Justin Finch-Fletchley (pl_justin) wrote in plagued_logs, @ 2015-08-30 21:50:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | 1998 august, justin finch-fletchley |
(post-dated to Tuesday morning)
WHO: Justin Finch-Fletchley and Careana Finch
WHEN: Tue 1 Sep 1998, morning
WHERE: Justin's house
WHAT: Leaving for school
RATING: Medium? There are bad words.
STATUS: Complete
"Justinian. What do you think you're doing?"
Justin stands in the middle of the entry hall of his home, having just levitated his trunk down the main staircase. He is speaking quietly with Parker, the family's aged driver, trying to explain that he will take the trunk to the car; it's far too heavy to carry, and the man is in his sixties.
"Mother?" Justin turns. Heels click on the tile as she strides toward him. "Mother," he puts on an easy smile, though his guts are turning to water at the downturned corners of her mouth and the disapproving gleam in her eye. "What does it look like I'm doing? I leave for Hogwarts today. First September, just as every other year."
"We discussed this," she tells him in clipped tones, dismissing Parker with a wave of her hand. "You are not returning to that school. Enough is enough."
Justin sighs. "I'm an adult, Mother. You would rather I didn't finish my schooling? If I'm to get a good job--"
"A job? Why would you even bother? It's that school. It's put all sorts of ideas in your head, and now you want to work for a living?" Some part of her imperceptibly softens. "Justin. You know you don't need to work. If you really want, your father can find you a place at one of his companies. It will look good for you to have an office position, especially when we find you a nice girl to marry." She shook her head. "But working like one of...them..."
"One of what?" Justin turned his head sideways. "Like a wizard?"
"Like a poor one!" She was almost shrill in her exasperation. "Which is exactly what you shall be if you set foot off the estate today!"
Justin's heart about stops. "What do you mean?"
"Exactly what I said, Justinian Michael Robert. If you leave for that school today, don't expect to return here. There will no longer be a place for you." She takes a shuddering breath. "Justin. Darling." She steps forward and reaches for his hand. "That horrid place has already robbed me of my only daughter. I can't bear to lose my baby as well."
Justin flinches back, his anger rising. "Mother, Madeleine didn't die because--"
"Don't you say her name!" Careana Finch strikes her son across the cheek in a sudden burst of emotion, the stone from her ring leaving a shallow scratch. "You, of all people! It's your fault, you wicked, ungrateful boy!" Justin is too stunned to protest. In eighteen years, his mother has never struck him. "If you'd been content with Eton..." She laughs hysterically. "Content! With the most prestigious school in the country! Your sister would still be alive!"
Justin finds his voice. "I. Didn't. Kill. Madeleine," he enunciates coldly. His mother raises her hand again, but Justin's wand is out, and he brandishes it threateningly. She stops, looking suddenly terrified. She remembers all too well what people with wands had done in her home.
"Do you really forget that I spent six months in prison? That I didn't know Maddie was dead for all that time, while Dementors sucked away every happy thought I'd ever had and a sick bastard with a knife used me as a bloody cutting board? Nevermind my friends were fighting a fucking war and dying!" He advances on her and she steps back, suddenly afraid of her son, too shocked to even register the profanity she's never heard him use. "Did you ever care that I suffered, or did you think it was only ever you who felt pain? Am I just an embarrassment who got what he deserved?" She opens her mouth but he cuts her off. "Fuck you, Mother. Fuck your family and fuck your fucking money and the nice fucking girl you fucking want me to fucking marry." Her hand is clutching her chest, and she looks sure her heart will burst at any moment.
She flinches when Justin flicks his wand, but all it does is levitate his trunk. "And by the way, Careana," he says as he steers it toward the door. "I like it up the arse. So for your sake, I hope Robbie and Kate have lots of kids."
He's shaking with emotion and adrenaline, but Justin manages to keep his head held high as he walks out the door, already hailing the Knight Bus with his wand for the journey to King's Cross.