An excellent read!! I really loved the plot twists and how you kept the characters as canon as possible. Although the harry at the start was a bit too rash for me (how could he deliberately escape the castle twice!) but at the same time I'm glad he was not perfect and that we all got to witness his learning curve. I also love the bit at the end that reveals dumbledore's manipulative side and yet is done in such a way that makes us admire and love him for it (as well as his fierce determination to save snape). Anddd I love snape's character! It was nice to see a well-developed snape who is not all he seems to be, and has a reason for his 'dark' personality, although I would definitely have preferred more of snape's reflections to be included. There were moments in the story which I thought seemed perfect for snape's introspection and was slightly disappointed when there wasn't one. But don't worry his relationship with Harry, including all their struggles and conflicts, were nicely written out and believable, which more than made up for the rare excerpts of snape's reflection :D overall I loved it, which makes me wonder: why doesn't this story have more reviews??

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I'm amazed that your story doesn't have more reviews; pure brilliance. I think you've captured the true essence of each of those characters and brought it out in a masterful manner. Thank you for writing this, 10/10, definitely.

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This is my ALL TIME FAVORITE story so far because you didn't make Snape all cuddly, but he still loved Harry and cared for him. It is realistic given the Rowling's description of Snape, and is still touching despite Snape's rough edges.

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two thumbs up!!!
I've never expected the ending, but it was great!!
please, please make another severus-harry novel.. I like your writing style and brilliance in making twists in your stories.. :)

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AH! I loved your stories! I love your Severus (but I always love Severus, so...)!

If you would be kind enough to write more stories (with an awesome Severus in them), I'd be thankful.

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Aboslutely brilliant! The plot and characters were very well-thought out; intricate and complex but it all flowed together well.

I'm particularly impressed with the way you embellished the story with words and character interactions. For example, the fact that the reason Harry could beat Voldy was (when boiled down) thanks to Snape allowing Lily the choice.

When Harry struck that deal with Langley, I knew he was gonna ask Snape to come along and I think you put it together very well. Never thought I'd read about Snape working as part of the Ministry, much less an Auror!

Anyways, there was a lot to love and I enjoyed reading every bit of it! Thanks!

10/10

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I loved your storyline! Great writing...it flowed through seamlessly with the intricate details and plots. One of the best HP fan fics I've read in a long time (and I've read far too many it's embarrassing). I love reading about Professor Snape...his character has so much depth, so much can be done with his storyline and you've done a great job with it. I sure hope you write more fan fics. Keep up the good work and thank you for posting it!

Author's Response: Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories. :)

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The storyline was brilliant and one of the best I have ever read.

Author's Response: Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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both stories were excellent! I loved the way you led into the situations and the surprise outcomes. I have read many stories here and these are by far the best! I hope you will do more!
Thank You!

Author's Response: Thank you so much for reviewing. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories. :)

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An amazing story. It also helped that you ( and your beta's if you had any ) Could actually publish a well structured Story with amazing chapters, and Plot(s).

Thank you for this read :D

Author's Response: And thank you for the lovely review. I'm glad you enjoyed the story. Thanks for reading. :)

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it's just awsome!! i hold my breath to the very end of it!! i wish u to keep writing, cause u'r really successful at it. although u seem finished this story, i believe u'll come up with many great ideas -at least i'll look for your new stories. and thanks for the joyfull time u gave with this sequel (my words may sound like a bit exaggerated but i really mean all of them, also it may be because of i'm not a native speaker;))

Author's Response: I'm glad you enjoyed the story so much and I appreciate your review. Thanks! :)

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Wow I wasn't expecting such a heartfelt response but i'm glad you took my query seriously and you have successfully tied up and doubts I harboured with regards Molly Weasley and the death imbalance for the sides of light and dark.
I disagree with you on one point you mentioned however, "Far more soldiers kill in war than die". I don't think this is possible. I hate to be pedantic, I really do, but this is a mathematical impossibility, either equal amount die as kill or else a greater number die than end up killing. Highly irrelevant thing to point out I know, my sincerest apologies if I sound like an assh*le I don't mean to.
Once again maximum respect for your intricately written story as you have pointed out it works on many levels.
Peace

Author's Response: Lol! I'm the pedantic sort too, so no need to apologize. What you're leaving out of the equation though are the civilian casualties. Back in the day when two armies met on a deserted battlefield and went at each other with swords or muskets then yes, far more died than wound up killing and dysentery was the greatest enemy. But when you're bombing cities and having fire-fights in towns it's inevitable that civilians will suffer. We don't hear about it unless someone drops a bomb on a school, but it happens.

