Book Three

Shifting Lines Book Three recounts Remus's third year at Hogwarts. The book was first published on May 18th, 2021. It can be read on Archive of Our Own, FanFiction.net, Wattpad and Wordpress.

## Chapter Fourteen: Only For The Two Of Us

**First day of the school year**

Remus wakes up from nightmare-less sleep. He greets his ghost friends, getting in trouble with a Prefect as he exits Myrtle's bathroom. Then he heads to breakfast, where he examines his new timetable and talks with Lily as well as the Marauders as they gradually show up. Lily and her friends got their ears pierced the previous night, and Sirius considers getting his pierced too. Jean-Marie Charlemagne briefly meets the Marauders. Remus decides he needs to drop Study Group with how full his schedule is. The Marauders hang out at Fort Dragon and come up with the idea of drawing simple maps of Hogwarts for the new first-year students. They do just that. James disappears briefly with his cloak and doesn't tell where he went or what he did. Remus goes to the library alone and ponders over the nature of love.

## Chapter Fifteen: A Long Morning

**Morning of the first day with lessons**

The Marauders aren't pleased about having to wake up earlier than in previous years. Remus gets a letter from Fawley proposing a meeting on Tuesday to figure out a good time for their lessons.

The first Potions class has a written test in which the students identify different ingredients. Sirius blatantly copies Remus's answers. One of the ingredients is werewolf fur, which Avery and Mulciber joke about. Slughorn asks Sirius and Remus to stay after the lesson, and lectures them about cheating.

Remus takes a nap in History of Magic. During the following free period, James explains his Big Prank Idea.

Donald Rivers and Simon Bones choose places near Remus in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Charlemagne asks the class lots of questions to figure out what foundations they have in the subject. In his teaching, Charlemagne highlights the *why*s of situations, and he asks "Why do you think this is so?" many times throughout the lesson. The class also strays into discussing wandless and nonverbal magic and different magical cultures.

Defense ends a few minutes early, and students discuss their opinions on Charlemagne. When the amount of times "Why do you think this is so?" was said is brought up, Nirav Jha offers to find out the exact amount. The Marauders discover Jha is deaf-mute and uses assistive devices. Their staring and questions make Jha uncomfortable, and Rivers and Bones get him away from the situation by going to lunch.

## Chapter Seventeen: In The Library

Remus meets Jean-Marie in the library and gets to know him better. Jean-Marie's notes from his classes are somewhat chaotic, and Remus makes clearer copies of them for him. Jean-Marie tells him about things he has heard from other students - Remus has been called both loopy and cute.

On his way back to the Gryffindor Tower, Remus notices a presence near him - it's James, under his invisibility cloak. James says he was trying to find out the password to the Prefects' bathroom. They separate and Remus starts climbing a stairway with lots of hidden holes, when he hears someone say "Don't use those stairs" - but no one is around. Remus isn't sure whether he actually heard it or not, and starts to wonder whether the thing last spring with Mildritha Young actually happened or if he just imagined it. The thought scares him, and he hurries to the tower, where Peter confirms it did indeed happen.

## Chapter 28: Searching For The Answer

Remus decides he wants to sneak into the library alone to seek for information or a cure to homosexuality. When he borrows the invisibility cloak, he tells the Marauders he's attempting to do more research on lycanthropy. He doesn't find what he wants in the library, the closest thing being an anti-lust potion recipe. He nearly gets caught by Filch and Farrow.

The Marauders get into an argument with Spinnet. Spinnet insults Peter's looks and says that if he and Remus weren't friends with James and Sirius, the two would bully them since they're not nice people. Remus tells him he's wrong and that they were nice to Remus long before they were friends.

Lily, Remus, Sirius and Peter watch the Gryffindor Quidditch team practise. Lily is annoyed at her mother for not wanting to chaperone at the Hufflepuffskeins consert.

Remus tries to interview Moaning Myrtle about World War Two, but she mostly complains about her cousin and in the end gets upset with Remus for not having pimples.

## Chapter 59: I Want To Ride My Bicycle

In Muggle Studies, the class learns about bicycles, which James takes a liking to. Sirius discovers motorcycles. They are also taught about rollerskates, and inspired by the lesson, James and Sirius later magic James' shoes to have wheels and have Sirius pull him down a hallway using a broom. Professor Hawkwood hears about this, but when he asks Lily for a witness report, she lies in Sirius' defense, and the boys only lose ten points for punishment.

Remus finds out that Cassie dumped Sirius, and that it's because he didn't spend enough time with her. Part of that was Sirius spending all Sunday with Remus, which, as Remus points out, didn't happen — the Marauders explain that they've been telling people they've been visiting Remus after sunset to make people think Remus actually is in the Hospital Wing at that time. Remus approves of this.

When Remus is done with Occlumency and it is James and Peter's turn, Remus and Sirius sit in the nearby secret passage and discuss their suspicions about Kirke's potion. Remus doesn't think telling anyone that Snape might have been behind it would be a good idea. He however agrees that they should bring up the potion to McGonagall at least, and almost goes to do it himself right away — but Sirius remembers that Remus is technically still supposed to be in Occlumency. Sirius makes Remus say that Sirius is the smart one (this time), then goes to McGonagall himself.

Lily reminds Remus to do something about Magpie, but he still doesn't know how to. He is Potions partners with Alice and considers asking her to fake date him to make Magpie realize he isn't into her, but the mere idea makes him feel sick.