Late Entries SOLO

WC:770

By Graci Lauren

TW: Mental health stuff

Axel's parents are the ones you'd make a grimace behind their back, but plaster a smile on to their face. They only really talked with pure-bloods, with the exception of half-bloods but they never did that without a patronising tone and a not-so-subtle wipe of their hands after the handshake. They avoided muggleborns at all costs, no matter their talent, skill of wealth- if they were a muggleborn they got ignored or worse disdained looks.

As a toddler Axel was, to say the least, spoilt. He had anything he wanted within his grasp, which led to his misfortunate behaviour which he picked up from his parents. He'd throw tantrums, hissy fits or just scream until he got what he wanted. His mother, Scarlet, coddled him when he did this and gave into the fits, but his father, Cassian, was a different story. At the ripe-old age of four, his father told him to 'man-up and stop being a baby'. Once he was enrolled within a community school at the age of four and a half his parents thought his behaviour would calm down.

But it didn't.

They were called into the school Master's office more times then they would have liked within the first term, so much so, that Cassian decides to pull him out of the college and get a private tutor. So, that became the norm for little Axel. A strict private tutor, the best pure-blood wealth could buy. Axel's days became pre-planned and even had small slots for fits and tantrums! Very quickly, Axel realised he wasn't in control anymore and he had to actually work and stick to the plan or be punished by the tutor or his father.

By the time he was ten, somehow he'd managed to skive off any extra work with his tutor and know the bare minimum of spells for his age group. He'd left his tutor forty minutes early, as per the last three years, and had gone up to his room and just lay on his bed.
While most wizards his age were casting and eating chocolate frogs, Axel was trying not to cast anything. Just to spite his strict tutor and his parents.

If his snotty pure-blooded family could see him now they would have a fit. He had his wand and he could do the most average spells on it. But as a pure-blood, it was expected from his parents that he know more going into his next school, but he didn't care for it. He hadn't bothered to practice and just let himself fall behind in his tutoring session. It soon became apparent to the tutor that Axel just didn't care about learning and that his time was being wasted. So, the tutor refused to come to the manor in France and made Axel's parents frustrated.

So, Axel's parents tried all they could to teach him the best they could but it was like trying to push a square block to the finish line when everyone else had spheres. Before long, Axel's parents got exasperated and became even stricter with Axel's workload. Questions after questions after questions, long after the sun went down. Like a military interrogation, if Axel got it wrong, he would have to rewrite the notes for the topic again.

Axel rapidly became burnt out and depressed, trying to live up to his parents expectations. He slowly stopped eating as much so he could study for longer and he slept less for the same reason.

His scores improved.

So Axel kept to the unhealthy routine. Eating enough to not pass out, but not enough to really be healthy. Sleeping about four hours a night just so he could stay up reading his textbooks with the tip of his wand illuminating his room. If his parents saw they didn't mention it till the week before he should be getting the acceptance from Beauxbatons.

His parents so desperately wanted him to be accepted that they didn't fully realise the extent to which their pressure had done to their son. That morning, he stumbled out of his room, deep circles and mumbling definitions. Cassian and Scarlett then see how effected their son was.

When the acceptance came, they instantly responded saying that Axel was unfit to enroll this year and would try the next year. For the next year and a half, Axel's parents tried desperately to undo the pressure they had laid upon him, being kind, civil and tried to be less uptight. But Axel was bitter, moody and rude towards them- and rightly so considering the pressure he was put under as a child.