2nd Summer Writing Challenge
Neverland
Warning: violence and mentions of alcohol use and death
Prologue-Before 1911
All children grow up . . . except one. Now, this story does involve him a great deal, but it's not truly about him. This is a love story, which is the worst kind in his opinion because they involve kissing.
Before anything happened to him, he was a little boy named Ron Weasley. His mother had three other children to care for, and he, despite his young age, always felt neglected. His older brothers, William, Charles, and Percy, wanted to grow up soon to earn money to support the family. The first two completed ignored Ron. Percy tried to act like a father and boss Ron around. Ron quickly learned to associate these things with grown-ups and was determined to never become one himself. When he heard the fairies calling to him, he knew he had to go - his parents certainly wouldn't miss him, and nor would his siblings. So the fairies took him to Neverland, a magical island where nothing ever ages. In this strange new playground, Ron Weasley quickly forgot about his family with all of the adventures to have on Neverland. He forgot his name too, this time on purpose. Ron Weasley was a lonely boy meant to grow up. On Neverland, he was Peter Pan, the King.
But living on the island with just the fairies was very lonely. There were no other children to play with. The island natives and pirates were all grown-ups (the natives had one boy, but he wasn't allowed to play and was therefore very dull), and therefore Peter had to hate them. So, using pixie dust from the fairies, he flew back to London to find other boys to play with. Coincidentally, the first house he dropped in on had once been his own. While he had been away, Mrs. Weasley had had three more children, and he found them sleeping in the nursery. They too did not want to grow up and were eager to fly away with him. He couldn't tell the difference between them because they looked exactly the same, so he just called them "The Twins" because that's what they kept calling themselves. They were never apart and both answered to this name, so that worked out perfectly. Ginny was a girl but she could fight just as well as any other boy, so he brought her along too.
He brought them back to Neverland and they had a splendid time. They fought against the pirates and played tricks on the natives. But Ginny kept wandering towards the Mermaid Lagoon.
When she first saw them, she exclaimed, "Oh, how sweet!" Peter gave her a disgusted look. "What? Are mermaids not sweet?"
"They'll sweetly drown you if you get too close," Peter explained. But the little girl would not listen. One day, when The Twins were fighting again and Peter was trying to stop them, Ginny was pulled into the water. She shrieked but her cries were stifled under the water. The native Chief's son, Harry, saw her drowning and dove in to save her, but it was too late. The little girl was no more. Harry pulled her body from the lake, but Peter flew into a crying rage and threw it back in, blaming Harry for what had happened. He was so overcome with sadness and anger that sleet began to fall from the sky and a winter chill set in. The Twins soon convinced him to fly away and bring back new friends. Peter's ears perked at this and he flew off to London. Before he even arrived he had forgotten all about Ginny and his anger at Harry.
So, Peter collected new boys who never wanted to grow up. First was a boy with dark skin named Dean, who feared death almost as much as Peter because the boy's mother had died. Peter renamed him Curly for the tight black curls that made up his hair. Next was an Irish boy named Seamus who wanted to be called Slightly.
"Me mum always complains I'm slightly spoiled," he explained, "and me da always complains she's slightly spoiled and she raised me that way, and then they just fight like grown-ups do." Seamus and Dean and Seamus quickly became as tight as The Twins were. A boy older than them soon joined the ranks. His name was Oliver but he changed his name to Nibs (why is unknown). The last boy to join was a clumsy kid named Neville, and Slightly, upon seeing him, named him Tootles.
"I dunno, he just looks like a Tootles." Slightly shoved playfully at him and Tootles fell to the floor.
With the boys assembled around him, Peter declared, "You are the Lost Boys, and I am your King!" They cheered and danced about before making a house underground in the hollow and roots of a great tree. While the boys built, Peter played the pipes.
They all had great fun together and enjoyed tormenting the pirates. One pirate in particular, Captain Riddle, was rather fun to fight with. The young man (who was old by Peter's standards) was the best sword fighter, and Peter tried his best to duel him on a frequent basis. The Captain's crew, the Death Eaters, were quite scary because they wore skull masks, but Peter was never afraid.
During one dangerous battle, Captain Riddle was close to beating Peter, all the while shouting, "Tell me where he is! Where is he?!" In an act of desperation, Peter flew off the boat and over the water, where he pulled out a river monster and tossed it onto the pirate ship. Lost Boys and Death Eaters alike scattered, and only Captain Riddle was brave enough to fight off the beast. It was a large, snake like creature, which Peter never learned the name of. It was really a basilisk, but Slightly called it a crocodile, and the boys always let Slightly rename things.
The captain lost his sword in the fight and was forced to use any object nearby. He tossed barrels and rope at the monster, but it just kept slithering towards him, breaking off parts of the boat with the tremendous swish of its tail. From above, Peter was laughing triumphantly. With his back against the bow of the boat, Riddle lunged towards the closest objects-a broken hook from his cabin. His boatswain, Pettigrew, was supposed to have repaired it, but the mouse of the man deserted his post and the hook when the battle began.
Sitting on the top mast, Slightly called down to the Lost Boys, "Look! It's 'Captain Hook', the most-" but he began to snicker mid-sentence, "-fearsome pirate in the world!" All the boys laughed as the basilisk charged towards Riddle. Riddle hopped on top of the crate and jumped onto the basilisk's head, slashing one of it' eyes with the broken part of the hook. The beast shrieked and writhed, trying to knock off the pirate. It barreled through the bow of the boat and dove into the water, nearly taking Riddle with it. Peter sprinkled dust on his friends and they began to fly away.
