"unlikely pairing number one"
justin/marietta
Four years and the scars have faded so that a normal amount of foundation will hide them completely. The smart of it still rankles though, and so does the guilt. Hideous, wrenching, wracking guilt, even now, and although the humiliation still stings, she knows that she deserved it.
She betrayed them. Betrayed the people who were fighting their best fight against the dark arts, and for that, she feels that she belongs with those who have gone down as the villains of the war.
When she meets him, she wants to turn and run the other way, for she remembers him. Justin Finch-Fletchley. A Hufflepuff from the year below her. He was one of them. One of those whom she betrayed. She cannot run though; she is at work, and they are assigned to work together, and he makes no sign that he has recognised her, so she pulls herself together, and pretends to feel nothing.
He was pretending too, she discovers that much later, in the darkness, when she whispers her confession in the post-sex closeness.
"I know," he murmurs back, his hand rubbing gentle circles on her arm. She pulls back.
"Then… why…?"
"It was a long time ago," he explains, "I don't blame you. You were scared; we were all scared. It doesn't matter any more."
"Yes, we were all scared… but I was the only one who betrayed you…" she replies, her voice barely audible, the pain and guilt that she has hidden so long finally spilling out, "I deserve to be in Azkaban with the Death Eaters…"
He holds her while she cries though, and when her tears are finally spent, he is still there. Nothing has really changed, but for the first time, she feels that maybe it is possible to move on, and somehow find forgiveness.