IF CHARLUS WAS TIRED OF RECEIVING BAD NEWS, Maeve was tired of being the one to deliver it. As his committed Healer, she wanted to offer him something good to wipe the frown off of his face. She adored his commitment to his family and wanting to free his husband, he had all these ambitions, but Maeve wasn't sure if he was going to be able to actually fulfil his goals. He could only go by word of mouth in Sirius' defence, which she knew wouldn't hold much merit and as for Harry, there was no telling where the child was. Even if Charlus found him, didn't the people that had Harry hold a right over keeping him with them?

Maeve didn't dare mention such things to him, instead, she watched as he sat in his room staring at the wall. He appeared to be deep in thought, but there was no telling what was running through his mind. He was probably sick and tired of sitting around St Mungo's now that he was awake and active.

Waving her hand in front of his face to grab his attention, Maeve had a proposition for Charlus. His dark eyes flickered up to her, waiting for her to speak.

"I was thinking," she began before sitting beside him, " you may not have a place to stay right away, but I don't think you want to stick around here, correct?"

He nodded his head and it seemed she had piqued his interest. "No, but what are you suggesting? I can probably make my way to Gringotts, I know I have enough money put away to get a place. I can do that-"

"I'm sure you can and you can do that, but for now, I was thinking that we can discharge you from here and then you can come to stay with me. Just for a couple of days until we get you situated. You'll need someone to be with you, especially since you're not at your full strength yet. We can stop by Ollivander's too, or Gregorovitch, whichever wandmaker you prefer. You're going to need a wand."

A faint smile finally appeared on Charlus' face and Maeve could only sigh in relief as she finally said something right.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," he told her, " I don't have a problem staying at one of the inns around here. You've done more than enough for me during my time here, Maeve. After five years, aren't you tired of my company?"

"It wouldn't be intruding at all," she quickly countered, " I would actually prefer it so I could monitor you. The other Healers aren't going to be in agreement about you leaving here just yet, especially with your balance being off, but if they know you'll be with me, I doubt they'll put up such a fuss. I promise I won't bother you much during your stay at my home, I'm relatively quiet-"

Charlus chuckled at her slip, he didn't need Maeve to keep trying to convince him. If she truly didn't believe that he was ready to be out on his own, Charlus would take her word. After all, she was the Healer among them and in a familiar, yet unfamiliar world that he was returning to, he could use all the help he could get.

"I'll stay with you," Charlus agreed, "until you think I'm ready to be out on my own again."

Maeve bowed her head with a grin before pushing herself up to stand. She went to leave the room to speak with the other Healers about discharging Charlus', only to hear him call something after her. She paused in the doorway and looked over her shoulder.

"What did you say?"

"Ollivander," he said again, "that's where I want to get my wand."

"Good choice."

As Maeve predicted, the other Healers weren't exactly on board with her idea. She had already heard it all when they claimed that she was far too invested in Charlus' case that it was starting to look bad on her from a professional standpoint. But Maeve didn't care but she knew the truth behind it all. She wasn't invested in Charlus for any selfish reasons, she wasn't like other Healers that had come to share romantic feelings for their patients as she had witnessed in the past.

Yes, she was very much invested in Charlus, but it was only because she wanted to see him succeed. After everything he had been through, she didn't know anyone at the time that was more deserving of having his own success story. And while Maeve didn't believe that Charlus was going to be successful in all his endeavours, she, at least, wanted to help him as much as possible.

She had spent years praying on and off that Charlus would eventually wake up. It was a lot of time to invest into praying for one person, by a miracle it worked or so she liked to believe that it did. But now it was up to Maeve to see things through with Charlus. Wherever he ended up she hoped it was somewhere good.

Thankfully, St Mungo's couldn't keep Charlus because while physically he wasn't in his best standings, he was mentally stable and competent, showing enough clarity that he could look after himself. Once he had a wand again, more than likely he would be even better off. They had no other choice but to release him upon his request.

With some good news to finally deliver, Maeve promptly made her way back to Charlus' room, only to find him packing what little belongings were his to take with him. Apparently, even if the answer had been "no" from the other therapists, he had no plans of staying there any longer.

"And here I wanted to enter the room and tell you to start packing," she said once his gaze fell on her. He offered a small smile, almost bashful as if he were a child that had been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing.

"I'm just ready to go outside again," he told her, "I want to see what else has changed over the years."

"Maybe not as much as you think. The world remained pretty much the same, it's the people who came and went."

It wasn't the best choice of words, but then again, Maeve didn't have the best record with delivering news with the ease of comfort. She knew it would be best to get a move on and let Charlus figure out things for himself.

However, while Maeve only made plans to bring Charlus to her home and get him settled for the evening, he clearly had plans of his owns. He wanted to head to Gringotts first and take out some money before heading over to Ollivander's. She could understand his want of having a wand again but she didn't think he would be that desperate to get in there before the shop closed that very day.

She didn't fight him though, she only remained at his side as they left St Mungo's and offered to apparate them to Gringott's so that Charlus wouldn't be kept standing for too long. Maeve knew he was in pain, or at least feeling quite stiff from all the activity of forcing himself on his feet a lot longer than he was used to. He was pushing himself beyond anything he had been doing in the recent days, but she had a feeling if she told him "no" he wouldn't listen.

Leaving St Mungo's in mere seconds, the two of them arrived at Gringotts, standing in front of the snow-white multistoried marble building. Maeve heard Charlus grunt in discomfort as soon as their feet were reacquinted with the ground, but he said nothing only looking directly ahead. She moved closer to allow him to lean into her shoulder and he seemed to take her up on the offer, whether he realised it or not.