"See ya later . . . Captain Hook!" Peter cackled.
Still holding the bloody hook in his hand, Captain Riddle shuck his fist at Peter. "You'll pay for this Pan!"
By this time, stories of his adventures had spread around the world, but the best ones were told by a little girl named Hermione. Peter would fly to her nursery and sit on the windowsill to listen in on the tales of his great deeds. And it was only a matter of time before he brought her and her brothers to Neverland, where she was to be their new mother.
And the rest of the story you most likely know. The little girl and her brothers had many adventures on Neverland, fighting both pirates and mermaids. They saved the Island Prince, Harry, from the clutches of Captain Hook. Hermione was the "mother" of the Lost Boys, but she was driven away by Peter. She sought out Captain Hook in the hopes of becoming a pirate, but Peter swooped in before she could do so. In the end, Captain Hook was chased away by the crocodile and the Lost Boys and Harry moved in with the Diggorys. Most people believe this is where the story ends-with Peter promising to bring Hermione back for spring. But that was only the beginning.
Present Day-1919
"Forget them, Hermione. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again." His voice was soft and drifted into her ear like a lullaby.
"Never is an awfully long time." Hermione woke up very groggy. Her vision blurred in front of her before she blinked and shielded her eyes from the sunlight. Her hand reached out to pull away the sheets, but she only found sand. Sand? Why is this…Hermione thought before realizing where she was. Oh dear. She wasn't supposed to be here. No, she should be in her head at home where she needed to make breakfast for the boys before heading out to the library.
She scanned her surroundings just to make sure she wasn't dreaming. In front of her was crystal blue waves and light pink beaches. On her right were the slate gray cliffs and caves. On her left there was a jungle in full-bloom. She fell back against the sand and held her hands over her face. She was back in Neverland, that was for certain.
When she moved her hands away and opened her eyes a few moments later, Peter was floating above her.
"Hullo Hermione!"
"Peter!" The little boy had not changed at all in the past 8 years. "Peter, why am I here?"
"It's spring cleaning time, Hermione!"
"No. It's May in London and I'm to begin university at the end of the summer."
"Uni-what?"
She sighed in frustration. "Never mind. How did I get here? I thought I had to fly."
"Well, you were sleeping and very hard to wake up, so I sprinkled an entire bag of pixie dust on you and carried you here. I was going to bring you to your hut, but I got tired and dropped you on the beach instead." From behind him, a purple orb of light darted around before landing on the boy's shoulder. "Lav thought it as a good idea too." The fairy nodded her head. Hermione internally groaned.
Lavender was a good friend and fairy to Peter, but loyal to a fault. On multiple occasions, Lavender had tried to have Hermione killed, including coercing the Lost Boys into shooting her and trying to sacrifice her to Captain Hook. But hopefully she could turn a new leaf with the fairy now that she was not competing with the purple fey for Peter's affections.
"Listen, Peter. I appreciate that you wanted to have me clean for you and that you even remembered me. But I can't do that right now."
"Why?" The boy cocked his head to the side, wide-eyed and oblivious.
"Because I want to go to school," she explained.
"You want to go to school? Are you crazy?" She rolled her eyes-Peter would never understand her desire for knowledge or how special it was that she was being allowed into a normally all-male medical school. It reminded her of a conversation they had long ago on this very subject when she tried to convince Peter to come and live with the Diggorys (which now included the Lost Boys and Harry).
"Will they take me to school?" He asked.
"Yes."
"And then…to an office?"
"I suppose so."
"And then…will I have to have children to look after."
"If you wish."
"I don't think I'd be a very good father or student or worker. I'd rather spend my time being happy."
"School makes me happy." He crinkled his nose at this.
"Well, you're a strange bird, Hermione Diggory."
"Peter, I need you to take me back." She stood up and dusted off her nightgown.
"Nope! You'll grow up if you do that, and then you'll be a real mother. I want you to be only my mother and stay here with me."
"That's very sweet Peter, but I don't belong here."
"Too bad!" Peter's face matched his bright hair and he pouted. "You need me to help you fly home, and I won't let you leave until you play with me!" He crossed his arms.
"If you act like that, I won't do anything with you." Hermione had no time for this; she had to get home. Peter cried in anger and flew off. Lav hovered in the air for a few seconds before sticking out her tongue at Hermione and flying off.
Hermione wished she had Cedric or Colin on even Neville here to help her talk some sense into Peter. But Cedric had died a year ago in the Great War and Colin and Neville were at home with the others. She knew that Peter wouldn't help her unless she gave in, but she was in no mood to placate a bratty child right now. She recalled her conversations about Neverland with Harry, who knew the island almost as well as Peter. The natives who had taken him as one of their own, and although they aged, Harry never could. Unfortunately, they stuck with their own kind and weren't keen on strangers. The fairies were scared of humans, and the mermaids drowned them. Her only hope of getting off the island was the pirate ship. Perhaps she could pay them for passage once she was back in England. With this hope in mind, she trudged through the sand to find The Jolly Roger.
-x-
On her walk through the rocks, she thought of her last adventure here in Neverland. Although it was a mostly happy and enjoyable experience, Peter's childish anger and rudeness had tainted it. Looking back on the situation, she could not believe how much she adored him, and how much she had fooled herself into thinking he returned her affections.
