SQUEEEEE! Ok, that out of the way, let me inhale and continue on to be a little more coherent. First off, let me apologise, mystery writer, for not commenting sooner. I've been finishing up fest stuff and I got sick (twice!), so I've been rather behind on fest posting. I hope you'll forgive me!
Ok, first: I love a perfect title. Your title, and the quote its taken from, is powerful and succinct.
And it carries through the whole story, from the very first opening sentence. I loved it when -
--Harry leaves Snape pinned to the wall, and walks away, the casual cruelty --when Harry nonchalantly makes Snape strip and then cruelly comments, "not much to look at, are you?" - Snape is so very proud! --Harry's struggle to control the madness inside of him, refusing to accept concern, and when Snape offers him a glass of water - ! --portrait!Dumbledore is perfect and fraught with emotion, Dumbledore's iron will to make Harry understand clashing with Harry's rage/grief/bitterness/hate and the red ink was so angsty-hurty-perfect! --Harry's response - to redirect his pain and hurt someone else, to someone he'd made into a scapegoat for everything that went wrong in the war - was predictable but powerful and gutsy. --the whole of a conversation being carried by body language and expressions - wow! --the 'morning after'! Harry's breakfast, and the way Snape goes right to the right question to ask, because I think in a sense he asked more because Harry needed to understand, because I bet Snape had been there before --the scene between Harry and Ron - it was very *Hermione*, setting them up like that. Ron being a berk was played strongly but believably. --and then Harry - oh Harry! - takes his pain out on Snape again - "How could you ever think that *I* would want *you*?" - and the way Snape just *shuddered* - the hot, almost climatic scene between them, dominant!Harry, and his claim, "I never get what I want" was crushing and yet arrogantly assertive --the painful parallel: Snape held by a dark!Harry in metal arms, Harry held by a dark lord in stone arms - ow!
And then tied up, old memories and new, and Dumbledore talking to him so gently, like trying to tame a wounded animal, and Snape's anguish at being forced into such a role - and then the tentative truce, and the final step in Ron's note, I just needed someone to blame, driving the lesson home and bringing the story full-circle.
Ok, I think I've rambled enough. It was brilliant, it was hurty and angsty and compelling and driven, all conflicts and black and white swirling together in a cacaphony of hard truths and palatable fictions. If that makes sense XD Thank you for this!!