Once more fredfred deserves huge thanks for betaing. His help has improved the story a lot.

Chapter 4: Sirens of the Caribbean

'One of the features that distinguish the Veela from humans - apart from their ability to transform into giant bird-like creatures - is how they procreate. There are no male Veela; any offspring of a Veela and a muggle or wizard is either a muggle or wizard, if male, or a Veela, if female. This is, among the sapient magical beings at least, unique to the species. And, contrary to certain earlier speculations, it has been conclusively proven that this is not a form of sexual dimorphism - the male offspring of the Veela are indistinguishable from normal humans and wizards, lacking any special qualities or magical talents - nor is it the result of rituals or spells during pregnancy or conception. The Veela are a true-breeding all-female species.

However, the origin of the Veela is still the subject of speculation - not even the Veela themselves seem to know how they came to be; their legends speak of the Greek gods mingling with humans and giving birth to nymphs, the ancestors of the Veela. Since recent research has revealed the ancient Greek gods as particularly powerful - for their epoch - wizards and witches, but not gods, and therefore unlikely to produce magical creatures as offspring, this can be safely discounted. But this does leave the question of whether they were a naturally occurring species or a magically created one unanswered - even close examinations of Veela haven't shed light on that subject.

Some Magizoologists have cited the fact that only female sirens have been observed as evidence that they are related to the Veela instead of to the other merfolk, but such theories remain mere speculation. The sirens share a similar language with the selkies and merrows and the bodies of all three species, especially the tail fins, also show distinct similarities. I tend to share the prevailing opinion that sirens do indeed have two sexes, but give birth overwhelmingly to females, the few males forming harems as they remain in the schools' homes, protected and isolated from all dangers, while the females roam the oceans. It must be admitted, though, that there is no evidence for this theory either, other than observations of selkies and merrows and extrapolation from species with similar social structures to the sirens, such as spirit lions. Research into this matter is severely hampered by the aggressive and reclusive nature of sirens, and most tales of sailors who survived an encounter with either Caribbean or Mediterranean sirens have been revealed as pure fabrication.'

- Excerpt from 'The Magic of Life - a Guide to Magical Creatures and Beings' by Coleen Rowles, London, 1961

The Caribbean Sea, August 11th, 2001

"...and here is the ancient wisdom," Marisha said, gesturing at a row of tablets lining the walls inside the room.

At least that was the gist of what Ron Weasley understood. Some nuances got lost when you hadn't mastered the language. But she was smiling at him, and waving him on. "Thank you," he said in Mermish, returning her smile. That was one of the phrases he had learned perfectly from Hunts-The-Carps in the Black Lake.

"Anything for you choose," she replied.

Ron blinked. That was a very generous offer - but hadn't she said he could see them, earlier? "Just looking," he said.

She nodded. "Watch."

He pulled out the camera Hermione had enchanted to work underwater. "Making pictures of wisdom. For sharing."

"Yes. Sharing good." Marisha nodded, her long, blonde hair forming a halo around her head. "Ceremony after."

"Yes." He tried not to look at her bare chest. That would have been impolite. Sirens weren't like Ari's people, where looking into the eyes was a challenge. Besides, he had a task to do. But he needed better light for that. The tablets were illuminated by softly glowing lights above and beneath them - the same lights that covered most of the school's settlement on the volcano's slopes, and which had been extinguished when Ron and his friends had been spotted. Too soft for decent pictures.

Ron drew his wand - slowly - and cast a Wand-Lighting Charm that lit up the room.

Marisha jerked.

"Just light," he explained.

"Ah. Powerful."

"Just a charm," Ron said. It wasn't anything special.

"Powerful." She ran her hand over his arm.

Ah. "You should see Harry," he said.

"Harry?"

"Nothing." He shook his head, then started taking pictures of all the tablets. This would take a while.

"Ceremony sharing now!" Marisha said, tugging on his hand as soon as Ron Weasley had stashed the camera.

"Sharing?" Ron asked, hadn't this been about sharing the wisdom of the ancients? Which did look like the Atlantean tablets they had recovered in the rainforest.

"Ceremony sharing now!" Marisha repeated, adding more words Ron didn't quite catch or understand.

But, while half of her was human-shaped, half of the siren was a fish tail about as long and heavy as Ron - a few flicks of her tail fin, and he was dragged out of the room into the main area of the temple.

Where about half a dozen sirens were waiting, beaming at him in the soft light. "I expected more," he said as Marisha dropped him in the centre of the temple.

"More?" She giggled. "No stand more. Seven powerful."

'Seven powerful'? That sounded more like a ritual than a ceremony. And there were seven sirens here, but with Ron, they were eight. He looked around. 'No stand more'? That didn't make any sense. He blinked. Or had he misremembered Hunts-The-Carp's lessons? 'No stand more'… She meant 'No man could last more'!

