Yep, that's what happens when you've got a good partner/lover! lol! Lucky witch, indeed! Thanks for the review!

Yes, Hermione's strong and not some delicate blossom to be crushed to bits! She can sort herself out! :)I'm glad you're enjoying Severus's explorations and development! Fortunately, for him, the adolescent phase (so far as men EVER grow out of adolescence -- haha! that's a joke!) will not be as long as true adolescence. He may be discovering a new part of himself and his life, but he's kind of pushing himself through it.Thanks for the review!

Awwww! Thanks! You're so sweet! But then, I've always liked Roses!

I can't answer everything because I don't want to give away plot points -- and I think that the scenes and characters convey the answer better than I could in an expository fashion. But I'll try to address some of it! The points you raise are all thought-provoking."In many HG/SS fics, we often see Severus forcibly reminded of Hermione-the-girl when Hermione-the-woman says or does something slightly naive or reminiscent of her student years. And, when that happens, although it depends on the story and the author, Snape is usually confronted with an onslaught of conflicting emotions (guilt, self-disgust, yet desire, etc.)... Yet, in stories where Snape is involved with his former professors (and in this case, school matrons), it seems Minerva/Poppy/etc. don't really seem to consider this..."In Resolving a Misunderstanding, I deal with this to a great extent (in portraying the ADMM ermerging relationship), and there are scenese in which Albus looks at Minerva as an adult and is suddenly reminded of Minerva-the-student and is uncomforatable, even if only momentarily. I think that writing a young HG with Severus would probably lead to the same thing (discomfort on SS's part), perhaps even more strongly, since she is so young, freshly out of school, and I think the effect would fade over time, so that, hypothetically speaking, if a fanfic (of mine, the way I would write such a fic) had them getting together after Hermione had been out of school for fifteen years or so, the effect would be diminished and it wouldn't be so much of an issue.I think that's what's going on here, particularly with Poppy. Poppy has known Severus as an adult in an on-going way for years, and the recent memories overlay any of her recollections of him as a student. So although it may occur to her, it won't be as uncomfortable as it might be if either she hadn't known him between the time he was a student and when she later got together with him or if he was a good deal younger than he is. As for other kinds of complicating issues for Poppy, whether age-related or otherwise, I think that Poppy will "speak for herself" in upcoming chapters, so I don't want to go into any further detail here.With Minerva during the Adfectus, there was a great deal more of a struggle because she does have fairly maternal feelings for him and because she was so committed to AD for so many decades that she doesn't tend to look at other men in a potential-mate kind of way, except noticing in an abstract way that they're attractive men. So Minerva had a different sort of relationship with and view of Severus than Poppy did and does.Anyway, that's as much as I think I can respond to without infringing upon the story's own way of exploring these issues.Thanks for the thought-provoking reviews! I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

Thank you so much for your detailed answer – after I posted this, I fleetingly wondered if the situation would have less of an impact if, like you just pointed out, someone has known the other as an adult for many years as well (i.e. Poppy with Snape). It makes sense that gradually, as time passed, Poppy, and the rest of the characters that are older than Snape and knew him and were responsible in some way for his care (as a student), would see Snape more as an adult than the child they once knew. I also have issues with HG/SS when HG is so obviously young – though, even if she had just recently graduated, I think there is more than sufficent evidence in canon to support the concept of Hermione not only being wise beyond her years (especially after the war), but as having nearly always been far more mature than Severus. In my mind, that equals the playing field somewhat – though I'll never be okay with a SS/HG relationship that goes beyond friendship while she is still a student, or under the age of consent. It's a sticky gray area, but there are just some scenarios I refuse to read.Thank you again!

You're welcome! After I left that response, I remembered the scene in AAoL where Severus has just left bottles of potion with Poppy and she's thinking about him. Poppy refers to the Adfectus incident when speaking with Minerva in the "Morning After" chapter here, so I went and looked at it. It's actually a kind of interesting encounter between the two, with Poppy knowing about the Adfectus, but Severus not knowing that she knows. Anyway, one of the lines there indicates that she's beginning to view Severus in a new light:"Poppy shook her head. . . . [T]here must be something beneath that sneer and those voluminous robes other than a reformed Death Eater. And something behind those dark eyes of his, something other than black, cavernous emptiness. . . ."I thought you might find that line interesting to recall. (AAoL is, ironically, my least favorite of the chaptered fics I've written -- "ironically" because it led to one of my faves -- DD -- and now to LVS.)

