Those war torn eyes
Joseph was a low ranking general in the RAF he knew those eyes. He knew the flikering outlook of constantly monitoring your suroundings for a threat. He knew the craked pain when they smiled. He knew the haunted and sleep deprived look. Although most importantly he knew the colour of those eyes. Those eyes were his little brother's eyes, the ones he had always shared with his beloved daughter Hermoine, staring at him through the beautiful poised body of a proud woman.
This fact alone could only mean one thing, this was his neice. This did not make sense though, his neice was 18, she was a teenager barely out of highschool, a bookworm. She was not however a powerful war hero whose eyes sung tales of pain and wisdom far beyond anyone should ever have to face in their lifetime.
Although his confusion and fears were solidified when that bittersweet smile broke from this graceful and broken version of his neice to call out hapily "Uncle joey" before she dropped her luggage and surged forward to hug him. At that moment he decided he would question Hermoine's transformation later for now he would hold her tight and make shure she knows that her Uncle always has her back. Though echoing throughout his mind were two questions, when had there been a war and how? had his neice been involved if she had been in school the whole time?
Across the lobby of the grand hotel Alicia Granger the wife of the eldest granger brother looked upon the interaction with completly different eyes. She had always disliked her brother-in-law's daughter as she had always been an anoying little busybody know-it-all unaware of social cues. She rolled her eyes at the thought that her youger brother in law had brought such a young date to the family friendly reuion she had planned. She decided she disliked his date more and more as she observed her, as she judged based on her top of the line designer clothes that she was probably nothing more than a high maintanance fashionista after a husband to keep her shopping habits afloat. And one of the only things she disliked more than people uncomprehending of social cues were bimbo's.
Though this was a family reuion and so she would hold herself to a higher degree and greet her with the kindness such a venue deserved, after all maybe her assumptions were wrong. Alicia was torn from her thoughts automaticaly stopping her progression across the lobby as the lady turned around. This was because she was met with eyes she could recognize anywhere they were her beloved Henry's eyes, the eyes that he shared with Wendell , Hermoine and his mother Delia but none of her own children. Though as she peered into them to try to give her brain time to compute that this beautiful loady was her 18 year old neice she noticed there was something wrong. She had been reading those eyes for close to thirty years, she could see the pain and hope and sleep deprivation that lay in those pools of swirling amber and gold. It had been years since Alicia had felt so terrible about her assumptions of people, but as she peered into those eyes she knew that she would never forget the depth of that pain, nor the guilt within her.
Alicia had never been outwardly rude or callous to her neice but neither had she made any effort to find comon ground despite knowing they shared a love of knowledge. So after the proud nuroscientist finally found the ability to break eye contanct with her neice she did something she never imagined she would do she reached forward and embraced the girl with all the love she could tryiong to lend her strength to the child in her arms.
Sixteen year old Sara'dela Granger came through the front door of the hotel after having run ahead of her dad once he had parked the car to a sight she honestly would not have imagined in a million years. There infront of her if the one picture her only cousin on her dad's side had sent her was to be trusted was her mother embracing said cousin in a loving and conforting way. It was such a surprise to her that when the two finally did separte she did not run to hug her favorite and mysterious cousin for the first time in nyears until after her father nudged her from behind trying to lug the rest of the luggage she had not taken with her. Once she had finally seperated from the still overely enthusiastic hug she looked up into her cousins eyes, and almost gasped because the woman who looked back had so much maturity in them, so much more then the eyes of her 22 year old sister that had just graduated from college in the spring.
Deciding that her cousin probably had enough on her plate if she had to be so mature so instead of bringing it up sara launched into an enthusiastic review of the book Hermoine had recomende in her phone calls last semester. Ohh how she wished Hermoine's High School wasn't out of cell service or that it had wifi.
Hermoine meanwhile was baffled, as a woman whiom had always shown a type of warm indifference to her embraced her with a souroful almost regretful air of warm. Although as she listened and added in here and there to her favourite cousin's bubbling conversation about some science fiction books she decided she did not care, cause this cocoon of warmth and family may just be what the scared and scared teenager needed to be able to properly face the demons of last year's battle. Something she had been collectively avoiding through the heavy course load of taking 10 NEWTS.