After the officers had pulled Severus off of Walsh they arrested Severus, Hermione, Regulus, and Lily. They were escorted into the bottom of the ship and locked in a single large cell. Hermione assumed the room had originally been meant for securing valuable storage but the design had been changed after it was built. The room itself was blocked off with normal walls rather than metal bars like she would expect from a cell. The door itself was made of bars and that gave the prisoners the opportunity to listen to the officers taunt and laugh at their expense.

Walsh had frowned as they were shoved in before telling them that if he and his officers weren't gentlemen he'd have them all strip searched for explosive materials. As it was, aside from Severus's bruised jaw and bloody knuckles, they were untouched. Which meant that no one had taken their wands.

Hermione sat on the floor in the corner, ignoring the frown on Severus's face when she did so. The other three did so as well and then Hermione cast the Muffling Charm.

Lily was the first to speak, "I can't believe you got into a fistfight, Sev." Her words were scolding but she was grinning when she said them.

"I was trying to protect your honour," he said. Despite sitting on the floor his back was as ramrod straight as he could make it and he looked particularly uncomfortable.

"Why didn't you pull your wand?" Hermione asked.

Regulus grinned and said, "The same reason Walsh didn't tell the guards to take ours. Those officers are Muggles; they know that Special Division is different but not what it means."

"What does it mean? I have memories of the term but no explanation," Lily asked.

"It designates magic users, same as a seven-pointed star. It's an international symbol for wizardry," he said.

"Oh."

"All right, so how do we get out of here?" Hermione said, looking at the three of them. After a moment, she let her mind wander back to Lily joining them before the fistfight. She turned to Lily. "You said something about your brother. I didn't know you had a brother."

"In this life, Captain James Potter is my brother."

"Was he here?"

Lily nodded. "I saw him earlier at the ball."

"So we're missing Sirius and James," Hermione said aloud, more to herself than them.

"And Pandora and Calypso."

"Calypso! I knew the third girl looked familiar," Regulus said, leaning back.

"Are you Ambassadors too?" Hermione asked.

Lily chuckled, "No, nothing like that. We," she glanced to Regulus before continuing, "were stowaways on Celestia and we crashed the party."

Regulus tipped his head back and laughed. "We need to get better security on that ship, this is ridiculous."

"It was Calypso's idea. Though I did talk Pandora into it. She was the reluctant Remus to our Black and Potter duo."

Severus's lips seemed like they wanted to frown but he just couldn't make it happen.

"Is Calypso... you know, from Limbo?" Hermione asked. She wiggled and rubbed her back against the walls to try and scratch an itch, it didn't really work.

"No," Regulus shook his head. "We didn't have anyone in the family named Calypso."

"She was still kidnapped and since I'm the oldest I'm responsible for her."

"How old is she?" Hermione asked.

"Sixteen," Lily answered.

"Shouldn't she be at Hogwarts?" Severus asked.

"She's homeschooled? I think," Regulus answered.

Lily closed her eyes in thought before reopening them and looking at Regulus. "That sounds right," she said.

"So we're missing four people and we can't use our wands openly to get out of this mess. We need to hear what's going on," Hermione muttered. Then she looked up at Severus, "Brainstorm with me. How can we take your Muffling Charm and reverse it so it amplifies sound? Maybe making it directional. I want to find Walsh and listen in on everything."

It didn't take them long to come up with a solution. Severus recast his Muffling Charm and inside that, Hermione cast the new Amplifying Charm, so they could eavesdrop without being caught by the Muggle officers standing guard.

It took close to an hour with Hermione aiming her wand up and moving it slowly from one corner of the ship to the next before they found the right voice. There had been dozens of conversations they had overheard. Guests being questioned, others being taken to their own staterooms for the evening, and seamen and crew in the mess. When they thought they'd finally recognised the navigator's voice, Hermione's arms had started shaking from holding her wand up so long. Regulus came and sat in front of her and propped her arms up with his.

"Cast it again, Hermione," he told her. She did and the finally heard Walsh's voice.

"I can't believe you didn't have more security in place," he said.

There were grunts and someone trying to talk through a gag.

