ALICE DID NOT RESPOND TO HER NAME. In fact, she didn't respond to any that Charlus called out to her. Instead, she continued to stumble around his room until she was surrounded by Healers that were trying to subdue her. Charlus called out for them to stop, to leave her alone because she was more than welcomed to visit him. She had been one of his friends among the Order, a kind soul that had always promoted the idea that Charlus was a lot stronger than others gave him credit for.

However, the Healers didn't listen to him, leaving Charlus to fight his way to the side of his bed. He didn't have enough strength to stand as of yet, but he could sit up at the very least.

"Leave her be," he demanded, " she can stay!"

Maeve entered the room as Charlus continued to call to leave Alice alone. She quickly made her way over, blocking his view despite him trying to move to look around her.

"Listen, I told them to leave her," he said, " she's a friend of mine. She's alright-"

"Charlus, she's not alright," Maeve interjected suddenly, " I'm sorry but there are a lot of things you don't understand as of right now. It's not your fault, but things just aren't that simple anymore. Who you knew as Alice back in the Order and who you are seeing before you now, they're not the same woman."

"What the hell are you talking about?" His hand thrusted up some makeshift horns during his angry spat. "That is Alice-"

Of course, as Maeve settled herself beside him once again, Charlus knew she was about to say something he didn't like. He knew it wasn't her fault, but since waking up, all Maeve had really delivered was bad news. He didn't want to know anymore bad news, hadn't he been punished enough?

"Physically," Maeve said, " you're right, that is Alice. Unfortunately, mentally, she's not there anymore. She isn't aware of who she is, of who anyone is really. She is stuck in this state, one I can't even begin to describe because I'm not in her shoes. But she is not the same person you knew back then. Things changed her and sometimes, she can be harmful to herself and others if she's not closely monitored."

Charlus bit the inside of his cheek, truly not wanting to cry again. " Wh-what happened to her? Where's Frank? What about Neville? Did they...oh Merlin. What the fuck? What's happened?"

"Perhaps it would be better to discuss this at another time, Charlus. I've already overwhelmed you with enough information. You haven't been awake for very long, we should be solely focused on you getting better. This is your recovery time."

"What does it matter as of right now?" he asked. " My brother is dead, no one knows where my nephew is, my husband is in Azkaban and the people I need to talk to won't respond. What is the point of recovery, what life is waiting for me out there as of right now?"

Maeve gave a small nod of her head. "It's not going to get easier past this point, you know? What you learn, will be a tough pill to swallow."

"Life hasn't been very easy since I left Hogwarts. War is never easy, no matter what side you fight for."

Charlus put up enough of an argument that Maeve decided to just give in. There was such a thing as patient confidentiality, but everyone in the wizarding world knew what fate the Longbottoms had suffered. It was similar to the attack that had been unleashed onto Charlus that landed him in St Mungo's, the difference was, in some way, he had been lucky.

Death Eaters, consisting of Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr had invaded the Longbottom home after the fall of Voldemort. In anger of his defeat, they captured the two Aurors and decided to torture them without any sort of mercy. They unleashed the Cruciatus Curse upon them subjecting them to the torturous curse for hours upon hours.

By the time that they were found by Ministry members and the arrest was made on the Death Eaters, it was too late.

"We attempted to do the same thing we did to you," Maeve said, " we tried to salvage what we could, but the damage was irrevocable. They can't function on their own, they can't speak, and they can't recognise anyone from before. Every day, it's like starting a new one or at least, that's what it must feel like. They don't trust the Healers around them, they spook very easily. Alice gets upset the most, she frequently tries to escape but she doesn't go anywhere. We've tried letting her go, to see where she wants to go, but she runs for a bit and then stops."

"Frank is the same then?" Charlus whispered.

"Pretty much," she replied. "He's more docile, doesn't act up or anything. He seems to be just fixated on certain items or textures, depending on the day. But he doesn't respond to anything, you know, if I were to ask him a question or call his name, it would be like he heard nothing. It's almost like no one is there. They're both in their own worlds, one Alice is trying to escape from and the other, Frank is just alone."

Charlus wasn't sure if he could survive anymore heartbreak. Since waking up, it seemed he had been better off in his little state of darkness. At least, in his coma, he believed that everyone was still alive, fighting a war. They all stood a chance at surviving and there were so many possibilities of things going their way. But now, his new reality was that even if the war was one, not every battle had gone in their favour and there had been too many sacrifices.

