Right. This was his time where he would come out with some kind of one-liner which would spark some kind of argument which would in turn lead to some kind of verbal beatdowns. It was unfortunate that, despite Stephen's misanthropy, he was never the most eloquent of people. Or at least, eloquent in the sense that would have made him good at telling Matthew off for...well, for what? For being what Stephen had more or less known he was all along, but had ignored for the sake of decent conversation?
He sort of tensed up when Matthew patted him on the shoulder, his expression hardening. Part of him had expected Matthew to do what would have been the sensible thing (if you had a random man in your living room, especially one who you knew had a few charges to his name) and hex him. Or in the worst case scenario he would have gotten some of his Death Eater friends over to meet him. Part of him had wanted to wait until Matthew really wouldn't have expected it, if only for that reason.
"Yes!" he said, throwing up his hands weakly. "Here I am. As requested." He gave the room a quick once-over, and then looked back at Matthew. As much as he wanted to say that Matthew was probably having a grand old time in the new regime, the evidence before him made it clear that this was not the case. He took a bit of selfish pride in that.
"How are things? With you. New Ministry all you ever dreamed?"