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

Chapter One Hundred-Forty-Eight - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Author's note: just wanted to say quickly wow can't believe I'm finally here! It's been a long time posting this story, and so many things have happened. A lot bad, some good. But here we are guys! I hope you enjoyed Remus's third year and you can go right on ahead to my story page and hop into book four since I am posting the prologue today as well. Thank you everyone for all the immense support and love!!! See ya in book 4!

-x-

By Thursday morning, the entire school knew Charlemagne had quit. Quit-quit. Gone. Forever. Him and Jean-Marie. There were rumors abound about it and unfortunately some of them came very close to the truth. One of the Slytherins claimed that Charlemagne had used the Day of Lourey just to see young boys in skirts because he was a pervert. Not too many people believed that... but Lucius Malfoy added fuel to it by saying his father had heard from the Black family that Professor Charlemagne was a pervert and that's why he was gone.

"He'll say what he wants for attention," Aegis hissed out after Arithmancy—their final Arithmancy class for the year. They were laden down with loads of homework for the summer which Remus was a little excited for. "All the Slytherins who did not like the Day of Lourey are simply making up reasons."

"I agree," Lily said, before they went their separate ways. However she gave Remus a long look and motioned for him to follow her. Remus told Aegis he'd catch up with him in a moment then went into a closet with Lily, who wanted to know if any of this had to do with Jean-Marie.

"Huh?"

"I mean. Him being gay," she whispered, wringing her hands. "D'you think someone found out about it and was... I don't know... pressuring the Charlemagnes to leave?"

Remus rubbed his inner elbow, wishing she wasn't so near the truth. "I don't know. I doubt it. Jean-Marie... I don't think many people knew that about it, and he seemed fine when he said goodbye to me. He didn't act like anything along those lines happened." That was truth enough, since it had nothing to do with the younger Charlemagne and everything to do with the elder.

Lily gave a shrug. "All right. I was just wondering, what with everything that happened with Frances Locke before."

It took a second for the name to get dredged up from the depths of his memory. The Ravenclaw girl. "No. I don't think it's to do with that," he said.

"Okay..." Lily reached up like she was going to twirl some hair around her finger before remembering she still had the boys cut, and dropped her hand. "So, erm, have you... thought anymore about what happened yesterday?"

A spike of panic burst through the bubble he had carefully formed, and his body began trembling again. "N—no, and I—I'm not going to. Not right now," he said before she could argue, "but over summer. I... want to focus on these last days and being with you and the others."

"I understand. I won't ask again, then."

He smiled and thanked her, the two of them hugging before he slipped out to get to Muggle Studies, glad she wasn't going to keep bothering him about The Incident Which Shall Not Be Referred To Until Saturday Night. As he walked, he pushed the spike back down and repaired the bubble, sending The Incident back into the darkness.

In Muggle Studies, everyone except for Sirius was practically climbing the walls. Sirius actually seemed upset about something, though he cheered up when Lewis had to blow a Muggle trumpet to get their attention. She gave a small speech about how she knew it was the final class and that school was almost out however she still had some things to teach them, and some big things to go over regarding their summer at home. The first thing she did was go around, giving everyone a present which turned out to be a Muggle record. Everyone got a different one, based on one of the quizzes she had given them a couple of weeks ago.