Holy..! This is tremendous. Thank you so much for writing this for me.
Your writing style is so striking that I feel like I should know who you are, but somehow I can't put my finger on it. Your words have such precision and delicate detail. It reminds me of Durer's engravings, the ones where you find yourself looking really closely because you just can't believe how many tiny little lines there are.
Your Aberforth is so rich and fully realized, it's a pleasure being in his head. Just everything about him -- his roughness, but also his wit and his particularness about calling things by the right name. He's analytical and likes to see things square-on. I love the connection he has with his animals, more matter-of-fact than affectionate, but he understands them and respects them for what they are. The analogy you've drawn between that and his feelings about Severus is inspired.
I love what you did with the Albus/Aberforth relationship. I think it's perfect for them, that there was something there, but nothing that could be quite pinned down and labeled. That's exactly how I see them.
The story flows wonderfully, with the gradual increase in tension paralleling Voldemort's rise. I absolutely love the messiness of Aberforth and Severus's relationship, fraught with so many misunderstandings, and things that perhaps can't ever be fully understood. Ab is a sharp observer of Severus as he changes over the years, yet the barriers between them are constantly reinforced by things in the world that neither of them can control -- most of all, by Albus.
The cathartic moment when Severus literally bares himself to Aberforth is daringly theatrical, and it *works*. I hope this isn't going too far, but it's actually a little Shakespearean in my opinion. It's the sort of scene he'd write. Very symbolic and mythic-feeling, underpinned by a deeply complicated relationship between the characters. Severus's story, too, has a feel of classical tragedy to it, as he drives inevitably towards what we know will be his death. I love that his eyes are open to that, that he sees it coming and he's *angry* about it, but his fate, as he sees it, is already written.
I really want to thank you for writing something so thoughtfully tailored to the most important of my likes, which isn't a character or a pairing or a kink, but a *story* with all the complexity and uncertainty and fear and hope of real people's minds and hearts. Not every writer can pull that off, but it's what I'm hoping for every time I read a fic, and I got it here.