I don't know if I can express how much I loved this story! So dark and down right scary at the start, except I will say that there was something horribly pitiful yet amusing about "Voldgini." If you were ever a Buffy fan, you might remember the end of season 3, when the mayor turned into a giant snake creature--I kept having that image whenever Voldemort came in the scene! The Snape-as-living-sheath was brilliant and disturbing, but I loved that it turned out he was "storing" the sword for Harry, in the end. Snidget Harry was fabulous. [I had to pause at some point into this story, and go look at acidburn's Snidget!Harry drawing again (which I have always adored), which then prompted me to reread IGTOW's "A Bird in Hand" (which I also adore).] The way he brought out Snape's gentler, more human side was lovely. I love birds, and I think the little snidget was the perfect metaphor for hope. It reminded me of a verse my mother used to quote, by Oliver Herford:
I heard a bird sing In the dark of December. A magical thing And sweet to remember.
'We are nearer to Spring Than we were in September," I heard a bird sing In the dark of December.