Amazing story. It’s been the second time I’ve read it and I like how you portrayed Lily, the hate she emits and her flaws, I like the Snape who rejects Harry precisely because he wants him (and boy do I relate), I like the vengeful Ginny, the chill Harry, and of course the whole plot. I even felt some compassion for the little Voldemort. I like Lily’s evolution from “Snape doesn’t derserve to kiss perfect Harry’s toes” to “Snape is the best choice and it is my duty as a mother to care foe Harry’s happiness first”. I love the darkness you put in there, the obvious flaws and the negative emotions, which only make the happy/funny/sexy scenes even greater.
My favorite element however remains the angel. I adore “But it’s in falling that the angel’s forced to open its wings”. I love the sentences where Lily realizes “it’s the angel”, how its presence is unmistakable and devastating. I love at the end how the angel now has a sword, the terrible incarnation of love with the means to kill for the other. Its presence along with your works on the decors, the descriptions of lights and shadows on both characters and backgrounds, the beautiful windswept hills, the house, the artistic element of your fanfiction. And well, might I add, this story was funny too, like when Snape pisses off Harry by telling him he shouldn’t basically marry his own mother, or when he says “Ah, house elf Potterboy that hurt, I love this Snapish spice!). Your sentences are very well worked, the characters too, their viewpoints and how they think, how they act, I love this.
Thank you very much for this story!

An amazingly beautiful love story, for Lily and her son.

This is indescribably lush and gorgeous.
Your Lily POV really works, especially in painting her as a selfish and rather shallow individual who nonetheless knows to do what's right. It's a perfect foil for Harry and Severus' never easy but always passionate and beautiful love for one another.

I love this fic so much just trying to figure out how to express it makes me feel such a dunderhead!

I love Lily's bitterness towards Snape and then eventual self-acceptance that it's not all Snape's doing. I still don't understand why she loves a git like James but at least in your story she sort of admits to the snobbery and disloyalty of it.

I love how the characters in the afterlife seem to keep so much of their character in an OOC fic - Sirius is still an obnoxious goof, James too...Gellert and Regulus are sufficiently vague yet present. Poor hideous Tom - I hope his skin eventually heals! Will he/it grow up? Can he? But mostly I love that you even wove him into the story - I've never read any stories with him at that stage before! Funny - I kept thinking, 'Lily don't smoke around the baby!' but back when she died people didn't know it was all that bad of a thing, did they.

It was only a little line and you didn't really focus on it but I was fascinated when you said that Lily knew that if Severus died he would eventually look like that young boy she knew...or something to that extent. Made me wonder, do they de-age to a specific age (18/21/25?) or a time in their lives (when they were happiest?) or do they each see each other at different ages/stages of their lives? (i.e., Lily sees Albus ever younger but maybe that's because she sees him as happy with Gellert. But if Harry had died, maybe he would have seen Albus as younger and healthier than at his death but still, always, as an older grandfatherly man.)

OH! And my heart broke for Snape when he lingers dying in the shrieking shack, immobilized by the venom but not quite dead for hours and hours and no one comes back for him! Oh and Eileen! I never even thought of her but it makes sense she would hear the call when Severus is dying...OMG you so make me want to know more about the afterlife in this world you've created! Where is the rest of Tom? Does his mother heed *his* death call? Are they all hanging out in purgatory or something or can Lily go visit her parents? Maybe you're only there if you're waiting to greet someone who's still alive...

And making flying be something he does because of Lily!

Haha, my review is almost a novella! I'm shutting up now. But thank you so much for having written and shared this fic!

I'm like the story, but somehow this Lily, while far more realistic than most representations, troubles me a lot. If she learned about Snape telling the prophecy, she would have known that he had dedicated his entire life for making up for that... and just didn't care. And even after watching him with Harry, still didn't. I suppose that it fits the mood of the story though.

Very well done.

Wow-this was amazing. I read it all in one sitting, since I couldn't look away. Although you labelled it HP/SS, this really seemed to be about Lily, and how she develops over time. Since she is dead, she learns from watching the possible experiences of her son.

