Granger, we need to talk

by SpeedisArmour

Eighth Year Golden Trio returns. Yes, all three. Characters as close to canon as I can write. Re-building Hogwarts, the Quiddich pitch. Veterans returning, PTSD, rotten privileged PureBloods. Need plural wives? Arrgh! Very slow burn. HP/HG/DG eventually. Will include every cliché, and trope I can remember. Not epilogue or HPCC compliant. Dumbles bashing. M for language.

43. Chapter 43 Donner und Blitzen

Granger, we need to talk

Chapter 43

I got nothin' clever this time

It's all JK Rowlings

/

Donner und Blitzen

{about 5800 words}

/

As they were waiting, Harry sniffed and turned.

"Hermione, is there a fire somewhere? I smell smoke. Coal smoke I think."

At Harry's quiet words Captain Sulstrude spun around and stared at Harry, then whipped back until he was facing the wind and took a huge lung full through his nose.

A snarl came over his face. "Bastards."

"Lachlan, buoy the anchor cable and cut it! Gun crew close up! All other hands make sail!" the Captain roared.

"Cap'n," came a voice from forward. "Where away is the target?"

"Point 'er over the starboard side until we see 'em, Gunner!"

The sails were rapidly climbing the masts. The mainsail went first and started rippling and billowing itself as it was kept from filling just yet. The odd triangular sails at the very front, the jibs Harry thought, were being hoisted as fast as the frantic sailors could pull the ropes.

"Anchors free!" came the cry from up forward.

"Helm, bring 'er to port. Steer southeast!" Captain Sulstrude kept speaking in a brisk, carrying command voice.

He cupped his hands to either side of his mouth. "Miss Lovegood, toss that board with the tracking charms on it overboard!"

A faint, female, "Aye aye, Cap'n" floated back.

As the boat turned rapidly to the left, the mainsail filled with a bang and swept wildly across the deck as it was sheeted home. The two jibs were flattening with wind as the Lady Amphitrite leaned over under the press of the wind upon the sails.

The Lady A was gathering speed and leaning over farther with every wave that was now coming over her starboard, starboard . . side? thought Harry. Wind and wave were now on her starboard broadside and spray was starting to fly over the bow.

Harry could see that one group of sailors were pulling on ropes that were releasing a small-ish triangular sail above the mainsail. Another group was pulling the big sail up the foremast. As both sails were sheeted home, the schooner accelerated again.

With the deck starting to rise and plunge heavily as more as the sails were added, Harry could see heavier spray coming more often over the bow. Of course, that could be because they were sailing out from behind the protecting island where they had gathered Plimpies.

Now that the frenetic activity had died away, Sulstrude motioned Harry over to join him by the helm.

"Thank you, Lord Potter-Black." He said. "If you hadn't smelled that stack smoke, we wouldn't have gotten a chance to run. I think what we both smelled was a ship up to windward, out to the southwest somewhere. That ship might have a perfectly good reason for being where it was, but, the odds of innocent fishermen being amongst these islands at night, in the dead of winter, are slim."

"Now," the Captain continued. "We've got a head start on 'em. We might get a bit o' luck and they'll chase their trackers instead of us. The Lady A is fast. Mayhap's we can get far enough away from them to lose us."

"Kinda doubt it though. The weather report was apparently off a mite. The wind is only a Force 5. If it was higher, we might be able to just outrun whoever is out there. If they can be anywhere near us in two hours, they'll see us as dawn starts."

Harry nodded in understanding.

"We do have a problem. We have to sail south or southeast a-ways before turning because of the protecting reefs of the island. However, iff'n we keep going southerly we run out of ocean fairly quick. Then we have to pick whether to turn to the east, which is away from the enemy, or turn west and try to sneak around their stern."

Again, Sulstrude grimaced while rubbing a large, spade-sized hand across his chin. "East seems safer, but every mile sailed takes us away from Grobhaste, and possible help. West is more of a gamble, but it's a lot shorter route back to port."

He looked at Harry. "Think of where we were anchored as a crossroads. Right now, the highwaymen are coming up the road from the southwest, hoping to catch us still sitting at the crossroads. Meanwhile, we are leaving by the other road, running southeast. It would be good if they chase the tracking charm board and not cut us off by running cross-country at an angle. A stern chase is a long chase."

