Excellent story! Please, hurry up with the updates!!

Again with the cliffie! What is it with you? Give us another chapter immediately, madame! *grin* ^_^

The mystery grows.  That was wonderful.

Arrrrgggghhhhh!  I can't beLIEVE you left us with this cliffhanger.  (Yes, I can.)This chapter is chock full of new information... which has created new questions.  If Harry is spending all his spare time reading books, they must be very interesting indeed.  Dumbledore must have given him these obscure texts.  I wonder if one of them is the copy of Advanced Potions Making that belonged to the Half-Blood Prince?  Wherever they came from, I'm sure he likes that he has his own "secret" to withhold from Hermione.  I loved the way Hermione reasoned her way to getting Snape to open up and answer more of her questions.  It worked like a charm even if it did take two days for the hook to firmly set.  I wanted to cheer when she was reading the wizard's journal and realized there was more in that book than just the written words.  This is an amazing story, and I love what you're doing with the characters.I'm glad that she didn't give up on finding out more about Middlers.  When Snape wouldn't tell her what Venla had written back to him, she wrote to the Midwife herself.  I like that Severus is giving her books to read and then they can compare her reactions to each.  Perhaps they are getting a little closer to finding out just what Middlers do.  I was very happy to see that the Dodo will be allowed to remain at Hogwarts, and from Hermione's reaction to the quill in his collection of nesting materials, I'd say he will play a very important role in finding useful information for Hermione to "middle."  I wonder what he will "find" after he is in Hagrid's care?  Now... who the hell is Fazeem Noorta, and how does Severus Snape know him or her?I will be waiting with bated breath for your next update!Beth

Brilliant. And what a place to stop. I can't wait for your update :)

At least the release was good.  I thought she had burned the place down!

Wow, some quetions answered!  and Voldy a Mage.  Takers sound scary, too. 

Ooooh what a scary situation for Hermione. I guess it was a lesson well learned, but it seems like an extreme way learning it. Lucky Snape wasn't caught in the backlash of her magical overflow.

Oh my, this story just gets better and better. I loved the part when she was disillusioned and Severus was holding onto her hand, that whole scene seemed so intimate to me.

I love the story. It has a great plot. The entire Mage thing seems rather more sinister than wonderful.

THIS IS BRILLIANT! I am waiting with bated breath to find out what happens next! So teasing to hear so much information at one time from Snape and then not find out what kind of Mage he is. But then to find out Tom was a Crafter. Nice! I like when Snape's humanity is revealed, and that he has fondness for Hagrid.

Great story! I can't wait to see what happens as they work together!

This chapter is filled with information (answers) and a cause for more questions.  When Severus summons her to his office now, she couldn't imagine what he had in mind, but when he offered to let her withdraw from her agreement from the night before, she recalled something about choices and who was responsible for the choices that were made:Hermione felt disoriented. Was she being set up? An odd phrase surfaced to the top of her mind, something about choice.

“The only way to know you’ve chosen rightly is to make the same choice again,” she said vaguely, as if speaking to herself. It really was starting to bother her how those pieces of someone else’s mind kept popping into her own at odd times.

That made me think about what Dumbledore had said to her that night in his office when he had first informed her that she was a Mage:  It is all about Destiny."

The word was laid with such a careful and reverend stress that Hermione, who firmly believed one's destiny was always in one’s own hands, felt this belief to rock slightly where it was pillared by logic, common sense, and healthy self-esteem. Could it be... No, it was out of question. The idea that your life and your choices were not your own made her nauseous.=====She refused to take the easy way out and instead chose to agree to abide by Snape's new set of rules.  And having made that decision, I was very proud of Hermione for requesting her own "rules," such as they were.  When she and Severus had entered the Forbidden Forest, her bravery in requesting that her questions be answered was rewarded by learning that Tom Riddle was a Mage, a Crafter, but that he had not lived up to the description of this kind of Mage.  He did not "create, invent and bring forth things of beauty.” This whole Mage world was rapidly becoming more and more dreadful.“How come you are still… capable then, sir?” She was choosing words slowly, lest he decide that he was already telling her uncharacteristically too much. “Is he not aware that you are a Mage, too? Has he not tried to take your power?”“He is. But he has not. My Mage powers are so useless to him, that I’m much better fit to do the jobs I do now.”So what kind of Mage is Severus Snape?  I guess I'll have to wait to find that out.All of this talk of Mages made me go back and review the kinds of Mages that had already been mentioned in the story:  •Crafters, who created (like Helga Hufflepuff and Lord Voldemort).•Shifter, who had the ability to handle matter and energy and the powers therein beyond the imaginable (like Perenelle Flamel).•Finders (like Merlin, whose wife Nimue had used his powers and brought devastation to her people).•Talkers, who could communicate with different beings, animate and inanimate.•Loki (like Fred and George) who could range from innocuous pranksters to schemers, liars and provokers.•Menders, who had powers for healing and renewal•Players, who manipulated the fates and gambled lives (like Albus Dumbledore).•Middlers, who connected things, someone in the middle, an intermediary who could translate and interpret.  Also described as the Golden Mean who embodied beauty, proportion, and truth.  Someone who was centered, not of either extreme.  (like Hermione Granger.)I think this description of the Middler rings true for Hermione.  For a while she has realized that she had the ablility to "learn" things that were not spelled out in books or lectures, and she couldn't quite figure out how she "knew" these things she had never been taught.  I believe she had been "in the middle" and was "connecting the dots."No one has admitted to knowing what kind of Mage Severus is... could he be a Mender, perhaps?I apologize for leaving such a long and "thinky" review, but your story has really captured my attention, and I felt that the time had come for me to try to tie some of the loose threads together before I had a chance to forget.  (And I thought if I wrote all this here, I could come back to it later if I needed to refresh my memory.)Thank you for such a well written story!Beth

Excellent.  It's very scary to think of what Moldywart would do with a mage.  I love the little glimpses of the Snape very few ever see.

Oohhh, crap, what has she gotten herself into now!  LOL.

I really like this story so far, and the midwife is such a truculent character :) 

Wow. This story gets more and more interesting with each chapter.

Yummy story.  I hope you update soon :D

How can you leave it there? Lol, so many great possibilities! I can't wait for the next chapter. Though after rereading the previous chapter before this one I had a thought. Do you think wizards ever use legilimens on house elves? I was just thinking it would be really funny if Snape wanted to review some of things the elf has seen, particularly Hermione before her shower lol.

That was really a good chapter, I like the interactions.

Gaaaaah!!! Soooooo close to finding out what kind of Mage he is! I'm even more intrigued – a Mage with powers useless to Voldy?! Oh, please, please, please update soon!!

Tom Riddle, a Crafter. Love the irony. :)

So, if she's a "Middler" does that mean that when she touches Snape, she can bridge the gap between them and feel what he feels? Perhaps not quite a mind reader or a Legilimens, but an empath?

This is all so original and interesting. I especially enjoy stories where they are forced together where no romance is involved, and they slowly discover the desirable qualties each has hidden deep inside.

I hope to see more of Venla. Anyone who can rattle Snape and not feel intimidated by him is so much fun.

I can hardly wait for more.

Whew, that was an ordeal.  At least she knows what she is, and I think she's beginning to exhibit her powers unbeknownst to her.  I like them!  Maybe she'll find out what Severus is!  Now Draco... that's mysterious.  What's he up to?

That does seem to be an interesting birth she had there.