His eyes widened. "Mating?" he asked.

Marisha nodded. "Sharing mate! Powerful!"

Ron gasped - he had a girlfriend! And he was pretty certain that Ari would mind such sharing. Mind very much, and very violently, too.

He tried to apparate as the sirens closed in. It didn't work. "Harry! Hermione! I need the Anti-Apparition Jinxes gone right now!" he yelled in English.

"What?" Harry asked.

"They want to mate with me!"

"What?" Hermione yelled.

"Merlin's balls!" Harry cursed.

"Wait! Wait!" Ron yelled in Mermish. "Need strip!" He tapped the sleeve of his diving suit. "No can mate in this."

"Vanish!" Marisha said, drawing her wand.

"Expensive!" Ron yelled. "Strip!" He started to - slowly - unzip the suit. "Any time now, Hermione," he whispered under his breath.

"These aren't jinxes," Hermione answered. "These are wards."

Which meant she wouldn't be able to get rid of them before the sirens swarmed Ron. And he had no intention of getting into a 'mating ball' as if he were one of the snakes Harry liked so much. He had to get out. But he couldn't outswim Marisha, much less the rest of the sirens.

And he could only drag out unzipping his suit for so long. Maybe he could imitate an octopus and conjure ink, blinding the sirens, and sneak away? No, that wouldn't work. He would still be too slow… Octopuses! What had Ginny told him about them? Some of them swam by ejecting water from their bodies at high speed.

Ron wasn't an octopus, but he had a wand. And he knew the Water-Making Spell.

As the sirens started to reach for him again, he pointed his wand down, alongside his leg.

"Aguamenti!"

"Ron! Ron! What's happening?" Hermione Granger heard Harry yell through her mask as she desperately tried to find a weakness in the sirens' wards.

But it was pointless. She couldn't crack these protections in time. Not in time to save Ron. And if she started to unravel them, floating in front of the volcano, the sirens would notice - half a dozen were keeping an eye on her and Harry.

She clenched her teeth. "We have to do something." She wouldn't leave Ron to his fate.

"Alright. You create a diversion, and I'll go in," Harry said.

She saw him already starting to swim away. "No!" she snapped. "You won't have any chance by yourself."

"I won't be alone once I get to Ron."

"You'll be dead before that. We can't unravel the wards and we can't beat so many sirens," she all but yelled. "We'll go together, or not at all!"

He hesitated, as she saw while blinking back the tears in her eyes - before the charms on the mask took care of that.

"I'm coming… Watch out! Aaahhh!"

"Ron!"

Hermione didn't know who yelled louder - Harry or herself - when they spotted a figure shooting up from the village below them, racing through the water. Ron. But how…

"Jet propulsion!" she blurted out as she realised what Ron was doing. "I'm so stupid!"

"Or Ron's a genius," Harry said.

Below them, the sirens were moving - half a dozen coming towards them. Harry flicked his wand, and a moment later, the water between them and the onrushing creatures seemed to flicker, and the sirens reeled, holding their heads.

"Ahhh! Merlin's balls! Warn me before you do that!" she heard Ron yell. "My ears!"

"He didn't have a Silencing Charm up," Hermione said. "He was talking to the sirens."

Harry muttered a curse. But Ron disapparated anyway - presumably to the surface. "Let's go!"

A moment later, both of them followed Ron.

They appeared on the surface - a bit off in her case, causing her to fall a few yards into the water, but she managed to spot both Harry and Ron during her fall.

She didn't see the Dancing River, though.

"Hermione?" she heard Harry ask.

"I'm here, near you!" she replied - the waves weren't particularly high, but tall enough to hide her.

"Hermione? Harry?" That was Ron.

"We're all here," she said, digging in her pocket for the zodiac.

"Hermione? Harry?"

"Great… he's still deaf," she muttered, unshrinking the boat.

No sooner had she climbed into the zodiac than Harry appeared above her, on his broom. "We need to move fast," he said. "Get your broom."

"Get Ron first!" she told him. "I need to heal his eardrums."

"Ah, there you are!" Ron had grabbed his own broom and was flying towards her. "Can you heal my ears? I think I'm deaf."

Hermione swallowed her first reply. A few minutes later, her friend's hearing was restored - she had also used the opportunity to check that the charms preventing decompression sickness had worked as they should - their zodiac was stashed in her pocket again, and they were all on brooms in the air. Just in case the sirens were pursuing them.

"Where are they? If that pirate hurt Ari…" Ron growled. "And how did he manage to beat her?"

"It's his ship - he probably had it trapped," Harry said.

