Aaaand Chapter 2...

Disclaimer - I don't own HP. Cool.


Chapter 2:

James Potter was waiting patiently, or not so patiently he supposed, for news of his best friends. He was thoroughly worried about having sent Remus and Sirius onto a ship that had a Captain with many a story of the terrors he'd brought on people who'd crossed him. James didn't plan on crossing the dread pirate Evans and he hoped that would spare himself and his friends lives. James was doubting himself now. Why did he send Sirius over? Why didn't he send Peter instead? Sure, Peter was frightened of just about everything, but at least he wouldn't back talk and possibly anger a murderous pirate.

A creak in the hallway interrupted James thoughts and caused him to stand abruptly. Having spent his whole life with his three best mates, he had come to recognize each of their footsteps. Sirius' ridiculously loud gallop, Remus' steady stride, and Peter's clumsy unsure steps, this wasn't any of theirs. He crossed to the door and drew his sword cautiously. He heard another creak, closer to the door now. James waited another moment, then he flung the door wide and jumped out, sword raised in anticipation. He knocked the sneaking man to the ground and held the sword to his neck.

The man James now sat on had greasy, long black hair, a long hooked nose, and beady eyes. James snarled at the man and grinned in satisfaction as the eyes stared strictly at his sword.

"What are you doing on my ship you slimy snake?" James stood slowly, sword pointed at the gross looking man, whose eyes rose to James' face. He spat at James, causing him to let out a loud laugh. "As disgusted as I am by your germs touching me I won't be removing my sword from your neck just because you spit at me." The man glared darkly.

"My Captain will be angry if you kill me." The man sneered at James, who brought a hand to his hair and mussed it up in thought.

"Stand." He ordered. James lead the man to the crossing plank and shoved him across. James held his sword to the man's throat after they'd landed on the other ship, in front of a tall ginger. "I've got some bargaining to be done with your Captain." The ginger man eyed Snape and James hesitantly.

"Yes. Captain Evan's is meeting with your mates now." James pressed his sword harder against his captive's neck, having decided he already hated the sneaky man.

"Well, there's been a slight change of plans." James spat. The ginger shrugged and lead James to a door before knocking and calling into it. James heard words being exchanged, but couldn't make out much beside knowing one was of the ginger man, who now held the door for James to enter, shuffling in with the sneak in his grips. The Ginger closed the door behind the three and looked to the person sitting behind the desk and in front of James' two best friends.

James was shocked when his eyes landed upon a pretty redheaded woman who was eyeing him distrustfully. She rose slowly from her spot and spoke with authority.

"Please release Severus." James shook his head. A woman was the dreaded Captain Evans? Crazy.

"James." Remus' voice was a warning tone.

"This man was sneaking around my ship." James spoke angrily. The woman shrugged.

"We are pirates, you expected us to go into a deal blind?" Her voice was calm, but her eyes were flashing dangerously. Her green eyes. Green eyes that were by far the prettiest James had ever seen. Were eyes even allowed to be that color? James shook his head, intrigued by the woman.

"No. Are you Captain Evans." At her nod, he grinned. "Well pleasant to make your acquaintance. I must admit I never expected for the dread pirate Evans to be a woman…. or quite so good looking." James winked, causing the woman's eyes to flash again.

"I'll ask only once more. Release my man." James stared at the woman for a moment before letting out a sigh. His hands let go of the slimy man and shoved him to the ground.

"Fine." James spoke. "But, I'll be doing the bargaining now." Captain Evans shrugged, before turning to the man James had shoved to the ground.

"Severus stand up and please tell me what you discovered." James was astonished at the woman's tactlessness. He was standing in front of her and she had the audacity to ask her spy for more information. The spy jumped to his feet clumsily, almost causing James to laugh. Sirius did laugh.

"Only him and one other man were on the ship mam." The Captain frowned slightly, but sat back in her chair, glancing between the three men who'd boarded her ship.

"Four men, running a ship? Impossible." Captain Evans looked impressed despite herself. She set her gaze on Sirius, figuring he was one to boast and would be most likely to give her details. She was right as Sirius sat forward in his chair with a huge grin stretching across his face, his grey eyes lighting up.

"It's much harder than you'd think." The Captain chuckled.

"No, I can imagine it'd be rather difficult." Sirius nodded and continued on.

"Yes, I suppose being a Captain of a ship means you'd understand." Captain Evans smiled encouragingly, waiting for Sirius to continue. He leaned even closer to her.

"It was hard I tell you, but we managed. Remus learns everything incredibly fast and I'm just overall brilliant so-"

"Enough Sirius." James cut his friend off realizing what the redheaded woman was attempting and nearly succeeding at doing. He wouldn't let his friend spill all their secrets just because this Captain fed to his ego.

"Yes, mustn't give all your secrets away yet, rather wait until I decide to torture them out of you." Her face was far too amused to be giving such threats.

"It wouldn't work." James spoke angrily. "You could torture us three and none of us would give up a thing." She watched him thoughtfully before smiling at him, eyes sparkling.

"No the three of you seem brave and cocky, however your other friend…" James snarled.

"You know nothing about Peter." Remus groaned and sank low in the chair he'd been perched worriedly in and James realized he'd given away more than he'd meant to, as Captain Evans' grin grew larger.

"Now I know his name, Peter and I'm fairly certain he's the coward of your group. Statistics show that one in every four men is a coward." James wasn't sure if she was making up everything she said, probable considering she was a pirate, but when Captain Evans spoke she was confident and stated each thing as if it was a fact she'd read from one of the many books surrounding them.

