The Detective Club | Blaise Zabini

Antheia's Journal Entry 2 - Jacques Garnier

Surprisingly, Jacques Garner had a pretty quiet life, it's quite the contrast to everyone else. His mother was a healer, but his father was from a wealthy family with connections all over the world.

He was their only child, their miracle baby after their tragic loss of their first unborn child. After he was born, his mother, Corrine, quit her job to dedicate her time to raising him. Unfortunately, Garner was born with a vast amount of medical problems. He spent most of his childhood sick and in and out of hospitals. No amount of money could find a cure for Garnier's mysterious illness. (Emil, I'm working with what I got, there's no mention of his illness and I'm not a healer, I have no clue.)

He met Contessina in 1982, roughly 3 years after the death of her first husband. Her two/three-year-old son was running a fever and she had to take him to St. Mungos after it wouldn't go down. She had left his room to grab a cup of coffee (her drink of choice is black coffee, which I personally can't drink and I don't know why this is important) when she bumped into him. Garner was at St. Mungos for something, he practically lived there, anyway Garnier was left jaw dropped at the beautiful Mrs. Zabini (this happens five other times).

Noticing the cup in her hand, he asked her out on a coffee date. This is hilarious and I have second hand embarrassment. Contessina turned him down because she doesn't do coffee dates, but I think she didn't know who he was, don't tell her I said that. Do you even know her? I know your very special friend does. I'm sorry, I'll stop, don't kill me.

But do you know who else was at the hospital? Liam Doyle! First of all, can I just say what kind of name is that? I'm so glad she never changed her last name, imagine having the last name Doyle? Just awful. Now, Contessina knew who this was.

Garner was a very lonely child (can you tell I'm slacking off?), but he lived next door to an outgoing older boy named Liam Doyle. Liam Doyle would constantly see Garner around and wonder why he was so reserved. He tried to be friends with him, but Garner shut him down again and again and again and — I'll stop. It wasn't until they were almost ten years old when Garner engaged in conversation with Liam Doyle (Doyle Doyle Doyle). Since then, they became extremely close friends.

I won't talk about Liam Doyle yet, but he was also rich, that's the only thing that matters here. Garner was heading back to his room utterly dejected from Contessina's rejection when he saw Doyle speaking to — could you believe it, Contessina! Except, I don't think he knew who she was or maybe he did, I don't know. He's dead, it's not like he can tell me.

He approached his dear friend and Contessina was surprised to see the loser from the cafeteria she rejected. Liam happily introduced them and Contessina was a lot more accepting after recognizing him as Renard Garner's son. Poor little Jacques seemed to be a little naive. Contessina was around 21 here and he was 19. Did I mention he was at St. Mungos because his dad was on his deathbed? I just checked, I didn't. His dad was dying. He mentioned this to Contessina, who expressed her deepest regrets.

They went their separate ways and met once again at Renard Garner's funeral. Nothing happened because it was a funeral and they have morals, but a few days later, Contessina received a huge bouquet of flowers at her door. Contessina hates flowers, I've never seen a live flower anywhere in her home, but there was no way Jacques would know that. Contessina sent back a letter thanking him for the flowers and he sent another one asking her if she would have dinner with him. Contessina agreed and left little Blaise with her dear friend, Alexandros Artino, I wonder where I heard his name before.

The more she got to know Jacques, I am convinced the less she liked him. He was quiet and timid, but the issue was that he was annoying. He constantly freaked out over every little thing and was not comfident in anything he did. Did I mention his mother died when he was 17? No? My bad. He was completely alone and basically a sheep.

Contessina stopped seeing him for a while. There's a period where I have no information on what happened, but Contessina visited him at his house about four months after.

Jacques was bedridden from his illness when she visited, which must've been embarrassing for him. He refused to see her, but Contessina ignored his wishes (how romantic) and forced herself into his bedroom where he looked like he was dying, or at least that's how I imagine it. And for the next few days, she went over to his house everyday early in the morning until late in the afternoon to take care of him. She left her son in Alexandros' care the entire time. At this rate, he practically raised Blaise, just kidding because (spoiler alert) it didn't last long, thank Merlin because he doesn't need to be my cousin. Anyway, I imagine this made Jacques fall head over heels for her and, still in his sick bed, he asked her to marry him. I honestly pity him.

He didn't even have a ring or anything, he just grabbed her hand with his weak, shaky ones and asked her to marry him once he got better and she agreed. He got his house elf to buy the perfect ring (If I had to rate all her rings, his would be last. She's sold it since then I'm pretty sure, but it was the ugliest thing I've ever seen. It was too flashy to the point of being tacky) and gave it to her the next time he saw her.

He didn't die yet, so they got married. Alexandros held little Blaise during the ceremony. Little Antheia was not at this ceremony because her father was a bore, just saying.

I don't know if he liked Blaise, but I guess it doesn't matter because he died a year later. That was a huge time skip, wasn't it? I don't think anything remotely interesting happened, at least nothing I know of. See, I would've asked my uncle, but he died, you should've given me this task years ago. I'd rather die than ask my father.

Anyway, Jacques' condition grew worse and worse over time. It was tragic. His illness that apparently no one knew what it was killed him, leaving all his wealth to Mrs. Zabini and her son.

His death is also mysterious unsurprisingly because despite it being blamed on his weak health, all the different healers asked could not connect it to his health. I don't know, his things are all over the place. I don't know if she killed him, but surprise, surprise, it wasn't a natural death. He displayed some abnormal symptoms he never had before, which might've been because he was dying but I don't know. Apparently, he willingly stopped consuming his medication at some point too. He might've indirectly caused his own demise or she had a hand in it. I don't believe his health caught up to him but I have no evidence proving otherwise.

My conclusion is that Jacques Garner should have given me all his money even though I was — I just realized I was five when he died. He and my mum died the same year. Anyway, accident.