"There were no traps," Hermione told him, gripping the shaft of her broom tightly. "I checked." She didn't have to add that she wouldn't have missed a trap prepared by the likes of 'Captain Ryan'.

"There could have been muggle traps," Harry said. "Or poison."

"Not poison - she would have smelled it. And she had a bezoar on her at all times," Ron said.

"And I don't think he had much experience with muggle traps either," Hermione added.

"But the ship's gone. Ari wouldn't have let him abandon us." Ron shook his head. "Not if she could have prevented it."

"Mate…" Harry started to say.

Hermione blinked. "But Ari doesn't know anything about sailing ships. Or about magical sailing ships." She dug out her compass and checked the wind's direction - and the waves. "If something happened to Ryan, she would have been unable to steer the ship."

"Ryan most likely had the ship protected against anyone other than him taking control of it," Ron said. "No matter what they knew about sailing."

"Perhaps," Hermione agreed. A Curse-Breaker like herself would have been able to deal with such protections, of course. And Hermione had read enough about sailing to know how to handle the ship - or keep it in place. She checked the charts in her notes, and the time, then pointed north-east. "If the floating anchor got cut loose, then the yacht would have drifted in that direction."

"I can see it!" she heard Harry say.

Hermione looked up and saw him flying a few hundred yards above her. She frowned.

Ron chuckled. "Sometimes, it's easier to just look. She couldn't have drifted too far while we were underwater, could she?"

Hermione's frown deepened. Ron was correct, of course, but she still felt cheated. "Her, Harry. Ships are female," she corrected him as he rejoined them.

"Let's go!" Ron said and shot off before either Harry or she could say anything in response.

On their Firebolt IIs - gifts from Sirius - they didn't take long to reach the drifting yacht.

"There's Ari!" Ron yelled. "Ari!"

Hermione saw the witch on the yacht wave and heard her yell: "Ron!"

Ron dived at the deck as if he were a Seeker chasing a Snitch, and, for a moment, Hermione feared he'd crash. He levelled out, though, jumped off, and then the two were embracing each other.

Next to the badly mauled corpse of Captain Ryan.

Bill always said that a Curse-Breaker had to keep cool no matter what, and nothing fazed Auntie, but Harry Potter couldn't help wincing when he landed on the deck of the 'Dancing River', a few yards from what was left of Captain Ryan. It looked like Ari had transformed and mauled the man in her jaguar form, although there were curses that could result in the same wounds - dark curses.

He stepped around the pool of blood surrounding the corpse and addressed the witch. "What happened?"

Ari pulled away from Ron and frowned at him. "He attack, I kill."

"He attacked you? Are you hurt?" Ron blurted out.

Ari didn't seem hurt - and she wasn't wearing anything that would hide any wounds, in Harry's opinion.

The witch shook her head. "No. Was faster."

"Did he try to curse you?" Hermione, who had landed as well, asked.

"Yes." Ari scowled. "He miss. I change."

"Why did he do that?" Harry asked.

The other witch shrugged. "He don't say."

"'He didn't tell me'," Ron corrected her.

"You no are here," Ari replied.

"While I would never say anything to discourage learning, I think we have more urgent problems than language lessons," Hermione said. "The sirens will reach us soon unless we manage to sail the yacht."

"Sirens?"

"Half-fish witches who tried to mate with Ron," Harry explained.

Ari hissed so loudly, for a moment Harry thought she had transformed. "Mate?"

"I escaped," Ron said, rather hastily. "But they can swim fast."

Ari looked like she wanted the sirens to catch up to them, snarling at the sea. Harry shook his head. "Hermione, see if you can crack our late captain's protections," he said. "We'll keep an eye out for the sirens."

Hermione nodded. "And do something about the body," she said as she walked towards the steering wheel.

"Should we vanish it?" Ron asked.

Harry pondered that for a moment. Vanishing the corpse would make them look guilty in the eyes of the authorities. On the other hand, he didn't think keeping the body around would help either. And he didn't trust the authorities in the area anyway. "Yes, let's clean this up," he said. Auntie would have done the same. "But we'll have to explain in the next port."

"Do we?" Ron asked, swishing his wand.

"We will look like pirates if we bring back Ryan's yacht without him," Harry said.

Ari scoffed. "He attack, he lose, ship ours."

Yes, they would definitely look like pirates if Ari told the story. Harry sighed. Perhaps they could claim Ryan died in a siren attack? He blinked. The sirens hadn't attacked them. How many of their attacks were actually them defending themselves or people blaming them for murders?

He snorted. He was starting to think like Hagrid - or Luna. As Ron cast a cleaning charm on the blood left on the deck, Harry stepped to the railing and looked at the sea. He didn't spot any sirens - or anything else - beneath them, but that didn't mean anything.

