Disappointing is mildly putting it {Elenore}

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Rumors at Hogwarts were very fickle things, easily twisted and changed to suit a persons need, Alexei had found that out very early on during his time in the school. Rarely did the rumours have any semblance of truth to them which is why, when he heard whispers of what Elenore had told Mimosa, he had, naturally, been very sceptical of the words. After all, even though Elenore clearly didn't like Mimosa she wouldn't be so cruel and insensitive to say stuff like that to an eleven-year-old witch, right?

Yet as the wizard listened and questioned people on those rumours more than one person confirmed what he had heard and even elaborated on some of the things that he was unaware of. His mind just couldn't wrap around the fact that the Sixth year Hufflepuff could be so vicious and cruel, and so malicious, when telling a young child about the death of a close friend.

Throughout the entire day, the Italian was having trouble accepting what he heard yet slowly, those words took root in Alexei's mind. And over the day, the Slytherin accepted the fact that yes, Elenore had been that cruel towards an eleven-year-old witch. Yet, unlike the rest of Hogwarts, he wasn't pissed at Elenore for it.

No, he was thoroughly disappointed with the witch whom he thought was a completely different person. He was disappointed that she went so far to try and break an eleven-year-old. A child, by all accounts despite what others thought.

Standing at the Astronomy Towers, hours after curfew -when he knew they would be fairly alone and without anyone coming upon them-, Alexei await for the Hufflepuff witch. He had no doubt that she would come. His note would've ignited her curiosity if the words hadn't scared her off that is.

Meet me at the Astronomy Tower. We need to talk.

He hadn't signed it, he didn't need to. His writing, by now, was familiar to the witch, of that he was sure. He didn't know what he was going to do when he saw her but Alexei was level-headed for now and he knew that he would need to be.

Free.

That was how Elenore had felt since delivering the news to Mimosa, watching her face crumple in to tears, in to the broken mess that Elenore felt like every day. The Slytherin witch's reaction had shown every imperfection that had been known to man, and Elenore had felt freer than she had since the summer... for a very long time even before that.

But good things, Elenore had found, came to an end.

The arrival of her brother had proved that the youngest Clement could never, ever be free. That she was simply a pawn in her brother's life, waiting to be played off to the highest bidder to ensure the future of the Clement line went on unaffected by other families by buying their loyalty with family unions. No, Jacques' arrival had taken the small victory from Elenore and trapped her in a promise to not act in such a manner again.

The youngest Clement had been furious with her brother, but she had known that she could not continue this forever. Mimosa was loved much more than she ever had been, and the child would be protected at all costs.

The sight of Alexei's note, however, had been a welcome relief for the Hufflepuff. The Slytherin had become her confidant in the two months since they had returned to the school. Alexei had made her feel... worthwhile when no one else seemed to. In the two months they had been back at the school, Elenore had taught Alexei how to ride Bruant des Neiges, and the young man was coming on leaps and bounds in all that he did.

But the sight of the note had only perked Elenore up for a moment.

The insistence that they needed to talk was one that made Elenore tense in fear. What could be so important that Alexei would summon her to the Astronomy Tower. Now. After hours?

Elenore wasn't sure, and despite her better judgement, the witch had pulled a shawl around her, and ascended the stone steps of the castle to the Astronomy Tower. There, after making sure she had not been followed by anyone, Elenore had pushed open the door carefully, and emerged in the tower to find Alexei stood waiting for her.

"Good evening, Alexei," Elenore greeted the older male softly, the smallest of smiles touching her lips in that moment, though her eyes were filled with uncertainty... caution. To say she trusted Alexei completely would be a lie, but she trusted him more than she trusted almost everyone else in the castle. Everyone, except Tess Marie, of course.

"I received your note, and here I am..." Elenore explained, moving to the window of the tower. The grounds were always beautiful when the night fell upon them, and from the towers... they were exquisite.

Tonight, though, the feeling of discomfort ruined the view of the grounds.

The youngest Clement knew there was something wrong.

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Disappointing is mildly putting it {Elenore} Signat12

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The seventh year Slytherin wasn't entirely sure how to go about broaching this subject with Elenore. For one, he was quite sure that she would shut him off and refuse to answer any questions. Yet, a small part of Alexei was hoping to get some kind of reaction from the girl; whether it was to be a good reaction or not would remain to be seen.

The fact that she had to do something like that to an eleven-year-old girl still irked the brown-haired male yet something told him that this was more than just Elenore not liking the young witch. There was something more going on here and Alexei was planning on getting to the bottom of this, whatever it was.

The approaching footsteps on the stone steps of the astronomy tower reassured Alexei that Elenore was coming and the fact that it was only one pair of footsteps informed him that she wasn't followed by anyone.

As soon as the door opened, Alexei turned his upper body around to watch the witch, his green eyes studying the Hufflepuff almost hoping that just by doing that he would get some kind of explanation.

He didn't.

"Good evening, Elenore," Alexei replied in kind, feeling an almost vindictive pleasure as he saw the uncertainty and caution in the brunette's eyes. Oh yes, she should be cautious. This wouldn't be an easy conversation with her, that was sure.

