Remus Lupin considered himself an extraordinarily lucky man (if you don't count the whole lycanthropy situation). Especially when it came to the friend department. He couldn't imagine there being a person in the world who had better friends than he did.

Then again, he couldn't imagine there being a person in the world who had dumber friends than he did. 

It was at the end of Valentine's day when he had realized something was different. It was almost in the middle of the night when James returned to the Gryffindor common room with a strange, dreamy grin that was only reserved for Remus's other friend, Lyra.

The bespectacled boy plopped down on the couch in the common room, sitting next to Peter, who almost looked concerned as to why he was acting so strange. "Prongs, what's up? You look like a crazy person."

James grinned even wider, throwing his head back on the couch. He was ignoring the way Remus, Sirius and Peter were all looking at him like a madman. Then he pulled himself up, sitting straight, prepared to break the news. "She kissed me!"

"Disgusting! Absolutely disgusting! Did you have to put that image in my head? I'm going to vomit," Sirius complainied, not wanting to hear about his best friend and cousin kissing. "Moony, get me bucket. Pronto!"

Remus did not want to be bossed into getting a bucket so his friend could fake-puke. Again, he believed he had the best but dumbest friends out there. "Get it yourself."

"I mean, I had a feeling that playing hard to get would get me the girl. Especially on Valentine's," James started talking about Lyra once again. "But what if it was just a one time thing again? Does she even like me? Was it only a heat of the moment kiss?"

All those questions he asked himself was driving him mad as he groaned. He put his head on Peter's lap, looking up at him with wide, confused eyes. "I'm so confused, Wormtail. How can I ever face her again?"

While Peter was invested in James's stories as usual, Sirius did not want to hear anymore. He pushed a finger in each ear, singing some unfamiliar song so he didn't have to hear another word about Lyra. 

And as much as Remus Lupin loved those boys with all his heart, he also sort of hated them. Mostly because they were so stupid. 

▹▹▹

Somehow, Lyra and James had managed to avoid each other the entire next day. Very luckily for them and their awkwardness, they didn't have any classes together the day after Valentine's Day. Which thankfully saved Remus from having to deal with the both of them together.

But he still needed to deal with Lyra, who was a bit of a wildcard. The way James had reacted wasn't very surprising. He had been head over heels for that girl for over a year already. He had no doubt Lyra felt the same way, but she was also incessantly stubborn and refused to admit it.

Remus had classes with Lyra that day, unlike James. They were once again partners in Arithmancy, after they had made up early December. It had taken its time, but he felt like they were almost back to normal. 

As their teacher was explaining something they should both have paid attention to (as the Professor said it would be on the exam), Lyra leaned over and whispered to Remus. "Hey. Has James, by any chance, said anything about me?"

Yes. James had talked so much about her that hearing her name almost made him sick. But Remus knew how much he cared about playing it cool, so he would kill him if he mentioned it. "No, he hasn't."

Lyra turned her head, frowning. The idea of James not talking about their kiss made no sense to her, but she also remembered how he had basically ignored her until it happened, so she had no idea how he felt anymore. "Are you sure?"

"Lyra, what's going on?" the young werewolf asked, knowing perfectly well what was going on. He just wanted to hear the story from her lips, to hear how it differed from James's (which was explained in great detail the night before).

The blonde glanced around, realizing that in the middle of class wasn't the best place to tell her best friend how she had kissed his other best friend out of the blue the night before. "I'll tell you tonight. On patrol."

Remus nodded, even if he knew that meant he would have to go several hours listening to James's retelling of the story and how nervous he was to run into Lyra before he could hear her side of the story. 

▹▹▹

Somehow, it had been even more awkward that James and Lyra were avoiding each other than it would have been for them to run into each other. The strange glances they threw each other during dinner told Remus as much. It was strange that their gazes always kept just missing each other. Then again, he wouldn't have wanted for them to end up in a staring match. 