After a few minutes, Hermione walked towards him.

"How's it looking?"

"If we all work together, about an hour," she replied. "The protections aren't particularly powerful or complex, but there's a lot of them, and Ryan apparently felt that he'd rather see the yacht sunk than stolen."

Which meant they couldn't just trigger the defences with a conjured animal. "If the sirens arrive before we're finished…" He sighed. "We'll have to fly."

Hermione nodded. "I just wish we didn't have to flee from yet another site," she said.

"Oi!" Ron frowned at them. "It's not my fault!"

"This time," Harry replied.

"Probably," Hermione added. "Where do we go? Grenada?"

That was the closest island. Harry nodded.

"Before, you say Grenada no good," Ari said.

"That was because we needed to hire a magical ship," Ron explained. "Fort Royal isn't the best place for that."

"For Royal?"

"The magical settlement on the island," Hermione said. "The muggle parts were renamed St George when the island was ceded to Great Britain in 1763, but that didn't affect the wizard enclave, which stayed French at the time."

Ari didn't look like Hermione's explanation had helped. But time was running out. If the sirens caught up and attacked… if they started to sing… Silencing Charms could be dispelled, and if there were enough of the sirens, things would get rather sticky. "Let's go," Harry said, summoning his broom.

"Should we sink the ship?" Ron asked as he and Ari mounted his broom.

"Left adrift, especially with the protections still active, it represents a danger to other ships," Hermione said. "A minor danger, to be honest."

She was correct. Odds were, the yacht would simply drift off and end up on a beach somewhere - with all the charms on her, she wouldn't sink. And it was an old, elegant ship. Sinking her would destroy a piece of history. And yet, a minor danger didn't mean there was no danger. Leaving a magical ship drifting on the open sea might also be seen as endangering the Statute of Secrecy. And there was the risk of more trouble with the law, or what passed for it in the Caribbean, should someone find and identify the Dancing River.

"Let's sink it," Harry said as they rose in the air.

It took a surprising number of Blasting Curses to sink the ship - apparently, Ryan's claims about the quality of the yacht hadn't been mere boasts - but after a few minutes, the broken remains of the hull were disappearing under the waves, and the group was flying towards Grenada.

Grenada, Fort Royal, August 12th, 2001

Ron Weasley blinked as he woke up - the sun was shining directly into his face, and there was a weight on his chest. A growling weight.

Ari had, again, changed in her sleep. That was supposed to be a good sign, according to her - it meant her animal side had accepted him as well. A 'blessing of their union', she had called it. Ron called it a hundred and fifty pounds of fur and claws pressing down on him in his sleep. Though not where Ari could hear him, of course.

"Morning," he said.

Ari growled without opening her eyes and shifted her weight around a bit without either waking up or letting him get up.

Sighing, he summoned his wand and poked her until she - finally - stopped trying to brush his hand away and woke up. "Morning," he repeated himself.

The jaguar on his chest growled again, then yawned, both front paws coming to rest on his shoulders.

Then the jaguar on his chest turned into a witch straddling him. "Morning," she replied with a broad smile.

"Slept well?"

She nodded. "Good bed." And with a wide grin, she added: "Good man." He saw her tongue slide over her lips as she slid back a little.

Ron returned her smile and reached up as she bent down to kiss him. They'd be late for breakfast, but who cared?

Certainly not Ron, not right now.

Ron Weasley heard the yelling before he saw the two wizards - no, one was a witch - facing each other across the street as he made his way towards the table Harry and Hermione had taken in the café. "Another duel?" he asked, taking his seat - and casting a Shield Charm, just in case. The windows were protected, but that didn't mean they were safe inside the café.

"Yes," Harry said just as the fight started and spells flashed back and forth.

"If there's one thing worse than the French," Ron muttered as he took his seat, "it's French pirates." Duelling, in the middle of what passed as the main street in Fort Royal, the magical quarter of St. George's!

"Really, Ron," Hermione said, frowning at him as she lowered the Tribune Magique she was reading, "that's pure prejudice."

"It's not prejudice if it's a well-founded observation," Ron replied. "That's the second duel, and we haven't even been here for a whole day. They're even more aggressive than the French!"

"Why they do fight?" Ari asked, cocking her head to the side and keeping the duellists in view as she sat down as well.

"It's 'why do they fight'," he corrected her. "I don't know. Probably over an insult or something." It didn't look like a robbery or attack.

"Ah." Ari kept watching the fight.

Ron did as well. This wouldn't take long. Not at this distance.

It didn't. After less than a minute, the witch had her opponent stunned, kicked him in the ribs a few times, spat on him and left, head held high.

"Stupid," Ari commented.

Ron nodded. "Yes. Pointless."

