there always obliviate if certain memories are too much to bear.

Adorable, actually adorable. I LOVE the fics of Snape with a daughter- most of the ones he is a parent in tend to have him with a son. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but the writing of Snape raising a little girl is honestly just the cutest picture.

I think a cat would work out how to climb over the fence soon enough - it's going to need freedom to explore, and so is Calista!

Starting school at the age of eleven, for someone who is used to spending most of her time alone in a small flat, and has very little experience of other children, is going to be strange - but Hogwarts might actually be a good place for it. There don't seem to be any wizarding primary schools, so I get the impression that a lot of wizarding children, at least the pure-bloods, are home-schooled until the age of eleven.

I hope that in this AU, Snape's experience of teaching Occlumency to Calista means that he's able to be equally patient and gentle when teaching it to Harry. Perhaps more generally, that his experience of caring for Calista and gradually, over the years, winning her trust, means that he's able to recognise Harry as another ill-treated, unloved child like himself and Calista, who has learnt to 'tune out' anything adults say because he knows he can't trust them, instead of starting from the assumption that Harry is just an arrogant brat like James.

Thinking about the dates - Calista seems to be about six years older than Harry Potter, which implies that she was born around 1974, and that Snape must have been a very young teenager - only about thirteen or fourteen - when he fathered her. But some people do start early, after all - and if by his third year he'd come to the conclusion that Lily was never going to see him as more than a friend, and increasingly wasn't even that, he might have drifted towards any girl or woman who showed him anything that looked like interest or attraction. Which doesn't alter the fact that Bellatrix, who was presumably an adult by then, was sexually abusing a child, but Severus might have 'consented' to the extent that a naive, highly hormonal, emotionally vulnerable thirteen-year-old can - and if Bellatrix seemed interested in him, this might have been part of what led him to become a Death Eater in the first place?

Poor Calista - she's still not used to the idea of someone loving her enough that he WOULD worry about her safety, as opposed to simply seeing her as a potentially useful slave or sacrificial victim. Equally, though, expecting a small child to be well-behaved when she's left on her own in a small flat for most of each day is a lot to ask - and it says a lot for how much progress Calista has made that she is able to feel bored and want to explore, instead of just wanting to shelter from the terrifying outside world full of people who might all be out to get her.

I'm relieved that both Snape and Dumbledore are aware of the ethical and psychological implications of memory modification spells - and I suspect that Dumbledore (although he'll never admit it to Snape) is thinking here not only of Snape's memories, but his own. After all, he has quite as much of a dark past as Snape, what with having been friends with the future Dark Lord Grindelwald, been a wannabe Dark Lord himself, and accidentally caused the death of his sister, as a teenager.

In the books, wizards seem happy to modify people's memories without worrying about the consequences, and nobody apart from Gilderoy Lockhart even seems to be criticised for doing this, as long as it's for the 'right' reasons (preventing Muggles from finding out about the wizarding world, or trying to spare someone emotional pain). Admittedly, their methods seem to be less physically painful than those used in the Miles Vorkosigan books (which involve torturing people into suppressing memories by conditioning them to experience pain whenever they recall those memories), but they are just as much a violation of who we are, and of our opportunity to learn from our experiences.

I don't know whether you've read the Miles Vorkosigan books, by Lois McMaster Bujold (if not, I thoroughly recommend them - start with the first two books, Shards Of Honor and Barrayar, published together as Cordelia's Honor), but there is a character in there who, allegedly as 'therapy' (actually for political reasons, to preserve classified information that he shouldn't have known about - initially the government had wanted to solve the problem by killing him) is made to suppress the memories of eight months of his life in this way, apart from a few brief moments that he manages to smuggle past the censors. Apart from this leaving him vulnerable to debilitating migraines whenever something happens that triggers a flashback, it means that he's missing some important information about what went on then, which ultimately leads to his death.

I know I've made this sound a very dark series. In some aspects, it is. It is also one with plenty of humour, likeable (and believably flawed) characters, beautifully insightful and thoughtful writing, a fascinating and very believable range of antagonists from card-carrying villains to misguided political extremists, and a fairly hopeful look at the future - both individual people and planetary cultures manage to move on from the troubles of the past, instead of just going round around in circles the way the heroes of the original Star Wars films seem to be doing at present.

So... her 7th year at Hogwarts will be Harry's first?

cool

I'm glad of how patient Snape is being.
I hope she finds a way to feel safe soon - constant stress is not good for the health.

I really like your characterization of Calista and of Severus. I liked the Godric's Hollow scenes quite a bit too :D

This looks to be a very interesting story!

Wow! What a great story! The growth between Severus and Calista was simply heart-warming to read, especially since it wasn't an easy journey. The path from trauma to recovery turned out to be poignant, articulate, and, at points, gut-wrenching. The moments of victory (I already commented on this and it absolutely deserves to be mentioned again), where Sev make a breakthrough, were fantastic.

The characters also deserve a round of applause. Both had their strengths, both boasted flaws - and I especially enjoyed how they shared several, like a general surliness and standoffishness (of course they would: like father, like daughter!). Both can be stubborn and both have trouble expressing warm feelings. Little quirks - like Calista's atrocious handwriting or Severus' personal thoughts on her drawings - not only added depth, but really made them come alive.

My only critique would be that the final few chapters seemed a little drawn out, maybe too introspective...I would have recommended on cutting them down, a bit.

Otherwise, the story was a great experience. You obviously put a lot of work into it, which shows. Thank you very much for sharing it!

Such a heart-warming moment after Calista's punishment (writing lines). I'm also stunned at how well you're presenting her character. She's smart, articulate...but also just a kid, with a host of insecurities, a periodically-difficult personality, and a penchant for curiosity that sometimes is enough to get her into trouble. She feels...so real!

Oh, such an uplifting feeling when he pulls her out of that shell! You wrote it wonderfully! And the method itself - the way occlumency/legilimency was described, with the pulling v. pushing, banded thoughts, etc. - was so very inventive!

Such great pacing! The sort of trauma Calista went through can't be healed in one day, and I'm loving the methodical (and sometimes frustratingly slow) way Snape is trying to fix her; I can't help but grin at his triumphs, even tiny ones, like sharing coffee or getting her to listen to him read. And this chapter was great! Really nice touch with the color-coded emotions. I am reading on!

A really fantastic setup. Well written, and I'm especially thrilled at the depth of Calista's character...just a chapter in. I'm looking forward to reading ahead!

I loved the ending...