Harry and the Pirates

Chapter 46

Goodbye and Hello

After the terrible twins had been taken into custody by the Thai Ministry of Magic, one of the Thais handed Luna a letter. "This is for you, Miss Lovegood." Luna bowed politely in the local style as she took the letter, and the Thais all smiled to see that at least one farang in this misbegotten hole of a town understood and respected their customs.

Once the Thais had gone, Luna opened her letter. She gave a smile of pure joy. "Oh! Daddy found the Chinthe, and turned it over to the Thai Ministry. He wants to head back to Britain, and says I should plan to join up with him. He's in Pattaya right now, so I can hire the Black Lagoon again."

"You may use my telephone to contact the Lagoon Couriers, Miss Lovegood," Balalaika said. She had overseen the transfer of the twins into the custody of the Thais, along with her faithful Sergeant Boris. Under her cold eye, and the muzzle of Boris' pistol, all had gone very smoothly.

"Thank you, Miss Balalaika. And thank you for your kindness while I've been here. I can see why Harry and Dudley both speak so highly of you. Seeing you in action every day must have been an inspiration to them." Luna took the prooffered telephone and began punching buttons with aplomb; a few tutorials from Dudley had taught her all she needed to know to handle a portable phone. When she was done talking, she handed the phone back, and stretched up to kiss Balalaika on one scarred cheek. Balalaika's eyes went very wide.

Once she had exited the room, Balalaika and Boris shared identically nonplussed looks. This was not the first time that Luna had blindsided them. Finally, Balalaika spoke. "You know, Sergeant, I have been called many things in my lifetime. 'Kind' is a new one, though. So is 'inspiring.'" She paused for a moment. "And she's the only person who's kissed me, since…" Absently, she rubbed her cheek, clearly not quite believing what had happened.

"With respect, Captain, you inspire us all. Miss Lovegood is just more open about saying so." Boris saw something at that moment that most people in Roanapur would have sworn was impossible. Balalaika blushed like a little girl for a second, before turning away and briskly turning her attention to the day's ration of work.

A few days later, the Black Lagoon was heading northwest across the Gulf of Thailand, under a cloudless blue sky. Luna was on deck, with Harry and Dudley beside her, revelling in the beautiful weather and exclaiming at the sight of flying fish. Dutch was on the bridge, steering the PT boat toward Pattaya, straight and true. Down in his lair, Benny was monitoring the locals' frequencies; although as far as they knew nobody was particularly angry at, or looking for, the Black Lagoon, caution was always called for.

Petunia Dursley was sitting in a chair on the stern deck, not far away from Harry, Dudley and Luna. She had been a bit leery of taking the PT boat, but she was not about to let her boys, or Luna, out of her sight until Luna was safely returned to her Daddy and her boys were safe back in Roanapur. Unlike everybody else, she was strapped into a lifejacket. Dutch had sternly insisted on that, after finding out that she couldn't swim.

Rock and Revy were up on the foredeck, keeping watch. Or, at least, Revy was keeping watch and Rock was keeping her company. The Chinese-American gunsel was sharp-eyed, but tended to become bored with watch-standing, so having Rock up there with her was a good idea. Or so Dutch had said, and Harry and Dudley were not inclined to gainsay the Lagoon's captain.

The run at sea was smooth, and they were soon nosing into the harbor at Pattaya. The locals had seen the Black Lagoon before, and accepted her presence calmly enough, particularly when some crisp green reason had been applied by Rock. Watching Rock deal with the local officials, Harry felt nothing but admiration. The Japanese man was as slick as could be; to see him in action was an education.

"Can you imagine him in Slytherin?" Dudley muttered, in Russian. They knew that Rock could understand Russian, but the rest of the Lagoon crew did not, and they did like privacy.

Harry nodded, understanding completely. "If he were magical and at Hogwarts, Snape might just find that he had a worthy successor as House Head!"

"Forget Snape," Dudley snorted. "As smooth an operator as Rock is, I think he'd be Headmaster in short order!" Both boys laughed quietly. Petunia, who could follow the byplay, gave them a sharp look, but said nothing.