"I can see that." His words were calm even if a little bit clipped as he turned back to focus on the grounds before him, eyes flicking up to take in the stars that winked happily above them even as a couple of clouds started to cover them up.

A handful of silent minutes went by, Alexei just enjoying the scenery before him even as he could feel the discomfort from the younger witch.

Emotional pressure like that tended to break people quicker. He hoped that Elenore wouldn't break too quickly though, he didn't want to push his friend away after all.

"I heard a curious rumour over the past few days.... care to guess what rumour it was Elenore?"

The silence that washed over the pair might have been comfortable in another moment. Elenore, though, did not find the silence comforting, around Alexei there wasn't usually a quietness around them. They were always talking about something, or someone, finding out about each other, or discussing homework. In short, there was always something that kept them from falling in to silence.

This silence was, therefore, deeply unsettling, and Elenore couldn't help but feel more than a little bit unsettled by Alexei's lack of words. But, for the time being, Elenore would respect the silence, and instead waited for the older male to speak before she turned to face him.

"I heard a curious rumour over the past few days.... care to guess what rumour it was Elenore?"

"Hogwarts is a rumour mill." Elenore replied softly, but Alexei did not need her to explain that much to him. The sentence was merely used to stall for a moment whilst Elenore tried to catch up with the question at hand. "But, I assume you're not talking about the rumour that Martha of Ravenclaw did some unspeakable things with the Gryffindor boy who's name I can't remember."

Once again, Elenore was stalling, and where normally the idea of rumours of a sexual nature might bring a light blush to Elenore's lips, her mind was too preoccupied with Alexei's question to truly think about the subject on which she'd just spoken.

"I assume you're referring to the rumour that includes me." Elenore finally conceded to the question shortly after. The arrival of her brother had brought up lots of rumours, and people loved to talk. Especially when there was something 'juicy' going on.

From there, though, Elenore did not offer anything else. If Alexei wanted to talk about this, then he could lead the conversation. Elenore was not going to give up the facts just because of people making up fiction around the school.

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He wanted to reprimand her, wanted to snap at her and tell her to not stall but he saw this tactic for what it was; Elenore gathering her wits about her to answer the question fully. He wasn't going to rush her just because he wanted to know what went on through her mind at the time. He just patiently waited, knowing that the Clement witch would answer his question, even in a roundabout way.

He wasn't disappointed.

"I assume you're referring to the rumour that includes me."

"You assume correctly," Alexei replied to that, turning so that he was leaning against the barrier with one hip, his arms loosely crossed across his chest. When she didn't offer anything else, Alexei had to bite back the amused chuckle that wanted to escape. It seemed that he would have to do the digging and steer the conversation as to where he wanted it to go.

"What were you thinking?" He eventually questioned, his tone of voice dropping an octave as he intently focused on the witch before him. "Tell me, Elenore, just what were you thinking? Saying such things to an eleven-year-old child..." He decided to go straight to the topic of the conversation and not beat around the bush as some people would say. This was one topic that he knew neither him nor Elenore would enjoy, yet he needed the answers, he needed to know exactly what was going through Elenore's mind at that moment in time.

The wait this time was not quite as long as it had been for the first question to arise, but the question that came this time was one that made Elenore move back slightly from the boy, as if moving to her own window. But, it was a defensive move, putting distance between the boy and herself to ensure he would not be able to harm her in any way without her having time to react.

"She's ten." Elenore correctly flatly, for loathe as she might be to admit it, Elenore knew exactly how old the young witch was, and when she had come to the Palace. The details she wished she did not remember of the small witch seemed to have been engraved upon her brain.

"I was informing the child that her uncles had been murdered." Elenore replied to the wizard, her tone clipped, and giving away nothing. "It isn't my fault she went to pieces about it." Though, of course, that had been the intention from the start, to deliver the news in as cold a manner as she could to ensure maximum damage to the child in that moment.

To make her see how much she hurt Elenore with her presence.

But it had backfired.

"It doesn't much matter now, Jacques has swooped in like her own personal Prince Charming and made everything okay again." Elenore finalised, turning away from the boy to look out across the grounds. Eyes were the opening to the world, Elenore had been told, and she would not allow Alexei to see in to hers whilst they spoke on this topic.

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"It's the same thing. She's still a child Elenore." Alexei's words were not harsh but they were missing his usual warmth when he was speaking with the Hufflepuff witch. Her defensive posture spoke more than words and he was perfectly aware that she didn't want to deal with this but he needed to get into her head, he needed to know why she felt that doing what she did was an acceptable course of things.

Her next few sentences made Alexei pause and actually take in the woman next to him. To the untrained eye, she looked composed and clearly dignified. To Alexei, who had been trained in body-language, it was clear that she had been reprimanded by Jacques and hurt by something, someone.

Taking a deep breath and then expelling it, the Slytherin let the witch have her space even as he turned back to the grounds himself.

"You wanted to break her." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. "That's why you... informed her of her uncles passing." His eyes closed at that. He knew that it was something like that but he had ignored the feeling in his gut, he had ignored the voice in his head that told him that, until now, when he voiced them out himself. "You wanted her to feel as hurt as you are right now... Right?"