"Their son?" his voice squeaked out. "Neville, what about Neville?"

"He lived," Maeve told him, " he comes around here. Too young to know what's going on really. But his grandmother brings him here on the weekends to see them. They don't recognise him, they usually ignore him."

Taking a deep breath, Charlus was thankful that the children had come out unscathed for the most part, but it didn't mean that they didn't have their own emotional scars that would follow them when they were older. Maybe Harry and Neville were too young to understand just what had happened to their parents, but it didn't mean they wouldn't learn about it. Harry would never be able to see his parents again, only through photographs and learn about them through stories and Neville would only be able to see his parents, but they would never call him by his name and greet him as their son.

Charlus didn't know which was worse because they both sounded equally terrible.

"Can I go see them?" he asked Maeve, in a much kinder tone. Immediately, Maeve looked hesitant about the idea and he could already see her talking about how she didn't think it was a good idea.

"Mr Potter, I mean, Charlus, I really think-"

"Just for a few minutes," he pleaded, "I owe it to them. They were always there for me when I first started in the Order. A lot of people didn't think it was a good idea to have me on board, but Alice, she fought like hell to keep me there. She took full responsibility as she once said. She put all her faith in me, I...I really owe it to her."

A few minutes later, Maeve had a wheelchair drawn for Charlus to sit in. It was enchanted to move along, leaving him to put little effort to get to his destination. She walked alongside the chair as it wheeled Charlus along to the Janus Thickey Ward. As they passed through the doors, she swore she heard Charlus start to hold his breath. It wasn't from any sort of smell, but perhaps to keep himself from crying.

All the while she had been telling him the fate of the Longbottoms, she watched him fight back any tears and swallow the lump that developed in his throat over and over. She wondered what he was thinking about, but then again, she figured she was better off not knowing. She could only assume that his heartbreak was bringing up every fond memory he shared with the people that were now considered lost to him.

Survival was supposed to be a joyous thing, a miracle for many. But Maeve had a feeling that Charlus wasn't feeling the joy of a miracle. Instead, in such a short time, he was struck repeatedly with survivor's guilt. She wanted to stop telling him things, but he insisted on knowing, and it wasn't like she could lie to him.

Charlus was wheeled into the room where Alice and Frank were, among other permanent residents. Frank was standing near one of the windows, gently running his hands over the material of the curtains, while Alice was lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling. More than likely after her earlier episode, she had been given a sedative to relax.

He glanced over in the direction of Frank first, but it seemed he didn't want to disturb Frank's curtain time, so he made his way over to Alice. Slowly, he reached for her hand and held it in his gently.

"Al," he started, " I...it's me. It's Charlus, you know, little Cyggie?"

For a moment, Charlus looked over his shoulder at Maeve, she could see that his cheeks were red, as if he were embarrassed by something he had said. She raised a brow, unsure of what he was suddenly feeling shy about, until he cleared his throat to explain.

"My patronus was a black swan," he explained with a small smile, " Alice always thought it was the cutest thing. She told me that very often, thought it was fitting too that it was black because of Sirius. And I guess because I was younger than her, she saw me as a young swan, so she called me Cygnet, which eventually just turned into little Cyggie over time."

"That's really sweet," Maeve replied, " you two must have been really close."

"We were," Charlus said, " she learned sign language for me, a lot of the other members of the Order didn't bother, but she begged me and Sirius to teach her. The others always expected me to lip read, same for many in school. But she was so eager and she learned quickly, I know it used to drive Sirius mad because it took him so long for him to learn. Alice was a riot too, could make the whole room laugh even after a rough day. She became one of my best friends...then, she had to go into hiding, like my brother and Lily. I knew it was for their safety, I just honestly didn't think that the next time I would be seeing them would be like...this."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Charlus, it's not your fault. If anything, the blame goes fully on those who did this to you and to them. But you shouldn't be feeling any guilt."

He didn't respond to her, but rather requested that she give him a few minutes alone to talk to Alice in private. But as she agreed and started walking away, she could already hear Charlus crying.

"I hate this," Maeve told her co-worker, Steven Azane. "It's not fair.  Everyday I just end up delivering bad news to him and I have to watch him breakdown over and over. I hate myself for it, even though it's not my fault. Is it such a crime for him to be happy?"

"No, it's not," Steven said, " but at the same time, this is the reality of war, Maeve. People come home from war, but they're not the same people. I mean, just imagine, settling down for a nap and waking up to find out your loved ones are dead or incapacitated. What do you even do? If I were him, I would have gone mad."