"Well who's the coward of your men then?" Captain Evans' eyes blazed. So, she could dish it, but couldn't take it.

"Enough, Potter was it?" He nodded at her. "Right, I heard you wanted to make a deal. So propose your deal and be done with it." James took a step over the sneak who was still lying on the floor, and moved until he stood directly behind the chairs his mates were in.

"My mates and I want to join your crew and hopefully have protection." Her eyebrows raised together.

"Oh, and what's in it for me or my crew?" James had known this would be the main problem. Why should a pirate help him?

"Gold. Lot's of it." Sirius, Remus and James all took out a pouch filled with coins and placed them on the Captain's desk. Her eyes widened slightly as did the other pirates in the room. James was sure he had them now. No pirate refused that much money, however there was the smallest possibility that Captain Evans may just tell her men to kill James and his friends and sail off with the gold into a brilliant sunset.

"Why do you want our protection?" She glanced at the three men warily. Sirius sat back carelessly, she wouldn't get an answer from him then. James crossed his arms and tightened his lips, no answer from him either. Her gaze fell upon Remus last and upon seeing his eyes looking pointedly at the floor, her eyes raised back to meet James. "Without an answer I'm afraid I'll have to refuse your offer." She shrugged and glanced at her men who all took a step forward, ready to escort James and the others back to their ship.

"Wait!" James cried desperately. Her hand rose as a signal for her men to freeze. James sighed and combed a hand through his hair nervously. "We are running from some men." Captain Evans appeared unimpressed with his information.

"I'll need more than that to go on Potter." He glanced helplessly at Sirius who shrugged and then at Remus who gave him a small nod. Tell her.

"I'm the James Potter. As in the King's nephew and that's Sirius Black, the banished heir to the Black throne. We know our Kingdom is corrupt and we want nothing to do with the lives we've chosen to leave behind." Captain Evans viewed the boys carefully, she was biting the inside of her cheek and tapping her fingers in thought.

"So you want to stay on my ship indefinitely while the King's men look for you?" She inquired.

"Uh, not exactly. We were hoping you'd take us to Hogwarts, where we may be able to find sanctuary with Dumbledore. However the roads are all blocked… we'd pay you to get us there safely." Her fingers tapped, her teeth chewed. She glanced at Gideon and they seemed to be having a silent conversation with their eyes. Next, she turned to Benjy and he nodded his head at her. When she finally glanced at Fabian he sent her an encouraging smile and a shrug.

"Alright," Her face turned back to face James and his mates. "You will be brought to Hogwarts and delivered safely, as long as we are payed a great deal. You are taking up precious time that we could use pillaging and stealing." Benjy snorted at her words and Fabian laughed out loud.

"Great!" James exclaimed.

"Gid, go fetch their fourth friend and have the men empty the ship. As soon as it's emptied I want it turned around towards Slytherin and let free." Sirius sat up quickly in horror.

"You're letting the ship go?" Captain Evans glanced at him and gave a wry smile.

"Of course. I'm assuming you stole it, meaning the owners of the ship will be looking for it and if you're who you say you are then people will be searching for you as well. I can't have them knowing where we are." Her words made sense, but it didn't lessen the pain on Sirius' face.

"All that work, that beautiful ship…." He continued to groan and mumble about setting the ship free.

"Fabian why don't you escort Black and Lupin to their new rooms. Make them feel accommodated." She grinned after speaking, causing Fabian to wink.

"Of course Captain, come on you two." He lifted the two men and shoved them forward. Snape exited quickly before the others reached the door.

"What about James?" Sirius asked over his shoulder. Captain Evans waved him off.

"Oh we've things to speak about. Have a seat won't you Potter?" James sat in the chair that Sirius had left vacant.

"What more do we have to talk about?" He inquired.

"How did you find me. Your mates asked for Captain Evans, meaning you were looking for this ship and somehow you found it." James shrugged.

"It's a secret." Captain Evans leaned forward, her eyes flashing. James gave her his most winning, charming grin, the one that made the servants faint and the Ladies swoon. She looked unaffected.

"Listen here, you won't have special treatment aboard my ship. You see I'm the Captain, meaning you'll listen to me and you'll listen closely. I need to know how you found my ship, because if you could do it, then others can as well." James sucked in a hard breath. She wasn't just asking because she could he realized, she was asking because she was concerned for her crew and ship's well being. Or maybe she was just concerned for herself? James was unsure, but either way he didn't want the ship found anymore then she did, if not more so.

"Payed people on ports to tell me about the Cokeworth, where the ship was headed and about it's Captain."

"I payed people to keep their mouths shut. How'd you manage to get so much out of them." James sighed and ruffled his hair again.

"I didn't get much honestly. In fact at first even with the offer of a large sum of money people were too terrified to tell us anything, but then Sirius had the idea to tell them we were related. I told them I was your younger brother and that we'd been planning to meet up on whichever port we were at, but it appeared that our plans had changed. We told people that I was your younger brother and you were greatly looking forward to being reunited with me and if I didn't find you, you may think I was kidnapped and start burning towns." Captain Evans was impressed, James could tell. It made him smirk at her, she should be impressed.

"Sirius is smarter than he appears then." Her comment made James' lessen.

"He had the idea that we say you and I were related. Other than that it was all me." James bragged, his smirk back full force. Captain Evans shrugged.

"You lie well, I'll keep that in mind." Her response took James' smirk again. He scowled at the woman.


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Jenn