"Left enemy alive. He get revenge later," Ari continued. "Never leave enemy alive."

Ron coughed, then noticed that Hermione was frowning at him, as though he had agreed with Ari, and Harry was smirking. He glared at them, then sighed. "Ari, we don't kill people over insults."

"We don't kill at all, if we can help it," Hermione added with another frown at him.

"We only kill in self-defence," Harry explained.

"Man was attacking her," Ari replied. "Self-defence." She grinned, baring her teeth. "Legal!"

She had learned that titbit quickly, of course. "It was a duel," Ron said. "He wasn't trying to kill her."

"How she know?"

Ron sighed. "She might have known him, or else she saw that he wasn't using lethal curses."

The witch scoffed. "Holding back is stupid. One mistake and dead."

She wasn't wrong, but she wasn't entirely correct either. But explaining the intricacies of self-defence to a witch raised in the jungle was a little much on an empty stomach. "Well, that's why you usually strike first with a Stunner, if you can," he said after a moment.

Ari snorted, but, fortunately, was distracted by the waitress arriving to take their order. She might have trouble with the legal codes of the Caribbean islands, but she certainly had adapted to modern menus quickly. Of course, she had also tried to order roasted siren for dinner, but, fortunately, the staff had taken that as a joke.

Ron cast a privacy charm as soon as the waitress had left - sniffing at Ari's meat-heavy order, of course; as expected from a French witch - and asked: "Did you develop the pictures I took yet?"

"I did that last night," Hermione replied. "I haven't been able to analyse them, yet, though." The pout she sent at Harry told Ron that his friend had kept her from spending the night translating.

"Ah." Ron nodded. "Should we head home for that? Or visit Petunia and Sirius in Egypt?"

"I think we should avoid Egypt for now," Harry said.

"Trouble? Did you get a letter this morning?" Ron hadn't heard anything from Bill.

"No." Harry shook his head. "It's just… I would rather not risk the goblins getting wind of our discoveries."

"They'd try to get exclusive excavation rights," Hermione added. "And if Atlantis is anywhere near the Caribbean, they'd find a wizarding island in the vicinity that they could bribe to grant them that."

"The ICW wouldn't let them get away with it," Ron pointed out. "The ruins of Atlantis, the first wizarding empire, controlled by goblins? People would riot."

"But while politics tried to settle this, we'd still have to deal with the goblins, and whoever they hired to find the ruins and enforce their claim," Harry said.

"Lena Kraft," Hermione said.

"Probably," Harry admitted.

"No. There she is," Hermione hissed as she nodded towards the entrance of the café.

"What?" Ron looked over his shoulder, drawing his wand, as Harry cursed. Yes, there was the Prussian witch, dressed, as usual, in expensive, tightly-cut duelling robes and with her blonde curls styled expertly, standing in the entrance and looking at them with her usual sneer.

"She an enemy?"

"Yes," Harry snapped, his attention on the approaching witch. "Keeps trying to loot our sites. Once sent bandits after Auntie, too."

Ron barely managed to grab Ari's hand before she could curse Kraft.

Lena Kraft. Hermione Granger didn't even try to hide her sneer as the Prussian witch, her slit robes swishing around her legs with each step, approached their table. That lying, plotting claim-stealer had found them again! Hermione didn't believe for a moment that this was a chance meeting. "How did she find us?" she asked. She didn't bother whispering - their privacy charm was still working.

"Couldn't have been a spell," Harry said. "Not her style. Nor her forte. She probably paid people to look for us. The question is: How did she know we were in the Caribbean?"

"No, we can't kill her - she hasn't done anything yet." Ron, Hermione saw, was still holding Ari's hand and keeping her from cursing Kraft.

"We know she's got a source in Gringotts," Hermione said. "But we didn't tell the goblins anything. Someone else must have talked."

"Harry said she try kill aunt!" Ari snapped. "That is something."

"We can't prove that," Ron said.

"And even if we could, we couldn't kill her in the middle of the café unless she attacked us," Hermione added.

"Well, we could, but we shouldn't," Ron said.

Hermione frowned at him, but a glance told her that Ari had been about to say something, but then closed her mouth again. The witch probably had been about to point that out.

"Well, however she managed it, she's here now. How do we handle her?" Harry asked.

"Ignore her until she goes away?" Ron asked, shrugging. With a grin, he added: "We haven't tried that, yet, and you know how vain she is."

"Mr Potter. Mr Weasley. Miss Granger." Kraft's greeting nod was barely perceptible. "Miss Ari, was it?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. The Prussian also knew Ari's name? She must have been tracking them for a while.

Ari bared her teeth in response and hissed, causing Kraft to recoil slightly. "You attack, I kill!"