Really? I adore AAoL! Actually, to be honest, I adore all of your fics – especially those with SS in them :P Thank you so much for posting that line! I had forgotten that scene, and when I read it again, I'm enthralled with how much depth and foreshadowing it contains!  When you wrote AAoL, did have even an inkling of eventually writing a story like LVS? Because if you didn't, you are extremely talented at linking your fics together in with intricate threads like these. And you certainly make it seem as though all the fics were thought out beforehand, and that you inserted small scenes like this that would connect in a deeply meaningful way to scenes many stories later. You do that better than JKR herself! LOL.

I think I'd just rewrite some of the scenes in AAoL. I wrote it for a challenge, and I literally wrote thousands of words a day on it -- not exactly conducive for my best work. But there are some scenes that I really like in it, and I do like the portrayal of Severus's psychology.I did have an inkling that I would write DD when I was finished with AAoL, and then after DH came out, that provided the impetus for me to actually write DD because I'm one of those who disliked DH for soooo many reasons! As I was writing DD, I came up with the idea for LVS, then as I was rewriting DD (the original draft was only about half the length of the final version and had less SS in it) and had begun to post it to TPP, I began to work on LVS. I actually began with many of the middle chapters (some of the chapters in Parts Three and Four). It was nice to be able to write Severus in a situation where he wasn't in constant stress and danger, and to write some fluffy stuff after writing some of the emotionally tough scenes in DD.I do work at keeping the characters developing in ways that are in keeping with their incarnations in previously written fics in the series, so I'm glad it feels like they're a coherent whole! I do have a lot of backstory and such rattling around in my head for the various characters, some of which never makes it into a fic and some of which turns out to be quite useful later -- like Cyrus and Andrew's backgrounds from the "Don't Frighten the Firsties" in LVS coming in handy when I ended up writing "The Sorting of Suzie Sefton."

If you do decide to rewrite AAoL, although I truly love it just the way it is, I will be among one of the first in line to read its revision. You do so very well in connecting your series, especially when I think of how difficult it is for me, personally, to even remember what I wrote in chapter one, versus the twentieth chapter that I'm working on currently. I can't fathom how you are able to keep everything straight! Do you write down lots of notes for yourself? Little bio cards on everyone – especially your OCs?In regards to Severus' psyche, I do believe that's what drew me to read AAoL – although, I've recently discovered I've read your fics out of order. I read some of DD before reading RaM, then I think I read all of RaM before coming back to DD, and from there I read AAoL. I think. Then the one-shot Heat, then this, then more of your one-shots, including SoSS. But whether in intended sequence or not, I'm hopelessly engrossed in your stories, and would most certainly take DD, RaM, or LVS over JKR's DH any day, if it weren't for the fact that you needed DH to somewhat inspire you to write a better life for SS. I, too, disliked a large portion of DH, not only in reference to the plot, but to the way she wrote it. It seemed rushed and lacked the imagination and skill of her established writing style, and I had held so much hope that she would have, months later, announced, "Uh, about DH... Just kidding! I let my [insert family member here] write that just to give the fans something to distract them from pressuring me to hurry up and finish. In reality, here is the official seventh book, enjoy!" And then we have something completely different to call canon, something that gave the characters the respectful conclusion that they each deserved.That being said, I did enjoy parts of DH – particularly the chapter(s) devoted to Snape's backstory. And although many people didn't like LE/SS, or hated LE after the book was published... I disagree. I think JKR was very adept at capturing the whole adolescent angst, 'betrayal', and melodrama that adults often forget about. When I was a teen, I inadvertantly led boys on, like I think LE did. And when I was a teen, and for the teens I know and observe today, everything was a dramatic 'life-or-death' situation, everything insignificant is blown out of proportion, everything significant explodes with the equivalent of the A-bomb. Plus, on top of that, there's the whole racism issue, and the 'Mudblood' meaning not much to us, but replacing it instead with horrific racial epitaths that we are knowledgeable of... And the parallels between Riddle/Hitler, DEs/Nazis, Muggleborns/Jewish/Gypsies/Homosexuals/etc.... and all of that, if I truly consider it, I begin to question why I forgave SS so quickly in the first place. But, well, that's a whole other discussion, and I am already ashamed at how much rambling on I've done so far!

