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	leni_jess 2007-12-26 04:56 am UTC (link)
	Oh joy! This looks so enticing. Unfortunately, having just found the story, I have to go out for a few hours, and can't read it until I return. I'll be back! (Reply to this)(Thread)

leni_jess
2007-12-26 11:07 am UTC (link)

This lived up to expectations: thank you so much. I liked the way you got Severus and Hermione together slowly, allowing for his natural suspicions and concerns, as well as showing how greatly he must have needed support and touch, and letting her develop sympathy and affection before desire. His understanding that her companionship and kindness were real, despite the polyjuice deceit, allowed him to be less the bitter man he must have been in that last year, and overcome the suspicion he must have felt for everyone's motives.

The time-turner bit was neatly done – hard to get around canon at the time of Severus's 'death', since Hermione's movements are fairly fully scripted. I appreciated that you took canon into account and worked with it. I also liked that you not only took the Epilogue to DH into account, but used it to give Hermione the chance to develop the maturity that she lacked during the body of the story, despite the feeling she developed for Severus. That time lapse also, of course, gave him the opportunity to grow past his time at Hogwarts and plausibly develop a full new life.

I do wonder at what point they started corresponding, and whether Hermione knew his identity from the start – they appeared to have been open with each other for quite some time, even if they'd never met since she left him in her parents' cottage, having let him manipulate her into walking out on him: a typical Severus Snape manoeuvre, and for once not entirely defensive, perhaps.

I very much enjoyed the wizarding teas – you peeked at my LJ interests, didn't you. You used them to create common ground, then calm and sympathy, and at last a vehicle for antivenin: very neat and economical.

Thank you for my Christmas present!

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	(Anonymous) 2007-12-26 09:42 am UTC (link)
	Utterly enjoyable, though it seems strange to me that he'd pushed her away but carried on a correspondence with her for a long time it seems. I also wonder if Hermione married Ron out of spite in the end, and how it is she staid with him for so long. Well, I shall use my imagination to answer the questions. Thanks for writing and sharing. septentrion (Reply to this)

	beccafran 2007-12-26 04:35 pm UTC (link)
	Oooh, great job! Like a long fic should be, this was just engrossing. I love Hermione's desire for a task of her own, and the way you used the teas was just wonderful -- especially if, as leni_jess suggests, you incorporated one of her interests into the story intentionally -- what a great idea! (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2007-12-26 06:03 pm UTC (link)
	This is a pairing I like but which rarely works for me. But in this story it did! Yay. I loved the canon-compliance, and the way you brought Snape and Hermione together was believable and convincing. Great story, very well written. I really enjoyed it. :-) AriadneElda (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2007-12-26 07:39 pm UTC (link)
	That was quite enjoyable! I enjoyed the polyjuiced encounters! The clever use of the time turner to go back and save Severus. The ending was wonderful! Karasu Hime (Reply to this)

djinnj
2007-12-27 04:48 am UTC (link)

I was so pleased to see Snape with someone to lighten his burden just by sharing the pleasure of a cup of tea and conversation during that last, horrible year. And how wonderful for them to connect over tea, and then for that tea to be deeply involved in Snape's rescue. I particularly liked the very practical use of a time turner. And that Snape knew it was her, of course. Because I love Snape crotchety and clever. :D

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(Anonymous)
2007-12-27 04:44 pm UTC (link)

omg omg HOMG!!!!

i jus found my difinitive post-dh fic!!!!

this is DA BOMB! its amazing! cos ok, i had TWO major problems with DH, and your fic "solved" both of them! XD XD

alright, before i squee some more, i gotta say that i hate snape/hermoinie... i stay well away from it, but SOMETHING made me read this, and i am SO GLAD cos you sold me the pairing bebeh! i dunno how, but it WORKED. when hermoinie walked out of the cottage i was like "NOOOOOOOO!!!!"... haha.

lets see, what else? oh, snape is HOT! teh sex.... omg, and tea! squee! and the letter was awesome, (it actually had me hugging my computer screen!)

and as for my other two problems wif DH, 1) you had hermoinie divoce ron and continue her academic persuits. and that was just perfect, its actually canon-centric. i was shocked to read her married to ron... even more shocked to find her a mother, and throughly disgusted at ron's behaviour in the epilogue (which brings it full circle to "omg, hermoinie married him?!"). i always thought of her as becoming a swinging single, wildly successful, immesely powerful career woman. it wasnt too hard to imagine her with kids, but it WAS hard to imagine her putting her own development aside to be a wife to ron-the-stagnant. (apologies to hermoinie/ron fans, but tt jus feels so OOC to me.)