"Peter, what are your real . . . feelings?" They were looking through the jungle to find Lavender. Peter thought she was hiding, but Hermione sensed that the fairy might have been kidnapped by Hook.
"Feelings?" Peter pushed aside a palm frond and let it snap back into place, nearly knocking Hermione off her feet.
"What do you feel? Happiness? Sadness? Jealousy?"
"Jealousy?" Peter snorted before returning to his search.
"Love?" She questioned, trying to move a little closer to him.
"Love? I've never heard of it."
"I think you have Peter. I daresay you've felt it yourself, for something . . . or someone." She was hoping that Peter would realize how much he liked her.
He leaned into her ear and whispered, "Never." He drew back and crossed his arms. "Even the sound of it offends me."
"Peter-" She reached out to touch him but he shied away.
"Why do you spoil everything? We have fun, don't we? I taught you to fight and fly! What more could there be?"
"There is so much more."
"What? What else is there?"
"I don't know. I think it becomes clearer when you grow up."
"Well, I won't grow up. You can't make me. I'll banish you like I did Lavender!"
"I will not be banished!"
"Then go home! Go home and grow up! And take your feelings with you!" Despite his agitation, he managed to fly up and zoom away, vanishing above the tree line.
She called after him, "Peter! Peter, come back! Peter!" A part of her wanted him to love her back, but how could he love when he had the emotional range of a teaspoon?
She knew she had reached the ship when she heard drunken singing coming from a cave. The pirates had hidden The Jolly Roger within Skull Rock. She marched right in and walked up the gang plate and onto the ship, where is seemed most of the crew was drinking itself silly. She spotted the boatswain, who the Lost Boys had called Smee. As she approached the little man, the male members of the crew whistled at her but she ignored them.
"Smee, I need you to take me to the captain." He glanced up at her with a dazed look in his eye.
"A cap'in, you say?"
"Yes. I require passage back to England."
"Yur funny," he slurred as the crew laughed.
"I'll pay you handsomely if you take me back." But even the mention of money could not stir his interest.
"Unless you can pay me 'n beer," he paused to let out a smelly burp, "then I don't care none," he took a full look at her night gown and gave her an approving look, "little lady." Hermione took the knife off the nearby crate and held it to his throat.
"I will tolerate none of this behavior. I am Red-Handed Jill, the teller of tales, and if you don't take me to the captain right now," her voice was loud and shrill, causing all the merriment on the ship to quiet, "then you'll be the main character in my next ghost story!" She pricked his neck to make her point. His beady eyes grew large in fear and he dropped to the floor from his seat.
"Madame," he groveled at her feet "don't kill me! Please don't kill me!" He clung to her legs but she kicked him aside.
"Then take me to the captain." Smee nodded his head in rapid succession and practically crawled across the deck to the captain's office. The other crew members left room for them to pass and gazed at Hermione in drunken awe. Smee rapped on the captain's door.
"Leave me alone." A muffled voice commanded through the wood. Smee shrugged and tried to shimmy away but Hermione pointed the knife at him again.
"Cap'in. There's someone out here who wants," Hermione sticks the knife into the small of his back, "no! Needs, she needs to talk to you." Turning back to her, he blubbers, "Please don't kill me. I don't wanna die." She gestures for him to open the door. "Are you bonkers? He'll kill me if I bug him!" She raised an eyebrow and checked her reflection in the knife's surface. "Ooh, I hate this. Either way one of ya kills me." He moved to open the door, but the captain was doing so on the other side, and Smee stumbled into his commanding officer once the door was open.
Smee looked up, startled. "Please don't kill me, cap'in. She made me dis-urb you," he points to Hermione. The captain followed the boatswain's dirty fingers to the face of a young woman. She was older now than the last time he had seen her, but she still looked the same. Same wild hair, large teeth, brown eyes, freckled nose, and powerful chin. She recognized him as well. Hermione couldn't believe that Captain Hook was standing before her very eyes. Green eyes met her with relative opaqueness-she couldn't sense any emotion behind them. His dark hair was trimmed short but had forgotten to shave his face, letting a five o'clock stubble mask his face.
"Leave us." Smee stood there between them before the captain took his gun out and pointed it at his face. "I said, leave us." Smee lifted his hands up in defeat.
"Alright, alright, just don't kill me, please!" Hermione stepped aside so that the rat of a man could staggered away. "You two deserve each other," he burped before grabbing another jug of ale. The captain gestured for her to come inside and quickly shut the door behind them.
"What are you doing here?" His voice is anxious.
"Me? What about you? You're supposed to be dead!"
"Why would I be dead?"
"The river monster-" He cut her off.
"It's a basilisk."
"Well, whatever it was, it chased you away."
"Just because it pursued me doesn't mean it ate me." He sat down at his desk and Hermione sat across from him. His cabin had a dark wooden interior with green furnishings. This pirate seemed to have a very strict color code.
"So, why are you here?"
"I need your help." He picked up his infamous hook off of the desk and toyed with it.
"Oh, like last time? When you sauntered onto my ship with crocodile tears in your eyes and the demon boy ambushed me?"
"No! I came in earnest last time-I wasn't expecting Peter to follow me." Her experiences on the pirate ship were probably some of her favorites. Hook had insisted on teaching her how to properly use a sword, and after that, the crew sat around her and listened to her stories. But Peter had heard her somehow and attacked the pirates.