"And when I was a teen, and for the teens I know and observe today, everything was a dramatic 'life-or-death' situation, everything insignificant is blown out of proportion, everything significant explodes with the equivalent of the A-bomb"Isn't it a blessing that we only have to go through the teens once? It's like a kind of madness, really, even for the most sensible, level-headed among us! LOL!The DE/Nazis, Muggleborn/Jewish, etc., question is obliquely addressed (or not addressed . . . alluded to?) in an upcoming chapter -- quite a ways away, actually. But there is a tiny hint of what it might be, if you remember AAoL very well. And I think perhaps we've both rambled on here! So I'll end on that note. Thanks for the thought-provoking discussion!

I'm perfectly happy with your babbling on! It's all good! I was inerested to hear you say that you enjoy the conversation between Poppy & Minerva about Severus. I'm glad you do like it -- and I think you're right, it not only tells us something about the characters in the conversation and their thoughts & feelings, but gives us a different view of Severus, too.I'm glad you like the way that Poppy stood up for them both. She didn't let Minerva get away with anything, did she?I think that if there was any subconscious jealousy on Minerva's part, it wasn't sexual -- it was more of the "I've been his confidante and support, etc., and we have a special bond between us" kind of jealousy. Not jealousy exactly . . . more like . . . hmm . . . somewhat akin to when your best friend has a new love in her/his life and you find you aren't her/his primary "go-to" person, even though you're truly, genuinely happy for him/her. Not quite like that, but sort of. I also think she was simply stunned at first, though after she gives it a bit of thought . . . well, we'll see!The next chapter will be up soon, but then I'm travelling for the US Thanksgiving holiday. I'm bringing my laptop with me, but I can't predict when the one after that will go up. I'm glad you're still enjoying it! Thanks for the review!

I perfectly understand about Thanksgiving travelling and the very few chances you'll be granted to tend to personal things (like updates of this story). I, myself, have... *counts on fingers* six Thanksgiving celebrations to attend (holy hell!). I hope you can enjoy your holiday, and please don't worry about updating – enjoy yourself and, if you do manage to get some time to yourself, take a much-needed break!...That isn't to say I won't be hoping for a surprise update or two, LOL. Also, I understand what you're saying about Minerva's feelings toward Snape/Pomfrey. I wonder if her responses to/psuedo-attack of Poppy might be motivated by remnants of a maternal instinct to protect Severus, especially since she's witnessed his growth, over time, from an awkward eleven year-old to a... well, equally awkward adult?

"I wonder if her responses to/psuedo-attack of Poppy might be motivated by remnants of a maternal instinct to protect Severus, especially since she's witnessed his growth, over time, from an awkward eleven year-old to a... well, equally awkward adult?"I think that's quite true, and she does say something of the sort to Poppy (though I actually can't remember which conversation it's in, this one or the next one) -- that she feels protective of him.

To answer one of your questions from your review for the previous chapter (which I forgot you'd asked until I clicked "submit"), regarding how I keep people and fics straight, I have an Excel spreadsheet that I started back when I was first writing RaM. At first, I just had two worksheets in it -- one with an overall timeline for the RaMverse and one with the RaM characters -- and it had a lot of details that came in handy in future fics, or the sorts of things I needed to keep track of in order to keep the story in order. Now there are over 20 worksheets in the spreadsheet, including, for example, RaMverse places, characters & their wands, original potions, Snape's genealogy, and so on -- I even have a "Scrimgeour" worksheet with his family on it, even though I only used a tiny bit of it in DD. It sounds massive, but I just add a bit to the spreadsheet at a time. If I had to do something of that sort from scratch right now, it'd be way too daunting! But without it, it'd be too insane to try to keep the universe coherent and avoid jarring continuity errors.I always have a few different word processing docs going for each longer chaptered story, as well, and I always have one doc with an outline and notes.Probably more than you cared to know!

Oooo excel sheets! I never thought of that... and now I'm deeply interested in your idea of Snape's geneaology, considering I've always felt that an area of great fascination that few authors ever convincingly touch on. .. Excel spreadsheets... why didn't I think of that? LOL.