"You can answer me well enough with your glove in your mouth, Captain," he sneered. When there was another grunt, he said, "Of course I know who the perpetrators were. All these stupid interviews and questioning is pointless. My crew and the pirates we hired are responsible for it. And if they hadn't bungled it we would only have lost communications, not the navigation systems too."

They heard footsteps and a crewman approach Walsh.

"What now? Are all the ships tethered to us up and running?"

"Just like tugboats, sir," the crewman said.

"Then what's the problem? You look nervous."

The crewman stuttered. "Umm, sir, our ship is gone."

"What do you mean our ship?" Walsh said, there was the rustle of clothing as he must have stood and then he repeated the question slowly and through gritted teeth, "What do you mean our ship is gone?"

"I mean, Captain Pott—er, Potter, sir. There were four ships missing from the tethering. The two pirate caravels and two galleons. The logs say one was ours, HMA The Dark Lord, and the other was one called Celestia. They must have gave chase."

Walsh swore. "I wanted The Dark Lord. Have you tried using one of the other ship's com systems to hail her?"

"We have, sir, and she's not responding."

Walsh exhaled heavily and sat back down, the squeak of the leather chair giving him away. "He'd be a complete dunce if he answered. No matter how gullible, James Potter isn't a dunce." He swore again. "I hope the ship's retrievable. After we get to our destination we'll have to borrow a few of the caravels to hunt it down. Get rid of Potter while we're at it. Have you hailed the other two pirates, they were supposed to—"

"Hey, what are you doing in there?" One of the Muggle guards shouted, causing Hermione and Regulus to drop her wand to hide it.

Lily had been by the door and was supposed to watch for them. She cast a Confundus Charm and then quickly Severus joined her and performed a short Memory Charm on the guard. By the time his fellows had stepped up beside him to see what had been going on, he was confused and just shrugged when asked what he'd seen.

"Lily, why'd you let him see us?" Regulus hissed.

"I was listening, Walsh was saying something about James. I got distracted," she answered.

"There wasn't any harm done," Severus said, covering for Lily.

"So now what?" Lily asked.

"I vote we talk about what we've heard so far. My arms are aching," Hermione said.

They settled back down on the floor in the corner and Severus cast another Muffling Charm.

* . * . *

James blinked his eyes open and marvelled that at least he wasn't looking up at the sky of Limbo again. His head ached but he forced himself to sit up anyway.

"No, don't, don't get up, James. You hit your head," a girl's voice said over him. His eyes focused on the black hair and red dress of one of the kidnapped victims.

He swallowed and his throat felt gritty. "What happened?" he asked, his voice sounding scratchy.

She giggled as if the whole thing was a joke. James wanted to roll his eyes at her childishness and ridiculous girly fantasies. She probably thought getting captured by pirates and rescued was romantic, the crazy bint. "Well, I got kidnapped and you gave chase. Then when the kidnappers started to lower their airship into the ocean, you... I don't know what you did really. All I got to see was a giant airship on fire and in pieces. They put me on a little boat and left me. I had to Banish myself to shore."

He looked up at the starlit sky and blinked. He'd lost his wand and crashed one of Her Royal Navy's airships. If his CO didn't kill him he was sure his father would. What was worse was he'd gone after the wrong caravel, the wrong girl. Lily was out there somewhere still.

He looked back to the girl. "What's your name?"

"Calypso Black," she answered and if she weren't kneeling next to him on the white sand of a beach in the Caribbean she might have even curtsied.

"Black?" He asked, catching on to the part that was familiar. "Do you know Sirius Black?"

"He's my cousin," she said. "Do you think you can walk now? The beach is lovely, but it's quite creepy to be out so late at night."

It was only then that he paid attention to the rest of his body. There were aches and pains but nothing indicating he'd barely survived. He wondered if his magic had protected him from the worst of it. He sat up and caught sight of the wreckage of The Dark Lord. He felt a thrill at that thought—he'd taken down the Dark Lord—before reality kicked back in. They were shipwrecked on an island. He stood slowly and looked around for any sign of civilisation. He helped Calypso to stand. He headed inland towards a lush looking jungle. He would just have to make some sort of shelter for the rest of the night.

"Captain Potter?" she called after him, her voice high and overly sugary, "Can you walk a tad bit slower? My slippers weren't meant for this sort of terrain and my dress is a bit wet on the hem."