"Unfortunately, since the Plimpie run started late, I kept us harvesting too long, and they'll be able to see us soon. So, the sneak-by-them plan is probably a bust."

Everyone stood quietly for a few minutes looking back at where they thought they had come from looking for the enemy ship.

Suddenly, Luna's clear voice sang out. "Ship ahoy. Thar she blows," she said pointing back along the right side of the boat.

Everyone looked following her finger.

There, Harry thought he could see a blob of darker black against the island.

"Damn and blast!" ripped Sulstrude. "He's turned too soon. He must have seen us somehow."

Harry was thinking furiously, "How could they have seen us? We're practically invisible at this distance, and we checked the boat for Tracking Charms."

"Everyone," he bellowed as it suddenly clicked. "We checked the boat but we didn't check the crew. Look for Tracking Charms on clothes or anything anyone is wearing. Then check the rooms. That includes us."

Within a minute two of the crew were found with trackers attached. One to the sea boots a crewman had worn while boarding the boat. The other to the back of a watch coat. Both were immediately transferred to another board and thrown over the side into the sea. No others were found.

As Luna said, "They probably won't fall for it, but they might.

Someone under an invisibility cloak had probably tagged everything just before they left the dock. Harry was beating himself up for not thinking about checking themselves and the crew earlier. And damning their luck for having smart gits on the other side.

In the meantime, the Captain had been bellowing orders that set the boat on a more easterly course and was just finishing getting the sails drawing to his satisfaction. The motion of the boat was livelier now and she was leaning over further with the wind. The motion and tilt made it harder for Harry and the group to gather around Sulstrude near the helm as they struggled to walk aft from meeting amidships after they had re-searched the front half of the boat.

"Right," he said placing a scrap of parchment on the compass platform. With a pencil, he then rapidly drew an arc to show the island and reefs, an Exe inside the arc, an arrow for the wind direction, and two smaller arrows for the directions of the Lady Amphitrite and the unknown pursuer.

"Here's what happened. We were here," he jabbed the Exe just below the arc. When the wind blowing from here, brought the stack exhaust smell from the southwest to us we headed southeast, thisaway. And just now we are heading like this." He traced along the Lady arrow.

"The other ship turned to their starboard like this, and is now chasing us.

He frowned at his sketch. "First, we're broad reaching east southeast with the wind from the southwest, we are going slightly faster than before. However, that leaves us two problems."

"Right now, between the wind and the pirate ship, we're blocked from the southwest, the direct way home. The island is northwest and if we turn to go north, they will cut the angle on us and probably catch us."

"One, we keep going south, we run into Rum Island. Sail too far northeast or east, we run into land shortly. If we keep sailing southeast, again we run out of ocean. It just takes a couple hours longer."

Tapping the pencil on the sketch he paused a moment. "I have to pick a moment when to tack and beat south after we clear Rum Island. The other bad thing with steering south, we will slow down a lot as we will be beating into the southwest wind."

And very carefully not looking at Harry he finished, "Second problem is that we have no idea what's chasing us."

Harry grunted and also very carefully did not look Sulstrude in the eye. He knew what the man wanted.

Heaving a deep sigh, he turned to Ginny, and after glancing at Neville, said, "Like to go for a fly, Gin?"

"Don't do it, Harry" came the voice of Daphne. "Two disillusioned broom fliers over the ocean with a strong wind like tonight? We don't dare use a Tracking Charm and you will probably get blown off course and become lost on the way back."

Harry removed his cap and ran his hand through his hair in his go-to sign of frustration. "We have to do something, Daphne. They know where we are and what we are. We know nothing about them except they're probably the bad blokes."

That comment brought snorts of laughter from everyone.

Just then Captain Sulstrude held up his hand. "There is a way that should work. We'll just have to pretend our scout is going to navigate like sailors of old did before the sextant and chronometer were invented."

Oooooo vvvvvv oooooO

Ten minutes into his scouting flight, Harry had a lot of thoughts going on in his head. The flying weather was awful. It was freezing cold, the wind was blowing hard and the sudden obscurity of the sea by the scudding clouds was disorienting. He was having trouble gripping his broom with heavy gloves and his right hand also holding his wand under the glove. He was also wishing he could remember more about ships from his almost a decade old readings in the library.

