Re: YAYYYYYY! Our Capitaine!
With most of my comments, I've been pointing out lines that I loved. Can't do this here. Not because there weren't any, but because the ideas were overwhelming.
The castle as sentient being! Who holds grudges and wants to punish those it feels wronged it. WOW! (The temper tantrum! OMG!)
Then the deal with Binns. I can't remember a story where we get to meet Binns in his quarters (Like Harry, didn't even know he had any!), to understand why he is still there. His relationship with the castle. His remembering Severus as a student. His having to remain within the deal he made and yet finding a way to help Severus.
I loved/hated how you dribbled out information as to Severus's situation. At first the agoraphobia diagnosis was novel enough, but then to have the true reason come out...and the way he and Harry had been dealing with all that. Awesome.
Though I won't list the lines I loved, I must point out that the repartee between Harry and Severus was always intense and often amusing.
The descriptions of what Severus undergoes when he tries to leave are heart-wrenching. The dress robes scene particularly so.
Harry's anger/rage at what Severus is suffering when the fight against Voldemort is finally over...his frustration in not being able to talk about what is happening...his search for a way out for Severus...his determination and his love... All within character and yet that of a Harry who has matured but who is still willing to 'break the rules' for someone he loves.
Severus...his acceptance, his addiction, his need for Harry not only for his sanity but for his heart, his confinement – which would have broken a lesser man (I hate to think what that first year was like for him), his depression, his self-hatred for not being able to walk out (when they thought it was agoraphobia)...
What came across best however was the love each of these two has for the other. How Harry will do anything to save his Severus, even take on the castle to fight for him.
And that scene had me flipping pages onto the floor (Fortunately I had numbered them!) just to see what happened next. The tension was incredible!
And Harry's final victory that happened all because Severus Snape, snarky Potions instructor, had treated Binns like he treated everyone else on staff.
The last pages had me reaching for the box of tissues since I feared the worst ( :-( you teased us! :-( )...and then got to the reward that Severus and Harry deserved.
Thank you for a wonderfully original Snarry. (It now has its own binder – dark green, and it's by the bed for another of many-to-be reads.)