An army that overwhelmingly has the upper hand may have the luxury of trying to be cautious since they're suffering few casualties and killing lots of their enemies, but their opponents won't care who they kill in their desperate attempts to turn the tables. That's the pernicious reality of modern warfare.

War is the only human endeavor where people set out to intentionally kill one another. That is what makes it so hideous for everyone involved.

Thank you again for your thoughtful comments. I truly appreciate them and I'm happy you enjoyed the stories. :)



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Very eloquently written story. Much better than alot of fan fic writing, a great deal of thought and planning went into this. I must say, you seem extremely reluctant to bestow permanent grievances upon Harry and his friends, apart from Molly Weasley I can't think of any. Because of this, I can't help but feel that her death was an afterthought to counterbalance the fact that apart from a few close calls there was never any prominent morbidity or negativity in the plot and everyone bar Molly survived. Only fleeting references are made to her death and because we never truly saw the pain Harry's girlfriend and best friend suffered, it leaves me wondering what significance to the plot her death served.
Anyway apart from that one niggling loose end this story was well written and i enjoyed it thoroughly.

Author's Response: Molly's death wasn't an afterthought, I assure you. After all, it drove all of the action in chapters 11 and 12 of Enemy Within and contributed significantly to Snape being caught by Voldemort. The kids don't talk about her death once they're back at Hogwarts because they just aren't given to that sort of conversation. How much time did Harry and company spend talking about Sirius's death in HBP? Nil. JKR didn't even give him a memorial service where Harry and his friends could talk about their grief.

Molly's death does affect them, however. It's hard to see with Ginny, because we don't really know her that well, but she essentially steps into her mother's role in the family. The jumpers she gives everyone at Christmas in Chained Souls is indicative of this. She doesn't knit them herself - she doesn't want to replace her mother, just take on her role. And it is Ron she looks to for approval and permission to step into Molly's shoes.

Ron is deeply affected by his mother's death. His callous, "Well, that just goes to prove it then. Snape's too mean to die," is his bitter response to the fact that Snape survived Voldemort while his mother didn't. His frustrated, impatient need to be "doing something" is another result of Molly's death and leads directly to Ron striking out on his own in Chapter 28 of Chained Souls. Molly's death subtly permeates everything.

As for bestowing permanent grievances upon Harry et al, they certainly are left with scars, but I don't kill characters for the sake of running up the body count, to make a story "dark and gritty" or to make either the characters or readers wallow in grief. I'm no Pollyanna, but once is enough. We've hit those emotions and it's time to move on. From a writer's perspective, killing characters is easy. Grief is easy. There's no challenge in writing such things over and over.

Pushing characters to their limits, exposing their souls and forcing them to face the day after is far more satisfying to write because it's far more complex and says something about the human condition we don't often hear or read about. When Harry looks at the names of all the Death Eaters who died in Chained Souls and wonders which of his classmates loved ones he killed, that's soul-wrenching in a way that weeping over a dead friend isn't. And it's the reality of war.

Far more soldiers kill in war than die which is why I find epic battles where dozens of people die yet the hero manages to never get a drop of blood on his hands to be shallow. As Harry realizes in Chained souls, "... [war's] greatest horror wasn't in the death and destruction an enemy might inflict, but in what otherwise decent people could be driven to do to defend against those things." It's the invisible scars that often are most debilitating and those are the ones I sought to expose in these stories.

Well, this has turned into a terribly long response. Thank you for your thoughtful and thought-provoking review. I'm glad you enjoyed the stories.


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I think, and am quite sure, that your two novels are the best Harry Potter fanfiction I have ever read, and I have read a lot of it. Your plot and writing rivals that of Rowling, something which I have never thought of another fanfiction author. I am deeply amazed by your skills and can only hope you will write more at some point and bless us with more beautifully crafted storylines and eloquently written dialogues.

Furthermore, I set out to read the first novel being very sceptical, since I had never liked stories concentrating on Snape, especially on him becoming close to Harry. However, your work was so perfect that I actually started to care for Snape - it was done so well, so subtly and in such refined way that I was amazed Rowling was not responsible.

