My sister pointed out you might have been responding to the book only, not to my essay. That Snape considers love a weakness is certainly a possible interpretation of this scene in the book. I do think my interpretation is equally possible (and, of course, I like it better!):), but, as it's written, the scene is somewhat ambiguous, isn't it? The one thing that *is* pretty clear is that it isn't as straightforward as Harry thinks, but beyond that, we just don't know.

We both liked your chapter walk through - my sister, on reading the bit about rune interpretations, said, "this woman is brilliant!" And I had honestly not noticed all the imagery about hands, which does seem to be deliberate. Good job!

A question; Do you think it's possible that J.K. Rowling is actually, deliberately putting in all the symbolism, imagery, etc, that we are noticing?! I mean - I know the woman is bright, but can she really be that bright? ;)