Arcturus had busied himself in the kitchen with the tea. In this house he was the only one who could, since it was all done by magic and not conventional means, but as it was something he'd had to learn to do for himself when he'd started at school, he didn't see anything wrong with it. Before long he brought it all in, tea for himself and Hamilton, and smaller, sugary cups for Sirius and Philip both. It wasn't lost on him what a good job the other boy was doing in keeping Sirius calm. Some of it would be the potion, of course, but he suspected there was more to it than that.
After he had explained the result of his telephone message, Arcturus listened seriously to Alexander's perspective on it. It seemed counter-intuitive to him. Asking for help was demonstrating weakness, and so there were people it was allowable to ask – one's family, and very trusted friends, because they wouldn't use it to their advantage – and people it was ordinarily not. Everyone else. If he had been the one to suffer an injury, Arcturus would have had a much worse dilemma on his hands, because he knew that he'd have at least tried to cope with it alone. With Sirius, it was easier. His welfare came before other considerations.
Arcturus didn't automatically dismiss Hamilton's words the way he once might have, though. An odd opinion given by a friend was valuable. 'It's...it was the right thing to do,' he told him. He believed that much. 'I don't like to have to ask them. They might want something from me...in future, you know, and it makes things difficult. But not asking would be worse.' He glanced knowingly over at the little boy, who was now propped up with pillows and sipping his tea, but still had the blanket tucked in around him.
The knock at the door came soon enough to startle him. Arcturus leapt up and went to answer it. It was only then that the other considerations flooded his mind, from the trivial (the tea-things were still out in the drawing room, and Arcturus himself probably looked untidy after his exertions), to the more critical (he had two muggle guests, and no good explanation for them), but he strove to set these aside at once. He could worry about them later.
'Mr Lupin! How do you do? Thank you, you came ever so quickly! Do come inside!' Arcturus led him in to where Sirius lay on the couch, his attempt to sound every bit the amiable host clearly underpinned by anxiety.