The wandlore was fascinating, and I think only you could have the proper enthusiasm to put it into a fic without making me feel like I'm reading a history lesson. If anyone else tried to write H/D must have BDSM sex to make everything better? It would have been utter tripe. I'm sure of it.
I have to admit - I saw BDSM, H/D with a side of Snape and tiny bit of bloodplay and scrolled on by. Any one of those things would probably turn me off... but then the reveals went up. Shit, I thought, Mijan wrote that one - I should probably read it. So it went in the bookmarks, but I kept avoiding it. Like the plague.
Today I told myself to stop being a pansy and just read it. Worst case scenario? I could skim a bit. I did not expect to like it. I could still do without the cutting (it seemed a bit superfluous, so I'm afraid I may have missed some symbolism there?) but you it work! I can absolutely buy into this Harry and Draco dynamic. Harry seems realistic. I grinned at his urge to smack Draco back and all the times he had to remind himself why he was doing this.
I even liked Snape in there, the pervy little bugger. I'm filled with glee at the idea of he and Dumbledore chatting about this in the Hogwart's Head office, scandalizing the other portraits.