I have been re-reading this because I have been truly puzzled by Hermione's attraction to someone who treats her so badly so much of the time. And when reading in a continual flow of narrative, I do find glimmers or moments of interaction between Hermione and Severus that are - well, almost cordial, although Severus can flip from civil to snarly faster than a weathervane in a tornado. And I certainly didn't register, in the first reading, the paragraph in Chapter 7 where Hermione feels her and Severus' magic coalescing as she comforts him following the bout of Cruciatis, and the sense of "rightness" around them. Since Severus remembers the events of that night, did he also feel the same sense of rightness, or their magic coalescing?

Some of his nasty behavior seems triggered by references to Harry, or seeing Hermione with Harry (dancing on the Astronomy Tower comes to mind). So we have a consummate spy, who can occlude Voldemort, but can't control his emotions around Hermione/Harry, Hermione/others, any more than he could (in canon) around Sirius or when James was mentioned. Is he flashing back to James and Lily when he sees Harry and Hermione? In "The Explanations," Hermione seems to make perfectly clear to Severus that she has no interest in sleeping with Harry, but he still seems to be jealous of someone!

One would assume that Hermione's efforts to rescue Severus will finally clue him in as to her feelings, but given their past history, he will probably misinterpret that as well. I am really curious as to how you will build a relationship between these two who communicate so badly with each other, and what the basis is for Severus' behavior.

And thank you for your regular updates and extra chapters in spite of everything you are dealing with in RL - it is amazing and much appreciated!! And sorry this is so long, but I think I have finally learned paragraph breaks (in my best Gilderoy Lockhart voice), so am practicing . . (keeping my fingers crossed they post properly).