GARRICK OLLIVANDER was more than happy to see Sirius Black when the latter arrived at the wand shop exactly at noontime. He opened the door, welcoming Sirius inside to escape the cold weather. And despite spending six years locked away in Azkaban, it seemed the short time he had been out, had done him plenty good as he looked relatively healthy. There was colour in his face, his clothes were clean, and he looked relatively happy, if not a little nervous being in Garrick's presence.

As for Sirius, he hadn't been to the wand shop since he was a boy. His first experience at Ollivander's had been in the company of his mother, brother, and father as they anticipated his first year at Hogwarts. At the time, they had been a family with his parents cherishing the moment of being there to witness their eldest son get his first wand. And Regulus had been beyond excited just to be there for the experience rather than being left at home.

It had been a pleasant memory then, but as Sirius looked back on it after his sorting into Gryffindor, he could only describe it as painful. It was one of his last happy memories with his family that had turned on him when he became a "blood-traitor." A title he had earned by ridding himself of prejudice thoughts and befriending those that his family believed to be beneath their status in the wizarding world.

He never regretted the path he chose when it came to leaving his family behind. but he did wish they had come to their senses. Instead, Orion and Regulus had died during the war, Orion's health failing him to prove that his pure blood did not protect him from illness and Regulus had died as a Death Eater. He didn't even know what had happened to his mother after his sentencing to Azkaban but more than likely, she was probably happy that he had been sent to prison.

He had to wonder what she made of it when she heard the news of his release?

"Mr Black, would you like to get started?" Garrick asked him. "Or would you like to take a minute for yourself?"

"No, I'm ready to get started," Sirius answered, "I'm ready."

"Excellent, now if I remember correctly, your first wand was made of Ebony, correct? Ten inches and a quarter, and a dragon heartstring as a core."

Sirius smiled. "Yes, that was exactly it."

"Yes, Ebony is a stunning wood to work with. Works very well for those practising Transfiguration and combative magic. But more importantly, it is a wood that pairs itself well with an owner who has the courage to be themselves. How did it treat you during your time in Hogwarts?"

"Exceptionally well. Couldn't have asked for a better wand. It's a shame it was snapped in half."

"Indeed, I always hate that as a punishment," Garrick agreed, " whatever the crime of the master, the wand never deserves to suffer. And unfortunately, in your case, it was wrongfully snapped. But let's see what we can find you around here, shall we? I'm thinking we should check some Ebony wands since it served you well before, but we can also look into blackthorn as well."

"Why Blackthorn?"

"Mr Black, Blackthorn is the wand wood of warriors, and normally, for the wand to properly bond with its master, they need to go through hardships together. You are no longer in Azkaban, but there are always trials ahead of us. Perhaps it would work for you. We'll see. Come, come, let's get started. I'm sure you don't want to keep your family waiting, it is Christmas Eve after all."

Remus arrived at the Apothecary after dropping Sirius off at Ollivander's. After entering the shop, he nearly gagged from the overwhelming aroma of all the potion ingredients gathered in one place. Using the sleeve of his robes, Remus covered his mouth and nose before making his way to the front where the shopkeeper stood.

Mr Brodder was clearly an older gentleman, it seemed he had more white hair sticking out of his ears than on top of his head. The glass of his frames was thicker than Remus' thumb, magnifying the man's brown gaze once he was aware of Remus' presence.

"Can I help you, Sir?"

"Er, yes, I was told to come here to pick an order for Maeve Elpis," he said, " my name is Remus Lupin. She said that I-"

"Oh yes, yes!" Mr Brodder nodded his head slowly. " She did place an order earlier today. Here, let me collect the items. Now, where did I put her list?"

Remus watched as Mr Brodder started looking around the counter and the insides of his pockets, at a sloth-like pace. He didn't say anything in attempts of remaining polite, but he thought he was there to pick up an already prepared package, not wait as the shopkeeper put it together.

"Ah, here it is," he said, as he adjusted his glasses to read, " what do we have here? This is quite the list. Infusion of wormwood..."

Mr Brodder took his wand to summon the ingredient and Remus could only observe as the ingredient slowly, but surely made its way over, coming to rest on the counter. A small whimper escaped him as Remus realised he was going to be there a long time.

"Oh my mistake, I didn't read that properly," Mr Brodder said, " it wasn't wormwood, but flobberworm. Silly me. Let me put the wormwood back and get the flobberworm mucus."

Behind his polite smile, Remus was internally screaming.

Charlus continued to pet Marmalade gently as Rita asked him simple little questions such as "what was he hoping to get for Christmas?" or " did he and Sirius plan on taking a nice holiday for themselves?" He humoured her with plans of hopefully seeing a Quidditch match in honour of his brother and he would have discuss locations with Sirius before they made any plans. After all, Sirius always enjoyed tropical locations but Charlus hated anything to do with humidity.

Maeve was busy in the kitchen, preparing a nice roast for that evening's dinner, waiting for Remus to return with her ingredients.

When there was a knock on the door, Rita nodded her head in the direction to alert Charlus and Maeve left the kitchen to answer it. There was no surprise when she opened it to find Minister Fudge and a couple of Aurors flanking his side.

"Minister?" Maeve's brows knitted together. "What brings you here?"

