Oops, now I'm sending others over to craft lovely comments to you before I've had a chance to leave my own. *g* In sum: I utterly adored this story. You have such a beautiful command of language, my God. It flows so effortlessly, but with such rich word choices and clause placement and just, a;lksjg. The writer in me is so impressed and so jealous of how you did this. :) The whole opening scene had me riveted, for instance, because of lines like this: Not handsome, precisely, but certainly striking in the mildly consumptive way that used to be the fashion and that Horace still had a weakness for. MILDLY CONSUMPTIVE. JUST. *FLAIL* That is so genius. Also, you definitely had me at the Victoria setting, the sign in the cafe, and definitely, definitely had me grinning from ear to ear and settling in for a good read at the exchange between Jink and the cafe girl.
"You're enjoying this, aren't you."
"Highlight of my day, Mr. Jink."
JUST. AS;LKGJ. I loved that beyond all reason. And also everything that came after. I love Slughorn, that perfect, canon mix of cheery and creepy. I also love that he's clever, and oh so very Slytherin. When they finally go tete-a-tete over potions, oh man, it was just fabulous to see. He has his faults, but he's not Lockhart, for pete's sake, not a bumbling old fool. I really appreciated that. I also love how you wove in his weakness for boys. *g* Which, is totally canon IMO. TOTALLY. But you didn't make a giant deal of it, just sneaked a hint or two in here and there. I thought that worked brilliantly, because Slughorn himself never made a big deal of it - nor realised that it wasn't quite cool of him. Heh. The exchange with McGonagall was fabulous for that.
I also loved the slow courtship of Mr Jink. I loved his reluctant but odd attraction - or at least, curiosity. I loved every single one of his lines. They were all so perfect. And I loved the complicatedness that was his relationship to Slughorn. While Slughorn's motives for couting him were fairly transparent, I loved how Jink's motivations for hanging out with him were much less so - but in a good way. Mysterious and intriguing but ultimately understandable as well.
And lastly: "...they're good boots" is just the best part ever. Just. a;lskdjg. ♥ !!!