Wasn't sure WHAT I was going to write when I accepted the assignment. Finally, I realized that I needed to address what I thought were the omissions in the last book. It's ridiculously arrogant of me to say this, but if I had been writing DH, I would have brought the series full circle and dealt with the issue of the Maruaders. Because his near death at the hands of Sirius and Dumbledore's whitewashing of this crime HAS TO BE where why Snape becomes a Death Eater. You can't logically have him more or less martyr himself for twenty years unless there is a compelling core of goodness in him. Despite the fact that he can be cruel and nasty and arrogant and insufferable, I think that by the definition of the series (you love Lily Evans you are a bit of all right, it is what SAVES James from being nothing more than an asshole), then the same construct applies to Snape. And yet we do not see that transition from arrogant Snape to Death Eater Snape. In fact, in DH we get a very convoluted story about Dumbledore and Gellert that is fascinating and wish like hell she had put it in ANOTHER book. Written a prequel, because it's fascinating stuff, but it does NOT belong here in the last book. Structurally, I think the story should have come full circle. The ending wouldn't have changed, we still need Harry to defeat Voldemort without killing him, THAT is inviolate, but there are so many issues that were left in the dust while we went on this other tangent with the Elder wand.
Um, getting a little off track here. Anyway, so, my only choice, really, was to write what I think is canon in my mind. Oh probably not the ending, because I truly see Harry as very happy with Ginny, it WILL fulfill all the gaps in his life, but I also couldn't see physically marooning Snape in a portrait for fifty years without giving him love (and physical love at that) at some point. As Harry says, he deserves it. Thanks!