Who: Christopher Loftus, Sebastian Goldstein, and a special appearance!
What: Christopher makes an unexpected visit
When: This afternoon



If returning his sister's baby didn't mean proving every single thought Sebastian Goldstein ever had was wrong (not to mention boil the other man's blood to it's inner core), Christopher would have already disposed of this mudblood child like his father had instructed him to earlier this morning.

But regrettably, with no baby would come no reward, so Christopher was stuck with traveling and delivering this miserable child. The Ministry had obviously already been notified: he had been lucky enough to stumble upon something of a slave trade when tipped off about it, and just so happen to recognize his baby nephew in the chaos of it all. Alas, they were the only two to make it out alive but--- that was a different story entirely.

In all honesty, Christopher for once had nothing to do with this newly devised development to ruin Sebastian Goldstein's life. Well, directly at least. He had technically known about his unfortunate nephew's whereabouts the entire time from the moment the family's house-elf had snatched him from his hospital crib, but only because Christopher had been present when Lisette Loftus herself had ordered the elf to do exactly so. As to why his mother felt this was necessary, he would never understand, but he supposed she thought she could knock the mudblood out of him to raise the child into a good little pureblood like she felt she was robbed from.

And his mother's plan had been going well--- until her husband discovered what was really going on and demanded that they wash their hands of everything completely. Which was where he, Christopher, came in. While at first he had been irate at the fact that he had been reduced down to grunt work by his own parents, the deed did show itself to be a glorious opportunity.

Holding back a smile at the Goldstein's front doorstep, Christopher placed himself perfectly in the middle of the doorway. While doing so, the baby reached up to him and with a sneer Christopher, completely ignored the hand and knocked on the door loudly.

Life had become one numbingly painful second after second. There was nothing to be done to change the air that settle so thickly on the Goldstein household, the thick and distracting blanket that covered every last inch of their home. Their home had been disrupted before they had been able to complete it, their home was incomplete and torn apart before it had the chance and---Sebastian didn't know what to do anymore

The first hours of Anthony's disappearance had been a blur of fiery anger and passion, yelling at healers, nurses, hitwizards, aurors, anyone within sight. It felt like he'd been screaming for years by the time they finally shoved him to the side, telling him that it was out of his hands and to just wait. Wait. Just wait to see if they could find their son, just wait for answers and let his mind create terrible circumstances. Just wait and hold and console his wife over this madness, and waiting did nothing for Anthony. Sebastian was doing nothing for his son, and as more and more time went by, the heart-gnawing pain that fact brought upon him made it harder and harder to get through the day.

He couldn't go into any room in the castle without seeing something that reminded him of the baby. The nursery was bloody across the hallway, how could he not? But there were baby shower presents, there was photography already on the wall, there was just the smell of---it wasn't baby, it couldn't be of baby because their baby never made it home and---

Sebastian pushed himself up from the mattress, forcing away a yawn as he listened for the noise he thought he heard. It was probably late in the day, far too late for any one to still be in bed, but the Goldsteins were living in their own time and world from here on out. His weary eyes widened slightly at the sound of yet another knock, and not bothering to stir Mackenzie as he slipped out of bed to open the front door. Sebastian slid a set of robes over his shoulders and hurried down the stairs; his mind was waking up now, and a visitor might mean news, and he wasn't at the point where news automatically meant a bad thing.

Except--through the peerhole was Mackenzie's brother, Christopher, and Sebastian rolled his eyes quickly before opening the door to let the man know that Mackenzie wasn't going to have any---

"Anthony--" he choked out, startling himself by the fact that he instinctively knew that it was his son in Christopher's arms.

"Don't stand there dumb," Christopher sighed, shaking his head as he pushed the child toward Sebastian's arms. As much as he enjoyed being associated with that spawn of a mudblood.... he didn't. Though his predictions had proved to be correct, Goldstein's face alone had made most of this whole experience worth it (plus what was to come would no doubt fulfill any lackluster). Not to mention by doing this Christopher would undoubtedly reattain his sister's trust back completely... while Sebastian Goldstein would continue to hate him for no obvious reason whatsoever.

That sounded like a good enough trade to him. Anyway, as much as he would have liked to dispose of this little creature and try to keep what little dignity his sister could have left, he supposed the loss of a child would ruin her.