"I've lost three ships to that brat, I'm not about to lose another." He dropped the hook in a loud clatter and crossed his arms. "Why are you back? I thought you escaped."
"Peter kidnapped me because he wanted a new plaything."
"And what? You've finally gained common sense and grown tired of the twit?"
"Somewhat. But I also need to get back because I have to move into university in a few months."
"They're letting women into college now? God save the Queen!"
"Excuse you! It is 1919, and I will not tolerate any of your sexism. And Victoria is dead, her grandson rules now."
"I've been here longer than I thought..."
"I would like to hire you and your crew to take me back to England."
"No." From somewhere in his desk, he pulls out a glass decanter of alcohol.
"No? What do you mean 'no'?"
"No. I will not take you." He rummages around in the desk before pulling out two glasses.
"Why? Is it the money? I'll be able to pay you handsomely once we dock in London."
"I don't want your money," he murmured.
"Then what is it?" Her voice quivers with desperation, but she stands up, both hands firmly rooted on the desk. "Why won't you help me?"
"I would love to leave just as much as the next bloke," he opens the decanter and pours himself a drink. "But I can't," he says remorsefully as he downs his whole glass, shaking his head back from the bite of the drink. He pours another glass for himself and one for Hermione. "You're going to need this." He hands the drink to her and clinks their glasses together.
"I'll give you a brief version of my story. Harry and I grew up in an orphanage together-practically brothers. I was only a year older-about the same age split as you and your brother-Cedric, right? Anyway, the fairies brought him here to have them be there king, and you know what kind of man he is-he kindly refused and chose to live with the natives instead. They're actually the people of the missing island Roanoke."
"That explains a lot." She gingerly takes a sip and cringes at the pungent taste.
"I wanted to go out and find him, but no reasonable person would believe he was taken by fairies. The only ones who would listen were the pirates. So, I naturally joined them and eventually became the captain. By the time we finally reached Neverland, Harry had forgotten all about me. I was now a 21 year old idiot looking for a friend who didn't even know he existed anymore."
"So your attempts to kill him were-"
"Rescue attempts gone wrong."
"Alright. But why can't you leave?"
"My crew found a treasure chest cursed by the spread of innocent blood-some girl was killed by the mermaids. Her blood cursed any person who possessed gold from that chest to be stuck on this god forsaken island until all the pieces were returned."
"How many are you still missing?"
"Two, both of which Pan has. And he won't give them up because otherwise he loses his favorite toys."
"How can Peter leave the island if he has them?"
"Only Peter can control the island-it's his Neverland. Plus, he didn't directly steal the treasure, he only looted what had already been stolen."
"What does he have?"
"There's a silver diadem and a locket."
Her eyes grew wide; she knew exactly what they were. "I've seen them both. The diadem is on top of his chair-he only wears it after a successful hunt. The locket he wears around his neck, but that can be slipped off when he's sleeping."
"There's no way my crew or I will be able to get them, though." Hook takes a mournful swig of the drink.
"Not a problem-I'll snatch them." She stands up and downs her drink before moving towards the door.
"What? Just like that, you're going to help us?"
"I really need to get home, and it sounds like you do too." He stands up but hesitates by his desk. "Come on, where's your sense of adventure?"
He cracks a smile, "You haven't changed a bit." He moves towards her and they walk out of the door. "You would have made a good pirate."
"I guess I am one now."
"Do you still go by Red-Handed Jill?"
"Only when I need to scare drunken pirates." She shields her eyes from the sunlight peeking through the cavern. "I don't think we've ever been formally introduced," she sticks out her hand, "I'm Hermione Granger."
"Tom Riddle." They shake hands. The crew notices the exchange and gawk. "Everyone, this is Captain Granger, and you will follow her orders the same way you would mine. Understood?" Tom starts spouting off commands and the crew jumps into action.
-x-
Sneaking into the tree house and stealing the diadem was simple for Hermione. She came back within the hour and tossed the crown at Tom. "One down, one to go." But the locket would prove far more challenging. Peter always wore it and rarely slept, so it was difficult to figure out the timing. By Hermione's calculations, they had spent the entire summer trying to grab the locket.
That summer was eventful to say the least. She had shed her nightgown and dawned pants and a loose shirt-perfect for working on a ship. Her scarlet red coat made her stand out against the crew's ensemble of grey and brown. "It suits you," Tom noted when she first slipped it on. Her hands became calloused from hard work and sword dueling-mostly with Tom, who was an expert swordsman.
Over hours of standing close to each other and gazing at maps, sitting near each other reading books on curse breaking, and fighting back to back, Hermione and Tom had grown undoubtedly accustomed to one another. They knew what each other's movements, actions, and thoughts before they even had been done. The crew talked about it after hours-how strangely affectionate and protective he was of her, never leaving her to fight by herself unless it was dire and always siding with her against his own crew.
While the other pirates made traps to catch Peter, she negotiated with other traveling pirates and lost ships for provisions for their trip back to England. She also cautioned them against taking anything from this island. Those few ships who tried to attack The Jolly Roger paid the price of facing both Hermione and Tom's wrath. Soon, Hermione was being called pirate queen, and other seafarers bowed in her presence. Tom noted how well she fit the role and wished things could be like this forever. But time was running out, and she only had one week till school started.
"You can leave with them, you know," he would remind her every time she let another merchant ship slip away. He felt selfish for being secretly happily every time she refused to leave.