"She still can't hear you," Ron cut in. "And I bet that's annoying her."

"It's only polite to return a greeting, Mr Potter. Although perhaps you wouldn't know that, having been raised by a squib."

As Hermione expected from previous confrontations, Harry ended the privacy charm instead of extending it - experience had taught them that it was better to have witnesses when actually talking with Kraft - and glared at the witch. "I see you still haven't been able to get over the fact that even without a wand, Auntie's ten times the Curse-Breaker you are."

"She is ten times more famous as well," Hermione added with a toothy smile. "But then what else could anyone expect? Dr Evans is an archaeologist while you're just a grave-robber. And not a particularly talented one."

"Yes. Bill said if not for the poor fools you hired to do your work for you, you'd have been killed in the Necropolis," Ron joined in.

Hermione saw Kraft clench her teeth - the witch was a little too thin-skinned to hold her own against Hermione and her friends in this sort of confrontation - before Kraft sneered. "Petty insults. I guess you haven't been out of school long enough to grow up." The Prussian scoffed. "And you've picked up a savage as a pet."

"I show you savage!" Ari bared her teeth.

"No need, dear, it's already obvious." Kraft's sneer grew even more pronounced. "At least you're not walking around naked any more - but then, muggle clothes are barely an improvement at all."

Hermione met the witch's eyes. "Are you quoting Voldemort or Grindelwald? Your bigotry would fit with either."

That made Kraft clench her teeth once more. "How quaint - a murderer trying to lecture me."

"Murderer?" Harry scoffed. "That's rich, coming from someone who hired bandits to go after my aunt."

"Baseless slander. On the other hand, you hired a dear acquaintance of mine a few days ago to take you out on his yacht, yet returned without him or his ship." Kraft leaned forward, putting her hands on the table. "I assume you'll claim he dared to attack four wizards and witches by himself, and so you were forced to kill him."

"He attack me, I kill him!" Ari snapped.

"So you admit it!" Kraft smiled broadly - triumphantly - and looked over her shoulder, raising her voice. "Did you hear enough, Lieutenant de Grasse?"

Hermione tensed as a burly wizard in blue robes - a Gendarme of Magical Grenada - entered the café, trailed by four more wizards and one witch in similar, if not as ostentatiously decorated, robes. This didn't look good.

"Oui," the Gendarme said. "More than enough to arrest the lot of them until this crime 'as been solved."

Definitely not good.

Harry Potter was already moving as the six Gendarmes were still starting to fan out and surround the group's table. He shot up from his seat, flipping the table with a kick in the same movement, then hit it with a Banishing Charm as Ron dashed to the side. The table shot out and smashed into the Lieutenant, bowling him and two of his Gendarmes over, one of them getting thrown through the door behind him, but missed Kraft by inches. The witch was a lousy Curse-Breaker, but she was very good at evading the trouble she stirred up - she had already darted to the side and dived behind two gaping tourists when the fight started.

Harry saw Ron roll over his shoulder and come up casting - his Stunner hit one of the Gendarmes who was still gaping before the man could react.

"Harry! They're Gendarmes!" Hermione protested - but she also conjured a wall that blocked the curses from the two remaining Gendarmes. And Ari's charge, which probably wasn't a coincidence.

"Don't, Ari!" Ron yelled over the screams from the other guests as the witch tried to climb the wall. "We're leaving!"

"What?" she turned around as Harry used a pair of Bludgeoning Curses to smash another table and drive the Gendarmes back.

"We're leaving, not fighting," Hermione snapped, then ducked as a curse blew a hole in the upper part of the wall, showering them with dust and stone fragments.

Harry nodded and blew a hole in the window and wall behind them. A moment later, he jumped through it, rolling forward and came up with his wand moving. There was another Gendarme outside, but she was casting healing charms on the Gendarme thrown out through the door earlier and too slow to react. Her wand was still rising when Harry hit her with a pair of Stunners that shattered her Shield Charm and laid her flat on her back.

"There'll be more behind the building," Hermione said as she followed him, side vaulting over the remains of the wall, before sealing the café's entrance with a conjured wall, "unless they are incompetent."

Harry thought the local Gendarmes probably were - after all, they hadn't surrounded them before making their entrance. But he and his friends wouldn't head towards the back of the building anyway. He glanced around - the street was emptying rapidly as people fled from the fight. None were apparating, so he assumed that there were Anti-Apparition Jinxes covering the area.

Ron and Ari jumped through the hole, a yellow curse bouncing off Ron's shield before they took cover. Harry was about to seal the hole but Ari beat him to it, a flick of her wand closing it with a tangled mess of vines that started to expand on all sides.

"Need move. Plant paralyses," the witch said.

"To the port?" Ron asked, closing the last window, already shattered by flying debris and stray curses, with a conjured wall of his own.

