Thank you very much -- I had a ball writing it! It's meant to be a modern version of the Roman Cupid and Psyche myth with a happier ending.  You can find the original story online or in Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Thanks for the review!

Thanks!  I know the set-up is kind of preposterous, so I did my best to gloss over any difficulty the reader might have in suspending disbelief.  Glad to see it worked decently well.  Cheers!

Thank you!  Yes, when the visual aspect is gone, all of a sudden you've got to describe everything in terms of other senses.  (As one of my betas said, "Man, this story would be a real bitch to illustrate.")  You got it exactly right in the folktale feel of the ending -- the first half parallels the stories of the Hindu gods Kama and Rati, and the second is meant to parallel the Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, the god of love and his human wife.  If you like adventures on the heroic scale, I highly recommend checking both out.

Thanks for the review! Yes, this story came about because I wanted a nice, romantic "happily ever after" sort of tale after all the extreme drama & angst of my big fic, The Knight Errant Chronicles. But Keep Me in the Dark has really taken on a life of its own. It had never really occurred to me that Snape/Padma was such a "rarepair" until long after I'd written this fic.

I do think there are more Anglo-Indian female students at Hogwarts than just the Patil sisters, though, because if you look around at the cast during the crowd scenes in the films, you do spy more than a few black and Indian and Asian kids amongst the extras. I'd imagine the student body at Hogwarts kinda-sorta reflects the law of averages as far as the British/Irish/Scottish population, and there is a good-sized Anglo-Indian community in Britain, especially in the urban areas. Padma and Parvati are probably just the ones that Harry knows the best, seeing as how they're in his year, they're twins, and they're both very pretty.

Thank you!  I read the story of Cupid and Psyche from Greek/Roman mythology in high school; in it, the Princess Psyche is offered as a sacrifice to a monster because it was said that her beauty rivaled that of the goddess Aphrodite.  But instead of being killed, Aphrodite's son, Cupid, fell in love with the girl and brought her to a faraway castle and married her himself.  He would visit her every night and they'd make love in the total darkness, but he warned her never to look at him.  Psyche being madly in love with him, worried as to who he really was, and prey to feminine curiosity, she couldn't resist lighting a lamp to take just one look at the man she loved... and you know, even as a teenager it struck me as to how VERY damn sexy that story was.  So, I decided to write a modernized take on it, and it all just went from there.  Thanks for the review!

Thank you!  Yes, I'm just enough of a stickler for canon that I can't see Hermione with anyone but Ron (not sure WHY she's into him though, as Ron seems like such an ordinary Joe when Hermione is so clever and extraordinary.)  But for some reason, I always think of Severus Snape, if he's neither gay nor asexual, as being attracted to women from cultures other than his own.  Maybe that's because his own peer group have nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters and thus become romantically inhospitable, and partially because he's just SO restlessly intelligent of a man that I think he'd find someone foreign and a touch other, who came with a whole host of new customs to learn, to be most interesting.  Everyone else's opinions may vary, of course   

I agree that Hermione WILL be with Ron even tho its a waste on her part!

Well if your theroy of Severus Liking ladies of a different culture is true, I might just be in luck! Being that I am of Greek and Lebanese decent, and I'm Aussie born!

Now I really hope your theroy is correct!!! lol

again a great story, (I read it again)

-KarlaMarie

Thanks for flirting with something outside your 'ship, and thanks for noticing there's a smidgeon of plot hidden amidst all that sweating!  I'd imagine we've all read multiple versions of "Professor Snape impregnates Hermione Granger, Mary Sue, or MarySue!Hermione Granger and they all lived happily ever after in the suburbs" at this point, so I wanted to write something a little different for my own enjoyment, and hopefully that of others.  Glad you liked it, and thanks for the review! 

Thank you!  To be honest, I'd imagine both Snape and Padma had to some extent not wanted to know who the other was at first, so as to better enjoy the perfect dream-lover fantasy.  She might have wondered here and there if his voice sounded familiar... he probably knew that if he went through the files of Anglo-Indian female students of approximately her age group, he would have been able to narrow her identity down to a small group of girls... but I've always thought that he just wouldn't want to.Anyway, thanks for reviewing both stories!  You are most kind to flatter a poor scribbler thus. 

Wheeeee, I'm always so pleased when I hear folks say "This isn't my usual pairing, BUT..."  That's writer catnip, that is.  As far as how it progresses from here, this story is complete as it is.  One can only imagine their adventures from here (especially given the AU-ness of the setting), but I always thought Severus and Padma dated just long enough to be proper, then got married, sold the Spinner's End house, and had many Nick and Nora Charles-style adventures together afterward.  (Something about Professor Snape always makes me want to imagine happy endings for him.)  Thanks for the review!

Ooh, there's actually some wilful self-deception going on with both parties here; they both might subconsciously have some idea who the other is, but they're both enjoying the freedom that the anonymity gives them too much to try to break the spell just...yet.

Thank you very much!  It was a lot of fun to write!