"That's true. But then you also have to know I'm not going to leave you to fend for yourself against Peter. "
"I've done quite well one my own for the past fifty or so years, thank you," he'd tease, and then the subject would be dropped until the next boat arrived.
As they watched yet another ship leave, he warned her, "You're running out of time-your school starts in six days."
"I know," she sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"They would take you with-" she cuts him off.
"I know! You tell me this every time I don't leave!" Her outburst of anger at him takes him off guard.
"Why are you yelling at me? I'm just trying to make sure you get home!" He shouts back at her.
"And I'm trying to make sure you get home! When will you get it through you thick skull? Either both of us leave or both of us stay!"
"Why are you being so obstinate about this?" He exclaims in utter frustration.
"Because I'm not leaving you!" It comes out angrier than she meant it to sound. He closes the space between them, wrapping her up in his arms. "I'm not leaving you," she repeats, this time with tears creeping out of her eyes. He touches his forehead to hers and their noses lightly bump against each other when he lifts up her chin.
"Nor I you," he murmurs, and his lips fall into place against hers. Like two pieces of a puzzle, they fit perfectly together. But the moment is interrupted when Crouch, the navigator, arrives.
"Captains! They've spotted Peter on the beach-he's by himself, no fairy nor nuthin'." Hermione and Tom share a hopeful look.
"Have everyone ready to fight," Tom commands, and Crouch runs off to repeat the directions.
"Maybe I could go talk to him-he might give me the necklace," Hermione says aloud.
"We'll try it your way, but if that doesn't work…"
"We will give us the necklace, whether it's buy coercion or force." There's a glimmer in her eye that always appears before a battle, and it makes his pulse race to think about it. She's a ball of fire and she's mine.
-x-
The other pirates hid in the foliage while Hermione approached Peter. Tom stood under a palm tree just a few feet away just in case Peter would not comply.
"Peter?" He looked up from wood carving. He was sitting in the sand, carving a sword out of the wood.
"Hullo Hermione! I was wondering where you went-you've been gone for a few hours now." He has no concept of time Hermione thought. "Are you ready to play?"
"No, Peter. I actually came to ask you about something else."
"Oh…what is it? You don't want to leave, do you?"
"No, of course not," she lied. "I wanted to ask about your necklace."
"This old thing?" Peter pulls it out from under his vest. "What about it?"
"Where did you get it?"
"Took it from Hook," he shrugged nonchalantly. "Why?"
"Well Peter, you see, it actually belongs to my friend, and he really needs it back now."
"I'm your only friend on the island, who are you talking about?" His voice is calm but his eyes are clearly panicked.
"My friend Tom."
"If I don't know him, you shouldn't either." Peter's voice is authoritative and sets her on edge.
"Look, Peter, I just need to give him the necklace, and then I'll come back and play." She feels guilty for lying again, but it's time for her to go home.
"Why doesn't he come over here and grab it for himself?" Peter gestures to where Tom is standing by the palm tree.
"Tom's just shy Peter. Now," she says, crouching down to where he's sitting. "why don't you give me that old thing, and then we can play together? Doesn't that sound like fun?"
Peter thinks on this for a moment before answering. "Do you know why I wear so many trinkets on my vest?" She shakes her head 'no'. "It's so I don't forgot the owner. My memory is so little, and it needs help. Like, you see this?" He pulls the left side of his vest closer to her so she could see the blue ribbon tied over his heart. "That's your hair ribbon-from the night we met." He releases his test and picks up his tools. "It may be why I keep thinking your little when you're not anymore."
"Why do you keep the necklace then?"
"So I remember Captain Hook…and so he can't leave me like you did." She places a hand on his shoulder but he shrugs it off.
"Peter…"
"I don't want to hear." He crosses his arms and huffs
"Well, you need to. Neverland may be your home, but it isn't ours. We need to go back to our home now."
"We?"
"Yes, we."
"You and me?"
"You can come with us if you want." Tom began walking over, seeing that the conversation was not progressing very much.
"Ack!" Peter screamed, jumping to his feet. "You're friends with Captain Hook-you betrayed me!"
"How is being friends with him betraying you?"
"He's my sworn enemy!"
"I fight you with a prop sword-it's not real." Tom tosses the sword to the ground before Peter.
"You're lying!" Peter cries frantically. He had a terrible memory, but the necklace did allow him to remember one conversation-right before Hermione left the island last time.
Peter had been dueling Hook, when Hook leaned in and whispered, "She was leaving you, Pan. You're incomplete – nothing but a boy. And one day, you will be replaced. Another will go on adventures with her. His name . . . husband."
"No!" Peter screamed, charging towards Tom. Hermione moved between them and held Peter's shoulders. "Let me go!"
"No-not until you promise not to hurt him or duel him."
"Will hurt him hurting you?"
"Yes." She looks back at Tom, but Peter takes this moment to steal her sword.
"Good!" Peter wiggles out of her grasp and flies above her.
He slashed at Tom, but the pirate had grown very good at dodging the rascal.
"I have no weapon-how do you expect us to fight?" Tom's laughing at him now, sticking out his arms and trying to catch him. "You're like a bizarre butterfly!"
"You stole her!" Peter jumped on Tom knocking him to the floor. But soon they were both on their feet.
"I didn't steal her mate-she came to me, remember?"
"Agh!" Peter tucked his head in and ran at Tom, but the pirate stepped out of the way and Peter fell. Now embarrassed, he felt bolt of rage strike through him. He picked up his sword and snuck behind the pirate, who was walking back to Hermione.
