Remus felt like he was on pins and needles, needing to put a great effort into stopping himself from fidgeting about in his chair. A doctorate had felt just out of reach for years and the fact that he had finally caught up with his own ambition left him restless, eager to begin.
Spread across the five tables of the rooms, the four men were scattered across three. Two sat together, engaged in comfortable conversation and no doubt already familiar with one another, exuding a greater sense of belonging than Remus felt. He didn’t recognize them, but he must have been a year their senior, and in this day and age, the classes were immense, a great demand for physicists. Remus wasn’t even sure he could recognize all the students from his own year.
This was a distinctly different dynamic, the reverence of the room almost suffocating, not even alleviated by the snickers of the table besides his. He had intentionally taken a seat offering a view of both the board and the door, glancing up at the smallest sign of the professor's arrival.

It was Sirius’ very first day as a Ta and he was equally excited and nervous.
He was walking with professor Mulligan, who was telling him about the class of four and what he was likely to expect from this experience. Mostly, Sirius was just thrilled by the prospect of getting to help other students while getting his own doctorate, knowing that it was going to look great on his resume in the future as well.
He had even tried to dress properly for the occasion, his normally more messy bun now impeccably tight and proper, his shirt buttoned one button higher than he normally would and generally having made an effort into looking like the young professional professor Mulligan took him as.
He just hoped that he would be able to live up to the potential the older man saw in him.

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In the end, the door swung open with little warning. Professor Mulligan was even older than expected, or else he carried his years worse than others, only a sparse dusting of hair across the crown of his head. The real surprise lay in the fact that he brought company.
Remus’ eyes flickered to the young man following in his wake, a flash of unease going through him at the prospect of a fifth student joining them; though five students were usually admitted to the course, they had been told only four had made the cut.
With a steady inhale, Remus squared off his shoulders a bit, eyes returning on the professor determined not to let that shake him.
“Good morning, gents,” the professor greeted cheerfully, dropping a heavy satchel onto his office chair. With his hands free, he rubbed them together, with either cold or anticipation. “I’m professor Arlo Mulligan - Sirius, be a chap and close the door completely -”
The interjection made all four students’ attention shift toward the sixth person in the room, none of them failing to notice the familiarity with which the professor addressed him.

Sirius wasn’t blind to the attention he was receiving when he entered the room together with professor Mulligan, aware that he was young enough to realistically be part of the course, which would up the the competition.
He closed the door completely behind them but didn’t say anything further, just turned to smile at the class and the professor. He knew professor Mulligan to be less formal and more easygoing than most other professor he had encountered through his time at university, but he also knew better than to speak out of turn with the professor.

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“As I was saying,” the professor continued, drawing back the attention of his students, although warily. Remus suddenly felt reassured by his choice of seat, able to keep the two men within his sight without having to turn. Beside him, one of the chattier students had turned to gawk and awkwardly resumed his seat.
“I’m Professor Mulligan, I’ll be your instructor for the foreseeable future,” he carried on, tapping at the blank chalkboard as he circled the desk. “Punctuated either by my passing or your resignation, presumably.”
There was a smile under the moustache, eyes glancing towards his companion, no doubt a small acknowledgement of others before them who had never finished the degree they had started.
Remus’ gaze shifted, too, an eerie premonition of why the young man was there, unable to hide a sense of surprise; it seemed like he had anticipated the introduction a few seconds before Mulligan offered it.
“I’ve brought with me Mr. Sirius Black, who’s starting his third year with me,” Mulligan introduced with an outstretched palm toward the young man. “He’s just replaced my previous lad as my teacher’s assistant on the master’s courses, but he’s available to you too, should you need it. Sirius, say a few words, won’t you?”