He sighed as he walked without slowing his tread and mentally corrected himself. He was shipwrecked with a lovesick little girl on a deserted island.

* . * . *

"So there are airships that turn into boats, I was kidnapped but you saved me, I thanked you with sex and then assumed you'd marry me?" Pandora asked, blinking at him. She had eaten a small meal while he'd explained current events and his life since his awakening.

"Yes," Sirius answered. He stood and paced away from the table. "We should probably make some plans," he said. He turned and held out his hand to her. "I'm not going to marry you, though."

"I wouldn't expect you to. I think your first love is the sky and the freedom she allows. A wife would need to like flying." She let him help her up and she ran her hands down her dress like she wanted to smooth out the wrinkles.

"And you don't?"

"Not particularly. What plans do we need to make?"

"Two other girls were kidnapped: Lily and a cousin in this life, named Calypso."

Pandora's eyes moved back and forth like she was reading something before she nodded. "Calypso and Lily are my two best friends in this life. We all live in Potters Bar in Hertfordshire. They're both gracious for including me," she said. Her eyebrows furrowed before she added, "I'm lower class than them, than you." She focused again on his face.

"When have I ever cared about class?" He asked, rolling his eyes. "We need to get in touch with the Embassy and then contact James. I know he went rushing out of that ballroom right before me."

Sirius led the way out of the wardroom to the tiny office where his communications officer worked. He knocked on the door frame to get her attention. She looked up, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear. When she saw Sirius her smile widened.

"I haven't heard you call that the Embassy has been spotted, Kaylee," he said, addressing her, "What's going on?"

The woman's smile faltered. "I can't get in contact with the SkyShip Embassy, Cap'n."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we're back where it was and it's not here. I can't find them and the crows haven't seen them either."

"Crows?" Pandora asked from beside him.

He pointed up, "Boys that climb the rigging as lookouts. On ships without balloons they'd be in what's known as the 'crow's nest,'" he said. She nodded in understanding and he looked back to Kaylee. "The Embassy was enormous, Kaylee. Are you telling me they can't even see her on the horizon?"

Kaylee just shook her head. "It's a big sky, Cap'n."

"How about the other ships that were in the area?" Pandora asked.

"No good," Kaylee said. "Muggle vessels were tied with ropes to her and Special Division ones used their own magical tethers to stay close."

"How about James's ship, the HMA Harriet?"

"The inspection caravel we met a few days ago, sir? She wouldn't be here in the Carribean without dropping over the distance."

Sirius frowned. He'd forgotten that. Yet, he knew James had been at the party, he'd seen him. "Was there any other Her Majesty's ships there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you know if any of them departed when we did?"

Kaylee furrowed her brow and tapped a finger on her chin before nodding, "I think just before you engaged our systems another galleon was leaving in the other direction. I saw her when I was on deck."

"Did you catch her name so we could call her?"

"HMA The Dark Lord."

Sirius shuddered and Pandora's hand came up to rub his lower back. "There's no way he'd be manning a ship called that, would he Sirius?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. Can you hail her, Kaylee?"

"Yes, sir," she said, "I'll call you when I get a response." She turned back to her station and Sirius turned back to Pandora.

"Let's head up on deck and see what the Nav's got to say. James might need our help and we should try to figure out where he went. We'll look for the Embassy after we look for James."

Pandora followed. When they climbed the stairs above deck, Sirius realised how dark it was. He looked out over the rail to look at the sky beyond. He turned and looked out over the other side, finding the north star and using that to find the time. Pandora came up beside him as they looked out over the darkness beyond.

"You should probably get some rest, Pandora," he said in the quiet. She shivered but shook her head, opening her mouth to protest. "There's plenty of staterooms, I can have one of the house-elves take you to—"

"I'm going back to your room, Sirius, and after you talk with your Navigator, you're coming too."

He faced her and tried to find the right words for the situation. "Pandora, I—"

"I'm not going to fuck you again. Just to hold one another and sleep," she said. Her words were confident and there was a hint of command in her tone. It reminded him of how she'd commanded him in the bedroom that one time at Hogwarts. It was his turn to shiver.

"Yes, Mistress," he murmured.

Her eyes crinkled with mischief. "Well, maybe some mutual masturbation. You know, something to help us sleep."

