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Remus held out a hand for Sydney to take and when her soft fingers slipped across his palm he felt his heart pick up pace.
Maybe he was nervous.
He led her back down the stone steps and into the dim corridors. Remus trailed subconsciously along, his legs knowing where to walk and his head far too full to transmit directions anyhow.
He turned back to find that Sydney had pulled her arms inside of her oversized t-shirt. Remus could have laughed.
"Cold?" He asked. Sydney shook her head quickly and her teeth chattered against each other in response to the sudden movement.
Remus rolled his eyes and slipped his arms out of his jumper sleeves. He pulled the fabric over his head and pushed it into her chest. Sydney sighed and her hands slipped back through her own sleeves and then into Remus's jumper.
The jumper fell loosely over her shoulders so that it swallowed her hands and ran past her shorts. She left the hood up so that her face was framed between grey fabric and brown strands of loose hair. She grabbed the cuffs of the sleeves to hold the warmth inside of the jumper and then she crossed her arms over her chest.
Remus smiled a little and then turned back toward the halls as they neared his hidden passage off to the side of a nearly abandoned corridor.
He had found the place in his fifth year while wandering around one night when he couldn't sleep. He was tapping his wand against the wall mindlessly when suddenly a small square room revealed itself to him. He purposefully left it off of the map and told no one, resolving to keep it as a quiet escape for himself and no one else.
Until now.
Remus walked straight past the basket of chocolate stacked on his never ending pile of unread books, and sat down on the stone bench along the back wall. He leaned against one of the pillows (which he had stolen from Sirius and then 'helped' him search for for days) and he motioned for Sydney to sit as well. She did.
She rubbed her knuckles into her eyes as if to push out the migraine that was sure to have bubbled from her celebration only a few hours prior.
Remus tried not to think about that night with the lights and the music and Sydney and Sirius and the kiss.
He tried not to think about it.
"What is this place?" Sydney mumbled, her voice quiet and slightly high from sleep.
"Found it in my fifth year," Remus said simply. "Been pretty secret until tonight."
Sydney nodded slowly, though she seemed to shrink into Remus's jumper as she squeezed her eyes shut carefully and her mouth pushed into a grimace.
"Here," Remus said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the packet he had grabbed earlier. "Figured you'd be a bit smashed after that party."
