 Lovely™ | Captain Hurted | Ariana's Bane | Resident Antagonist | Unparalleled Delight
Kaiser was not sure he liked how squarely Mr Hollingberry had hit the nail on the head there. Or maybe he did. But he didn't. Regardless, he busied himself with turning the biscuit over in his fingers, mumbling something that might have sounded like, 'not that bad'. He didn't know what was worse, acknowledging to himself or anyone that he was not as fine as he wanted to be, or Mr Hollingberry thinking he was somehow incapable or not up to functioning as an employee or as a person. Because he was. He always was. Always had been. Always would be.
All the same, he glanced up again and nodded, smiled. "Thank you, sir. You as well."
It was also a relief to know he'd said the right thing, regarding Elio, but then Kaiser had been fairly certain such a suggestion might only have gone wrong if it turned out he couldn't bring him in - offering an impossible option would have been almost cruel. "I will. I think he'd like that." Not that Kaiser really had a very good idea - still - of what would or would not appeal to his own kid, but Mr Hollingberry just had that kind of presence. It was strange, Kaiser could picture him looking through a picture book with a younger version of himself little Elio, and Elio happy and content to sit with him, but found it harder to picture the same scene with himself and his son, even though it had already happened a few times before. Also difficult, nearly impossible, in fact, was trying to picture Mr Hollingberry at a stage in his life when he had no children or grandchildren. As for the concept of a Hogwarts-aged Charles Hollingberry, that simply did not compute at all.
Realising he was getting lost in his head again, Kaiser quickly extricated himself from his thoughts, nibbling on the edges of the biscuit but then setting it down on the arm of his chair. He'd finish it later. Maybe.
Rubbing his palms on the tops of his legs, Kaiser took a breath, fighting the urge to argue that the Minister shouldn't value his words so much, because 1. that would be an instant derailment, and 2. there were times it helped that his words were valued, times like this included, which always seemed to be the times they were instantly considered stuff and nonsense.
"I just wanted to tell you, sir," Kaiser said, relieved to find his voice was steady with conviction. "I just wanted to tell you that none of what happened is your fault." Maybe Kaiser was just projecting, but it seemed to him that Charles may well be feeling the burden of guilt after all of what had happened, based entirely on the kind of person he was. Maybe Kaiser had guessed wrong but even so, he had to say it, in case he was right and nobody else was saying it. He couldn't look the Minister in the eye while he said it, but that was more because of what came next. "It's not your fault, sir. It's mine." But most important, right here and now and in this room, was the assertion that Charles Hollingberry was not to blame.
__________________ Days of Potter 2023:___________________________ Which Bertie Botts Flavour Are You?
You are Chocolate! |