That blacker blob was getting closer. Following Captain Sulstrude's advice Harry pulled up for more altitude, ("They'll be looking for us at sea level. They shouldn't be looking up.") and raising his wand hand, he tapped himself on his head and Disillusioned himself.

Circling back to stay at the rear of the boat that was chasing them, Harry tried to memorize the differences between the Lady Amphitrite and the thing chasing them.

For starters, the Lady Amphitrite looked graceful. The boat chasing them looked dumpy.

Starting at the front, it had a prow(?) a deck higher than the forward deck behind it that ran all the way back to the deckhouses stacked on the rear of the boat. It had a large metal H-shape in front of the deckhouses that might have had cranes mounted at some time. There were two stacked deckhouses, the top one had lots of glass around it. A funnel reared its length out of the deckhouses and a huge amount of black coal smoke boiled skyward out of it before rolling away downwind.

The boat radiated gross neglect and absence of care.

Something he could not understand was why the old boat definitely looked to be straining. She was rolling almost wildly in the waves hitting her almost broadside, yet there was a large white wave at the bow, a froth at the stern and he could plainly hear the roar of the engine several hundred yards away. It seemed to be moving faster than it should be able to.

Harry almost fell off his broom as he heard a very distinctive howl from the boat. Very carefully he eased closer to take a closer look at the deck.

There it was. A cage, and in the cage was a transformed werewolf screaming its anger at being trapped.

"Oh, Merlin. A full moon and a transformed werewolf. If that gets on board we are going to be in such deep shite!"

Very carefully, Harry pulled up and started back. The captain had been most explicit in his instructions. "Don't be seen, Lord Potter-Black. If they have brooms with them, we are much more vulnerable to a spell strafing run than they are. Let's not help them to start thinking that way."

Harry started on his way back to the Lady Amphitrite. As it was explained to him, they were going to show a pair of red and green lights for him to see, but hidden from their pursuer. If he flew while drifting downwind, he only had to look to his right to find his guiding lights.

Sulstrude had explained that hundreds of years ago, ships deliberately used to aim to the right or left of a destination. That way when they reached the coast they knew which way to turn in order to sail to the port.

He wanted Harry to use the same method so he would not wonder which way to look to find the Lady A.

After a harrowing fifteen minutes, in which Harry was positive half a dozen times he had missed seeing the lights, he ghosted in to carefully land on the pitching deck of the schooner.

While drinking most of a large mug of hot, sweet, strong tea, Harry told of what he had seen.

He first practically babbled out about the werewolf. That had his audience looking backward at the pirates with fear written large on their faces.

"When is dawn?"

"How long before he will change back?"

"Can we outrun them until then?"

The questions came quick and fast.

"Sunrise is at 8:15, so we have about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. I don't know if we can stay away from them until then," were the equally quick replies from Sulstrude.

"So, you think she looks like an old fishing boat? Yet, she is loud, with a mass of white water at the bow and froth at the stern," Captain Sulstrude stated.

"Yeah," answered Harry. "In fact, a couple of times the propeller almost lifted out of the water, and then the water sprayed backward like shot from a cannon."

Again, with that characteristic thinking out loud whilst rubbing his chin, Sulstrude mused. "How in Hades is she gaining on us? I wonder if they charmed the engine and shaft Unbreakable? That way they could over-rev the engine and probably even catch us. Damn. Alright, Plan C it is."

"Excuse me, Captain," interrupted Harry. "What were Plan A and B?"

The captain actually grinned. "Plan A was to have nothing happen and we sail home by noon or so today. Plan B was to outrun the bastards. Right now, in these wind conditions, we probably can not out-sail a fast boat. We need more wind. We have an Impervious Spell on the bow and stern of the lovely Lady Amphitrite. Reduces friction and lets her sail faster."

He suddenly looked at Hermione whose mouth had just opened. "No, we can't put the charm over the whole hull. We would sink. Think about how the charm works, Lady Potter."

There was very little to do now. Those not busy had their eyes glued to the pursuing blob that was slowly crawling up from astern. The captain was heard occasionally cursing that the 6-pounder was up forward and with the masts and sails interfering, could not shoot aft.

Another hour agonized by. The faint pearl of dawn creeping in from the east enabled them to see their chaser less than two miles away.

