. But that's me.

Second thing--I detest stories  where protaganists whine, complain, moan and bitch about their lives and how miserable they are. I hated the angst in OOTP so much in the beginning I threw the book across the room. I felt like I was trapped with three dumb teenagers and would they PLEASE SHUT UP! Get off your ass and DO something! We certainly didn't need 40 + pages of that so we could figure out Harry's miserable! Same thing with reading it. I hate that kind of thing, seen it too many times in RL, and don't care to write about it.  If my stories seem to lack that angsty tone, that's too bad.  If you think that my stories resolutions seem simple, oh well.  Take a look at your average fairy tale.  You don't need an agsty relationship to develop meaning bewtween two characters. I believe people change over time and what you believed or thought today is different on the morrow based on certain circumstances.  Most of my stories take Severus Snape and put him in DIFFERENT circumstances. That's why he's a different person--not JKR Rowling's Snape, but my version, which wears a mask. It's also why he's more able to relate to Harry.  And more able to resolve differences.  If you're looking for angsty bitter Snape, go elsewhere, you won't find him in my writing.

Also, I know my stories aren't perfect, nobody's are.  The aim of an author is to entertain, not win a prize for the perfect story. So yes, I have things that aren't perfect in my stories. And guess what? I don't care, because my aim isn't to be perfect, but to tell a good story. A good story is one that makes you laugh, cry, or feel something, even if it's annoyance.  That's what I consider a good story.  I write to entertain, to make people forget whatever's going on in their lives for an hour or whatever, and go somewhere else.  Most of the best movies in my mind are just that--pure entertainment.  And critics hate them.  Fine.  So even though I've annoyed you, at least you're still reading.  Now does that tell you something?

And do go back and read the Arista Snape series on ff.net, as well as Someone to Watch Over Me. It'll clear up a lot of those plot holes you mentioned. Enjoy!