"And yet, he hasn't," she said, leaning against the counter in the breakroom. "No matter what I tell him, he just wants to keep fighting. He might get upset, but he wants to right as much as he can. If that were me, I wouldn't have had the strength to even get out of bed. But now he's demanding that Dumbledore or Fudge come and speak with him. He wants to visit Alice and Frank in their ward on a daily basis. Where does he find the strength to do something like that?"

Steven shrugged his shoulders. "I think he's still living in a bit of a fantasy world right now. You know, thinking he can fix things. He might think he can prove that husband of his is innocent, but that's probably why Fudge is ignoring him. Charlus wasn't even breathing on his own when Sirius was caught for those murders, what evidence can he possibly provide that would prove anything otherwise? He has that hope that he can fix things, but when the reality kicks in and he realises he can't, I think he'll start acting a bit different. That's when you'll have hell on your hands."

"But what if he does have some information?" Maeve suggested. "Something that would turn everything around?"

"Did you hear what I said? Do you remember what happened that night? He blew that Pettigrew lad to bits, killed twelve muggles in the process. Then he was laughing like a madman, and Charlus is somehow going to whip something up that will prove that Sirius Black is innocent? I think you might want to step outside for some fresh air, Maeve."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Regardless, Dumbledore and Fudge could spare some time to speak with him. After all, Charlus was part of the Order, he risked his life to fight against You-Know-Who and his followers, at the very least they could come see him now that he's awake. They owe that to him, don't they?"

"People like Fudge and Dumbledore don't owe anything to anyone, it's the other way around."

"Why? Just because they have bigger names within the magic community? You know, I distinctly remember Peter Pettigrew getting an Order of the Merlin upon his death, how come others didn't get the same thing? Why didn't the Longbottom family get one for Alice and Frank? The Potters?"

Steven placed his hands up in surrender as if he was about to be under attack. "I don't know! Why are you asking me all these things? I don't hand out the bloody things. Relax now, you forget that this is all old stuff. This happened six years ago."

"Yeah, but to Charlus this is all recent and six years later, there still aren't any answers for me to give to him. And the people that do have the answers can't even bother to show their faces."

It obviously wasn't Steven's fault that Charlus wasn't getting any response from Dumbledore or Fudge, but Maeve could feel Charlus' pent up frustrations over the matter and she was starting to feel anger over the situation as well. Since she wasn't getting anywhere with her co-worker, she decided to just call it a day. She had been working plenty of hours over her usual workload, all to help accomdate Charlus to the best of her abilities. Maeve didn't even care if she wasn't getting paid for her extra hours, she just wanted some justice for her patient.

Grabbing her belongings, she practically stormed out of the breakroom into the corridor to head on home. She was fumbling with her wand for a couple of seconds until she ended up crashing into another person. It led to her dropping her wand and bag, leaving her to quickly crouch down to the floor to collect it. However, the person she had bumped into had beaten her to it.

"I'm sorry," the man said as he picked up her bag, " I wasn't paying attention. Here's your bag and your wand. Again, really sorry."

"It's alright," Maeve replied, " to be honest, I wasn't looking where I was going either."

As she scanned over the stranger in her presence, she couldn't help but stare for an extra moment. Across the handsome man's face, even parts of his neck, were scars, some old and faint in colour while others were more of a fresh pink. He seemed to notice her staring as he quickly looked away from her, clearing his throat loudly.

"Sorry!" she blurted out. "I didn't..I mean...sorry, can I help you with something? Are you looking for someone?"

He nodded his head. "Actually, I am. I'm here to speak with Charlus Potter. I was told that he's awake."

Maeve's eyes widened in surprise that Charlus finally had a visitor. "Oh! That's great! I'm sure he'll be looking forward to having someone visit him. You're the first and he's been...well, you know, I'll let you talk to him. We would just need to sign you in, Mr..."

"Uh, I'm Remus Lupin," he said as he followed her to sign in. "And you are?"

"Maeve Elpis," she said, "I've been working one on one with Charlus since he woke up a couple of weeks ago. It was definitely a rough start, having to inform him of everything that took place while he was in that state. You're just what he needs right now, he's been down lately, and I know seeing a friend will cheer him up."

As they approached the room, Remus came to a halt and frowned for a moment, leaving Maeve to turn to him, just in time to hear him speak.

"With all due respect, Ms Elpis, but the title "friend" is giving me far too much credit."