After the Black Lagoon was made fast to the pier, the English contigent disembarked. Luna paid Dutch for her passage, ceremoniously handing him the money and then shaking his hand. She then shook Benny's hand, and Rock's. Last in line was Revy.

Revy looked uncertain, which was a new one; Harry had known her for years and one thing that he would not have ever expected to see was Revy less than certain about what to do. Finally, under Dutch's stern stare, Revy held out her hand. "Goodbye, Miss Lovegood. I hope you had a nice trip with us."

"Goodbye, Rebecca. It was nice getting to know you." Before Revy could react, Luna reached out and hugged her. Harry could see a moment's panic in her eyes at being unexpectedly grabbed, and Rock signalling her to relax. Revy wrapped her arms around Luna, visibly deciding to accept the caress.

When they broke apart, Luna looked deep into Revy's eyes. "I think you're a better person than you think you are, Rebecca. One day you may understand what I'm telling you." She turned and went over to Dudley, leaving Revy looking slightly thunderstruck, and the rest of the Lagoon crew staring after her.

When they were away from the wharves, Dudley asked: "Luna, what did you mean by that?"

"Yes, I'd like to know, too," said Petunia, who had been slightly horrified to see anybody treat Revy Two-Hands so familiarly. Even though she knew that, as a paying passenger, there was little real danger to Luna in what she had done, she also knew that Revy could have reacted by reflex before thinking about what she was doing. To Petunia, as to most of Roanapur, Revy Two-Hands was like a bottle of nitroglycerine on legs. And, like a bottle of nitroglycerine, if you jostled her in the wrong way she would explode.

"I can see that Rebecca Lee had bad things happen to her when she was very young," Luna answered, her face as solemn as it ever got. "That's a big part of why she is the way she is. Down deep, she hates the world because she can't forget what she went through. I hope Rock can get through to her that things can be better for her some day."

Harry and Dudley traded glances. In most cases, they thought that Divination was a wooly-minded subject best avoided. Snape had been scathing about it when asked about possible course choices by the second-years. However, they did know that the true Talent existed. Did Luna have it? They didn't know.

Just then, they met Xenophilius Lovegood. He and Luna ran into each other's arms with happy cries, and Harry noticed Aunt Petunia wiping away a few tears. She'll miss Luna. And us, too. Suddenly he felt bad for his aunt, left all alone in Roanapur while her boys were away.

Dudley obviously was thinking along the same lines. He put his arm around his mother's waist. "We're sorry we have to go away to school, Mum," he murmured.

Petunia put one arm around Dudley's shoulders, and the other one around Harry's shoulders, pulling both her boys close. "I knew the day had to come," she said softly. "Roanapur doesn't have any schools for boys your age. If it hadn't been Hogwarts, I was thinking about some of the expats' schools in Bangkok or Singapore."

"At least Hogwarts isn't costing you anything, Mum," Dudley said. At that reminder, Petunia's face brightened. She was a thrifty soul, and saving money always made her happy. She had applied that to the finances of Bougainvillea Trading and Hotel Moscow, and had increased both enterprises' profitability, which was one of the reasons that Balalaika valued her services. Her men were hell-on-wheels in fights, and well able to intimidate recalcitrant thugs into cooperating with Balalaika's plans, but for most of them, handling the finances of a business was far beyond their abilities.

Once they were able to bear letting go of each other, Luna and Xenophilius turned to the Dursleys and Harry. "You must be Mrs. Dursley," said Xeno. "I'm Xenophilius Lovegood, and I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking such good care of my daughter. Apparently she hadn't told you she was coming. I do apologize; when she gets focussed on something she can often forget important details. I'm glad you were able to accommodate her."

"Oh, it was no trouble, Mr. Lovegood. It was a pleasure having her. I love my boys, but it was a lot of fun having a girl for a while. Thank you for letting me borrow her." The two shook hands, smiling. "She also impressed our boss, Miss Balalaika. And, let me tell you, that's not easy to do."

Xeno beamed; he obviously adored hearing his daughter praised. "My Luna's impressed me in a thousand and one ways ever since the day her mother presented her to me." A shadow passed over his face. "I just wish her mother were here to see how she's grown!"