The time was used to prepare for the Lady A's deck to become a battlefield. Blocks of wood were transfigured into marble, ready to be enlarged so as to block curses. The use of the Glacius Charm for freezing water on the sloping deck was discussed.

Forewarned was turned into forearmed. One of the crew was dispatched into the bowels of the schooner and returned with a keg of either large nails or small spikes. A Hermione-powered transfiguration and the now glittering spikes were shared out with Harry's fighters. Captain Sulstrude also talked about a tactic to use if they found the chaser's deckhouses had been Unbreakable or Duro Charmed.

The long approach of the danger was working on the nerves of Harry's group. They all commented on how the long chase was nerve-wracking and they were happy to find things to do.

Sunrise and moonset were at almost the same time today. It was a race between the two ships.

And the Lady Amphitrite was losing.

The daylight strengthened and the leprous appearance of the hard-charging, old-fashioned fishing boat became more apparent. The once white hull was scabrous with large patches of rust. The white and blue topsides were faded and where not rust eaten, were rust streaked.

There were only fifteen minutes to sunrise when the piratical craft finally hauled up along the starboard aft quarter and was obviously planning on coming alongside the Lady Amphitrite.

At that moment Captain Sulstrude roared out for the helm to be put to starboard. The crew scrambled to re-set the sails on the new southerly course. Their pursuer, although caught by surprise, quickly turned with them.

Suddenly a mass of cloaked wizards spilled out onto the deck of the enemy boat. It only took a couple of seconds before the cage was levitated up and Banished at the Lady, and then a mass incantation that acted like a Finite Incatatum hit the cage and it vanished leaving the werewolf in mid-air, on course to land on the deck of the still turning schooner.

Powerful Depulso's roared out of only Harry and Daphne's wands. Hermione had been caught unbalanced by the turn and the lifting of a wave and was staggered. Daphne had been braced against one of the overturned tables.

Impossibly, the transformed werewolf somehow managed to twist in mid-air, dodging both spells.

The monster landed on the deck. Fortunately, with the wind still coming over the starboard side, the deck was tilted away from it, causing it to slide for a dozen or so feet away from them before crashing into the port bulwark.

Harry's hope that the crunch might have injured the beast was for nought. Springing up and turning towards the group, its claws gouging the deck, it howled just as it sprung upslope towards them.

The original plan on fighting the Were had to be abandoned.

"Daphne, Glacius, NOW!"

"Hermione, spikes. Aim Low!"

At the end of his commands, three spells ripped out. Water on the deck became slippery ice. Hermione threw a handful of spikes in the air and Banished them low along the deck. Harry did the same but aimed higher in case the monster managed to leap up.

Again, the preternatural speed and reflexes of a transformed werewolf kept it from resembling a pincushion. The two casters had left a gap in their spike patterns and the Were managed to be in the gap. Only three spikes hammered into the beast. Two in its left leg, and one from Harry in its right shoulder.

For a frozen moment, Harry thought those three hits might at least slow it down.

No such luck.

Screaming in its pain and bloodlust, the werewolf dug its claws through the thin ice layer, and again gouging furrows in the deck, it leaped at Harry, jaws opening to show its fangs and teeth.

Harry launched an over-powered Bludgeoning Curse just before the werewolf could grab him. Being hit square in the chest at short range stopped the creature and drove it back several feet. Hermione ended the fight with another Banishing of silver spikes and being hit with over half a dozen of the spikes had the Were down on the deck, screaming in pain as it slid down the slope back into the bulwark.

And stayed there, weakly pawing at trying to crawl upslope at them. A Banished cloud of silver spikes from Neville's group ripping into the beast finally stilling it.

"Harry! Down!" came from Daphne behind him.

As he was going down, a blue-ish spell that sizzled, flew past his head.

Whipping around, he took instant stock of the situation. After throwing the werewolf across onto the schooner, the boat surged up along the starboard side, less than twenty yards away.

"Hermione, make sure that thing stays down," he barked as he shielded her from a yellow spell.

"Daphne, start cursing their arses off!"

"Can't see their arses. They're below that burwak wall thingy," (1) she screamed back, just before sending one of her personalized body freezing curses into some idiot's face. The face disappeared.

The Lady finished her turn and even Harry could feel her now moving slower.

