Title/Link: Chartered Passage
Team: Appleby Arrows
Position: Keeper
Season 9 Round 6
Task: Pairing: Cedric/Hermione (Romantic)
Bonus Prompts: n/a
Summary: Hermione had booked passage on a merchant ship to follow her love across the sea in his quest to find his father. But the darling Captain Cedric seems to have captured her heart, making her question her feelings for her previous flame. Cedmione, Pirate!AU, Muggle!AU? ; In the same universe as Calm Before the Storm
Word Count: 1496
Team List:
Seeker: ScarlettWriter91-Oliver & Penelope Clearwater
Captain: DaughteroftheOneTrueKing-Penelope Clearwater & Hermione
Keeper: IkuniHattori-Hermione & Cedric
Chaser 1: LadyLush-Cedric & Cho
Chaser 2: uflesh940-Cho & Voldemort
Chaser 3: Sinclairgrace7-Voldemort & Nymphadora Tonks
Beater 1: VanillaAshes- Nymphadora Tonks & Remus Lupin
Beater 2: Stormythoughts-Remus Lupin & Lily Evans
I've also used the following prompt from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) Forums:
Geek Pride
69. Stargate - Collectable:
Prompt 1: Plot Point: Travelling to a new place
[SPRING] Seasonal Challenges Thread
Hufflepuff Characters
Cedric Diggory
Children's Book Day
Paddington Bear - (plot point) Travelling somewhere new.
WRITING CLUB - MAY
Potter Pets
Fang: (emotion) Fear
A/N: So this round was a delight to write! If you're interested in any of the pairings from the rest of my team, feel free to search them out! All of their usernames are above, and these stories have been so fun to beta :)
This is a Pirate!AU that is a series of one-shots all in the same universe. Each story is able to stand alone by itself, but when they are all put together, the sum of its parts is greater than its whole. Or something like that.
Right now, this is considered a Muggle!AU as well. This might change in the future. I might add magical stuff into it, I might not. Anyway, I do have about 10-12 one-shots mapped out, but who knows what else I'll add :)
Thanks to my Captain DaughteroftheOneTrueKing (Hope), VanillaAshes, and RowenaHermioneRavenclaw, and the rest of my team for reading through and beta-ing.
I hope you enjoy! :)
"Chartered Passage"
Hermione stood on deck, savoring the warm breeze on her face as the ship sped through the waters. She had not gotten seasick upon leaving the land, unlike many of her fellow passengers, and so she chose to pass most of her time up on deck instead of below deck with the others. Chartering passage on this Merchant ship had been fairly easy, with enough money. The captain of the ship didn't care about who wanted to hop along so long as they could pay, and were polite to each other and his crew. However, as the Governor's daughter of their little island territory, Hermione was given preferential treatment, with the captain himself offering up his own quarters for her comfort. When she tried to politely decline, saying the main barracks were good enough for her, Captain Cedric Diggory merely chuckled before replying.
"No, I insist. It has been far too long since I have slept amongst my crew. Sometimes the respect for their leader comes from seeing him working hard amongst them all, and that is what I had planned to do during this trip," he had said.
Hermione couldn't help but be touched by the amount of attention he gave his crewmen, who equally adored and respected him. She could tell, just by their interactions, how kind of a man Captain Cedric was.
It was because of that very same man that she was standing on deck at the moment, the stars splattered in the sky far above her. Her book laid, forgotten, on a barrel on the deck. She had abandoned it long before the moon was high in the sky, her mind unable to be captured by the written word, much to her discontent. She could always count on books to be her escape from her troubles, however this particular conundrum couldn't be easily ignored. Her heart and her head were warring with each other, and she wasn't sure which to agree with. The whole point of her journey, of chartering passage on this ship, was to find the man who had left her behind to find the father he never knew; this man who held her heart for the better half of a decade, and at one point in time, she was convinced she had held his. But his abandonment of her, and all of her recent interactions with the dreamy Captain Cedric Diggory, had started to seed doubt of their shared love in her heart . She now doubted whether what they had was actually love, or whether it was a mere infatuation with the boy she had spent the last 17 years with.
Ever since she stepped foot on the ship, the Captain had been attentive to her needs, and made sure she had all of the accommodations befitting of her station. For some reason, he knew who she was, despite the maid clothing she wore and the fake name she'd given the ship's manifest.
He still hadn't told her how he knew. Everytime she asked, he merely smiled at her before suddenly distracting her with a new sight or a new story.
"Miss Granger! What are you doing up so late? We have only been sailing for a week now. Surely you are not pining for land just yet?" The Captain's words washed over her, drawing Hermione out of her reverie. Looking at him, she took note that he was missing his usual coat and hat, leaving him in sturdy shoes, a pair of linen trousers, and a loose white shirt that showed off more skin than what she was used to. Flushing slightly, she shot him a small smile before leaning against the railing once more, her head turned up to the sky.
