Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Seventeen - In The Library

Author's Note: CW for memory issues/having difficulty remembering if something was real or not. Brief period accurate mention of mental health (crazy).

Also good news! I am slowly writing more. Not a lot, but almost daily. I think I am going to try to bump it up to one chapter a week, two chapters the week after. So next week I'll only get a chapter out Tuesday then the week after that there will be two chapters!

-x-

After supper, Remus made his way to the library; he knew the route by heart and mentally faded out until he started heading down the corridor outside the library. Jean-Marie was waiting by the doors, a seam-splitting satchel over one shoulder. He looked older than fourteen in his Ravenclaw uniform.

He started to ask if he was late then realized he should probably say it in French instead, not sure how much English Jean-Marie would understand. But as soon as he got the first syllables out, Jean-Marie began shaking his head.

"No," he said, thick eyebrows knitting together. "Speak... most English." Then his frown became more pronounced. "That is not right?"

"Er." Remus had no idea what to do. He hadn't expected to be half-tutoring someone in English, though he realized suddenly that that was probably McGonagall's intention. "It is cl-close. Um. It—I th-think what you're go-going for is that we sh-should speak m-m-mostly English?"

Jean-Marie was watching him with a puzzled expression.

"Vous voulez dire que nous devrions surtout parler anglais?" Remus inquired, feeling like he was floundering. You want to say that we should mostly speak English?

"O—yes," he said. "You... ahhh... you have... your... bégaiement?"

Remus felt heat creeping into his face and he ducked his head, nodding. "Y-y-yes. I—er, it—it's c-c-called a—a stutte—stutter. In—in English. Stutter."

"Ahh, I am... I... apology... if I am intrusif." He paused. "What is... the English word?"

"It's close to the-the—the f-feminine form. Int-t-t—in—in—" This was ridiculous and he felt himself grow hotter. "Intrusive," he finally forced out. His problem with speaking was going to make it a lot more difficult to help Jean-Marie; this wasn't something he had considered until now. Brilliant idea, getting someone barely able to speak normally to teach someone English! "J-just pronounced dif—different. And n-no, it's f-f-fine. You—I'm—it's okay."

Jean-Marie nodded. "Let us start?"

They went into the library and found a table near the back to sit at. Jean-Marie upended his satchel sending everything pouring out, including a box of sweets and a thermos full of water. A couple of pots of ink clanked against the table and about ten different quills spread out across the pile of stuff. It was such a James Potter thing to do that Remus had to suppress laughter. For some reason, he had been imagining Jean-Marie as this older, sophisticated Frenchman but really, he probably wasn't all that different than the other Marauders.

Jean-Marie began pulling everything back together to organize all the school-related books and papers, as well as shove everything else back into his bag.

"Ah, I get... many notes from class. Lucienne did—did—" His brow furrowed as he tried to figure out the word he was going for. "Co...py?" he asked slowly.

"Copy, copie," Remus replied and Jean-Marie smiled. That's when Remus realized there was some hair above his upper lip, very faintly. He had a mustache. Remus was tutoring someone with a mustache.