"Oh! Is her mother well?" Petunia looked very concerned. Harry had heard her saying to Balalaika that she felt a girl needed a woman in her life to guide her along the path to adulthood.

Xeno shook his head sadly. "She died when our Luna was nine. Luna saw it. It was an accident. She was a wondrously talented witch, but she did like to experiment. Some of her experiments did incredible things, but one day something went really wrong."

Petunia's eyes filled with tears. "Oh! I'm so sorry! I know what that feels like! My Vernon was killed a few months after Harry came to live with us. That's part of why I'm out here!" She quirked a grin. "Vernon's sister Margaret came and settled on in for a nice long visit, and I decided that I didn't want to live in England any more. Between what I inherited, the insurance settlement, and my own education, I found work in Singapore, and then in Roanapur, and I've never looked back!" She chuckled. "I don't miss English weather, or the prices, or the high taxes, let me tell you!"

"I don't blame you on that," Xeno commented, looking up at the deep blue sky. "And my Luna's been over the moon about her adventures with your boys! She's quite sweet on your Dudley, but she thinks Harry all but put the stars in the skies. I'm glad that they're looking out for her so well."

"That's my boys," Petunia said proudly. The two adults looked over at the younger generation. Luna was clinging to Dudley's hands and looking up at him with an expression so woebegone, someone not familiar would think that they were going to be permanently separated, instead of parting company for a couple of weeks at most before meeting back up at school. "They were taught responsibility early and well, and I must say, they've made me proud, a thousand times."

"Luna also had many very good things to say about this employer of yours, the Russian woman Balalaika," Xeno said, smiling at his daughter. "She says that if Miss Balalaika had been born magical, she'd have the whole Wizard World under her rule, and probably be running it better than the fools who do run it. I've tried to alert people to the corruption in the Ministry many times, but to no avail."

"How do you do that?"

"I publish a magazine called The Quibbler. For the most part, I focus on exotic animals, since there's a large market for those stories. But I also do print stories about the Ministry. Lately, I've been looking into the case of Sirius Black. He was thrown into Azkaban, the wizarding prison, for betraying Harry's parents to You-Know-Who."

"Really?" Petunia pricked up her ears. "You do know that Harry's mother was my sister Lily, don't you? What are you looking into? Did something come out at the trial?"

"That's just it. He was apparently imprisoned without any trial at all!" Xeno stepped closer. In a low voice, he said "And that's not the only irregularity I've found!"

Petunia was shocked. "Well, I never! I hope you expose whatever's been going on at the Ministry, and get a bunch of them thrown into Azkaban! From what you say, they've earned it a thousand times over!" She had been associating with criminals, in one of the most corrupt towns in Asia, for over a decade, but she quickly decided she didn't like the so-called "enforcers of the law" acting like criminals themselves.

Finally, they managed to pry Luna away from Dudley, and the two groups parted, with many expressions of goodwill and promises to meet up. As they walked back toward the wharves, Harry noticed that his aunt was preoccupied, and she stayed that way all the way back to Roanapur, despite Revy's'curiosity about where they'd gone. Dutch finally took Revy aside and explained quietly that their passengers' business was their own, and not anything to do with Revy. Harry thought that the Chinese-American woman was bored, and hoped that the other crew could keep her in line. A bored Revy was dangerous.

Once they were back home, they started organizing to pack up for the upcoming school year. It was coming close to the time to head for Dun Mueang Airport in Bangkok to take the plane back to Britain. Harry and Dudley were very proud that they'd managed to buy the tickets themselves, with part of the money they'd received for their share of the profits from the Basilisk's venom. Petunia had been surprised, and very pleased at this sign of newfound maturity on their parts. Balalaika had been less voluble, but they could tell that she was happy about it, too. "In Roanapur, children do grow up quickly," she commented.

(Author's note: I hadn't planned on it, but wouldn't a relationship between Petunia, who's a widow in this AU, and Xeno be a hoot? I doubt they'd want it to interfere between Dudley and Luna, so they'd likely keep it quiet, but children can often spot things that adults aren't expecting them to.)