FUDGE'S FAILURE

It should come as no surprise that while Christmas dinners were being prepped and children were dreaming of Father Christmas' visit, Minister Cornelius Fudge was stirring up trouble. Desperate to save the dignity of his career, Minister Fudge took it upon himself to follow up on an unreliable lead, resulting in a confrontation with the Wizarding World's own hero, Charlus Potter. A man embraced by a world of silence but will not fall silent when it comes to the injustices of our government.

Six years ago, Charlus Potter fought bravely during the war against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, which ultimately led to him being attacked by Death Eaters. On the brink of death, Charlus was brought to St Mungo's, where he remained under the care of Healers for six years after being placed in a medically induced coma. Upon waking up on his own, it was viewed as a miracle, and the Healer overseeing his case, Maeve Elpis, claims she had never expected such a recovery, although she was hopeful.

From the very beginning, Charlus was set on righting the wrongs that had taken place while he was at rest. Shortly after Charlus' attack, Sirius Black was found guilty of traitorous acts that resulted in the death of Lily and James Potter (Charlus' twin brother) and the supposed murder of Peter Pettigrew. He attempted to contact Minister Fudge and Albus Dumbledore on numerous occasions in hopes of clearing his husband's name but was foolishly ignored.

Taking it upon himself, Charlus hunted down Peter Pettigrew, finding the true traitor within the walls of Hogwarts posing as a student's pet. Naturally, Minister Fudge had no other option but to release Sirius Black and clear him of all charges. He quickly came under attack by the public for not investigating the matter thoroughly, and many believe Fudge's actions or rather, lack of taking actions, proves he is too inexperienced for the position.

But there is no greater example of the Minister's incompetency than what was demonstrated during the early afternoon hours of Christmas Eve.

During an exclusive holiday interview conducted at the Elpis household, Charlus was his upcoming Christmas plans, when there came a knock on the door. Minister Fudge arrived with two Aurors flanking his sides, with the accusation that Sirius Black was an illegal animagus, as well as, Charlus' late brother, James Potter. Not willing to listen to any sort of logical reasoning, Minister Fudge illegally entered the home and demanded a search be done. In his mad stupor, he ended up attacking Charlus' prospective service dog, Moose.

Perhaps his dangerous actions are brought on by his anger with Charlus for exposing the truth. Faced with the scrutiny of his mistakes being made public, it appeared as though Minister Fudge was attempting to make an arrest over the holidays, in hopes of boosting his image entering the New Year.

Whatever his motives may be, clearly, the Minister has lost touch with his duties and possibly his sanity.

The people are calling for his resignation, may he step down gracefully to save what remains of his image.

To read the rest of Charlus Potter's holiday interview...

ON CHRISTMAS MORNING, Sirius was the first to wake up in bed. It was nearing noontime and no one else showed signs of getting up any time soon. It had been a late night, but a rather joyous one. As promised, Rita planned to publish her article for the evening edition of the Daily Prophet. And while it was never Charlus' intention to ruin Fudge's career, none of them could deny that it felt good to get the Ministry off their backs for the time being. If Fudge had only followed through with compensating the couple for their trouble, rather than trying to tarnish their image to improve his own, Charlus would have left things be.

But it was very clear that Charlus Potter was not one to be messed with and that included his loved ones as well.

As Sirius admitted the day before, it was quite frightening to see Charlus' mind at work sometimes. How calculated every move had been when it just seemed like a casual occurrence. Every painted him as an innocent soul, simply because he was deaf. They underestimated him, which was their mistake entirely.

However, what Sirius feared more than Charlus' mind was the retaliation that was more than likely to come. Of course, the public seemed quite fond of him and his story, willing to support him, but the ones in power were not exactly looking in his favour. Even if Fudge wasn't popular with the people, there was a possibility that he would not resign. He could simply go on with his life and ignore their existence, or he would do everything in his power to get back at Charlus and Rita for what they had done.

If he couldn't go after Charlus, he would go after someone Charlus cared about. And after discussing the plans to get Harry from the Dursleys, Sirius had a feeling the Ministry was going to give them the toughest fight of their lives. Yet, Charlus was still willing to try to go about it the right away. He confessed that he wanted to properly adopt Harry to help from the Dursleys. The Dursleys wouldn't be opposed to such a scenario, they would probably welcome it, but Dumbledore wouldn't endorse it.

Even if Petunia was Harry's only blood relative at the time, capable of becoming his guardian, there were much better options. Remus, Sirius, and Charlus couldn't understand what convinced the Dursleys to take Harry in, considering how much they were against magic and there was nothing more magical than The-Boy-Who-Lived staying under the same roof as them.

However, there was nothing they could do until the Ministry opened back up after the holidays. In the meantime, Charlus begged that everyone simply enjoy themselves. That's all he wanted as a Christmas gift.