Excel spreadsheets are great for chronologies, and their also good for being able to sort data in different ways. They're like lists on steroids, and I've always liked lists! LOL!

and that should be "they're" not "their"! I'm too quick to click! lol

LOL, I do the same thing. My friends and family are inundated with text messages that not only use proper capitalization, spelling, grammar (as best that I can), and puncuation – but I routinely send corrections hot on the heels of sent typos. And I can't tell you how afraid I was that in our series of replies that I would click "submit" before catching, and correcting, my most common and recurring typing error: typing 'Poopy' instead of 'Poppy'.On lists, I love them... at first. I'm a horribly disorganized person, and I love the novelty of organization (using new programs, buying fun folders, basically pretending that I'm a grownup), but inevitably I abandon it after a day or so. You have no idea how many of those little day planners I have sitting, with only one page (if I'm lucky) filled in, on my bookshelf. Hermione, and probably Severus, would flee in disgust if they saw my home office... entire house, really... computer with haphazard files... I do make an effort, though! I just can't stick with it. Pair that with the fact that my entire career is centered around illustration and graphic design, my lack of organization doesn't seem to surprise many people...

(P.S. – To further illustrate my point, I've never used Excel, and I'm not sure I'd know how. But I remember that the spreadsheets, when my mom used to work with them for her job when I was little, look like grids. I just never thought they could be used for anything other than accounting purposes... hmm..)

The joys of grading! I remember it well. I'll probably remember it when I'm old and senile . . . LOL!I'm glad you have enjoyed these last few chapters. :-) Thanks for the review!

I'm glad you found the pairing fun! I'm sure the woman is starving -- those kinds of circumstances to tend to work up an appetite, don't they? ;-)Thanks for the review!

I'm sure he'll become more aware. He'll spend much of the day brooding about it all, in fact! And you're right -- he doesn't understand always what the situation is he's getting into, but he certainly landed on his feet in this situation.Thanks for the review!

"Minerva is quite "catty" this morning. Yeah, that was bad, but I had to say it."Ohhhh, that was a real groaner! But in the best possible way! LOL!"Severus is a beast! A sex god."Severus would agree with you there. haha! *snerk!*"I bet Poppy will want to have Severus rock her world some more. If she doesn't, there must be something wrong with her!"Let's just say there ain't nothin' wrong with Poppy that a little Slytherin -- or a not-so-little Slytherin -- couldn't fix! LOL! He will definitely be on her mind. Thanks for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Poppy was shocked, too. I think that Minerva was just getting her knickers in a twist about her concerns for Severus, and then she also thought that Poppy might be getting into a situation she wasn't prepared for (well, who is ever completely prepared for a suddenly hot sexual relationship with someone one's known for a while?), and she was being nosy, as well. Poppy said a few things that hit home for Minerva -- about her relationship w/ Albus and with Robbie!Albus, though -- so she got in her licks, too. They don't often have such set-tos, obviously, but fortunately they're able to get over them, more or less. Oh, yes, Poppy has a potion. And she's a sharing, caring, generous witch, as you are aware.. ;) (It becomes a bit of a plot point in a few chapters.)I don't know as Poppy will go to the extreme of bumping off all rivals or not . . . but she will sure be thinking a lot about Severus!

Oh, and I'm glad you're having fun guessing! :DThanks for the review!

O you wicked, wicked tease. Now I'm going to have to break my promise to myself and go look at the chapter preview! "And she's a sharing, caring, generous witch, as you are aware.. ;) (It becomes a bit of a plot point in a few chapters.)" Really? Caring, sharing, generous... with... GARETH? please? Gareth and Severus and Poppy? pretty please?

'"And she's a sharing, caring, generous witch, as you are aware.. ;) (It becomes a bit of a plot point in a few chapters.)" Really? Caring, sharing, generous... with... GARETH? please? Gareth and Severus and Poppy? pretty please?'LOL! You know, oddly enough, I had someone email me with almost the same request not very long ago. My, my, my . . . *goes off chuckling*Thanks!

