As soon as Sirius had woken up, he had known that he wouldn’t be much use in today’s class. He couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to pay attention, knowing that he was going to be explaining to Mulligan later, so he wasn’t too bothered with trying to keep up appearances.
When he heard a low snort coming from next to him, he looked over at Remus, grinning as he saw that his flatmate was laughing. It made Sirius snicker as well, immediately looking away, knowing that it was going to be much worse if he actually paid him too much mind.
It was absolutely beyond juvenile and Sirius knew that they should know way better than acting up in class like this, however he also knew that Mulligan was going to forgive the two of them for it, so it was hard to really take it all that seriously.

_________________

The fact that Sirius could barely meet his eye without laughing himself made Remus duck his head, too, humoured. As a little giggle escaped him, his hand continued to muffle the sound, his breath filtering through his fingers with a too-loud huff.
Aware that they were being a nuisance but unable to contain it, Remus made an effort to pull himself together, disguising the snort by clearing his throat. He felt out of his element, barely present in his own body, and he ran both palms up his face and across his hair, an aimless attempt to refocus his attention on the board.
He was, unfortunately, still painfully aware of Sirius’ presence besides him, even as he had moved out of Remus’ field of vision.

The class passed by in a blur, Sirius knowing for a fact that he had gotten absolutely nothing out of it, but he also knew that Mulligan would forgive him for that. After all, he was further than the others and the only one he was really distracting was Remus, who also was a lot further than the rest, so it didn’t seem like it would be too big a deal. At least not while Sirius was still feeling floaty and happy, completely unable to actually look over at Remus without grinning widely, breaking into a giggle whenever he looked at him for too long.
“And as is my tradition, I shall look forward to seeing all of you at my house on the 18th, the day after our last class, to celebrate the end of the school year,” Mulligan announced, officially ending the class for the day, at least that was what Sirius reckoned when he saw the others packing their stuff together.
He quickly grabbed his bag, having not even bothered to get out pen and paper to pretend to be taking notes, and moved towards Mulligan’s desk.
“Professor,” he stated as soon as he got there, immediately feeling the yes of the others on the back of his head, yet he still did his best to compose himself, wanting to find an adequately sad expression to pass on the news he was about to give his professor.
“I do sincerely apologise for how distracted Lupin and I have been during class today,” he moved on, knowing that Mulligan wouldn’t expect an apology but he felt the need to explain. “I just received news that my mother passed yesterday, so Lupin sat with my and made sure I wasn’t alone.”

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Best as Remus thought the intoxication to have dissipated, class ended and as he stood, the floor still felt wobbly beneath his feet. While his mind no longer felt debilitatingly clouded, his whole body felt heavy, tights bumping against the lip of the table for support as he packed up his essentially blank notes on the class.
Sirius was quicker on his feet, drawing with him Remus’ gaze as he stepped aside to approach Mulligan.
Despite doing his best not to pry, the class was small and quiet, and Sirius' voice easily projected across the room. Remus’ gaze shifted between Sirius’ and his satchel, a little surprised by that amount of honesty. It made Remus’ attention drift, realizing the other students had heard, too, Kelly having come to a stop in the doorway. He and Remus’ eyes briefly met at the mention of Remus’ name, and it was Remus who averted his gaze, disinterested in unpacking whatever that glance carried.
His eyes returned onto the back of Sirius’ head, pulling the strap of his bag across his shoulder, thoughtlessly waiting for Sirius to finish up.

________
James had just left to go grab them a cup of coffee from the student cafeteria, probably enjoying a moment that wasn’t either working or with a toddler, and Sirius was alone in his dorm room with baby Harry.
He had Harry balanced on his right thigh, trying to distract him from his long loose hair with a toy that he had recently bought for him, but it was clear that Harry much preferred Sirius’ hair over the dog plush that he had decided to gift him.
It wasn’t that Sirius really could find it in himself to mind though, far too enamoured with the little boy on his lap to ever be mad, but he also preferred to have some hair left by the time James and Harry went home.
Placing the plush back on the bed next to him, Sirius instead reached out to grab a chubby little wrist and gingerly remove the hand from his hair, smiling warmly as he said “no no, Harry, ouch ouch.”

_________________

“Hey,” Remus greeted practically before his keys had left the keyhole. He had just come from a one on one appointment with Mulligan, arranged at Remus’ request for feedback. It had gone well, leaving his mind in high gear, eager to share with Sirius the notes he had been given.
Stepping into their dorm, Remus had to do a double take in the direction of Sirius’ bed. Though it didn’t manage to stop him in his tracks, Remus’ eyes widened regardless, and a startled hesitancy crept into his steps.
Sirius’ own presence already filled the room with sparks, forcing static into the very back of Remus’ mind in a way that dulled any rational thought; the addition of a child completely washed Remus’ mind clear, having forgotten his train of thought almost immediately.
“What’s, uh - what’s with the kid, Si?” Remus asked, not entirely casual despite his best attempts at sounding so.
As though no longer certain the room was equally his, he tentatively and slowly placed his satchel on his desk chair, not entirely sure he’d be staying.