As the wild-looking wizards on the piratical craft tried to curse them, the angle of the Lady now meant their crew had cover from their strengthened bulwark and gear.

KA-BANG!

The six-pounder went off with a shocking crash. But nothing happened on board the enemy.

Missed.

The reply was a host of jeers and curses that cut some ropes and splintered part of the bulwark.

Harry could hear Sulstrude cursing his "half-blind, ham-fisted landlubbers", that were the guns crew.

Nothing may have happened, but the pirate boat suddenly fell back away from the cannon. Everyone watched as the old rusty boat cut across their stern at long wand range, then started to sweep up their now exposed left, port? side.

Hermione had been busy transfiguring walls around the ship's wheel to fill the gaps in front and back of said helm. Ginny, the youngest transfiguration hotshot from the summer, was doing the same thing around the cannon.

"Gunner, action port aft!" roared Captain Sulstrude. "Aim for the superstructure!"

Harry glanced at the cannon swiveling around to point at the left side. He could see that if the pirates attacked from the left side with the deck tilted left, the defenders were going to have very little cover against incoming spells.

Everybody was watching as the dilapidated old rust bucket with thick smoke vomiting from its smokestack, literally roared up the left side. A sudden course change and the old boat came crashing alongside the Lady A.

A sharp command to the schooner's helm to turn away managed to keep the pirate boat from heavily damaging the Lady A as the pirate's attempt to slam into her was countered.

A wave of what Harry could only call boarders suddenly Apparated to the deck of the schooner.

Suddenly, many things happened at once.

Several of the pirates Apparated too high above the deck as a wave caused the Lady A to suddenly drop, so they dropped several feet to the deck, which caused them to stumble and crash to the deck, then slide in a tangle down into the scuppers.

Two such wanna-be killers ended up about ten feet in front of Harry. His Bludgeoning Spell caught the nearest one dead in the chest, hurling the man through the air to crash with the crunch of breaking bones against the railing along the bulwark.

Hermione's Reducto nailed the other just below his chin crushing his airway, leaving the thug to grab at his throat, trying to desperately gasp for air. Hermione's follow-up Stupify at least had him die painlessly.

A sweeping Cutting Hex caught two enemies in their sides, distracting them long enough to be Bludgeoned into the growing pile along the port scuppers.

Others had Apparated onto the deck and the roof of the deckhouse and spells started flying.

Harry could see that their intense, if short, training was paying off. Neville's bunch and his girls had first sent Bludgoning and Bonebreaker Curses at every cutthroat that had apparated in near them whether they were still standing or not. The injured thugs ended sliding down the sloped deck into the scuppers. Those that tried to use their wands from that position caught a quick Reducto from Harry's fighters that left most motionless.

Some of the Lady A crew were Stupify'ing anybody and everyone after they were injured and tangled up against the bulwark.

And right in the middle of all that, with another KA-BANG that was almost deafening, and a muzzle flash that was blinding, the cannon fired. The muzzle blast hurled at least two dark wizards into the scuppers with a crunch heard over the chaos. The shell was a direct hit on the face of the enemy bridge structure.

The resulting explosion showed that an Unbreakable Charm can keep light artillery shells from penetrating a wooden deckhouse. However, the resulting shrapnel from the exploding shell caused casualties amongst the pirates who were still on the foredeck of the pirate boat. There had to be several wounded according to the amount of screaming coming from it.

Harry could not tell how many wounded were hurt enough to be out of the fight.

Hearing a cry from his right, Harry spun that way just in time to see a crewman who had been hidden by the side of the deckhouse hit by a Cutting Curse cast by one of a pair of marauders standing on the deckhouse roof. Blood immediately started to flow out of the wound.

Harry was about to cast when Ginny who had also been using the other end of the deckhouse for cover, cast her own Diffindo at the wizard. Except hers started low between his spread legs and she jerked her wand upwards at the end of her cast.

Harry was trying not to flinch in horror as the pirate collapsed in a spray of gore, curling around his mortal wound.

Ginny quickly protected herself from a yellow-brown curse from her right that broke her shield, but stopped the curse. Before the attacker could cast again, Harry cast a Reducto of his own at the surviving wizard. The spell caught him in the back of his right shoulder and spun him around out of the path of Ginny's own Reducto. Unfortunately, spin caused his left arm to fly out where the now-not-missing Reducto blew the arm off, spraying an arc of blood everywhere.