Leaning over, Sirius pressed his lips into Charlus' bare shoulder. Scenes from the night before flashed before his eyes as he and Charlus had stumbled into bed. Sirius thought that Charlus tired by all the yawning he had done while they were in the living room, but as soon as they were both in bed, Charlus started with small kisses up Sirius' neck. Apparently, he was still thinking about the earlier promise of unwrapping his gift.

What followed was euphoric, where time stood still around them, and they were the only two people in existence. As if no time had passed at all since they last explored each other, Sirius still had Charlus' body memorized by touch. He knew where to touch Charlus to make him shiver, gasp, and laugh. And Charlus knew exactly how to make Sirius forget about all of his pain.

They fell asleep in each other's arms, and even as the night carried on and they rolled away from each other to get comfortable, they still managed to find a way to remain touching. Whether it was Sirius reaching his hand to rest on Charlus' back or Charlus reaching his socked foot out to touch Sirius' leg.

And as Sirius kissed his shoulder that morning, Charlus groggily lifted his head up and looked over at him.

The Potter men and their messy hair was something that no one understood but it was something Sirius adored as he pushed Charlus' hair out of his face.

"Morning," he smiled, "Merry Christmas."

Charlus smiled as well before lightly clapping his hands together and before brushing one hand over the other and letting it rest on top.

"Merry Christmas."

Pushing themselves out of bed, they decided to get dressed and see if Remus or Maeve were finally up and moving. But as they walked out, they were immediately greeted by Moose, who had definitely taken a liking to Sirius right away, and Marmalade, who greeted Charlus by purring against his leg.

However, neither man paid attention to the animals right away, too distracted by the scene of Maeve and Remus asleep on the sofa. It seemed the two of them hadn't made it to their respective rooms as they spent most of the night talking away. Maeve had her head resting on Remus' chest, while he had one of his arms draped around her shoulders.

Exchanging looks, both Sirius and Charlus grinned at one another before making their way over.

Maeve was startled awake by someone plopping down next to her, only to look up and see Sirius smiling.

"What are you-"

She turned her head to see Remus had also been startled awake, with Charlus on his other side. Immediately, even through her darker complexion, they could see her blushing. It was hard to stay annoyed with any of them, especially when they flashed their little smiles at her. But to avoid further embarrassment, she quickly pushed herself up from the sofa and excused herself to get ready.

Which left Remus to fend for himself.

"Well, well, well," Sirius began, " you looked awfully comfortable there, Moony. Did the Firewhiskey get the best of the two of you last night?"

"Sod off, Sirius," Remus grumbled before yawning, " we were only talking and I guess we fell asleep. That's all that happened."

"Yes, but is that all you wanted to happen?"

Remus made a face at him before leaving the living as well. But before Sirius could scoot over to sit next to Charlus, Moose made his way up onto the sofa and snuggled in between them. There was a moment of silence as Moose watched him.

"We're not going to have a problem, are we, Moose? I'll let you know now, that I am the goodest of good boys. You can't take that away from me."

When Maeve and Remus returned to the living room, they tried to pretend that nothing had happened, but it was hard to ignore how awkward they were around each other. Eventually, Maeve committed herself to the idea of making breakfast before gathering everyone at the table.

"So I read the rest of your holiday interview with Rita, Charlus," she said, trying to keep any conversation topic off of her, " it was actually really cute. I didn't think Rita was capable of writing a nice article about anyone but herself. But I was actually left curious about one thing after reading it...if you don't mind me asking about the proposal...who asked who?"

"I asked him," Sirius interjected, " it was after an Order meeting. I don't know what it was about that moment but I couldn't resist. I had been planning the perfect moment but we were limited because of the times. I just asked him right then and there."

"Well, technically, we skipped over the proposal in some ways," Charlus added, " it was more of 'let's get married' instead of 'will you marry me?' Either way, I was going to say yes. You can try to plan the perfect moment all you want, but sometimes, the moment just presents itself and you have to take it."

Maeve smiled, resting her chin in her hand as if she were listening to her favourite story. "And who was at the wedding?"

"It was just us," Charlus said, " and the clergyman. There was no time to organise anyone really coming and those that we wanted to be there...they couldn't make it, unfortunately. We planned on having a reception after the war ended, but...well...we all know what happened."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up," Maeve said, " I just thought it was beautiful that you found someone to marry you. Given the times where some people are not very accepting-"

"I'd like to see anyone tell us otherwise," Sirius said, " Euphemia Potter would rise from her grave and beat the hell out of anyone who decided to say something like that. Everyone around us was always rather supportive, except well-"

There was a knock on the door, bringing Remus, Maeve, and Sirius to look over instantly, while  Charlus only followed their movements seconds later.

"I'll get it," Sirius offered, " if it's anyone here to bring trouble, I'll tell them off. It's Christmas for Merlin's sake."

Opening up the doors, Sirius was prepared to tell some carollers to move onto the next home, but the person standing on the doorstep wasn't a random carol singer.

"Mother?"