“Hey,” Sirius answered absentmindedly as he heard the familiar sound of keys in the lock followed by Remus’ voice, a familiar song and dance for them by now.
Sirius knew that Remus had had some one on one feedback session with Mulligan today, and he had been keen to know about Remus’ progress, something that he had all but forgotten about when James had suddenly showed up with Harry in tow.
It was only when Remus himself called attention to Harry on his lap that Sirius managed to look up at his flatmate, having succeeded in his mission to detangle the small hand from his hair. A large sheepish grin made its way to his face, knowing that he would have warned Remus had he had more warning himself.
“Oh this?” He said, still grinning and bouncing Harry slightly, making the child squee with excitement, luckily still happy with the smallest form of entertainment.
“This is my best friend,” he stated with a proud smile, turning Harry slightly on his lap, such that he was facing Remus.
“Harry, can you say hi to Remus?”

_________________

Remus just blinked at Sirius as he easily manoeuvred the pile of chub that was the kid around. Within moments, both the child and Sirius were beaming up at him, and Remus frankly didn’t process the fact that Sirius had offered him a name, finding the sight utterly disarming.
With his hair dishevelled and loose, Sirius looked at ease, no trace of the uncertainty in the way he held himself around the kid, seemingly never out of his element.
Remus didn’t doubt that he had gotten to experience Sirius in more intimate situations than most of his peers, and yet this felt distinctly different, like this facet of Sirius’ being was too personal for even Remus to witness. He would have felt compelled to avert his eye but Sirius was nothing short of magnetic.
“Hi,” he replied meekly, eyes only finding the kid as an afterthought. His attention was quick to flicker back to Sirius. “Where’d he come from?”

Sirius grinned at the question, realising that he hadn’t actually really answered Remus the first time he asked, and he had never really talked about James around Remus, mostly because it just hadn’t ever seemed worth it to mention his best friend of so many years. Now though, Sirius was thrilled that he got to share this side of his life with Remus, allowing him to see Sirius’ real family.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t steal him or spontaneously decide to adopt a baby,” he said, trying to be reassuring but he wasn’t sure what Remus actually thought was going on here.
“He’s my godson. His father and I used to dorm together for our bachelors and masters,” he explained, once again lowering Harry’s hand such that it wouldn’t be able to grab a hold of his hair again.
“James is just out grabbing coffee, probably happy for the break, and I love any time I get to spend with my favourite little man.”

_________________

Sirius was telling him a lot of things, and Remus maybe heard half of them. The way that little hand kept reaching for Sirius’ hair kept catching Remus’ attention, although perhaps not to the credit of the child itself.
Remus felt a little out of balance.
“Yeah?” he prompted, finally able to gather his thoughts.
He remembered vividly moving into the dorm, how lived-in Sirius’ side had looked, and how apparent it had been that someone had recently vacated the space Remus was moving into. Meeting said person felt a little intrusive, and Remus thoughtlessly reached for the back of his chair, halfway through reaching for his bag.
“I can go sit in the library, it’s no issue,” he offered willingly, sparing Sirius the awkwardness of having to lay claim to their room.

“Oh no, do please stay,” Sirius insisted with a warm smile, still bouncing Harry softly on his knee as he looked over at Remus. He was keen to hear about what Mulligan had had to say, and while he was enjoying his time with James and Harry, he still wanted to hear about how Remus was faring.
“Tell me what Mulligan had to say, you just got back from your meeting with him, yeah?” He prompted. knowing that James probably would be back with coffee soon, so they had to chat about their major while it would still be considered polite to do so. After all, he knew that Harry didn’t much care what he was talking about.
“Has he been able to finally convince you that you are making progress?” He teased with a crooked grin, understanding why Remus was feeling unsure about the entire ordeal, but Sirius had seen his work and knew that it was absolutely solid.

_________________

Despite the sincerity of the invitation, Remus still felt hesitant to stay. While he had arrived back to the dorm with a mind occupied with comments and encouragements Mulligan had offered, Remus felt like he had lost grip of that train of thought, lost his footing in this conversation entirely.
“Uh,” he dragged, glancing behind him to take a sideways seat on his desk chair, shoulder bumping against the backrest. Remus was still hesitant to stay beyond the point James’ return, the seat he took neither fully here nor there.
“Yeah, maybe,” he eventually admitted, a crooked smile pulling at his lips. It really was hard not to want to share this with Sirius, even though the visual that met Remus was anything but academic.
“He wanted to encourage me to reach out for a proper mentoring program next semester,” Remus elaborated. It wasn’t that he hadn’t found Sirius’ tutoring exceptionally valuable, but the thought of this dissertation properly getting a foothold in reality made Remus a little dizzy, and his smile a little hazy. “He might know someone in radio astronomy.”

