WALBURGA BLACK had not aged well, but Sirius recognised his mother right away. Her once dark hair had turned grey, years of disapproving left her with heavy frown lines, and her while she had once stood tall and proud, she currently stood hunched over. Sirius had never seen his mother as a frail woman, and it left him unable to speak for a moment once they were in front of each other.

Although they shared the same striking grey eyes, he couldn't remember the last time they carried warmth. Two cold stones watched him, leaving Sirius to shiver. She had crossed his mind a couple of times since he had been released, but he never expected her to show up at Maeve's flat of all places.

"So," she said finally, " I see that the rumours are true. You are free."

He waited for her to say something more, whether it was an insult or whatever, but instead, Walburga turned around and started to head down the steps to leave. Was that it? Had she only come to see if he was out of Azkaban to confirm it? But why? The last time they had spoken to each other Sirius severed his ties with his family, claiming he was going where he was welcomed; The Potters. And while Walburga had called after him, demanding that he come back, she never did chase after him.

She never made her way to the Potter home, begging him to come back, or at least try to work on their differences. He could only assume that his mother had come to hate him over the course of time. He had become a failure in the eyes of the family since his sorting into Gryffindor, and everything afterwards only strained their relationship further. Why would she bother coming out to see if he was free?

"Mother, wait," Sirius said, hurrying down the stairs to stop her before she reached the last step. "What are you doing here? How did you find where I was?"

Sirius surprised himself how easy it was to still call the woman his mother. Even after he took to insulting her, claiming that she had been a horrible mother, one that could never match up to the likes of Euphemia Potter. And yet, as soon as he saw her again, he couldn't help but call out to her as if he was still her son.

"Kreacher assisted me in finding your location."

"Damn, that thing is still alive," Sirius muttered under his breath. He hated that house-elf with a passion. A cruel creature that loved to taunt him all the time when he was young, directed under the ruling of his parents.

"I had to see for myself if the rumours were true," Walburga said, " somehow you managed to get out of Azkaban. I thought you'd be skinnier. More wasted away."

"Is that what you wanted to see?" Sirius asked her. " A ghost of my former self, withered away, and miserable. That's what you came hoping to see? Didn't you get enough of that when I lived under your roof?"

There was a small gasp that escaped from Walburga as she suddenly looked up, slightly straightening her back to meet Sirius' gaze. Her lips parted before her eyes narrowed into wrinkled slits.

"Is that how you saw your upbringing?" she questioned in a harsh whisper. " Did you forget all the years where your father and I spoiled you and your brother? Endlessly doting on the two of you like you were prized princes!"

"No, Mother, I remember some of those memories, but they tend to be overshadowed by how you treated me after I was sorted in Gryffindor. The way you and Father only looked at Regulus as your son, your love was only conditional if I followed your beliefs! Locking me away in my room during the summer so I couldn't show my shameful face around other family members. Mocking me and my friends as if we were the foolish ones! That's what I remember above all."

"You were always ungrateful," Walburga shook her head. "Easily turned your back on this family and for what? Look where it got you. Locked away in Azkaban. Who turned on you? One of those dear friends of yours-"

"And what were we fighting against at the time?" Sirius countered, rendering her silent. "That's right. We were fighting that one that you all praised so much. The one that killed innocent families, went after a toddler no less. Sure, I was betrayed by a former friend, but I would do it all over again, knowing that I was fighting a good cause, rather than blindly following a lunatic and his outdated preachings! Where did that get Regulus? Hmm! Oh, that's right, he died at seventeen years old! Because he was a fool-"

Walburga's hand reached out and grabbed Sirius by the wrist. He could tell just how weak she was at the time, as she barely squeezed it.

"Do not speak ill of your brother," she said. "Let his soul rest in peace."

"That's right, Regulus could do no wrong. He was the perfect son, always willing to follow what you and Father had to say. Shame that he got himself killed doing just that. I bet you wish it were me that died instead, right?"

Sirius had been gone from the table for quite some time and between Maeve and Remus looking puzzled by what they heard, Charlus needed to see what was going on for himself. He left the table and made his way to the front door that was left wide open. He was about to call out to Sirius when he noticed an older woman standing on the steps. Sirius stood on the pavement, nearly in her face, looking terribly upset.

Hurrying down the steps, Charlus placed himself in between Sirius and the older woman. He didn't know what had caused his husband to become so irate until he looked over and saw Walburga Black looking back at him.

Charlus had never encountered Sirius' mother personally. There were stories about her that made her sound like a miserable bat and Sirius always became upset when he mentioned his mother insulting Charlus. Whether she made fun of the fact that he was born deaf or considered a blood-traitor by her standards, it was clear that she didn't like Charlus at all or anyone from the Potter family for that matter.

He had told Sirius countless times not to engage in arguments with Walburga especially when it came to defending Charlus' name. He didn't care if someone made fun of him for something that was out of his control. He also didn't care what a bigot thought of him; his parents had raised him better than that.