"I bet she and Albus could give Poppy and Severus a run for their money, though, in the sex department, though Min and Albus would never shag and tell. lol"Nope, and Poppy wouldn't ordinarily, either, but she was still really stinging from Minerva's suggestions, so she just had to do a little blurting there! LOL!Yeah, I cringe for Minerva, too, but much as I love her, she's not always perfect, though she's usually more tactful than that! She kind of made herself cringe, actually, when she realized what she'd said and what she'd implied. But Poppy gave back as good as she got, and she did hit Minerva where it would sting. However, as you point out, they're friends, and so they did sort things out, and Minerva will try to do more "sorting" later, after she thinks about it more, too.I'm glad you're enjoying the SSPP (or PPSS?) chapters! I'm glad you like that pairing. :-)Thanks for reviwing!

Thank you very much,

! I'm glad you like it. Yes, he has more friends, both old and new, than he would have previously believed possible!Thanks for the review!

He's got time, fortunately. I'm glad you enjoyed it!The next chapter is all set to go up, so you'll see a bit more. :-)Thanks for reviewing!

I guess it would help that Hermione is quite young and still working on her education at this point.  If he's going to end up with her at least he can take his time and make sure he's really ready to commit to her.  I think you've really captured what it would be like for Severus developmentally, emotionally, in this situation.

Well, badgers aren't to be underestimated in the toughness department! She is a very sensitive soul, though . . . Yes, even in the midst of wonderful sex, his mind is working! Well, until the moment when there's nothing in it but the "OMG!!!!" ecstasy! LOL!Next chapter will likely be up this evening (US eastern time). You might want to start odds and place bets on whether they go back to being just colleagues, or any of the other possibilities!Thanks for the review!

That's cute -- and certainly appropos of Severus! Also appropos of something else, but I'll email you. :-)I'm glad you're enjoying it -- but you're right: Poor Severus, overwhelmed by hormones at that point in life!Thanks for the review! Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it and found it steamy!Yep, they are very cozy, all cuddled up together for the night!We'll see how they feel about it all in the morning, won't we?I hope you enjoy the coming chapters!Thanks for reviewing.

Thanks! Yes, quite busy, and very suddenly for him!

" It seems that Poppy may also be "Saint-like but still horny".    "LOL! I like that. Yep, even saints get horny. haha!Thanks for the review. I'm glad you liked it!

I'm glad you're liking it, Hogwarts Duo! And a relief, as well.Thanks for reviewing!

I really didn’t see how it would help to argue with you about things that you feel so passionately about. It seemed pointless. But since you asked, here’s something of a response for you.

My impression is that you’re reading this story like it’s like some other fics you may have read, and it’s not. I don’t see this story at all the way you do, but as I’m enjoying writing the fic and posting it for people who are enjoying it, I really don’t feel like arguing about it with someone who has a much different view of the story, of Severus, and of the plot development than I see, intend, and hope others are enjoying. It’s one thing if someone has a question or a confusion about one particular specific plot point, something that’s easily addressed in a line or a paragraph, but it’s quite something else to try to convince someone to appreciate an entire plot of a fic or to revise their view of entire characters as they’ve been developed in An Act of Love, Death’s Dominion, and this story. If someone doesn’t like entire foundational aspects of a story, that’s their taste, and I don’t feel compelled to try to make them enjoy the same fanfic diet that I do or force them to enjoy my fics if they aren’t to their liking.

The characters and plot for this story began emerging in earlier fics, and so assuming some post-HBP or post-DH canon-compliancy for them could lead to some head-scratching, because the earlier fics are not HBP- and DH- compliant. They are canon-compliant only through OotP and partially through HBP, but only the very, very beginning of HBP. Severus’s character began to diverge in its development from the canon!Snape beginning in AAoL with the curse that struck him, and continued to develop during Death’s Dominion, and it’s that Snape that I began with in LVS—which, to my mind, is a good thing for Snape, compared to where canon!Snape is in DH (and I don’t mean that he’s dead at the end of the book ).

“[W]hy does he not try to figure things out with Hermione herself (she has more understanding, compassion and courage and affection for him than a lot of other people in his life!)???”

I don’t see this at all. He has Minerva and Poppy, not to mention Gareth, Albus, Filius, Vector, and others. They are certainly compassionate, understanding friends who’ve known him for years. As to why he doesn’t try to figure things out with Hermione, it’s only been three days since the beginning of Part Three. I don’t want to give away any plot development, but there is time ahead, given that there are another 30+ chapters already written. The events of Part Three are the way I wrote them—I didn’t have Hermione do what Gareth did because it would not be in keeping with her character and it would not be in keeping with the relationship that Severus and Hermione have developed.

