Well. There are many things I would like to say, but I think WOW! expresses my initial response when I finished reading.
Okay. Specific points:
-- The balance between Dark and Light. I think this is one of the very best stories I have read that tackled the subject and did so respectfully and with an attempt (successful!) to be fair. It was a relief to read a story where Dark is not basically EVIL and that the Light is not basically pure and virtuous.
-- Lily...aka the Madonna of HPverse. Nice to see her handled with less that velvet gloves. I love the Saint Lily feeling to the whole treatment and the fact that noble though she is, she is also fanatical about her new 'career'. I sense that her standoffishness vis-a-vis Harry and her responsibility to bring Harry up to as she had agreed to would have occurred whether James had died or not, whether the deal would have been struck with Severus or not.
-- Severus. OMG! What you did with him! I drooled with envy, let me tell you. You treated him with dignity, with consideration and with a certain humour. (Severus and his stud farm!) And the hair. OMG, how I love long clean hair on a man! (Aragon is the only one with greasy hair who can do it for me.)
I adored how you snuck in the other characters, all the while keeping true to their personalities.
Severus's discovery of the true meaning of love, that he has it finally was beautifully and logically developed. Slowly. So that when Harry finally acknowledges that he loves Severus, there was a real basis for it. (The advantage of such a long story...which I read instead of marking.)
Then there is Maisie and the Bard. That went well too. :-)
But for me, the very best line, the line that had me grinning like an idiot was the very last one: women make good story-tellers too.