Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the Harry Potter universe; they go to J.K. Rowling. And all Hogwarts Daily characters are owned by their respectful players.
A/N: Since Justin's writer, Celina, has lost his muse, I'm taking him for fun. I hope you like it, Bean!
Let's say Justin is in his early-thirties. Just as usual, this fic mentions slash, so be warned. There's no actual slashy activity. Unfortunately. I apologize if this feels a little choppy or anything; I haven't done this in a while. This was a spur of the moment thing just to get my fingers clacking on the keyboard again. Read and enjoy!
The First Love, The Last Romance
Men always want to be the first love; women want to be the last romance.
-Oscar Wilde
The way she loves him.
The way she takes care of him. The way her nose wrinkles when she laughs.
Her cerulean eyes. Her blonde hair.
Justin looks at his newlywed wife in her beautiful robes of white satin from across the room. Emily glows and chats with their friends and former classmates. Her flowing blonde hair cascades down to her elbows. Her cerulean blue eyes shine with happiness. The bridge of her nose wrinkles as she laughs.
And in that one moment, Justin sees what became.
He had fallen in love with Emily Wilson.
Justin never expected to fall for the girl from school who he tried to help get over her eating disorders from ages ago. But sometimes, you just can't help who you love. And Justin does love her. With all of his heart, he truly, madly is in love with Emily.
His frosted blond hair is slicked down to a side-part. Justin detests it and decides to run his hand through it, breaking apart the firm bonds of the hair styling potion. Just then, Emily breaks her conversation with Daphne Greengrass-McCartney and looks over at Justin, waving and beaming. Justin pulls his hand from his hair, leaving it a tad messy, but Emily seems to like it because she eyes his locks with an adoring face. He waves back and then picks up a glass of firewhiskey from a tray being served by a house-elf.
Firewhiskey reminds him of Chloe Holmes. Justin used to date the girl a few years after Hogwarts. Chloe was rather fond of the drink, Justin recalls saying to James Moore once at a party while Chloe was at the bar. Somehow, the brunette managed to get Justin to have shot of alcohol even when he insisted that he didn't. Then she'd give him another... and another.... She and Justin spent many a night drunk on firewhiskey, both of them belching fire every other minute.
Justin, fortunately, didn't love her as much as Chloe did him.
Drunkenness reminds him of Olivia Bradbury. After an amicable divorce of hers and Rocky Wycliffe's inebriated nuptials, Olivia had set her sights on Justin, and the two had a tremendously turbulent relationship. Justin, at the time, described it as 'rocky,' which he thought was quite funny considering Olivia's ex-husband was named Rocky. They were perfectly happy when they weren't fighting, but she would get furious with poor Justin for every little mistake he made. He finally had to break it off with her after two months.
Justin thanked Merlin he didn't fall in love with Olivia.
Fighting reminds him of Saffron Chambers. During one of Saffron's and James' break-ups, Saffron decided to go out with Justin. However, to Justin, it didn't really seem like Saffron was seeing him. She spent everyday she had with him turning him into James; one of her many attempts including taking him to dance class, doing everything from waltzes to the dirtiest choreography Justin had ever seen. He decided they needed to stop dating when she asked him to grow out his hair.
Justin would do anything for love, but he wouldn't do that.
Wanting to be rid of the horrendous memories, Justin places the barely-touched firewhiskey at an empty table. However, right before his very eyes, Justin sees the drink morph from its seemingly normal goblet-like shape into a glass rabbit, hissing and positioning to attack. The firewhiskey was still in the enchanted animal, sloshing around as the rabbit moved back and forth on its hind legs.
Needless to say, Justin freaks out, letting out a small yelp of fright, startling the guests within a ten-foot range. Unable to move, Justin is rooted to the spot, frozen with fear. With one fierce growl, the rabbit leaps off the table and lands on Justin's arm and bites, tearing out a portion of his tuxedo robe. Searing pain shoots through his arm and he is forced to move. Shaking his arm, Justin manages to get the magicked glass off of him, landing on the ground and shattering into a million tiny pieces.