"I've got to go," Remus told the other boys, getting up from his seat as they sat in the common room, procrastinating doing their new Transfiguration homework. "I've got patrol tonight, in case you forgot."

Peter raised an eyebrow, feeling like he heard about Remus and his prefect duties fifty times a day, at least. Not always from Remus, it was just always mentioned, usually because they were having a conversation about Lyra. "How could we forget?"

"Our wittle Moony," Sirius teased, using a baby voice as looked at him with puppy dog eyes, as if he was pretending to be a proud mother of his young friend. "Such a model citizen. A prefect. I'm so proud."

Remus simply rolled his eyes, not bothering to respond to it. But then James decided to speak up, asking the question he'd been dreading. "So... this patrol... Is it with Lyra tonight or is it with Evans?"

The young werewolf didn't really want to answer the question, because he knew James got irrationally dumb every time he heard the name, and would ask something strange of him. But he didn't want to lie. "It's with Lyra."

The Quidditch captain quickly brightened up at this, grinning widely. He reached out, grabbing a handful of Remus's robes and pulling him close, looking him deep in the eyes. "If she says anything, and I mean anything, about me, you've got to tell me right away. My entire heart and love life depends on you, Moony."

Remus looked at him blankly, just very tired. He grabbed the hand that was gripping his robes and pulled it away carefully, patting James sloppily on the chest while sending him a friendly smiile.  "Sure, I'll do that."

He quickly took his prefect badge and fastened it to his robes. He was prepared to walk out of the common room, but he turned his head one last time to look at his boys, to see how they were doing. 

James was babbling about something with a bright gleam in his eye as Peter listened intently, wanting to catch every detail of what he was saying. Sirius was shaking his head with a smile, listening as well.  

They may have been idiots, but at least they were his idiots. 

▹▹▹

Remus knew that Lyra Black wasn't immune to getting nervous. In fact, he had seen her nervous more times than he could count. Especially around tests, and he didn't think he would ever see her more nervous than she was around O.W.L.s.

He was wrong. 

When he met her for patrol, she looked white as a ghost. She kept tapping her fingers against her thighs just to have something to do with her hands. She kept glancing his way, like she was scared to tell him something. 

"Are you okay?" Remus asked. Obviously, she wasn't. At first, he had thought it was all about the kiss she shared with James. But it was a very strong reaction if she was still denying her feelings for him, so he was wondering if there was something else behind it. 

"I kissed James on Valentine's Day!" she suddenly blurted out. She then covered her mouth, because she hadn't meant to drop a bomb on him like that, especially since he swore James hadn't said anything about her, and therefore hadn't said anything about their kiss.

Remus was very much done with both James and Lyra. First James was running around like a lunatic, talking about their kiss. Now Lyra was acting like she was dying just because she had kissed him. They were both idiots in his eyes now. 

"I swear, I didn't know what I was doing!" Lyra groaned, leaning against a corridor wall dramatically. "It almost felt like someone cast the Imperius curse on me. I don't know if it was in the heat of the moment, because it was a very heated moment."

He opened his mouth to say something, but she didn't give him a chance to get a single word in. "Because, I mean... It's James. It's not like I can have feelings for him or anything. I mean, I've rejected him a million times for the past year. I wouldn't have done that if I liked him."

"You could-" he tried, but he was still cut off by her rambling. 

"But he is rather handsome," Lyra admitted, tilting her head to the side. "And, well, I did really like the kiss. And he's been acting like a good mate to me sometimes. It didn't ever really feel like we were mates though. I don't know what's going on!"

She closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath after all that rambling.  Then, she suddenly opened her eyes wide, as if she was scared. "Merlin, do I like James? I do, don't I? How did I not know this before?"

As she finally shut up, Remus smiled at her sarcastically. "Congratulations at officially being the last person I know to figure that out. I've had a running bet with myself on when it would be. I owe myself five galleons."