"No!" Hook turned around and Peter jabbed Hermione's sword into his chest. Tom inhaled and tried to grab out for peter's vest. "You can't leave now-not ever." Peter pulled out the sword and tossed it onto the sand.
"Bad form there-attacking an unarmed opponent. Bad form indeed." Tom wobbled a bit before collapsing, groaning in pain.
"You made the wrong friend, Hermione. And now you've made the wrong enemy." Peter flew away with tears hot in his eyes.
"Tom!" She ran over to where he had keeled over. His hand was a little above his heart, where Peter had slashed him. "Hold on, I'm going to patch this up as best as I can." She ripped off her sleeve and used it as a tourniquet, wrapping it around his shoulder and chest as best she could. "You're going to be alright, you're going to be alright," she kept repeating to him, but it was more for her sake.
"Who were you named after?" He looks up at her with an odd look in his eye.
"What?" She wipes away some sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Were you named after the Grecian myth or the Shakespearian tragedy?"
"Thomas, that's not important at the moment. Right now, we need to stop the blood flow and mobilize you to ship so that Snape can help you." She pressed another scrap of sleeve over the wound and he covered her hand with his own.
"You're beautiful enough to be a daughter of Helen," he murmurs with a dreamy look in his eye. Hermione can't help but feel a blush creeping up her neck and covering her cheeks. He blinked a few times, "I think I'm going to rest my eyes for a moment." His eyes flutter close and his head turns to the side in the sand.
"No, no, no! Tom I need you to stay awake!" She cups his face with her free hand and tries to turn his face upright. "You said you wouldn't leave me-keep that promise. Please!" Snape and Crouch ran over and carried him away.
-x-
While Tom was recovering, Hermione at by his bedside the entire time. A few days later, when Tom had made a significant recovery, Hermione had a visitor.
"Do you love him?" Hermione was startled by the voice and she spun around. Peter was sitting in the windowsill of the cabin.
"What?"
"Do you love him?" Peter repeated his question.
"Peter, I don't think you know what that word means."
"That's true, I don't know. But you do." Hermione felt her heart clench up. "Did I hurt him?"
"Yes, Peter, very much so." Tom groaned in his sleep. "I didn't mean to," Peter explained, "I thought we were just playing like always." This is your biggest pretend yet-you know what you did Peter. She couldn't look at him right now, so she stared down at the wooden floor and held on tight to Tom's hand.
"You think everything's a game Peter," she mutters under her breath.
"This is fairy medicine-it should make him feel better." She takes the glass container of shimmering gold liquid and sets it on the night stand. "Take this too." Peter rips the locket from his neck. "I don't want to remember him when you all leave." She noticed that he still had her hair ribbon tied onto his vest, and she wondered if he would one day rip that off too and forget her. "Oh, and I made the ship float already-you just have to navigate home."
"Why are you doing this?"
"He makes you happy and you love each other. I don't get it," Peter shrugs, "but I know that's a kind of magic that's stronger than pixie dust."
"Thank you Peter." She holds his hand before he lifts off the cabin floor.
"Happy to make you happy!" isn't that what love is? Peter gives her a toothy grin before flying out of the window.
A quiet settles over the room as she dabs a small amount of the medicine onto his wound. "So you do love me," Tom murmurs in his sleep.
"Oh, shut up," she stage whispers.
"It's okay, I'd love me too," he teases her and she swats his arm.
"Get some sleep," Hermione cautions, rising from the bed. "I'll have Smee drop off the last of the gold and then we'll be able to head home." He yawns and his eyes blink in slow succession as he is overcome with sleep.
"And where will home be?"
"Hopefully at university and the little house on Darling Lane."
"How will your father react?"
"He'll be upset at first, but I think he might like having a son-in-law."
"Hermione, are you proposing to me?" She laughs and rolls her eyes. "I can't have you taking all my jobs, you know."
"Perhaps you should fix that." She leans in and kisses him on the cheek, and he holds her chin.
"When I can bend down on one knee and you have graduated with your medical degree and I with my law degree and enough money to buy us a house full of books and a ring to go with, then I can officially ask you. But for right now, will you marry me?" She narrows the distance between them and kisses him quickly.
"Yes. That'll do." She moves away to the door before turning around. "You better hold up on your end of the bargain though, Captain. I'd like to see that kind of a library."
"Aye, aye, my Queen. As you wish." They share a smile before she closes the door. She walks into the sunlight and onto the main deck. She tosses Smee the locket and he tucks it a treasure chest before dumping it overboard and letting it return to Neverland. She makes her way to the wheel, where Crouch is waiting.
"Where to, Captain?"
"Home, sailor." Crouch shouts off orders to his underlings and in no time the sails are raised they're pointed towards the second star.
Epilogue-1933 and Beyond
Harry and Tom were reunited, and the former pirate fit in surprisingly well with the oddball Diggory family. Cedric had been the only natural born-Diggory, but that made no difference. Fred and George fought in the Great War, but only George came home. He opened a toy shop with a college friend-Lee Jordan. Oliver went on to be a football player and was on the Olympic team. Seamus and Dean became song writers for commercials and moved to America where they were a big success. Harry met a strange feminist named Luna who only wore pants but who was very sweet, and while she wrote for a newspaper, he taught at a university and raised their children.