He grinned and winked at her. "Go on, I'll be along shortly." She turned and Sirius watched the hem of her dress drag down each step until she was out of sight.

* . * . *

Regulus knew it was getting late. Lily kept yawning behind her hand and even Hermione had started to doze. When her head had fallen onto his shoulder for the second time, he roused her enough to get them all to stand and he cast a Cushioning Charm to make invisible pallets on the floor so they could lay down if they wished. Everyone returned to their original spots soon after.

They had already discussed everything they'd heard Walsh say and even speculated about what they might have missed. They'd come to the conclusion that Walsh was James' Master Navigator and had led the crew in a mutiny.

Now they were sitting in silence. Lily, on her pallet across from his. Severus was sitting on his pallet along the back wall and Hermione was sitting next to Regulus on his pallet. Hers was next to Lily's along the opposite wall. "Lily," Hermione whispered and shifted in place. When Lily's eyes opened Hermione shifted her skirts and crawled across the floor to whisper in her ear. Lily nodded and Hermione turned around. Lily started loosening Hermione's corset.

"Hermione..." Severus's warning was thick with sleep but still audible.

"I'm not trying to sleep with it tight, Severus," she answered a bit louder. She shifted inside her clothes and sighed heavily in relief. "Thank you, Lily. Need me to do yours?"

"If you would? During the struggle, it came untied but it didn't loosen enough to be able to sleep." Hermione turned around to loosen the ribbons on Lily's dress. "Oh, that's much better," Lily said when Hermione pulled the ribbon from a particular gusset on the left, "thank you, Hermione."

Hermione nodded and crawled back to sit next to Regulus again. Her actions made him smile and he let his eyes slip closed as he listened to Lily snuggle down onto her makeshift bed. Hermione laid her head back down on Regulus's shoulder and shifted her body close to his. He had just dozed off when there was a sharp, metallic bang as one of the guards hit something against the bars of the cell door. Hermione jerked against him as she woke with a start.

"Hey, alchemist," the guard said, his voice loud in the quiet room. " Wake up! Captain wants a word with you."

Severus stood and walked to the door. The guard opened it. Severus turned to look at the three still in the cell. Lily was asleep and facing the wall. Hermione was anxious but dead on her feet. Severus locked eyes with Regulus before he walked out of the cell. Regulus wasn't sure what the look might have meant. The door swung shut and the guard locked it. Regulus could just hear the guard hiss at Severus to walk.

Hermione had started trembling and she looked back at Regulus with panic in her eyes. "What are they going to do to him?"

"Nothing he can't handle. They called him alchemist; they probably want to discuss alchemy. Maybe the bomb they planted earlier."

Hermione tried to get up but her foot caught on her dress and she slipped back down onto her bum. "But I need—the guards might be gone, we should—umph—let me up Regulus!" she tried to glare at him but her anxious tears leaking down her cheeks ruined the look.

"Hey, hey, come here. Sit down, Hermione, you're okay," he soothed, running his thumb along her cheekbone to wipe away her tears. She quieted and looked up into his face. He wasn't sure why he did it, but he tipped his head down and kissed her. She had bitten her bottom lip in her anxiety and he licked it, feeling the little bit of damage she'd done to it with her teeth. Her mouth opened to him and he deepened the kiss, loving the way she responded to him.

Regulus's hands had wandered to her shoulders and arms and he rubbed at them gently to help relieve her stress. He didn't know how long they kissed, but what had started as slow and sensual picked up urgency after a while. When she broke the kiss to climb over his lap he was a bit shocked but he brought his hands to her waist to hold her there. They didn't speak for fear of waking Lily but soon Hermione was shifting and moving her skirts out of the way. He knew Severus might kill him for this but he wasn't going to say no when she was the one instigating it.

When it was over, Regulus had conjured a blanket and their clothes lay in a wrinkled pile at their feet. He smiled at her as they laid down, getting comfortable enough to sleep. The last thing he remembered before falling asleep was Hermione's near silent whisper, "Thank you. I needed that."