"It is somewhat freeing, to be out on the sea, is it not?" she commented softly to change the subject, immensely aware of how Captain Cedric joined her against the railing.
"In all of my life, being on the sea is the only place where I do not feel suffocated. Not by my father's insistence I find a wife and settle down, not by the expectations everyone else in society puts on me, no one. Out here on the sea, I can be me. There is nothing more freeing," he agreed softly. "Being on the sea truly is an amazing feeling. I would not trade this life for anything. Going on new adventures, seeing new places…" he paused, before finishing his thought, "and meeting new people." His voice was softer, more intimate, and Hermione's breath hitched.
She turned to look at Captain Cedric, and was startled to find him staring at her with a fond expression on his face. Immediately, she averted her gaze and spoke, cutting him off as he opened his mouth to add something, her hand fiddling with the pendant around her neck.
"What other places have you been to? Are they anything like Avonwell Port? I have never been, so I am fairly excited," she rambled quickly.
"Nearly the entire East Atlantic. It has only been more recently that I have been able to sail to the colonies for trade. Lately, our cargo has not been too hard to come by, so we have been able to increase the amount of ships we send out, and likewise increase how many places we can stop at. Business has been booming, so long as we stay on the good side of the East India Trading Company," he confessed with a sheepish chuckle, and Hermione couldn't help but chuckle with him.
"Avonwell Port, however," Captain Cedric continued, "I have never seen anything like it. The town itself looks like it was copied from a painting, with quaint houses and billowing fields of wildflowers. On the north end of the island, a waterfall stretches far into the sky, surrounded by lush trees and vegetation, and they say that if you go to the pool of water the waterfall flows into, and sing about your heart's worries, those worries will wash away and you will leave feeling lighter."
"It sounds beautiful." Hermione said wistfully, unable to help the wistful tone in her voice as she replied.
"Not as beautiful as you," came Captain Cedric's immediate response, and she felt heat bloom in her cheeks as her head whipped around to meet his gaze. "But you will see the town when we arrive in four days' time."
He was oh so close now, and they were so improperly close, their breaths were practically mingling. Hermione's eyes started to drift shut as she angled her face up towards his, her heart beating madly in her chest, and Captain Cedric shifted towards her, one hand resting lightly on her waist to keep her close. He leaned in and-
"Captain! Ship behind us, gaining steadily!" called out the sailor up in the crow's nest. Captain Cedric and Hermione jerked away from each other, her startled eyes lifting up to his, meeting his apologetic gaze and rueful smile. He strode out onto the main deck, before calling up to his crew member.
"Can you identify what ship it is?"
Hermione watched as the ship seemed to come alive from all the yelling, and crewmen and passengers alike began to emerge from below deck. It was a few more seconds before the man replied, his voice tremulous and full of fear.
"P-pirates!" he called out, and all of the sailors on board immediately sprung into action, taking their places in preparation of whatever their captain asked of them. One of them began to usher the passengers back below deck, and another approached Hermione, ready to escort her back into the Captain's quarters. She hesitated though, wanting to watch what happened, despite the hand on her elbow ushering her forth. She didn't have to wait long.
The Chief Officer pulled out his scope and focused it on the rapidly gaining ship. Hermione watched, fascinated, as Captain Cedric pulled himself together to address his crew, but Ernie MacMillan, Chief Officer of The Hufflepuff, interrupted him.
"They have put up colors, sir! It's the Crooked Dragon. What will we do?!" he cried out, lowering the scope and looking at his captain with fear. From the stories the crew had shared around the lantern, these last few nights, she knew the captain and crew of the Crooked Dragon were often vicious and left only one survivor in order to tell the tale of the attack. They typically stayed near the waters of France, and confusion filled her. They were nowhere near the coasts of England and France, so why would the Crooked Dragon be bearing down on them?
She watched as Captain Cedric steeled his jaw grimly, turning to look out at the pirate ship bearing down on them, and she knew, just like he did, that they wouldn't be making it out of this situation alive. The Captain straightened, turned to his crew, and took a deep breath.
"We cannot outrun them. We must fight."
Pirate/Naval Terminology:
A manifest, customs manifest or cargo document is a document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship, aircraft, or vehicle, for the use of customs and other officials.
Crow's Nest: A small lookout platform near the mast to see long distances
A chief mate (C/M) or chief officer, usually also synonymous with the first mate or first officer, is a licensed mariner and head of the deck department of a merchant ship. The chief mate is customarily a watchstander and is in charge of the ship's cargo and deck crew