Oh I had forgotten how nasty your particular Snape is. It's so perfect that he is a homophobe and a sexist as well as being an all around terrible human being. Since I first discovered your stories back in 2005 your characterizations have become my canon.

Ooooh. Lovely.
Filch I do feel sorry for, Lockhart is so self-absorbed he can't see himself clearly in the mirror, and Snape is brilliant at explaining his perspective.

This is brilliant :)

Ahaha, really that was great.

This was a really good story. You did everyone's point of veiw so well! You did the scene wonderfully, excellant job! Your stories I've read are always fun to read.

P.S. Have I asked you about RPGing before? If not, would you be interested in RPing as Filch at a Harry Potter RPG site I go to? Let me know your answer please! And if you've already declined before, I applogise.

This fic is absolutely incredible. I love how you invented nothing new but just took the canon facts and made us see them from three different angles. The whole scene is one of the best in the books anyway, and to read it re-told from every side... simply great.

And what's best, this is not only extremely well-written, but also to absolutely perfectly in-character for all three of them. I really, really enjoyed it!

You should have one when they find out hes parseltounge too.

you are a wonderful writer, with a terrific knack for characterization. i've just been reading all of your work, and it's very impressive. please carry on! i especially enjoy your stories with lily, because i've always nursed a soft spot for lily/snape (even though yours are a bit dark).

Brillient. I love the way severus's mind works, going into complete overdrive and adding 2 and 2 and ending up with some completely ridictulous number (would it be to geeky to suggest 4i?)

He's paranoid. even more so than Moody. And vicious. But oh boy do i feel sorry for him. thanks so much for all the stories, they are truly wonderful.

hahaha! oh this is great. Lockhart is so friggin hillarious and he doesn't realise it.

But still serious. and still frighteningly realistic.

hehe Oh I think i'm going to enjoy this...can't wait to get to snape...

A very Snapish point of view, and a nice end of the story. This story is - apart from great fun with Lockhard and Filch - a very good portrait of what went through Snape's mind in the beginning of the Potter school days, before Voldemort came back and things got really deadly.

Snape is smart. I enjoyed watching his thoughts when Dumbledore examined mrs Norris. He knew just as soon - if not sooner than the headmaster - what had happend; but again he got it wrong. "who would have thought that the Golden Gryffindor would know such Dark magic?"

Really nice piece of interaction between Snape and McGonagall. Her first action when they find the cat is to question Snape. What does he know about this? It speaks of both mistrust and respect. She suspects that he might be involved, but she also trust him to be capable of finding the real offender if he isn't. I also enjoyed Dumbledore's pleading in the end. He knows that bad things are afoot, and his staff's arguments aren't helping.

"it must be the werewolf who was the traitor - he’d never suspected for a moment that it was Black" - The truth was even more unforseen. That complicated spy/doublespy/friendship/love/traitor-story is definately worthy of a muggle romance story. That's one of Rowling's best example of how she with just a few hints can give her world depth. When we read the books, we know that there are tons of interesting things going on just outside Harry's sight.

"He thinks, Lockhart can't be a child molester (...) No, I don’t let any of my boys serve detention with Lockhart" - A little hint of homophobia suits Snape well. He's not the most understanding person around.

"The girl reminds him of someone coming out from under an extended bout of the Imperius Curse – dazed and confused – but he doesn’t really relish the thought of a long conversation with Minerva (...) so perhaps he won’t say anything." - Wonderful little hint about how close a call it must have been for Riddle that year - and how the distrust between the people who had the power to do something against him almost let him succeed.

"he notes with malicious glee the rollers in the hair of the Lockharts dodging out of sight." ;-)

"Filch must be a complete cretin to have left anything important, anything sensitive, sitting around where Potter could get his hands on it" - Ah, yes. Who would be so stupid, indeed? Pensive memories, Karkoff's dark mark, talking with Draco...

"the face of Lucius Malfoy floats, unbidden, into his mind, and he remembers the hints that Lucius dropped last summer that there’s going to be trouble at Hogwarts this year" - And suddenly things are much more sincere than simple cat molesting.

Allow me to me hazard a guess: You had quite some fun when you wrote this chapter, didn't you? Marvelous, charming, indescribable and lovely Lockhart.

Again, one of your real strengths as an author - apart from your extensive knowledge of canon - is your ability to respect every character you write and describe their point of view in a way that makes sense. Lockhart is really a nice chap who knows to put his head down in times of trouble, but who doesn't mind being in the spotlight. His first book actually was a honest piece, and then the fame bug bit him and promted him to write more - even when he had to obliviate some of the main characters. He doesn't try to be annoying either - he just wants to offer some piece of help to Snape with his greasy hair, Potter and his muggle clothes and inexperienced showing off... And he didn't make any fuss when Snape got annoyed when he offered him help. Poor bloke is a bit touchy, better not push it.

I really love his planning of "High Jinks at Hogwarts", and his disapointment when it turned out that the cat wasn't dead after all. The world is a story, just waiting to be written. Also nice notion that he got the job at a Slughorn party. The slug club is active.

" poor fellow, he must have been so embarrassed - he’s the Potions master and he can’t do a thing with his hair" - Ah, of all thing that might piss Snape off - that little encounter must be on the top ten.

Ah! This is Filch all right. Bitter and hateful and brooding and sulking. Definately fitting that he belong to an old pureblood family. I would think that most other Squibs would have gone to live with Muggles, rather than living in the permanent insult against them that is Hogwarts. Sad to see how much mrs Norris presumed death got to him.

I think you really caught his realtionship with Hagrid - why the two of them don't get along, despite their shared situation of not being "real" wizards and not professors. They have totally different personalities, and Hagrid can do magic... I also enjoyed his little thought about Myrtle. A student fifty years dead is still a bloody student.

"some cleaning work, Muggle-style, scrubbing the bedpans in the Hospital Wing or polishing a few suits of armour, some of the less co-operative ones ..." - Wizarding cleaning is not as straight forward as muggle cleaning...

"this is a school – full of students, students who lie and cheat and sneak and befoul the castle ... students who should be presumed guilty until proven innocent" - That is Filch all right.

"an intolerable insult to Mrs Norris. Is she worth nothing, just because she’s only a cat? Because she belongs to a Squib?" - Of course, very much of his hatefulness is a way of getting respect.

I can't help putting this in contex with Ozma's fics. His Filch is much nicer - your is much more canon. Both are giving a depth to this sad, cranky character that makes it obvious that he has a very interesting story to tell.

Very good. Lots of lovely details - like snape noticing something was wrong with Ginny, but not wanting to discus Unforgiveable Curses with MacGonnagal.