I salute you!

Author's Response: Wow. Thank you for such a glowing review! I'm always especially happy to hear favorable things from someone who usually isn't fond of Snape or Snape-mentoring stories. For the record, I'm not fond of a lot of Snape & Harry stories either since they tend to be OOC. That's one main reason why I wrote my stories. There is so much potential between these two characters, but the rapproachment has to be done believably and the characters, especially Snape, have to stay completely in character for it to really work. I'm glad you think I succeeded in this. Thanks for taking the time to review.

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A magnificent ending of a magnificent story!!! I liked it a lot, especially the idea of making Snape an auror. It's one of the best stories I've read. Thanks to the Author!!!
And of course I'd like to read more stories of your writing:)

Author's Response: Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've always thought Snape would make a great auror. I'm glad you do too. :)

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Great job, one of the best FF's I've read! Great plot, story, twists, and remarkable ending!!! Please write more stories. Thanks

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

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WOW, what can i possibly say . . this was one of the finest stories i have ever read, and i HAVE READ QUITE A FEW .. .
I think i have told you this before i will read anything you write even if its a napkin from the dinner table !

If you ever write another HP story please PLEASE let me know sr71@roadrunner dot com i will be there to review ever chapter. great ending to a brilliant story !


DAVE THOMSON

Author's Response: Dave, first off thank you for reviewing so faithfully, both this story and EW. I appreciate that tremendously. I am thrilled that you enjoyed the story so much and I promise to let you know if I write more fanfiction. Take care! - Theowyn

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oh wow what an awesome story and i really loved the afterword it closed all the ties of potter and snape. can't wait to read more of your writing.

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I sincerely appreciate your reviews. :)

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Thanks for a cool ending to a brilliant, well written story. I liked how you wrote Snape's talk with Remus. I also liked Severus and Harry talking about the Aurors. I can't wait to see what you will write next.

Author's Response: Thank you! I love writing Lupin and Snape together. They are opposites in so many ways, yet they compliment each other nicely. Both are very intelligent with quick wits and their verbal sparring is really fun to write. Thank you for reviewing!

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Perfect ending. Great idea to have Sev join the aurors. It keeps him feeling important, and it gives him a reason to be a part of Harry's life. He might have made it far too complicated, otherwise. I also loved your use of the history excerpt as the epilogue. It was clever and very fitting.

Congratulations on a job very well done. Your stories have been some of the best HP fanfic I've read in a long time.

Author's Response: Thank you; I'm so glad you liked it. I have always thought Snape would make an outstanding auror and auror training is pretty much the ultimate DADA post. Plus as you say, it means his and Harry's lives will continue to be closely intertwined.

As for the history excerpt, that just came to me at some point and I really liked the idea of giving a sweeping overview of the next 80 years. No details - those are all left for the imagination or future stories, but we can get a clear sense of how Snape and Harry's lives unfold.

Thanks for reviewing. ttfn

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Stunted silence….. fantastic ending- like with DH I am left wanting more, what job did the others do? How many kids? And more importantly what mark did he get in his NEWTS Potions? I have read a LOT of Fan Fiction and I think this is my favourite. I hope you keep writting

Author's Response: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. It's quite a compliment to know that my stories are your favorite! :D

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Nice ending, I hope to read more from you ;-)
10/10

Author's Response: Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

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I have been off ill with a cold and have spent most of the time reading though both your storys. I love how you developed the relationship between Harry and Snape it felt much more realistic that in others I have read; Loved the whole thing, So thank you for keeping me entertained, intrigued and away from day time TV!

Author's Response: I'm sorry to hear you've been sick and happy to have kept you entertained. I'm glad you've enjoyed the stories. The last chapter should be out soon and hopefully you'll find it a satisfying ending.

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Thanks for these excellent chapters and I liked the showdown between Harry and Voldemort. I also liked Severus and Harry discussing his mother and what happened during that fateful Halloween night when James and Lily Potter were killed by Voldemort. Please write more thanks as I am enjoying the story.

Author's Response: I'm glad you're enjoying the story. The next chapter will be along soon.

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Fabulous. Simply great! Thanks for updating!

Author's Response: Thank you for reading and reviewing. :)

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