InsaneJournal

The marriage of Mayumi Finch and Reginald Fletchley was widely celebrated. Both were intelligent, respected society members from influential families. The fact that they produced three heirs for the estate only made their standing that much better. The three boys, Lucas, Matthew and Justin, were spared no expense. Whatever the boys wanted, they received. Their parents believed in the importance of education, however, and instilled in their children all sorts of old fashioned traditions and manners.

Justin was a naturally smart child, and his parents provided him with tutors to get ahead of his peers. His parents expected great things of him, and had even secured a placement for him at Eton. It was all his parents spoke about to their families and to their peers. It made Justin proud, because it made his parents proud.

And then his Hogwarts letter came. Reginald was furious. What sort of joke was this to be played on his son? It had made things around the house awkward, especially when a strange person from what they called the Ministry of Magic showed up to assure that this was not a prank, that Justin apparently possessed magic.

Justin was not present for most of the conversation, after being dismissed from his father to have a word with the stranger, but Justin was excited about it. He was excited about being set apart from his brothers in an exciting way.

For being what seemed like the literal embodiment of every fantasy book that Justin had ever read, had ever wanted to live in, Hogwarts gave him a lot of hard lessons. Justin had never been anywhere before where his name alone didn’t mean anything, and at Hogwarts, it didn’t. He was the bottom of the totem pole, he was a first year, a Hufflepuff, and a muggleborn. Other students just naturally knew about things he didn’t, and it upset him. Justin wasn’t used to being the “dumb” kid, or the “clueless” person. He hated it. And Justin loved attention, and so part of him acted out to get it. He made sure that people knew that his family was important in the muggle world, he made sure that people knew that he’d almost gone to Eton instead. And that gave him a bit of a reputation as a braggart and a snob. Honestly, he’s lucky for the friends he was able to make because they managed to settle him down a lot.

Justin wanted to make sure that he would know just as much as any other kid about the magical world. So, he got a few suggestions from some classmates and went to the library and read all of Gilderoy Lockhart's books. They were an interesting read, and he in turn, bought them for his mother that christmas in hopes that she’d be more pleased about his new found magic.

The next year, though he had socially adjusted, was worse. He was at least partly aware that some people considered being a muggleborn no good, but it hadn’t sank in until he’d almost died for it. Being petrified was even more strange than he could imagine. It was like being unconscious for months.

Though primarily because of the parseltongue stuff, Justin had a lot of fear and misgivings about Harry Potter, years later when the time came to rise up against Umbridge, Justin was right beside him. He had made his peace with the boy who lived, and when the man brought back Cedric’s body, he had a ton of respect for him. He joined Dumbledore’s army, and even defended Harry with the spells he’d learned from him.

When it came time for Justin to prepare for his seventh year, a decree came down from the Ministry stating that all Muggleborn’s must come for a hearing at the Ministry for theft of Magic. Justin got this summons, and at the urging of his parents dealt with it in the most respectable and honorable way. The Finch-Fletchley’s had a great deal of respect for the legal workings of the world, and they all knew that Justin had not stolen the gifts he had been born with.

But that isn’t what happened at all. Justin was asked one solitary question, “Do you have magical parents or grandparents?” When he answered with a firm No… he was sentenced to Azkaban until he could surrender his magic.

Justin was devastated, but there wasn’t anything to do. They snapped his wand in front of him, and the Auror’s escorted him away. He was certain that he wouldn’t see his friends or his family again.

During his time in Azkaban, a few things hit him. That he had taken his privileges for granted. That there were more important things than money and finery. That his priorities had been in the wrong place for a majority of his life.

Justin didn’t hear about the end of the war until weeks after it had happened. It had taken them a while to find all the Muggleborns that had been locked away, as the paperwork hadn’t been as neat or as official as it should have been.

Justin was thankful when he finally stepped into the sun for the first time in almost a year. He took a deep breath, and he knew that he would use this opportunity to help others.

Having spent his last “school year” in Azkaban, Justin opted only to go back long enough to sit for his tests. In the mean time, he made ends meet by working in an Apothecary shop. Once he finally did sit for his exams (which he did surprisingly well in) he decided to put his promise to help people into practice, and applied to be a Healer.

Justin was working at the Apothecary, and starting out as a Healer trainee when all the marriage pairs started to come out. He knew that putting up too much of a protest would end him back in jail, or fined, and neither one of those were a good look when you were trying to be a Healer. Then of course, Justin wasn’t paired with anyone he’d considered too awful, he barely knew the woman, Lena Montgomery. His parents weren’t very pleased about the forced union to say the least.

Against his better judgement, Justin went through with the marriage. He doesn’t love his wife, not in the way one should, but he treats her kindly and does the sort of things that a husband should do for his wife. He brings her flowers and gifts, he takes her out, he tries to at the very least have fun with her. Though that doesn’t always work out for the two of them.