He didn't even need her to answer that. He knew the answer himself. Rubbing his eyes, Alexei expelled another deep breath.

"I thought the rumours and whispers were wrong and people just needed something to talk about, I certainly didn't expect it to be true." The Italian muttered. "I'm disappointed, truthfully."

Alexei's tone was not one that Elenore appreciated. Listening to Jacques had been bad enough, but with Alexei telling her that she should not have done what she did... the witch was beginning to question their friendship. He wasn't even trying to understand things from her point of view. How was that fair?

The short answer, it wasn't.

"You wanted to break her."

No, Elenore thought to herself, but did not reply as her eyes tried to focus on the treeline of the Forbidden Forest deep outside in the darkness of the night.

"That's why you... informed her of her uncles passing."

Elenore still disagreed with the boy, but she said nothing. Alexei could pretend to be able to read her like a book, but he didn't understand her at all. He was simply... trying to get in to her head. Trying to judge a situation he had no right to judge.

"You wanted her to feel as hurt as you are right now... Right?"

Elenore's body tensed in that moment, the breath she'd just inhaled sticking in her throat. She knew she should try to deny it, but the words would not come. She wasn't hurt. Hurt implied brokenness, and Elenore was not broken, she refused to believe she was broken. There were just feelings she couldn't always explain. Feelings that only seemed to get messier with young Mimosa's cheerful nature.

"I'm disappointed, truthfully."

The beating of Elenore's heart slowed in that moment. Loud thuds in the Hufflepuff witch's ears as they slowed. Stopped. The young witch's hand moved out to steady herself as she swallowed the thick lump that had formed in her throat, blinking quickly in order to clear the tears from her eyes before they could even think of forming, and rolling down her cheeks.

"Well, I'm frightfully sorry that you drew such a high opinion of me, monsieur, but I am not here to impress, entertain or live up to the expectations put on me by you." Elenore told him sharply, a tone she'd never used with Alexei before. One that spoke of the Clement name's power, a lady of the strongest house in Europe, and not some meek child who could be cast aside. "You asked me for the truth, and obviously you didn't like it. That, was your mistake." She finalised.

The Hufflepuff witch wanted to leave, to do it with dignity, but her legs would simply not move, shaking instead with the effort of keeping her upright when all she wanted to do was curl in to a ball, in to the position of comfort.

How dare he...

But Elenore Clement might wish to be as strong as the current and former Lady Clements, but she had a long way to go before she could become someone like that.

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Alexei watched the Hufflepuff, his lips quirked into a wry smile as he heard her tone of voice, a soft look in his eyes that probably went unnoticed by her spoke of how awed he was at the tone. This was the first time he was hearing Elenore talking to him like that but it was not an unfamiliar tone of voice, having it be used by his step-mother on more than one occasion when she was talking to him.

"I didn't put any expectations on you, Elenore. And I never said that I didn't like your answer." In truth, he expected it, had been wondering for weeks if that was it. "I'm rightfully shocked and yes, while I'm disappointed, it's not because of what you did but of how you did it actually. I thought you'd have more tact in informing Mimosa of the horrible murder of her uncles. You did it in a library, of all places... where people heard you and saw what happened."

He felt a slight fear that he would lose Elenore as a friend but if this was all that it would take to break their fragile friendship then it would be it. He didn't want it but if Elenore wouldn't want to talk to him after this then he wouldn't blame her.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you by what I said but I just wanted to know the truth." He stepped away from the railing and bowed to Elenore in apology. "I deeply apologize Lady Clement, I hope we will still be able to talk but I will understand if you wouldn't want to anymore. I enjoyed our talks and letters."

He noticed the minute shaking of the woman and while he wanted to scoop her into his arms and hug her, he was quite sure that she wouldn't welcome his touch at this moment in time, not mere moments after he had hurt her with his words.

If hearing the word 'disappointed' once from the young man's lips had not been enough, the second round of existence of the word in the conversation was enough for Elenore to firmly close the doors to Alexei in that moment. Once had been enough to tell Elenore that the boy didn't think what she had done had been the right thing, the second time was the tell tale sign that, in all of this, Alexei was not on her side. No, he was siding with the loathsome child, which meant he was not the friend she had believed him to be.

"You grow too familiar, Blackthorn. You forget your place, and seem to be of the opinion your ideas on the subject were ever wanted, or necessary. You forget yourself, and, this will not happen again." Elenore replied once he was done. His apology had done nothing to settle the witch. He'd blown it. Well and truly blown it, and Elenore's mind was not about to go full circle and change in that moment. "You're not my friend, you could never be my friend." She told him, coldness seeping from her body because she was oh so slowly growing more and more isolated in this castle.

"You will leave now." Elenore finished, the authority of the Clement name, her position within France, and the expanding reach of Europe the only tool she now had at her disposal. Her name, as she had always been taught, was enough to open doors, or, in this case, close them firmly. "Good day, monsieur." She said with finality, letting Alexei know that this conversation was over, and his presence was no longer wanted.

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