wonderful! wonderful! thank you so much, anon - this is exactly what i wanted to receive.
what an amazing tobias pov you wrote. so immersive, i was completely gripped by it. i have to admit i've never really given much thought to tobias at all, but you've given him real life here - an awful, bleak, cruel life - but something credible and sensitive as well. that seems like quite a feat.
i loved the contrast of the different points of view: it worked brilliantly both in terms of unpeeling the moments and illuminating the truth of half-seen moments. so clever and careful! and the characterization was beautifully done.
and wow, you delivered such a punch at the end there - with sybill's beautiful vision of them as two stooped, grey-haired women (which had me filling up) and then this:
"He'll be happy, I know it. No harm will come to him there, not at Hogwarts."
oh sybill. augh!
thank you, anon, for thinking so carefully about the things i like and for coming up with such a perfect and clever response. i really loved it!