YES! We can haz Good!Heroic!Snape! Wootwootwoot!! \o/
After Book 7, I was feeling bitter and upset with all that had happened and not happened for my favorite character, Severus Snape. Fortunately, fanfiction was there to help me through the disappointment. Your story is one of the best post-DH stories ever.
I loved how the story began with a very tense Headmaster Snape starting the school year with the Carrows and McGonagall dogging his steps and yapping in his ear. And when it's not them, it is Portrait!Dumbledore making his life a misery. Poor Severus. I don't know how he managed to stay sane during that last difficult and tumultuous year, trying to accomplish so many things all the while maintaining a precarious balancing act. You illustrated all that so perfectly in the opening of the story.
Then suddenly everything transformed beyond all comprehension. For the better too! I loved the alternate universe you created. It was utterly marvelous. So many apt changes that flowed from the wish magic: Lily and Dumbledore, Remus and Sirius alive and well; Kingsley patiently wooing Lily; Voldemort irrevocably dead and James Potter too; Snape a war hero; and Slytherin!Harry.
Snape, of course, is confused by the new world he finds himself in and unable to accept it. The story flows wonderfully from there as he tries to find some answers, assimilates the world around him, and finally understands and accepts what has happened. And all the while, poor Harry waits patiently for the Snape he loves to return to him. I liked how you played that out so poignantly - Snape and Lily's conversation with Harry overhearing, which causes him to withdraw. Fortunately, Severus figures things out and they finally get together. ::happyhappyjoyjoy::
"Severus," she called out. "Severus. Look at me…"
I loved how you used that line.
"Do you regret it?" Severus jerked his head up. "I've spent the past seventeen years trying to atone for it." "Then I think it is time you let it go." Harry squirmed across the blanket and nuzzled his cheek against Severus' leg. "You're forgiven." Something inside Severus snapped; a weight he'd been carrying for years lifted. "Forgiven?" "Forgiven." The boy had given him something he hadn't even known he was looking for. "Thank you."
::deep breath:: Ahhh, I needed that. I wanted that. It felt...right. Well done.
::hugs teh Author:: Thank you for this grand masterpiece of AU story-telling!