Moment between James, Lily, and Remus;

"James, I found him!"

Remus glanced up and around in surprise to see Lily's shoulder, her head clearly back around the corner. On any other day he would have rolled his eyes at her for shouting like that in front of a secret entrance, but now he'd much rather just shut the mirror back in her face.

Not moments later the couple were crouched in front of him, looks of worry on each of their faces. James quickly sat down on his left, but Remus beat him to a question by asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," he rolled his eyes as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. "Sirius and Peter are out on the grounds looking as well."

That wasn't what he meant, so he rephrased, "Why are you looking for me?" Of course he knew the answer, he'd expected his friends to come after him, but after filching the map he'd thought he'd have longer than fifteen minutes to himself. Why James had allowed his girlfriend to come he'd no idea.

James answered accordingly by stating, "after the way you reacted to your Patronus, Moony I'm surprised you waited for class to be dismissed."

Remus eyed Lily wearily, knowing he had to be very careful how he responded, but as she continued to meet his eyes, he caught sight of something he'd only ever noticed in his fellow Marauders.

"James didn't tell me," she said at once, still smiling knowingly at him.

"Peter did," James amended at his friends still skeptical look, "he thought I had told her, then of course I really couldn't just lie. Sorry mate, this only happened over the weekend, meant to tell you."

"I'll give you boys credit," Lily smiled indulgently at him, obviously trying to show as much as possible through the warmth in her voice how little she cared, "you all had me going with your little stories. Class wouldn't have meant anything to me today, if I didn't know," she added on thoughtfully.

Remus turned away from both of them at once, no longer distracted from Lily's underwhelming reaction.

"So that wasn't what was bothering you," James grumbled, "going to tell us what is?"

He seemed to enjoy tugging on the sleeve of his robes rather than answer, so James took another brave stab and asked, "can't be your hatred of what form your Patronus took? That would just be stupid, s'not like you can help that. Personally, I thought mine was hilarious."

"Course you would," Remus grumbled while Lily swatted James with good nature; the couple had certainly gotten quite a bit of ribbing from their classmate for their matching animals.

At Remus' wince upon James question though, he knew this time he'd guessed right. "Oh come now Remus," James chided at once, "we'll have this conversation till I'm blue in the face! So your Patronus is a wolf, bet you're not the only one in the world. What makes you think you're less of a person because of it?"

"I just," he was now twisting the fabric in his fingers so violently it was in danger of ripping as he continued, "panicked I guess. I feel like, if you guys weren't around, I wouldn't even be human. This didn't exactly help." He hated how vulnerable and pathetic he was sure he sounded right then, all the more agitated that had come out in front of Lily. He could also almost hear James grinding his teeth in frustration at his continued 'idiocy and lack of the correct words to describe this' as Sirius so often put it whenever Remus made snippy little remarks about how 'not human' he was.

Before James could start snapping at him what an idiot he was being, Lily cut him off with much kinder words. "Remus, really. I can't claim to know you half as well as James, but even I know that's bollocks. You're one of the most kindhearted people I've ever met! So, someday soon, when you meet someone who will tell you the same thing and add on a little kiss, you'll realize how ridiculous you're being. Personally I'd do it now, but I don't think this one would appreciate it," she finished, giving a cheeky little smirk to James.

"Damn right I wouldn't," James scowled even at the playful joke.

Remus couldn't help but smile at the pair of them. He knew he'd overreacted, that he was being ridiculous and of course his Patronus didn't really mean anything. It still gave him the warmest of feelings to know that he'd always have his friends around to remind himself of that.

Sorry RoboTitaness. I know you requested this because the last one was so depressing, and this one kind of ended that way as well, but I hoped you liked it anyways.