Fascination Street! ━━ Bill Weasley

𝖎. A Flair For The Dramatic

Chapter I.
   A Flair For The Dramatic

1991

     Augustine Alexandre was a white-haired, heavy-footed, stoic man that had a flair for the dramatic, whether he liked to admit it or not. His four children all thought so and even his wife, who thought him indifferent and dull, agreed. The Alexandre family was a drama in and of itself; their meals were like dinner theatre and everyone had had a role assigned to them the day
they were born.

     The Alexandre family sat at an abnormally long table, which was meant to seat 20 people and filled with food from the north end to the south. Augustine was at the head of it, as he assumed his role as the Ruler: the one that operated as the boss for aesthetic purposes, but was really a puppet in a larger scheme.

     A small, thin house elf made her way into the room, holding one last dish in her hands and placing it on the table. She bowed to the family and scurried back into the kitchen. They all began eating silently, even the sound of their chewing was soft and can only be heard if focused on hard enough.

     It was the same performance as always. The curtains went up and Augustine Alexandre would look to his eldest daughter, Camille— who played the role of the Sage: the wise academic and, therefore, her father's favourite. He would ask her how her job is going, and she'd bare her dazzling white teeth in a charismatic smile before going into as much detail as she could about being an Unspeakable in the Ministry of Magic. Of course, nobody knew what Unspeakables did (hence the name!), but something about it always put a wicked grin on her face.

     Augustine and Camille would laugh, eliciting small smiles from others at the table, and then they would move on.

     The curtain falls and rises again, and Augustine would turn to his eldest son, Romeo and, instead of asking how Romeo's job is going, he'd ask if he'd found a job at all. Romeo was more of a tenant than a son, in Frances' opinion, always off doing Merlin knows what and getting away with it (playing the role of the Explorer well). He might as well had been an Unspeakable like Camille, but he wasn't one for structure. Or punctuality. Or discipline. Or anything that one needed to achieve financial stability.

     But they would laugh too because, in the end, he was the eldest Alexandre son and he could do whatever he pleased.

     Throughout every conversation, Aliena Alexandre would make fleeting comments or give unsolicited advice. She excelled at making people feel small and insignificant, but she wouldn't dare use this power on her children. She claimed she loved them, but it was unclear whether she was capable of truly loving someone when there's nothing to gain. She was the true Ruler of the family, the puppeteer pulling her husband's strings and making him dance before her.

     She watched as Augustine spoke to their youngest son, Apollo, who was still a student. She and her husband attempted to map out his entire career for him, ensuring the best possible path to increasing his wealth and status. Perhaps this was her way of showing love, by micromanaging her youngest son's entire life.

     And like the meek and naive Innocent he was, he just let her.

     Because of his inability to speak up for himself, he had created a standard with which nobody can compete. Especially not Frances Alexandre, who hadn't a quiet moment since her infancy (and even then). No, she watched her mother and father's faces fall when she spoke. She watched the way they got tense, how her mother's fist clenched around her silver fork. How her father attempted to dismiss her every word.