There were some parts that were a little confusing for me to figure out what was going on, but I loved this story. I love how Lilly is taking care of Tom, it's so different and unexpected.

This is absolutely amazing. I've been reduced to tears and then to helpless fangirling and then to anger and then to happiness in the space of paragraphs. Lily, thank you.

that was bitterly beautiful and oh so heartwrenching! Thanks a lot. The way you showed Lily is little bit unexpected but the more I proceeded in reading the more I saw just how real and alive you made her. Ang Severus...he is so believeble and not once out of character it gave me shivers every time you pictured together with Harry.
You language is almost poetic and though English is not my mothertonge I savoured every single word you've so beautifuly written (even if had to browse through vocabularies to find the precise translation of a certain word).
Thanks again for your talant.

"He was willing to die for you, my love. Remember that. Save him if you can."

-At last! (I wonder what Albus' plan for Severus was? Have him stay around to be Potter's and Black's chewtoy for eternity, or what?).

It occurs to her, with a strange, belated irritation, that she's not the only one in the room having his face rubbed in the fact that Severus is no longer, and will never again be, theirs.

-Apparently so. I am glad that Lily is sticking with Baby! Tommy. He may be the only thing in that eternity that changes. Lily already has.

But she's being silly about the marsh. She would have just turned him down and made him apologizing for daring to want to love her. She hasn't changed *that* much.

"Sev! I'm sorry, I have to go. It's Harry."

-Yes. Snape knows where *he* stands, doesn't he? Lily certainly let him know.

And of course everything is going to be all right for Lily, she's finally dumped Tom, she's going to see Harry, she and James are back together with all their dear friends, the Marauders-what's not to like?

She's sacrificed something that once belonged to her, set him free in the name of a greater good, and isn't that the price of a happy ending? In fairy tales, at least.

-But it's only a sacrifice if you actually wanted the person or thing to begin with. True, she did set him free, but he was pretty sure he wasn't going to end up with her anyway, she was just toying with him.

But I'm sure Lily will be happy. Of course she will.

Eternity is an awful long time, though, and the group around them is pretty small. Have fun, Lily. Maybe you'll miss even Tom.

Lily really shouldn't be cheering. Because there's no doubt to whom he owes that skill.

-Yes, of course, she has never had anything to do with how Severus turned out. And if she had been there while Harry was being cut to pieces? Of *course* there are no charms that would turn his kidnappers inside out. Slowly. And of course Lily would not use them. Right.

Click: Lily turns off the telly. She's seen enough.

-Naturally. She now knows what kind of life her son would lead if he'd let Snape die and gone with Ginny. And he's not really happy there, is he?

What a pity she can't seem to find a channel where Harry is happy and Snape is dead...

"Tell you what, then," Harry replies, "we'll kneel together," and when she can bring herself to think about it later, Lily suspects this was the moment, for all he's cold as stone, that catches Snape unprepared.

-Yes. He's always had to kneel to someone before. No one has ever knelt with him.

Especially not Lily. And now that she knows that Harry could be bisexual, she could, I say, *could* realize that Severus loved her that way, too. But she won't.

"Then she turns off the telly and lies down on the floor, thinking, What can I do? What can I possibly do?"

-Exactly what she does, take care of Tommy. The phrase about 'making your bed' and 'lying down it' comes to mind. She has already made of all her choices. But she can't make them for Harry, and especially not for Snape. Not any more.

The unflattering truth was, Lily had experienced an occasional twinge along these lines herself.

-But of course Snape *has* to be gay. it has to be his fault, somehow, that he didn't shag her (although she would have been angry at him if he'd tried, too, let's not forget that part).

And no one comes for him. No one saves him. The screen shuts down to an empty black hole, and that's it, that's all there is, he dies. The world's forgotten him. From this point forward, there's nothing else.

-But he's an evil Slytherin! She and her friends help set the tone, after all, with a bit of help from Dumbledore. And Rowling thinks that's what he deserves, too.

Of course James wants her more now-she's not just his doormat any more. How dare she think of someone besides his precious self?

So great. Absolutely loved it.