Ambivalent → Hermione Granger [3] ✔

I 01 I Saturday Musings

~*~

Eliot looks forward to Saturday mornings because they are a time for relaxation. There is a calmness to cleaning the house, hearing the soft vibrations of the vacuum as it glides across the floor. He finds it quite soothing – second only to baking, his favourite hobby.

The house was fairly quiet. The only sounds were the hum of the vacuum cleaner, the distant drone of cars outside, and a dog's bark occasionally. Alex had shut himself in his room upstairs with a book in hand, while Antoine was at work as usual, even on the weekends. He wouldn't be back until late evening. This summer had been much the same.

Eliot wondered whether Antoine's tendency to work too much was due to a lifetime of habit that he didn't know how to break; or, whether it was because of other reasons Antoine didn't share. Most likely, Antoine intended to distract himself with work. Eliot frowned as he scooped up some crumbs from a nearby corner. He knew Alex suffered because of Antoine's mild detachment.

Eliot sighed. Antoine was a complicated man.

Everyone saw him as a clean-cut, accomplished diplomat to the French and British Ministry. But that was just the surface. In the past, even his wife struggled to fully understand him at times despite loving him.

Of course, Eliot didn't know him at the time but he knew of him. Who didn't? He was in all the newspapers and the radio: Antoine Laurent, the handsome, gifted and charming diplomat who rose through the ranks quicker than thought possible.

Truthfully, Eliot is glad he never personally knew Antoine then; he probably wouldn't have liked him very much. Antoine was a different man back then. Supercilious, conceited, and callous. At least that's how he appeared to Eliot. People would have had another opinion. Eliot recalled a specific image he'd seen on the front page of the Daily Prophet. Shiny, slick-backed blond hair, expensive robes and a haughty smirk.

But he'd judged Antoine too soon. After all, people change.

Eliot sees him for the man he is now. And that man has several parts to him that no one else would recognise: the broken and anguished; the lost; and the caring, who loved his grandson dearly. He was a broken-hearted man, yes, but that's what truly made him real and human and less perfect. Not just a picture on some piece of paper, giving polished interviews to the public.

Eliot only wished that Antoine showed his human side to young Alex. To spend more time with him, especially now that Alex was growing older. And it was only a matter of time before Alex stopped wanting Antoine's time and attention. He was becoming more withdrawn and secretive. The two were more alike than they realised.

Eliot has tried to persuade Antoine but the man was more stubborn than a bull. It was frustrating, and Eliot often pictured punching Antoine in the face and bringing him to his senses.

Eliot saw when Alex waited for Antoine every evening on the armchair by the window, staring out with a glint of desperate longing in his striking blue eyes. Growing up without parents isn't easy for any child, so no wonder Alex craved his grandfather's attention as he was his only living relative – that Eliot knew of. He will never forget how down-hearted Alex looked when Antoine would miss film night or parents' evening at school.