At the introduction, Sirius couldn’t do anything but smile, having a very good relationship with professor Mulligan and knowing full well that the likelihood of the professor passing was much lower than that of most of these students finishing their doctorate.
He stepped away from the door and slightly more in front of the blackboard, just to make sure that everybody could see him.
“Hello everyone,” he started, a pleasant smile on his face as he took them all in. He was surprised to find one face that wasn’t white among the four, which made him smile slightly wider to that guy than he had to the other three.
“As professor Mulligan just stated, my name is Sirius Black and I am currently writing my dissertation on molecular gas and ionising radiation in star-forming galaxies,” Sirius explained, spending most of his days up to his eyes in his studies so he knew the phrase by heart.
“You are always welcome to reach out to me if you have any questions or need any help.”

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Though the offer seemed genuine enough, no one spoke up. Remus himself was busy processing the information that the man in front of them was a year short of finishing a doctorate in astrophysics; simply, he seemed too handsome and neat for his field.
Caught in that assessment, Remus startled when Black’s gaze lingered on him long enough for his smile to widen. He didn’t return it, caught off guard.
When no one else filled the silence, Mulligan continued.
“Including you four, there are a total of eight students under my charge. Three are a year your senior - Sirius’ the only one left in year three, and circumstantially, there’s no one left in the year above you.”
The last addition was spoken to his assistant, Remus could tell even without looking to confirm it. If the courses had each started five, it wasn’t particularly reassuring odds, but with no exams to pass, it was simply a matter of justifying their continued funding and meeting the expectations set by the professor and the board.
Remus felt up for it.
“And as it were, you are -” Mulligan continued, circling back to his desk to pull out the short list of attendance.
“Mr. Burton, Mr. Dubois, Mr. Kelly, ” he said, looking up across the class as the respective student marked their presence. “And Mr. Lupin.”

Sirius moved back into the shadows after that, knowing that his main purpose was to shadow professor Mulligan and help in any and all ways that he could. It turned out to not be a lot, which both helped ease Sirius some, but also gave him no release for all the nervous energy he had pent up.
Instead, he found that his gaze kept finding Mr. Lupin, doing his best not to stare too much, but definitely finding him to be the most fascinating thing in the room. It meant that he regularly jumped when professor Mulligan directly addressed him, but he was certain that his professor just wrote it off as Sirius being deep in thoughts about his dissertation.

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Class had barely been a class, but rather a detailed walk through of the structure of their doctorate and in which ways it was expected to differ from their previous degrees. Less focused on true instruction, besides the obligatory peer reviews they were to offer one another, the professor maintained the most efficient way of teaching was through practical applications; in the matter of astrophysics, that was bound to mean written exercises and problems.
As Mulligan had gone on to describe how problems would be reviewed across the three groups, the first years had all glanced at Black, aware of what that implied. Although no skill was explicitly to be taught by Mulligan, not really anyway, it was still a matter of having gained enough experience to apply physics correctly.
When Remus’ eyes drifted, he was taken aback when he once again met Black’s gaze. Certain both Burton and Debois had turned along with him, Remus had felt a flush of annoyance, uncertain whether or not the persistent gazes were meant as a challenge.
Remus had made a point of not looking at the student teacher, no matter how often Mulligan engaged him in conversation.

When class had come to an end, Remus packed away the roughly scribbled notes, the sentences barely coherent to the point where they might as well have been tossed. It made tidying a quick affair, and after offering this gratitude to professor Mulligan, Remus had exited the room.

Once the class had ended, Sirius had hoped that he would be able to catch Lupin before he left, but the other man seemed eager to leave, leaving Sirius in a rush to make his goodbyes with professor Mulligan and rush after Lupin.
Upon hearing his name, Sirius had found the name familiar, but completely unable to actually place it. It was only by the end of the class that Sirius had realised that he had seen it on the forms for his new dorm mate.
He had been sharing a dorm with his best friend, James, for almost his entire time at uni, and he had been eager to learn who his new dorm mate was going to be and thus wasn’t going to waste the chance to actually see him.
“Hey, Lupin right?” Sirius stated as he caught up with the man, taken by the fact that he was taller than him, something that Sirius didn’t experience often.