“[I]s that why he's backing out of calling his 'dates' with Hermione actual dates?”

“Plus what's with Severus going for much older or much younger women?”

The only much younger woman in his life at this point (potentially romantically, anyway) is Hermione. The women he thinks about when trying to figure out whether he’s attracted to men more than he is to women are all women whom he’s known for a while. While he does mentally acknowledge Helena Benetti’s attractiveness when he has to dance with her at the Halloween party, and she is a good deal younger than he is (about 22), they hardly have any relationship at all, other than as coworkers at the same place, and so it doesn’t occur to Severus to think of her any more than it might have occurred to him to think of Stan Shunpike or Caspar Lloyd when he was thinking about the men—he was thinking about witches and wizards whom he had known for a while and had some kind of relationship with. As to why so many of them are older: many women do stay attractive or become more attractive as they age, and not everyone thinks that youth is such an asset; he also knows and is on friendly terms with many older witches and wizards; most of the witches and wizards his age were, to paraphrase a friend, either Death Eaters or little pricks, and even of those, most are dead, and others are still in one of the two former categories! Hermione is a lot younger than he is, and he does make a mental acknowledgement of her physical attractiveness at several points in the story already. So if you like SSHG, I’m not sure whether you might not be better able to answer your own question than I am—at least about the “much younger women”! LOL!

“[B]ut I can’t help feeling like I am going on a rollercoaster ride with your story here and that you’re taking wicked delight in tormenting your readers with new and weird twists one after another!”

Um, no. I don’t take “wicked delight” in it. I also don’t think they’re weird twists, particularly since I began writing the story with several of the middle chapters (some of those in Parts Three and Four), and I wrote several hundred pages of this story before I began to post the first chapters (through Part Two) elsewhere. I got feedback on all of the first three parts before I began posting it here. I find the development in character relationships from Part One to Part Two and Part Two to Part Three to be natural. (Obviously, or I would not have written them that way!)

If you don’t like the path the story is taking—and it isn’t a straight one—and you want a “Character A falls in love with character B, declares his/her love, and spends the next X chapters romancing her/him” (or a variation on that order) kind of fic, then you don’t have to read this one—there are a great many lovely, well-written romances on the Petulant Poetess, including very many straightforward SSHG fics. When I discover that I don’t like a fic, that’s what I do: I just don’t read it. (And although it’s flattering that you think I’m skilled with compulsion charms—lol!—I’m not sure why you’re feeling compelled to read it—perhaps you’re enjoying it on other levels? Or maybe some part of you is looking for something different from what you usually like to read? I don’t know! But my fic is compulsion-charm-free! LOL! Although some folk have declared Resolving a Misunderstanding “addictive.” So maybe there is some additive, some secret ingredient, to the story, and I’m just unaware of it myself! Haha!)

“[A]nd goes to Hermione (since this is a SS/HG story ultimately).”

I don’t know why you think that. He is friends with Hermione throughout the fic, and he does have a date with her in Part Three, but it’s clearly labeled a “Snape-centric” post-war fic in the initial summary before the first chapter. I don’t ever say it’s ultimately SSHG, just that it’s Snape-centric. This is the initial summary:

“Severus Snape had believed that, for him, life after the Dark Lord was an impossibility, that his death was not merely justice, but necessity. He has survived, though, and now he must learn to live his new, unexpected life, and to find something beyond the narrow existence to which he was once bound. A post-war fic.

“Snape-centric Death’s Dominion sequel. Not DH-compliant. DH-disregarded. First chapters rated T, but ratings for individual chapters will rise later. Watch the individual chapter summaries and author’s notes for ratings, warnings, and the characters appearing in that chapter.”

As to how Hermione reacts/doesn’t react, or finds out/doesn’t find out, about his relationships with other people, including his intimacy with them, to discuss that or to address many of your other questions and statements would be to spoil the story (although the notion that Hermione somehow MUST find out about the private sex lives of other people is a really curious idea to me). I try not to put spoilers in review responses or to give away plot points, particularly complex ones, that will be addressed by and in the story itself in future chapters.