and 2) as a HUGE snape fan, i was thrilled at the 'how snape could have survived' theory. so far i've only found one other believeable theory which i bought (fawkes came to snape's rescue aft harry and co left). everything else felt jus a little bit too unlikely/ impossible. but the time-turner idea was so "omg! perfect! why didnt i think of that?!?!" and yeah... this really did work.

anw, to end, i love your fic, it worked so well, i was gripping my com screen when snape n hermoinie fought, i hugged my com screen when i read snape's letter to 'jane', i hugged it again when old snape replies hermoinie's owl.... absolutely perfect. from this day on, this is gonna be my difinitive DH universe.

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	bethbethbeth 2007-12-27 09:46 pm UTC (link)
	Very, very nicely done! So many Snape pairings were made even more difficult than before in the wake of DH, and Snape/Hermione (assuming one is going to keep canon compliant) is one of the most problematic. However, you did a fine job of making things work here and...okay, the sex was very much of the "OMG HOT" variety. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2007-12-28 02:48 am UTC (link)
	Excellent characterization, plot integration and more... Thank you. M (Reply to this)

	karelia 2007-12-29 06:49 am UTC (link)
	One of the best DH-compliant fics I've read. Loved everything, the polyjuice, the fact that he knew soon who she really was, and even the epilogue sort of compliance. Absolutely wonderful! (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2007-12-31 09:02 pm UTC (link)
	wow, I loved this!! I always love SS/HG stories and this one was wonderful! the polyjuice, the time-turner, the research... all very "Hermione." Great job-- I can't wait to find out who wrote this!! (Reply to this)

	The Headmaster's Teas (Anonymous) 2008-01-01 05:56 am UTC (link)
	This story was awesome! Lots of smut with even a bit of plot. Very well written. (Reply to this)

	hmm (Anonymous) 2008-01-01 09:46 am UTC (link)
	I thought this story was great, but... There is no way you can pick up where you left off after twenty years. That damn epilogue, I just ignore it because I never could believe H/R could last so long anyway. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2008-01-02 11:57 am UTC (link)
	Brilliant and wonderful. (Reply to this)

	violet_quill 2008-01-02 07:11 pm UTC (link)
	What a clever take on canon! I definitely appreciate a good DH-compliant fic, and this is a really original one. Nicely done! (Reply to this)

	nonajf 2008-01-03 02:32 am UTC (link)
	Well done! I do like this pairing when it's done right. (Reply to this)

	coerciveconsent 2008-01-03 03:01 am UTC (link)
	Ah, what a plot you had there! I really liked the polyjuice love affair :) Knew that he would have had to have know as well x) Nice touches of angst and a heaping dollop of smut! Mmm. (Reply to this)

	firefly124 2008-02-25 12:32 am UTC (link)
	I can't believe I'm only just now finally reading this. Excellent story, just excellent! I love the way you brought them together, the way you worked the rescue, and the way you brought them back together. And the sex? fans self Just wonderful! (Reply to this)

	terrible_tues 2008-03-01 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	Thanks for this. I saw it recc'd at http://www.journalfen.net/community/smutty_claus/86828.html (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2008-04-07 06:12 am UTC (link)
	Great story. I love the time-turner usage. Clever nod to Bedknobs and Broomsticks with the "E" names at the end. :) I loved that movie...if I'm honest I still love that movie, lol. (Reply to this)

	(Anonymous) 2008-10-27 11:06 am UTC (link)
	just the best canon dh story I've read. A wonderfully written Snape. Perfect. Thank you! (Reply to this)

(Anonymous)
2008-11-02 06:01 am UTC (link)

Lady Rhian just recced this at her LJ, because the SSHG Awards are gearing up again, so I came over to take a look. It is gorgeous. I was wondering all along how she was getting away with this -- surely something that tastes as foul as Polyjuice would smell odd, too? -- so I smirked when I read his letter.

And oh! Another Bedknobs and Broomsticks fan! I also wrote Eglantine and Emilius into a fic, though I made her Severus' great-aunt. I was absolutely delighted when I saw the name Emilius Browne in the letter.

Keladry Lupin

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