Thanks -- I hadn't thought of that until I reread the chapter recently, myself, how people use Krum as a Snape-like guy for Hermione, etc. (Wasn't the movie version of Krum a surprise? He looked nothing at all like my particular mental image of him from the books, anyway.) I actually did the Krum/Benetti pairing in DD in order to bring Helena into the RaMverse.Thanks for the review. :-) Glad you enjoyed it!

I'm gla you liked the flight! :-) Thanks for the review!

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

I'm glad you're enjoying the Snape-introspection in these chapters. As you say, even for a well-adjusted person, it can be tough to make changes even when we know what it is we need to work on and what our weaknesses are. For someone who's had as strange and abnormal a background as Severus, and no truly normal relationships with people during his adult life (and, as far as we know, precious few when he was a kid), it's even tougher. He's an ambitious Slytherin, though, and his ambition has become to have as "normal" and basically rewarding a life as he can. He won't find that easy, though, and lifetime habits can be hard to break.Thanks for the review!

He does feel as though somehow, now that he is trying harder and apologizing, and so forth, that it should somehow change things for him, but he's still as outcast as he used to be -- in his own mind. I'm glad you liked the chapter. Thanks for reviewing! Happy New Year!

Oh, (RaMverse) Pomona's always had a bit of a knee-jerk grumbly reaction to Slytherin, which doesn't (usually) translate into a direct prejudice against individual Slytherins -- it just got worse over the previous 20-or-so years! (Don't know if you read "Now is Perfect," but we get a glimpse of that when she learns that Filius is going out w/ Minerva's Slytherin cousin . . . ;-))If the RaM sequel ever gets written, we'll see more of Malcolm -- I have kind of skipped over that fic, although I have notes and a partial outline for it, and have had for a couple years, at least -- and we'll see that Malcolm actually wrote that song and it is one of the ones that he sang for Gertrude on that day they met at Minerva's party. So it was fun for me to work that into this chapter. Thanks for the review! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you too!  I like Malcom's Song even more now knowing its history.  I'll have to go back and re-read Now is Perfect.  Its been awhile.  I'll keep my fingers crossed for the RaM sequel, but no pressure.  I'm thoroughly enjoying A Long Vernal Season.     

Yes, Hermione's mature and extremely intelligent, but she's still got her adolescent temper -- though she's not sending birds to attack Severus, a la Wonnie-kins! LOL! -- and she is not seeing him in quite the same light as she did. She's also got other stuff in her life now -- out of Hogwarts, in an apprenticeship, making new, non-Hogwarts friends -- so she's affected by that as well as the fact that the war's over. I'm glad you find it makes her a bit more interesting!Yep, you're remembering correctly -- that's RaM-verse. Grubbly-Plank was at Hogwarts teaching CoMC for a while, then she got a job at a dragon preserve and left, with Hagrid somewhat broken-hearted.Helena has a light-hearted approach to life, although she's had a lot of pain recently, so she might be a bit of a leavening influence on Severus. We'll see . . .  Thanks very much for the review!

So many hurts and disappointments have conditioned him to be prepared for it. It is sad!Thanks for the review!

That's why he needs fanfic writers who love him and understand him and want to make it all better.  LOL.  I don't think I'd want to meet JKR for fear I'd tell her just how annoyed I am with her.  LOL.  Not that I didn't EXPECT things to end the way they did, he's a tragic character and that's how it goes.  Still, to write him in ways that make people feel a certain empathy for him and then claim we like bad boys....sorry, I've said that before.  It's like she's oblivious to what she's written about him.  Of course she could have done that just to throw us off to keep us wondering about the character.  Whatever.  She also discusses the sexuality of characters in a kid book where that sort of thing isn't really appropriate and I can only think it was to stir up controversy.  She should have left it up to people's imaginations IMHO.  Maybe I should just shut up now.  ROFL.

I wouldn't have minded if there had been a gay couple in the HP series, for example -- and it wouldn't have to be explicitly discussed, just obvious to adults and older kids -- but coming out after the books have been published and saying AD's gay or whatever, that's just a publicity thing, IMO. The books do have people falling in love (e.g., Remus & Tonks), and they have tons of married couples, so it's not as though she was trying to completely avoid adult romantic relationships in general. And having a fixation/adulation for a person of the same sex (particularly for teens) doesn't make a lifetime choice, either. And I think she made Snape a really pathetic character, and it bothered me that it seemed that after over 15 years, Snape's motivation for remaining on the right side was the same -- his betrayal of Lily. It seemed to me that he would still be a DE if he hadn't inadvertantly betrayed her. And yet other things about the character showed a person with hurts that went deeply, and someone who was capable of reflecting on own his actions, too. I could say more on that topic, but . . . I think probably Death's Dominion expresses my preferences on how Snape might have better been treated -- don't ignore the evil he did, or the nasty side to his personality & character, but allow him an opportunity for real redemption, and not just some kind of payback. I also hated his manner of death in DH.Anyway, that's a very scattered response to your point -- better that I should be succinct: I agree with you! LOL!

It's nice to share scattered thoughts.  It's also nice to have someone to talk to about this.  Yeah, it's all fiction but when you fall in love with a book you do invest some emotion in it.  I don't like Hermione with Ron and I don't like that Snape has only his betrayal of Lily as motivation.  I can see how he'd still be extremely remorseful and haunted by what happened and his role in it, but to never find anything else for motivation in all those years, well it's surprising he didn't just kill himself.  I agree about the death.  OMG, stupid stupid stupid.  But, not unlike moldywart to be so ridiculous.  Though he's portrayed as being rather intelligent so why he didn't THINK about the wand problem a bit more carefully is beyond me.  Anyway, this is all why I love your stories so much.  It explores a lot of things about Snape that I want to know.  He's so complicated and yet we never get any sort of satisfying answers in DH.

I agree completely, including about the wands & moldy voldy. But I also think that there are inconsistencies in her magical theory -- things that just aren't very well thought-out. I think, for example, that the way the Fidelius works -- and the way it would seem to have to work -- in the first several books and the way she had it "work" in the last one wasn't consistent or even sensible. I basically ignore DH for the magical theory as well as for the events/content. I could go on and on about what I think is flawed about the wand theory, too, but I don't want to bore you! LOL!

I remember feeling like I needed to suspend disbelief more in the last book.  "Hang on a minute, that's not how that's supposed to work."  She seems to forget about the rules she set up so that it doesn't work within it's own logic.Not sure I'd be bored, but I do have a rather limited attention span.  LOL.  Amazing I even managed to get through the books but when I get hyperfocused on something I really like then I last much longer.  Hyperfocused Snape obsession.  LOL.

"Hyperfocused Snape obsession."I can appreciate that! :-D