"Excuse me, Ms Elpis, but we are here on official Ministry business, concerning Charlus Potter and Sirius Black. Do you know of their whereabouts currently?"

Stepping aside, Maeve revealed where Charlus was sitting, his eyes focused directly on Fudge.

"Minister, a Merry Christmas Eve to you," he greeted as he set Marmalade down and stood up. " I hope you have been enjoying the day. Not to be rude, but is there a particular reason as to why you're here?"

Fudge opened his mouth to respond, only to spot Rita sitting on the sofa. "What is Ms Skeeter doing here?"

"She's been interviewing Charlus for her upcoming holiday special article," Maeve said. "Minister, you said you were here on official business, what's going on?"

Allowing himself in, Fudge fixed his robes as he straightened his back to appear taller. " Mr Potter, recently, the Ministry came upon some very interesting information regarding you and your husband."

Maeve visibly tensed at the tone Fudge took when he said "your husband" as if he was disgusted. Thinking he had the upper hand on the situation, all of a sudden, he didn't mind showing his true feelings on such a matter, but Charlus remained calm.

"And what information would that be?"

"According to our source, your husband and your late brother managed to become animagus during your time at Hogwarts. Your brother was reported as a stag and your husband was reported as a black dog. That is a serious offence, as you know, it is illegal to be an unregistered animagus."

Charlus let out a chuckle. " My brother and Sirius...animagi, you say? And they managed to accomplish this back in school? Are you sure we're talking about the same people? What reason would they have to become animagi, adding to their schoolwork? They hated doing their homework enough as it was."

"You are aware that Remus Lupin a werewolf. We were told that they became animagi to assist him on nights of the full moon. Dumbledore confirmed that they both showed excellent marks in Transfiguration, so perhaps it is possible. And with one being your husband, the other being your twin brother, surely you had to be aware of their activities, which would make you an accomplice."

"Minister, this feels like an accusation without any proof. True, my brother and Sirius were quite talented in their classes because they had to be, especially under Professor McGonagall. She did not tolerate laziness, she could tell you that herself. Is every excellent student suddenly an illegal animagus? I would like to know who your source is."

"Peter Pettigrew," Fudge said, " he gave us plenty of information that proved to be true during his trial. We had to follow up on this lead to see if it were true. So, where is Sirius Black right now?"

"I'm afraid he's out. Perhaps, sniffing a bush or chasing his own tail."

Ebony wood, eleven inches with a dragon heartstring, was the wand that had chosen Sirius. Similar to his first wand, Sirius was glad to see that Azkaban hadn't really changed the person he had been enough to pair him with any drastic changes. He did like the idea of a blackthorn wand, but he enjoyed the familiarity of holding the ebony wood once more. Either way, Ollivander was pleased to pair another wand with a happy owner.

Sirius thanked him profusely and decided it would be best to get back to the flat as soon as possible to make sure that Charlus was handling Rita well. He bid Ollivander goodbye and wished him a very merry Christmas before stepping outside.

He did find himself feeling guilty after remembering that Charlus claimed to have Christmas gifts for him tomorrow. Sirius didn't have anything for him, and Charlus had done so much for him in a short time. But he couldn't go to Gringotts since the bank was closed for the holidays, leaving him with no money to do any last-minute shopping. Hopefully, Charlus would forgive him and he would make up for it the following year. 

The most he could do was make sure that Charlus had a good Christmas, at least, being kept entertained. An idea came to mind as he felt a little playful, enough to make any dog's tail wag.

When Remus finally arrived back at Maeve's flat after what felt like ten years, he was not expecting to find Fudge and some Aurors gathered in the living room. The way the Aurors seemed to look at him in disgust, made him suddenly feel quite small. But noting Rita's presence, Maeve's confusion, and how collected Charlus looked, he didn't bring himself to panic.

"Minister, Mr Lupin is right here before you, why don't you question what accommodations he had while he was in school?" Rita asked him.

"That would be pointless," one of the Aurors interjected, " he's obviously friends with the accused and if they were found guilty, he would be an accomplice. That would be self-incriminating."

"Minister, you don't have proof of this accusation," Charlus said. " And now you are disrupting our festivities with your hostile attitude. You're following the word of a war criminal that was found guilty. Peter would do anything to save himself, he lied about his own death, why wouldn't he lie about this in hopes of gaining some leniency?"

"I-"

Suddenly, there came a crashing sound from one of the back rooms, leaving everyone to fall still. Charlus followed Fudge's gaze down the hall and swallowed. He couldn't hear it but everyone else could hear the sound of a dog barking.

"Search the flat!" Fudge ordered. Maeve immediately put up protest against them searching her home, but the Aurors filed passed her, making their way to where they could hear the barking.

Remus was pale int he face and stopped breathing as a minute or so later, one of the Aurors came out dragging a big black dog. No one dared to speak right away until Fudge pointed his wand at the animal, a slight smirk on his face as Charlus took a step forward.

"What's wrong, Mr Potter?" Fudge asked him. "Nothing smart left to say."

"Let him go," Charlus said, "don't hurt him."

"You thought you were so clever, but it seemed there was truth to Peter Pettigrew's words. Let's see you talk to your way out of this one."

Fudge pointed his wand to perform the animagus reversal spell.

"NO!"