Behind him, two voices erupt into raucous laughter. He whips around and sees Draco Malfoy and Elijah Klein sneering and laughing at Justin, obviously proud of their little prank. Thankfully for them, before Justin could hex them into next year, Emily strides over to her husband, placing her delicate hands on his injured arm.
"Oh, Just." Concern rings in her voice. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," replies Justin a little heatedly. "I'd feel be'er if I could just fling a Green Ligh'nin' Curse at them, though."
Emily gives him a sharp slap on the shoulder. "Don't you dare," she scolds, though with humor in her eyes. "Father invited the Malfoys. Be kind. After all, my dress is from Elijah's uncle. We better not indulge them. Let them be. They're nice enough sometimes."
That's the thing about Emily. While she may be incredibly insecure about herself, she had enough love and trust in everyone else. Justin often wondered how she landed in Slytherin house. Justin also often wondered how he was able to get this gorgeous, kind, sincere, ambitious, smart woman to fall in love with him.
With an overwhelming emotion that could only be described as happiness, Justin lets out an easy sigh. She is his last romance.
Out of the blue, without any prior signal, Justin kisses Emily softly and says, "I love you."
A little surprised, but pleased nonetheless, Emily answers, "I love you too." She tugs at his collar. "Let's dance! They're playing that song you like!"
The band begins to play the orchestra version of Cerulean by Pop & Pandemonium, one of Justin's favorite bands, but instead of Justin's face lighting up as it usually did when he heard the song, he gently says to her, "No, I think I'll si' this one ou'. I think tha' rabbi' bit off some skin. I'll fix i' and get back to you, all righ', Em?"
Emily smiles and agrees, gliding into the arms of her father instead. Justin, meanwhile, takes a seat at the table once again, wincing at the somewhat deep bite mark the enchanted rabbit left on his arm. Justin takes his wand from his robes and whispers, "Episky." The bite wound immediately closes up as if it was sewing itself together with invisible threads.
"Bitches," curses Justin under his breath, glaring at the Slytherin cousins standing at the bar, still laughing. Draco looks particularly pleased with himself, while Elijah seems to be amused despite himself. He knows that he's better than that, so Justin turns away from them silently and opts to watch his wife move across the dance floor.
As he watches Emily waltz across the floor with her father, Justin thinks. No other woman has as much grace as his Emily. No other woman has as much beauty as his Emily. No other woman cares or loves him as much as his Emily.
Justin never loved another woman as much as he does Emily. It was the truth.
But there was his first love.
Emily reminds him of Ty Keith. Justin met him one morning in their seventh year at Hogwarts when Justin's toad, Trousers, got loose and hopped into Ty's breakfast. Ever since then, it was a wonderful friendship that bloomed into a wonderful relationship. Ty took care of Justin. He helped him with Arithmancy essays. He brought him soup when he was sick with the harpy flu. He stood by him when Trousers died. He was gentle with him in bed. He stuck it out with him when Justin went through Arithmancer training.
Ty loved Justin. And Justin loved Ty. And Justin was glad he did.
Justin never expected to fall for the boy from school who tried to help him plug in ancient rune symbols into Arithmancy equations. But sometimes, you just can't help who you love. And Justin did love him. With all of his heart, he truly, madly was in love with Ty.
He had fallen in love with Ty Keith.
And in that one moment, Justin sees what could have been.
Ty in impeccable tuxedo robes stood across the room from his newlywed husband. He glowed and chatted with their friends and former classmates. His spiky blond hair stuck out in every single direction. His sky blue eyes twinkled with delight. The bridge of his nose wrinkled as he smirked.
His blond hair. His sky blue eyes.
The way his nose wrinkled when he smirked. The way he took care of him.
The way he loved him.
A/N: Comments, feedback, reviews, constructive (I cannot emphasize that enough) criticism... anything is appreciated. Thank you.