Oh, Teddy, your comment completely bowled me over, and it still makes me blush when I read it. This story shape-shifted more than once during the writing and suffered a certain amount of triage near the end, not due so much to the story itself as to the difficult and exhausting period of my life. I had serious doubts that the fic had lived up to the characters and what I wanted to say about them, especially because I knew I'd rushed the ending. I was so, so grateful for your heartfelt appreciation, because it meant I'd done Aberforth and Severus justice.
Also, thank you for finding it beautiful. It's been two years since I last finished a story, and your response to this means a lot to me.