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As soon as Remus had exited the classroom he was back in his own thoughts, going over the ways Mulligan’s approach would be applicable to his own dissertation. It felt almost violent when his name was called, turning towards the sound with startled surprise; as of that moment, only five others in this building knew his name, and he didn’t even really expect any of them to remember it already.
Except, perhaps, Black.
Having been by Mulligan’s side when Remus said his goodbyes he must have been quick to take his leave in order to catch up to him. It brought his guard up, made weary by this approach, though nothing about the other man seemed explicitly unkind.
“Yeah,” he eventually confirmed in a breath, stalling his pace before eventually coming to a stop.

A smile was still bright on Sirius’ face as Lupin turned around, even though his reception was a little less than warm. Sirius completely understood that though, remembering how he himself had felt after his first class on the doctorate, so he didn’t want to overwhelm the guy too much.
“Are you living in the dorms on campus?” Sirius asked, never having been one to beat around the bush too much, and it also seemed unlikely that there would be two people by the name of Lupin on campus at the same time.
“Because I think you are my new dorm mate, and it’s just nice to get a face on ya,” he added with a smile, wanting to do his best to make a good first impression on his new dorm mate.

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Remus hadn’t expected that, and some of that surprise must have showed in his expression, softening the furrow between his brows.
“Oh,” he said, his immediate reaction escaping him before he properly got to process the implications of what Black had told him. “Yeah, I am.”
As an active student, Remus and any of his peers were to receive a small part of their grant, serving as a modest but sufficient researcher’s pay. Barely able to keep up with the tuition costs itself, Remus had intended on boarding on campus, effectively stretching his budget a bit further. The fact that Black had seemingly opted for the same approach surprised Remus, yet again finding that the man didn’t seem like he should be in any position even slightly similar to Remus’ own. Fresh-faced and well dressed, he didn’t seem like the type who couldn’t afford a proper rental in town.
“I might be, then. I haven’t been by yet,” Remus said, if only in an attempt not to appear disinterested, when that was very much the case. The potential benefits of sharing a dorm room with a colleague didn’t outweigh the fact that said colleague was, in essence, his instructor.
Fatigued by the day and now what was inevitable to come, Remus was quick to adjust his tone, not wanting to seem like he needed to be escorted to his - their - room, desperate for a moment alone. “I’m heading into town for my things, I won’t be back until after dinner.”

Sirius hadn’t expected much from telling Lupin that they were going to be sharing a dorm, but he had hoped to at least learn his first name. However, they were surely going to get to that later and Sirius couldn’t really blame him for being fatigued from the day.
“Right on, mate,” Sirius stated with a wide and friendly grin, feeling pleased that he was going to be dorming with Lupin, already feeling that they were probably going to get along well.
If nothing else, then they were both in somewhat of the same process and even though Sirius was quite a lot further than Lupin was, he still figured that they would be able to help each other through the entire thing.
“I’ll be seeing you around.”

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No matter how handsomely a grin suited his features, Remus didn’t know what to make of Black calling him mate, leaving him stranded between two polar emotions. Theirs was a highly competitive field, and it was a known fact that the school didn’t budget for all five enrolled students to make it through their four years degree. With their degrees offset by years, Black shouldn’t have any vested interest in Remus’ failure, and yet his interest seemed unwarranted, regardless of whether or not they were to share a dorm.
“You will, yeah,” his tone of voice unintentionally rising to a challenge he thought he heard in Black’s voice.
Taking advantage of Black’s farewell, Remus once again set in motion, offering Black a smile as he did, if only to take the edge off of his words.

