Thanks!
Harry... Yes. He is the wild card in this story. The one character that I've tweaked until he finally fitted with my plot. I grow weary of a Harry who is...too apologetic or insecure when opposing Severus. He is a warrior, for God's sake! he fought - and won!- a war. Yet he is usually so... clueless and uncertain that it drives me up the wall. I wanted my own Harry to have hardened enough after the war to have absolute command of his own mind. To know, without a doubt, what or -in this case- whom is it he wants and so he'll be... at the very least surprising. I like plots with magic theory. I see Severus as something of an insatiable scholar. There'll be many hints like the bond shown in this chapter strewn all over this story...