someone knows about and values anonymity, flexibility, and self-preservation
yes yes yes! that's exactly what i meant. the weird thing for me, i suppose, as i indulged the characterisation that i was writing, was that they begin to converge in some respects - snape learns to conceal and pettigrew loses some of his self-possession and pragmatism (maybe that's what happens when you spend over a decade as a rat) - but i wanted to show how they start out with such different responses to their exclusion, even as they end up together, inevitably, by choice here and by force later on.
mag, i am really touched that you liked this. it means a lot.