Tom held true to his word, and after they both finished university with their desired degrees, he bought #14 on Darling Lane from Mr. Diggory, and for their honeymoon, they traveled around Europe on an odd looking pirate ship looking for every possible bookshop on the coast. Hermione and Tom had two children, Rose and Cedric. They loved all the stories their mother told them, but their favorite was of Peter Pan, and Hermione told them all she could remember in the very nursery from which the famous flight had taken place. It was Rose and Cedric's nursery now, and every night before bed, Rose would sit by the window with her mother and gaze into the night sky and look for Peter.
"What do you see?" Rose would ask her mother.
"I don't think I see anything tonight," Hermione would reply as she picked her daughter up to tuck her into bed.
"Please tell me a story mummy." Little Cedric would beg as politely as possible.
"Alright, just one," she would give in. On one very special night, she was once again telling Peter's story. "The foolish fellow tried to stick it on with soap, and when he couldn't the cried, and that woke me, and I sewed it on for him."
"Mother, you missed a bit," Rose interrupted, now knowing the story better than her mother. Her seven year old memory was quite impressive. "When you saw him sitting on the floor crying, what did you say?"
"I sat up in bed and I said, 'Boy, why are you crying?'"
"Yes, that was it," Rose sighed happily.
"And then he flew Uncle Ced and Uncle Colin and I all away to Neverland. And we saw the fairies and the pirates and the Indians and the mermaid's lagoon, and the home under the ground, and the little house."
"Yes!" Her children cheered with excitement. Breaking from their usual chain of dialogue, Rose asked, "Which did you like best of all?" At that moment, Tom entered the nursery and was leaning on the door frame. Hermione looked back at him and they shared a smile.
"I think I liked the pirates best of all."
"So do I," Rose nodded.
"Me too!" Cedric added. "I wanna be a pi-rut when I grow up, just like Daddy was!" Tom came over to his son's bed and sat down, rustling the five year old boy's hair.
"Aye, and where's your hook, laddie?" Tom formed a make believe hook using his fore finger and growled in the pirate way before tickling little Ced.
"Mother, what was the last thing Peter ever said to you?"
Hermione thought for a moment before answering. "The last thing he ever told me was, 'Just always be waiting for me, and then some night you will hear me crowing."
"Have you heard it?"
"No. He forgot all about me."
"That's sad." Cedric looked over to his mother with his big brown eyes. "You didn't get to go back to Neverland."
She shook her head. "But I did, sweetheart. I went back and became a pirate queen. And then I kidnapped your father and took him back with me so that I could marry him." Tom let out a hearty laugh.
"So that's how you're telling it now?"
"And we've made our own adventures and stories to share." Tom reached across the small space between the two beds and held her hand. She squeezed it and he squeezed back.
"And they've been the best adventures of my life." He murmurs under his breath while gazing into her eyes. Cedric crinkled his nose and shook his head. Rose was still focused on the Peter Pan conversation.
"What did his crow sound like?"
"It was like this," Tom said, trying to imitate Peter's crow.
"No, it wasn't," Rose said gravely, "it was like this-" and she did it even better than her father.
Hermione was a little startled, "Sweetheart, how can you know?"
"I often hear it when I am sleeping," Rose replied.
"Well, it's time for bed." Tom rose from his spot and tucked Ced in while Rose was tucked in by her mother. "Perhaps you'll hear his crow again tonight." They kissed the children goodnight before moving to the fireplace. The children fell asleep quickly, and Tom and Hermione played chess while they waited. They had no dog to watch over the children, so Hermione and Tom watched the children themselves until they too were overcome with sleep and adjourned to their own bedroom.
In the middle of the game, they heard a crow. Then the window blew open as of old, and Peter dropped in on the floor. He was exactly the same as ever, the little boy with flaming red hair and mischievous grin. A new fairy was beside him, but the little orb of a thing kept quiet.
"Hullo Hermione," he said, not noticing any difference, for he was thinking chiefly of himself; and in the dim light her blue dress might have been the nightgown in which he had first seen her.
"Hello Peter," she replied faintly. Tom was hidden in the shadows and Peter did not see him.
"Where's Cedric?" He asked, suddenly missing the third bed.
"Cedric is here, but this is a different Cedric than the one you knew." Peter still didn't understand.
"Is Colin asleep?" He asked with a careless glance at Rose.
"That is not Colin," she replied.
Peter turned his head to gaze at the child in the bed. "Oh. Is it a new one?" He sticks his thumb out to indicate Rose.
"Yes."
"Boy or girl?"
"Girl." By now he should have understood, but the little boy was still as aloof as ever.
"Are you ready to go?" He held out his hand.
"Peter, are you expecting me to fly away with you?"
"Of course; that's why I've come." He added a little sternly, "Have you forgotten it's spring cleaning time?" She could see the blue hair ribbon still over his heart and her own broke a little to think that he believed her to be so young.
"I can't go Peter; I've forgotten how to fly."
"You're as forgetful as I am!" He laughed, "Oh, I'll just teach you again and we'll be off." She let out a sigh and rose from her spot against her husband's silent pleading. "What is it?" he voice was sharp with fear.
"I will turn up the light and then you can see for yourself." Peter trembled in his place, sinking to the floor with unhappy thoughts.
"No! Don't turn up the light!" But she did so anyway and Peter saw her, truly saw her, for the first time in fourteen years. "Ack!" he cried upon the sight of her. "You're old!"
"Excuse you," she scolded, "I'm not even 33 yet!"