Harry shook his head as he pulled out his broom from his enchanted pocket. "They'll expect that." Kraft, at least, would, in his opinion. "We'll fly southwards from here, then swing around and head north."

"Saint Vincent?" Hermione asked.

"Yes," Harry confirmed. "Let's go!"

A minute later, they were disillusioned and over the water.

"Think she bought it?" Ron asked.

"What?" Ari asked.

"Kraft. She was almost certainly listening in," Hermione explained. "That's her style - can't break curses, but she's skilled at spying."

"Ah. She thinks we'll go north."

"And we'll go south instead," Ron added.

"West, actually," Harry said. "Caracas." The next island south of Grenada was Trinidad, and Harry had no doubt that Kraft had already bribed what passed as law enforcement there since she knew about them hiring Ryan.

"We'll run out of countries where we aren't wanted by the law if we continue like this," Hermione remarked a few minutes later.

"It wasn't my fault this time," Ron replied. "Just saying - Harry started the fight."

"And Ari killed Ryan," Hermione added.

"Self-defence!" the other witch said with a sniff.

"It doesn't matter," Harry said. It certainly wasn't his fault. "If Ari hadn't killed Ryan, he'd have lied to them and claimed we stole from him, or something."

"And he'd have led her to the volcano." Hermione scoffed. "Although given the sirens' presence, we might have inadvertently saved her life."

"Can change that." Ari made a growling noise. "Just need turn around."

"It was bad enough that we fought the Gendarmes; we certainly won't go back and commit murder!" Hermione exclaimed.

"We couldn't let the Gendarmes arrest us; Kraft had bribed them," Harry said.

"That doesn't change the fact that we're now wanted in at least two islands in the Caribbean," Hermione pointed out.

"Well, if Kraft could bribe them, Sirius could outbid her," Ron said. "Turn the tables on her."

Sirius certainly could - but Harry didn't want to ask his godfather for help. This wasn't a serious problem. Not yet, at least. "We can handle it," he said. "The police in Caracas won't listen to the claims of those they still consider pirates."

"They're called the Santa Hermandad - the Holy Brotherhood," Hermione said, "in Caracas and in some other parts of Magical New Spain or its successor states."

"I thought the Brotherhood were pirates," Ron said.

"No, you mean the Brethren of the Coast," Hermione corrected him.

"No difference," Ari said.

"That's probably true," Ron agreed.

"No, it isn't," Hermione insisted. "The Brethren of the Coast were an organisation of privateers and pirates. The magical part of it fared decidedly better than the muggle part after the Statute of Secrecy went into effect, and many of the Magical nations of the Caribbean trace their roots back to the Brethren. The Santa Hermandad, on the other hand, was an organisation created by the governments of several Spanish magical enclaves in the New World to enforce the law after the split from the muggle authorities, using existing muggle organisations as examples."

"Thieves all of them." Ari obviously was neither impressed by Hermione's knowledge nor did she agree with Harry's girlfriend.

"That's a generalisation," Hermione predictably retorted. "And it doesn't change the fact that they are responsible for enforcing the law in Caracas, where we are headed."

Harry sighed silently as the two witches started to bicker. It would be an even longer flight to Caracas than he had thought.

Magical Kingdom of Granada, Magical Caracas, August 12th, 2001

"They think we're pirates?" Ron Weasley blinked, then looked around the small tavern near the port of Magical Caracas. He didn't see anyone who seemed suspicious, but that didn't have to mean anything. Shaking his head, he forced himself to behave as if he weren't concerned. Pirates were hanged; everyone knew that. Granted, they had a privacy charm up, but still...

"They're accusing us of having committed an act of piracy by killing Ryan and taking his yacht," Hermione replied as she scratched her head - her wig probably itched as much as Ron's.

"I thought the claims of former pirate enclaves were ignored in Caracas." Ron remembered Harry saying that before Hermione started her 'discussion' with Ari.

"The Holy Brotherhood usually ignore them," she said. "But they have cooperated in the past to deal with actual pirates. I didn't expect Kraft to go that far." Ron saw she was pressing her lips together.

"Well, it's a good thing we disguised ourselves before entering town," Harry said. He acted as if he were unconcerned, but Ron could see that he was fidgeting with his wand - he didn't do that unless he was very tense.

They had disguised themselves so Kraft's spies wouldn't find them, not because they'd expected that they would be wanted wizards and witches, but Ron wouldn't point that out. Blaming Harry wouldn't help.

"Should have killed them. No more trouble," Ari said - she almost growled the words at the end. Getting her into the typical robes of a tourist had been a struggle and a half.

"We should have killed Kraft and all the Gendarmes? I suppose we should have killed all the witnesses as well?" Harry scoffed.