"So," Walburga said as he looked at her, " you're the one he gave up everything for?"

Raising a brow, Charlus couldn't help but let out a faint laugh.

"Gave up everything for?" he repeated. Walburga looked shocked that he had responded with such ease. "Excuse me, Mrs Black, but Sirius didn't give up anything for me. That's not how a relationship works. He supports me, I support him. That's how it's always been. It was you that gave up on him for not willing to follow you."

"How are you...how are you-"

"Talking?" Charlus finished for her. "I'm deaf, not mute. And while there are those out there that are both, I'm not one of them. I spent the majority of my adolescent years perfecting my speech and lip-reading, so I could tell off people like you. Were you disappointed that you didn't get to witness the 'circus act' as you liked to call it?"

"You corrupted my son," Walburga whispered, looking down so Charlus couldn't make out what she was saying. "He was good before the lot of you came into the picture. Gryffindor was bad enough but we could manage that but then he comes home, questioning everything my husband and I taught him. And to make matters worse, years later, I find out he's attracted to men. Attracted to you!"

At the last sentence, she looked up at Charlus once more. "Then I hear that you two got married! Disgusting! Who would dare taint the sanctity of marriage with such a filthy act?"

"Is this coming from the woman that married her cousin?" Charlus questioned out loud. "It's disgusting that someone who loves your son with his entire being, wanted to marry him and spend the rest of his life wanting to make him happy? I am willing to do anything for him, that's more than I can say for you. I didn't see you trying to save your son from a lifetime in Azkaban."

"He wouldn't have been in Azkaban in the first place if he didn't bother with your little group in the first place!" she screamed in Charlus' face.

"Don't yell at him!" Sirius pushed Charlus behind him.

"Why not? It's not like he can hear me anyway."

Sirius looked as though he was going to explode at any given second, so to avoid things getting messier than they already were, Charlus started directing him up the stairs to go back inside. Clearly, a relationship that had been destroyed a decade prior was not going to be healed overnight, if ever. He continued to push Sirius until he was inside and then proceeded to close the door over, leaving it just him and Walburga outside.

"Is this what you came to do?" Charlus asked her as he made his way down the stairs again to stand in front of her. "You came here on Christmas day to rile him up and hurt him further? Why bother? Or are you here for another reason? Are you here to see if the rumours were true because somewhere, deep down you still care about him?

"Of course I care about him!" Walburga snapped at Charlus. "He's my son! I never stopped caring about him! I just needed to let him go because he wouldn't listen to reason. He was so caught up in living life as a rebel that I couldn't hold onto him anymore. So I let him go to make his own mistakes, but I never stopped loving him."

"Then why don't you tell him that? Instead, you come here, insulting him and insulting me. That doesn't show that you care or love him. He wouldn't listen to reason? No, he wouldn't listen to your bigoted teachings anymore because he realised what the world was like outside of that little bubble you kept him in for years. He realised you were wrong, your teachings were wrong and when he tried to talk to you, you didn't want to listen. He decided to go to the people that would listen to him, that understood him. He wasn't rebelling, he was growing."

Walburg bit the inside of her cheek as she held onto the cold railing for support, but she didn't say anything to Charlus.

"Over ten years ago, Sirius walked out on your Christmas hoping to find some happiness and here we are again, Christmas Day and you're trying to stir up trouble with him. Claiming that you still love him. What kind of mother shows up unannounced to torment her son who just got out of Azkaban? Hasn't he been through enough?"

Charlus could rant and rave all day about how Walburga had been a less than ideal mother to Sirius. Especially when he remembered all the times Sirius was reduced to tears because of his family over the years. But as he watched Walburga start to cry in front of him, he stopped for a moment. Witnessing such a vulnerable moment made her appear, human, instead of the evil hag they had painted her to be for so long.

"Mrs Black," Charlus said softly, "you already lost your husband and your other son. Is this how you want to lose your remaining son? He's a free man who is trying to get his life back together. You may not like me, but can you be happy for him that he's been given a second chance? It could be seen as a second chance for you two as well. You obviously came here-"

"Ha!" Walburga let out a sharp laugh. " A second chance between us? Aren't you the optimist! There is no second chance. He hates me. He may have cried when your mother passed, but he won't cry for me when I'm gone. But maybe he'll see what I tried to protect him from. What can you offer him in the long run? Will you give him children? A family?"

"I'll give him what you didn't. Love, honesty, and respect."

They seemed to have a stare off before Walburga left the final step and pushed Charlus out of her way. Charlus wanted to solve all of Sirius' problems, but there were certain things he couldn't no matter what. And watching as Walburga disapparated from the scene, it was clear that even with second chances, the relationship between mother and son could not be repaired.

She would rather die without making amends than admit she was wrong.