"Shut up, Remus. Don't joke around. This is serious! This is James Potter," Lyra emphazised his name in disgust, like it was the worst thing she had ever said in her life, as if it hurt to even try to say it. 

Remus rolled his eyes at her behavior. "I'm well aware of who he is. I've been listening to him talk about you and your disgusting kiss in awful detail for the past twenty-four hours. I'm almost tired of him."

"Ha! So he did talk about me!" Lyra exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Remus, who now knew he had screwed up. "You lied to me! I've gone around all day thinking he may not fancy me anymore. He acted like I didn't exist both yesterday and today. Excluding the... you know."

He couldn't help but chuckle at that idea. "Merlin, Lyra. If there's one thing you'll never have to worry about, it's James not fancying you. I don't think he knows how not to fancy you anymore, honestly."

Lyra scrunched her nose up, trying to sort out what was goinig through her mind, but found it was too messy as her thoughts kept drifting back to James, who she now realized she fancied. "Merlin, I don't know what to do."

"Snog him," the Gryffindor prefect suggested, smiling brightly. It was the only idea he could think of that would help them all (except for Sirius, who would disgusted as usual). "Put us all out of our misery."

"Remus, no!" Lyra cringed, although laughing a bit. She turned to look at him, suppressing her chuckles. When she saw his raised, amused eyebrows, they both started bursting into laughter. Again, Lyra may have been an idiot, but she was still Remus's idiot.

▹▹▹

The next day at breakfast, Remus hadn't gotten enough sleep. He had gotten back late from his patrol session because Lyra spent the whole evening talking about James, and then he couldn't sleep because he kept him up because he was talking about Lyra all night. 

And once he finally reached breakfast (he had been incredibly hungry), he sat opposite of James. Sirius and Peter had both slept in, because they had decided to skip the first classes of the day. Remus was mostly angry that they had left him alone with James.

Because he was just staring at Lyra the whole breakfast. But, the issue was that Remus had a better view of what she was doing, so he was pestering him. "Can you see what she's eating? Is she eating enough?"

Remus sighed, wishing he could just throw them together and make them realize that they should talk about their relationship together, not with him. "Yes, Prongs. She's eating. And it's enough."

"Shh," he suddenly shushed him, even if he had asked him a question. Remus rolled his eyes. James straightened up, trying to stare even harder at her (as if that was possible). "I'm trying to read her lips, to find out if she's saying anything about me."

The prefect wanted to tell his friend that Lyra would definitely not talk about him to her Slytherin friends, but when it came to her, all logic was lost for James. Remus had learned that long ago.

"We have to go!" James suddenly said, standing up from his seat. When the werewolf didn't budge, ready to finally eat his toast, he grabbed his arm and slapped the food out of his hand. "She said she's leaving, I'm sure of it. I've got to run into her before class, I can't go alone. Come on!"

As James dragged his friend of the Great Hall, Lyra did not walk out. Turns out that she had not been saying that she was leaving, meaning the boys had walked out for no reason and Remus didn't get to eat breakfast, which he was very bitter because of. 

▹▹▹

That morning, Lyra and James had their first class together since their annoying kiss. Remus did not want to be in class with them, especially as both Sirius and Peter had decided to skip Potions that day, once again leaving him with them. 

And the worst part was what the lesson was about. Amortentia. 

Slughorn was always a lover of the idea of James and Lyra as a couple, so it wasn't very surprising that he turned to the Black girl, smiling brightly during the lesson. "Miss Black, why don't you tell us what you smell from the potion?"

Lyra hesitated from where she stood next to Rabastan, glancing James's way. She took a step closer to the potion and sniffed it hesitantly. "Well, Professor... I smell... Burning firewood, hot cocoa and... broomstick polish?"

The last one came out as more of a question, because it was a very strange thing for her to smell, especially as she was far from a Quidditch fan and hadn't gotten on a broom since first year, during Flying class.