__

Remus had intentionally stalled for time, quite disinterested in making it back on campus for dinner, not willing to risk being dragged into sharing a meal with the rest of Mulligan’s students. That would soon be an inevitability, but for now, Remus had had a quiet meal at home before packing up but few belongings.
Having worked to save up for tuition the past year, Remus had rented a furnished room at an older woman’s house. Though comfortable, sharing a dorm still came out cheaper, through Remus had already started to regret that decision in the early afternoon, having passed by the porter’s office to retrieve a key to his flat - and to confirm that Black would, in fact, be his flatmate.
It was past eight when Remus finally made it back on campus. On the door were space for two brass plaques. As of then, only one hung on the door, spelling S. O. Black. Beside it, an discoloured mark where another one had been.
For good measure, Remus knocked before opening the door, hoping to find the room empty.

After his very brief introduction to Lupin, who he had managed to find out was named Remus after looking at the papers from the administration, Sirius had returned to the dorm and was trying to get some reading done for the evening.
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard a knock on the door, thinking that it might be James who was there early. That was, until the door simply opened and Remus appeared in the doorway, causing a warm smile to appear on Sirius’ face.
“Good evening, Remus,” he said with a soft wave, closing the book that he had open in front of him, wanting to be able to give his new flat mate a proper welcome.

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There was something quite unnerving about being addressed by his given name by a stranger - much more so when Remus hadn’t even been introduced as Remus at all. It felt too intimate in a way that was uncomfortable, as though Black had lurched their meeker acquaintanceship weeks ahead with a single greeting.
Regardless, Remus stepped fully into the room.
“Hello,” he responded with the intention of being civil despite already feeling tightly wound with exhaustion. He glanced over at Black, willing a smile to his lips. It almost left his lips again upon finding him lounged on his bed. He had expected his entrance to be clumsy, but he had much preferred getting to explore the room without an audience.
Remus did close the door behind him, though, casting an aimless glance around the room before deciding to pocket his keys rather than to toss them somewhere unfamiliar. Though he hadn’t paid it any real attention when it was first mentioned, he suddenly remembered Black speaking as though he had been in this room for years already, immediately visible in the stark difference between the two halves of the room.
“Sirius, was it?” he reluctantly offered, no longer looking at Black as he spoke, crossing the room to rest his suitcase on the bare bed.

“Sure is,” Sirius said with a wide smile, sitting up more properly but still mostly lounging one his bed. He was tired after a long day at work, but he very much wanted to make sure that Remus got settled properly and got comfortable in their shared dorm.
Even if he knew that they were likely meant to be competing, he also knew that Remus was two years after him, so there was no real competition between them. Even if there had been though, Sirius would have still done what he could to help to get his new flatmate comfortable and at ease. Despite hardly knowing him at all, he still wanted Remus to succeed.
“You just tell me if you need anything or I can do anything to help,” he said with a kind grin, genuinely wanting to help. “I’ve been living in this dorm for a while, but I want you to be comfortable as well.”

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Having turned his back to Black had done Remus a disfavour, hearing a sneer on his lips that hadn’t been there physically, had he turned to check.
Remus undid the buckles of his suitcase, though he didn’t open it, reconsidering unpacking in front of his coursemate.
“I will,” he brushed off the offer, before taking a step away from the bedside. He turned only enough to glance in Black’s direction, finally shrugging of his coat, suddenly feeling uncomfortably flushed.
“Thanks,” he added, hearing himself and finding the need to pull back his own irritation. Once again, a smile ghosted across his lips, though it was more an attempt to ease his own tension. “I just need to get settled and it’ll be fine.”

___
With the start of the semester, together with his responsibilities as a TA and his job on the side, the first month of sharing a dorm with Remus had flown away. Sirius found Remus to be an easy enough fella to share a dorm with, seeming to prefer to stick to himself and generally being the quiet sort.
While it had definitely been weird not to share the room with James anymore, Sirius found that he liked having Remus around enough, knowing that no one would have ever been able to replace his best friend, but the fact that they seemed to have no active fights was good enough for him.
He had just been to the library, stocking up on more books his counsellor had suggested that he look into, and he was planning on getting in a good evening of studying.
As he gently balanced his books on one hand, he unlocked the door to the dorm, unsure if he was going to find Remus in there, but finding that it would be good either way.

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