God. This just made my stomach go all quivery. It's so incredibly inventive and sweet-natured and there's something about it that's just - well, beautiful. Heartbreaking, but in a way that makes everything right. (And by "everything" I mean Snape's death and the utter desolation and loneliness of it and That Stupid Epilogue.) The drawings - I'm not even sure I can describe how they make me feel. The kids are wonderful extrapolations from their fathers, but it's the way you draw Snape and Harry that really gets to me. Your ability to imagine them older and show them to us, recognizably themselves and so vulnerable to the past, is breathtaking. The emotion you manage to distill in a few sweeps of the pencil, gah! *hand flail* You've got a devastating gift for expression that shoots right past my defenses. I love the use of the shocked, staring eyes as a glimpse into each man's sudden comprehension, how the sight of each child jars the other's parent into aching for what he's lost .
Okay, I just watched it again for the fourth time, and I couldn't help it, I cried. It's as if the more I understand the story, the more poignant it is. Your Harry is gorgeous, btw - so mature-looking, intelligent and warm. And his little chin-beard! Aw, sophisticated. And your Snape - how much do I love the fact that he's wearing Dumbledore's half-moon spectacles? Or his stubble? Or the way his hair straggles in his face, making him look careworn and sharpened by grief? I admit I don't entirely understand why he suddenly falls ill, but you do a shockingly good job of making him look feverish and somewhat gruesome, as if he's dying. The teeth really nail it there. I love the panel of Al standing over him, the woebegone look on her face. And you depict the meeting between them with such outstanding narrative skill - my heart catches every time the frame pans from Harry opening the door to Snape's face - Jesus, his expression kills me. Such grief and longing. As if he's tried his damnedest to stay away. As if he's exhausted his resistance and he's here to ask Harry for forgiveness and doesn't know what kind of reception he'll get. The moment when Harry leans into his touch, followed by their fierce hug (and their children's jumpy surprise, heh) is cathartic. What a perfect build-up and consummation.
There are lots of lovely bits strewn all through - like the panel where Snape caresses the photo of Harry and through the window we see the kids walk off together. I adore how expressive all the hands are; you truly have a knack for beauty and the telling emotional detail. Also, the song! *clutches* What a stroke of genius. It has the same tender, almost child-like qualities of playfulness and poignancy that the story does. It's as if it were written expressly for it.
I can type until I'm blue in the face - or crippled in the fingers - and I still won't be able to convey how much I love this or how much it touches me. The word "beautiful" just keeps ringing in my head. This is brilliant from beginning to - God - the end. Which, I confess, took me completely by surprise. Until that moment it hadn't occurred tome that Almosteria was a girl. Which just knocked this out of the quidditch pitch for me: a wicked feint, a homage to their fathers' epic love, and a romantic epilogue all in one.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Pure magic, that's what this is. I'm almost dazed by how happy it makes me. Thank you so much.