Remus didn't say anything as James stood up a little straighter. But it wasn't strange that she smelled hot cocoa, when that was James's go-to drink at night. And he polished his broom more than anyone else at Hogwarts, giving him a bit of a permanent broomstick polish smell. 

It wasn't surprising that Slughorn turned right to James next, knowing he was quite the Quidditch player, which made him think Lyra was smelling him. "What about... Mr. Potter. What do you smell?"

James, similarly to Lyra, glanced her way for a few moments before he took a step closer to the potion, smelling it confidently. He knew who it would remind him of. "It smells like the smell of a new broom, my mum's Christmas cookies and strawberries."

Remus glanced at Lyra, who then blushed quite heatedly. He was quickly reminded of having heard her mention she used an expensive strawberry shampoo from some exclusive store in southern France. 

The pair avoided eye contact with one another, knowing that the other had smelled them in the potion. That meant they both now knew they fancied each other. Still, they refused to even look at each other. Remus had almost had enough. 

▹▹▹

Sirius and Peter had said they would meet James and Remus at lunch (or, rather breakfast for the two former, as they had just gotten up from bed). That's why James and Remus were walking on their own outside the Great Hall. 

Then James did the most James thing ever. The minute he saw Lyra walking their way (or towards the Great Hall), he dropped his textbook on the ground in awe. Remus wanted to smack him right then and there. 

Once Lyra saw that he had dropped his book, she hurried their way. As James leaned down to pick it up, she kneeled next to him to help him pick it up as Remus watched them both helplessly. 

They both held onto the book for a couple of seconds, smiling shyly at one another. When she let it go, James reluctantly pulled it closer and messed up his hair subconsciously. "Alright there, Lyra?"

Lyra smiled softly, pulling a stray strand of hair behind her ear, even if that only made the blush on her cheeks more apparent. "I'm good. How are you, James?"

"Wonderful."

They stood in silence for a few moments as Remus wanted to die because he thought that would be better than listening to them make small talk. Lyra then tried to say something, anything. "The weather's quite nice out today."

"Absolutely splendid," James quickly agreed. The small talk was awful, but neither of them wanted to stop talking to each other, so they just kept going.  "I love when there's... sun."

Remus was dying. He had been listening to the two of them obviously fancying each other for almost two days without doing anything about it. He was also very hungry, because James dragged him away from breakfast before he could eat.

The young werewolf shook his head and took step closer to the pair. "That's enough, I can't watch this anymore. It's pathetic. James, would you like to take Lyra out on our next Hogsmeade trip?"

Surprised, James wasn't prepared to answer the question. He glanced between his friend and Lyra, who was blushing even brighter than before. "Ehm, I..."

Blankly, Remus looked at him. He didn't seem to care at all about how awkward he was making things. He just wanted to eat his lunch in peace and be done with this. "It's a simple question. Yes or no?"

"Of course," the bespectacled boy then answered. Finally his mind and his voice was working the way he wanted it to. "Yes."

"Lyra, would you like to go with James?" Remus then asked, sending the blonde a stern look. He didn't want her to decline just because she was nervous, because they all knew she fancied him by now.

"Ehm, I guess," Lyra answered hesitantly, not looking James's way for a few seconds, afraid of the awkwardness. But when she did, he smiled brightly at her, which she returned. "Sure. Wouldn't hurt."

"Wonderful. Marvelous for the both of you," he gushed, before looking at James blankly, hoping that they were finally done with being stupid. "Can we go to lunch now so I can finally eat my bloody toast?"

James didn't answer, so he grabbed his arm to pull him along with him. Remus sent a quick wave to Lyra, who returned it while still being confused as to what had just happened. She had just accepted a date with James Potter.

That's when the Gryffindor Quidditch captain looked at his friend with a loving, adoring look that would rival the one he had reserved for Lyra. "I love you, Moony. I love you so freaking much."