A/N this ended up as being slightly different to how I originally intended, but yes, I am aware that it starts and ends with James' POV but has Remus' in the middle.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me, everything belongs to JK Rowling
James looked up as the portrait hole swung open and Lily Evans and Remus Lupin walked in together, red cheeked and laughing. It struck him as odd to think that just a year before, the sight would have made him unspeakably jealous and he would have ignored Remus for hours.
But Lily is his girlfriend, and he knows they are just friends.
As Remus joins James, Lily walks past to see her own friends, winking at him as she passes them, and James flushes.
Remus laughed at the sight, before his face fell and James looked at him in concern.
"Moony?"
He asked, a small frown on his face. Remus sighed, and looked around nervously. It was at this point that Sirius and Peter joined in, having previously been sitting by the fire absorbed in things more important than missing Lily.
"Moony?"
Sirius prompted, lifting his eyebrow at his friend.
"I can't do this anymore."
Remus stated, before glancing at the emptying common room.
"I can't, she trusts me and we're friends.. And she doesn't know I'm a werewolf!"
The last few words came out in a hoarse, anguished whisper, and his trio of friends immediately understood.
"You don't have to tell her"
Sirius said automatically, trying to prevent the self hatred he could see approaching. Peter glanced at the stairs where Lily had disappeared a few moments before, before adding,
"You've pretended for months, why don't you just never tell her?"
James, however, thought differently.
"Are you sure?"
Remus' face was white but he nodded. They all knew that Lily would return to the common room in a few minutes to spend time with them, and though scared, he couldn't face lying any longer to someone who was gradually becoming one of his best friends.
When Lily eventually returned to them, Remus was pacing by the fire, but looking at her, he only smiled tightly, nothing warm, nothing like the merry friendship they had shared just less than an hour before.
After she kissed James, he coughed, and he watched as Sirius took a couple of steps nearer to him.
Remus watched as Lily looked at him in concern, before eventually forcing the words out of his suddenly dry mouth.
"There's something you should know"
Lily looked at him questioningly, but the look on his face must have shocked her, because mercifully, thought Remus, she remained silent.
"I'm a..."
He paused, and swallowed nervously, his hands twisting in his sleeves.
"I'm a werewolf"
Like the last time, like every time he said the word, his voice was quiet and forced. But instead of the disgust he expected, a miracle happened. Remus looked at Lily in amazement as she smiled softly.
"Oh Remus"
She took a tentative step forward, and whispering, said two words that made his heart stop.
"I know"
As one, the four boys heads swivelled to look at her, the same look of shock on each of their faces.
"You do?"
Asked James, but Lily never took her eyes off Remus as she responded, and Remus was sure that though he was trying to look unconcerned, he was positive that by her behaviour he wasn't pulling it off as well as he hoped.
"Since second year"
And then she was there, arms wrapped around him in a hug that he so incredibly needed, a hug that his friends never provided. He relaxed, returning the hug gratefully as his guilt from never telling her, the tension of lying, just eased away.
She pulled away, laughing at the look on the other boys faces, before he was faced with her smile again and Remus watched as her eyes softened.
"You know it doesn't change anything, it never has. You're an amazing friend Remus, I wouldn't want to lose that - I wouldn't even if I was scared"
Speechless, he clung to her, and buried his face in her shoulder as a few tears he had been holding for months finally escaped.
"Thank you"
He whispered, and he knew she had heard.
Eventually she broke away, and Remus felt weightless, just as he had when his three amazing friends had found out and accepted him, years before.
James watched as his girlfriend pulled away from his best friend and returned to his side, and the look on Remus' face, the relief there that James could see reflected on Sirius and Peter's faces too, that he could feel on his own, decided it.
As Lily turned to go upstairs, it bubbled out of his mouth before he could stop it.
"I love you"
She turned to him, amazed, and he reddened as she paused. But then she blushed, and whispered back,
"I love you too"
And James' heart stopped, he was sure that suddenly he had wings, he could fly, the love of his life felt the same way as he did and he was sure that both he and Remus were floating high above the ground.
In a daze he only watched from afar as Lily kissed him once more, but barely responded as his mind was still untethered and floating high above them, and he watched as Lily winked at Sirius and Peter, before she kissed Remus on the cheek and headed upstairs to bed.
His mind was still floating as the boys went to their own dormitory,
"I love you too"
She had said,
"I love you too"
And he couldn't process how he could ever have become so lucky that he had fallen in love with one of the few girls who could accept Remus for what he was, boost his self esteem, shock all four of them and make his own heart burst with joy in one fell swoop.
As James went to sleep that night, his last waking thoughts were,
"I love you too"