Ginny must have been feeling charitable. She waited until the wounded wizard had cast a healing spell on his stump before blasting the pirate off the roof to join his companions in the lee scuppers.

Another KA-BANG announced the return of the cannon to the fray. The shell again exploded against the face of the aft deckhouses aboard the pirate craft, although lower this time. Again. the screaming restarted from the deck below.

With no warning, a steam whistle bellowed from the pirate's funnel. The few unwounded boarders still fighting stopped, and Apparated back to their boat.

A small cluster landed on the small area aft of the bridge. Harry immediately started casting at the small group and Hermione and Daphne quickly joined him.

And the cluster cast right back.

The duel lasted less than a minute. At a range of almost forty feet, with the two craft moving at different vertical rates due to wave action, neither side scored any hard hits with most casts flying harmlessly overhead or into the Strengthened or Unbreakable parts of both ships. A circumstance for which Harry was grateful. Many of those casts from the pirates were sickly green in colour, and Daphne used several transfigured marble blocks to block those that came close.

With no warning, the disreputable-looking old fishing boat suddenly turned hard left and with the stern scraping along the side of the Lady Amphitrite, started to retreat to safety.

Fate had other ideas.

The Lady A fell lifted on a particularly large wave. The pirate ship rolled hard to the right because the rudder was hard left, and a big wave caught it at just the right time rolling its starboard railing into the sea towards the schooner.

Karma.

KA-BANG went the six-pounder. The shell hit the roof of the pirate's bridge. The shell burrowed through the roof into the bridge. It was a spot none of the enemy had believed needed magical protection.

The bridge exploded like a volcano. The Strengthened and Unbreakable walls kept the explosion contained, so the only outlet for the fiery gases was straight up and straight down. The walls may have been spelled Unbreakable, but searing heat set the cluster of pirates aflame. Some stumbled and fell down a couple of decks breaking bones or rendering them unconscious. Others jumped screaming into the freezing ocean to put out the flames.

Steering destroyed, the decrepit, now burning tub lurched off downwind with a pall of smoke preceding it, the engine still roaring, except now it was seemingly roaring in pain.

The shock held everyone motionless until with a groan, a wild-haired wizard in blood-stained, torn robes staggered to his feet in the forward scupper.

He quickly looked around, sized up the situation, and promptly raised his hands in the universal surrender sign. He was immediately hit with several Accio spells and as soon as contents of his pockets emptied into Neville's hands, the familiar red streak of a Stunner dropped the wizard back into the pile again.

Harry was now trying to look everywhere on the schooner at once.

No one else seemed to be moving in the bloody tangle of bodies and limbs in the port scuppers. Daphne and Luna were working on trying to save the life of the crewman that had been cursed by the deckhouse.

Neville and Ginny were kneeling alongside somebody up forward, their wands moving over the unmoving body.

Two other crewmen with wands in hand were cautiously approaching the port scuppers from up forward. Others were making repairs to the cut ropes and rips in the sails caused by spellfire.

Harry ran a quick count. With two crewmen checking the unmoving pirates, the captain and the helmsman sailing the ship, a pair of badly wounded crew, all the other crewmen were occupied repairing the schooner. The count worked out and Harry heaved a massive sigh of relief.

"You alright there Nev?" he shouted.

He got a wave back before Neville turned back to the injured crewman.

"Daphne?" he called.

"We're alright, Harry," she replied. "But we had better get this one off to some real healers as soon as possible. I think we can stop most of the bleeding and then put him in Stasis so he should live until we get to the village."

Harry and Hermione traded looks. Any of the other four were better at healing than either of them. With a shared look they squared their shoulders and half slid, half reeled trying not to slip and slide in one of the huge streaks of blood on the deck, down to the nightmare-inducing windrow of wounded and dead piled up against the port bulwark.

The dead werewolf was the furthest aft body. Hermione transfigured a handkerchief into a black body bag around the Were and then floated him further aft, out of the way.

Next were the two the pair had first engaged. Portkeys, spare wands, money, whatever were Accio'd from the bodies, then body bags were transfigured from handkerchiefs or cloth bits cut from their cloaks and the bags again levitated aft.

