i am always completely blown away by how carefully and closely you read fic - it is such an absolute gift when you comment like this. i'm reading through it (yet again!) in vague disbelief that someone could have been as invested in the intricacies of this story as i was when writing it. i cannot thank you enough, really.
this thing you said: she hardly has any idea how to go about the simplest things, and every ordinary transaction seems fraught with terrifying, hopeful possibility
yes! absolutely yes. i imagined the therapeutic process of taking apart all those years of being the person in canon - protecting herself with the aggressive self-righteousness and cruelty of canon dursleyness - and the vulnerability of what would be left. she feels to me like someone who's shed a carapace and is so fragile, and so frightened by the idea of being liked for that old self that she has repressed. and yet she's presented everywhere with evidence that the original (and new) self is something likeable, or even loveable.
sigh. i don't know if you were right about who i am - my ego wants to say YES, because this is a mindblowingly flattering review, but my more measured side, the side that knows i am not all that prolific, is a little more sceptical. :)
either way, thank you again, so much. i could not be more thrilled.