Ernie pressed his cheek against the top of Justin's head. "You did what you did, there's no changing that. And if you ask Mum, often it's for the best. Look at it this way. If you'd asked then and he'd said yes, he might not have a little boy who brightens up his day. You might have been too busy having a boyfriend to concentrate on your healing studies. You would have been young and immature, and maybe would have fucked it all up because you were young and stupid, like we all were. Maybe he'd have stuck around for you when everything went to shite and he may have ended up in Azkaban and St. Mungo's too."
He thought back on his own lost love from school and how much he'd changed since then. Had he even been ready for any sort of real commitment back then? He'd never know.
"But now you're older, you have a career you love, friends who support you, and you're a little more clear and comfortable with who you are. And just some food for thought - you talk about how you have feelings for Seamus, but then you switch to Wayne and what happened. It sounds to me like there's feelings on both fronts. I've always known you have feelings for Wayne, but they've never really gone away, have they."