I like to explore the relationships among the different characters. If you don’t like this aspect of this story, and if you don’t like the development that Severus is going through—and he is developing, and figuring things out—then you don’t need to stick with it, since that is the focus of the story. I have another 30+ chapters written, and the story isn’t going to change majorly at this point. I also don’t recall whether you’ve read any of my other fics—I only noticed your penname in the recent reviews for LVS, but I may be mistaken and we have actually communicated before about other fics and things you actually enjoyed in them. Heck, I may actually be forgetting other reviews you left for LVS during the first couple parts of the fic. But as I pointed out before, Severus’s development began in An Act of Love (in which his love was directed toward Minerva), continued in Death’s Dominion, and is still going on here. If you notice, I date all the chapters in LVS. Part Three began on the 6^th of March, and the last chapter of Part Three takes place on the 8^th of March. I don’t see how he’s regressing in the space of three days. Part One focussed on Severus’s return to Hogwarts and his overcoming the last of the physical and magical ailments that plagued him from his time as a DE spy; Part Two focussed on his becoming more comfortable in his life in general, in his relationships with his colleagues, and with his new role as a non-spy working at Hogwarts, and getting past some of the bigger hurdles haunting him from his past—like his obsession w/ the demise of Riddle. Part Three shows his sexual/sensual/physical/intimacy eye-opening.

Other people are enjoying watching Severus explore the aspects of his new life and developing new social skills, and they seem to find it quite realistic and the progress to be believable. But in the end, this is a fanfic, enjoyable for me to write and hopefully for others to read. I obviously have invested time—and some of myself—in this fic and in the previous one that it’s the sequel to. Arguing about the legitimacy of the progress of the plot and the characters diminishes my enjoyment of it. Discussing specific points with people with whom there is some common ground despite differences of opinion can be enjoyable; debating the merits of the entire plot and overall character development is not enjoyable. I feel as though we’re reading two different fics, or as though there’s an entire set of assumptions and preconceptions about the story and its characters that we don’t share. Writing a long dissertation describing the foundational aspects of the story about which there seems to be a misunderstanding just isn’t fun for me—I’d rather have the story speak for itself.

In short, I think that you had certain expectations when you began reading LVS that you adhered to despite the progress of the fic, and the more the fic deviated from those preconceptions, the more you were distressed.

Anyway, if you are enjoying the fic on other levels, please do continue reading it! And continue reviewing when you feel moved to (which I hope includes occasions other than just when you feel disgusted or outraged or whatever). But loosen your grip on what your assumptions are telling you about how Severus, Hermione, Poppy, and Gareth “should” be, and try not to predict where the story is going to go and jump all over things based on that. Try to read the story for itself and enjoy it for itself, not become tormented by it because you think it’s going to be going in a direction you don’t like or because it’s not meeting your previous expectations. That’s just my bit of friendly advice if you do decide to give in to the compulsion to continue reading! I don’t want it to be a torment for anyone. Life is unpleasant enough and has sufficient duties and obligations; reading fanfic should not be an unpleasant chore—emotionally moving, perhaps, and not always fun or happy, but not an unpleasant chore.

And this is FAR too long for a review response, but you seemed to need it.

Sorry about the funny spacing, but I cut and pasted from Word, because I'm on my mini-laptop and the font in the little response box is way too small for me to read comfortably and I miss typos easily.

I hope you like the coming chapters. They certainly are not a typical pairing, are they?Thanks for the review,

!

Ah, well -- that's life! I suppose if someone's heavily romantic OTP-ish about any pairing, it makes it hard to read a fic in which things don't meet the established expectations for the particular characters. I know some people who are such strong ADMMers that they can't read a fic in which either of them is with someone else, even when the story isn't about them, but about some other pair or is more of a drama/adventure sort of story. It is a bit of a surprise that it hurts anyone that the fic is proceeding this way, but that certainly wasn't intended. TTFN!

I know it wn't intended and you are so sweet...Your story is marvelous and if I could see any hope ao having a tiny ipsy thinghy between them I would certainly stick around but, the way things are going, I highly doubt it...I really really love your Severus....But not with Hermione, not at this point.   Maybe later pehaps...Bless you.HLH