Ron squeezed Ari's thigh before she could answer that honestly. "We could have beaten and obliviated all of those in the café," he said, "but we wouldn't have been able to find everyone on the island who knew about Kraft's lies."

"So it would have been a pointless fight," Hermione said.

"Could have kill Kraft," Ari snarled. "No more lies."

"She doesn't look like it, but she's no slouch in a fight," Ron pointed out.

"She no fight. Did not fight," Ari retorted.

"She's good at escaping fights," Hermione said. "Usually by sacrificing the hired help."

"Or the duped help," Harry added.

Ari scoffed. "What now?"

"Good question," Ron said, looking at Harry.

Who looked at Hermione. "Can you translate the tablets here?"

She bit her lower lip before answering: "I'll need to get my library out. And that would not fit well with our tourist disguise if anyone entered our room and saw it."

"We could act like we're on our honeymoon and put up a 'Do Not Disturb' sign," Harry said with a grin that had Hermione blushing.

"You should do that anyway," Ron cut in. "Would've saved me some embarrassment."

Hermione snorted. "You don't get to complain since your affairs usually end with us being chased out of town."

"This time it wasn't my fault!" Ron retorted.

"Well, Ari killed Ryan, which allowed Kraft to frame us as pirates, and she's your girlfriend…"

"He attacked me," Ari said, interrupting Hermione.

"Let's not bicker about whose fault it was," Harry said. "Let's focus on what we can do."

"We could leave," Hermione said. "Head home and research our findings without having to disguise ourselves."

"That would cost us a lot of time," Harry said.

Ron nodded. And it would lead to Ari meeting his family a little too soon for his taste. "And Kraft's lies might have reached Britain as well."

"Or Auntie," Harry added. "I better write a letter before she and Sirius hear about this from someone else."

Ron knew better than to ask about Hedwig - the owl would show up when she was needed, as usual. She didn't hang around in the tropics. He nodded. "I might have to write a letter as well before Percy hears and tells Mum." His older brother worked in the Department of International Magical Cooperation and would hear about this.

"Oh no!" Hermione looked aghast.

"What? Do you think your parents will believe you've become a pirate?" Harry asked.

Ron doubted that - the Grangers were muggles. They didn't have much contact with Wizarding Britain, apart from the occasional dinner with Ron's own family. They had a subscription to the Daily Prophet, but… He winced. "Skeeter."

"Yes. If that… that witch hears about this…" Hermione trailed off as she shook her head.

"Which she will," Harry sighed.

"Another enemy?" Ari frowned.

"Yes," Hermione said. "She's a journalist who spreads the worst lies about us whenever she has the opportunity. And no, we can't kill her either," she added.

Ari scoffed. "See? No killing means many enemies. Too many."

Ron bit his tongue before he agreed. His family wouldn't believe Skeeter's lies, but others would - or pretend they did. And the Ministry… He sighed. "I think returning to Britain is not a good idea right now."

"Not until this is sorted out," Harry agreed. "But that means we'll have to ask Dumbledore to help us."

"Dumbledore?" Ari leaned forward. "The great wizard Cap'n Ryan talked about?"

"Yes." Ron nodded. Ari didn't know much about the world outside her home, and most of what she knew was limited to the Caribbean.

"He travel through Caribbean decades ago, battle dark wizards? That true?"

Ron nodded again.

"That must have been Dumbledore's trip to the Caribbean in 1957," Hermione said, "which ended the houngans' practice of kidnapping magical children to raise as their 'apprentices'."

Ari nodded eagerly. "He fought dark wizards. And he killed, Ryan told," she added with a scoff. "We go see him?"

"Even he won't kill Skeeter or Kraft," Hermione said. "We know - we fought at his side against the Dark Lord Voldemort."

"Who was killed by Auntie!" Harry added.

"Can she kill Kraft and Skeeter?"

"Well, she could, if she wanted," Harry said.

"But she won't," Hermione was quick to add. "Killing is not an option for us, especially not in Britain."

"Unless it's clear self-defence," Ron pointed out. "But… we'll have to inform Dumbledore, then."

"See him?" Ari beamed.

"He's in Britain. We won't go there until this pirate business is settled," Hermione said.

Ari sulked at that.

"He also doesn't like killing," Hermione added.

"Says you!"

Ron cleared his throat to stop the brewing argument. "So, let's get writing and translating, then!"

The sooner they got started, the sooner this mess would be sorted out.

Not that, Ron thought, a little more time to teach Ari how to behave around British wizards and witches would be a bad thing. Mum supported Ginny and Luna's relationship, but Ron didn't think she would accept his and Ari's as easily.

Certainly not if Ari kept talking about wanting to kill people.