"Everything is worked out with the Ministry... there's no need to bring him back to Mungo's either," Christopher shrugged, only delaying this meeting for one simple reason: wouldn't Sebastian be intrigued (or demand really, that's all the man could muster) to know where his son had been for the last two weeks? The whole day Christopher had been debating whether he should tell the man the truth, or what the Ministry thought to have happened to the child. Either story would have been priceless, but in the end Christopher decided telling the truth would be more to his favor.

He nearly shouted at the quick placement of the baby in his arms, and Sebastian stuttered backwards into the house, eyes down and locked onto the tiny bundle in his arms. Two weeks, it had been only two weeks, but it felt like a lifetime and Anthony looked so different! How could a person look so incredibly different in such a short amount of time? His hair looked fuller, his eyes were wider and they were staring up at him with such a look. Did he recognize him? Did he know who he was? Gods, he looked healthy and unhurt, was it Mungo's or were the people---he had so many questions, but his mind couldn't function past the strangling sounds in his throat.

"Mackenzie!" He started out weakly, his breath becoming increasingly fast. Sebastian couldn't move his eyes from Anthony's face and his weak voice cracked as he shouted out for his wife again, this time a bit more frantically.

This was the greatest shock he'd ever endured in his life, he was certain. Sebastian pulled Anthony up from his cradled position in his arms, to his shoulder, holding the boy as close to him as possible to get a real, true sense of having him in his arms again. The baby wiggled and began to whine, and Sebastian couldn't stop the tears that struck his eyes, "Mackenzie!"

Sebastian looked back toward Christopher, now standing in the middle of their kitchen, looking absolutely mad as he began to bounce Anthony on his shoulder, "H-how?"

Ah, yes, this was what he had been waiting for. Sebastian Goldstein looking absolutely dumb with every single emotion his tiny little brain could muster. Christopher let out a quiet and content sigh as he followed his brother-in-law into the house, hands held behind his back. But, he would have to wait to show any more content with the situation.

"Unfortunately," Christopher stated, his eyes going up to the ceiling for a few seconds as he began to speak. How to word this? Knowing little Goldstein, if he gave him too information he would go squealing to the Ministry. Not that anyone would believe him, but still. It was an annoyance Christopher didn't feel like dealing with at this point in time. "Our mother," he sighed, opting to state so simply. "We didn't expect for her to show interest in the--- boy, but." He shrugged, forming a slight frown for a few seconds as he spoke.

And that was the truth: who would have thought that Lisette Loftus would honestly want to have anything to do with her disowned daughter's child, that was a half mudblood for crying out loud? Christopher hardly believed her when she said she believed she could raise the child right without anyone ever having to know--- including the boy itself, about his unfortunate heritage. Not thought through at all: what was she going to do when his father began to notice a small child running around the house? Pretend he had been there all along? Hardly.

Her mother?

Sebastian blinked at Christopher, trying to fully understand his words. Mackenzie's mother had taken Anthony? To what! To--raise him properly? Sebastian couldn't imagine being so mentally unstable as to think that you could just...just what! She wanted Anthony? Or did she just want a piece of Mackenzie? It was all too ridiculously strange to truly comprehend, and Sebastian had realized long ago that he was never going to understand the mentality of the pureblood society from which his wife hailed.

His hand went to the back of Anthony's head as he thought, and he simply smirked. Nothing else really seemed to matter now that his son was home and safe. Sebastian let out a breath, wondering if it was worth questioning Christopher even more. Once Mackenzie found out what her mother had done, well--no, Sebastian could never be sure when it came to family ties. Look at Christopher; with all the shit he talked about with mudbloods, he was still going against his 'beliefs' and dealing with his disowned sister.

Hypocritical? Absolutely. Beneficial to Sebastian at this very moment? He was going to have to deal with Christopher's seemingly unstable views on the manners in which you held yourself in front of the disowned. Maybe blood really was thicker than even purebloods seemed to think.

"I think I'll bring him up to her," Sebastian said softly, not intentionally ignoring Christopher's precense like he usually did. It was more important now for Anthony to be reunited with his mother, than to perform pleasantries with Christopher. He backed toward the stairs, eyes catching his brother-in-law's. "You can--stay, if you wish."

As much as it pained him to offer the invitation, Sebastian really couldn't deny him of it. Anthony was home.