Oh, and I forgot to mention how I loved the twistiness of the story-within-a-story: He was almost willing to believe the wildest of the wolf's explanations for his own existence; that he was a stray bit of storytelling wandering loose across the narrative universe, and that he and Severus had once been fellow characters in an extremely popular series of books, characters who had known each other from childhood, and been enemies and friends and lovers in an endless series of variations on the basic plot of that famous story. A delightful concept. Such an enjoyable story! Thanks for sharing.