They made their way up the steps and approached the door that was flanked by a goblin wearing a scarlet and gold uniform. Once they stated their business, Maeve and Charlus were allowed in, however, both of them were quickly reminded by one of the goblins that Charlus had nothing to identify that he was, in fact, Charlus Potter and the goblins were not willing to just go by word of mouth.

"I'm sure we could go to the Ministry and get something to verify that you are who you say you are," Maeve told him, "we'll just come back tomorrow."

Tomorrow wasn't that far off but Maeve could already read the disappointment on Charlus' face as he turned to leave the bank. It was the little things he had taken for granted that were suddenly posing to be barriers and they weren't helping his already frustrated demeanour. Maeve hated seeing Charlus look so upset, so something had to be done.

Before Charlus could slowly make his way down the stairs outside of the bank, Maeve grabbed him by the back of his shirt to get his attention.

"Look, we might have to wait on accessing your vault, but that doesn't mean you have to wait on getting your wand."

"But I don't have any money."

Maeve offered a small smile as Charlus' brows furrowed in confusion. "You can pay me back later."

No matter how much she reassured him, Charlus still seemed uncomfortable with the idea of borrowing money from Maeve. However, his expression certainly lightened when he found himself standing in front of the wandshop. It had been quite some time since he had ventured to Ollivander's, the last time being when he was just a boy getting his first wand alongside his brother.

He stopped at one point, just before the door and Maeve wondered if he was in pain, and he was. Only it wasn't physical pain as she presumed, just the pain of entering the wandshop again, knowing everything that had led him to return. He had been reaching for the doorknob but pulled his hand back at the very last second, shaking his head.

He wasn't ready.

The last time Charlus had been in the wandshop was with James and their parents. It had been a joyous occasion, one of testing out wands that didn't react so well initially which led to plenty of laughter. And Charlus had been so thrilled that a wand worked for him. For some reason, he had the idea in his head that because he was deaf that he wouldn't be able to get a wand. Looking back it had been a foolish thought but the amount of relief he felt when he was finally matched, he longed for that feeling again.

But he wanted James and his parents to be there and that was impossible.

Turning around, Charlus went to tell Maeve that he changed his mind. He wanted to go back to St Mungo's already, fully believing that he wasn't ready to accept everything that had changed. Back in the room, he could always convince himself that Maeve was lying, no matter how foolish it was. He could say that she was lying and eventually things would turn out for the better. But being back in the outside world, it was clear that she had been telling him the truth and it was only hitting him harder with every passing second.

However, just as he went to tell her he wanted to head back, the door to the wand shop opened and the two adults were left facing Garrick Ollivander himself.

Garrick wasted no time in inviting the two into his shop, holding back his surprise that Charlus Potter was there. It was easy to recognise the Potter males because in many ways they all responded each other down the line. Charlus resembled both of his parents but it was clear that both he and James had taken mostly after their father, Fleamont. And of course, outside of Charlus, there was only one surviving member of the Potter family and no one had seen him in quite some time.

"I would ask what brings you to my shop," Garrick began, " but usually people only visit me for one thing. So let me take a bold guess and say that you're here for a wand."

Charlus didn't answer him right away and Garrick believed he hadn't said it properly for Charlus to lip read. However, it wasn't the case as Charlus shook his head and looked away from Garrick and Maeve.

"I don't want to do this, not right now," he said quietly, " I thought I was ready, but...I can't...I can't do it..."

He thought he would find some comfort in seeing another familiar face, one that wouldn't be prone to throw Sirius' accusations in his face, but regardless of the scenario, Charlus was feeling overwhelmed. Glancing over in the direction of the door, he went to leave, trying to move as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, his body was not willing to keep up with his demands.

In a matter of seconds, Charlus felt his legs give out and rather than allowing himself to fall, he reached out to grab onto something to hold himself up. It turned out that the shelf he grabbed onto wasn't stable enough, leaving him to fall and dragging down several boxes that contained wands with him. As he hit the ground, a few of the wand boxes opened, leaving the wands to scatter, a couple of them came to rest in front of his face.

Maeve hurried over to help him up, but she came to a hault as she heard Charlus crying. He wasn't complaining that anything hurt, but she could tell that he was in a great deal of pain. A type of pain that she couldn't heal.

She looked over to Garrick for some sort of advice as to what to do, but she only followed the old man's gaze to where he was staring.

One of the wands that had fallen out of its box was currently flickering with a small amount of light as it pointed in Charlus' direction as he continued to sob into the floor. Garrick made his way over and held it up in his hands before crouching down before Charlus and tapped him on the shoulder to bring him to look up.

His eyes were red and puffy from just the short amount of time he had been crying, but his eyes lingered on the wand in Garrick's hands before he looked at the wandmaker.

"Do you remember the wand that your brother first tried when he came in? The one he insisted on wanting to try because he thought it sounded brilliant? He thought for certain that it would be the wand for him, didn't he?"

Maeve watched as Charlus nodded his head with a sniffle.

"Turned out that it wasn't the wand for him, was it?" Garrick chuckled. "No, he was paired with mahoghany, eleven inches to be exact. But there was something special about the wand he was paired with and this one...but we'll see if it works for you first. Would you like to give it a try?"

Garrick held out the wand until Charlus finally gave in and took it from him. He was just about to test out an incantation when he felt the tips of his fingers tingle and there was a flickering that caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw that the flames of Garrick's laterns had turned green.

His alert flame spell.

Red for a stranger, green for a familiar.

"James?"