Title from 'Boots of Spanish Leather' by Bob Dylan. Pirate AU. Written in October 2017 for my Halloween Prompts. Written for queenspuppet. Cross posted to ao3.

Enjoy!

Hermione gasped for air, her captors' acrid scent wafting into her nose. It seemed there was no reprieve for her poor lungs. Either she was being dragged through the water, or she had to endure the stench of the unwashed.

"Ye jest wait, girly… wait till the captain sees ye…" One of the pirates barked at her. "Ye were told to stay away, and ye didn't listen…we gave ye plenty warning, we did."

"You took something of mine…" she snapped indignantly. Of course, all that indignance was for naught: she flinched immediately when he raised his hand to her.

There was a chorus of laughter all around, but thankfully the blow never came.

There was less chatter as the tiny rowboats approached the main ship. She could see the skull and crossbones displayed prominently upon the flag. The infamous Jolly Roger.

She was hauled up and over the side, handled roughly, but thankfully the hands stayed on her waist. Not a single one of these brutes tried to manhandle her in any way. No groping at all. She was surprised. It wasn't what she'd been brought up to expect from becoming a pirate's captive.

Her hands were bound tightly behind her back as one of the larger men dragged her with one hand across the deck and towards the captain's quarters.

They rapped on the door and she felt her heart rattling in her chest as it began to thud uncontrollably when the sound of footsteps could be heard approaching from the other side.

The door was thrown open and her breath caught in her throat as the captain walked out and onto the deck.

He wasn't what she expected in the slightest. His hair wasn't long, it was shorn close to his head. His beard was scraggly, not long like literature would have one believe a pirate's beard should be.

Oh, and he was someone she already knew. Someone she both already knew and believed to be dead.

"Remus?" she whispered, her eyes narrowing as she tried to trace the lines on his face with her memory, trying to see the man she'd known before in the man that now stood before her.

His lips parted and closed. And repeated the action a few times before any sound came out. "Let her go…" He turned to face the man who was holding onto her. "Let her go. Right now."

She stumbled slightly forward, but he caught her before she fell. "I've got you. Hermione, I've got you..."

She flexed her hands, rubbing along the rope burns on her wrists. "Remus, what are you doing here? You're a pirate captain? Of this ship?"

He was hanging her sodden dress up over the back of a chair. Her stockings and shoes were in similar condition, the former draped over the arms of the chair and the latter placed at the end of the bed. "Hermione, what are you doing here? How on earth did you end up on my ship?"

"I asked you first." Despite being seated before him in nothing but her drenched undergarments, she still felt completely in control of this situation.

"I'm the captain," he countered. "You have to answer me first." There was a slight twinkle in his eye. The most familiar thing about him, if she was being honest.

He brought over a tub of something. Ointment or some such, proceeding to rub it softly against the rope marks on her wrists. He was bent slightly in front of her, his captain's jacket folded over the end of the bed. His sleeves were rolled up past his forearms. She could see the musculature that had developed there. The callouses on his fingers. The cord-like tendons.

"Your… crew stole something of mine… a few… ports back, actually… " she answered.

"Don't tell me it was a book."

She arched an eyebrow. "Alright. It wasn't a book."

"Hermione Granger…" He straightened slightly.

She was suddenly aware of how she must look. Barely dressed, soaking wet, and laid out before him on his bed. Her nipples pulled tight, pressed against the thin linen of her chemise, likely visible to the man who now stood before her. A man who had seen everything she had to offer before. A man who had sampled, quite enthusiastically. She was unable to stop the flood of desire that pooled between her legs. She curled her bare toes against the wooden floorboards.

He licked his lips, tutting softly before bending down, placing his hands on either side of her knees on the mattress..

Her stomach swooped in anticipation, she almost thought he was going to kiss her, but then he didn't. And then her stomach swooped more when he dropped down to his knees in front of her. His brown eyes never leaving hers as he reached under the bed, lugging out a wooden crate and hefting it up beside her on the thin mattress. "Which one?" he asked, his voice a touch past breathless and she was certain it wasn't from the exertion.

She glanced down at the volumes in the box. There weren't many. And the one in question practically leapt out at her. She ran her finger down the spine of it, but left it where it was. She turned back toward Remus, running the same finger down the bridge of his nose. "This one."

He took the book she'd touched from the box. "This you can have. I'm afraid the other item is needed where it is, Ms .Granger."

She pushed herself forward on her hands, purposefully not taking the book from him. "I thought you were dead, Remus. I'm very angry with you."

"That's curious. You don't seem angry at all."

"Oh, I'm very angry. And you still haven't answered my question."

"We don't come to port again for a fortnight. Do you want the answer now or then?"

She pressed her lips together. She should ask for it now. She knew that. But her heart seemed determined to ignore her brain.

As did her fingers, which reached for him, pulling him close. Her knees, which parted to bring him closer still.

Her lips, which feverishly sought out his. " Then , it would seem. Captain."

He made a sound in the back of his throat. Not unlike a growl, but not like anything else.

His hands, which had been placed on either side of her thighs now gripped at her waist. Tugged at the laces of her chemise. "Hermione…" They were wet, difficult to untie, and she almost wanted to ask him to simply rip the offending garment from her body, but it would be a fortnight before she could repair it.

She might be overcome with lust and desire for a man she thought she'd never see again, but she wasn't completely out of her senses.

He finally untied the laces, loosening and tugging the garment up and over her head.

The chill in the room made her nipples harden even more, pebbling under his gaze as he leaned forward to press his lips to hers.

She impatiently tugged his tunic from his britches, unlacing and pushing them down over his hips in the process.

"You said you'd come back to me…" she whispered, her fingernails digging into the soft skin of his buttocks as he pressed into her, still completely dressed save for a very important area. "You said you would."

"I will," he whispered. "I will, I promise…" His head dropped to her shoulder when his hips met hers.

"How can you?"

He looked torn. Stricken. He was buried to the hilt inside her and there was no escape from her now. Realizing the unfairness of the situation, Hermione captured his lips. "Don't answer that. Not now. Just…make me forget you ever left me, Remus…"

His eyes calmed and he glanced up above her head, nodding towards the head board. "Grab hold up there then, darling, because I have missed you terribly… but I don't want you to bump your head."

Her reply caught in her throat, because the second she'd obeyed his request, Remus did his very best to obey hers, and make her forget that anything else had ever existed, save for the two of them in that ship's cabin, right then.

Leave me something sweet if you liked it! :D