Immediately following This thread.

---

With a crack, three figures materialized in the small-walled backyard of a nondescript house in Eastern London: a tall, massively-built man in a flower, knitted-shall covered frock, a stumbling young man who only appeared small in relation to the older and a small child wearing a pint-sized set of wizard robes. 

Still holding firmly to the teenager, lest he topple, Cinaed set the child on the ground and started towards the back door with the drunk lad in tow. 

With far more energy than a child deserved to have at that time of night, Fionn raced on ahead and through the back door of the darkened house.  Cinaed followed in the child's wake and helped Xavier into a stuffed armchair in the house's conservatively-decorated living room.  For the time being, he ignored Fionn, who was busy showing off the golden galleon to an entirely unresponsive woman, the spitting image of the woman Cinaed had depicted not half an hour before.  The woman was sat in the corner of the couch, staring blankly ahead, seemingly unaware of the bald patch on the side of her head. 

"You gonna puke?" Cinaed asked, holding his wand out at the ready, eying his nephew carefully.  Behind him, the woman pushed herself to her feet and, entirely without any volition of her own, moved towards the kitchen and began fixing a pot of tea.  "What did Briggs do?"

The swirling of the sudden apparition had not helped Xavier's current disposition and he leaned heavily on his uncle as he was guided into the house. He didn't recognize the place but that wasn't really a surprise. He doubted that within the years since he had last seen him, his uncle had turned his life around. This was likely just another safe house or hidey-hole. Xavier figured the less he knew the better.

As he was deposited in the large armchair he watched his little cousin. He had grown so much since he saw him last, he had been little more than a baby then. Now he was like a real person, full of energy and a surprising amount of joy given his current situation. Xavier noticed the woman's blank expression right away and at first thought she was dead. He felt a pang of guilt twist his heart as Fionn showed off the galleon he had given him. This was no life for a kid . . .

Xavier lolled his head and looked up at Cin as he was addressed, "Nah ah'm fine. Nuthin' left anyway." He furrowed his brow and it took him a while to realize who Briggs was. He watched the blank woman move to make tea and suddenly became suspicious that she was being Imperiused.

"Nate did nuthin'. Got a thin' fer 'is wife. Wen' ta see 'er." He ran a hand through his hair and down his face, "She wasn' 'ome. I enned up wit Nate instead."

He leaned his head back against the armchair and closed his eyes for a moment, "Fi looks 'appy."