As Remus followed Sirius inside, he only offered a vague, non-committal hum for a reply. Kelly certainly hadn’t dominated the remainder of the evening, but to be fair, Remus hadn’t particularly sought out conversation with him, and so the possibility existed that Kelly hadn’t so much behaved as he had quieted down.<br/>“Sure, yeah.”<br/>Besides the four first year students and Sirius, Mulligan had also extended his invitation to the two students remaining in the year between them, meaning multiple conversations overlapped and had, above all, remained academic, offering new dissertations for them to enquire into. Though Remus had chatted along, Sirius remained not only in his consciousness but eternally in the corner of his eye.<br/>The way Sirius had retreated back into himself upon returning inside was likely perfectly justifiable to the others present; it wasn’t a reach to interpret the quiet distance as suppressed frustration, a fight that still lingered in the back of his mind.<br/>Remus, however, didn’t think Kelly was what was keeping Sirius’ mind preoccupied. And it all but drove Remus insane.<br/>No longer restricted by the context, but finding themselves so utterly, dizzyingly alone, Remus found that the only thing keeping him in place was the uncertainty of what precisely Sirius had been thinking about all night.<br/>Lingering just a few steps inside by the coat stand, Remus’ attention was on Sirius, eyes flickering across his expression, trying to find his footing again.