"You grew up!" He shouted.
"I grew up a long time ago, Peter."
"But you promised not to!" He stomped his foot, and Hermione had half a mind to slap him for his rude behavior.
"I promised to never forget you. I never said I wouldn't grow up." Tom stood up from his spot and wrapped his arm around her.
"Who are you?" Peter asked, titling his head in curious disgust and backing away.
"I'm her husband." Peter didn't recognize Tom as being Captain Hook. He didn't even remember who Captain Hook was; he couldn't without the locket.
"No, you're not."
"Yes I am," Tom lifted his left hand to show the golden band that sat on his ring finger. "And these are our children.
"No, they're not!" Peter dashed towards Rose with his dagger raised, but he dropped it when he saw that this little girl looked just like her parents. He sat down on the floor instead and sobbed. His cries woke Rose, and she immediately sat up and leaned over her bed so that her nose bopped his forehead.
"Boy, why are you crying?" At these words, Peter's pointed ears perked, as if activating some memory within his being.
He rose and bowed to her, saying, "Hullo."
She bowed back to him from the bed, "Hullo."
"Your mother curtsied," he glumly noted, wiping away glittering tears.
"I've heard. But I'm not her. I'm Rose."
"My name is Peter Pan," he told her.
"Yes, I know." She grinned.
Little Cedric now woke up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"What's a-" he yawned, "going on?"
Peter flew up into the air and hung upside down in front of the boy's face.
"Hullo," Peter said, greeting the boy. Ced gave a sleepy giggle before yawning again.
"Hello Mist-ur Pan."
"I came back for my mother to take her to Neverland," Peter explained to Rose as he did cartwheels in the air.
"I thought as much. We've been waiting for you!" She smiled up at him and he kicked his heels in the air. He sprinkled pixie dust on her head and Cedric's and they instantly flew up into the air. They circled around and around the room, and their parents watched from below with concerned amusement. The little fairy took a liking to Ced and they played patty-cake while floating around the nursery. Peter grabbed a hold of Rose and whispered in her ear. She nodded eagerly at whatever he had said.
Landing with his feet on either side of Cedric's bedposts, he declared while pointing to Rose, "She is my new mother!" The little girl descended and gave him an adoring look.
"He really does need a mother," Rose tried to persuade her parents.
"Yes, I know," Hermione admitted. Tom patted her hand before turning to Peter.
"I want them back soon, Pan." There was a wicked glint in his eye that caught Peter's attention. But he ignored it as he did many things and laughed instead.
"It's just for spring cleaning," he explained.
"He wants me always to do his spring cleaning." Again, Rose gave him an affectionate smile. The children hugged their parents good-bye before flying out the window. As they flew away, Tom and Hermione could hear some of the conversation between Peter and Rose.
"My father was Captain Hook and my mother was the pirate queen Red-Handed Jill," Rose bragged to Peter.
"Who's Captain Hook?" he asked with interest when she spoke of his enemy.
"Don't you remember," she asked, amazed, "how you threw a basilisk at him and dueled him for my mother's hand in marriage?"
"I forget them after I kill them," he replied carelessly. Rose was confused. Peter obviously hadn't killed her father, for he was married her mother and was her dearest papa and companion. Why would Peter believe he'd kill the man? Even stranger, when she expressed her doubtful hope (for she was her mother's daughter, after all) that Lavender would be glad to meet her he said, "Who's Lavender?"
"O Peter," she gasped, but even when she explained he could not remember.
"There's such a lot of them," he said. "I expect she is no more." He was right, for fairies don't live long, but they are so little that a short time seems a good while to them. His new companion, Pansy, was just as vibrant in color and personality, so Peter never really noticed the difference between the two.
"Do you think they'll be safe?" Hermione asked her husband.
"They're our children, so of course not." They watched as the trio disappeared behind the second star. "Perhaps Rose will talk some sense into him and he'll finally grow up," he said, trying to console her.
"Perhaps." She smiled. He closed the window and turned off the lamp, but they fell asleep on the window seat, still looking up into the night sky.
Rose would not succeed in taming Peter. He forgot spring cleaning and did not return for two years. When he finally showed up, she flew away with Peter in the frock she'd woven from leaves and berries in Neverland, and her one fear was that he might notice how short it had become; but he never noticed, he had so much to say about himself. She looked forward to talking about their adventures, but new adventures replaced old ones from his mind. By the time she was fifteen, he had forgotten the spring cleaning another two times. Upon noticing she looked more like a woman than a girl (he still had her pink ribbon under her mother's blue one), he tried to take only Ced, but the boy would not leave his sister.
Peter, angry and embarrassed, would not return until after World War II, when both Rose and Ced had married and had children of their own. Rose married a fellow Oxford classmate Robbie Turner. They traveled for an extensive amount of time before settling down in Australia. Cedric became a successful children's author, later marrying Harry's daughter, Lucy, who was coincidentally an illustrator. After his mother retired from her medical practice and his father resigned from Parliament, they moved out to a smaller home in the country, and Ced and his family moved in. His children would also go on to fly with Peter Pan, and his daughter Wendy would tell Peter all the stories she knew about him, and he would listen eagerly. But even she, the best story teller and mother of them all, could not convince the elfish boy to grow up. And when Wendy grows up she will have a daughter who will be Peter's mother, and thus it will go on, so long as Hermione's descendants are alive and long for adventure (it's like magic in their blood).
The End