Sirius hummed softly at that, reaching out for the dog plush behind him in the hopes of distracting Harry from his hair once more. Luckily for him, this time he managed in his distraction, looking down as chubby hands grabbed onto the plush and with curious eyes examining it. It made a soft smile appear on Sirius’ lips, always finding that his heart was filled whenever he was around Harry.
“I guess that makes sense, though I can’t say that I’m not hurt,” he said, a grin replacing the softer smile as he looked up at Remus, doing his best to balance his attention between his flatmate and the toddler on his lap. After all, he had been sincere when he had asked Remus to stick around, so it would be rude to just up and ignore him now that he had decided to stick around.
“What, isn’t my tutoring good enough for you?” He followed up.

_________________

Though Remus’ eyes probably wandered as much as Sirius’, seemingly constantly dipping to the child on his lap, Remus’ attention was unwaveringly on Sirius. Remus had come to familiarize himself with the immense focus Sirius was able to direct to his work, or to conversations they held, and Remus couldn’t help but find it charming seeing said focus waver. Sirius’ looked more of a boy as a result of it.
“Why, did you consider yourself as my mentor?” he challenged, a well-meaning tease woven into his tone of voice.
Draping an arm overtop of the backrest, Remus propped his head up on his knuckles, an easy grin on his lips. “Bit full of yourself, that, isn’t it?”

Sirius couldn’t help but laugh at that, definitely aware of the fact that he wasn’t exactly a mentor to Remus, but he had tutored the entire class some and he felt certain that he had been helpful to most of them. At least he hoped that he had at least been helpful to Remus.
“I’m your TA ain’t I?” He said in his own defence, his laughter having caused Harry’s attention to be back on him and his hair. Sirius tried to combat this by going back to bouncing him, which again caused enthusiastic noises to come from the child. It did nothing to stop Sirius from smiling, feeling better than he had for a while, glad to have been reminded of who his real family was.
“Haven’t I tutored you?”

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It was impossible for the pacing of their conversation to be affected by the presence of a child. Remus’ mind had been in high gear when he left Mulligan’s office, eager to spill nuances and advice out for Sirius to help remember. This was slower, though, more leisurely, and the details of the meeting had already slipped to the back of Remus’ consciousness.
Sirius’ insistence on his value inevitably tugged at the corners of Remus’ lips, more willing to engage with that particular tangent.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re jealous,” Remus teased, straightening his posture slightly by lifting his chin off of his hand.

“Oh absolutely,” Sirius stated with a grin, once again turning his attention back towards Remus, liking how far their friendship had come since Sirius’ awkward pass on him. He enjoyed talking with Remus and it also made it easier for them to live together when they were actually friends as well.
“Terrible so, I thought I was the only tutor in your life,” he added with a grin.

_________________

How unabashed Sirius’ reply had been finally dragged a laugh from Remus’ lips, admittedly taken aback by Sirius’ constant display of interest. It made him duck his head, aimlessly looking out their window, not sure he was willing to give Sirius the satisfaction of seeing him smile.
“I’ll dedicate my dissertation to you, how about that,” he offered as a compromise as his attention returned to Sirius, his voice easier as a result of the laugh, managing to dissolve any tension building between them. “To my most favourite TA.”

Sirius couldn’t help but grin at that and was about to come up with a witty reply, when someone beat him to it.
“Oh god, I implore you not to,” James stated, having just appeared in their doorway, holding a cup of coffee in each hand and a wide grin on his face.
“His ego is big enough as is,” he added, as he unceremoniously flopped down on the bed next to Sirius, handing him one of the to go cups. It made Sirius grin widely as he accepted the cup, knowing just how much love lay behind the jab.
“Come on Prongs, let me have this!,” he complained, but the grin on his face undercut any genuine complaint that he might have. It made him turn to look at Remus again though, almost as if he had just now remembered that he was actually still there.
“Remus, this is Harry’s father, my best friend James,” he said, causing James to properly turn his attention towards Sirius’ flatmate.
“Nice to meet ya, Remus.”

_________________

Remus’ smile wavered at the sudden appearance of a third person; Sirius hadn’t needed the introduction, Remus easily understood that before this had been his room, it had been James’. The familiarity James displayed in the room, around Sirius and in the conversation made Remus lose his footing in the scene, suddenly making him regret not having fled for the library when there’d be less awkwardness surrounding it.
“Likewise,” Remus eventually mustered, a delayed little smile at his lips.