The duo kept working forward two wizards at a time. Detached bits were matched with the living or the dead. If they were alive, rough and ready emergency first aid was rendered and warming charms were applied to keep them from freezing to death.

Harry and Hermione were both working hard at staying detached from what the job was. Here the dead were killed with violence. Somehow that seemed easier to take than soulless, surprised bodies killed by an AK. However, both were positive they were collecting a new set of nightmare-inducing memories.

Eventually, Neville and some of the crew came over to help. Later, one night, with beer on hand, Harry and Neville would reflect that it did not seem odd watching the grown men vomiting over the side into the ocean at the carnage wreaked on the pirates.

The seven dead in their body bags were stacked on deck against what Captain Sulstrude called the taffrail at the back of the ship. The nine unconscious wounded were taken to the bunkroom forward, there to be potioned, Stasis, Stupified and Incarcerous'ed for the trip back to Grobhaste.

The last work the weary Six performed was to Aqua Eructo the deck and the Scourgify in an unsuccessful effort to wash the buckets amount of blood overboard and clean the deck.

Oooooo vvvvvv oooooO

The Lady Amphitrite was beating hard with every sail drawing as she drove south-southwest for home.

Six very tired teenagers were sprawled on the deckhouse benches trying to find the energy to stay awake. The young men were bracketed by their cuddled-in women. A crew member had come in with a tray of large mugs of hot chicken soup and a haphazardly sliced loaf of bread.

A throat cleared. "Blood Brother? Are we done with this hero-ing thing for a while?" came the low, but clear voice of Neville. "The probable nightmares will suck and the pay is lousy."

"Yeah, I think so," came the weary return from Harry. "Almost getting killed every damn year is starting to take its toll. Once we take care of Kingswood, we can leave this sort of shite—LANGUAGE!—to the Aurors."

He continued on, looking to either side. "I thought you two were too tired to yell like that."

Introspective silence fell over the group as they each tried to, or tried not to, remember their actions during the brief fight.

Eventually, Hermione asked Harry where he thought the Chief Bad Guy had been during the fight.

"I dunno," Harry quietly replied. "I would have thought he should have shown up when they started losing the fight on deck. Do you suppose he was on the pirate ship bridge when the 6-pounder blew it up?"

Hermione huffed. "He'd be a lousy leader if he was. In the world of wizards, you don't lead from the rear. This fight left me with the impression that most of the pirates were only about at the skill level of Moldyshort's Snatchers from the War. We know the Supreme Bad Bloke was more on par with Bellatrix Lestrange."

After a short pause, "Do you think we tagged him that hard a month ago? That we injured him that badly?" she finished musing out loud.

"Possibly," Harry answered with a tired shrug. "Don't know where he is, except it's not here."

Everyone stared at everyone else.

Finally, Ginny spoke. "You don't suppose all this was just The Bad Bloke's version of a Wronski Feint, do you? 'Cause if he's not here . . . we just got plowed."

"Oh, bollocks," said a soft, disappointed voice from where Luna was sprawled.

A/N:

One: Deliberate misspelling. Daphne butchered the correct word.

I am feeling very JKR Epilogue-ish. The last sentence of this chapter has been planned for over three years.

Well gang, I have to ask. Was the fight understandably written? And was the switching from sailor language to what Harry and the others thought also understandable?

Warning: Chapter 44 will probably be delayed. Eye surgery with two-three weeks recovery period. RL sucks.

To the prolific guest reviewer Chap 42.

Since I cannot PM you:

Yes Ch 1 is a hook. Duh. It's to set the tone of the story to follow.

HG is "studying" PureBlood politics. She'll never quite get there. It's not bred into her psyche, unlike Daphne who has had it fed to her with her mother's milk. I think of her as an anthropologist studying a foreign tribe.

Ch 22 & 23. My interpretation of "characters as close to canon as I can write." (See summary) Harry and Hermione spent canon terrified almost beyond reason of losing their only true friend.

CH 25. Have caught a lot of flak about this chapter. Tried to get Luna to act in a way to de-fuse the situation Harry had inadvertently caused. House honor would force Neville to confront Harry harshly about the massive afront he caused.

Last public answers for this story. No more. The practice sucketh of trying to answer "Guest" reviews.

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