* . * . *

A throat clearing is what woke him. Regulus jolted awake and was keenly aware of the naked woman's body pressed close to his and the evil eye of her brother glaring at him. He shifted enough to look at Sev, hoping not to wake her, but she was moving in his arms to hide further under the blanket he'd conjured. A quick glance at Lily had her sitting up on her bed smirking at him.

Severus's eyes lingered on his sister's bare shoulders and then came to rest on Regulus. "You couldn't have even let her keep her shift on?"

"You shush," Hermione muttered into the blanket. Regulus reached down to pull her underthings out from the pile of clothes and handed them to her. She slid under the blanket completely to start dressing. Regulus also redressed under the blanket. By the time they were reclothed, Severus had flopped back down onto his pallet. He looked exhausted.

"Did they keep you awake all night?" Hermione asked, concern tinting her voice.

"I'd ask you the same thing, but seeing as how I caught you sleeping, I'd say I doubt it."

Regulus pretended to glare at Severus. "Hey!"

Severus just twitched his lips and gestured with a minute nod in Hermione's direction. She had pressed her face against his arm and hidden under her hair. Regulus moved a little and glanced down at her. She had turned tomato red.

"I could have you charged with theft, you know," Severus said conversationally to Regulus.

Hermione slipped out from under her hair to scold her brother. "You leave him alone. I was upset when you got snatched out of here and he comforted me."

"I didn't think comforting required getting naked."

"Well, it does!" She said, nodding once for emphasis. Regulus couldn't keep a straight face at that and chuckled. Severus and Lily joined in.

Regulus leaned close to Hermione and whispered, "What do you say to marrying me?"

She frowned, her brow scrunching together, "Why would we do that?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"You really don't recall much of this life, do you?"

"I haven't had very much quiet time to practice!" she huffed.

He brought his mouth to her ear and whispered quietly. "I took your maidenhead, Hermione; that's a big deal in this time period. It's expected of me to marry you."

"Well that's ridiculous," she said, blinking up at him. "What if I don't want to?"

Regulus grinned. "We'll have to talk about it later." He turned to look at Severus and saw Lily smiling at them from the corner of his eye. "So what did they want with you?"

"They needed me to concoct another reagent like the one used in the explosive they detonated yesterday. Seems whoever set it up used all of the material in that one bomb rather than split it for a second bomb like Walsh intended. That's what caused the explosion to be so powerful and knock out the navigation systems in addition to the communications. They provided me with the ingredients and told me to make it. While I worked, they seemed to forget I was in the room because some of the lower guards got to talking.

"Apparently, they're navigating us with the tethered ships to an island off the East Coast of the United States. There is supposed to be a hidden treasure somewhere on the island." He rolled his eyes and yawned, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. "I botched the potion but they won't know that until they try to use it. It's not reactive."

"What else are they going to try to blow up?" Regulus asked. Severus shrugged.

"And they're looking for a hidden treasure?" Hermione asked, frowning. "They mutinied to become pirates?"

"That's what it seems like."

"What about the demands they gave me? About the Statute of Secrecy and the fifty-thousand pounds sterling?"

"A ruse it seems. Maybe the goals of the pirates they hired but it definitely wasn't Walsh's goal," Severus said.

"That's a relief at least," Hermione said. She leaned back into Regulus and he wrapped his arms around her.

"What?" Lily asked.

"I thought for a while that they had detained us because they knew something was wrong or off. Like they knew we weren't who we really say we are."

"We are who we say we are, though," Regulus answered.

"Well you might be, Mr Regulus Arcturus Black the second, but I'm not really Hermione Prince!"

Severus frowned and at first glance Regulus thought he actually pouted for a moment. "Do you not like being my sister?"

"I barely know you! I'm Hermione Granger and I feel like a fraud. I mean, when they called for Ambassador Prince I looked around at first because I forgot my name!"

"You're not a fraud, Hermione," Lily said. "We're not frauds. I went to Hogwarts with you and Regulus in this timeline, I can bring up any memory from this life just as much as I can bring up memories from my previous life. I'll never forget James as my husband or Harry, but this is my life now, with James as my brother. We really need to teach you how to bring this life's memories to the forefront of your mind."

Hermione seemed to slump in on herself and Regulus squeezed his arms around her in a tight hug. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."

"Living," Severus and Lily said at the same time. They looked at one another and smiled.

Regulus nodded, agreeing. "Living."