I just wanted to add another comment regarding this chapter. Well done Draco Malfoy!  Maybe now that Lavender Brown isn't so silly he and she could make a couple. He needs a Griffindore. She won't have ulterior motives like wanting his fortune.  She will be brave and his life is hell for a while. And if she gives her heart to him I think she would be loyal. She's a sucker for someone who needs to be loved and who needs emotional healing. Another reason why he needs a Griffindore. They'd make pretty babies. I don't care about that much but Lavender would. She'll always look good on his arm if he still cares about fashion and image. He's paid enough for the mark, I think. He won't get his mom or dad back in this life. For now, he's totally alone, it seems. Hopefully, after The Judgement they will all be in what ever heaven is for them. 

That was a damned good ride! I may get in line and go on it again. 

You clever girl! 

He owes her for the horcrux. 

She's done nothing but pissed him off with the eye thing. How could I have missed that? Must be the migraine or I haven't watched enough "Charmed" episodes. Maybe because I truly care about your characters in this story, it becomes a horror story rather than just another teen show episode. Your story is deadly serious like the real Frankenstein. Not cheesy like those girl witches who go to work at their seriously professional jobs dressed like little whores. It's hard to take them seriously.  They're damned cute though. I wish I could look like that. 

Back to the subject. 

It's a good thing that demon doesn't know the other people who killed a horcrux wouldn't be interested in his service to them. I wonder what Dumbledore paid to destroy his? He ended up cursed while the others didn't. 

I have a side question. How did Narcissa manage to avoid taking the mark? Did she tell us in DH? I admit, at some point, I started skipping around reading chapters out of order. It was terribly written. I read lots of Sci Fi. A good writer never kills off so many important characters with no other reason than just because she could. I'm sure I missed some finer details. Was Lucius' willingness to give his home taken over and have been so much more harassed by Tom than the others because he had bargained for Narcissa's soul with Tom to spare her taking the mark? It seems to me Riddle and Bellatrix would have seen that as blasphemy and held it against her sister. If JKR didn't tell us how she got out of it could you make up a good story regarding it? Please put it in an SS/HG story. They're the only ones I read.

The further I get into this story the more utterly brilliant I see you to be.  This story starts out so comparatively beguine, as just another post DH SS/HG romance then lures the reader into a brilliant horror story.  You should write for a living. This story is unique from the hundreds of other SS/HG stories I have read.  Not only well written but more advanced in thought and depth. I find no conflict what so ever in your portrayal of Severus and Hermione's personalities from what they should be. Only they are better and deeper than JKR's cannon characters have the ability to be. You could write circles around her.  I'm off to find out how Hermione solves this problem.

I have a damned migraine,but I can't stop reading.

I have a couple of questions, however.  1. Because Draco's mother died in his place, has he been changed in any other way beside being free from the demon?

2. I'm guessing that Severus would lose balance and fully embrace the dark if Hermione dies in this attempt because of he will choose to, in bitterness and grief over Hermione's sacrifice for him. It is inevitable that his nature would choose this. Am I correct?

3. Finally, I'm not sure why the demon is partially in debt to Hermione when she injured it. Is it a debt of conquest? She took it's eyes and so she has some power of ownership over it now?

I just read your story from start to finish and enjoyed it very much. Lovely, original ideas and I'm glad that after all they've been through Severus and Hermione found happiness together.

Nice chapter. Hermione's hurt is palpable and even though the Professor can't talk, his personality is spot-on.

Nice way of solving the vision and communication problems. :)

A bit of a headache?  Talk about master of understatement. :)

He's a nasty piece of work, but I suppose he is a demon. :)

That  sentience had an agenda, despite its claims of neutrality. :)

What a fantastically original piece: I enjoyed every line.  I particularly loved the ways you found to help Snape communicate so eloquently even whilst incapacitated and the way you managed to find potential for LavLav to become a better rounded character - thank you.

Oh, so wonderful! It wasn't a squeaky-clean ending, but they found a way around it... I knew they would! The tape recorder was genius!! I can just see Severus sitting in the park, talking into some huge, 1980's model recorder, and getting wary looks from mothers with their children. How great! I agree with Hermione; take that, Demon! I have truly enjoyed this story... thank you so much for writing and sharing! I like to think that the spell on Hermione's eyes worked, and they lived their HEA. It might not be perfect, but neither is life. Thank you so much for this wonderful tale!

wow, another emotional chapter.  Thanks

Terrific Chapter!

That Lucius/Monster part was pretty darn scary.  Just saying, good job.

I've read this before but had forgotten how amazing, powerful, engrossing, wonderful and incredible this first chapter is.

I was blinking as much as Snape (and doing a little sniffling).  I also laughed.  She broke his scowl.

You are amazing.  Here, have some chocolate (the invisible calorie free kind).

I lovingly call this chapter "what was Aurette high on, when she wrote this, part one." lol. 

I'm reading this for probably the 10th time, and this chapter still makes me cry. You've just done an amazing job of making us care for Severus, and for Hermione too. I even manage to always feel sorry for Lucius here too.